on the Tuskegee Airmen...

There's been a clarification of the historical legend that they never lost a bomber to enemy fire under their watch.  The legend seems to have started from a paper article published in March of 1945 saying that they'd flown 200 missions without a loss.  The popular assumption was that those were the only 200 missions they'd flown up to that point.  Really it was 200 missions since July of 1944, which was the last time prior to that they'd lost one.

The annoying irony is that as soon as you point out a streak, the streak is broken - they lost a bomber the same day as the article was published.

Regardless of the legend being brought back down to more reasonable claims, this should in no way deter any respect anyone has for that air group, its men, and its accomplishments.  Only 25 planes lost over 5 days out of hundreds of sorties, and a streak of over 200 missions, is and remains an astounding feat.

Today's AT40

Is April 9, 1988.

Last week's #1 was Man in the Mirror from Michael Jackson.  *sigh*  doesn't bode well for this week.  1988 was mostly dance music, though #39's Living in Paradise from David Lee Roth at least gives me a little hope for a decent day.

Roth's one saving grace for his output at the time, otherwise typical arena rock, was the 1-2 punch of Steve Vai and Billy Sheenan.  Vai was understated but at least it got him noticed by more than just guitar aficionados.


Laundry time...

...

Ah, the big hair bands strike, with White Lion's Wait.

More Foreigner, and once again I ask, this band used to have guitars in it, right?  I know some of my rock friends back then complained about how The Cars and Styx turned increasingly to keyboards, but at least both of them knew when to quit.

...

this is another repeat from that opening weekend of AT40 back on NYRF's opening weekend last year, 'cause i'm recalling much of the trivia like the fact that by the time Pamala by Toto was released, the person in question and the band member had broken up.  Plus the largest act on AT40 ever was the Mormon Tabernacle Choir doing Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Johnny Hates Jazz - another hint that the Brits at least knew what they were doing at the time...

heh.  An AT40 extra on Superman's 50th, with Action Comics #1 only worth $25,000 then.  It's worth 10 times that much now.

but before that, Morris Day goes solo with a thing called "Fishnet"...and comes out sounding just like every other dance-hiphop artist of the time, though perhaps a little ahead of the game 'cause the sound would be exactly what Bobby Brown and other ex- New Edition types would take to #1 in 1989.  BTW, Brown's haircut at the time was called a "Gumby".

Ice House's Electric Blue...probably the most famous Mullet of the late 80s.

Actually, could you consider Joe Elliot's haircut at the time a mullet?  Yes, Histeria is now playing, at 21 on its way down from a couple of weeks @ #10.

"Anything for You" by Miami Sound Machine...they really got WAY too mellow considering what they were capable of as a Latin dance band.  Still, interesting in that its one of the few they weren't afraid of singing in Spanish (part of the time).

now the story of how someone (well, US magazine in 1982) told Bruce Springsteen in a review he was too skinny, so Bruce buffed up to be the macho man he was by the time he was making hits like crazy...the song playing is rather forgettable, however.  Really, I didn't find anything from Tunnel of Love to be in any way interesting at all.

More decent britpop with Rick Astley's former #1, Never Gonna Give You Up.  Possibly one of the best male voices of the 80s.

Taylor Dayne, on the other hand, was the epitome of everything I hated about dance music at the time, and unfortunately that's still the type of attitude (bad singing, too many overdubs and layers, lousy melodies, and showing more skin than clothes) that dominates American charts today.

Just such an attitude difference between the two - one sells by sincerity - he's a handsome, talented, guy who's not trying to add any pretensions; the other can only sell through sex, exaggerating her pouty lips, her tits, her legs, and abusing her voice, to create an image that's impossible to keep living up to.

Probably the only insincere thing about Astley is that prior to signing the record contract, he probably couldn't afford the nice suits he wears in the videos. :)

Granted, not every britpop icon of the time was a spokesperson for sincerity; Samantha Fox can try all she wants, but the only reason she was ever noticed musically at all was because of her Page 3 history.

Now they're comparing Bruce's Pink Cadillac with Natalie Cole's version (at #16)...personally, I can't stand either.  A song that totally does nothing, lyrically or musically.  Meanwhile, Michael Bolton continues to suck.

As do a number of really bad covers of Eleanor Rigby released over the years...(part of a warmup medley to shopping-mall goddess Tiffany's version of I Saw Him Standing There).

INXS into the top 5 with Devil Inside.  If I was two years younger, I probably would have worshiped this band 'til it ended.  But as I was, I simply saw it as ok rock at a time when my standards were slightly higher.

oh, Jackson's fallen from #1 to #2 leaving...Billy Ocean's Get Out of My Dreams as the new #1? *sigh*

on that tragic note, I'm outta here.

an April Fools memory...

1983, 7th grade, band class.  We all got a bit silly and decided to swap instruments before the director walked in.

Well, we got our laugh for ourselves, and he didn't laugh.

He made us all write 50 times "An April Fools Joke isn't funny if it doesn't work."  Which we did.

Then he made us throw the sheet of paper away ourselves.

Guess we found out who got the last laugh...