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Today's AT40
Apr. 29th, 2007 12:02 pmApril, 1985. So another day of being a high school freshman complaining about the bad grammar in last week's #1, We Are the World.
The countdown kicks off with a lesser known hit of Julian Lennon, Say You're Wrong. Lesser known in that *I* certainly hadn't heard of it 'til today. Followed by a new debut by New Edition, one of those rare groups where the members had more success after the breakup.
Ah, here's a debut of a HUGE hit, the first big summer song of 1985, Walking on Sunshine. Overplayed as it was (especially as the band performed on the Mall that July 4, my *only* time being on the mall on that particular holiday), it still holds up as a great party song.
Of course, then there's David Lee Roths' "I gotta stay on the charts all the time to prove those bozos what's what" collection of cover songs, like Gigalo which just played...
Now, Eric Clapton finally stops trying to be an American hick and plays some rock and roll again, with Forever Man.
After Madonna's namesake (Material Girl, which I mentioned the last time an '85 countdown came up) is one of the rare instrumentals to hit the charts, Axel F from Beverly Hills Cop. You know, I *still* haven't seen #1 all the way through, but (thanks to it's pg(-13?) rating I'd seen #3 dozens of times. Heh, it was back to back with another song from the BHC soundtrack, "New Attitude" from Patti LaBelle.
At 19, Hall and Oats yet again ("Some things are better left unsaid"). I wonder if they were actually in the countdown more often than they were out...
Casey *always* has a story about Tom Petty when he's up, but at least this time it's a new one, about Tom Petty getting into rock n roll because Elvis came to town. The song this week, Don't Come Around Here No More, one of the strangest videos ever, unless you already know your Looking Glass. At UMD, they remodeled one of the mens rooms to nothing but black and white tile, and ever since, I hear this song in my head every time I walk into there.
Wham!'s "Everything She Wants". For some reason, I only ever heard Wham! songs long after they were on their way out. Not for lack of airplay, per se, as they certainly dominated MTV, with lots of kids in school wearing the plain white "Choose Life" t-shirts (when they weren't wearing the "Frankie Says, Relax" ones). Just seemed to dodge them by coincidence until each song crossed that line from "up and coming" to "inescapable".
Now, "That was Yesterday" as Lou Gramm sings about those wonderous Days of Foreigners Past...you know, when they had guitars?
Then Along Comes A Woman. My high school band the next year would play a cheap-ass wind instruments arrangement of 4 songs from this album (Chicago 17), so of course, I got extremely tired of it. I *almost* didn't miss it 2 years later when someone stole my cassette of the album.
Phil's One More Night, #1 a few weeks back in an earlier '85 reviewed here, is now at 11, just after Sade's Smooth Operator. This big 80s top ten include All She Wants To Do Is Dance, Some Like It Hot, Bruce's I'm On Fire, plus Animotion's Obsession and Chess's One Night In Bankock.
Simple Minds' Don't You Forget About Me, THE high school anthem of the age. Casey talks about how Jim Kerr keeps trying to say that it was a song for hire (Billy Idol turned it down), and sounds nothing like the band's regular output, which is true. They did bring out a new direction with their next album, hiring Steve Lillywhite who'd given that strong celtic guitar sound to Big Country's first two albums as well as U2's early years, but it was certainly nothing like this biggest hit of theirs. I prefer this next album, Once Upon a Time, myself.
Both dedications to Marvin Gaye from last time are still around (Diana Ross's Missing You and Commodore's Night Shift, still in the top ten).
There are times today I wonder how many of those long distance dedications using "love you forever" ballads (like Keep on Loving You by REO Speedwagon, the current dedication) are for relationships that today have ended in divorce. Yes, I can get sadistic that way...
De Barge's Rhythm of the Night...like Obsession, horridly overplayed then and now. The same sentiment was far better achieved by Miami Sound Machine a year or so later. The mid 80s had a lot of "get up and dance" songs, like this, Dancing on the Ceiling, etc. I guess it was a major effort to try to get white people to really dance again after the vacuum of culture when disco died. Oh, wait, disco WAS a vacuum of culture. Nevermind.
Madonna's Crazy for You, from Vision Quest, holds #2, leaving that grammatically annoying as hell We Are the World at #1 again.
check your egos at the door...
The countdown kicks off with a lesser known hit of Julian Lennon, Say You're Wrong. Lesser known in that *I* certainly hadn't heard of it 'til today. Followed by a new debut by New Edition, one of those rare groups where the members had more success after the breakup.
Ah, here's a debut of a HUGE hit, the first big summer song of 1985, Walking on Sunshine. Overplayed as it was (especially as the band performed on the Mall that July 4, my *only* time being on the mall on that particular holiday), it still holds up as a great party song.
Of course, then there's David Lee Roths' "I gotta stay on the charts all the time to prove those bozos what's what" collection of cover songs, like Gigalo which just played...
Now, Eric Clapton finally stops trying to be an American hick and plays some rock and roll again, with Forever Man.
After Madonna's namesake (Material Girl, which I mentioned the last time an '85 countdown came up) is one of the rare instrumentals to hit the charts, Axel F from Beverly Hills Cop. You know, I *still* haven't seen #1 all the way through, but (thanks to it's pg(-13?) rating I'd seen #3 dozens of times. Heh, it was back to back with another song from the BHC soundtrack, "New Attitude" from Patti LaBelle.
At 19, Hall and Oats yet again ("Some things are better left unsaid"). I wonder if they were actually in the countdown more often than they were out...
Casey *always* has a story about Tom Petty when he's up, but at least this time it's a new one, about Tom Petty getting into rock n roll because Elvis came to town. The song this week, Don't Come Around Here No More, one of the strangest videos ever, unless you already know your Looking Glass. At UMD, they remodeled one of the mens rooms to nothing but black and white tile, and ever since, I hear this song in my head every time I walk into there.
Wham!'s "Everything She Wants". For some reason, I only ever heard Wham! songs long after they were on their way out. Not for lack of airplay, per se, as they certainly dominated MTV, with lots of kids in school wearing the plain white "Choose Life" t-shirts (when they weren't wearing the "Frankie Says, Relax" ones). Just seemed to dodge them by coincidence until each song crossed that line from "up and coming" to "inescapable".
Now, "That was Yesterday" as Lou Gramm sings about those wonderous Days of Foreigners Past...you know, when they had guitars?
Then Along Comes A Woman. My high school band the next year would play a cheap-ass wind instruments arrangement of 4 songs from this album (Chicago 17), so of course, I got extremely tired of it. I *almost* didn't miss it 2 years later when someone stole my cassette of the album.
Phil's One More Night, #1 a few weeks back in an earlier '85 reviewed here, is now at 11, just after Sade's Smooth Operator. This big 80s top ten include All She Wants To Do Is Dance, Some Like It Hot, Bruce's I'm On Fire, plus Animotion's Obsession and Chess's One Night In Bankock.
Simple Minds' Don't You Forget About Me, THE high school anthem of the age. Casey talks about how Jim Kerr keeps trying to say that it was a song for hire (Billy Idol turned it down), and sounds nothing like the band's regular output, which is true. They did bring out a new direction with their next album, hiring Steve Lillywhite who'd given that strong celtic guitar sound to Big Country's first two albums as well as U2's early years, but it was certainly nothing like this biggest hit of theirs. I prefer this next album, Once Upon a Time, myself.
Both dedications to Marvin Gaye from last time are still around (Diana Ross's Missing You and Commodore's Night Shift, still in the top ten).
There are times today I wonder how many of those long distance dedications using "love you forever" ballads (like Keep on Loving You by REO Speedwagon, the current dedication) are for relationships that today have ended in divorce. Yes, I can get sadistic that way...
De Barge's Rhythm of the Night...like Obsession, horridly overplayed then and now. The same sentiment was far better achieved by Miami Sound Machine a year or so later. The mid 80s had a lot of "get up and dance" songs, like this, Dancing on the Ceiling, etc. I guess it was a major effort to try to get white people to really dance again after the vacuum of culture when disco died. Oh, wait, disco WAS a vacuum of culture. Nevermind.
Madonna's Crazy for You, from Vision Quest, holds #2, leaving that grammatically annoying as hell We Are the World at #1 again.
check your egos at the door...
