Today's AT40...

...July 10, 1982.

Last week, #3 was Ebony and Ivory (on its way down from #1), #2 was Toto's Rosana (dedicated to Rosana Arquette before she became famous) and #1 was The Human League's Don't You Want Me.

Don't You Want Me was the very first 45' I ever bought (I still have it).  Oddly, its one of the few "hits" of that era I don't have on CD yet.  One of these days I'll hit iTunes just to pick up the handful of 80s hits I didn't manage to get in the great Tower Records giveaway.

That summer, 25 years ago, I spent in summer boy scout camp with a day trip to the Worlds Fair in Knoxville, TN, then a few days at one cousin's place in TN, then finally a couple of weeks with my aunt and cousin (she and the other cousin are sisters) in Xenia, OH (my first exposure to MTV!).

The irony of this week - in TN, my cousin had just given birth to her daughter.  This next weekend, I head for Cinci for that very daughter's wedding!

Anyways, I'll update what I can while working on painting the ceiling with my mom and faireraven .

• #40 was a minor hit from J. Giels Band, Angel in Blue.  Didn't go very far, and nor did the band after Freeze Frame played itself out.  I actually liked it, but it was more back in their classic bluesy 70s sound rather than the pop-rock of their big hits, so I'm not surprised it didn't go very far.
• geeze, Gary U.S. Bonds was making a minor comeback, with the ironically appropriate "Out of Work"

The interesting thing about MTV was how it was about to define the next batch of hits and gave the british (and australian) new wave invasion the legs it needed to succeed.  In heavy rotation was Flock of Seagulls and Men at Work, both of which wouldn't actually show up in the charts for *months*.

• Van Halen (Dancin' in the Street) - doin' covers was always a Dave strength (You Really Got Me, then his first solo stuff when he didn't have time to write anything).
• "If the love fits, wear it baby".  *sigh*.  how did we ever survive...
• "You should hear how she talks about you" - been a LONG time since I heard this Melissa Manchester hit.  Y-103 (Jacksonville, FL) had this on heavy rotation, along with Hall and Oats's Did it in a Minute (a rare H&O song that didn't hit the top ten)
• Hey - Foreigner with guitars!  "Break it up" from 4.  I *really* liked this one at the time, being in that same vein as Juke Box Hero.
• now Ray Parker Jr's in love, with the other woman...
• Joan Jett's cover of Crimson and Clover...my 2nd 45, but I'm not nearly as fond of it today as then.  and i *still* hate the original Tommy James version.
  
• Firefall's Just Remember I Love You as a long distance dedication...whatever happened to those guys?
• Air Supply tells us that Even the Nights are Better.
• Forget Me Nots shows up, years later to be sampled into a Will Smith rap about the Men in Black
• What Kinda Fool was Rick Springfield?  Not much of one at the time, with General Hospital and a ton of hits going on.
• Journey's Still They Ride - not much of a followup to the hugeness of Open Arms, was it.  Personally, I think its a better song and a better transition for them into the big-hair ballad world. :)
• Kansas's Play the Game Tonight - another song i *really* like, then and now.  i was very glad they brought it out of mothballs for the DVD a few years back.
• REO's Keep the Fire Burning - I was rather annoyed that didn't make the best of I got (or did it?  I need to go back and check...).  Of course, I also want the live version of Stillness of the Night.  GREAT song, that, which I got (studio version) as a b'side from "Sweet Time" (a ballad I otherwise could have done without).
  
• Steve Miller's Abracadabra.  Boy, compared to the early '82 ballad and country fest, this is a much more rockin' summer of tunes.  Nobody plays the extended version of this nearly enough...though AT40's doing it now!  Must have had time to fill.
• granted, we've had Alabama and Willie Nelson speaking for the country side anyways, but still...
• oh, and now Ronnie Milsap's Any Day Now blows that non-country weekend even more.  oh well.  Still '82 country beats the contemporary crap any day (now).  sorry.
  
• After a Stevie Wonder break, Fleetwood Mac's Hold Me comes in.  Strange video.  According to Pop-up Video, they didn't return the dozens of borrowed guitars they set out in the California desert.  Nice song, but not nearly as impressive as Gypsy.  Stevie Nicks was riding high then, with great solo albums around great songs on this one; Lindsey's work just wasn't up to par, but he made up for it with Tango in the Night years later.
• The Motels' Only the Lonely and 38 Special's Caught up in You get us into the top 10.
• Soft Cell's Tainted Love - one that could continue in the college party circuit for quite a few years
• Ebony and Ivory drops down to #8 after a long-winded story of Paul McCartney's chicken farm in Scotland.  My cousin (the MTV one) made a note that its supposed to be "black and white" but aside from Paul McCartney, the other two extras in the background on the video are both black.  Kinda defeats the purpose, 'eh?
• Love's been a little bit hard on Juice Newton, but her career certainly wasn't then with 4 top ten hits from that album
• The Dazz Band wants to Let It Whip.  Late-era funk.  Didn't care for it at the time, but I'll take it over modern rap/hiphop any time.
  
• Rocky III's popularity pushes Eye of the Tiger from nowhere to #5 in a only 3 weeks.  Damn.  Still, considering the plot of Rocky's V and VI, it'll be far sooner than 13 movies for the Rye or the Kaiser (Weird Al) to come to pass.
• After a quick bio of David Geffen, we get Asia's Heat of the Moment, hitting the top ten almost a year after the album was released.  Some things take time, I guess.
• John Cougar Hurts So Good (who'd have thought he'd still have a career today?)
• Rosana holds at #2, meaning...
• Don't You Want Me holds at #1!

now, we've finished lunch and its back to painting the ceiling.  ick.