Today's AT40

Is November, 1983.  Just a couple months into my 8th grade year, Orange Park, Florida.  Probably around the time I developed a huge crush on the girl next to me in my algebra class...hey, she actually liked my sense of humor, which was a rarity.

Playing right now is DeBarge, "Time Will Reveal".  I didn't know they actually had a "hit" before Who's Johnny from the Short Circuit movie, but this (at #39) was actually their *third* top 40 hit.

I love knowing trivia and being able to guess things right - at the bumper, he hinted that there would be 3 songs in the countdown written by the same guy, performed by Bonnie Tyler, Air Supply, and Barry Manilow (playing now at 38, "Read 'em and weep").  I knew in an instant it had to be that Bat out of Hell writer, Jim Steinman.  And it is UNMISTAKABLY Steinman - his style at the time was so damned consistent (and perhaps repetitive).  The Air Supply song must be Sweet Dreams, and the Bonnie Tyler could be either of her early hits, Total Eclipse or I Need a Hero, but I'm betting the former.

Matthew Wilder's Break My Stride (debuting at 37) was one of those never-stopped-playing songs on the radio at the time, well into '84.  Annoyingly repetitive.

Now, "JoBoxers".  Where the hell did some of these names come from?

More laundry, whilst we continue to do bits and pieces on the house.  Updates as I get back down here to post.

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A pair of very depressed brits come along, as Elton John guesses why they call it the blues and Asia's John Wetton says that the smile has left your eyes. 

The latter, I had on 45, Cassette (two copies over the years as I'd worn one out completely), LP, CD, 3 compilation CDs, and probably 6 live versions (including vocals by Greg Lake).  It's actually one of the very few Asia hits that John Payne never sang on during his tenure in Asia ('92 to '04).  I'm still annoyed at the amount of disrespect Downes showed when he effectively fired Payne in order to work with Wetton under the Asia name again (effectively for the increased publicity that "Original Asia" would get).

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Obscure Human League, "Mirror Man".  I kinda like it.  There was an interesting documentary on Showtime (and related channels) about the development of the British New Wave sound out of Sheffield, a counter-revolution to the Punk sound that dominated London.  Musically in the late 70s developments I didn't hear that much of a difference except that it was less likely that a Sheffield synth band would smash their (5000GBP+) instruments on stage.

At #30, David Bowie talks about Modern Love, hip-deep in his "Pop" decade.

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Three Times a Lady is a long distance dedication, but dammit there is NO WAY AT ALL that I can hear that without thinking "Fee Times a Mady".  You?

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More classic British rockers reinventing themselves, here's the rapidly rising (eventually to #1) Owner of a Lonely Heart from Yes.

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All, Immortality.  Peter Schilling's Major Tom (Coming Home).  GREAT song.  This type of 80s stuff, along with Flock of Seagulls and Planet P, that my dad and I both liked to the point that HE was the one to have bought the albums and not me.  Had the U.S. actually released the German/Austrian versions of Falco's work rather than the crappy dance remixes that totally removed the verses out, we probably would have gotten those as well.

But instead, they continue to assume that Americans are (in spite of 99 Luftbalons) ignorant heathens and downright idiots with regards to things in foreign languages.  Then again, 4 years later I discovered this thought might have some validity to it when I played an anime soundtrack rock song (from Megazone 23 pt 2) that got nothing but "what the f' is that?" reactions merely because it was still in Japanese.

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Immortality continues, or so we wished, with Big Country's self-anthem, In a Big Country.  Stewart, we still miss you...

The producer, Steve Lilywhite, also produced the celtic sounds of U2's early albums (before discovering Eno) and later gave an incredible sound to Simple Minds's Once Upon A Time.

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Journey's "Send Her My Love" at #23.  That girl in my algebra class? This song to this day still makes me think of her.  I'm sure it always will...

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Another, like the last 4, where the first second is all you need to get the spine tingling in recognition: The Police with Synchronicity Two.  I *far* preferred this to the three real "hits" from that album.

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ONJ's Twist of Fate (after a mythology lesson from Casey).  I sometimes wonder how ANYBODY associated with "Xanadu" actually still had a career after that crap.  Jeff Lynne certainly didn't until being buffered up as a retro artist thanks to his fellow Wilbury's.

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I'd guessed wrong.  The Jim Steinman Air Supply song was "Making Love out of Nothing at all".  Of course, as soon as it gets to the chorus with the female vocals (and some guys singing falsetto), it sticks out like the Eiffel Tower.

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Sheena Easton talking on the "Telephone" about how difficult Long Distance Relationships were back in the days before the internet, cell phones, and cheap service.  The chorus does tend to go on a little too long towards the end...

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Irene Cara with that rare hit NOT from a movie soundtrack (those being Fame and Flashdance), Why Me?  She made it pretty big for having had "The Electric Company" as an early item on her resume.  Upper right of the back row (I think)...

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The Fixx reminds us that One Thing Leads to Another, then Duran Duran talk about the Union of the Snake, whatever that meant.  The Motels reminisce about "Suddenly, Last Summer", then the third of the Steinman songs, Total Eclipse, and Culture Club's Church of the Poison Mind.

I won't go into what I think of that song today, but needlesstosay, my feelings on churches (not God, not Jesus, just churches) has changed considerably in the last 24 years...

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Michael Jackson's PYT breaks a record he'd tied earlier in the year, most top 10 tracks from a single album (the others being Saturday Night Fever and Fleetwood Mac's Rumors), as the 6th big hit.  A year later the collective population was still worshiping him.

Ok, what the fuck was with the Chipmunk singing along?

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John Cougar *Mellencamp* (this first album where he restored that part of his name, before dropping Cougar for good) may be seeing his walls crumbing down, but his career obviously wasn't about to.  Hard to believe he was *41* when Hurts So Good and Jack and Diane made him a household name (if the wrong name).

Then another "old fart" who was far older than most other 80s hit-makers, Huey Lewis & the News with Heart and Soul.  An MTV hit that would slowly get the album Sports up to #1 after a languishing year.

Now, yet another from the biggest hitmaker pair in the 80s, Say it isn't So by Hall & Oates, then Pat Benatar's Love is a Battlefield (which always seems to crop up on Pop Up Video on VH1/C).

Quiet Riot's Come On Feel the Noise was a cover of a UK hit by Slade, who only kinda-sorta made it in America with their celtic-tinged Run Runaway, but were HUGE in the UK in the 70s, having singles actually debut at #1!

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Into the last 4...

• Islands in the Stream (NOT an autobiographical work, we've been told) - yes, Barry Gibb had a post-disco career as a songwriter 'til the world would finally forgive him.
  
  
• Billy Joel's 50s/60s themed Uptown Girl, with the video where he met his future ex-wife
  
  
• Say Say Say holds at number 2 (which I helped it get to, having bought the 45), leading to the number 1 song in the land...
  
  
• Lionel Richie's All Night Long, which is probably how long that as an earworm is going to last in your head, thanks to me.

I'll be here all week, be sure and tip your waitress.