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Today's American Top 40
Is 2/25/1984.
The arrival of the Thompson Twins really big hit, Hold Me Now, opens up the countdown debuting at 39 (and knocking out Madonna's first hit, Holiday). More interesting (to me, anyways) bits as they warrant.
That being said, time for laundry.
Side note: I have on LP an original Rick Dees Top 40 from the same month, 4 LPs with commercials and all.
Personal thoughts here as they happen...
Dude, "Runner" from Manfred Man at 36. His attempt to lead the arena rock hoy palloy, mostly successful. It kinda early defined the non-metal hard-rock sound in how hard-rock would survive the curse of the power-ballads of Journey and Styx.
...
Historical 20/20 hindsight - Tina Turner's real comeback hit was What's Love Got to Do With It; her little Al Green remake amounted to a bump, nothing more.
...
Someone REALLY needed to tell K.C. (then ex- of the sunshine band) that unless you're "Kool and the Gang", you can't get away with that late disco crap in 1984. Take your own advice, and "baby, give it up."
...
Rockwell's "Somebody's Watching Me" was always one of those guilty pleasures. Even now, I'll tolerate the presence of Michael Jackson on it.
...
It should be noted that Genesis didn't have a hit until 1978 'cause they were actively trying to NOT have hits. They'd heard the annoying edits Yes had to do with I've Seen All Good People and Roundabout and decided to forget it. Seriously, what could you cut from Cinema Show and still preserve the essence of the song enough to make it a hit?
Sure, things on Trick of the Tale might have made it musically, but explorations of Victorian health care, law enforcement, and freak shows don't exactly sound like top-40 topics.
...
It's always hard to tell what songs are going to become "immortal and timeless" vs which ones will be "hey, a great song from 1984". The #4 to #3 show this exactly - great song from 1984 - Nena's 99 Luftbaloons at #3 (oddly, they didn't play AT40's exclusive mix-n-match of the english and german versions), but the *timeless* song is Cindy Lauper's Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, at #4.
...
And the new #1 song of the year, from the record holder (at the time, probably broken by madonna or michael jackson), for the highest paid act for a single performance, 1.5 million dollars for 2 hours (12 K / minute), their first #1 - Van Halen's JUMP!
I should also note that here in hindsight-land, we don't really call Van Halen "Heavy Metal" anymore the way Kasem did at the time. Hard Rock, certainly, but since Metallica and Megadeth and the like, and given the soft-focus Hagar years, Van Halen's been out of that loop since even before 1984 was released.
...
now, since I have the Rick Dees from exactly the same weekend, lets see how it stacks up:
The arrival of the Thompson Twins really big hit, Hold Me Now, opens up the countdown debuting at 39 (and knocking out Madonna's first hit, Holiday). More interesting (to me, anyways) bits as they warrant.
That being said, time for laundry.
Side note: I have on LP an original Rick Dees Top 40 from the same month, 4 LPs with commercials and all.
Personal thoughts here as they happen...
Dude, "Runner" from Manfred Man at 36. His attempt to lead the arena rock hoy palloy, mostly successful. It kinda early defined the non-metal hard-rock sound in how hard-rock would survive the curse of the power-ballads of Journey and Styx.
...
Historical 20/20 hindsight - Tina Turner's real comeback hit was What's Love Got to Do With It; her little Al Green remake amounted to a bump, nothing more.
...
Someone REALLY needed to tell K.C. (then ex- of the sunshine band) that unless you're "Kool and the Gang", you can't get away with that late disco crap in 1984. Take your own advice, and "baby, give it up."
...
Rockwell's "Somebody's Watching Me" was always one of those guilty pleasures. Even now, I'll tolerate the presence of Michael Jackson on it.
...
It should be noted that Genesis didn't have a hit until 1978 'cause they were actively trying to NOT have hits. They'd heard the annoying edits Yes had to do with I've Seen All Good People and Roundabout and decided to forget it. Seriously, what could you cut from Cinema Show and still preserve the essence of the song enough to make it a hit?
Sure, things on Trick of the Tale might have made it musically, but explorations of Victorian health care, law enforcement, and freak shows don't exactly sound like top-40 topics.
...
It's always hard to tell what songs are going to become "immortal and timeless" vs which ones will be "hey, a great song from 1984". The #4 to #3 show this exactly - great song from 1984 - Nena's 99 Luftbaloons at #3 (oddly, they didn't play AT40's exclusive mix-n-match of the english and german versions), but the *timeless* song is Cindy Lauper's Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, at #4.
...
And the new #1 song of the year, from the record holder (at the time, probably broken by madonna or michael jackson), for the highest paid act for a single performance, 1.5 million dollars for 2 hours (12 K / minute), their first #1 - Van Halen's JUMP!
I should also note that here in hindsight-land, we don't really call Van Halen "Heavy Metal" anymore the way Kasem did at the time. Hard Rock, certainly, but since Metallica and Megadeth and the like, and given the soft-focus Hagar years, Van Halen's been out of that loop since even before 1984 was released.
...
now, since I have the Rick Dees from exactly the same weekend, lets see how it stacks up:
- Say Say Say was still in RD's but not AT40, as was Holiday.
- Quiet Riot's Bang Your Head was at 24 in RD's but nowhere to be seen in AT40, same with Real Life's Send Me an Angel.
- Runner wasn't in RD's.
- Romantics's Talking in Your Sleep was higher up in RD's.
- Yes's Owner of a Lonely Heart was MUCH higher up in RD's
- Kool's Joanna was much higher up, but
- Jump was number one in both.