Today's AT40

[acroyear]

is Feb 1986.  definitely a good year and a good time.  for myself, i was still rather ridiculously infatuated with someone in my math class, a crush that went nowhere but was borderline neurotic in my internal obsessions and the pseudo-depressions that would come and go.  in short, i was a typical teenager, the most typical trait being i thought i was the only one going through all that.  i did get over it, eventually, about the same time i (re)discovered classic rock.

highlight hits so far

• The Sun Always Shines on TV
• Silent Running
• Alive and Kicking
  
• Life in a Northern Town
• Sara
• Eddie Murphy's Party all the Time
• Kyrie (which became the first top 40 hit with a greek title)
• Talk To Me
  

a few cheesy ballads (Say You Say Me), 5 "movie" hits (including Spies Like Us, When the Going Gets Tough, and 2 from Rocky IV - Living in America and Burning Heart), a Springsteen "hit" I never understood how it got popular aside from the fact that it was Bruce (Your Hometown), some dance songs we could have done without (How Will I Know, Love Bizarre), but otherwise...

HAH - the "long distance dedication" is from a high school girl from here in Fairfax, VA.

And the #1 song 20 years ago was...That's What Friends Are For, the song for AIDS research.

Comments

[wildwose.livejournal.com]

Hey Joe,
I just had to comment on this one. I really enjoy your comments and they bring back lots of very interesting memories. I think we are of a similar age.

The piece by the Dream Academy, Life in Northern Town. Well I think I was one of Dream Academy's 10 fans. I own both their releases on vinyl and find them to still be interesting. A bit before their time. And considering the amount of air play that song got, the rest of the album, not to mention their other, was hardly noticed.

Thats all. Keep up the great posts.
Shane

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

I bought the first album on vinyl in a dollar store in 1992 (well, the stock had to go, didn't it?) but gave that to my audiophile dad when i got the cd in a used shop (Japanese import version). I saw the second album in a store once and now regret not picking it up as the rest of the songs on the first album finally grew on me.

i still get weirded out when one of their's shows up as background music in the Ferris Bueller movie, towards the end while he's racing on foot to beat his sister home. it turns out that version (i heard it in a "clean" form on XM Radio last week) was a demo, before David Gilmour produced them. it sounds very different from the polished version on the album.

Having driven through Yorkshire (in 2000) and Northumbria, Northern England really does feel like its portrayed in the video.

(Manchester, on the other hand, is a very different world indeed from Yorkshire. Much more modern, with real "suburbs". Quite possibly the only place in England that actually has suburbs as Americans would consider them.)

[wildwose.livejournal.com]

When I get around to burning my LP to CD I will cut you the other one.
Peace,
Shane

[wildwose.livejournal.com]

Had to say one other thing that relates to your posts.
The reflection that music is bringing to me these days. For instance, I don't think I have given two thoughts to Van Halen in years, and when I was in HS although I listened to them early on, along with the rest of my peers, I rapidly got interested in the punk scene, limiting myself greatly. (as is typical) Amazing how so much of the stuff that I didn't think was "cool" years ago, at 35, I find it to be really rather interesting. So the point I was getting at is that David Lee Roth has just rejoined Van Halen, and I find myself strangly intriqued. I always did dig Dave. I think it is because I am also a Dave.
Much Peace,
David Shane Odom

[thelongshot.livejournal.com]

I actually picked up the first Dream Acadamy album a couple of years ago. It is pretty good.

As for Bruce, we're talking about "Born In The USA", where most of the album got airplay.