Today's AT40

[acroyear]

February 12, 1983

Halfway through the 7th grade, with the only good thing I remember about it being that I'd finally gotten something interesting in my math class after 3 years straight of 3digit x 2digit multiplication.

Last week's #1 was Toto's Africa, which I contributed to (I still have the 45)

• 40: Mr. Roboto, signalling the beginning of the end of Styx as we knew it
  
  I have the 45 for this as well. the b-side was Snowblind, for which I totally failed to hear any so-called backwards satanic messages on...I wonder if they still think rock bands do that sort of thing?  I'm surprised they haven't started accusing Rock Band and Guitar Hero of subliminally inducing satanic messages through morse code's embedded in the rhythms you're supposed to play)
  
  
• 39: Donna Summer's hit parade winds down with The Woman in Me
• 38: Pia Zadora's only hit, a cover of The Clapping Song.  a bit of a silly lyric, really, which I remember Shadowfax nicking from when they did Brown Rice live.
• 37: Linda Rondstant covers I Knew You When.  Not really worth it, the last remnants of country-crossover.
  
• 36: ex-Abba singer Freida's I Know There's Something Going On.  Not that big a hit by the numbers, but like Twilight Zone and Obsession, it tends to get a LOT of airplay anyways on the retro-80s stations.
• 35: Earth Wind and Fire's hit-making career is also winding down with Fall in Love with Me.  These days, I hear more about EWF 'cause they're the horn section for Genesis (Paperlate, No Reply at All) and Phil Collins's solo works.
  
  today seems a mixed bag of a few (mainstream) cult classics mixed with a lot of 70s/early80s stars's final songs.
  
  
• 34: the OTHER collaboration between Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson, The Girl Is Mine, which effectively ended up the first single from Thriller, rather than Billie Jean, which was only the first video to make it.
  
• 33: Joe Jackson's Breaking Us In Two.  Interesting video, I thought, back when they made these things artistic...in spite of the fact that he's actually in it. :) (sorry, old Gallagher joke)
• 32: Don Henley's first solo, Dirty Laundry, is on its way down from its #3 peak.  "We all know that crap is king." - what a great line...
  
  the most #1 singles with no #1 album?  Frankie Valley had 7, Michael Jackson had 7...and the latter was about to change in a MAJOR way with the next single...
• 31: Canadian late-era prog-rockers Saga with On The Loose.  I REALLY liked this one at the time, and have a new appreciation for it now.  On the surface it just sounds like a typical AOR track, but there's a lot of subtleties hidden in the instrumental performances.

• 30: A Flock of Seagulls with the lesser hit, Space Age Love Song (another 45 I still have)
• 29: Moving Pictures, a lost Australian band, with What About Me, a VERY slow mover (12 weeks in the top 40 and only gotten to 29?)
  
• 28: Hall & Oats One on One, one of the last hits in their their more 70s R&B stylings vs the other two hits from that album (H20), Maneater and Mike Oldfield's Family Man (which was a good cover, but I'll take the original...).  I never got any Hall & Oats singles: I went straight to the albums. :)
  
  T-Bone does some very nice bass playing here.
  
  
• 27: Journey's Separate Ways (like Thriller and later this year, Van Halen's Jump, released LONG before the album came out that it was attached to).  I feel sorry for the video.  Eventually, directors learned that it just doesn't work when you "air guitar" (Billy Squire discovered this as well).  I made an awesome MashUp (back before we called them that), overlaying this to the opening fight of the 3rd Robotech segment.
• 26: Golden Earing with that aforementioned overplayed Twilight Zone
• 25: Juice Newton's Heart of the Night.  again, one of those "last stands".
  
  as noted, old stars' last stands, and the cult classic or two.  So far, only Hall & Oats, Journey, and Don Henley (and, of course, Michael Jackson) would be the big 80s hitmakers to continue on...
  
  
• 24: Sheena Easton tried to do Annie, but got caught lying about her age.  Here she's with Kenny Rogers in the duet We've Got Tonite, among last of the great cheesy ballads era...
• 23: speaking of Billie Jean, here it is (also new #1 on the soul chart.  history begins, "great things are afoot...".
• 22: The Pretenders were Back on the Chain Gang
  
  remember earlier when I said there were times I think they played the *wrong* song of the same title for a long distance dedication.  I think it just happened again, with "The One That You Love".  I think the writer meant the Air Supply song, but instead got the Glen Fry song.
  
  
• 21: Lionel Richie's You Are The Sun, You Are The Rain (I've lost my mind and gone insane...)
• 20: Tom Petty's You Got Lucky. GREAT video, if I haven't mentioned it before.
• 19: Duran Duran's Hungry Like The Wolf.  Like Men At Work, it took its time to get to the charts considering how long the video had been on MTV.
• 18: Culture Club's Do You Really Want To Hurt Me.  the bigger 80s hitmakers are finally showing up
• 17: Billy Joel's Allentown.  Good song, I really liked at the time, but not so much now.  Not sure why.
• 16: Christopher Cross's Alright, especially after having started out as a chauffeur for other rock stars back in the 70s.
  
• 15: Kenny Loggins's Heart to Heart.  Still in his 70s stylings compared to the later hits like Footloose and Danger Zone.  If it weren't for the voice, it could be a Steely Dan song as far as I'm concerned.
  
  and that's not a compliment.
  
  
• 14: Sammy Hagar's Your Love is Driving Me Crazy
• 13: Musical Youth Pass The Duchie...
• 12: Adam Ant, with an MTV hit that gets a LOT of First Wave airplay, Goody Two Shoes
• 11: The Little River Band with The Other Guy...another pretty much on their way to obscurity by this point...

• 10: the covers continue with Phil Collins saying You Can't Hurry Love
• 9: The Stray Cats Strut.  oddly, the b-side for their other single of this time (Rock This Town) had You Can't Hurry Love as a b-side.  Another where the video was out months before it finally hit the top 40
• 8: The Clash Rock the Casbah, another video that never stops playing
• 7: Another Country Ballad, Eddie Rabbit with Crystal Gayle, Just You And I
• 6: Hall and Oats's other huge one from H2O, a former #1 still holding on at #6 for 3 weeks, Maneater
• 5: whoa, Toto's Africa drops out of the #1 spot.
• 4: Bob Seger's Shame on the Moon.  meh...
  
• 3: Marvin Gaye's Sexual Healing, a song I really remain tired of.
• 2:Patty Austin and James Ingraham duet with Baby Come to Me, another 70s cheesy ballad hangover
  
  but the new Number 1...

• 1: Men at Work, with Down Under
  
  yes: I own that 45, too!
  

g'nite all.  I'm doing service pack updates on this pc...here's hoping it comes back to life after that...

Comments

[greendalek.livejournal.com]

I really do enjoy these "at40" posts, but one bit of word-arranging caught my eye:

"another 45 I still have."

Tell me this doesn't sound like something Yoda would say. *grin* Maybe he's got a stack of 45's packed away in that slimy mudhole of his...

Just a linguistic detour. Don't mind me...

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

I won't.

"[It is yet] another 45 I still have." is how it was meant to be read.