acroyear | Today's AT40 (Reply)

...is March 9, 1985, 2/3rds through freshman year. I've covered a March 1985 before, but I didn't date that one so I'm not sure if it's the same one. I didn't do these in # by # detail back then, so there will be more details here. At any rate, any comments from there will probably still stand if the song is still around on today's.

40 Chicago's last big hit from the Peter Cetera era, Along Comes A Woman, which we played in Concert 2 band the next year.
39 Don Henley's Boys of Summer. Love the verse melody; the chorus, not so much.
38 Jeffrey Osborne throws out another lost to obscurity, The Borderline. meh...or so I thought. It's repetitive, but there's a good riff hidden in the chorus.

Trivia Louis Armstrong is the oldest person to hit #1, with his cover of Hello Dolly, at age 63.
37 debuting today, DeBarge's Rhythm of the Night, would would remain an airplay staple for months to come. I kinda liked this at the time, but I was young. Things changed. :)
36, also a debut, one of my fav cars songs (that was my least fav at the time, so I *really* changed), Why Can't I Have You. I know a lot of old-school cars fans disliked the heavy keyboard influence (and usually with many groups at the time, including Styx), but it never really bothered me.

I haven't heard this before, as it's not the one I linked to (the order of some songs is different). It is one of many that feature both dedications to Marvin Gaye.
35 Bowie w/ Pat Methany Group, This is Not America, an astounding piece of work I'd never heard 'til 2 years ago on this broadcast. A very abstract lyric, much different from his straightforward pop material of Serious Moonlight. VH-1 used to play "new age" videos on sunday nights (this was just after MTV stopped playing The Young Ones), and Pat Methany made that playlist quite a lot.
34 Diana Ross's tribute to Gaye, Missing You.
33 Prince's Take Me With You, the last single from Purple Rain
32 One of those insanely overplayed one-hit wonders of that year, Animotion's Obsession. Sits there with Twilight Zone and Walking on Sunshine.
31 Turn Up The Radio from Autograph. Kinda a transitional hit for the big hair band scene leading to what the Crue and later Poison would do but at this point still closer to Night Ranger kinda stuff. Metal before Metallica was something very different.

30 Morris Day and the Time, having split up after the movie (also Purple Rain) but before this song became the monster hit. Yay Jay and Silent Bob for keeping it fresh for us! Another I hated at the time but today love it (as a party song, at least).
29 Bruce's I'm On Fire is led into by a story about his ruthless Monopoly playing (he would bring snacks and candy and sell them to the other players in the band for monopoly money and properties!).
28 The post-Ritchie Commodores with Night Shift, the other Marvin Gaye dedication that would end up much higher in the charts by April.
27 Bryan Adams needs Somebody
26 Ashford and Simpson's Solid is finally on its way down. Good Riddance...
25 Mick Jagger's first solo outing, Just Another Night
24 Billy Joel sings about the days of his youth that he "covered" with his Innocent Man album, insisting he's still Keeping the Faith
23 John Parr (later of St. Elmo's Fire fame) with Naughty Naughty

After a long distance dedication and a "great radio stations" list that again included DC's Q-107...
22 Survivor's High on You, which is one I really liked at the time.
21 Save a Prayer from Duran Duran, released in the states 3 years after the UK single so it had a LONG time to build up an American following since the video was on decent rotation that entire time. As i wrote before, it was actually supposed to be the live version from Arena, but AT40 kept playing the studio version instead.

20 My fav Hall & Oats song, I think, Method of Modern Love
19 New Edition, who as solo acts would define the soul scene of the early 90s, hit their first mark with Mr. Telephone Man, very well representative of the soul scene of the mid-80s. Ray Parker Jr wrote this, which I suppose makes sense.
18 Journey's last stand as the 5-man (prior to the brief 96 reunion) only had 2 movie songs and here's one of them, Only the Young from Vision Quest. [Just found out from IMDB that Matthew Modine actually turned down Top Gun, the movie that made Tom Cruise into a household name.]
17 Frankie says, RELAX
16 Phil Collins is the only one in the countdown twice, first here with one of the catchiest rock-pop songs of all time, Easy Lover.
15 Tina Turner's "comeback" continues with Private Dancer. faireraven hates this song, 1) just 'cause, and 2) 'cause it reminds her of a teacher whose actions were borderline harassment.
14 Phil's other hit today, future #1 (and still insanely slow) One More Night
13 CCR's ex, John Fogerty, with The Old Man is Down the Road. Trivia: CCR is the band with the most RIAA Gold Records in a single year.
12 Tina Marie just wants to be your Lover Girl, while
11 Billy Ocean just wants to be your Lover Boy

I almost wonder if the Billboard people manipulated the numbers a bit to get those two back to back for the countdown.

And into the top ten we go with...

10 Kool and the Gang are still going with Misled
9 Sheena Easton's first Prince-created single, Sugarwalls
8 Foreigner wants to know where their guitars went...and what love is, while they're at it.
7 Pointer Sisters with one of many Beverly Hills Cop songs, Neutron Dance
6 Julian Lennon's Much Too Late For Goodbyes.
5 Madonna's namesake, Material Girl, is the biggest jumper in the countdown today. By this point, I think we were all pretty sure she wasn't going anywhere compared to most pop contemporaries...
4 David Lee Roth's "I still have a career, really!" cover of California Girls.
3 Glen Fry with the other huge Beverly Hills Cop song, The Heat Is On
2 Wham's Careless Whisper, one which, like all Wham songs, I never really heard until after it was already out of the main pop scene. Never did understand why.

Making the #1 song of 24 years ago...