A brief American Top 40 The 80s update.*
(Don’t worry, an extensive basketball post is coming.)
This week’s show was from 1981, making it the first repeat year countdown since I began listening in January. It was fun to track where songs I heard six weeks ago were in the latest chart. At least for this amateur music historian.
Two things struck me.
First, I have no memory of Blondie’s “Rapture” when it was on the charts. None. My first memories of the song come from the late 80s when Yo! MTV Raps first aired and they gave the song its proper respect as one of the first moments that hip-hop entered the mainstream. That’s odd because A) it was a top five single and B) I have specific music memories about just about everything from the early 80s. I can tell you what we were listening to on my friend’s brother’s boombox while playing kickball in the street in 1983 (Sammy Hagar’s “Your Love Is Driving Me Crazy.”) but I don’t remember “Rapture”? Makes no sense. I wonder if they didn’t play it in Kansas City because it was too edgy.
Second, long-time readers will recall the story of me staying up for hours to hear R.E.O. Speedwagon’s “Keep On Lovin’ You” back in ’81. Turns out that was almost exactly 28 years ago, which is scary. Anyway, this week’s countdown was the first week that song took over the #1 spot. What song did it knock out of the top spot? John Lennon’s “Woman.” Suddenly that night of flipping back-and-forth to hear it makes me feel very dirty.