Month: June 2024 (Page 2 of 2)

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 101

Chart Week: June 4, 1983
Song: “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” – Michael Jackson
Chart Position: #22, 2nd week on the chart. Peaked at #5 for two weeks in July.

High Fidelity was one of my favorite movies of the early 2000s. I loved the record store culture it celebrated. Hanging around with fellow music geeks, arguing about insanely obscure bits of trivia, opening each other’s minds to new sounds, and mocking people who did not listen to the right kind of music (according to us) seemed like a great way to earn a living. And making music lists all day? Could anything be more up my alley than that?!?!

One of my top five lists the employees of Championship Vinyl assembled was Top Five Side One, Track Ones.[1] Naturally, given the personalities in the store, the conversation went off the rails quickly.

There are like a million great Side One, Track Ones, so this list was destined to be flawed. The biggest selling album of all time was probably too mainstream for the Championship crew. But, seriously, “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” should be on every Side One, Track One list!

You can make a legit argument that it is the greatest Side One, Track One of all time. Is it a great song? Yes. Is it on a great album? One of the greatest. Does it stand up next to the monster hits later on the LP? 100%. Does it have a bonus quality that gives it a boost? Um, check out the title.

The greatest Side One, Track Ones have to be more than terrific songs, though. They must be a blueprint for what is to follow. When you drop the needle or press play, the first sounds you hear have to grab your attention and excite you about where the next hour or so will take you. They need to make you think, or say, “Holy Shit!”

“Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” does all of that.

It makes an impact with its first beats. The bass, high hats, funky guitar, keyboards, and horns slowly fill in to create the classic Quincy Jones sound. When Michael Jackson begins singing, there is no mistaking the urgency in his voice. He squeezes a lot of syllables into small spaces, maintaining complete control the whole time. “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” was a mission statement that Michael was all grown up, want to get something started, and would not fuck around while doing so.

Well, Michael never used the word fuck, but it was implied here.

There is a sense of unrestrained joy and celebration throughout the track. Michael’s rapturous lead vocals, including all the undefinable yelps, whoops, and hiccups. The ecstatic backing vocals. The blissful blasts from the horns. The entire low end of the song, which sets a sturdy groove for everything built upon it. The almost overwhelming hand claps in the outro. This song is a straight party from the first note to the last.

Did anyone ever make nonsense sound as good as Michael? This song includes the lines:

You’re a vegetable

Ma ma se, mama sa, ma ma coo sa

and

Hee-haw

It’s all straight ridiculousness, yet Michael made it sound amazing.[2]

He originally wrote and recorded this track in 1979 for the Off the Wall album. Which explains why you hear more of a disco influence on it than on any other Thriller track. That earlier version was written about his sister LaToya’s relationship with some of her sisters-in-law. Which seems both super interesting and a bizarre basis for a dance-pop song. But these were the Jacksons…

When he re-vamped it for Thriller, he shifted the focus to be about how the media builds up and tears down celebrities, foreshadowing where his life and music were soon headed.

How in the hell did this song not top the Billboard pop chart? It was already at #22 in its second week on the entire Hot 100!

Was it MJ fatigue? Maybe. “Billie Jean” and “Beat It” dominated the spring of 1983. They were EVERYWHERE for four months. No matter how good the next song was, it was going to be difficult to match the their chart success.

It didn’t help that the song’s first week at #5 was also the beginning of the Police’s “Every Breath You Take”’s two-month reign at the top of the chart. Irene Cara’s former #1 “Flashdance…What A Feeling” was also ahead of Michael both weeks. The other two songs that kept “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” from climbing higher? Eddy Grant’s “Electric Avenue,” and Sergio Mendes’ “Never Gonna Let You Go.” Segio fucking Mendes!

The biggest reason is, likely, that Michael didn’t release a video for “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’.” Why? I can’t find a reason. It seems kind of insane that MJ didn’t make one. Perhaps it was his ego, insisting he could be just as successful without the MTV push. Or maybe it was Epic Records wanting to save some money? Perhaps there just wasn’t enough time in Michael’s schedule.

The record did make it to #1 in Canada and The Netherlands but topped out at #5 here in the States. I think that’s crazy and a sign that sometimes America isn’t all that it can be.

Another crazy thing: I did not know until sometime in the last 5–10 years that part of the third verse referenced “Billie Jean.” I don’t remember how I learned that: on another AT40, in some list of songs that reference other songs, or just in an article about MJ’s music. I do know my mind was utterly blown that I had never deciphered what Michael was saying in that verse. I blame it on getting my copy of Thriller from Columbia House, which lacked the lyric sheet.

You know what else is crazy? That I somehow made it through 100 RFTS entries without any of them focusing on Michael Jackson. Sure, I’ve referenced him multiple times.[3] But never writing just about Michael seems like a massive oversight.

Yeah, I know, his career became very problematic. There are a lot of people who have serious, legitimate issues listening to his music. However, I’ve always been able to compartmentalize his songs from what he was accused of doing. I haven’t been able to do that with some other artists, so I realize that makes me a bit of a hypocrite.

When Pitchfork last ranked their Top 200 songs of the 1980s, they included four tracks from Thriller. The highest? “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” which they slotted as the second-best song of the decade, 11 spots higher than “Billie Jean.” Maybe it was that lack of a video that kept “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” from topping the pop chart like “Billie Jean” and “Beat It” had done. It was every bit as good a song as those two number ones, though. This may be my newest musical obsession: convincing people that “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” is a woefully underrated, under appreciated song. 9/10


  1. Kids, when albums came primarily on either vinyl LPs or cassette tapes, their tracks would be split between the two sides of each format, thus Side One, Track One. I’m sure there are some YouTube videos that will show you how this archaic process worked.  ↩
  2. It turned out Michael stole the “Ma ma se, ma ma sa, ma ma coo sa” line from Cameroonian Manu Dibango’s 1972 “Soul Malissa.” Dibango sued Michael and the case was settled.  ↩
  3. Here, here, here, here, and here.  ↩

Weekend Travel Notes

A busy weekend back in the Motherland.


KC Trip

Lots of fun on my first Kansas City visit in two years, first solo one in five. As always, it was too brief but I packed plenty in.

I flew in Friday morning and got to experience the new KCI for the first time. Soooo much better than the old airport. I enjoyed how the old terminals are still standing, so if you were ever in them you have a reminder of how weird they were.

First stop was lunch at CharBar in Westport. Burnt end sandwich, solid.

Next was a shopping trip on the Plaza to pick up shirts for the girls.

After a stop at the Lee’s Summit Nesbitts to unload my bags, we headed out for an evening of fun. Started at the Boulevard Beer brew hall, which was a nice place to gather. It was weird that last call was at 8:45, although that ensured we got into El Patron for dinner right before they closed.

While eating dinner, we watched the Royals game. They were chipping into a big Seattle lead but it didn’t look promising.

After the staff graciously let us hang around past their closing time to finish our meals,[1] we headed to the Plaza and decided to roll into the Granfalloon for old time’s sake. On the way we listened to the Royals game. Things were getting interesting! Just as we claimed a table Salvy Perez ripped a ball down the third base line and the Royals claimed a miraculous win. There was much celebrating.

Saturday I decided that L would not think the KU, Joel Embiid shirt I got her would be nearly as cool as I did, so I took it back to exchange it. She had requested some kind of Ochai Agbaji shirt but I couldn’t find one and settled on the Jojo version. I hit a Rally House in Independence and swapped it for a generic, KU basketball shirt. Then I decided to run over to Independence Center and see what the mall where I literally spent months of my life in the ‘80s and ‘90s was like. It was a trip! While I strolled through its massive, mostly empty interior, I was trying to remember when the last time I would have been there was. There’s a decent chance it was sometime in the early 2000s, but a greater than zero chance it was before the turn of the millennium, which was kind of wild.

Later we headed to Gates to grab some lunch to take to the K for tailgating before the Royals game. Mother Nature dialed up some good, old fashioned KC heat and humidity to ensure I worked up a sweat doing nothing. It made the beer taste better!

Our seats were in the Loge level, which I bet I hadn’t sat in since the mid–90s. I remember sitting there for an Orioles game sometime in my O’s fan phase, but never since. Great seats since they were in the shade and we had a breeze. The R’s were nice enough to make the day about perfect with another win.

And, of course, great to sit with a bunch of good friends.

Following the game we gathered at the Brookside Murrays for Minsky’s pizza, drinks, and conversation. It was a beautiful summer night and just about perfect.

Sunday morning my last stop was to meet an uncle for brunch at Homegrown in Brookside. Quite good. Get your name on the list early. On my way I was able to listen to most of the top 10 from 1981 on the AT40 replay. I wondered if I had made the same drive into Brookside with my mom sometime in June ’81 and heard some of these songs.

I had a little time to kill so made a quick walking lap of the Plaza before heading back to KCI.

While the daylight hours were just fine, both Friday and Saturday nights had big, ol’ Great Plains thunderstorms. I swear the thunder is louder in KC. I sleep right through the same storms at home, or at least only wake momentarily. Both nights in KC the rumbles were loud enough it took me some time to get back to sleep.

It was so great to see all of my friends who are reading this. It was great to see the ones who aren’t reading this, too. You know what I mean.


Family Heirloom

Another highlight of the trip was my uncle passing along a treasured item from his past.

He had designs on being a radio DJ back in the day. Sadly, he did not have the voice for it and it never worked out as a long-term occupation. While he was in college, though, he did some summer work at a small station in central Kansas, KHOK. In October 1979 he was working at a station in Hoisington, KS and had the honor of spinning at least one American Top 40. Literally spinning it; back then the entire program was pressed onto vinyl and sent out to radio stations around the country.

The station let him hang onto the records as a memento. As we often text about old music, he decided it was time to pass it along to me. So expect to have several RFTS entries from the October 13, 1979 countdown this fall. I just need to find the proper adapter to connect my turntable, which has been packed away since we moved, to computer speakers. Someone made me ditch my old school, mega-speakers when we switched houses.


Rental

I didn’t take a picture, but I splurged a little on my rental. I put myself into a very nice Nissan Versa. Car And Driver ranks it as their #1 subcompact car, so you know it’s quality.

Honestly I was surprised to look up its specs when I got home and see it had 122 horsepower. Mine might have only had 100 or so HP. There were several times I was literally standing on the gas pedal and the car was wheezing to get up to speed on the highway. I forgot my 1980s trick of turning the AC off when trying to get a four cylinder vehicle onto an interstate in the summer. But I did get around 35 miles per gallon, so while I didn’t drive around a ton it was nice to only spend about $11 topping off the tank before I turned it back in.

I rented from Enterprise. I told the enthusiastic kid who helped me check out on Friday that I had a lot of fun in Enterprise cars back in the day. Shame Cadillac doesn’t make huge cars anymore.


  1. Yes, we closed down two establishments in one night! Don’t call us old!  ↩

Thursday Playlist

Posting this a little early as I have a busy Friday morning.

“Sabotage” – Beastie Boys
Thirty years and one week ago the Beasties released Ill Communication. I’ve always been a Paul’s Boutique guy, but there are plenty of people who think IC was their best album. And, of course, this song was the basis for one of the greatest videos ever made.

“No Surrender” – Bruce Springsteen
I know I just shared the video for “Dancing in the Dark” two weeks ago, but we needed an official acknowledgement of the 40th anniversary of the release of Born in the USA. I’m looking forward to reading Steven Hyden’s new book about the album sometime soon. This song is a reminder that even with seven Top 10 singles, there were still great songs that never made the radio.

“Accelerate” – Molly Payton

“Valens – Spider Lake Version” – Graveyard Club
This landed in my Discovery Weekly playlist a few weeks back. The original song is four years old. I can’t find a thing about what makes this edit the “Spider Lake Version” or why it came out this spring. Sometimes it’s better just to enjoy the music and not worry about the details behind it.

“No More Romance” – Kate Clover
I will never not love punky, power pop music like this.

“Green Lady” – Merchandise
A terrific track from 2014 I heard for the first time in a long time this week.

“Kansas City / Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!” – The Beatles
I’m off to KC for the weekend. Barbecue, baseball, and buddies. And I get to finally check out the new airport!

“When Doves Cry” – Prince & The Revolution
Dig if you will, a picture…Two weeks ago we had “Dancing in the Dark.” This week is one of the songs that kept Bruce from topping the chart. In a summer filled with legendary songs, this was THE song of the summer. It sounded unlike anything I had ever heard before. I often slept with my radio on back then and remember waking up the middle of the night to it and being freaked out by that closing synthesizer flourish. I also remember being super pissed off when I listened to Casey’s year-end countdown and “Say, Say, Say” was number one. It was years later I learned that the countdown show was based on a December 1 – November 30 timeline, giving “Say, Say, Say” a boost from its late 1983 run. “When Doves Cry” was, in fact, Billboard’s official top song of 1984 based on the true calendar year. This is the world I grew up in. And you wonder why I have stupid music rules. I also forgot how bonkers the non-movie scene parts of this vid were.

Reaching for the Stars: The First 100

With 100 Reaching for the Stars entries under my belt, it is time to break down where we’ve been, AT40 style.

It should be no shock that there have been more entries from 1984 than any other year, a healthy 18 posts from the greatest year in pop music history. I was mildly surprised that 1982 was second with 16. Not sure if that’s a function of more 1982 countdowns being rebroadcast than other years, or more 1982 songs grabbing my attention. Here’s a year-by-year breakdown:

1976 – 3
1977 – 2
1978 – 4
1979 – 3
1980 – 6
1981 – 7
1982 – 16
1983 – 12
1984 – 18
1985 – 10
1986 – 10
1987 – 3
1988 – 2
1989 – 3
2023 – 1

One of the biggest artists of 1984 led the way on the posts-per-act list. Again, not a surprise who is at the top.

Prince – 3
Elton John – 2*
Daryl Hall and John Oates – 2
Pat Benatar – 2
Sheena Easton – 2
Kansas – 2
Stevie Nicks – 2*

(Both Elton and Stevie have entires as duets with other artists that I give them full credit for.)

Another common element of American Top 40 was Casey Kasem sharing the geographic breakdown of charts in weeks when there was a lot of non-American representation. “This week there are a whopping 21 foreign acts on the chart!” Here are the locations where we can place pins on our virtual RFTS map.

United States – 67
United Kingdom – 20
Australia – 4
Canada – 4
Netherlands – 1

The remaining four were either multi-national groups or posts about special countdowns that had no single act as a focus.

I tried to tally the entries by genre, but that proved difficult. In retrospect, like 90% of what I’ve written about can be defined as Pop. How do you decide which Prince songs were Pop and which were Soul, for example? Same for several other Black artists. Where was the line between Pop and Rock? Adult contemporary vs. Pop? Disco/Dance vs. Soul? Impossible. So I scrapped that breakdown.

Beyond those numbers, nothing else really jumped out at me. My entries have gotten longer and more detailed, which shouldn’t be a surprise. They also take more time to write now than they did when I began this series. I think that has made them better. I hope that means they are more interesting to read for my fellow music geeks. If you’re not into deep music trivia dives, you probably think those early posts were better.

If you want to go back and review any of the first 100 posts in the series, here’s the link to my RFTS page.

If you had any worries that I was bringing the series to a close after making it to 100 post, never fear, I’m already working on volume 101. I also have several partial drafts waiting for when we get to the right part of the calendar. As Casey said every week, the countdown continues!

May Media

My goal for May was to adjust away from so much YouTube back towards more traditional shows and movies. I didn’t do a great job of that. I have started a summer viewing project, so while the hours may adjust in June, I don’t know if the number of entries in each section will change much for awhile.


Movies, Shows, etc

The Gentlemen
Highly entertaining. You can’t go wrong with a collection of fun British accents. Throw in some normal Guy Ritchie stuff and you got yourself a super watchable TV series.

A

John Mullaney Presents Everybody’s In LA
I got through four of these and that was enough. Funny, but also just weird and uneven enough for me to skip the last two. Which means they were probably the best.

B-

Pearl Jam: The ‘Dark Matter’ Interview
An incredible hour with PJ. Remember when Eddie hated to do interviews? Now, if he’s in the right setting, you can’t get him to shut up. This goes beyond the usual new album PR push as it feels like there are some genuine moments of emotion in their conversation, especially near the end. And seeing their rehearsal/storage building is super cool.

A

Hustle
Predictable, formulaic, and manipulative. Yet it was fun, entertaining as hell, and surprisingly well acted. Every time I saw Anthony Edwards in the playoffs, I kept thinking of the grin on his face when he baits Bo Cruz into shoving him. Not sure why it took me so long to watch.

B+

NBA Playoffs
A lot of great games last month. And some great performances in games that weren’t super competitive. Could have used a couple more Pacers wins, though.

A-


Shorts, YouTubes, etc

Pearl Jam Clubhouse Tour with Eddie Vedder and Jeff Ament
Lot of PJ content this month.

Conan Explains What Happened To His Body After “Hot Ones”
Important follow up from last month.

Can’t Get a X100 VI – Still Worth Waiting For? Here’s 11 Alternatives!
Back when I was really into cameras, I watched a ton of these guys’ vids. Their combination of accents always made me laugh, plus there was good camera content. If I was still into cool cameras, I had the budget, and I could find one, I would 100% get an X100 VI. Although the perfect camera would be 10–20% smaller so you could actually get it into a pocket while getting much better results than from an iPhone.

10 Things Jerry Seinfeld Can’t Live Without
No puffy shirt? No Pez dispensers? No marble ryes? No copy of Tropic of Cancer? I call BS.

Max Velocity
I watched way too much of this dude breaking down severe storms around the country. YouTube is pretty cool sometimes.

The Best Comebacks and Insults in Archer
I can think of about 100 that weren’t in this clip, which shows how freaking funny Archer was.

A Complete Breakdown of ‘The Office’ Basketball Game
How did it take me four years to see this?!?!

TRYING KANSAS CITY’S MOST ICONIC FOODS! 🇺🇸 WORTH THE HYPE?? BBQ, Z-MAN, MOCHI DONUTS & MORE!
Once you get past the title, which could not be more Millennial YouTuber, this was a fun vid. I agree with the person in the comments who said they’ve lived in KC for 70 years and never heard of a cheese slipper. Wondered if something new had been invented in the 21 years since I moved away.

Bound for Nowhere
I think I’ve watched some of this couple’s videos before. They are starting a new series of international travel and kicked it off with three videos about their new truck. Not sure why I’ve never found a bunch of sponsors to finance me custom building my own vehicle.

A visit to Sears with Mom in 1977
“These are on sale, so that’s what we’re going to get, ok. You like these.” What kid in the Seventies didn’t hear that phrase when it was time to buy new shoes? I think I’m going to give this channel more attention.


Car Content

Volvo EX30 vs Volvo C40 | Long Trip Test Battle!
Seems like Volvo needs to simplify their EV lineup. Or at least name them similarly.

Driving the stunning new Aston Martin Vantage
As much as I enjoy the silent power and speed of my Tesla, I freaking love the way Aston Martins sound. If only they made one that cost under $50K…


Podcasts

The Bill Simmons Podcast
I’ve been back into Simmons’ pod since last September. It’s usually pretty good, especially the NBA stuff. Last month he had Eddie Vedder and Jeff Ament on to talk about Pearl Jam’s career, the episode the above video was a companion to. But I LOVED this episode, or at least the final segment, when his daughter Zoe was on to review her freshman year of college. I made note of her big observations and ran them by M, who agreed with most of them but very much disagreed with her assertion that boys and girls can’t be friends. But Zoe seems like a serial dater when M is the opposite, so makes sense they would have different perspectives.

Bandsplain
Yasi Salek was a regular guest on 60 Songs That Explain the 90s. I’ve dabbled with her pod, but it often seems too long to really dive into. But a three-part breakdown of Pearl Jam’s career that lasts over 10 hours? Yes, I worked through every minute of that over the course of several weeks.

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