Reaching For the Stars, Vol. 17
Chart Week: November 3, 1984 Song: “Penny Lover” – Lionel Richie Chart Position: #18, 5th week on the chart. Peaked at #8 for two weeks in December. Usually these entries are about great songs, forgotten songs, or just songs that have some kind of special meaning to me. This week is a little different: this song was selected purely for…
Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 16
Chart Week: October 13, 1984 Song: “Strut” – Sheena Easton Chart Position: #31, 8th week on the chart. Peaked at #7 the week of November 24. To me, at least, it seems like Sheena Easton’s career was longer than it actually was. She exploded onto the scene in 1981 with the world-wide smash “9 to 5 (Morning Train),” which went…
Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 15
Chart Week: October 7, 1978 Song: “Whenever I Call You ‘Friend’” – Kenny Loggins (with Stevie Nicks) Chart Position: #10, 11th week on the chart. Peaked at #5 for two weeks in November. Controversy! A countdown from the 1970s?!?!?! SiriusXM rebroadcasts original ‘70s AT40 countdowns on its 70s on 7 channel. Unlike their updated version of 1980s countdowns on 80s…
Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 14
Chart Week: September 27, 1986 Song: “Heartbeat” – Don Johnson Chart Position: #14, 6th week on the chart. Peaked at #5 for two weeks in October. The history of pop music is riddled with vanity projects by actors, comedians, athletes, and others in the public eye who decided to leverage their fame in other mediums in an attempt to get…
Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 13
Chart Week: September 7, 1985 Songs: “We Don’t Need Another Hero” – Tina Turner “Power of Love” – Huey Lewis & The News “St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion)” – John Pass Chart Positions: Numbers three through one. This edition is a little meta. It’s not about the songs I’ve selected, or even the original countdown. Rather, it’s a celebration…
Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 12
Chart Week: August 18, 1984 Song: “We’re Not Gonna Take It” – Twisted Sister Chart Position: #39, 4th week on the chart. Peaked at #21 for two weeks in September. In between contractor visits last week, which have caused a move of my computer gear onto the dining room table temporarily, I was trying to hack together a post about…
Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 11
Chart Week: August 5, 1989 Song: “18 and Life” – Skid Row Chart Position: #32, 5th week on the chart. Peaked at #4 the week of September 23. These late 80s countdowns are not my favorites. By 1987 my tastes were drifting away from mainstream, Top 40-style music. Emphasis on the word drifting, because I still liked plenty of music…
Reading for the Stars, Vol. 10
Chart Week: July 10, 1982 Song: “Play the Game Tonight” – Kansas Chart Position: #17, 10th week on the chart. Peaked at #17 for three weeks. I would guess I heard this song approximately once in a quarter century before I heard it at, of all places, a high school football game a few years back. In the hour of…
Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 9
Chart Week: June 9, 1984 Song: “Eyes Without a Face” – Billy Idol Chart Position: #18, 6th week on the chart. Peaked at #4 for two weeks in July. As I said, I’ve been sitting on a couple of these posts. And since Spotify and WordPress appear to be fighting again, I’ll knock this one out in place of a…
Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 8
I’m a bit behind on these. Mostly because of not having solid internet access (fuckers). But I have three of these posts mentally queued up from the past month that I’m going to try to crank out over the next week. Chart Week: July 5, 1980 Song: “Stomp!” – The Brothers Johnson Chart Position: #28, 17th week on the chart.…