Tag: RFTS (Page 3 of 12)

Chart Week: September 19, 1981
Song: “General Hospi-tale” – The Afternoon Delights
Chart Position: #35, 9th week on the chart. Peaked at #33 for two weeks.

I’ve been reading through the RFTS archives and was surprised that I’ve never written properly about a novelty song, stuff like “Pac-Man Fever” or “The Curly Shuffle,” for example. I probably should have held off until one of those popped up on an old AT40, but this record was so strange that it required my first novelty song post.

We can’t talk about this track without reviewing how important daytime soap operas once were. In the age before the wide adoption of cable TV, your only afternoon viewing options on sick days or visits to grandma’s were the three hours of soaps shown on each network.

My mom’s mom was a Days of Our Lives devotee. That meant for the hour it aired, shit shut down in grandma’s house. The grandkids had to either shut the hell up or go outside. Grandpa had the good sense to take a post-lunch nap each day. She watched Days because the NBC station was the best signal they could grab with their gigantic antenna at their house out in the middle of nowhere. She watched the other NBC soaps, too, but Days was the show that got grandma’s full attention. You risked her wrath if you interrupted in any way.

The biggest soap of that era, though, was ABC’s General Hospital. At its peak, over 13 million people watched it each day. It was a launching pad for Rick Springfield’s career.[1] Fellow GH alum Jack Wagner could wind up in this series at some point. It is one of three daytime soaps still airing on traditional TV today, and celebrated its 60th anniversary earlier this year.

Most importantly, it gave us the biggest storyline in soap history: Luke and Laura. I never watched GH, and was in the fourth-through-sixth grades at its prime, yet even I knew all about Luke and Laura. You should read up on their storyline. It was bonkers, even for a soap. Despite their relationship beginning with a sexual assault, Luke and Laura’s union endured, and eventually crossed over into the pop culture mainstream like no other daytime soap characters did before or since. When Luke and Laura got married, 30 million people watched. THIRTY MILLION!!! For comparison, NBC’s Sunday Night Football was the highest rated series on TV last year, averaging a little over 18 million viewers per week. I know, different times, more choices, etc. Regardless of all that, General Hospital was a ratings behemoth. Soon every soap was looking for their own L&L.

Naturally outsiders tried to capitalize on GH’s success. A group of songwriters and singers in Boston thought a pop single about the show might be a hit. In a truly wild choice, they presented the record in a proto-rap style.

It was pretty awful. My first thought when hearing it again was of Sam Malone rapping an editorial during his brief foray into TV sports.

I doubt the housewives and shut-ins who were General Hospital’s prime audience were ready for rap in 1981. Even vanilla rapping like this was probably frighteningly close to “Black music from New York” for a lot of folks in the heartland. I just can’t see my grandma tapping her toes and humming along when Casey played it on Sundays.

However, GH was so big that the song got some airplay. It spent five weeks in the Top 40 and peaked at #23 on the R&B chart. I find it hard to believe Black radio stations actually played it, but what do I know?

The lyrics and delivery of them are clunky. I’m not sure any of the people who made it had actually listened to a true rap song. The music is cheesy and overwhelming. It wants to be funky, but the end result was profoundly un-funky.

And the group’s name? Get the fuck out of here.

You can make an argument that this was the third hip hop song to crack the Top 40 after “Rapper’s Delight” and “Rapture.” So maybe it has some historical significance?

And, TBH as the kids say, since white people trying to rap sounded like this song for the next two decades, does that make it a highly influential piece of music, even if it influenced people to produce shit?

No, that can’t be right. It’s a bad song. It deserves no props. The charm that carried other novelty tracks of that era is completely missing. On the rare occasions when I hear it, I quickly switch away. There’s a reason it was buried in the slag heap of historically bad music, and that had nothing to do with the waning popularity of soaps. Some may find it silly and harmless. I think it’s trash. 1/10

Chart Week: August 29, 1981
Song: “For Your Eyes Only” – Sheena Easton
Chart Position: #29, 6th week on the chart. Peaked at #4 for for weeks in October and November.

I’ve heard a glut of 1981 countdowns recently. To be honest, it’s a little much. The quirkiness of that era grates rather quickly upon repeated exposure.

However, I did learn something new and amazing in the process.

On a countdown from earlier in the summer of ’81, a bonus track outside the Top 40 added to the new recording was Sheena Easton’s “For Your Eyes Only.” I didn’t like that song much as a kid; I have no love for it as an adult. I believe I was cooking dinner while listening and focused on my work rather than the music.

When it ended the announcer mentioned that it was, of course, the theme to the James Bond picture of the same name. He also stated that Blondie had recorded a song for the movie with the exact same title.

Wait, WHAT?!?! Blondie recorded something for a 007 flick? How had I never heard that before?

After dinner I raced to the computer and started searching. Turns out, the story was true. The production team behind the twelfth Bond film indeed requested that Blondie perform the title song. They wanted the band to record a piece written by Bill Conti, who composed the picture’s score. I bet you’ll recognize another of his themes.

Blondie thought this was a terrible idea. They wanted to write their own music. So they did. They submitted their recording, but it was promptly rejected. The film’s producers pivoted to the rising Scottish artist Sheena Easton, asking her to interpret Conti’s original effort. The rest is history.

Easton’s track peaked at #4 in the US, #8 in the UK, and was nominated for an Academy Award. The producers liked Easton so much that she became the first, and still only artist to appear performing during the movie’s title sequence. Star Roger Moore said she was sexier than any of the Bond Girls in the film.

Blondie put their version of “For Your Eyes Only” on their 1982 album The Hunter, but never released it as a single. The album received some of the worst reviews of their career, it didn’t sell well, and soon the band split up.

Blondie’s record is interesting. You can hear them trying to connect with the vibe of James Bond, especially in the guitars. And I can 100% envision it as the music played under the title sequence. I sense some common threads to a few of the modern Bond themes that are perfectly fine, but basically serve as background music to the visual playgrounds those scenes have become.

However, it also feels flat, lacking the energy and sex appeal of Blondie’s biggest hits. Their idea of cool didn’t really match Bond’s. It doesn’t sound like a hit to me, even if it had made the soundtrack. Let’s call it a 5 and guess it peaks in the 20’s on AT40 had it been the official theme.

Sheena Easton’s tune, on the other hand, kind of sucks. It’s not her fault. While the film was going for a grittier tone to replace the campy direction the franchise took in the 1970s, this ballad is pure, old people pop. It is overly big and dramatic, and often veers into Cheeseland. I’m not sure why they thought a 22-year-old woman was the right person to sing about a 54-year-old spy. Easton has a nice voice, but it’s not big enough to match what this song asks for. You can hear her straining on its grandest moments. It needed some semi-washed up star of the late Sixties who could belt out those big notes. I can’t imagine Deborah Harry singing it, either. It could not be farther away from what she stood for, or what her voice was capable of.

Conti said he had two other singers in mind when he wrote the piece: Donna Summer and Dusty Springfield. Summer would have been an interesting choice. She certainly had the voice, but I’m not sure she was a good match for the vibe either. Especially since she was still considered the Queen of Disco in 1981. But Dusty Springfield? Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! It would have been a perfect, late-career revival for her. Alas…

The Conti/Sheena track gets a 2.

Most of my research for this post came from a single article, written in 2020. I had to laugh when the writer suggested “For Your Eyes Only” was the highlight of Easton’s career. Keep in mind she hit #1 in the US with “Morning Train (Nine to Five).” And, as my two brothers-in-music John N and Ed L immediately noted, had this guy not heard of “Strut” or “Sugar Walls”?

A highlight? Sure. But THE highlight? I don’t think so.

I talk a lot about how the summer of 1984 was the greatest moment in pop music history, normally backing that up with examples of some of the songs that were on the chart that summer.

As I was listening to a 1984 countdown a couple weeks ago, it struck me again how freaking solid those 40 songs were. There were a few duds, as there are in any countdown. But there were also a ton of timeless tracks that still get heavy airplay on Eighties stations today.

So why not go through a countdown from that summer to see just how loaded it was?

All my music ratings are highly subjective. In this case, I’m taking it to a whole new level of stupidity, rating each song on a highly arbitrary scale that factors in my like/dislike, how big of a hit it was at the time, if it is viewed as that act’s biggest hit, and then if it had a lasting cultural impact. I can’t say that I’ll weigh each of these factors equally from song to song. I’ll rank them on a scale from one-to-five, five being The Unforgettables.

I’m not sure if my ratings would hold up if given any serious, scientific scrutiny. We’re here to have fun, so don’t overthink them.

Here is the chart for the week ending August 11, 1984. That week I would have been in the midst of my month-long visit to my grandparents’ homes in central Kansas, listening on my Pioneer boom box.

(I’ve copied/pasted these straight from the terrific Top40weekly.com site and kept their formatting because I don’t want to fix it all.)

1 – GHOSTBUSTERS –•– Ray Parker, Jr. Biggest song of his career, theme for one of the biggest movies of the decade. Kitchy and silly, but it still gets played, both ironically and un-ironically. 5

2 – WHEN DOVES CRY –•– Prince Biggest song of the year from the biggest artist of the year. 5

3 – STATE OF SHOCK –•– The Jacksons with Mick Jagger When you think of Michael Jackson, The Jacksons, or Mick Jagger, this will not be very high on the list. All three of them had better songs in 1984. The ending is very cringey. 2

4 – WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT –•– Tina Turner The song that kicked off the greatest comeback in music history, and the most iconic song of an iconic career. 5

5 – SAD SONGS (Say So Much) –•– Elton John Maybe his best song of the 80s? Top three for sure. 3

6 – STUCK ON YOU –•– Lionel Richie The weakest of his big hits from 1983–84. 2

7 – DANCING IN THE DARK –•– Bruce Springsteen The song that made Bruce BRUCE to the masses. 5

8 – I CAN DREAM ABOUT YOU –•– Dan Hartman I love this song. But I doubt that’s the case for most people. I’m sadly calling it a 3 since I might be the only person in the world who still gets excited when I hear it.

9 – INFATUATION –•– Rod Stewart I bet the video had whatever supermodel he was dating at the time in it. It sure sounds slight and of its time now. Pretty low on his career best list, too. 2

10 – SUNGLASSES AT NIGHT –•– Corey Hart One of these days I’ll write about Corey Hart, who had a better and longer career than most people realize. This is THE song from his career, though. It is a must on any 80s compilation. 5

11 – BREAKIN’… THERE’S NO STOPPING US –•– Ollie & Jerry As with Dan Hartman above, a song I love but was never sticky in the culture. Another sad 3.

12 – MISSING YOU –•– John Waite This is a great song and the biggest of Waite’s solo career. Not quite iconic, but pretty freaking good. 4

13 – IF EVER YOU’RE IN MY ARMS AGAIN –•– Peabo Bryson Mid–80s, lite R&B schmaltz. 1

14 – LEGS –•– ZZ Top When a good video on MTV could make even bearded good ol’ boys from Texas into pop stars. 4

15 – PANAMA –•– Van Halen “Jump” was the bigger hit, but this was the better song. Arguably the band’s peak. 4

16 – EYES WITHOUT A FACE –•– Billy Idol Great track, but “Rebel Yell” or “White Wedding” are what you think of first when you think of Billy. 4

17 – ROUND AND ROUND –•– Ratt Arguably the song that ushered in the glam metal sound that was huge in the back half of the ‘80s. The video that was very popular with dickheads like me. 4

18 – JUMP (For My Love) –•– The Pointer Sisters Nice song, but I bet you think of “Neutron Dance” or “I’m So Excited” way before this. 3

19 – IF THIS IS IT –•– Huey Lewis & The News Did you know they had three-straight singles that peaked at #6 in 1984? Did they make a deal with the devil?!?! Fortunately they had a much bigger hit a year later that keeps us from having to decide which of those ’84 tracks was their finest overall. 4

20 – SHE BOP –•– Cyndi Lauper Good enough song, but her third-best track of 1984. 3

21 – SHE’S MINE –•– Steve Perry I was really into Perry’s first solo album back then. Can’t say the songs beyond “Oh Sherrie” hold up. 2

22 – ROCK ME TONITE –•– Billy Squier As it gave us one of the worst, most cringey videos of all time, it has a special place in history and gets an extra bump. 4

23 – LIGHTS OUT –•– Peter Wolf The first solo hit by the J Geil’s Band’s lead singer. Not super memorable. 2

24 – SEXY GIRL –•– Glenn Frey Yuck. 1

25 – THE WARRIOR –•– Scandal Featuring One of the great one-hit-wonders of the decade. Great song, great video. 5

26 – I’M FREE (Heaven Helps The Man) –•– Kenny Loggins I shared not too long ago that this was the best track on the Footloose soundtrack. Our third 3 that makes me sad.

27 – THE GLAMOROUS LIFE –•– Sheila E. Checks every box you need to check to earn a 5, including being written by Prince.

28 – SELF CONTROL –•– Laura Branigan Sorry, if it ain’t “Gloria” no one is going to remember it. 2

29 – ALIBIS –•– Sergio Mendes White dude yowling pop (Joe Pizzulo sang the lead). 2

30 – ALL OF YOU –•– Julio Iglesias & Diana Ross Oof. 1

31 – LEAVE A TENDER MOMENT ALONE –•– Billy Joel Billy cranked out a lot of hits from his An Innocent Man album. The fact this was the only one not to reach the Top 20 is telling. 2

32 TURN TO YOU –•– The Go-Go’s Pales in comparison to their classic hits. 3

33 DYNAMITE –•– Jermaine Jackson I have a big, soft spot in my heart for this song, mostly because of its goofy ass video. 3

34 DRIVE –•– The Cars What Cars song you think of first is very dependent on your age. Not one of my personal favorites so 3 to me, 4 to the world.

35 LET’S GO CRAZY –•– Prince & The Revolution Prince was so not fucking around in 1984. 5

36 WHEN YOU CLOSE YOUR EYES –•– Night Ranger My personal favorite Night Ranger song. But, come on, mention their name and there’s another song from 1984 that EVERYONE thinks of first. 4 to me, 3 to the world.

37 CRUEL SUMMER –•– Bananarama I really struggled with this one. I can’t decide whether it is a classic of the decade, or just another fun song tied to a very popular movie. I’ll split the difference and call it a 4 but open to arguments that it is either a 3 or 5.

38 ALMOST PARADISE –•– Mike Reno & Ann Wilson I have some good friends that love this song. I think it’s trash. But it was from Footloose and a lot of people probably slow-danced to it with people that were very important to them, so I’ll give it a 2.

39 MY, OH MY –•– Slade Zero memory. Zero cultural relevance. 1

40 RIGHT BY YOUR SIDE –•– Eurythmics The Eurythmics were a great band and I don’t think they ever made a bad song. But even Mr. Big Music Brain me forgot about this one. 2 because I bet no one else remembers it either.

Chart Week: July 15, 1989
Song: “Buffalo Stance” – Neneh Cherry
Chart Position: #20, 16th week on the chart. Peaked at #3 the week of June 24.

I have always been fascinated by the details of how songs are made. There’s the initial inspiration. The writing and recording process. How a song is mixed and produced. Whether it goes on an album or not, and if it does, how it is sequenced. And then whether it is released as a single. Dozens of steps that can make or break a track’s commercial success.

A subset of that fascination is how small ideas can transfer from song-to-song and artist-to-artist. It might take a few years, but an innocent nugget from an obscure, forgotten tune can be the building block for something legendary.

In 1986 the British act Morgan McVey recorded a single called “Looking Good Diving.” It’s not a great song. It’s not a good song. It might be awful. To my ears it is cartoony, silly in a bad way, and does nothing to hold my attention. The duo released a truly terrible video to promote the track.

Legend has it that Cameron McVey was so embarrassed by the video that he abandoned performing and transitioned to producing, eventually working with UK giants Massive Attack and Portishead.

You should not be shocked that “Looking Good Diving” did not chart in either the UK or US.

Did you notice two familiar faces in the video? That is soon-to-become supermodel Naomi Campbell “playing” the keyboards. And on guitar, McVey’s then girlfriend and future wife, Neneh Cherry.[1]

Neneh Cherry was born in Stockholm in 1964. Her mother was Swedish, her father a Sierra Leonian studying in Sweden. Their relationship did not last. Shortly after Neneh was born, her mother met and quickly married American jazz musician Don Cherry, who raised Neneh as his own daughter. The family remained in Stockholm until the early 1970s, when they moved to New York. Just after she turned 15 Neneh dropped out of school and departed for London, where she immersed herself in the growing punk scene.

There should be something else familiar in the video. Surely your ears picked up on that ascending synthesizer line. That, my friends, is the point of inspiration that takes us from trash to gold.

Almost no one bought the “Looking Good Diving” single. Those few who did and bothered to flip it over found something very different. That B-side was called “Looking Good Diving with the Wild Bunch.” It had promise.

There’s that same synth line as on the A-side. Cherry jumps on the mic, rapping with a decent flow for 1986. Her delivery was fresh and exciting, if slightly stilted. Obviously the lyrics almost completely match those for “Buffalo Stance.” The track has a twitchy, 80s dance pop vibe. There is some light scratching and sampling, hinting at hip hop. It does seem clunky, though, as if the group wasn’t sure how to make all the different parts work together. It reminded me of the live mixes I listened to on Bay Area radio when I lived there, the transitions rough and awkward. In short, it very much sounds like a demo rather than a fully formed song.

When Cherry began working on her debut solo album two years later, she brought in outside talent to assist in making those disparate parts fit together better. DJ Tim Simenon provided samples, scratches, and a final mix that took the track from the dance clubs to the streets. Producer Mark Saunders made several contributions, including a keyboard line that mimicked the guitar sound of The Smith’s Johnny Marr. He also elevated the chorus into something glorious and unforgettable. Cherry sharpened her own attack, bringing a sense of urgency not present in the original version. She is as hard as Chuck D or KRS-ONE when she raps, and as sweet and light as Janet Jackson on the chorus. She sounds more Brooklyn than London in those rapped verses. And that synth line? It is now played on a Roland Super JX–10, adjusting its tone to give it more of an edge than it had on “Looking Good Diving.”

Cherry, Saunders, and Simenon took elements of various genres and morphed them together into something that was totally new, unique, and forward looking. “Buffalo Stance” is fierce yet sleek. Defiant yet tender. It is irresistible; I challenge you to not sing along when you hear it. Most of all, there is some undefinable magic deep in its core. Who knows how many hundreds of times I’ve heard it over the years. Yet every single time it completely delights me.

Those years of effort and incremental progress were totally worth it. “Buffalo Stance” is an all-time classic. A first ballot Hall of Famer. An electoral landslide. It is incredible that it grew from a tiny keyboard run in a cheeseball song that no one was interested in.

It’s looking good today, looking good in every way. And has been for 34 years. 10/10

By the way, the two songs that kept this from topping the US pop chart? Richard Marx’s “Satisfied” and New Kids on the Block’s “I’ll Be Loving You (Forever).” Sometimes America really sucks.

A rather uninteresting weekend around here, even with an extra day thrown in, so let’s jump straight into our latest exploration of Old School American Top 40s.

Chart Week: June 23, 1979
Song: “I Want You To Want Me” – Cheap Trick
Chart Position: #16, 9th week on the chart. Peaked at #7 for two weeks in July.

Sometimes our musical memories trick us into believing a band was more popular that it actually was.

Cheap Trick is a good example for me. I think of them being huge in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, and I’m not really sure why. My parents never owned any of their albums. I certainly didn’t. As we will soon see, they weren’t super successful on the pop chart, either.

I could chalk it up to the old “Bus Stop Theorem,” which holds that the influence of older kids on your school bus can have a disproportionate impact on your worldview. But I was pretty young when Cheap Trick had their first moment of pop chart glory, and I’m not sure if my fellow grade schoolers had that kind of sway yet. Maybe they were on TV a lot, which made me think they were huge at the time?

Something caused this impression, but I do not know what.

(Quick aside: A few years later our middle school bus driver would let us play the radio on our ride to school if we were on good behavior. She generally kept us pinned to Q–104, the most popular Top 40 station in Kansas City. Every now-and-then she would let us switch over to KY–102, the more rock-oriented station. One of those KY–102 days Cheap Trick’s “She’s Tight” came on. The older boys loved it. Betty was in her 50s, I’m guessing, and was much more into songs like “Islands In The Stream.” She didn’t always understand the lyrics to songs, but this one caught her ear.

“WHAT ARE THEY SAYING?!?!” she exclaimed.

One of the older boys was ready for this.

“She’s NICE. Like she’s a nice girl.”

Betty wasn’t so sure but reluctantly let us keep listening. We all cackled behind our seat backs. I wasn’t sure what it meant to be tight, but if the 7th and 8th graders thought it was cool/funny/risqué, that was enough for me.)

Regardless, I was amazed to review the band’s chart history and see other than two brief moments, they never got tons of radio airplay.

Casey Kasem shared a story in this countdown about their popularity. He pointed out how despite releasing albums that got great reviews, their singles consistently flopped. All seven songs they released before “I Want You To Want Me” failed to make the Top 40.[1] In fact, this was the second version of “I Want You To Want Me” released to radio stations, and the first hadn’t even cracked the Top 100.

However, Casey said, the band was immensely popular in Japan. When they toured that country in 1978, it was like the second coming of the Beatles. The band was swarmed at the airport upon their arrival. News programs dedicated long segments to the band. A music magazine devoted an entire issue to Cheap Trick. When they announced a concert at the legendary Budokan arena, so many people called to buy tickets that the phone system melted down.

Casey didn’t offer any evidence for what prompted the Japanese to love Cheap Trick so much. Some quick research suggests a few possible explanations.

First, several Japanese writers had seen Cheap Trick open for Queen in Milwaukee, enjoyed their performance, and asked the band to write about their experience for a magazine. Based on that article, the entire Japanese music press began following the band closely. Soon Cheap Trick had their first #1 song in Japan, “Clock Strikes Ten.”

Next, Cheap Trick didn’t sound like many other bands of their time. They weren’t hard rock or straight pop, nor were they early adopters of the New Wave sound. They had an edge but they sure weren’t punk. However, they incorporated elements from all of those styles, predicting where music would go in the ‘80s. While that made them outliers to what was popular on American radio, the Japanese were receptive to their unique sound.

The band was from Rockford, Illinois, and cut their teeth playing small venues in the Midwest rather than making their name in Chicago or another large scene. For a lot of American labels, music execs, and program directors, that made them tough to market.[2] The Japanese didn’t care that they weren’t from a music hotbed.

Cheap Trick recorded their April 1978 Budokan shows and released the highlights as a live album in early 1979. That finally pushed them into the mainstream in America. The live recording of “I Want You To Want Me” made it all the way to #7. It went to #1 in Japan (of course), Belgium, and the Netherlands, and hit #2 in Canada.

The group’s US pop chart success was short-lived. Their next three singles all snuck into the Top 40, but none got higher than #26. After that, 16 straight releases failed to chart.

Sixteen!

The band was on the verge of being dropped by their label in 1987 when they agreed to bring in outside songwriters to help them on their next album. That worked, as the sappy, lite-rock track “The Flame” made it to #1 for two weeks in the summer of 1988. A remake of Elvis’ “Don’t Be Cruel” peaked at #4 later that year. Two more singles cracked the Top 40 over the next 18 months before the band, again, disappeared from the charts. This time for good.

Kind of a weird career. I would imagine those guys have some stories.

“I Want You To Want Me” is a nearly perfect, great song.

There’s that terrific opening line, when lead singer Robin Zander tells the crowd, “I want you, to want…me!” followed by the shrieks of the Japanese audience as the drums kick in.[3]

Rick Nielsen’s core riff is a nice summation of what Cheap Trick was all about. There was a hint of punk, a hint of power pop, a hint of New Wave, yet it remained slippery and undefinable. He throws flourishes all over the song, not waiting for his solo to show off.

The driving beat is insistent and undeniable.

Zander’s vocals are fantastic. He is horny but never sounds desperate. Everything is offered in a cheeky tone. Nielsen intent when he wrote the song was for it to be something of a parody. While the live version shifted away from that perspective, it never takes itself too seriously.

And I love how the verses and choruses seem flipped. My favorite section is the one when Zander rips through the lines:

Didn’t I, didn’t I, didn’t I see you cryin’?
Oh, didn’t I, didn’t I, didn’t I see you cryin’?
Feelin’ all alone without a friend, you know you feel like dyin’
Oh, didn’t I, didn’t I, didn’t I see you cryin’?

They are quite different but I like to think “I Want You To Want Me” has at least a few common strands of DNA with a song that was racing up the charts as it fell, The Knack’s “My Sharona.”

“Surrender” was Cheap Trick’s best song, and should have peaked way higher than the #67 spot. This wasn’t a bad way for Cheap Trick to finally nab its first true hit, though. 8/10[4]

Any Cheap Trick discussion demands a reference to a certain 1980’s teen movie.

Chart Week: April 23, 1983
Song: “Whirly Girl” – Oxo
Chart Position: #28, 10th week on the chart. This was its chart peak.

We love to celebrate the one hit wonders that made a big impact on the charts and the culture. Toni Basil. Nena. Tommy Tutone. Artists of that nature that you still hear today.

Then there are the bands that are lost to time because their sole hit barely scratched its way onto the chart and failed to register in our generational memory.

This song is definitely one of those forgotten tracks.

I am writing about “Whirly Girl,” which I do not remember at all, because of the story Casey Kasem shared about its background. Casey told his audience that Oxo leader Ish “Angel” Ledesma wrote it about his wife’s adventures in the 1970s.

Before marrying Ish, Lori Ledesma had partied with some of the biggest bands of the ‘70s. “That can be fun, but also destructive,” Casey quoted Ledesma as saying. “I’m making fun of her lifestyle, but that’s ok. She made it through, and nothing happened to her.”

I’m sure he had his fun in the ‘70s, and he was publicly saying it was fine that she had her fun, too. Props to him for having an enlightened view about his wife’s past.

But then I checked out his lyrics and reconsidered my opinion.

She’s been with The Rolling Stones
On their tours
And in their homes
Won’t tell you where she’s bound
‘Cause she ain’t lost and don’t want to be found

Ok, fine so far. Dropping a Rolling Stones reference is solid. Let’s continue…

This girl just combs her hair
And takes her tea
With millionaires
She’s sitting in the latest styles
With open legs
And mysterious smiles

WAIT, WHAT???? OPEN LEGS?!?!

I think it’s one thing to say “Wow, my wife sure liked to party before we got together!” It’s another to write a line about her legs being open.

Again, maybe my focus should be on Ledesma’s comfort with his wife’s past. No double standards in their house.

I might have chosen a different way of talking about her history, though. One that didn’t imply she was easy, loose, or whatever the proper term for that era was.

Casey added that the song was meant to be called “Worldly Girl,” since Lori’s journeys had taken her around the world. But as that was too hard to sing, Ish adjusted it to be “Whirly Girl.”

The song? It’s a super annoying ear worm. I’m shocked I don’t recall it because it is the kind of track that I would hate but not be able to prevent from repeating in my head. It sounds like a cheesy, show tune knock off. Or maybe a poppier version of The Manhattan Transfer. The production sucks, too. Those tinny guitars drive me nuts. It sounds like it was made to be played on a single-speaker transistor radio and not one of the sweet Hi-Fis that Lori was no doubt listening to records on with Mick Jagger. 2/10

While this was Oxo’s only hit, Ish Ledesma himself was not a one-hit artist. He had reached #9 – and topped the R&B chart – in 1978 with his previous band Foxy on “Get Off.”[1] Ledesma’s third band, Company B, hit #21 in 1987 with “Fascinated.”

Chart Week: April 17, 1982
Songs: “Stars On 45 III (A Tribute To Stevie Wonder) (Medley)” – Stars On 45,
“Pop Goes the Movies (Part 1) (Medley)” – Meco.
Chart Positions: #38, 4th week on the chart. Peaked at #28 for two weeks in May. #35, 10th week on the chart. Peaked at #35 for two weeks.

First off, elephant in the room: damn there are a lot of parenthesis in these two titles! I believe the (Medley) tag was added by Billboard, but still…

This countdown was another great representation of how strange the Top 40 could be in the early ‘80s. It featured one pure novelty song (“Pac Man Fever” at #24), a comedy song (“Take Off” by Bob and Doug McKenzie at #37), a infamous movie instrumental that was about to hit #1 (Vangelis’ “Chariots of Fire – Titles” at #3), and a TV show theme song “(Theme From ‘Magnum P.I.’.” by Mike Post at #34).[1]

Down at the bottom of the chart, three spaces apart in the 30s, were our two medleys. Which were also covers. I guess medleys of covers?

If that wasn’t random enough, both songs were by artists with previous #1 hits. Odd.

Sitting at its peak of #35 was Meco’s “Pop Goes the Movies (Part 1) (Medley).” Beginning with the fanfare that famously kicked off 20th Century Fox movies, Meco added his disco-influenced touch to seven classic movie themes, including the James Bond theme, “Goldfinger,” and “The Magnificent Seven.”

Meco’s entire career was based on making movie themes sound like dance tracks. Most famously, he hit #1 in 1977 with “Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band,” which might have been the absolute favorite song of six-year-old me. Three years later he hit #18 with “Empire Strikes Back (Medley).” His luck ran out in 1983, though. “Ewok Celebration,” from Return of the Jedi, stalled out at #60. Everything about that movie was a disappointment. Maybe he should have made it a medley too?

He wasn’t just obsessed with Star Wars, though. In 1978 he cracked the Top 40 with two more movie covers. First, his version of “Theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind” hit #25. Later that year he put out an album filled with disco covers of music from The Wizard of Oz. He truly had his finger on the pulse of America. “Themes from the Wizard of Oz: Over the Rainbow / We’re Off to See the Wizard” topped out at #35.

Stars On 45, a weird-ass Dutch studio group, were a little more limited. They found singers who sounded like familiar artists and recorded medleys of old hits over dance beats. Their self-titled single featuring music of the Beatles and other ‘60s artists topped the chart in the summer of 1981. I’ve always wondered how much of that song’s success was due to John Lennon’s death a few months earlier.

This track was their only other Top 40 hit in the US. With good reason; you can’t go wrong with the music of Stevie Wonder. The singers sound just enough like Stevie and the music remains faithful enough to the originals to make each segment work. Plus they pick some of his best songs to cover. In the LP/cassette era, I can see why this held some appeal. Take the best parts of some of your favorite songs and cut them together into one mega-hit without any of the album filler.[2]

Kind of wacky that both of these songs were on the chart at the same time. Not so wacky that this kind of song disappeared right about this time.

It’s tough to rate novelty tracks like these. On one hand, they kind of suck. On the other, they are harmless fun. Meco’s music especially seemed aimed at delighting kids. Or kids at heart, I guess. While people wanting to hear Stevie Wonder’s music should just go play his albums, Stars On 45 gave us a great reminder of how broad and amazing his career was. So I’ll slap a 4/10 on each.

As I was doing my research I came across a Stars On 45 track called “Star Wars Medley.” It begins exactly like Meco’s “Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band.” Then, for some insane reason, it segues into a number of very non-Star Wars hits from the ‘70s. “Kung Fu Fighting,” “Layla,” “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy,” “YMCA,” “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough,” and “Baker Street” are among the tracks covered. Also, inexplicably, Kim Cares’ 1981 smash “Bette Davis Eyes.”[3]

What all that had to do with Star Wars I have no fucking clue. If you’re a Spotify user, you should go play it. The progress bar turns into a light saber. When you hover the cursor over it, it pulses a brighter color. Nutty shit for a nutty song.

At first I couldn’t find YouTube entries for either song, which is not a surprise. And Meco’s track isn’t on Spotify. Fortunately after some digging through Discogs I was able to find these very non-official videos.

Chart Week: February 25, 1978
Song: “Falling” – LeBlanc and Carr
Chart Position: #28, 20th week on the chart. Peaked at #13 the week of April 1.

Normally I put my song grade at the end of these posts, but for this entry it seems best to offer the assessment up front. This is not a good song. In fact, it is borderline terrible. I’m sure a lot of people who were young and in love in 1978 remember it fondly. I was six when it was getting heavy airplay, so not sure how I felt about it then. I know that I do not like it now. It’s middle of the road, weightless, AM radio fluff. It strikes me as a lame, misguided attempt to thread the needle somewhere between an Eagles ballad and 10cc’s “I’m Not In Love.” Let’s call it a 2/10.

On this show, Casey related an awful story about the duo that performed it.

Lenny LeBlanc and Pete Carr served as an opening act for Lynyrd Skynyrd’s 1977 Street Survivors tour. On October 20 the bands played a show in Greenville, SC. The headliners had their own plane for the tour, an aging Convair CV–240, which they would take to the tour’s next stop in Baton Rouge, LA.

Three of the band’s roadies decided to road trip to Baton Rouge rather than fly, and the band offered LeBlanc and Carr two of those open seats. However, at the last minute the roadies changed their minds and decided to fly. The guys in Lynyrd Skynyrd thought it wasn’t fair to boot LeBlanc and Carr after promising them a lift, but Lenny and Pete overheard the conversation and backed out on their own.[1]

Later that night, just before its scheduled landing in Louisiana, the plane ran out of fuel. The pilots attempted to land in an open field but overshot the field and flew into a line of trees. Six of the 26 people on the flight died, including LS lead singer Ronnie Van Zant. Most of the survivors were severely injured, including the two roadies who were flying in place of LeBlanc and Carr.

Thus the duo joined the Waylon Jennings Club of not being on a plane that crashed and ended the life other music legends.

Did their connection to that flight contribute to this being LeBlanc and Carr’s only chart single as a duo? Perhaps. Somehow, in the midst of Bee Gees/Saturday Night Fever mania, it clawed its way up to #13. Coincidentally, on this week’s chart Lynyrd Skynyrd’s first post-crash hit, “What’s Your Name,” was eleven spots higher at #17.

I’ve been sitting on this post for a year. I could never quite the tone I wanted last winter. I’m still not sure I nailed it. But as I brushed it up to finally get it posted, news broke that founding Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington had died. He was injured in that 1977 plane crash, breaking both legs, both arms, both wrists, both ankles, and his pelvis. He fell into drug addiction in the years after the crash as he struggled with immense amounts of pain. And he lived another 45 years. Props to him.

Chart Week: February 9, 1980
Song: “I Wanna Be Your Lover” – Prince
Chart Position: #20, 11th week on the chart. Peaked at #11 for two weeks in January and February.

It started here. This was the very first Prince single to crack the Top 40. It took a few years, but eventually just about everyone around the world who owned a radio knew the name Prince.

But in 1980, even the great Casey Kasem got his name wrong.

In this week’s countdown, Casey shared the story of how Prince signed his first record contract. He went back to Prince’s childhood, explaining how the young phenom taught himself to play 27 different instruments. The artist took that audaciousness to the studio and recorded a demo completely on his own, playing every instrument and producing every track, and then shopped those demos to record companies in LA. Four big labels were interested, but he turned them all down when each company refused to give him the freedom to stick to that DIY recording process.

Eventually Warner Brothers saw that his talent was worth the risk. In return for letting Prince loose in the studio, Warner Brothers would retain the rights to his music. Foreshadowing!

The point of this post is how Casey got a few things wrong in his biographical sketch of this exciting new artist. He said Prince was 19 and had graduated from high school the previous year. In fact Prince was 21 and had graduated from Central High in Minneapolis in 1976.

The AT40 host made a far bigger flub, though.

In the minute or so that he related Prince’s path to stardom, Casey kept referring to him as “Roger Nelson,” closing by saying that “… he doesn’t use his real name, though. He bills himself as Prince.”

I’ve heard several countdowns from 1980 where Casey refers to Prince as Roger Nelson. It drives me crazy every time. Because, as every music geek should know, Prince’s real name was Prince. His birth certificate read Prince Rogers Nelson. Rogers. Not Roger.

I’ve always wondered who made this mistake. Did Warner Brothers accidentally call him “Roger” Nelson in their promotional material? Did Prince register his music and lyrics under that name? Did someone at Billboard or AT40 decide to call him that after digging into his biographical details? While promoting this song, Prince was indeed telling people that he was just 19 (see in the video below). Was he also telling people that his real name was “Roger” Nelson? For a man who hated being honest with the media, especially about his personal life, you can never be sure if it was all part of some scheme he dreamed up. Again, foreshadowing!

By mid–1983 everyone at AT40 had figured it out, and soon Prince’s given name was a mainstay on the countdown.

Of course, well after Casey left AT40, Prince’s name became a problem again. When Warner Brothers refused to release his new music as quickly as he wanted, or give him full control of his back catalog, Prince changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol. Thus began The Artist Formerly Known As Prince era.

The song is an absolute jam. It is joyous, cocky, and funky as hell. He’s pleading, but he’s not begging. What makes it all work is the vulnerability that Prince attempts to hide with his swagger. He’s young, he doesn’t have a lot of the material things other dudes might have. But he guarantees that he will rock a lady’s world if she just gives him the chance.[1]

I wanna turn you on, turn you out
All night long, make you shout
“Hey, Lover!”

It is loaded with the innuendo that Prince would become (in)famous for.[2] And while the androgyny that would play a bigger role in his persona in the coming years was a bit muted here, it was still present enough that you couldn’t be sure exactly who he was singing to, or who he was singing as.

Put all that together and it’s remarkable this nearly cracked the Top 10 in 1980. It was certainly well ahead of his time. But Roger Nelson, errr, Prince, was always ahead of his time. 10/10

Totally a coincidence, but “I Wanna Be Your Lover” reached its peak when Michael Jackson’s “Rock With You” held down the top spot. A little preview of how a pretty good chunk of the coming decade would be, with Prince and Michael dominating the pop charts.

I’m sooooo glad that Prince performing this song on American Bandstand is back on YouTube again. Dick Clark said the interview in the middle of this segment was the most difficult of his career. Over the years I’ve heard different explanations for Prince’s behavior. He was super nervous to be on national TV for the first time. He was pissed they wouldn’t let him play live and forced him to lip-sync.[3] He was upset about Clark’s crack about Minneapolis. A bandmate claimed Prince did it intentionally to get more publicity. Whatever the explanation, this appearance is absolute gold. Put it in the time capsule, my friends.

Chart Week: January 23, 1988
Song: “Don’t Shed A Tear” – Paul Carrack
Chart Position: #21, 11th week on the chart. Peaked at #9 for three weeks in February.

It feels like I’ve lost the momentum for this series lately. After reviewing the numbers, I did add 15 entries in 2022, which was three more than 2021. Perhaps it seems like I’ve slacked off because I have a bunch of drafts where I’ve jotted down ideas, but, for one reason or another, haven’t been able to turn them into completed posts. Hopefully I can get back into a more regular rhythm with these in 2023.

Aside from my biggest music geek friends, I doubt the name Paul Carrack will mean much to most of you. However, I bet every one of you knows his voice.

In 1974 he hit #3 with his band Ace on their debut single “How Long.” Later he sang lead on Mike + The Mechanics’ two biggest hits: “Silent Running (Dangerous Ground),” which hit #3 in 1986, and their 1989 chart-topper “The Living Years.”

Throw in “Don’t Shed a Tear” and Carrack hit the top ten performing with three different acts.

What isn’t included in that list is Carrack’s most enduring single. In 1980 he joined Squeeze to play keyboards. A year later, on the suggestion of producer Elvis Costello, he sang the lead vocals on “Tempted.” Despite becoming a classic in the decades since, that track stalled at #49.[1]

Wanderlust was a theme for Carrack’s career. Reading through his Wikipedia page is a dizzying experience, as he was constantly hopping around, performing with different groups or different sets of musical friends. Roger Waters, members of the Eagles, Roxy Music, Nick Lowe, and The Pretenders to name just a few of the other acts he worked with. His career path reminds me a little of Marshall Crenshaw’s.

I can’t find any evidence that he had an abrasive or difficult personality, so I think it truly was wanderlust, a desire to perform, and a lack of ego that allowed him to work with so many others.

For years I thought that Carrack must hold some kind of record for singing lead on the most Top 40 songs with different acts. However, last summer I randomly came across a note that proved me wrong. Turns out the person who holds the record is even more obscure than Carrack.

In 1970, British session singer Tony Burrows had one of the most remarkable runs in chart history. What took Carrack 15 years to accomplish, Burrows topped in a matter of months.

In March of that year he hit #5 on “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)” fronting Edison Lighthouse. In mid-June he reached #13 with White Plains, singing “My Baby Loves Lovin’.” The week of July 4 he again hit #13 sharing co-lead vocals for the band Brotherhood of Man on “United We Stand.” And two weeks later he peaked at #9 with “Gimme Dat Ding” as frontman for The Pipkins.[1]

Four singles with four different acts in five months. That’s pretty good work.

He wasn’t done.

In 1974 he hit the top ten one last time, on First Class’ Beach Boys-esque track “Beach Baby,” which topped out at #4.

Amazingly, not one of those acts ever hit the US Top 40 again. Burrows also released his own music throughout the 1970s. Not one of his solo singles ever cracked the Top 40.

You can make an argument that Tony Burrows is the biggest one-hit wonder in chart history for taking five different acts into the Top 40 exactly one time and then basically disappearing. There aren’t retrospectives of his work, tributes to the “Tony Burrows Years,” or modern artists who seek him out as a collaborator. He had his five little moments and then was gone.

“Don’t Shed a Tear” is a solid if unremarkable song. Phil Collins once said that Paul Carrack could sing the phonebook and make it sound great. You definitely hear his talent here. His vocals are terrific. I probably sang along with them back in the winter of 1988. Not much else about the song is memorable, though. I would not have been able to recall it without hearing this countdown. At least Carrack has one song we all remember, even if it doesn’t bear his name. 6/10