I\u2019m on nephew duty the next couple days so I\u2019ll go ahead and post this late on a Sunday to kick off the week.<\/p>\n
Chart Week: January 28, 1984 Song: \u201cLet the Music Play\u201d – Shannon Chart Position: #18, 12th week on the chart. Peaked at #8 the week of February 25. Reached #1 on the US Dance Club Songs chart.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been over a month without a Reaching for the Stars<\/em> entry. What better way to end that slump than by beginning 2019 the way we ended 2018: with the greatest pop music year of all time, 1984.<\/p>\n There were two songs that were hits in late 1983 and early 1984 that redefined dance music for the next decade or more. One of them is an classic that everyone remembers: Madonna\u2019s \u201cHoliday,\u201d which was #16 on this week\u2019s countdown. The other, I think, is less well-recalled by the average person. It doesn\u2019t get played very often on 80s weekends or stations. And I\u2019ll bet other than music geeks like me, it would require a lot of prodding and hints to get the average listener to remember it on their own.<\/p>\n That stone cold jam was Shannon\u2019s \u201cLet the Music Play.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLTMP\u201d sounded like nothing else that was being made in the early \u201880s. It wasn\u2019t an updated version of the \u201870s disco sound. It wasn\u2019t some European sounding offshoot of New Wave or New Romantic music. No, it was this heavy yet sparkling sound that was utterly undeniable. Unless your soul is a cold lump of charcoal, you can\u2019t help but shake your ass the moment the beat from this song hits your brain. It was urban and Latin, straight and gay, black and white, pop and soul all at once.<\/p>\n Seriously, this one of the greatest dance songs of all time. Its rhythms and studio techniques launched at least two new genres of music: freestyle and acid house. First and second wave hip hop largely adopted its percussion and production values as well. Yet, again, \u201cHoliday\u201d is the better remembered song. Don\u2019t get me wrong; \u201cHoliday\u201d is a jam, too. But, god damn, \u201cLet the Music Play\u201d is a big, massive motherfucker of a song that has been holding dance, hip hop, and pop music up for 35 years now.<\/p>\n My easiest explanation for why it is forgotten is that is a classic one-hit wonder. Shannon had a long, successful, influential career, with five songs that hit the top three on the dance chart, three of which hit #1. For much of the mid\u201380s she was dance music in the US. But this was her only single that charted on the Billboard Top 40. Meanwhile Madonna took the momentum from \u201cHoliday\u201d and became one of the biggest artists in the history of music.<\/p>\n That\u2019s ok. I haven\u2019t forgotten Shannon. She will always get love from me and others who keep her biggest song close to our hearts.<\/p>\n From doing some research on Shannon and this track, I learned that she doesn\u2019t actually sing the words that give the song its title. Session vocalist and guitarist Jimi Tunnell sings that line and Shannon sings the response. That kind of blew my mind.<\/p>\n A spot ahead of Shannon that week was Jump \u2019N\u2019 The Saddle\u2019s \u201cThe Curly Shuffle.\u201d I\u2019m pretty sure that song made me laugh when I was 12 but my 47-year-old ears find it pretty rough.<\/p>\n Finally, at #15 that week was Hall & Oates\u2019 \u201cSay It Isn\u2019t So,\u201d arguably the best song of their career. In this week\u2019s countdown Casey shared the story of where the phrase that lent the song its title came from: the apocryphal story of a young boy who asks Shoeless Joe Jackson to \u201cSay it ain\u2019t so, Joe,\u201d after he was indicted in the the Black Sox scandal<\/a>. I share this because I remember listening to Casey tell this story originally back in January 1984. And you know how I love when I can connect listening to a replay in the 21st Century with listening to the original show. If it was January 1984, I was probably sitting in my bean bag chair in our basement, playing Q*Bert or Pole Position on my Atari 2600 while listening to AT40<\/em> on my Panasonic boom box.<\/p>\n No, you\u2019re weird\u2026<\/p>\n
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