Chart Week: February 12, 1983
\nSong: \u201cDown Under\u201d – Men at Work
\nChart Position: #1, 15th week on the chart. Spent four non-consecutive weeks at #1 in January and February.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve paid very close attention to my music posts over the years, you may recall that I kicked around a project in which I would find the best single weekly top 10 of the 1980s. A couple summers back I spent a few nights scrolling through top 10s and marking down my favorites as I watched Royals games. I still have that list but have never gotten around to diving into it.<\/p>\n
This week would likely be on that list. It\u2019s a monster, with some very 1980s outliers that bring it down.<\/p>\n
At #10 was Phil Collins\u2019 cover of \u201cYou Can\u2019t Hurry Love,\u201d which I have always loved, even when I grew to really dislike much of his music.<\/p>\n
Number 9 was \u201cStray Cat Strut,\u201d by The Stray Cats. A song I liked a lot back in the day, would be fine skipping over today, but can still acknowledge its place in 80s music history.<\/p>\n
Number 8, \u201cRock the Casbah.\u201d The peak of The Only Band That Matters\u2019 biggest US hit.<\/p>\n
Number 7, the first outlier: \u201cYou And I\u201d by Eddie Rabbit and Crystal Gayle. Blech.<\/p>\n
Number 6, \u201cManeater\u201d by Hall and Oates. One of their biggest and best songs and a former #1.<\/p>\n
At #5, Toto\u2019s \u201cAfrica,\u201d which slipped after spending one week at #1. Still a great song, even if you\u2019re sick of Weezer\u2019s version.<\/p>\n
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band\u2019s \u201cShame on the Moon\u201d was at #4. Not his best, nor one I\u2019m thrilled to hear.<\/p>\n
Number 3, Marvin Gaye\u2019s last hit, the legendary \u201cSexual Healing.\u201d<\/p>\n
At #2 was, RIP, James Ingram and Patti Austin\u2019s lovely \u201cBaby, Come To Me.\u201d In a decade full of cheesy, duet ballads, this was one of the few truly great ones. It reached #1 a week later.<\/p>\n
And then at #1 this week was \u201cDown Under,\u201d which spent three weeks at #1 the previous month, dropped behind \u201cAfrica\u201d for a week, then reclaimed the top spot for one more week. Men at Work, and this song, seemed kitschy and silly at the time. But this song became one of the iconic songs of the decade.<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s a pretty good top 10, right? But it has me thinking I need to dive back into that list I made two summers ago. Because I know there are weeks better than this. In fact, many of those weeks came later in 1983, when Michael Jackson took over the charts.<\/p>\n
One more thing\u2026this is one of those shows I remember hearing back in 1983. How do I remember this one? Well, before playing \u201cDown Under,\u201d Casey shared a story of how their manager got CBS Australia to sign them. He put signs all over the CBS offices that said \u201cMen At Work.\u201d Fake constructions signs. Signs in hallways. He would glue phone receivers to their bases and slap a \u201cMen at Work\u201d sticker on them. That\u2019s one of those details I\u2019ve never forgotten, and I vividly remember sitting at our kitchen table on a (likely) cold early afternoon back in \u201983 and hearing that anecdote for the first time.<\/p>\n