{"id":7600,"date":"2019-08-21T10:59:41","date_gmt":"2019-08-21T14:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dsnotebook.me\/?p=7600"},"modified":"2024-08-29T23:10:52","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T03:10:52","slug":"reaching-for-the-stars-vol-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/2019\/08\/21\/reaching-for-the-stars-vol-30\/","title":{"rendered":"Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 30"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chart Week: August 21, 1982
\nSong: \u201cLove Is In Control (Finger on the Trigger)\u201d – Donna Summer
\nChart Position: #12, 9th week on the chart. Peaked at #10 the week of September 25.<\/p>\n

My goodness this was a great week! As I was listening to parts of this countdown, song-after-song jumped out at me. I would settle on a song to write about and, five minutes later, here came another one that sparked more memories and made me want to write about it.<\/p>\n

I settled on this song partially because I bet very few of you remember it. It came as The Queen of Disco\u2019s career was winding down and most of her hits were minor, although she still had two top 10\u2019s in her future.1<\/a><\/sup> I remember it when I hear it, but it would take me awhile to come up with it off the top of my head.<\/p>\n

What made me write about it, though, was the Casey Kasem trivia about the song\u2019s co-writer, Rod Temperton. Temperton had an amazing song-writing career. He has at least partial credit for 11 Top 10 hits, including two #1\u2019s. He wrote numerous other hits. Most of his hits were for black artists, which, as Casey told his listeners in 1982, was rather strange. Because Temperton didn\u2019t know a black person until he was well into his teens.<\/p>\n

Tempterton grew up in the very small, very white town of Cleethorpes on the north east of England. There just weren\u2019t any black folks there. Temperton didn\u2019t meet a black person until he moved to London and began performing music with black artists.<\/p>\n

Eventually he auditioned for, and earned a place in, the multiracial band Heatwave, writing their biggest hits: \u201cBoogie Nights,\u201d \u201cThe Groove Line,\u201d and the timeless R&B classic \u201cAlways & Forever.\u201d He caught Quincy Jones\u2019 attention and was brought in to help write Michael Jackson\u2019s Off the Wall<\/em> album. Temperton penned both \u201cRock With You,\u201d which hit #1, and \u201cOff the Wall,\u201d which peaked at #10.<\/p>\n

Temperton also wrote a song we\u2019ve talked about before, The Brothers Johnson\u2019s #7 hit \u201cStomp.\u201d Also in his credits are George Benson\u2019s #4 \u201cGive Me the Night,\u201d and Patti Austin and James Ingram\u2019s #1 smash \u201cBaby, Come to Me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He wrote \u201cThriller,\u201d \u201cYah Mo B There,\u201d and \u201cSweet Freedom.\u201d He even earned a credit on LL Cool J\u2019s #3 \u201cHey Lover,\u201d thanks to its sample from \u201cThriller.\u201d<\/p>\n

Write any two of those songs and that\u2019s a hell of a career. But Temperton wrote them all, along with countless other minor hits and album tracks. Dude was a hall of fame 1980s soul writer.<\/p>\n

Not bad for a limey from a sleepy, coastal town where there was no influence from black culture.<\/p>\n