Can you name the artist and song:
I’ve been trying to get your attention
And I’m very, very close to thinking of a way
I could be big and tough and other funny stuff
But you just keep looking the other way
Last Song: “Heat of The Moment” by Asia from the album Asia (1982)
Great job Steve (@steve45220) and Brent (@jonbrent13)!!!
One thing lead to another, we were young
And we would scream together songs unsung
If you’d like to get this song from Amazon, click on the album cover below:
Can you name the artist and song:
There’s a world outside your window
And it’s a world of dread and fear
Where the only water flowing
Is the bitter sting of tears
Last Song: “Heat Of The Moment
Great job Jim (@JimVilk)!!!
And now you find yourself in ’82
The disco hot spots hold no charm for you
If you’d like to purchase this song from Amazon, click on the album cover below:
Welcome back to another installment of this week’s Top 40 countdown. If you missed the previous entries, you can check out songs 40-31 and 30-21. So far, it’s been a pretty good week. Let’s see if it continues. Let’s Return to the week ending August 27, 1983, and move on with the countdown.
This smash hit by Bonnie Tyler is the second Jim Steinman song on this week’s countdown. This song still stands the test of time as I have heard it on several recent television commercials. And of course with the recent eclipse, the song has been getting even more airplay.
In the ’80s, there was a lot of nostalgia for the ’50s and ’60s. This song has that old time sound.
It is so refreshing to hear a Quarterflash song that is not “Harden My Heart”. They have several great songs, and this is one of them.
A good rocker. Loverboy was on a roll throughout the ’80s. Then grunge happened.
Time for the Prog Rock supergroup Asia! I always loved this song and band. This song did get a ton of MTV airplay.
I still think this should be called “Please, Please Tell Me Now”. Duran Duran was the ultimate ’80s group. This song is classic, just like the rest of their early 80s music.
This song got by me. I had never heard it before. It isn’t too bad. This title track from Browne’s seventh album was the highest charted song from this album, which also includes “Tender Is the Night” – which I have heard of.
This pretty song was the 5th single released from the legendary Thriller album. They must have broken the budget with all the previous singles, because there is no music video for this. This song was written by Steve Porcaro (the keyboardist from Toto) and John Bettis.
This was the first single released off of Billy Joel’s album, An Innocent Man. I loved it when it came out. Then got sick of it as it played on MTV constantly. Then I missed it when the follow-up single “Uptown Girl” got overplayed even worse.
This is one of the more iconic songs of the ’80s. There is no mistaking which decade this song belongs to. And no, perverts, this isn’t about safe sex. This is an anti-establishment song. The following is from a very cool article from Confessions of a Pop Culture Addict. Sam Tweedle interviewed the writer/lead singer of Men Without Hats, Ivan Doroschuk. Sam asked Ivan about the origins of the song. Ivan explained that “The Safety Dance” is a protest against bouncers stopping dancers pogoing to 1980s new wave music:
The inspiration for the song was from back in the days when Punk and “New Wave” were starting off and the discotheques were still playing disco music. But every now and then they’d slip in Blondie’s Heart of Glass or Rock Lobster by The B-52’s. Well, obviously, anybody who was into that kind of music would rush on the dance floor and start jumping up and down and would bang into the guys trying to do their disco two steps. I got thrown out of a lot of clubs because of that. So that’s basically the origin. I was kind of mad that they wouldn’t let me dance if I wanted to, so I took matters in my own hands and wrote an anthem for it.
That’s it for today. There were some very familiar songs, and others that don’t get much airplay on ’80s radio these days. Let’s see what tomorrow will bring when we wrap up the countdown.
Follow @returntothe80sCan you name the artist and song:
Now that the war is through with me
I’m waking up, I cannot see
That there’s not much left of me
Nothing is real but pain now
_front_cover.jpg)
Last Song: “Don’t Cry” by Asia from the album Alpha (1983)
Hard times you had before you
I knew when I first saw you
You girl you’ve always been mistreated, cheated
Hi Everybody! Welcome back to this week’s Top 40 Countdown. Today, we will cover songs 20-11. If you missed the previous songs, you can go back and check out songs 40-31 and 30-21.
Just like the previous songs, this list has a mixed bag of styles. There is rock, country, pop, and R&B. This was a very interesting time. The ’70s were disappearing, but we have not really gotten to the classic ’80s sound yet. Looking over this list, everybody here had gotten their start in at least the ’70s or earlier. So let’s get to it, and Return to the week ending September 25, 1982, and continue the countdown.
.jpg)
I love when the list starts with a great rock song! I used to love this song – until 5 minutes ago when I found out that this is actually a Gary Glitter song. Now this song takes on a whole new meaning. If you aren’t aware of Gary Glitter’s history, I don’t want to get into details here, but you can look him up. But. I’ll still listen to Joan Jett’s version, and rock out to it.
This is a very good Santana song, which features Alex Ligertwood on vocals. Santana is still around today. Just this year the album Santana IV was released and reunited the ’70s classic lineup of Carlos Santana, Gregg Rolie, Neal Schon, Mike Carabello and Michael Shrieve. This was the first time in 45 years they recorded together.
I know that most of us say that music sucks these days. But, I feel that it’s just Top 40 music that sucks. A lot of our bands are still releasing new work, but we never hear about it through normal channels. You just need to know where to look. As I am writing this, I’m thinking that I can help keep us informed.
This is the title track of Jermaine Jackson’s final album for for Motown Records.
He married Berry Gordy’s daugther, Hazel, just as he started his solo career, while still playing with the Jackson 5. When The Jackson 5 left Motown for CBS records, Jermaine broke with the group and stayed loyal to Motown. After Jermaine’s 9th studio album here, he left Motown for Arista Records.
I really enjoy all of supergroup, Asia’s songs. The band consists of John Wetton (former bassist/vocalist of bands including King Crimson, Family, Roxy Music, Uriah Heep, UK and Wishbone Ash), Steve Howe (guitarist of Yes), Geoff Downes (keyboardist of Yes and The Buggles) and drummer Carl Palmer (of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, and Atomic Rooster). This song, “Only Time Will Tell”, is my favorite by them.
Gotta love Eddie Money! This song is classic. It was just after this that Money’s career was starting to fall apart. I’m sure his drug use didn’t help. But, he did have a huge comeback a few years later with the album Can’t Hold Back, which featured “Take Me Home Tonight” and “I Wanna Go Back.” As far as I know, his most recent work was in this Geico commercial:
This song was off of If That’s What It Takes, Michael McDonald’s first solo album away from The Doobie Brothers. I think that in every single countdown I’ve covered, Michael McDonald has been involved in at least one song that week in one way or another, whether it’s singing lead, backup, part of a duet, or even written. I was not a fan at all. Now I’m loving everything he has done. I think my friend Jim performed some sort of jedi mind trick on me. Hey, whatever works, right? I like this song a lot now, where in the past, I may have skipped right over it. Now, somebody has to get me to like Bruce Hornsby, and one other band which will be featured in the top 10 this week.
I know this may be blasphemous on this site, but I much prefer Elton John’s music in the ’70s than I did in the ’80s. There are some ’80s songs by him I love. But, overall there is nothing like his earlier music. This is one of those songs I don’t love. I do like it a lot if I’m in the mood for it. Otherwise, this is kind of boring for me.
Earlier, we heard my favorite Asia song. Now we get to hear my favorite Kenny Rogers tune! This was also the theme song for the movie Six Pack, in which Kenny Rogers starred. I watched it constantly when it came on HBO. I haven’t seen that movie in years. I really need to revisit it though. In addition to Rogers, the movie stars some other actors you may have heard of: Diane Lane, Erin Gray, and Anthony Michael Hall.
This was a small comeback for the folk rock duo, America. This is a pretty good song. It does have that late ’70s/early ’80s sound to it.
Not the greatest song in the world. But, it should be noted that this song features Ringo on drums, and produced by George Martin.
Well, that wraps up today’s list. We’ll be back to finish up the Top 10 songs on Friday.
Follow @returntothe80s
Hi Everybody, since my brain does not seem to be all that creative this week, I thought I’d bring you a second installment of “What’s On My iPod”. Feel free to check out the original if you missed it. Since there weren’t too many embarrassing songs on the last one, I’ll take my chances and give it another go. I am going to shuffle my iPod, and share the first 10 songs that come up. I will only skip a song if it was already on the previous post. There are well over 12,000 songs eligible. OK, here we go:
Oh man, here we go! I hope I don’t regret doing this today! But yes, this rocker fan was also crushing on Debbie Gibson in the late ’80s. And I still have her on my iPod. I always liked this song from her Electric Youth album.
OK, maybe I’ll get some of my rock cred back now! We’ll jump back to 1979 and listen to this awesome song from the Van Halen II album.
Not bad. Outstanding song from New Jersey!
Oh no! I just played this freaking song in last week’s Top 40 Countdown! Well I suppose hearing it 2 times in a week isn’t as bad as hearing it 2 times an hour, every hour like when it was originally released.
YES!!!! Great, great rockin’ song! I would like to write something on ’80s Rock Songs Released in the ’90s, and this would be on that list.
I love this song by The Bangles from their Everything album.
This song is on my iPod, and I don’t even remember hearing it before! It’s OK. There are plenty of other Asia songs that I like better. But, it still has that Asia sound.
Seriously? I didn’t even know this was on my iPod! Apparently it is on a Billboard Top Hits of 1980 cd. I didn’t know that Captain and Tenille were around in the ’80s.
Thank God, a good song! This is off of Boston’s Walk On album from 1994, which I think is about as good as their Third Stage album.
Wow, what a perfect way to wrap up!!! I miss Freddie.
Well, that was interesting? Did anybody discover any new music here? Feel free to share what’s on your iPod.
Follow @returntothe80s
It may be hard to believe for some of us, but this year marks the 30th anniversary of Asia’s self-titled debut album. This prog-rock supergroup was formed in 1981. The orginal lineup consists of bassist/vocalist John Wetton (formerly in Mogul Thrash, Family, King Crimson, Roxy Music, Uriah Heep, U.K. and Wishbone Ash), guitarist Steve Howe (formerly, and subsequently in Yes), keyboardist Geoff Downes (of Yes and The Buggles) and drummer Carl Palmer (formerly in The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Atomic Rooster and Emerson, Lake & Palmer).
The album Asia was released in March 1982, and was very successful. It spent nine weeks at number one in the U.S. album chart and selling over 4 million copies in the U.S. alone. The album sold over 10 million worldwide.
The band has gone through several lineup changes through the years. Although their debut was the most successful of all their albums, they have remained consistently good.
With that, let’s Return to 1982, and listen to Asia’s classic debut album:
“Heat of the Moment” is the first single released from the album. It got tons of airplay on MTV, and I loved this song. It would go on to become the most popular song on the album, peaking at #1 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart and #4 on the Billboard Top Singles chart.
“Only Time Will Tell” is my favorite song on the album. While “Heat of the Moment” got me interested in this new band, “Only Time Will Tell” blew me away. I listened to the song over and over, and never got sick of it. This was the band’s second top ten hit on the U.S. Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, peaking at number 8. It also peaked at number 17 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 pop chart. It reached number 54 On the U.K. Top 100 Singles chart.
Yet another hit song for Asia! “Sole Survivor” was the third single that reached the Top Ten on the U.S Mainstream Rock Charts. The single also peaked at #75 in Germany and #91 in the UK.
This is a pretty good song that you may not have heard if you don’t own the album. I like the chorus.
Pretty good fusion here. The guitar is awesome in this song. And there are a couple of small parts that almost sound like Jazz.
Another hit song for Asia. It only peaked at #28 on the U.S. charts, which isn’t high compared to their other songs from this album. But it’s still a very good song.
I like this song. It actually sounds like it could be a Styx song.
Great song to close out the album. This song has the classic Asia sound.
Follow @returntothe80sCan you name the artist and song and complete the lyrics:
Now the feeling is beginning to grow
And the meaning is something you only know
If you believe it take my hand and ____ ____ ____ _____
Last Song: “Voice of America” by Asia:
So long, so long I’ve waited now
To hear you again
That song, that song will still remain
Become an old friend
One of the artists of this duet turns 79 today:
The winds of change are always blowing and everytime I tried to stay
The winds of change continued blowing and they just carried me away
Last Song: “Only Time Will Tell” by Asia
Now, sure as the sun will cross the sky
This lie is over
Lost, like the tears that used to tide me over
Can you name the artist and song:
Look, I’ll be honest man, this team won’t work.
The girls won’t be on you, Fred your face is all burnt!”
Last Song: “Don’t Cry” by Asia
So leave it all behind you
It took so long to find you
I know that we can last forever, ever and more, more, oh
Return to the 80s 