Can you name the artist and song:
Every day you get one more yard
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
Last Song: “Suddenly” by Billy Ocean from the album Suddenly (1985)
Great job Craig (@cdennis0130), Adora (@Adora2000), and Paul (@PaulMil170)!!!
There’s beauty up above
And things we never take notice of
If you’d like to get this song from Amazon, you can click on the album covers below:
Hey Everybody! Welcome to this week’s Top 40 Countdown! If you missed the previous songs, you can go back and check out songs 40-31 and 30-21. We had an amazing list of songs yesterday. Will it be just as good today? Let’s Return to the week ending January 19, 1985, and continue the countdown to find out.
That concludes today’s list of songs. We are almost at the top of the charts. I think this is one of my favorite countdowns so far. Come back tomorrow as we wrap up the countdown.
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Can you name the artist and song:
And we are so amazed we’re crippled and we’re dazed
A gardener like that one
No one can replace
Last Song: “Get Outta My Dreams, Get into My Car
Great job Lillian (@LilliBug93)!!!
I’ll be the sun
Shining on you
Hey Cinderella
Step in your shoe
If you’d like to purchase this song from Amazon, click on the album cover below:
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Can you name the artist and song:
I had the world in my hands
But it’s not the end of my world
Just a slight change of plans
Last Song: “There’ll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)
Great job Lillian (@LilliBug93)!!!
I always stop and think of you especially
When the words of a love song touch the very heart of me
If you’d like to purchase this song from Amazon, click on the album cover below:
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Can you name the artist and song:
Bet you got a good gun
Bet you know how
To have some fun
And then
Last Song: “Get Outta My Dreams, Get into My Car
Great job Candy (@candyissodandy)!!!
Who’s that lady
Coming down the road
Who’s that lady
Who’s that woman
Walking through my door
If you’d like to purchase this song from Amazon, click on the album cover below:
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Welcome back as we wrap up this week’s countdown. If you missed the previous songs, you can go back and check out songs 40-31, 30-21, and 20-11. If you are in the U.S., I hope this countdown has provided a little escape from the election day craziness. This has been a great week of music. For those of us who grew up around the time of this countdown, we were so lucky to enjoy some great music. Now let’s Return to the week ending November 10, 1984, and wrap up this countdown.
Earlier in the countdown, we had a song by Tommy Shaw in the wake of the band Styx falling apart. Now we have the former Styx frontman, Dennis DeYoung with his solo effort. This is an outstanding song, that would peak right here at #10.
Thanks to producer, David Foster, we were right in the middle of Chicago’s renaissance. I do get slightly annoyed that most people only know of Chicago from their power ballads, even though they have some incredible rock songs. But, with a song like this, I can totally see why. This is one of my favorites by them. I love that both Peter Cetera and Bill Champlin sing on this. I love both of their voices. Great combination!
David Bowie (still can’t believe he is gone) was still making an impact on the music world at this point. This song was off of his Tonight album, which was his follow-up to the mega-successful Let’s Dance album. This song was launched with a 21-minute short film, Jazzin’ for Blue Jean. The film won the 1985 Grammy Award for “Best Video, Short form” (Later renamed “Best Music Video”), which would be Bowie’s only competitive Grammy Award during his career. He was nominated for several, but this was his only win, in addition to his Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.
This song is from Tina Turner’s huge comeback album, Private Dancer. This song was originally recorded and released in 1981 by Spider, a band from New York City with one of the co-writers, Holly Knight, as a member. Of course Tina had the most successful version. The song won Tina Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female, one of four Grammys awarded to Turner in that ceremony.
There weren’t too many acts as big in the ’80s as Hall & Oates.This was their lead single from their 1984 album Big Bam Boom. It would be their last #1 hit. The song was also their 14th straight top 40 hit since 1980.
Before we continue, let’s see what was topping some of the other charts this week in 1984:
The number one country song was “I’ve Been Around Enough to Know” by John Schneider (Yes, that John Schneider from The Dukes of Hazzard)
Topping the Rock charts was “I Can’t Hold Back” by Survivor
Number one on the Adult Contemporary charts was “What About Me?” by Kenny Rogers, Kim Carnes and James Ingram
The Number 1 album was Purple Rain by Prince and the Revolution
And topping both the R&B and the Dance charts is our #5 song on the Hot 100 this week:
While Prince was a megastar performer himself, he also wrote music covered by other artists. This was one of them. Prince wrote this song, and it was on his debut album. It was also covered by The Pointer Sisters on their 1982 album, So Excited!.
Then Chaka Kahn took over, and this song would start a big comeback for her. Melle Mel (from Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five) did the rapping. And Stevie Wonder is on the harmonica.
This was Wham!’s big breakthrough hit. It became their first American and UK number-one hit. To be honest, I really hated this song when it first came out. I like it now because of its nostalgic value. It should also be noted that while it was at the top of the charts for two weeks, it prevented the next song from becoming a #1 hit…
Yes, perhaps Prince’s signature song, this never hit #1 (still can’t believe he is gone). That doesn’t change anything though. This is an iconic song of the decade. For a lot of people, when you mention the ’80s, one of the first images that come to mind is the cover of the Purple Rain soundtrack and movie poster. And if you listened to our Prince episode of the Return to the ’80s podcast, you would know that there is a Journey connection here. After recording the song, Prince phoned Jonathan Cain from Journey asking him to hear it, worried it might be too similar to “Faithfully“, a Journey single composed by Cain which had recently been in the charts. Cain reassured Prince telling him the songs only shared the same four chords. Prince was extremely sensitive to Copyright infringement. It’s good to see he put his money where his mouth was, and was careful himself.
This was one of Stevie Wonder’s most commercially successful hits. It was featured in the Gene Wilder (still can’t believe he’s gone) movie The Woman in Red. The ballad won both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Original Song. It was also nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, Song of the Year and Best Pop Instrumental Performance at the Grammy Awards.
I always loved Billy Ocean’s voice. This is a good one. It won Ocean the 1985 Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, making him the first British artist to win in that category.
Well that wraps up this week’s Countdown. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I have. Did you have any favorites or least favorites? Let’s do another one of these in the coming weeks. In the meantime, Keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars.
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Can you name the artist and song and complete the lyrics:
I was alone
I never knew
What ____ ____ _____ __
Last Song: “Suddenly” by Billy Ocean from the album Suddenly (1984)
Great job Jim (@JimVilk) and Andy (@andytorah)!!!
I used to think that love was just a fairy tale
Until that first hello
Until that first smile
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Hi Everybody! At long last, we have a new Top 40 Countdown!!! This week, we will Return to 1988. This week in 1988, I was getting ready to graduate high school. Graduation was in early June, so we were probably getting ready for final exams. Also at this time, I managed to score a temporary full-time job at the U.S Post Office. They would hire people for 89 days. At 90 days you would get Federal benefits, so they only hired you for 89 days. Then you could get hired back for another 89 days if you wanted to go back. After a week of orientation, we were placed into different jobs – mainly some kind of mail sorting. I was already going to be making a lot more money than I ever had. But, I found out that you would make even more if you worked the overnight shift. Works for me! I worked the overnight shift, sorting mail from 11:00pm to 7:00am. Most times, I would sort mail while listening to my Walkman. After 89 days I didn’t return to that job. I was starting college, so I didn’t have time to both work full time, and fall flat on my face at college. I only had time to fll flat on my face at college. A lot of the songs on this week’s countdown really brings me back to those Post Office days. So, let’s Return to the week ending May 21, 1988, and begin the Countdown.
We’ll begin the countdown this week with a really good freestyle ballad. I was mainly into rock, but I always had a soft spot for freestyle music. I don’t remember this song, though. This song was off of The Cover Girls’ 1986 debut album, Show Me.
If you don’t know this song, I have no idea why you’re on this web site – not that I’m complaining! This is Def Leppard’s signature song, and reached all the way up to #2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. It was kept out of the #1 spot by Richard Marx’s “Hold On to the Nights“. As often as “Pour Some Sugar On Me”, I still love this song each time I hear it. This is one of the rare heavily played songs that does not get old with me. Now, Step inside, walk this way, you and me babe, Hey, hey!
Two rock songs in a row! This one is by the Australian rock band, Midnight Oil. This was the signature hit in the U.S. I feel like I should like this song more than I actually do. I love how the song starts, but get bored about halfway through, even though it rocks.
Three rock songs in a row!!! This is a fun one from Poison’s Open Up and Say… Ahh! album. At the beginning of the video, that is Poison performing the Kiss classic, “Rock and Roll All Nite“. The Poison version is on the Less Than Zero soundtrack.
Back to some more freestyle! I had never heard this song before. I’m more familiar with Pretty Poison’s hit “Catch Me (I’m Falling)“. This isn’t bad, but I like Catch Me better.
Yeah, yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! I forgot about this one. Before Baby got back, we were doing Da’Butt. This was the biggest hit for Experience Unlimited (aka E.U.), peaking right here at #35 on the Billboard Hot 100.
This was a huge hit for Billy Ocean, topping the Billboard Hot 100 and the Hot Black Singles chart. Ringo Starr’s “You’re Sixteen (You’re Beautiful You’re Mine)” was the inspiration for this song, which has the line “You walked out of my dreams, into my car”. Billy Ocean also had a knack for scoring big hits with long titles: “Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run),” “There’ll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)“, and “When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going“, along with this song.
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This was a huge comeback hit for Cheap Trick. I still love this ballad so much. Although Cheap Trick had been around since the ’70s, this was the first song I heard by them. This was a song that constantly came on when I was working at the Post Office.
I had forgotten about this song. I like Al B. Sure!, but I don’t own anything by him. I’ll B Sure rectify that.
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When Glass Tiger released “Don’t Forget Me (When I’m Gone)“, I hope they weren’t talking about this song, because I did forget it. Well, maybe they thought that “Someday“, some goofy blogger would play this on his web site. I actually do like this – even if it does sound like something that would have been from the mid-to-late ’90s.
Well, that wraps up today’s list of songs. We’ll be back to continue the countdown tomorrow. What do you think so far? What are your memories from 1988. Any other members of the greatest class ever out there – the Class of ’88, Baby!!!!
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Welcome back to this week’s Countdown! If you missed the previous songs, you can go ahead and check out songs 40-31 and 30-21.
Well, as Casey used to say, the smaller the number, the bigger the hit. As we move on down the countdown, we will find more and more true ’80s classics. I hope you are enjoying this trip down memory lane as much as I am. Now, let’s Return to the week ending March 9, and continue the countdown.
M-E-T-H-O-D-O-F-L-O-V-E
Yes, we begin the countdown with one of the best duos of the ’80s giving you an earworm! This is a good song to have stuck in your head, but not when there are 9 more songs to go today!
OK, time for a palette cleanser.
OK, now we can move on.
Before New Kids on the Block, New Edition was the big boy-band of the ’80s. This song isn’t too bad. It was written by Ray Parker, Jr.
Journey was one of my favorite bands of the ’80s, and I love this song by them. It was originally intended to be on the Frontiers album. But, it was pulled in favor of the songs “Back Talk” and “Troubled Child“. It eventually was included on the Vision Quest soundtrack, was released as a single, and cracked the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Frankie Goes to Hollywood, had a short,but great run in the ’80s. “Frankie Says” t-shirts were seen everywhere in the mid-80s.
What happens when you put together the lead singer of Genesis with the lead singer of Earth, Wind & Fire? Total awesomeness!! This fun duet won an MTV Video Music Award for Best Overall Performance in a Video and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals.
Tina Turner had an incredible comeback in the ’80s with her Private Dancer album. This title track was the 5th single released from that album. It was written by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, and was actually meant to be on their album Love over Gold. However, Knopfler felt that it wasn’t suitable for a male to sing, so it was not put on the album. Tina Turner took it and ran with it.
Phil Collins is back again – this time with a solo song. This would go on to be his second #1 hit (after “Against All Odds“). This is a nice slow song from his No Jacket Required album.
This was the lead single from John Fogerty’s comeback album, Centerfield. It became a top 10 hit, peaking at #10 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and was a #1 hit for three weeks on the Billboard Top Rock Tracks chart. This song is just classic Fogerty.
As far as I’m concerned this is a very underrated song that does not get enough airplay. “Lovergirl” would be Teena Marie’s biggest hit, peaking at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100.
I love Billy Ocean, and this is a great, fun, upbeat song.
I hope you are all enjoying this countdown from the heart of the ’80s. On Friday, we’ll be back with the Top 10 songs. See you then!
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Hair’s to Friday!!!
Can you name the artist and song:
In every time, in every season,
God knows I’ve tried
So please don’t ask for more
Last Song: “When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going” by Billy Ocean from The Jewel of the Nile Soundtrack (1985) and Love Zone (1986)
Darlin’, I’ll climb any mountain
Darlin’, I’ll swim any sea
Darlin’, I’ll reach for the heaven
Darlin’, with you lovin’ me
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