Can you name the artist and song:
Try to change the habit of a lifetime
Don’t even try
Cause when you cut down deeper than the icing
You realize
Last Song: “The Language of Love” by Dan Fogelberg from Windows and Walls (1984)
Great job Tim (@TimReavley)!!!
It’s tooth for tooth
and eye for eye
We hide our hearts
And then we won’t say why
Welcome back to this week’s Top 40 Countdown!!! If you missed the first installment, you can go ahead and check out songs 40-31. With the help of MTV, there are a lot of classic songs from this time. And today’s selection has plenty of classics, and even some lost hits. So, let’s Return to the week ending November 27, 1982, and continue the countdown!
When the band broke up in 1985, it was speculated that their plan all along was to break up once they had conquered America, a feat that was achieved by “Rock the Casbah” becoming such a huge hit along with “Should I Stay or Should I Go?.”
That concludes today’s list. Come back tomorrow as we check out songs 20-11.
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Welcome back as we wrap up this week’s Top 40. If you missed the previous songs, you can go back and check out songs 40-31, 30-21, and 20-11. This has been a great week of music so far. And there are some classics here today. And don’t forget, you can click on the song title to get to the YouTube video to listen to the song. Now, let’s Return to the week ending October 17, 1981, and wrap up this week’s countdown.
We begin the top 10 with a decent rock song. This is off of The Little River Band’s Time Exposure album. The album was produced by George Martin. This was the band’s last album with Glen Shorrock on lead vocals until 1988, and with lead guitarist David Briggs.
This was Dan Fogelberg’s third Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. This song is notable for featuring the late (I still can’t believe I’m saying that) Glenn Frey.
This was the first single released from the legendary Escape album. This began the hugely successful commercial run of Journey, 2017 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominees. Do hear more about Journey, check out the first episode of the Return to the ’80s Podcast:
This was the first single from Stevie Nicks’ debut solo album, Bella Donna. It was written by Tom Petty and Mike Campbell, inteneded to be a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers song. However, Jimmy Iovine, who was also working for Stevie Nicks at the time, arranged for her to sing on it. This was a good call, because these two unique voices sound great together.
How could a song with a handclap in the chorus be bad? This classic Hall & Oates tune was a staple on MTV. It would go on to be a #1 hit, holding that top position for 2 weeks.
This country-crossover hit was also the #1 song on the country chart this week, and would peak right here at #5 on the Billboard 100.
This was the theme song of the 12th James Bond movie of the same name. Easton is the only artist (to date) to be seen singing the theme song to a Bond movie during its opening titles. This song was also nominated for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards in 1982.
This song was my introduction to The Rolling Stones. I didn’t have MTV yet, but I did see the song on the television show, Solid Gold. The basic track of this song was written during the 1978 sessions for the Rolling Stones’ album Some Girls. It was at first cut as a reggae-rock track named ‘Never Stop’, but after dozens of takes the band stopped recording it and it was shelved. In 1981, with the band looking to tour, engineer Chris Kimsey proposed to Mick Jagger that archived songs could be put in the set. It was re-worked to the classic that we now know, and was recorded for the Tattoo You album.
This is Lionel Richie’s third entry on this countdown. This was recorded as the title track of the film adaptation of Scott Spencer’s novel Endless Love. The song ended up being a bigger hit than the movie, reaching number 1 on the Hot 100, where it stayed for nine weeks from August 15 to October 10, 1981.
Before we reveal the #1 song, let’s see what was topping some of the other charts this week.
The #1 R&B song this week was “When She Was My Girl” by The Four Tops.
Topping the Dance charts was “Do You Love Me” by Patti Austin.
The #1 album this week was Tattoo You by The Rolling Stones
And the #1 Adult Contemporary tune is also the #1 song on the top of the pop charts this week…
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And we have another movie soundtrack song. Coming off his mega-successful self-titled debut album, Christopher Cross followed up with this smash hit. This would be a #1 hit for 3 weeks. The song also won the Oscar for Best Original Song. Although his music was still great, Christopher Cross’ popularity faded away quickly once everybody started getting their MTV. This was definitely his high point.
Well that wraps up this week’s countdown. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I have. Let me know your thoughts on this list, and on any part of the countdown. We’ll count down a different year in the near future. In the meantime, Keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars.
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Hi Everybody! Time to continue the countdown. If you missed the previous 10 songs, you can still check them out. This countdown doesn’t have the awesome songs we heard last week. But, there are many songs here that we never hear on the radio. So, let’s Return to the week ending May 24, 1980, and continue the countdown.
This duet by Neil Sedaka and his daughter, Dara, would be Neil’s last appearance on the Hot 100 charts. This is a pretty good soft pop song with a late ’70s sound. Dara has a good voice.
I love this medley by The Spinners. “Cupid” is the classic Sam Cooke tune. Hardcore Journey fans may know that Sam Cooke was a huge influence on Steve Perry’s sound. So, I love Sam Cooke. I am not familiar with the other song, “I’ve Loved You a Long Time” by Michael Zagar. I can’t find that song online. It looks like he is mainly known for a disco song called “Let’s All Chant“. The Spinners did a great job integrating the two songs together.
James Last was a German composer. This song, which is the love theme to the Richard Gere film, American Gigolo, is an instrumental jazz tune. So, if you have a hankering for some instrumental jazz, then this song is for you. I kind of like this.
This was Canada’s own Bruce Cockburn’s only top 40 hit in the U.S. The sound reminds me of Starland Vocal Band’s “Afternoon Delight“.
This duet was released as a single from the soundtrack of the Gabe Kaplan movie, Fast Break. I had never heard this song before, but it would be a #4 hit on the Hot 100.
This title track from Jermaine Jackson’s 1980 album was Jermaine’s first #1 R&B hit. The song was produced by Stevie Wonder, who also has some vocals on this song. It was Billboard’s #1 Soul hit for the entire year of 1980, beating out brother Michael’s platinum-certified mega-hit “Rock With You” which was #2 for the year.
I love this song by English singer-songwriter and actress Charlie Dore. It has that country-crossover sound, which reminds me of Juice Newton. The harmonies, on this song, are outstanding as well.
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This classic tune by The Clash was their final single released from their 1979 album, London Calling. The words “stand by me” dominate the chorus. However, the song was titled “Train in Vain (Stand By Me)” so us dummies wouldn’t get it confused with the Ben E. King hit.
This is Billy Joel’s second entry on the countdown this week. This is a classic, fun, rock song, which famously begins with sound of glass breaking (probably from the “glass house” of the album title).
This nice ballad came off of Dan Fogelberg’s sixth studio album, Phoenix, from 1979. That album also gave us the classic Fogelberg hit, “Longer“.
That wraps up today’s list of songs. Let me know what you think of this week’s countdown. I can tell you that it is going to keep getting better and better. I am familiar with all of them. They are all very good, yet you don’t hear them on the radio. So, please come back tomorrow and check them out.
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Welcome back to this week’s Top 40 Countdown! If you missed yesterday’s songs, you can always go ahead and check them out. There were some classics songs yesterday, and we get more of the same today. What were you doing this week in 1984? I was heading down the home stretch of junior high school, and getting ready for high school. Cable TV was still new in our area. I had my MTV for less than a year at this point. So, there were a lot of changes and transitions at this point in my life. And by this point, music had pretty much transitioned from the soft pop and disco sound of the late ’70s/early ’80s to the classic ’80s sound. Let’s continue the countdown, and see what was popluar this week of April 14, 1984…
We begin today’s list of songs with a pleasant surprise for me. I had never heard of Tony Carey before. It turns out that he was the keyboard player for the rock band Rainbow for a short time in the mid-to-late ’70s. After he left Rainbow, Carey embarked on a solo career. That career did not exactly take off, but he had a pretty good hit with this song.
This fun, doo-wop song was the fourth single released from Billy Joel’s classic album, An Innocent Man. A lot of his songs from that album got overplayed, but this was one that I never really grew tired of. I also enjoyed the video. It did fool me though. I had never known, until in recent years, that it is actually Billy Joel singing all the lead and backing vocals on this track.
This is classic ’80s! It was an anti-war protest song by the band from Germany. The original German version was such a huge success that an English version was also created (“99 Red Balloons“). I believe that the German version still got most of the airplay in the U.S. One thing I know for sure is that “Captain Kirk” are about the only words I understand in either version.
Dan Fogelberg is best known for his soft rock hits in the early ’80s (“Longer“, “Leader of the Band“, and “Same Old Lang Syne“). But this was my introduction to him, and it is my favorite of all his songs. I always just felt that this was a bright, upbeat tune.
This is an interesting song and video by the prog-rock band, Yes. There is nothing wrong with your screen. The video was shot upside down, and was one of the first music videos to use computer-generated imagery.
This is a classic by John Cougar Mellencamp. This is off of his 1983 album, Uh-Huh, which was the first album in which he used his real last name, going from being known as John Cougar to John Cougar Mellencamp.
This is Fleetwood Mac’s keyboardist/vocalist Christine McVie’s biggest solo hit. This is probably my favorite song of the day. Christine McVie is very good and very underrated.
We’ll take a break for a minute, and check out a song that debuted this week. This one is “Don’t Waste Your Time” by the R&B duo of Yarbrough & Peoples. I had never heard this song before. It’s not a bad song. But, I chose it so you could check out a V-E-R-Y young Ice-T towards the beginning of the video, driving the Mercedes.
On with the countdown….
This was another pleasant surprise for me. I don’t remember this song at all. It kind of has a pop-rock-new-wavey feel to it.
Another classic tune by a classic band.
We’ll finish up today’s list with a cool song and video. The video tells it’s story through a comic book. Alan Parsons was known as being more prog-rock, but this song has more of a pop-rock Wall of Sound style. Yet another ’80s classic.
I hope you guys are enjoying this week’s countdown. Let me know what you think so far, as we are halfway through. Tomorrow, we will be back to continue the countdown, and we will have Long Distance Dedication.
Follow @returntothe80sCan you name the artist and song:
All alone on a Sunday morning
Outside I see the rain is falling
Inside I’m slowly dying
Last Song: “Language of Love” by Dan Fogelberg:
She says no
When she means yes
And what she wants
You know that I can’t guess
Return to the 80s 