Welcome back to this weeks Countdown! If you missed the previous songs, you can still check out songs 40-31 and 30-21. This is a good day if you like lite rock and classic rock. And there is one huge surprise, a history making moment for Return to the ’80s. So, let’s get to it, and Return to the week ending January 5, 1980. On with the countdown!
This was singer/songwriter, J.D. Souther’s biggest hit, which would peak at #7. Souther was best known as a songwriter who wrote some of the Eagles biggest hits. He was also influenced by Roy Orbison, which is pretty obvious with this song. I had actually thought that this was a cover of a Roy Orbison song. But, this was an original song.
I really like this one. I thought Pablo Cruise was a person – possibly a Spanish relative of Tom Cruise. I was wrong. Pablo Cruise is a pop/rock band out of San Francisco that formed in 1973. So, this was a nice little discovery for me. Pablo Cruise is still around, and mainly tour in California.
Here is an awesome, pre-soundtrack era Kenny Loggins tune. I don’t want to go back and check right now, but if I’m not mistaken, Michael McDonald has been involved at some point in every countdown we have covered so far. Here is his contribution – backing vocals for this song. He and Loggins also co-wrote this gem. “This Is It” won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male.
We have arrived at an historical moment for Return to the ’80s! I actually found a Prince video where it is actually Prince singing! I don’t need to substitute this with another song this time. If you are curious, I probably would have gone with “Brand New Lover,” my favorite Dead or Alive song.
And this isn’t a bad Prince song to have. I had never heard of this one, and I don’t think it’s bad. I like a lot of Prince’s early music. So, hurry up and listen to this before Prince discovers that this slipped through the cracks, and is available on the internet.
I love this Jefferson Starship song. This was off of the 1979 album Freedom at Point Zero, which was the first for the new lead singer, Mickey Thomas. This was also the first album after Marty Balin and Grace Slick left the group. Grace Slick would rejoin the band on the next album in 1981, Modern Times. I think this was a great song to kick off the new era of Jefferson Starship.
Here’s another discovery for me that I kind of like. This song has that classic late ’70s/early ’80s Lite Rock sound.
Oh yeah!! Here is a great rocker by Foreigner! This was the title track of Foreigner’s third album. I think we all know somebody who likes to play head games, so we can totally relate to this song.
This is a nice song by the Eagles, which was written by Don Henley and Glenn Frey. This title track would eventually reach up to #8 on the charts.
I had always thought of Smokey Robinson as an oldies singer. But, it seems like he’s been on an awful lot of our countdowns of the ’80s. This is a good R&B song. I thought I had heard it before. Why does this sound familiar? Oh yeah! It was covered by Huey Lewis and Gwyneth Paltrow. Yes, that Gwyneth Paltrow, now famous for her uncoupling from Chris Martin. They covered the song for the 2000 film Duets. I’ll take the Smokey version.
This is one of my favorite songs by the Australian group, Little River Band. In the ’80s, I had heard of the Little River Band, but did not know any of their music. Then, while on liberty in Bahrain during Operation Desert Shield, I bought a 90 minute mix tape which included a song by the Little River Band called “As Long As I’m Alive.” I instantly fell in love with that song. So I went back, and bought the full Little River Band tape that this song was on – Get Lucky (1990), and I also bought their Greatest Hits album. “Cool Change” is on that Greatest Hits album, and I still listen to it quite a bit.
That wraps up today’s list. I am actually enjoying the songs this week. I hope you are too. We’ll be back tomorrow to wrap up the countdown. See you then!
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Welcome back to another week of some Top 40 music! This time, we Return all the way back to 35 years ago this week. Christmas season had just started, and I was 12 years old. I was past the age of getting kids toys. Instead, it was a time of home video games (in my case, Intellivision), and music. Instead of listening to my parents’ albums, I was beginning to get my own music. I would get cassettes for my birthday and Christmas, and I was constantly listening to the radio. So, the songs this week really bring me back. I hope you feel the same. So let’s Return to the week ending November 27, 1982, and begin this week’s Top 40 countdown.
This was the Australian group’s first number one single in their home country, spending 6 weeks at the top of the charts. It was so successful, that it came over to the U.S., and became a hit there too.
Return to the 80s 