Welcome back to a new week of the Top 40 countdown! This will be a slightly different format. My comments will be limited to 1 or 2 sentences. If you would like to hear the song/see the video on YouTube, you can click on the song title. If you’d like to listen or buy the song from Amazon, you can click on the album cover. We are in the heart of the 80s for this countdown, so there will be some great songs this week. So, let’s Return to the week ending January 19, 1985, and begin the countdown.
Remember when we had to hidey-hide, and jump and run because the old man was down the road? Well fellas, the table has turned. 32 years later, we are the old man down the road.
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!
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.
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.
This weekend’s selection is in honor of my two favorite baseball team home openers today – The New York Mets, and the Boston Red Sox (a.k.a. The Miami Heat of MLB) – John Fogerty’s hit “Centerfield”:
“Centerfield” is the title track from John Fogerty’s album Centerfield, Fogerty’s first solo album after a nine-year absence. Fogerty wrote “Centerfield” after watching the 1984 Major League Baseball All-Star Game from the bleachers at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. His seat was behind center field.
I especially liked “Centerfield” because I was the starting centerfielder for my baseball team when the song was first released. The song can still be heard playing between innings at all baseball fields across America.