Can you name the artist and song:
Like a road runner
Coming after you
Just like a hero outta the blue
Last Song: “Always Something There To Remind Me” by Naked Eyes from the album Burning Bridges (1983)
Great job Steveo (@SteveODonnell5) and Colleen (@ColleenIrishRo1)!!!
If you should find you miss the sweet and tender love we used to share
Just go back to the places where we used to go and I’ll be there
If you’d like to get this song from Amazon, you can click on the album cover below
Welcome back to this weeks Top 40 Countdown! If you missed the first 10 songs, you can go back and check them out. At the time of this countdown, I was about to enter my teen years. My 13th birthday was less than a week away. I would get my very own little black & white TV. It didn’t matter that I did not have cable on it. It was my very own TV, and I loved it.
What were you doing at this time in 1983? Now let’s Return to the week ending August 27, 1983, and continue the countdown.
[If you’d like to see the YouTube video of the song, you can click on the song title. If you’d like to purchase or listen to the song on Amazon, you can click on the album cover]
Before Shalamar went “Dancing in the Sheets” with Footloose, they had a hit with this song from their album, The Look, which was the last one to feature Jody Watley as part of the group.
I love Laura Branigan. She has a beautiful voice, and she was beautiful, period. I was so sad when she died in 2004. But, every time I hear this song, all that comes to mind is somebody coming to our school, before prom season, to explain the dangers of drunk driving. The speaker was talking about how his brother died in a drunk driving accident, and this song played for us. It was so sad, it made me want to drink.
A lot of Air Supply songs sound the same to me. There’s nothing wrong with that. But, there are some exceptions and this is one of them. And there is a good reason for this. It was written by Jim Steinman. Steinman wrote all of Meat Loaf’s biggest hits. There is another non-Meat Loaf Jim Steinman song coming up on this week’s countdown. And I love that one too. “Making Love Out of Nothing At All” is one of those ballads that I never got sick of.
Gunter glieben glauchen globen
And so began my love affair of rock music. And I have not looked back since. Def Leppard was a great band from the beginning, and they just kept getting better and better. They are still incredible in concert, and even released new studio album a couple of years ago. And unlike a certain contemporary of theirs who still puts out albums, and who shall remain nameless, Def Leppard can still rock your face off!
We can’t have an early ’80s countdown without a British New Wave band! This was Naked Eyes’ second hit, reaching up to #11.
Very underrated Journey song, off of the Frontiers album. I don’t even remember seeing this video on MTV.
One of my crushes! I love Irene Cara! She has several other great songs besides this and “Fame”. But, both “Flashdance…What A Feeling” and “Fame” still get me pumped up.
This is my favorite Rick Springfield song. My mom had the Living in Oz album (on vinyl of course), and I always listened to this song. Great way to finish things today!
That wraps up today’s list of songs. This is an awesome week of great music! Come back tomorrow as we check out the next 10 songs.
Follow @returntothe80s
Welcome back as we continue the countdown! If you missed the previous articles, you can check out songs 40-31 and 30-21. I think this has been a great countdown this week already. But, today’s list features quite a few of my favorite bands of all time! These songs may be familiar to most of us, but it is really nice to go back to the time when these hits were new to us. So, let’s Return to the week ending May 28, 1983, and continue the countdown.
What better way to start the day than some classic ’80s! This was the biggest hit for The Tubes, topping out at #10. The disturbing music video was directed by Kenny Ortega. Ortega was the choreographer on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Dirty Dancing, as well as directing Michael Jackson’s This is It.
Here is an awesome ballad by an awesome band! This song came off the album Toto IV, which also provided us with “Rosanna” and “Africa“. [I’m pausing the countdown right now as I listen to “Africa”. If this countdown is late, you’ll know why. Oooh, shiny object!]
Yet another classic ’80s tune! This countdown is a great time capsule for ’80s music. This song was originally performed by Falco. Falco’s version is in German, so it wasn’t a big a hit in the U.S. as it was in Europe. However, a year later, After the Fire recorded this song in English, and made it a smash hit, topping out at #5 on the charts.
I think we would be hard-pressed to find a countdown in the early-to-mid ’80s that didn’t have at least one Hall & Oates tune. This song was written, and originally performed by Mike Oldenfield, featuring Maggie Reilly on main vocals. A year later, Hall & Oates took the song, and made it a huge hit, reaching up to #6 on the charts. I prefer the Hall & Oates version, but the original is also really good.
One of my all-time favorite bands of all-time! Incredible song off of an incredible album. Def Leppard is still going strong today, as they just released a new, self-titled, album. If you are interested in Def Leppard at all, you really need to check out that album. It’s probably their best since Hysteria, in my humble opinion.
This was a very cool ’80s song…until Weird Al ruined it for me. Now, whenever I hear this song, I can’t get Weird Al’s “I Lost On Jeopardy” out of my head, complete with Don Pardo telling Weird Al that he doesn’t win a year supply of Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco treat, he doesn’t get to come back tomorrow, he doesn’t even get a lousy copy of the home game. He’s a complete loser!
Another one of my favorite bands, and their second entry on the countdown this week. This is a very nice Dennis DeYoung ballad from Styx’s Kilroy Was Here album. I knew that this was a great hit, but I didn’t know that it charted as high as #6.
Yet another one of my favorite bands! Queen and Journey are my #1 and #2 bands. This song is one of Journey’s most recognizable hits. It is such a great ballad. Between Steve Perry’s incredible vocals, Jonathan Cain’s awesome keyboard riff, and Neal Schon’s classic guitar solo, this is perfection. When I saw Journey in concert in 1999 for their comeback with Steve Auggeri, they closed out the concert with this song. I had never been to a rock concert that closed out with a ballad. It was very classy.
And we have yet another classic ’80s song that is also a cover. This song was written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David in the ’60s. It reached up to #49 on the charts in 1964 by Lou Johnson. And just as Naked Eyes has that classic ’80s sound, Lou Johnson has that classic ’60s soft rock sound. The Naked Eyes version was a big hit in the U.S., topping out at #8.
We’ll wrap up today with some Rick Springfield! And it’s not “Jessie’s Girl”! This is an outstanding rock song. It was actually nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance in 1984. But, just like anybody else who released any songs between 1982 and 1984, he lost to Michael Jackson.
Well, that’s it for today. We’ll close out this awesome countdown on Friday. Again, feel free to leave a comment about your thoughts of any of the music we’ve covered so far.
Follow @returntothe80s Welcome back as we wrap up this week’s Top 40 Countdown. There have been some flat-out classics so far this week, and today is no different. You can go back and check out songs 40-31 30-21, and 20-11. Well, I think this has been one of the better Top 40 weeks, so let’s Return to the week ending June 18, 1983, and finish the countdown.
Well, here’s a blast from the past. Hall & Oates were a staple of the ’80s music scene. But, this song is often overlooked. This song is actually a cover, originally done by Mike Oldfield (with Maggie Reilly on vocals) in 1982. Hall & Oates made it their own, and made it a big hit, topping out at #6 on the charts.
Just like Hall & Oates, Rick Springfield had a great hot streak in the early-to-mid ’80s. This song, Springfield’s first single from his Living in Oz album, would be his fourth top 10 hit, peaking right here at #9. It was nominated for Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance in 1984, but lost to Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”.
This synthpop song just screams ’80s! But, did you know that this was a cover? It was originally written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David in the ’60s. The original recorded version was released by Lou Johnson in 1964. Sandie Shaw also released a version of this song that same year, and it was a #1 hit in the U.K., Canada, and South Africa.
The 1964 versions and this ’80s version were each a product of their time. I like all the versions, but of course, I prefer Naked Eyes.
This is a nice ballad by one of my favorite bands – Styx. This song is from their divisive album, Kilroy Was Here. This was the beginning of the end of the original run of Styx, but you wouldn’t know it here.
.jpg/220px-Lionel_Richie_(self-titled_album_-_cover_art).jpg)
Lionel Richie immediately proved that he could have a successful career post-Commodores, with his incredible self-titled debut album. This ballad was the third single released from that album, and was his third top 10 hit in a row. Kenny Rogers, who often collaborated with Richie, provided the backing vocals on this song.
Men At Work is just pure ’80s. They were on a hot streak at this time. The combination of Colin Hay’s voice and Greg Ham on sax, gave Men At Work a very unique sound. Everyone knows “Down Under“, but this is one of their better songs as well.
Speaking of unique sounding, this song was a worldwide smash hit. The song’s title refers to Electric Avenue, a market street in the Brixton area of London. You could not escape this song when it was first released, but man was it fun!
All week we have been hearing from artists who had been around for a while, but were introduced to me with the ’80s tunes in the countdown this week. This is another one. I remember first hearing this song on the radio while eating breakfast before school. This song was from the album of the same name, and was part of many of David Bowie’s reinventions. This is a great song from a great album.
Culture Club followed their world-wide smash hit debut, “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me”, with this song. I like this one better. Culture Club was one of those bands that I didn’t care much for back then, but enjoy much more now.
Before we uncover this week’s #1 song, lets see what was topping some of the other charts this week:
The number one country song this week was – “You Can’t Run From Love” by the gone too soon Eddie Rabbitt
Topping the R&B charts was “Juicy Fruit” by Mtume. I never heard of the song or the band.
Sitting on top of the rock charts was this week’s #14 song, “Every Breath You Take” by The Police
The number one adult contemporary song was our #13 song this week – “Never Gonna Let You Go” by Sergio Mendes
For the 17th, and final consecutive week, the #1 album was the legendary Thriller by Micahel Jackson
The #1 dance song brings us to our Hot 100 number one song this week:
What a Feeling! and what a way to end the countdown! A few years earlier, Irene Cara hit it big with the theme song for Fame. Somehow, she outdid herself with this classic from the movie, Flashdance. This song won all kinds of awards, including the Academy Award for Best Original Song, the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, and the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. This is a well deserved #1 hit.
Well, that wraps up this week’s countdown. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I have. This has got to be one of the best countdowns we’ve covered so far. 1983 was such an incredible and pivotal year of music. Do you agree? We’ll be back with another countdown in the coming weeks. In the meantime, Keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars.
Follow @returntothe80sCan you name the artist and song:
No matter where you hide
I’m comin’ after you
Now matter how the race is won
It always ends the same
Last Song: “Always Something There to Remind Me” by Naked Eyes from Burning Bridges (1983)
When shadows fall, I pass a small cafe where we would dance at night
And I can’t help recalling how it felt to kiss and hold you tight
Can you name the artist and song:
Look at our life now, tattered and torn.
We fuss and we fight and delight in the tears that we cry until dawn
Last Song: “Always Something There” by Naked Eyes:
I walk along the city streets you used to walk along with me
And every step I take reminds me of just how we used to be
Return to the 80s 