Remember when we felt the sun?
A love like paradise, how hot it burned
A threat of distant thunder, the sky was red
And when you walked, you always turned every head
If you’d like to get this song from Amazon, click on the album cover below:
Time for another Top 40 countdown! With Election Day tomorrow, I decided to go with the week of an Election Day from the 80s. I had already done 1984 for this week. So, we will go towards the end of the Reagan era. This Presidential race was George H. W. Bush against Michael Dukakis. This was the first election I voted in.
I had graduated earlier in the year, and was now attending Community College. Well actually, I was registered at the Community College of Rhode Island. However, I attended DG’s Arcade instead of actual college classes. 3 months later I was heading to Great Lakes, in the dead of winter, for Navy boot camp.
Now, let’s Return to the week ending November 5, 1988, and see what songs may have come on the radio in my 1981 Chevy Citation, on the way to the arcade.
As usual, you can click on the song title to get the YouTube video, and you can click on the album cover to check out this song on Amazon.
Taylor Dayne burst on to the scene in 1987 with her debut album, Tell It to My Heart. She was one of the hottest acts around in the late ’80s/early ’90s. This was the 3rd song released from her debut album, and first ballad. It got Taylor Dayne nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal, was also nominated for Best R&B Song.
This is the title track of Huey Lewis and the News’ last album released release on Chrysalis. The album did not sell as well as the band’s previous albums, Sports and Fore!.
According to the book, Everybody Wants Some: The Van Halen Saga, Van Halen’s OU812 album was complete (or so they thought), Eddie came up with the riff at 2 in the morning and went down to his then-neighbor Sammy Hagar to show it. Hagar let Eddie in, and the two played guitars in his balcony until they had a completed song.
This is a pretty cool, funky song. I would have never listened to it back when it was originally released. That may explain why I don’t remember this song at all.
This seems like a little different sound for the Pet Shop Boys. The music is a freestyle dance style. Before the vocals come in, this sounds like it could be a song by Exposé, Sweet Sensation, or the Cover Girls.
Hall and Oates seem to have a different perspective of the city than Guns N’ Roses! Even though Hall & Oates had their best years behind them as far as climbing the charts is concerned, this is a pretty good tune. If it was released in 1982, it may have been a bigger hit.
That wraps up today’s list of songs. Not a bad start. Come back tomorrow to check out songs 30-21.
Welcome back as we conclude this week’s countdown! It has been fun getting back into this. There are some classic songs in this top 10. Again, you can click on the album cover to get the song from Amazon, and you can click on the song title to watch the video on YouTube. WARNING: If you click on the #3 song title, you can’t unsee or unhear that song! Now, let’s Return to the U.K. for the week ending July 12, 1987, and wrap up this week’s countdown!
This has that classic 80s British pop sound. And yes, that is Andy Warhol in the video doing an impersonation of Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues”.
This is my favorite song of the countdown by far! I cannot believe that this didn’t even chart in the U.S. I had never heard of it until I bought Heart’s The Road Home album (1995). I instantly fell in love with the song, and looked more into it, and found out that it was an ’80s song by Australia’s John Farnham. There are several versions of this song, and every one of them is really good.
If you were to pick the top wedding songs of the ’80s, this would be on the list. This song hit #1 on all of the U.S. charts, and it landed at #3 in the U.K.
This song was the lead single off of Richard’s Always Guaranteed album. I like all of his songs when they appear on these countdowns, yet I still don’t own anything by him. I’ll have to rectify that. Or at least add him to some of my Spotify playlists.
A great way to finish the Top 40! This happens to be my favorite song by the British synthpop duo. it was a top 10 hit in the U.S., but was #1 in the U.K. for three weeks.
That wraps up this week’s U.K. countdown! I hope you enjoyed it. The next one will be back at stateside. In the meantime, Keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars.
Welcome back as we continue the countdown! If you missed the previous songs, you can go back and check out songs 40-31 and 30-21. The hits are getting bigger and bigger. However, there are still two songs on today’s list that I was unfamiliar with. That’s always exciting for me. Now, let’s Return to the week ending and move on with the countdown. And as usual, if you’d like to listen to the song on YouTube, click on the song title. And if you want to listen or buy this song on Amazon, you can click on the album cover.
This is the second song, on this countdown, with this name. This is defintely the superiour song. I love Stevie Nicks, and this is one of my favorites by her.
This cover of the 1963 Bob & Earl song would go on to be a #5 hit. The animation, in the video, was directed by John Kricfalusi, who would go on to create The Ren & Stimpy Show.
Hi Everybody! Welcome back as we conclude this week’s countdown! If you missed the previous songs, you can go ahead and check out songs 40-31, 30-21, and songs 20-11. This is an interesting top 10, as there is quite the variety of music. Now, let’s Return to the week ending May 21, 1988, and wrap up the countdown.
We kick off the top 10 with an R&B ballad. I had never heard of The Deele until recently. There were a couple of music moguls as part of this group – Babyface and L.A. Reid. I remembered this song when I heard it. I like it.
As we were approaching the end of the decade, we were approaching the end of Hall & Oates’ great run of hits. This song would peak at #3, and become the duo’s 16th, and final, Top 10 hit.
We are back with another rock song. I loved White Lion. The rocked, and had a little different sound than some bands at the time. Mike Tramp has an interesting voice, and Vito Bratta is an awesome guitarist. This song was White Lion’s big breakthrough hit.
Icehouse, not to be confused by the early ’90s hair band Firehouse, was an Australian synthpop band. This is another song that I recognized as soon as I heard it. This song was written by Icehouse lead singer Iva Davies (who happens to turn 60 today) and John Oates. I really enjoy this song.
As I mentioned earlier in the week, even though I was more of a rock fan, I loved freestyle music too. So I was a huge fan of Samantha Fox. This was big hit for Samantha, peaking at #3.
Earlier in the decade, Willie Nelson had a huge hit with this song. The Pet Shop Boys were successful with it as well, with their own synthpop take on it.
Now let’s take a look at what was topping some of the other charts this week:
This song was a worldwide hit for the English pop group. It was a #5 hit in England in 1987. A year later it would be even more successful in the U.S., hitting #2.
The ’80s were a good time for George Michael. He had some huge hits as a member of Wham!, and he had an even bigger solo career. This was a #1 hit off of his classic Faith album. This is one of those songs that I didn’t care for much back then, but love it now.
Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine already had a handful of big hits in the U.S. by this point. But, this was their big breakthrough hit throughout the rest of the world. Just about every hit for Estefan this point forward was an adult contemporary song.
Well that wraps up this week’s countdown. Thanks so much for checking it out. I hope you enjoyed it. There will be more to come in the upcoming weeks. In the meantime, Keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars.