Can you name the artist and song:
But if we get much closer
I could lose control
And if your heart surrenders
You’ll need me to hold
Last Song: “Master Blaster (Jammin’)” by Stevie Wonder from Hotter Than July (1980)
Great job Craig (@cdennis0130)!!!
Everyone’s feelin’ pretty
It’s hotter than July
Though the world’s full of problems
They couldn’t touch us even if they tried
Can you name the artist and song:
Here I am
Just like I said I would be
I’m your friend
Just like you think it should be
Last Song: “I Just Called To Say I Love You” by Stevie Wonder from The Woman in Red: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1984)
Great job sweetpurplejune, Adora (@Adora2000), Erwin (@erwin_green) and Lisa (@gabbyg89)!!!
But what it is, though old, so new
To fill your heart like no three words could ever do
If you’d like to get the song from Amazon, you can click on the album cover below:
Can you name the artist and song:
Zappin’ it to you, the pressure’s everywhere
Goin’ right through you, the fever’s in the air
Last Song: “Ebony and Ivory” by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder from Tug of War (1982)
Great job sweetpurplejune and Brent (@jonbrent13)!!!
We all know that people are the same wherever you go
There is good and bad in ev’ryone
If you’d like to get the song from Amazon, you can click on the album cover below:
Can you name the artist and song:
I could leave, but I won’t go
Though my heart might tell me so
I can’t feel a thing from my head down to my toes
Last Song: “Go Home” by Stevie Wonder from the album In Square Circle (1985)
Great job Adora (@Adora2000), Lynne (@LynneAshton2) and ⓐⓝⓨ ⓜⓐⓙⓞⓡ ⓓⓤⓓⓔ (@ENewill)!!!
She only wanted to be close to me
To give me the love she knew someday I’d need
If you’d like to get this song from Amazon, you can click on the album cover below:
Hi Everybody! Welcome back to the countdown! If you missed yesterday’s list of songs, you can go ahead and check them out. Where were you at this time in 1985? I was 14 and midway through my first year of high school. The beginning of the school year was exciting. I went to a catholic school from 2nd through 8th grade. Then I went to a good size public school for high school. The change was exciting. I got to go to a different classroom for every class, and I didn’t have to wear a uniform! However by this point, the newness wore off, and I wasn’t liking school too much, and didn’t do to well. Even though I wasn’t enjoying school at all, this was still a great time for music, movies, and TV. There will be a few familiar songs on today’s list of songs that bring us back to that great time of music. For my good friends in the U.K., there may be even more songs that bring you back to that time. Now let’s Return to the week ending January 12, 1985, and either relive, or discover the great music of that time.
[Also, I should point out that you can click on the song title to listen/watch the YouTube video, and you can click on the album cover to get the song from Amazon]
In a poll for Q magazine in 2003, a panel of music writers voted “Agadoo” as the worst song of all time, saying: “It sounded like the school disco you were forced to attend, your middle-aged relatives forming a conga at a wedding party, a travelling DJ act based in Wolverhampton, every party cliche you ever heard.” The panel also described it as “magnificently dreadful”.
No wonder I like this so much! I’d be one of those middle-aged relatives forming a conga, to this train wreck of a song, at a wedding reception.
Well, that wraps up today’s list of songs. They seem to be getting better and better! What do you think so far? Also, feel free to email me at returntothe80s@gmail.com if you would like to make a long distance dedication. We’ll continue the countdown tomorrow.
Follow @returntothe80sCan you name the artist and song:
Hey, hey they say I better get a chaperone
Because I can’t stop messin’ with the danger zone
Last Song: “Part Time Lover” by Stevie Wonder from the album In Square Circle (1985)
Great job Karen (@dovey_karen) and Jim (@JimVilk)!!!
We are undercover passion on the run
Chasing love up against the sun
If you’d like to get this song from Amazon, you can click on the album cover below
Welcome back as we continue the countdown! If you missed the previous songs, you can go back and check out songs 40-31. This has been a good countdown so far. So let’s Return to the week ending April 5, 1986, and continue the countdown.
That wraps up today’s list of songs. I’m really liking this countdown so far! What do you think. Do you have any favorite songs so far. Any surprises you forgot about? Come back tomorrow as we continue the countdown!
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Hi Everybody! Welcome back to this week’s countdown! If you missed the previous songs, you can go back and check out songs 40-31. At this time in 1985, I was in the middle of the 2nd quarter of my Freshman year of high school. Indoor track was in high gear. This also means I was doing horrible in school. For some reason, the 2nd quarter was always the time when I got my worst grades. Maybe it’s because the freshness wore off by now. Then the last 2 quarters I had to buckle down to get my grades back up. Why the hell am I talking about school?!? Let’s get to some music! Now, let’s Return to the week ending January 19, 1985, and continue the countdown.
That wraps up today’s list of songs. What do you think so far, now that we are halfway done? Come back tomorrow as we continue the countdown.
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Welcome back as we wrap up this week’s countdown. If you missed the previous songs, you can go back and check out songs 40-31, 30-21, and 20-11. If you are in the U.S., I hope this countdown has provided a little escape from the election day craziness. This has been a great week of music. For those of us who grew up around the time of this countdown, we were so lucky to enjoy some great music. Now let’s Return to the week ending November 10, 1984, and wrap up this countdown.
Earlier in the countdown, we had a song by Tommy Shaw in the wake of the band Styx falling apart. Now we have the former Styx frontman, Dennis DeYoung with his solo effort. This is an outstanding song, that would peak right here at #10.
Thanks to producer, David Foster, we were right in the middle of Chicago’s renaissance. I do get slightly annoyed that most people only know of Chicago from their power ballads, even though they have some incredible rock songs. But, with a song like this, I can totally see why. This is one of my favorites by them. I love that both Peter Cetera and Bill Champlin sing on this. I love both of their voices. Great combination!
David Bowie (still can’t believe he is gone) was still making an impact on the music world at this point. This song was off of his Tonight album, which was his follow-up to the mega-successful Let’s Dance album. This song was launched with a 21-minute short film, Jazzin’ for Blue Jean. The film won the 1985 Grammy Award for “Best Video, Short form” (Later renamed “Best Music Video”), which would be Bowie’s only competitive Grammy Award during his career. He was nominated for several, but this was his only win, in addition to his Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.
This song is from Tina Turner’s huge comeback album, Private Dancer. This song was originally recorded and released in 1981 by Spider, a band from New York City with one of the co-writers, Holly Knight, as a member. Of course Tina had the most successful version. The song won Tina Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female, one of four Grammys awarded to Turner in that ceremony.
There weren’t too many acts as big in the ’80s as Hall & Oates.This was their lead single from their 1984 album Big Bam Boom. It would be their last #1 hit. The song was also their 14th straight top 40 hit since 1980.
Before we continue, let’s see what was topping some of the other charts this week in 1984:
The number one country song was “I’ve Been Around Enough to Know” by John Schneider (Yes, that John Schneider from The Dukes of Hazzard)
Topping the Rock charts was “I Can’t Hold Back” by Survivor
Number one on the Adult Contemporary charts was “What About Me?” by Kenny Rogers, Kim Carnes and James Ingram
The Number 1 album was Purple Rain by Prince and the Revolution
And topping both the R&B and the Dance charts is our #5 song on the Hot 100 this week:
While Prince was a megastar performer himself, he also wrote music covered by other artists. This was one of them. Prince wrote this song, and it was on his debut album. It was also covered by The Pointer Sisters on their 1982 album, So Excited!.
Then Chaka Kahn took over, and this song would start a big comeback for her. Melle Mel (from Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five) did the rapping. And Stevie Wonder is on the harmonica.
This was Wham!’s big breakthrough hit. It became their first American and UK number-one hit. To be honest, I really hated this song when it first came out. I like it now because of its nostalgic value. It should also be noted that while it was at the top of the charts for two weeks, it prevented the next song from becoming a #1 hit…
Yes, perhaps Prince’s signature song, this never hit #1 (still can’t believe he is gone). That doesn’t change anything though. This is an iconic song of the decade. For a lot of people, when you mention the ’80s, one of the first images that come to mind is the cover of the Purple Rain soundtrack and movie poster. And if you listened to our Prince episode of the Return to the ’80s podcast, you would know that there is a Journey connection here. After recording the song, Prince phoned Jonathan Cain from Journey asking him to hear it, worried it might be too similar to “Faithfully“, a Journey single composed by Cain which had recently been in the charts. Cain reassured Prince telling him the songs only shared the same four chords. Prince was extremely sensitive to Copyright infringement. It’s good to see he put his money where his mouth was, and was careful himself.
This was one of Stevie Wonder’s most commercially successful hits. It was featured in the Gene Wilder (still can’t believe he’s gone) movie The Woman in Red. The ballad won both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Original Song. It was also nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, Song of the Year and Best Pop Instrumental Performance at the Grammy Awards.
I always loved Billy Ocean’s voice. This is a good one. It won Ocean the 1985 Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, making him the first British artist to win in that category.
Well that wraps up this week’s Countdown. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I have. Did you have any favorites or least favorites? Let’s do another one of these in the coming weeks. In the meantime, Keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars.
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Welcome back as we wrap up this week’s Top 40 Countdown! If you missed the previous songs, you can go back and check out songs 40-31, 30-21 and 20-11. This week has been a little different as we stretched all the way back to the ’70s. Now, let’s Return to the week ending May 28, 1977, and see what was at the top of the charts the weekend that Star Wars opened.
What an awesome way to start the Top 10! This was Foreigner’s debut single. It is a perfect Foreigner song, as it has a rockin’ guitar, soaring vocals, just about every instrument is on full display, and the harmonies are great.
This is a pretty good song that I had not heard before today. I like the piano and guitars in this song. This was Andrew Gold’s biggest U.S. hit, peaking at #7. Linda Ronstadt sings a blink-and-you-miss-it background vocal in the second verse.
Kenny Rogers picked a fine time to leave The First Edition. This was Kenny’s first solo hit of many in his incredible career.
This is a pretty good song by the British blues band. This song seems like it could have been a hit in any decade.
Here is a Rocky theme we all know and love. It is a great song for a blockbuster film. After this weekend in 1977, this song was overshadowed by the soundtrack of a new little independent film called Star Wars.
This was a huge, worldwide hit by Marvin Gaye. This is a pretty cool funk/disco tune. Unfortunately, this is the song that brought us the (song thieves) Robin Thicke and Pharrell 2013 hit, “Blurred Lines“.
This is hard to believe. This song was Fleetwood Mac’s only U.S. #1 hit. This was a Stevie Nicks penned song from the legendary Rumours album.
This is a fun dance song by K.C. and the Sunshine Band. This song was a #1 hit on this chart, and a #3 hit on the R&B chart.
This is a really nice ballad by the British singer=songwriter Leo Sayer. It had also been a #1 hit on this chart. I have no idea why he is wearing a Buffalo Sabres jersey in the video, other than he must be performing in Buffalo.
Before we see our #1 song, let’s see what was topping some of the other charts this week in 1977:
The top Country single was “Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)” by Waylon Jennings
The #1 Adult Contemporary song was “Margaritaville” by Jimmy Buffett
The best Dance single was “Devil’s Gun”/”We Got Our Own Thing”/”Sure Can’t Go to the Moon” by C.J. & Company
The #1 album this week is one that you may have heard of – Rumours by Fleetwood Mac
And the topping the R&B chart is our #1 song this week:
What a way to close out the week! As much as I like a lot of Stevie’s songs in the ’80s, I prefer his ’70s work. This song is a tribute to Duke Ellington, who was an influence on Stevie Wonder, and had just died three years earlier. This song is instantly recognizable by it’s horn section that begins the track. Wonder also refers to other jazz legends Count Basie, Glenn Miller, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald.
Well, that wraps up this week’s Top 40. I hope you enjoyed this. Let me know what you think. Even though this is an ’80s site, do you mind venturing over to a different decade, occasionally?
I don’t think I’m going to be able to see the new Star Wars movie this weekend. I still have shopping to do, and a family Christmas party to go to. So, I am going to be offline until I see the movie. Most people are good at not spoiling movies. But, all it takes is one idiot to post something that will ruin the experience for me. The next couple of weeks will be short due to the holidays. So, the next Top 40 countdown will be in the new year. So, “if you’ll not be needing me, I’ll close down for a while.”
I hope you all have a totally awesome and peaceful holiday season! Until next time, Keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars.
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