"Up Where We Belong" brings back fond memories of me and my best friend sitting on his waterbed watching TV and laughing our collective ass off at how lame it was.
"Up Where We Belong" has a memorable chorus but the song as a whole doesn't connect with me. It sounds like one of those typical soundtrack ballads that were popular throughout the 80s and a good portion of the 90s as well.
She looks like my algebra teacher trying to be a pop star. The opening groove reminds me a bit of Madonna's "Material Girl."
For some reason Melissa Manchester "You Should Hear How She Talks About You" and Laura Branigan "Gloria" are very tied together in my head. Very close together in time, and some other similarities. IIRC did both of them stall at #2? (EDIT - No - only "Gloria" did)
I never noticed before but you're absolutely right. "You should hear how she talks about you, You should hear what she says" = "Some boys kiss me, Some boys hug me, I think they're ok". Nice pull!
Never particularly cared for this one, but it certainly sounds like something from '84 or even '85, not '82.
Yes, please understand me -- I like Taste of Honey. But would you really giving them the nod over Prince, the Police and Costello (and the Cars, and Kate Bush), knowing what we know now? Their bad luck they were in such a historic group of newbies, but thems the breaks.
Avalon and the two Eno Roxy albums are stone cold classics and among my all time favorites records. I find the rest of their output spottier, but they still managed a few good to great tracks on pretty much every one of their albums. Also, this song got a rebirth of sorts after this iconic cinema moment:
Most of those acts weren't even nominated, though. The nominees were: The Cars Elvis Costello Chris Rea Toto I can totally see votes for The Cars and Elvis Costello cancelling out. That left A Taste Of Honey as the only act in the race that represented R&B and disco, which at the time was the most prominent pop genre. So their win isn't much of a surprise. The Grammy voters were always pretty conservative and pretty mainstream in their tastes. The two prior winners included Starland Vocal Band and Debby Boone. Next to those two, A Taste Of Honey looked like Prince. I will say, their choices generally got a lot better in the '80s, at least for awhile. But they're never gonna live down Milli Vanilli. (Although eff it - I loved "Blame It On The Rain". I don't care who sang it - it's a great pop song. One of the few Diane Warren hits that doesn't make me want to stab out my eardrums with an icepick.)
"Moving Pictures" is a song I kept seeing on the charts but could not place it. After seeing the video, I don't reckon I have ever heard it before. It wasn't played in my neck of the woods, in any case.
I just vaguely recall it. It really does sound like something from a couple of years later in the decade.
I've heard it. It's fine. It's not on the same level as albums that year from The Cars or Elvis Costello, although they certainly had the biggest hit single. And that hit essentially introduced the masses to the Chic sound a few months before Chic had their own #1. Given that disco was absolutely on fire, this no doubt helped score A Taste Of Honey a few votes in the New Artist category. Like I said, it's miles superior to material from Starland Vocal Band or Debby Boone.
I guess we're talking about two things. You could choose to discuss which of the five choices they should have picked. But I think the more interesting conversation is, how often did the Grammys actually suss out who would be the real lasting rookies of that year, and did they even nominate the real future stars? My only point is, if you choose to look at the year with hindsight, you can see that they had numerous choices they could have made that year, both among nominees and among those who didn't make that cut, that proved to be longer lasting, Hall of Fame artists, while TOH was not. The Grammys do sometimes do better than that.
Oh, I think in the '70s they did almost as bad a job picking best new artist nominees as they did picking best new artist winners. Look at '71: Elton John Melba Moore Anne Murray The Partridge Family The Carpenters - winner The Partridge Family? Really? Or '75: Bad Company Johnny Bristol David Essex Graham Central Station Phoebe Snow Marvin Hamlisch - Winner Marvin Hamlisch even got a nom? Really? Bad Company? Even '76 is schizo: Morris Albert Amazing Rhythm Aces Brecker Brothers KC and the Sunshine Band Natalie Cole - winner Morris Albert? Really???
Here's the Canadian chart for the last part of "Up Where We Belong"s reign" Outside of the Canadiana & few oddballs, there's not a lot so different from the US chart. There's a song on this chart which had already been a #1 track south of the border which was a little slower to hit here...I already puked about it, and a former Canadian #1 which will hit soon in the US.
All sorts of interesting music was coming out around this time - the early '80s doldrums were definitely over. Grace Jones had just released the second single from her last truly great album of the '80s, Living My Life, the wonderful slice of New York life "The Apple Stretching", written by filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles (Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song). This got nowhere on the charts at the time, but I think it's one of the most memorable singles of the year and should have been a hit. Only Grace could have pulled this off.
Interesting. “Da Da Da” by Trio was a hit in Canada, like it was in most of the western world. I think it sold something like 15 million copies worldwide but I am not sure it even cracked the Top 100 in the US. The ultimate earwig song. Not sure that I even like it, but once I get it in my head, it stays there for days.
I don't think I ever heard this until mid-83, when Channel 61 fired up in Phoenix and started playing the video. It definitely became a local hit because of that. It was also the harbinger of a little German pop boom in the US that would last thru the middle of the decade, culminating in the first and only German language #1 pop hit in the US.
Have you listened to The Sting soundtrack lately? It's held up amazingly well. The only one of that bunch I might rate higher than Hamlisch is Phoebe Snow.
I'm with you on this,even as far as the mild fascination but this was a cringe worthy performance.The short early 80s hairdo didn't help matters.
