Yeah, I remember when those compilations started to arrive. I couldn't afford many of them, and my uncle had a bunch of the albums (and even the individual singles), so I ended up taping my own "compilations" using his library over the years. But I did eventually buy some of the soul and several of the disco compilations during the '90s, especially after I moved away from home. Also the last few volumes of that amazing Atlantic Rhythm & Blues compilation. Those I really cherished.
I think this is a perfect example of a generational gap. I was a senior in high school at the time, and we had grown up with the notion that overly hyping yourself was tacky and appearing in commercials (something Jackson also did) was 'selling out'. The kids five - six years younger than we were did not have those same attitudes, and even when I was a senior I saw a few freshmen who were adopting the MTV hairstyles/clothes (everyone my age looked like we came from the late 70s). It was the first time I experienced a 'get off my lawn' moment, but hardly the last time.
Lauper was enormous at this time and for the next couple of years. As with most of the biggest stars of the era, I wasn't a huge fan, but I think her weird Minny-Mouse-on-crack appeal made her a lot of fun, and I always enjoyed her videos. Girls Just Wanna (they just wanna-a-uh) Have Fun is without question one of the five most iconic songs of the entire era. Shoulda been a number one. Below: Cyndi in 1984. Welcome to Thunderdome! She also helped usher in a 'rock and wrestling' connection that resulted in wrestlers appearing from time to time on MTV. You can see Captain Lou Albano, a wrestler, in the video playing her father. Wrestling was one of those phenomena of the time that completely escaped me, but I sure knew a lot of guys who were heavily into it. By the way, Lauper was hardly a spring chicken even in 1984. Born in 1953, she was over thirty when she had her big breakthrough. By that point, she had already suffered a career threatening vocal cord injury (in 1977) and had fronted a band called Blue Angel that had had almost zero success with their one album. Below: Lauper in Blue Angel circa 1980.
Paul McCartney's next hit after Say Say Say was So Bad. No, that's not a criticism, that's the (unfortunate) name of the song. It got to 3 on the Billboard charts in March of 1984. It's not the kind of song I normally go for, but what can I say, I still liked it.
I have volumes 5, 6, and 7. I learned much later that there is also a volume 8, but have never seen it. In fact, the first three oldies CDs I ever bought were the following in the next post.
If you want to talk about generation gaps, I was in college during this time and people of my generation largely looked favorably on Michael Jackson and "Thriller". Mine was the generation that grew up with The Jackson 5 and Michael's first solo records.
Ai Yi Yi. I have no recollection of ever hearing this song. It hit #3?! I had to see what it did up here...top 30.
Darnit, was gonna mention this in my post upthread. Yeah, she was a very late arrival to superstardom (although in fairness, she looked to be closer to 25). Especially for a woman. It got to #23 on the pop charts, not to #3 - I have no memory of "So Bad" at all, and I had the Pipes Of Peace LP, coming down off my own personal Beatlesmania. The sides were reversed in the UK, where "Pipes of Peace" was the single and "So Bad" the B Side. "Pipes" was Paul's only solo #1 there. MTV played the "Pipes" video, and so did our local music video station in Phoenix, Channel 61, but it got little traction here in the US. I don't ever recall seeing a vid for "So Bad". I suspect "Pipes" was responsible for most of "So Bad" sales in the US, since it seemed to get more exposure. I didn't care for it either, but at least it had a pulse. They should have released the vastly-superior "Keep Undercover" as the 2nd single from Pipes, instead. The only coherent cut from that album besides "Say Say Say" that had any life. If you're reading this an never heard the song before take a listen - it's a wonderful retro flashback: Phoenix radio played it quite a bit - the DJ's clearly thought this should be the next single. They were right.
Oh yeah, that was the first compilation CD I bought, but we're jumping forward a few years here. I think I got that one in '87. Tower Records had them in a little cardboard stand right on the checkout counter itself, and they just flew out of that thing.
What is very eerie is that January 27, 1984 is precisely the midpoint in MJ's life (Aug 29, 1958/June 25, 2009) and that was the day where things went horribly wrong, and you could even pinpoint his death attributed to events that started on that day because he was on painkillers for the rest of his life after burning his scalp.
I remember when that happened...I was in 5th grade, my sister was in nursery school, and the version she heard on the playground was "Michael Jackson got fired." I'd say it's both! I remember when a friend of mine got a copy of "So Bad"...neither of us had ever heard it, and judging from the title we were expecting a hard rocker. I'm not sure if we even listened to the record all the way through.
Without getting too into future details, I think a real problem with Michael is that he started surrounding himself with "yes" men, and it stayed that way for the rest of his career. Granted, I think breaking it off with Quincy and working with Teddy Riley actually worked some favors, it brought Michael into the 90s, but the main problem was that he started getting self-indulgent around that time, and self-indulgent for Michael Jackson didn't quite work as well as when Prince would get self-indulgent and sometimes put some of his best music out as a result. Self indulgent for Michael would be 7-8 minute "save the world" songs and inviting children to recite poetry about how they want to heal the world, etc.... It was cringeworthy but nobody was going to tell the king of pop "no"
I think 1984 is really "Ground Zero" for the future of pop music. There were always successful female pop stars, you had Olivia Newton-John, Donna Summer, Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand, etc....., but I do think the rise in 1984 of Madonna and Lauper (and the next year Whitney Houston would explode, and then Janet Jackson would break out the year after) amongst others definitely changed the landscape to where women became equals to men as pop hitmakers, and the glass ceiling would shatter when these artists would be having blockbuster albums akin to what their male counterparts would sell (as opposed to when a huge Blondie, Donna Summer or Olivia Newton-John album would sell 2-3 million copies, "Like A Virgin" sold 10 million and Whitney's debut sold 13 million) which would set the stage for the diva domination of the 90s
On "Owner of a Lonely Heart", one thing that got mentioned earlier that I'd like to bring up again is I'm pretty sure it's the first number one hit to contain a direct sample. The "orchestra hit" and drum fills were taken from a song called "Kool is Back" by Funk Inc. Considering the future of chart music in this thread I think that's incredibly important. A lot of electronic music, including hip hop, would soon embrace this new ability to create new music with old recordings. I find it kind of funny that honor falls to Yes, of all bands!
Yeah this is the period where women finally attained a large degree of chart equality. I'd argue it started with Blondie - a rare woman-fronted group - not only topping the charts with "Heart Of Glass" but also finally breaking a New Wave act big on the US pop charts. Even if it was with a (stomping, glamified) disco song, you had a woman bringing a new genre to mass acceptance. That was different. It's no accident that Madonna largely followed the Debbie Harry visual and attitudinal template, at least early on. Not long after that success Blondie hit again with the enormous "Call Me", and that was followed by "Bette Davis Eyes" and then "Physical", the other monster hits of the early '80s, all three by women. So the pump was certainly primed, at least on the singles charts. Then Lauper came along and had a string of hit singles and a behemoth of an album, moving an astounding 16 million copies worldwide - 6 million in the US alone. To put that into perspective, the biggest Donna Summer album I think sold 2 million, and Summer was a superstar in the '70s, certainly one of the biggest if not the biggest female act of the decade along with Streisand and Newton-John. (A shoutout here to Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks as well, because Fleetwood Mac would have been nothing without them. Surely Mac's unbelievable success didn't go unnoticed by label brass, but other women still found it difficult to get any footing on the rock side of the business outside of Heart and Pat Benatar.) She's So Unusual was followed by Madonna's huge breakthru (10 million in the US, 21 million worldwide), then Whitney (13 million US, 22 million worldwide). Within 5 years women went from being a decidedly lesser presence on the charts - especially the album charts - to being much closer to equals (at least as solo acts). They also really put a dent in the presence of more traditional rock on the singles and album charts. Women still hadn't and wouldn't reach parity on the group side of the fence, although rock groups became far less important post-grunge. And a lot of the remaining groups were manufactured pop outfits, which are virtually always all-male, The Spice Girls excepted. Still, this period with Cyndi, Madonna and Whitney clearly kicked off the modern era, where solo women came to often dominate the upper reaches of the album charts. Alanis, Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Gaga, Adele, Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, etc. Last year's top 4 albums in the US were all by women.
Not only a sample, but a breakbeat. Something - the sample as breakbeat - which hip-hop and rap would subsequently adopt. I mentioned it in my review of the song upthread. I don't. Trevor Horn was a genius. Check out the first EP from Horn's group Art Of Noise, in particular "Beat Box", which uses the same sample I believe. It had been recorded earlier in '83. Yes benefited from his earlier experimentation.
