EVERY Billboard #1 hit discussion thread 1958-Present

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by alphanguy, Jan 29, 2016.

  1. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    I'm straight, hetero, cis-male, whatever it's called these days. I never experimented or dallied, have never been curious, and frankly, that repels me.

    I remember an incident back in high school in the 70s. I was in the marching band and was sitting next to my best friend on a bus on the way back from an away football game. He fell asleep and rested his head on my shoulder. I didn't think a thing of it until I started getting strange looks from several people and they started gossiping. It got worse when his family got orders to transfer to Okinowa and people saw I was very upset about losing my buddy. Our small group of friends were sympathetic because we lost two friends, actually. The other was a cute girl I had a secret crush on whose family got transferred to Panama. I was even more upset about that because I had known her since kindergarten. Damn I had the hots for her! But, because of that bus thing, I got bullied like crazy for the rest of the year.

    The funny part is that during the early 80s, I wore a jheri perm, which was still very popular among Black men. My sister once told me that I looked prettier than she did, and I got a secret kick out of it. Back then I could totally pull off looking like a female. I had the body for it, too. But, then, I met a girl I was totally crazy about. She rejected me because she thought I looked too feminine. After that, I got rid of the perm and cut my hair, never to do that again! I was so upset that I lost even more weight and kept it off for about 10 years.

    I still had the body, so I still got a kick out of accentuating it. That's probably why my co-workers thought I was gay until I met my then fiance. What made it worse is that it was the time of gangsta rap and street gangs. I lived in a predominantly White area and if you were Black, you had to fit the stereotype of baggy pants, backwards baseball cap, sports clothes, $200 tennis shoes. I didn't wear that stuff.
     
    Last edited: Aug 2, 2020
  2. WLL

    WLL Popery Of Mopery






    ...I referred to those early British music press articles on Wham! They discussed 5he " speaking of not bring able to get a job " aspect of " W!R ". The thing I quoted, longer version, " I am a man/Just cuz' O got no job you can't tell me that I'm not ", well, they were saying it against British, not American, culture, and Thatcher, not Reagan...and the perpetually collapsing lower-level British employment scene, this Yank I-can"t-think-of-the-right-word-here;) ____-my observes - I mean, America 36 years later is, perhaps, well:eek:...........
     
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  3. MikeInFla

    MikeInFla Glad to be out of Florida

    Location:
    Kalamazoo, MI
    I didn't know it until I read your message 20 seconds ago!
     
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  4. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus

    The whole "Wham! Rap", song: is a bit of a joke: they are basically bragging about living 'on the dole"and partying all the time and refusing to work: it's a conscious portrait of youthful foolishness, but not without some very big winks at the audience.

    The repeated DHSS (Department of Health and Social Security) motif that repeats throughout the song is the name of the form that people had to fill in in order to collect their weekly allowance from the state.

    It's meant to be kind of punky FU to the prevailing Thatcherite conservative rhetoric of the time -- definitely crafted with humour by a British writer, intended for a British audience and it's meant to be FUNNY and cheeky; not angry.
     
    Last edited: Aug 2, 2020
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  5. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    I just discovered last night that Luther Vandross co-wrote "Fascination" with David Bowie. Vandross wrote the music.
     
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  6. WLL

    WLL Popery Of Mopery






    Where does " DHSS " appear:eek:?????
     
  7. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus

    Throughout the song. In lead vocals and backing vocals. (Department of Health and Social Security.)

    Hey, everybody, take a look at me
    I’ve got street credibility
    I may not have a job but I have a good time
    With the boys that I meet down on the line
    I said, D-H-S-S
    Man the rhythm that they're givin' is the very best
    I said, B one, B two
    Make the claims, on your name, all you have to do
     
  8. pablo fanques

    pablo fanques Somebody's Bad Handwroter In Memoriam

    Location:
    Poughkeepsie, NY
    Yeah same here. No clue
     
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  9. pablo fanques

    pablo fanques Somebody's Bad Handwroter In Memoriam

    Location:
    Poughkeepsie, NY
    Wow @Grant I never would have suspected any of that from your posts here. Thanks for sharing. That had to be really tough to go through. Despite all the press bullying gets these days, there’s no doubt that 70’s and 80’s bullies were the WORST
     
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  10. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    I agree, but my point remains that it's difficult to pin all the blame - or even most of it - on the blacklisting since "Damita Jo" simply wasn't very good.

    And it still went to #2 US and sold more than a million copies! It just didn't have hit singles.

    I believe the album and singles would've done better without the controversy, but I still don't think they would've done substantially better! :shrug:
     
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  11. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    The funny thing about the guy I met at the Aerosmith concert is that he was big into artists loved by gays: Madonna, Janet, Gaga, etc.

    Before I found out "officially" that he was gay, I remember thinking "geez, with musical taste like that, this guy must be gay!"

    And then I thought, "wait - I like all those same artists!" :laugh:

    I think he just assumed a very high percentage of straight guys had "dabbled" - and when you add in my "gay-friendly" elements, I guess that made it more of a surprise to him I'd not done so! :shrug:
     
  12. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    I'm sure it'll run just the same as it did when she was alive - as will her animal rescue foundation.

    Kinda doubt Doris was all that involved in the day-to-day operations of the hotel. Or did you see her changing sheets? ;)
     
  13. Jmac1979

    Jmac1979 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    Well in the Soundscan age a chart peak doesn't mean much. All of Janet's albums this century have either gone #1 or #2, but some of those albums had very abbreviated chart runs. Damita Jo was off the charts in 3 or 4 months time (Velvet Rope did 77 weeks, All For You did 52), it had no longevity and the sales plummetted rapidly after the first two or three weeks. Definitely a far cry from Control, Rhythm Nation and janet. spending well over a year in the top 40

    It's just like Madonna's Madame X being a #1 album, then falling to #77 in week two and then off the charts completely in week 3
     
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  14. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    You'll note I also mentioned that "Damita Jo" sold more than a million copies US and didn't solely rely on chart data! :shh:
     
  15. Jmac1979

    Jmac1979 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    Yes but I used to follow Soundscan religiously at the time because the data was very easy to come by back then. There was one poster on another forum who routinely kept up the Soundscan data for the "big four" female artists (Madonna, Janet, Mariah and Whitney). DJ was certified platinum off the bat, but took 4 years until it finally reached 1 million "sales". 20 Y.O. was certified platinum but last I checked was around 700,000 sales and will never come close to what it was certified. Madonna's American Life and Mariah's Glitter are both "platinum" albums too and both are sitting between 600-700k copies in actual units sold.

    But Janet also had albums that are grossly UNDERCERTIFIED. janet. has scanned 7.1 million copies and is still sitting on 6x and All For You is past 3 million in scans and is still just certified double platinum. Control and Rhythm Nation hit pre-Soundscan but I also wouldn't put it past them to both being above 5 and 6 million copies as well.
     
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  16. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Point remains... the album sold relatively well and didn't flop! It wasn't the commercial disaster it's been made out to be over the last 16 years...
     
  17. Jmac1979

    Jmac1979 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    Well Janet herself was unsatisfied with the results enough to cancel a tour she had planned in 2004 (and she did the same with 20 YO, initial copies actually came with ticket presale codes when she'd announce her next tour).

    Anyways, the irony being we're talking about Elton and Janet's bouts of commercial "suicide", and we're on Wham.

    We too could use the same argument with George Michael, someone whose popularity stateside had been in drastic decline throughout the 90s and then pretty much was never able to rebound again after his 1998 bathroom bust. Just like Elton and Janet, one could argue George's fortunes were already declining (Older had two top 10 singles, but it certainly didn't set the world on fire, at least not in the US, overseas it was as big as Faith), but he never had a top 100 appearance again for the rest of his life (Last Christmas recharts every December along with Mariah, Brenda Lee and a few others, but that's a different story) after the way he was outed to the world.
     
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  18. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    In the US, George sabotaged himself with his "everything I did pre-1990 was crap and you're an idiot if you liked it" vibe...
     
  19. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    I dunno. The sheets were changed while I was down having breakfast. It might have been Doris doing the housekeeping. You never know...

    :biglaugh:

    My opinion of Doris Day changed dramatically when I found out she was best friends with Judy Garland.

    :bigeek:
     
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  20. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    Just saying that straight guys get mis-identified as being gay when they don't exactly comply with the male standards set up by society. It's doubly worse when you are Black or Latino. People used to think there was something wrong with me because I was in my early twenties, and didn't drink, smoke, do illicit drugs, or have five kids by three different women.
     
  21. boyjohn

    boyjohn Senior Member

    That makes it seem that there is something wrong with being gay. Thankfully we have (mostly) moved on from such thinking, and most younger people would never look at it that way. A persons sexuality and gender is not a matter anymore of fitting in with some arbitrary "society standards". As older people, we need to stop repeating those old tropes about it also.
     
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  22. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    See, there it is again. People set up these dumb-ass rules that if you like something from another culture, or is perceived as being of another culture, you must be part of it. Like I said about me having to listen to Barbra Streisand albums in secret: I didn't want anyone to think I was gay.

    I had no idea gays like Janet Jackson.
     
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  23. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus

    Regarding music that is considered gay: I've always thought that was stupid too. Why is it most straight guys in the US can't listen to disco music? I hate that.

    I honestly think is a rather American (or maybe Anglo-American) phenomenon; it's related to a hyper-macho culture and some weird sexual posturing -- I think it causes a lot of social problems and psychological pressure there, these assigning people to these little cultural boxes. . Where I am the idea that Judy Garland, or more likely, disco music is "gay music" would just be strange.

    I mean, tough middle-aged guys here listen to Abba. I mean, here on these boards, we music lovers are different, we like lots of things, but I think we are exceptions and there are plenty of examples of that kind of narrow thinking on this board, too, actually. (Though maybe not this thread.)
     
    Last edited: Aug 2, 2020
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  24. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    Exactly.

    Don't kid yourself! There are an awful lot of people who still have a problem with it today. They just aren't as outspoken about it as they used to be, unless they think you may be of like mind. Then they let it all hang out.

    That's why a lot of people in my generation and older fight the youth.

    There's a computer youtuber Linus Sebastian who put up a video last year of him reading all of his hate mail. Now, this guy in his late 20s has a very high voice, wears multiple earrings, and has effeminate mannerisms, but he's straight, married, and has three kids. Yet, he gets insulted by total strangers for being fruity or a f***** (their words). The guy has since grew a beard. maybe the insults got to him.
     
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  25. boyjohn

    boyjohn Senior Member

    There will always be some who fight progress, it will always be the case. But overall, we are moving in the right direction. The kids will save us eventually, if we don't destroy ourselves first.
     
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