I'm talking early/mid 90s. At least in my narrowminded school, there was literally no room for anything except whether you chose to be a gangsta rap fan or you chose the grunge/alternative path (as grunge mainly petered out by 94 and was more replaced by stuff like Green Day, Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins, etc... that kept the torch after Cobain's death and Pearl Jam stopped making videos, etc....) Perhaps it was different elsewhere but I seriously don't remember a single heterosexual male in my middle or high school admitting to liking Madonna, Whitney, Janet, Mariah, Celine, Shania or even Alanis or No Doubt (irony being that the last two were initially marketed to a more rock crowd, but it still wasn't enough), even it was hard to find guys who'd admit to liking Hole or Garbage because of this misogynist stigma about owning to liking female artists, but the gay boys had no shame in openly liking that stuff. I actually felt some weight lifted off me when I finally came out because I could finally admit that I'd always loved Madonna and Janet from the first time I'd heard them when I was little instead of trying to act like I didn't want to crank the radio up when I heard them.
1 4 WAKE ME UP BEFORE YOU GO-GO –•– Wham! (Columbia)-11 (1 Week at #1) (1) Cheesy but fun, the birth of a superstar who'd become accustomed to the top of the chart for the next decade 2 3 PURPLE RAIN –•– Prince & The Revolution (Warner Brothers)-7 (2) Amazing song and I'm glad it got as high as it did, but I do think it works better on album where the whole 8 1/2 minute rock opera of it can play out vs. the single edit that literally chops the song in half and fades out at the beginning of the phenomenal guitar solo 3 1 CARIBBEAN QUEEN (No More Love On The Run) –•– Billy Ocean (Jive)-15 (1) Already covered it. Nice but nothing lifechanging 4 5 I FEEL FOR YOU –•– Chaka Khan (Warner Brothers)-11 (4) Killer single and one of the first real crossover hits to embrace hip hop. Just a shame that it pretty much marked the end of Chaka's top 40 time barring a guest appearance on a Quincy Jones single five years on 5 2 I JUST CALLED TO SAY I LOVE YOU –•– Stevie Wonder (Motown)-14 (1) No, just no. 7 7 BETTER BE GOOD TO ME –•– Tina Turner (Capitol)-10 (7) Great single, proof that What's Love wasn't a fluke 8 11 STRUT –•– Sheena Easton (EMI-America)-13 (8) Her best material was from this period IMO, gone was the poor man's ONJ and being replaced with a sexier and more confident make 9 12 ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT –•– Cyndi Lauper (Portrait)-7 (9) Another killer single off the She's So Unusual album 10 13 PENNY LOVER –•– Lionel Richie (Motown)-7 (10) Nice track but definitely the least of the singles off Can't Slow Down 11 8 BLUE JEAN –•– David Bowie (EMI-America)-10 (8) Decent leadoff to Tonight, but EMI was unable to provide a decent followup. When they finally wised up and released "Loving The Alien", it was way too late (May 1985) as the album was dead and all momentum had been lost. 12 10 DESERT MOON –•– Dennis DeYoung (A&M)-11 (10) Kroger muzak staple 13 9 HARD HABIT TO BREAK –•– Chicago (Full Moon / Warner Brothers)-16 (3) Putting the power in power ballad. Fashionable to hate this era of Chicago, but I like it. 16 22 COOL IT NOW –•– New Edition (MCA)-9 (16) This one is being discussed over on the r&b thread. Irresistable ear worm and just a fun song all around. 17 20 THE WAR SONG –•– Culture Club (Virgin)-7 (17) Their "jump the shark" moment. The followup would be much stronger (Mistake No. 3), but the awful reception to this song pretty much killed the album (which as discussed many times was a far inferior effort to the two that preceded it) as soon as it hit shelves 19 28 THE WILD BOYS –•– Duran Duran (Capitol)-3 (19) Some could say this video was their Spinal Tap moment given Simon Lebon almost drowned making it. Totally bombastic but it works in a way it could only work for Duran Duran. 21 14 ON THE DARK SIDE –•– Eddie & The Cruisers / John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band (Scotti Brothers)-23 (7) While I know the popularity of Eddie & The Cruisers helped give this song a second life. I have to think the blockbuster success of "Born In The U.S.A." couldn't have hurt the song finally breaking through in late 1984 as it is *very* Springsteen 23 27 WALKING ON A THIN LINE –•– Huey Lewis & The News (Chrysalis)-5 (23) I like it. A welcome change after some fluff (but very irresistible fluff) smash singles. 25 31 WE BELONG –•– Pat Benatar (Chrysalis)-4 (25) One of her best. Proof that she could do more than rock. 30 17 LUCKY STAR –•– Madonna (Sire)-13 (4) The calm just before the storm. Big hit (#4) but she was just about to turn into Michael's female equivalent 31 38 HELLO AGAIN –•– The Cars (Elektra)-4 (31) Fun track. A dip from "Drive" but proof that even with a producer like Mutt Lange they could still be quirky like in the past. 40 48 CENTIPEDE –•– Rebbie Jackson (Columbia)-7 (40) Fun track that Michael wrote for his big sister This Week’s Drops 51 23 SWEPT AWAY –•– Diana Ross (RCA)-12 (19) Fun song 60 39 COVER ME –•– Bruce Springsteen (Columbia)-15 (7) I like it but lack of a video seems to make this and "I'm Goin' Down" to be the forgotten hits off USA Power Plays 42 52 BORN IN THE U.S.A. –•– Bruce Springsteen (Columbia)-2 (42) Also surprised this only got to #9 (though when the album it came from sold 15 million in the US alone, it's hard to muster any sympathy) because it was so ubiquitous throughout the 80s that one would've guessed it was a top 2/3 at least 50 55 (Pride) IN THE NAME OF LOVE –•– U2 (Island)-4 (50) America wasn't quite there yet but U2 were slowly inching their way to superstardom and would cash it in big in a few short years. One of those songs you'd think had peaked higher than #33 just because of how much airplay it's received over the decades
It's being used ironically. Even at the time, I thought there was something somewhat disturbing about the stable of female acts Rick James and Prince assembled around them. It felt like the musical equivalent of a brothel.
I totally don't remember them coming out in that order, but I suspect that might be because our local music video station played the "Too Late For Goodbyes" video early. I wonder if it was available to them before "Valotte" got its single release?
"Billie Jean" was recorded a year or so after "I Can't Go For That" came out. MJ totally admitted ripping it off to Daryl Hall.
I think I find "Wild Boys" less annoying because there's a lot more space in its pulsing mix. You can actually hear thru it and there are dynamics. Several of the singles from the previous record were just a flat wall of overproduced sound in comparison and really get on my nerves.
It was hilarious to witness dumb****s treat it as some kind of pro-America anthem. It was a pretty clear demonstration to me that most jingoistic patriots are dumb as a box of rocks.
Too Late was released first in the UK, but they flipped it around and released "Valotte" first in the US. I always felt bad for Julian. It seems like its always been harder for the child of a famous musician to have longlasting success in music compared to film where a Michael Douglas or Ben Stiller or Charlie Sheen or someone could get work for decades and break out of the shadow. Julian had a successful debut, but then afterwards the newness of "it's John Lennon's son" wore off and he fell hard and fast.... Jakob Dylan would fall a certain path too because at one point in time he was more popular than his dad and that lasted a whole album before he faded too. Then let's not even get into Sean Lennon, Dhani Harrison, Nona Gaye, Rhonda Ross, Harper Simon, Lisa Marie Presley (she got so much hype and nothing really compared to what was expected), Phil Collins' son, Sting's son, etc etc etc.... none of which even achieved 1% of their father's success to where I can understand why Michael Jackson's kids or Madonna's kids and the sort haven't even made the attempt to cash in on pop stardom because it probably wouldn't come as easily as one would expect.
I think Chicago got far worse AFTER 1984. The worst part about the touring iteration of Chicago now is that literally nobody who sang on ANY of their hit records are in the band any more. Bill Champlin and Jason Scheff both took turns at the helm on their later hits after Cetera bailed, and both guys have also had acrimonious partings with the band themselves.
I will admit the generation gap definitely factors in that you're surprised at the popularity of Madonna, Janet, Whitney and Cher amongst gay men (as well as pretty much every other major female pop star of the 80s and 90s) but admit you yourself used to worry about the stigma associated with Barbra Streisand. From firsthand knowledge, I'd say I know very few gay men in the 35-50 range who've ever cared more for Barbra Streisand than a passing interest in 2 or 3 songs. The only "fan" I know of hers in that range is someone who has a vested interest in musical theater. On the other hand, if you were to take a poll of gay men born roughly 1970-1985 to check off artists they've ever owned a cd of... chances are they're well vested in the discographies of the aforementioned but many might not like Babs whereas we were all about Janet and Madonna in the early 90s. She's always been seen as "boring" as long as I've been out of the closet, she lacks the charm and ability to throw herself into any era like Cher nor the sense of humor that Bette Midler has, and she never went all-in and did something like when Liza did a dance pop album with Pet Shop Boys in 1989. She's never quite had that resonance many of her peers had with that generation who came up at a time when Madonna was queen and when all these other female pop stars were kicking butt. Even someone like Cyndi Lauper has a far bigger gay following in that range than Babs I personally enjoy the Guilty record (which has more to do with the Bee Gees than Babs herself, they sounded great together) and a handful of her pop singles from the 70s and early 80s... and embarassingly the Yentl soundtrack, but I've definitely never been a big fan and I've never seen the fixation with her people my age show Cher, Madonna or even Gaga
Didn't stay at Doris' hotel, but I did eat at Clint Eastwood's Restaurant. This would have been ~20 years ago (the Hog's Breath Inn?). Yes, Clint had a restaurant in Carmel.
For people who were teens in the mid-eighties, one of the big cultural touchstones were the films of John Hughes and the Brat Pack. The first film of his I was aware of was Sixteen Candles, which came out in mid-1984. Molly Ringwald became the big teen-dream star of the era (although, to be honest, I always found her pretty irritating; she seemed to be perpetually rolling her eyes). This was the film that made her famous. And we will be hearing a lot of iconic songs coming from these soundtracks as well! PS - don't blink or you'll miss John Cusack in one of his first screen appearances.
I like the movie and recently rewatched the Arrow blu-ray of it, but it's a film that has become really controversial in recent times because things that flew in 1984 won't in "woke" 2020, even Molly Ringwald called it out. It's a product of its time and nobody held Gedde Watanabe (want to feel old? He's 65 now) to take this or several other variations of the role he'd play throughout the decade. The irony of the movie is that Molly honestly takes a backseat to Anthony Michael Hall and Michael Schoeffling through much of the movie, she's almost absent during the middle of the film.
To be clear, i'm talking about the music. Straight guys around here had those albums. No big deal. Again, it's the song i'm talking about, not the person. I guess a big difference is that you were presumably living in the south. It was different out here as far as music is concerned. @The Slug Man Yeah, I jumped big time, only to illustrate points, but, to my credit, I never delved into actually talking about the songs. BTW, same here about Lisa Loeb in the 90s, but I was taking about 1984 Madonna.
In the U.S., Valotte definitely came out first. For some reason I always thought Too Late For Goodbyes was the much bigger hit, but according to Billboard, Valotte got to 9, Goodbyes to 5, so not a huge difference. I really like Valotte, and can even tolerate the weird lyric about sitting on a pebble by the river. I recall him having a little bit of a heartthrob status among some of the girls in my dorm (OK, at this point I guess we're talking about 'women'; we were now old enough to vote!). And yeah, he really does look and sound uncannily like his dad.
Again, perhaps yours and Jmac79's experience maybe comes from the fact that you guys were in the south?
I remember driving to work the first time "Valotte" was played and I almost pulled off the road. I thought it was some previously unknown John Lennon recording.
Even at the time I thought that exchange student (I won't say his name) was ridiculously not-acceptable. Not sure what they were thinking.
Could it be that you are dis-remembering it all? The single and video sequence was: Valotte Too Late For Goodbyes Say You're Wrong Oh sh***! Now here's where I got the release sequence backward. So, we're even!
