I think “Do they know its Christmas” amd “We Are the World” are both pretty nice, though Im sure nostalgia plays a part.
Diana Ross fell off the US Pop Charts, her biggest selling album in the UK was released in 1994, and after 1986 she'd still score a plethora of hits on the singles charts across Europe. Even in the mid-late 90's singles like Take Me Higher, I Will Survive and Not Over You Yet hit in the UK, the latter was a Top 10 hit in 1999. It was American ageism plain and simple. Outside of R&B audiences Aretha all but disappeared between the mid-70's and mid-80's. So yes, 'Who's Zoomin'Who' was a comeback of sorts.
But like Grant said above, Diana was far more of a pop artist than Aretha. R&B was Aretha's "home" and she rarely strayed far from it, and she never stopped being successful there while the pop world had largely pushed r&b music aside unless you were a disco artist or someone like Stevie Wonder who had essentially transcended genre at the time and was universally beloved back then.
Re: Shannon Really? Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, that's iconic 80s. On that level? It's weird, I listened to radio and watched videos all the time, and I swear I have never heard of this person before today. It's strange to have everyone insist a song you don't know is iconic, let me tell you! It's quite possible I've heard her songs and not known it; I recall when we were in the '70s learning who actually sang songs I had heard all my life without knowing the artist. But this particular song, not familiar.
Well, it's a gold single. top 10, and number 1 dance hit. It's one of the most popular dance songs of all time.
The video mix is a bit different (sounds like it was resung) from the original hit version. But I'm surprised you were a teen in 1984 and never heard this in passing at least It's not Girls Just Wanna Have Fun/Thriller/Purple Rain level "iconic" but it still remains a staple on Jack FM type playlists and other stations that might have an 80s throwback party or something. It wasn't a #1 hit (only got to #8) but it was a massive r&b and danceclub single.
The very best #1 records of 1984: "When Doves Cry" - Nothing about the bass here. "Time After Time" - Timeless. "Karma Chameleon" - Pop perfection. "Out Of Touch" - Hall & Oates still at their peak. "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" - A nice change of pace from the rest of the charts. Still great #1s: "What's Love Got To Do With It" - Perfect matching of singer and song. "Jump" - Gotta have the "1984" intro. "Let's Go Crazy" - Lots of unique and interesting intros for this year's crop of chart-toppers. Good: "Ghostbusters" - My students today have no clue about references to Rain Man, Forrest Gump, Seinfeld.... But they still know "Who ya gonna call?" Ghostbusters! "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" - I used to dislike this, but it's just irresistible pop. "Say Say Say" - It's a really fun, snappy little duet, but Paul's set the bar impossibly high for himself. "Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)" - Used to like this a lot more. Still sentimental value. "Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run)" - I prefer the follow-up single by a lot... "I Just Called To Say I Love You" - Like junk food, it's sweet and tuneful with a lot of empty calories in the lyrics. OK: "The Reflex" - I like it ok, but it doesn't match their best songs. "Missing You" - A decent top-ten-ish hit, but a #1? "Footloose" - I don't hate this, but it got played way too much. "Like A Virgin" - See above. Meh: "Hello" - A decent but generic Richie ballad; top ten fodder but not #1. Why not "Hold Me Now"? Or "You Might Think" (a top video these weeks)? "Let's Hear It For The Boy" - I've no reason to go out of my way to play this. For other 'songs that should have been #1'... My top picks are a tie between "Dancing In The Dark" by Bruce Springsteen and "Purple Rain" by Prince. It was very poignant to hear Bruce cover this song as a tribute to Prince. In addition, "Say It Isn't So" by Hall & Oates, "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper, "Here Comes The Rain Again" by Eurythmics, "Hold Me Now" by Thompson Twins, "Oh Sherrie" by Steve Perry, "Sad Songs (Say So Much)" by Elton John, and "Drive" by The Cars all deserved the top spot for at least a week. Also worthy of mention that peaked in 1984 are: "Undercover" - The Rolling Stones" (#9), "Holiday" - Madonna (#16), "Break My Stride" - Matthew Wilder (#5), "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues" - Elton John (#4), "Pink Houses" - John Mellencamp (#8), "She Was Hot" - The Rolling Stones" (#44 - I can' believe this didn't crack the top 40!), "Middle Of The Road" - Pretenders (#19), "That's All" - Genesis (#6), "An Innocent Man" - Billy Joel (#10), "Wrapped Around Your Finger" - Police (#8), "Let The Music Play" - Shannon (#8), "Nobody Told Me" - John Lennon (#5), "Runner" - Manfred Mann's Earth Band (#30), "Got A Hold On Me" - Christine McVie (#10), "The Language Of Love" - Dan Fogelberg (#13), "99 Luftballoons" - Nena (#2), "Radio Ga Ga" - Queen (#16), "Adult Education" - Hall & Oates (#8), "Don't Answer Me" - Alan Parsons Project (#15), "Tonight" - Kool & The Gang (#13), "You Might Think" - The Cars (#7), "Love Somebody" - Rick Springfield (#5), "Rock You Like A Hurricane" - Scorpions (#25), "Run Runaway" - Slade (#20), "Who's That Girl?" - Eurythmics (#21), "Borderline" - Madonna (#10), "Self Control" - Laura Branigan (#4), "Eyes Without A Face" - Billy Idol (#4), "Infatuation" - Rod Stewart (#6), "Panama" - Van Halen (#13), "State Of Shock" - Jackson w/ Mick Jagger (#3), "Sexy Girl" - Glenn Frey (#20), "Lights Out" - Peter Wolf (#12), "Rock Me Tonite" - Billy Squier (#15), "Torture" - Jacksons (#17), "Cruel Summer" - Bananarama (#9), "Go Insane" - Lindsey Buckingham (#23), "She Bop" - Cyndi Lauper (#3), "Some Guys Have All The Luck" - Rod Stewart (#10), "I'm So Excited" - Pointer Sisters (#9), "The Wild Boys" - Duran Duran (#2), "No More Lonely Nights" - Paul McCartney (#6), "All Through The Night" - Cyndi Lauper (#5). I could have listed another two dozen favorites easily. The best non-#1 records: "Purple Rain" "Dancing In The Dark" "Self Control" "Radio Ga Ga" "Sad Songs (Say So Much)" "Break My Stride" "Here Comes The Rain Again" "State Of Shock" "Adult Education" "Pink Houses" Still a strong year for singles, but the thinning out is beginning....
re: "Do They Know It's Christmas"...seeing the video for the first time in...oh, I dunno...35 years, I'm surprised how subdued Sting is. I don't think he even got a lead vocal. This would've been right after he left the Police and gearing up for a solo career, plus he's Mr. Social Activism when he wants to be. There has to be some kind of story behind this. The line "and there won't be snow in Africa this year" annoys me. When is there ever snow in the majority of Africa?
Is someone gonna list the hits that stalled out at #2 on the Billboard charts in '84? That's always interesting.
Nothing can take Diana's history away. I just find it bizarre that Dionne, Tina and finally Aretha could all have such massive success in the '80s - in the case of Dionne and especially Tina coming back from a considerable period in the commercial wilderness even on the R&B charts, let alone pop - while Diana, after initially being massive circa '80 - '82, just completely collapsed after '84. She was still beautiful and she knew how to work a camera, so you'd have thought the MTV era would have treated her better than the others. Like I said, not everybody could be Tina Turner. I think the real issue here is that a lot of '80s R&B tinged pop just didn't suit Diana's singing or personality. The light rock charts during this period went more off into a sophistipop direction (i.e. Sade), which I think Diana could have done well, but for whatever reason she didn't. Tina on the other hand did incorporate that sound into her work in a fairly novel combo with R&B and rock. Not only was it innovative and fresh, but it really suited her. And Aretha had the pipes to actually keep up with your Chakas, your Pattis and Pointers and whatnot and produce work that sounded dead contemporary. Bad song and production choices. Her best track on Swept Away sounds like it came from '82. "Missing You" is a good song and I really like it, but it's badly dated. The title cut is an OK song but it's all wrong for Diana. I think if she'd done something stylistically similar to Private Dancer it would have worked well. It's also possible Jam & Lewis could have worked well with Diana. And speaking of those two, I also think Janet Jackson kind of displaced her. She had a very similar singing style, kind of that talk-singing, not a belter, and was a couple decades younger if memory serves. Jody Watley as well, so add Andre Cymone to the list of people Ross should have worked with...
Well we still have one more #1 to go, although the song and artist is very synonymous with 1985 moreso than 84
That's what I said. I know people claim that, but was that really what it was, or was it really because the music she made was out of step with the musical directions of the late 80s and 90s? It can't be ageism if the younger audience was simply not enjoying the music. No, she still hit the pop top 40 twice in that time with "Something he Can Feel" in 1976 and "Jump To It" in 1982.
The only it was so popular is because it was a tribute to Marvin Gaye, who was murdered by his own father just eight months earlier. The song was co-written and produced by Lionel Richie.
But the thing is.... while Diana pretty much faded from the US charts overnight, in the UK her superstardom lasted for more than a decade afterwards. Chain Reaction (her last US hot 100 appearance) was a charttopper there and is one of her signature hits. Plus 1991's "When You Tell Me That You Love Me" was a smash #2 single there that is so popular there that she rerecorded it as a duet with boyband Westlife in 2005 and once again it reached the runner-up position. Plus many other top 40 appearances from 1986-2000 at a time when her career had faded completely stateside. This isn't a case where she fell everywhere, she retained the European market at a time when the hits essentially faded out (she'd have one more r&b top 5 in 1989, and a handful of hits on the dance chart, but that's about it) at home.
Not sure about SCTV, I haven't watched much TV in four decades. Ironically I have Wishful Thinking by China Crisis playing as I came to your post!
Not far off, it was and still is huge. I know everyone is chiming in, but I'm surprised too! There are plenty of well-known songs I haven't heard before (some of them are popping up in the UK #1 hits of the '70s thread) but I've usually heard of them. Two similar follow-ups weren't bad either, Give Me Tonight and Do You Wanna Get Away. They're not even my style of music really, but the rhythms are well-constructed and very itchy-can't-sit-still danceable, for those who are into that sort of entertainment ...
"SCTV" went kaput before "Do They Know It's Christmas"/"We Are the World", so they couldn't parody it. "Simpsons" spoofed the concept:
