EVERY Billboard #1 hit discussion thread 1958-Present

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

  1. 1983

    1983 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Appleton, WI (USA)
    It had an interesting sound (was it trying to sound "Egyptian" in the solo and coda?) and a fun set of lyrics that probably wouldn't fly now. I liked it more when I first heard it than I do now considering it too has been overplayed over the years. And how does one exactly "walk like an Egyptian" anyway? Apparently songwriter Liam Sternberg wrote it after seeing people walk awkwardly trying to keep their balance on a ferry, which reminded him of how the figures looked in Egyptian hieroglyphs. Interesting.
    The opposite happened to me with their earlier hit "Manic Monday" - loved it at first, then got extremely sick of it.
     
    Grant and Lance LaSalle like this.
  2. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Meanwhile, let us look at those songs that made #1 on the Cash Box and/or Radio & Records charts that just missed the top spot of Billboard's Hot 100 in '86, shall we:

    - "When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going" by Billy Ocean (CB & R&R #1 / BB #2)
    - "Why Can't This Be Love" by Van Halen (CB #1 / R&R #2 / BB #3)
    - "No One Is To Blame" by Howard Jones (R&R #1 / CB #3 / BB #4)
    - "Dancing On The Ceiling" by Lionel Richie (R&R #1 / BB #2 / CB #4)
    - "Throwing It All Away" by Genesis (R&R #1 / CB #3 / BB #4)
    - "Typical Male" by Tina Turner (CB & R&R #1 / BB #2)
    - "Hip To Be Square" by Huey Lewis And The News (R&R #1 / BB #3 / CB #6)
    - "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" by Wang Chung (CB & R&R #1 / BB #2)

    Meanwhile, of those Billboard #1's of this year, "Holding Back The Years," "Venus" and "The Next Time I Fall" only topped their Hot 100, missed on the other charts.

    As to those, which would you swap for those that did top the Billboard Hot 100 in this year?
     
    Nipper and SomeCallMeTim like this.
  3. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Over in the UK, meanwhile, "Walk Like An Egyptian" made #2 on the NME and Melody Maker charts, but stalled at #3 over on Gallup's "official" singles chart. (At the time this reached its UK peak, the #1 single there was Berlin's "Take My Breath Away.")
     
    Yam Graham likes this.
  4. DesertHermit

    DesertHermit Now an UrbanHermit

    Well to my 13 year old ears it was a great bit of fun. Personally, I could give a tin **** what cops or the occasional Egyptian felt about it. As a person who has a couple of Egyptian friends my age, I can tell you, neither of them had even heard of the song and both thought it was hysterical.
     
    AppleBonker, 1983 and Lance LaSalle like this.
  5. bare trees

    bare trees Senior Member

    Never been a fan of this song.
     
    SomeCallMeTim and 1983 like this.
  6. Oatsdad

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

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    I became a Bangles fan earlier in 1986 when "If She Knew What She Wants" won me over.

    "Walk" is... okay. Overplayed, so it's hard to separate the song from the "sick of it" factor.

    Surprised this one didn't hit #1 until the end of the year! I took a trip to LA in August and the radio stations there already had it in heavy rotation then!
     
  7. HGN2001

    HGN2001 Mystery picture member

    Nope. I've often said I don't pay attention to lyrics, but these were crazy enough that I avoided this one.
     
  8. Steve Mc

    Steve Mc Bangles Encyclopedia

    Location:
    United States
    Walk Like An Egyptian
    My favorite band, The Bangles hit #1. Bangles fans are divided on this one. You have folks who maybe got into the band with Different Light or this song's video who absolutely love it. Others vastly prefer the first EP and LP and view the song as a novelty number that represented producer David Kahne's vision over the band's and which led eventually to their breakup. I got into the band with their later album Everything, so I end up somewhere in the middle. It is a fun song, sounding fresh and different from other things on the radio at the time. While it may not be the most representative of the band's sound and talents, it does have a certain energy, like garage rock on steroids.



    Some interesting bits about the song's creation. While The Bangles viewed themselves as a garage rock type band, Kahne, focusing on their talent as vocalists in harmony, sought to mold them more as a vocal group with highly professional backing. He went as far as to send for songs from Motown for the band to record as a single, because after recording Manic Monday and If She Knew What She Wants, he, also a Columbia executive, apparently decided the band's original material was too weak.
    Walk Like An Egyptian was sent to him by mistake.
    He played it for the band, who thought it might be fun to record, maybe even set of a dance craze. The band decided to let drummer Debbi Peterson sing all the vocals. Kahne, however, disliked Debbi's vocal and first had the others audition for the vocal, before deciding to go with the final alternating approach. Debbi says she went to work programming the drum machine for the track, trying to do it at her home when Kahne showed up to supervise the process.
    Kahne's strategy for most tracks on the album was to let The Bangles record their parts, and then use that as a template for the final cut, for which he would often bring in session guitarists and drummers to overdub or replace the parts. Because of this, I'm not sure if it is Vicki Peterson playing the guitar on here. It definitely sounds like something she would play, not being too far from her work on All Over The Place. And she could play it live for sure. The bass, which really holds the song together, is indeed from Michael Steele, as with all tracks on the album. Story goes Kahne brought in session guys to overdub her , but decided her lines were superior and left them in.

    Anyway, Walk Like An Egyptian catapulted the band to superstardom, but with a lot of this stardom focused on Susanna Hoffs, and with Debbi's exclusion from this track, the fracture lines within the band began to grow.

    Two follow up single were released. The Susanna Hoffs sung and co-written "Walking Down Your Street" was given a wide release, but missed the top 10 in the U.S.
    In the British Isles, the dark Michael Steele composition "Following" was surprisingly released, becoming a hit in Ireland.

    I wonder if the band themselves were angling for the album track "Let It Go" to be released, however. It was written by all four band members, and they were breaking it out to open their concerts and some promotional appearances. I think they recorded it in one take in studio, Kahne did not like it, but his Columbia superiors outvoted him and included it on the album. Not sure if it would have been a hit, though, but it would have been their most representative single from their popular period if they did.
    Here is the band performing the song on The Tube.
     
  9. The Slug Man

    The Slug Man Forum Resident

    Location:
    North Carolina
    "Walk Like An Egyptian"

    Lots of great memories of this song. The video was extremely popular thanks especially to Susannah Hoffs.

    And now we find ourselves in '87.
     
    pablo fanques and DesertHermit like this.
  10. SITKOL'76

    SITKOL'76 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Colombia, SC
    I guess we're in 1987 now lol
     
    Lance LaSalle likes this.
  11. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Isn't her name one of a zillion answers, in some sectors, to the question, "What is the meaning of life?" Based on those who are fans of hers 'round here . . .
     
  12. F-Stop Fitzgerald

    F-Stop Fitzgerald Full Fathom Five

    Location:
    La Crosse, WI
    This one is great. Fun, tongue-in-cheek lyrics, and one of the best singles of the 80s. I bought the 12" for the extended mix, which is my favorite version.

    All the old paintings on the tomb
    They do the sand dance, don't you know?


    Behold! The original Sand Dance, as performed by Wilson & Keppel (starts at about 00:55 mark):

     
    pablo fanques likes this.
  13. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus

    I love that guitar hook that keeps repeating at the end of the song, it’s been in my head all day. Really fantastic single.
     
    VU Master, pablo fanques and Steve Mc like this.
  14. Grant

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

    Interesting comments.

    I love "Hero Takes A Fall", but didn't become a fan until "Different Light". If you could wear out a CD, I would have worn it out. And I do love "Let It Go". I guess i'm one of the few people who don't much care for "If She Knew What She Wants". I'm thinking the critics glommed over that one because Alex Chilton wrote it. The band have said they are fans of Big Star.

    Producer David Kahne definitely moved them into a more focused, pop direction. Maybe the band wasn't so crazy about that prospect, but it got them up the charts...thanks to Prince, who reportedly had a thing for Susanna Hoffs.

    I always wonder what would have happened if The Go-Go's had gotten him to produce them.
     
  15. John22

    John22 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Northern Germany
    Lance LaSalle likes this.
  16. Steve Mc

    Steve Mc Bangles Encyclopedia

    Location:
    United States
    Actually, that one was written by Jules Shear.
    "September Gurls" is Chilton, and critics liked that one too.
     
  17. MongrelPiano

    MongrelPiano "When I was young they gave me a mongrel piano..."

    Location:
    USA
    I would make "No One Is To Blame" #1 and boot "Sara", easily the worst chart-topper of '86 and I song I've always despised. Yeah, "City" sucked but the straight-faced posturing and bombast is *almost* amusingly inept. "Sara", on the other hand, is just a beige vortex of despair. For once (ha!), Mr. Stereogum hit the nail on the head: they threw all sorts of contemporary production touches at it and still managed to out-bland Billy Ocean. Blegh!
     
    1983 likes this.
  18. SITKOL'76

    SITKOL'76 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Colombia, SC
    Walk Like An Egyptian is weird but I like the video. They look gorgeous and I love the scenes of people on the streets. I have a strange obsession with pre-9/11 New York, I always look for the skyline to see if I can spot the World Trade Center.
     
    MDNA4ever and ARK like this.
  19. Hoover Factory

    Hoover Factory Old Dude Who Knows Things

    Location:
    Spokane, WA
    I loved the band, loved “Walk Like an Egyptian”, and was thrilled to see The Bangles finally at the top. I had been a fan since I first heard “The Real World” back in 1982 and would play my copies of their 1982 EP and 1984’s All Over the Place to anyone who was willing to listen.
     
  20. Hoover Factory

    Hoover Factory Old Dude Who Knows Things

    Location:
    Spokane, WA
    I would delete “Glory of Love” and “The Next Time I Fall” (sorry - I can’t stand Peter Cetera). I would add “Hip to Be Square” and “Everybody Have Fun Tonight”
     
    1983, pablo fanques and Lance LaSalle like this.
  21. Oatsdad

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

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Wrong songwriter.

    In 1986, I had no idea who Jules Shear was. I just heard "If She Knew..." - or saw the video - and really liked it.

    I have no idea what 'the critics' thought of it.
     
    SomeCallMeTim and Grant like this.
  22. Bruce M.

    Bruce M. Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hilo, HI, USA
    "Walk Like an Egyptian" is typical of eighties stuff I liked most -- the playful, fun stuff by outfits like the Bangles, the Go-Gos, Culture Club, etc. The heavy, droning power ballads by certain other artists previously mentioned on this thread always left me cold.
     
  23. Grant

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

    Oops! Should have double-checked. Either way, both songs were done by Big Star.
     
  24. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus

    No. Big Star broke up before Jules Shear’s recording career started, though not long before (as he started in the late seventies, and they broke up, basically, in 1974.)
     
    Last edited: Apr 22, 2021
    Steve Mc likes this.
  25. ARK

    ARK Forum Miscreant

    Location:
    Charlton, MA, USA
    Walk Like An Egyptian
    Loved it as a kid. Today, not so much
     
    Steve Mc and 1983 like this.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine