Very "of its era" in terms of lyrics. The whole "I might be a rich rock star but I still care!" thing was big in that period! I like the song okay, and it certainly signaled that we weren't gonna get "No Jacket Required Part 2". Not that the whole album lives up to the "But Seriously" title, but it's clearly a long way from the peppier "NJR"...
I had that book. The whole section about "American Dream" and CSN is savage. (Neil Young "took them in, probably fed them, let them touch his expensive recording equipment"..."we were (temporarily) so happy David Crosby wasn't dead") I found my internet holy grail when "Candy Bars For Elvis," the most notable of the sappy tribute records listed in the book, turned up on YouTube.
I graduated from middle school, high school, and college in the 1980s. There are so many great records that I love from this decade. Here are my top 50 Billboard number one records of the 1980s: “Everybody Wants To Rule the World" - Tears For Fears "Every Breath You Take" - Police "Jack & Diane" - John Cougar "The Tide Is High" - Blondie "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)" - Pink Floyd "Celebration" - Kool & The Gang "Another One Bites The Dust" - Queen "Time After Time" - Cyndi Lauper "When Doves Cry" - Prince "Money For Nothing" - Dire Straits "Don't You (Forget About Me)" - Simple Minds "Down Under" -Men At Work "Keep On Loving You" - REO Speedwagon "With Or Without You" - U2 "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" - Queen "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" - Bonnie Tyler "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)" - Eurythmics "Eye Of The Tiger" - Survivor "It's Still Rock And Roll To Me" - Billy Joel "Careless Whisper" - Wham! "Like A Prayer" - Madonna "Sledgehammer" - Peter Gabriel "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" - U2 "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts "Bette Davis Eyes" - Kim Carnes "Magic" - Olivia Newton-John "Islands In The Stream" - Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton "Beat It" - Michael Jackson "Funkytown" - Lipps, Inc. "Karma Chameleon" - Culture Club "Faith" - George Michael "Come On Eileen" -Dexy's Midnight Runners "Centerfold" - J. Geils Band "Out Of Touch" - Hall & Oates "Africa" - Toto "A View To A Kill" - Duran Duran "The Power Of Love" - Huey Lewis & The News "Call Me" - Blondie "Rapture" - Blondie "Let's Dance" - David Bowie "Jessie's Girl" - Rick Springfield "Addicted To Love" - Robert Palmer "Walk Like An Egyptian" - Bangles "Take On Me" - A-Ha "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" - Yes "Morning Train (Nine To Five)" - Sheena Easton "Coming Up" - Paul McCartney & Wings “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)” - Hall & Oates "The Way It Is" - Bruce Hornsby & The Range "Let's Go Crazy" - Prince Bubbling Under: "Heaven Is A Place On Earth" - Belina Carlisle "9 To 5" - Dolly Parton "She Drives Me Crazy" - Fine Young Cannibals "Crazy For You" - Madonna "Saving All My Love for You" - Whitney Houston Top 50 other great Top 40 records of the 1980s: "Under Pressure" - Queen w/ David Bowie "Overkill" - Men At Work “Purple Rain" - Prince "Sowing The Seeds Of Love" - Tears For Fears "Don't Stop Believin'" - Journey “Start Me Up" - Rolling Stones “In The Air Tonight" - Phil Collins “Big Log" - Robert Plant “Dirty Laundry" - Don Henley "Head Over Heels" - Tears For Fears "Radio Ga Ga" - Queen “Let My Love Open The Door"- Pete Townshend “You Make My Dreams" - Hall & Oates “China Girl" - David Bowie "Hungry Heart" - Bruce Springsteen “The Boys Of Summer" - Don Henley "Eye In The Sky" - Alan Parsons Project “Refugee" - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers “Burning Down The House" - Talking Heads "The End Of The Innocence" - Don Henley "Just The Two Of Us" - Grover Washington, Jr. w/ Bill Withers “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" - Police "Let's Groove" - Earth, Wind & Fire “Master Blaster (Jammin')" - Stevie Wonder “The Winner Takes It All" - Abba "The Best Of Times" - Styx “You Shook Me All Night Long" - AC/DC “Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny)" - Elton John "Raspberry Beret" - Prince “Don't Come Around Here No More"- Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers “Urgent" - Foreigner "Shake It Up" - The Cars “Freeze Frame" - J. Geils Band “Rosanna" - Toto “Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" - Stevie Nicks w/ Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers “Take It On The Run" - REO Speedwagon “Walking On Sunshine" - Katrina & The Waves "Where The Streets Have No Name" - U2 “Loverboy" - Billy Ocean “Hungry Like The Wolf" - Duran Duran "Fool In The Rain" - Led Zeppelin "Hey Nineteen" - Steely Dan "Steppin' Out" - Joe Jackson "Sexual Healing" - Marvin Gaye “Don't Answer Me" - Alan Parsons Project "Faithfully" - Journey "Lawyers In Love" - Jackson Browne "Here Comes The Rain Again" - Eurythmics "Waiting On A Friend" - Rolling Stones "Always On My Mind" - Willie Nelson Bubbling Under: “Pink Houses" - John Mellencamp "Rockin' At Midnight" - Honeydrippers "Self Control" - Laura Branigan "Winning" - Santana "Ah! Leah!" - Donnie Iris
OMG the Hateration in here lmao, Another Day In Paradise is an amazing song, the 80's went out beautifully in my opinion much like the 60's with The Supremes "Someday We'll Be Together". I have always loved "Paradise" ever since I first heard it. My mother actually kind of likes Phil Collins. Now We Didn't Star The Fire?, That's an absolutely horrid song and I like Billy Joel. The 80's are finally over I see.
The 60s/70s transition went from "Someday We'll Be Together" to "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head". Very fitting. The 70s/80s transition was the unusual sandwiching of KC & The Sunshine Band's "Please Don't Go" by Rupert Holmes' "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)", which returned to #1 the second week of the decade after topping the last two weeks of the 70s. Also fitting. The 80s/90s transition is covered by "Another Day In Paradise" (a decent song, IMO) lasting for the first two weeks of the 90s. Without totally jumping ahead, the first #1 of the 90s is a cover of an 80s hit whose title now seems weirdly fitting as well.
We Didn’t Start The Fire : It was catchy the first few times I heard it bit got old rather quickly. The two follow up singles were better. Another Day In Paradise : As someone else mentioned, Phil covered this topic years earlier and to much greater effect with “Man On The Corner”.
And the #2 songs of the year, according to Billboard: - "Don't Rush Me" by Taylor Dayne - "Wild Thing" by Tone Loc - "The Lover In Me" by Sheena Easton - "Girl You Know It's True" by Milli Vanilli - "Real Love" by Jody Watley - "Soldier Of Love" by Donny Osmond - "Express Yourself" by Madonna - "On Our Own" by Bobby Brown - "Heaven" by Warrant (no, not the Bryan Adams number) - "Cherish" by Madonna - "Love Song" by The Cure - "Sowing The Seeds Of Love" by Tears For Fears - "Cover Girl" by New Kids On The Block - "Don't Know Much" by Linda Ronstadt And Aaron Neville - "Rhythm Nation" by Janet Jackson
Those number twos, stuck behind Phil of course was Janet with the second single off of her RN 1814 album, the albums title track, "Rhythm Nation" It's one of her more iconic songs and videos.
I might be the only one who's admit this but I actually like "Cover Girl" by NKOTB. It's such a cute song and Danny's struggle vocals add to the charm.
And a look at a few hits of '89 that were within the Top 10. First, the last time ex-Chicago bassist Peter Cetera ever bothered the Top 10, via a duet with The Artist With Nine Lives (a.k.a. Cher) on a ballad titled "After All": Made #6 on Billboard, #7 on Cash Box and #11 on Radio & Records. In the UK, could only manage a puny #84. In short, it wasn't just the band Pete was once in that went south chart-wise in the next decade on.
It should be noted that this was the second "After All" to come out in this decade. A wholly different song of the same title, five years before, was a very minor hit (#69) for Al Jarreau, but was played very frequently on the "Lite" station in the city where I live: I have to say, I'll take this one to the Cher/Cetera number.
And in April, a record that the prior year was #1 in the UK, reached its Hot 100 peak of #24 - "Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)" by Enya: Also made #25 on both Cash Box and Radio & Records.
William Joel 1) Hadn’t heard this one for years and years.. until today. On thee we radio no less. 2) The last cassette I ever bought before moving onto CD’s. Still haven’t gotten it on CD yet, actually.
Is this where someone’s supposed to note that while the “80’d may be over, the decade is not since decades end in zero years? if so, I got it covered.
I'll admit to liking most of these! It's interesting when you notice that many of those singles only spent a week in the runner-up spot. The charts were certainly different at the end of the '80s than they were at the beginning - when songs usually spent multiple weeks at their peak position before being allowed to fall. This was mostly because the chart director at the time had these silly rules that if a song had a bullet one week, it couldn't drop down the next. This affected chart positions for years from the mid-'70s until around spring 1983, when a new chart director took over and finally ended that rule. Couple of songs I wanted to point out: peaking at No. 5 around this time was Taylor Dayne's first single from her second album Can't Fight Fate. I like a lot of the songs on this album (and we'll be hearing from one soon) and I always thought it was stronger than her first. Here's With Every Beat of My Heart: Also, Bust a Move by Young MC had peaked at No. 7 during the fall of 1989 and began a slow drop. In fact, it stayed on the Hot 100 for an incredible 39 consecutive weeks - making it one of the longest charting songs in history. This was the last long-runner before the chart methodology changed at the end of '91. The major reason it stayed on for so long was that it had very strong sales for a long period of time - even after airplay had started to drop off. It even out-lasted the album's second single on the charts!
Time has not been kind to Al Jarreau. In the early 80s, he was one of the hottest voices in pop music. His "Breakin' Away" and "Jarreau" albums were top notch from beginning to end.
‘With Every Beat Of My Heart’ was where I got off the Taylor train, so to speak. I love it and think it would have fitted well on her debut. Unfortunately, it was the last single of hers that I ever liked. I bought it on cassingle, a format I loathed, so it must not have been available on 45 here.
There are more good songs than there are bad songs here, and the list of #2s might be better than the list of #1s (though they are also fewer.) I don;t remember 5 of these, but some of them were huge in my world ("Wild Thing", "Express Yourself", "Love Song" "Sowing".) I think "Don't Know Much" is a strangely pretty song, strange because it's exactly the kind of song I normally hate.
"Don't Know Much" also brought Aaron Neville back from the dead in terms of chart relevance. By and large, he hadn't been heard from since his big hit from 1966-67, "Tell It Like It Is."
My grandpa was born in 1899, and I thought it was way cool to know someone who lived during the 19th century.
"We Didn't Start The Fire" I like "I'll Be Your Shelter," one of her later hits. But then she decided to cover a Barry White song.
No, you're not the only one who'll admit it. They had some good, catchy pop tunes and I bought their singles and albums, but that was it for me. I didn't quite fall into the "Blockhead" category that was given to their obsessive fans. "Cover Girl" was cool, but I liked their previous three singles better. I liked what they did with the single version of "Cover Girl" though, it definitely made it sound more commercial and radio-friendly.
The last two songs peaked at #2 behind "Another Day In Paradise", but "Rhythm Nation" peaked at #2 during the first two weeks of 1990 (week ending January 6 and 13). I suppose you could argue that since Billboard used week-ending dates, that "Rhythm Nation" technically saw its first day at #2 on Sunday, December 31, 1989.
No, December 30, 1989 was a freeze of December 23. I have the Joel Whitburn Hot 100 Charts of the 90's book.
