Every Billboard #1 Mainstream Rock hit discussion thread (1981 - present)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Albuman, Sep 20, 2020.

  1. "Heat of the Moment" is not quite a Joni Mitchell confessional, but hey, it is a terrifically hooky and appealing song for me. I really liked it back then and still do. I thought Asia,the album, was crazy dull, I don't get the love they receive 'round these parts, tbh, but this song and the next single, I forgot what it's called, were really good.
     
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  2. Albuman

    Albuman Women should have the right to choose Thread Starter

    Location:
    Maryland
    The next single? You mean Only Time Will Tell?
     
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  3. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Didn't Asia become one of those self-parodies before long? In any case, this one I do vividly remember . . .
     
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  4. Albuman

    Albuman Women should have the right to choose Thread Starter

    Location:
    Maryland
    I wouldn't know, but I can't say it surprises me to hear that.
     
  5. Lol, yeah, that one.
     
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  6. Albuman

    Albuman Women should have the right to choose Thread Starter

    Location:
    Maryland
    On this day in 1981, The Police's Every Little Thing She Does It Magic hit #1 on the UK chart.
    Celebrate however you choose.
     
  7. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Which ushered in The Police's "Hugh Padgham era."
     
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  8. Albuman

    Albuman Women should have the right to choose Thread Starter

    Location:
    Maryland
    #18 Scorpions, No One Like You
    Written by Klaus Meine and Rudolf Schenker
    Produced by Dieter Dierks
    Label: Harvest/EMI (Europe)/Mercury (US & Canada)
    Issued May 29, 1982; 1 week at #1
    ^9 weeks



    The German rock band Scorpions was formed in 1964 in Hanover, West Germany. Yes, this band - which is still active at time of writing - is three years younger than the Berlin Wall and has lasted twice as long. Relatedly, they are nothing if not patient. Their first album was released in 1972, but their first charting album was their sixth, 1979's Lovedrive. Prior to the album, they had moved from RCA to Harvest Records, under which they would release many of their most successful records. 1982's Blackout was their first album to peak in the top 10 on the Billboard 200, and it would be certified Platinum by the RIAA within two years of its release. That's fairly impressive considering how the actual singles did. The two singles released in the US were No One Like You and Can't Live Without You. The former only made it as high as #65 on the Hot 100 while the latter didn't chart there at all. Even on Top Tracks, Can't Live Without You peaked at #47. So something must've happened to create just the right circumstances that led to No One Like You topping the rock chart. I'm unfortunately not here to investigate what that was. Let's just talk about the song, shall we?
    Might as well come out and say up front that No One Like You is another song I never really adored. I learned in my research that the song was originally written in German, and that the lyrics were then translated into English. So as someone who doesn't really gel with lines like "I imagine the things we do," I want to look past all that.
    I want to, but guitarist Rudolf Schenker would rather I didn't:
    So... I might be reading something into this that Schenker didn't intend, but it sounds like he thought being German was enough to make Scorpions stand out from native English-speaking bands and artists. It at least came across that way to me at first. Then again, he was saying that in 2010 with the benefit of hindsight. German bands haven't exactly a ubiquitous presence on the US charts. Sure, German bands in the 70s like Can, Tangerine Dream, and Kraftwerk were releasing albums we now consider classics. However, Can never charted, Tangerine Dream never made it higher than #158 on the Billboard 200, and - again, strictly speaking in terms of Top 40 presence - Kraftwerk's Autobahn makes them technically a one hit wonder.
    Schenker felt the Scorpions were the first to crack the code on having some level of sustainable American chart success. No One Like You was the first of six Scorpions songs to chart on the Hot 100, and it charted lower than all but one of them. Weirdly, it was their only #1 hit on the rock chart. They had a Top 40 hit in 1984 with Rock You Like A Hurricane and their biggest hit in 1991 with Wind of Change, which peaked respectively at #5 and #2 on the rock chart. So Schenker understandably regards No One Like You with a sense of importance. As the single that ushered in the Scorpions' commercial peak, it also marked the first time the band made a music video.
    But I'm getting ahead of myself. Going back to what I was saying earlier, I'm not the biggest fan of No One Like You. There was a section of John Wetton's interview I left out of the previous post where he took pride in the fact that no rock song before Heat of the Moment started with an apology, and I initially had the same reaction to Schenker's words that I had to Wetton's:
    Dude, your song isn't as deep as you make it sound.
    I'm not saying a rock song has to be deep to be good, but while I agree with Schenker's assessment that No One Like You is an important song in the Scorpions catalog, for him to come across like the song has more going for it than it actually does won't exactly inspire me to warm to it. The song is about a guy who misses his girl because he has been away for a long time, and he eagerly awaits the time they will spend together when he returns. There are plenty of songs that do that premise well, and this song does admittedly have some great guitar work and instrumentation. And lead singer Klaus Meine gives a really good vocal performance, made all the more impressive by the fact that he'd lost his voice and underwent vocal cord surgery during the writing of Blackout. But... am I missing something? What's the different view Schenker was talking about? If a band like, say, Rammstein said they brought a different view as German artists, that would be fine because you can tell from just their music that they are unmistakably German. You can't really do that with Scorpions. They just sound like a standard English-speaking hard rock band of that era.
    Sorry if I'm being too harsh. No One Like You is perfectly fine and Blackout is actually a legitimately solid album overall. But if I may recycle a point from my previous review, Blackout was certified Platinum by the RIAA and the band has sold a total of 110 million records worldwide. Scorpions won't be hurt by anything I say.
     
    Last edited: Nov 15, 2020
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  9. "No One Like You" can only be described as deep when the context of deep from Scorpions is compared to their misogynistically grotesque album covers.

    That being said I LOVED THIS SONG as a 16 year old boy. That initial screaming lead and the riff, frick, I have to admit that I still love this song. Blackout is still the only Scorpions album I have ever owned and in fact have ever heard. It is all I need.
     
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  10. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    I vaguely remember this . . .
     
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  11. bare trees

    bare trees Senior Member

    Start Me Up : Probably the last Stones classic. Everything that made the Stones great is on display here from opening riff that grabs your attention to the hook-filled chorus. It had attitude, swagger and commercial appeal.

    Waiting For A Girl Like You : I have mixed feelings about this song. I love it for the well written pop song that it is but it did start the wheels turning for the somewhat less than muscular sound that would characterise Foreigner's hits a few years later.

    Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic : Love this song. The Police truly had a sound that was innovative yet commercial enough to appeal to a mass audience. With it's mix of rock, reggae, and other exotic elements, "Every Litttle Thing" sounded like a breath of fresh air when it hit in late 1981.

    I Love Rock And Roll : A song that fit in perfectly on both AOR and top 40 stations. It rocked hard but it had an undeniable commercial appeal.

    Oh Pretty Woman : Believe it or not, this was how I first heard Van Halen. Consequently, I've always had a soft spot for their cover of this song. They reinvented it and did it their own way while still being respectful of the original.

    Don't Let Him Know : Written by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance, it sounds like it could have fit perfectly on You Want It, You You Got It or Cuts Like A Knife. Oddly, I don't recall hearing this one at the time but i do remember hearing the followup single, "Turn On Your Radar", a fair bit at the time.
     
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  12. Albuman

    Albuman Women should have the right to choose Thread Starter

    Location:
    Maryland
    #19 Rainbow, Stone Cold
    Written by Ritchie Blackmore, Roger Glover, and Joe Lynn Turner
    Produced by Roger Glover
    Label: Polydor (UK)/Mercury (US)
    Issued June 5, 1982; 1 week at #1
    ^9 weeks



    Rainbow is guitarist Ritchie Blackmore's second most famous band, which he formed in 1975 after leaving the more famous band. Like Deep Purple, in spite of multiple lineup changes, Rainbow (which is also colorfully named) is still highly regarded as one of the most influential bands in rock and metal. I myself bought a vinyl of their 1976 album Rising when I was in college, so while this was my first time listening to their 1982 album Straight Between the Eyes, I thought I had a good sense of what to expect going into it.
    Before I get to that, however, I'd like to talk about Rolling Stone magazine's review. The link there takes you to an article in which critic J.D. Considine reviewed a few metal albums: Scorpions' Blackout (which we talked about in the last post), Straight Between the Eyes, and Iron Maiden's The Number of the Beast. Now, if I asked you to guess without checking the review which album got the most praise, you might guess The Number of the Beast, right?
    Good guess, but no. Blackout got the most praise by far. Go ahead and read the review at your own discretion... after you read the rest of my post, of course.
    Stone Cold is another song about a guy being treated badly by a woman; the narrator's lover has left him out in the cold. According to singer Joe Lynn Turner, bassist/producer Roger Glover provided the song's real-life inspiration.
    Basically, with this song having been co-written, produced and inspired by him, Stone Cold is Roger Glover's song. Seems like they could've used more of those. Stone Cold is the band's most popular song in the US; it's their only song to crack the Top 40 in addition to topping the rock chart. The album also peaked at #30 on the Billboard 200, which makes it tied with the band's self-titled debut for their highest charting album in the US. And for the record, I keep specifying the US because they were a much bigger deal in the UK. They had three Top 10 hits in the UK, and Stone Cold wasn't one of them.
    So how is the song?
    It’s alright. Unlike most of the other songs on the album, Stone Cold is a ballad, especially in the verses. Tearin’ Out My Heart is the only other ballad on the album, which is otherwise standard early Eighties hard rock and metal. It’s good early Eighties hard rock and metal, don’t get me wrong. Think of it like this: Stone Cold is to Rainbow’s Straight Between the Eyes what Sweet Child O’ Mine would be to Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction a few years later. It’s not an exact comparison, but I hope you can get the gist of it. That’s not to say Stone Cold only became a hit because it was a rock ballad. A lot of its success came thanks to MTV. The music video was directed by Edd Griles, who produced the first MTV Video Music Awards. Cue joke about how the "M" used to stand for "music."
    As for the rest of the album, like I said, it’s solid. Power peaked at #35 on Top Tracks. There’s also a song called MISS Mistreated, which I only mention for the title. The first word is spelled in all caps because of a former Deep Purple bandmate (it’s complicated).
    Overall, Stone Cold isn't my favorite #1 hit so far, but I have yet to come across a dud through this thread.
     
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  13. bare trees

    bare trees Senior Member

    867-5309 : One of those songs that I knew was going to be a hit when I first heard it. It was catchy, well structured, and it hit at a time when Top 40 radio just coming out of the AC/country pop doldrums that it been stuck in for the past year.

    Heat Of The Moment : A powerful single that fused elements of arena rock, prog and pop. A favorite of mine long before I was aware of the members' previous bands.

    No One Like You: I love the dynamics on this track. The soft verses and heavy choruses help to make this song memorable. A classic metal track that could have been a major top 40 hit had it been issued a year or two later.
     
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  14. I know of Rainbow, but I haven't knowingly ever heard Rainbow.
    In viewing "Stone Cold", clearly I could have forgotten. It is pretty bad, and made even worse by the hideous video. The vocalist's direction is to seduce the camera, I guess. It is so bad & I had to turn it off when the tanned zombie woman made her entrance. YIKES!!
    I checked out the live video which is somewhat better.
     
  15. Albuman

    Albuman Women should have the right to choose Thread Starter

    Location:
    Maryland
    #20 John Cougar, Hurts So Good
    Written by John Cougar and George Green
    Produced by John Cougar and Don Gehman
    Label: Riva
    Issued June 19, 1982; 1 week at #1
    ^8 weeks



    I think we may have a dilemma here. I actually reviewed this song's parent album, 1982's American Fool, in a previous thread. Do I cheat and just copy from that post or should I do this review entirely from scratch?
    Hmm...
    How about I split the difference? You can click the link if you want more information on the album, but the short version is that it was the commercial breakthrough of John Mellencamp, who at the time went by "John Cougar." American Fool topped the Billboard 200 and earned John a Top 40 hit, a Top 5 hit, and a #1 hit. As for Top Tracks, the aforementioned Top 40 hit didn't chart on Top Tracks. Instead, the third single was Thundering Hearts, which peaked at #36. The #1 hit on the Hot 100, Jack and Diane, strangely peaked at #3 on Top Tracks. It was instead the song that peaked at #2 on the Hot 100, Hurts So Good, that earned John his first #1 rock hit.
    Oh yeah, quick aside: we've so far touched on Tom Petty and Van Halen, two of the most successful acts in the rock chart's history. I mentioned Tom's numbers in the review of The Waiting, but Van Halen had 47 charting songs. 26 of those made it into the top 10, and 13 of those hit #1. John's not at that level, but he's close. He had 46 charting songs. 23 of those made it into the top 10, and 7 of those hit #1. And as I said, Hurts So Good was his first.
    In a 1982 interview with The L.A. Herald Examiner, John said he wrote the song as a goof. George Green, a friend who would later go on to co-write a bunch of John's other hits, suggested John write a song with the title "Hurts So Good":
    But how did John come up with a subject matter to fit the title? Well, when he started playing in rock bands, he'd see how people interacted in the bars where he'd play. The men and women were, as he put it, "crude." So the song was written with that in mind. Essentially, picture a couple who met in a bar and are now in their 30s or 40s; this song is one half of that couple proposing they get rowdy like they used to.
    This is one of those songs that work largely because of who sang it. Regardless of the emotion he's conveying, John has this engaging charm to him. Complementing him are a memorable guitar riff, a fun instrumental, and a catchy hook. Sorry to say, after Jack and Diane, the album doesn't match that energy. I remember really liking the album the first time I reviewed it, but the second listen wasn't as strong. However, one takeaway I had from the second listen was how baffling it was that the title track was left off the album's initial release since its title alone describes the album so well. One could even say it's the same guy from Hurts So Good, which John himself arguably confirmed. When describing the people in the bars where he played, John added that he "fit right in with all that," though I can't say for certain whether that had anything to do with the album having a song called China Girl unrelated to the Iggy Pop/David Bowie track of the same name.
    Overall, while Hurts So Good is still a great song, aside from Jack and Diane and the title track, American Fool is just okay. We'll hopefully see more interesting albums from John when we come back to him.
     
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  16. At this point, I thought John Cougar was just okay. Once he added the Mellencamp, I began to really take notice.
     
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  17. opieandy

    opieandy MusicIsLife

    Location:
    Kennesaw, GA
    Wow, 1981 is right in my wheelhouse and you started with a song I've never heard. Granted, I'm not much of a Clapton fan, but all I did was listen to pop/rock radio from 1977-1987 (more pop in '81, moving toward rock as I aged). And a ton after that. It was #1??????? How did I'miss it???
     
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  18. opieandy

    opieandy MusicIsLife

    Location:
    Kennesaw, GA
    Like it, still listen to it, passes the test of time.
     
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  19. opieandy

    opieandy MusicIsLife

    Location:
    Kennesaw, GA
    GREAT SONG, love love love, early Tom Petty is great, mid TP is great, late TP is great, what a rocker!!! Miss him.
     
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  20. opieandy

    opieandy MusicIsLife

    Location:
    Kennesaw, GA
    Damn, love Walsh but here's another one I don't know. Will be fun to listen to / discover these old #1s.
     
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  21. RobRoyF

    RobRoyF Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southland
    Eric Clapton, I Can't Stand It
    I really like this song, it's just a great rocker. I did have the 45 way back then. It seems to be overlooked and underplayed in the era of classic rock radio.


    The Who, You Better You Bet
    Always has been one of my favorite Who songs. I remember hearing this a lot when it came out.
     
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  22. opieandy

    opieandy MusicIsLife

    Location:
    Kennesaw, GA
    Love love love. I was 15 in 1981 with no appreciation for or knowledge of rock history. So now I love old MB, but back then this song, and Gemini Dream, were fresh and new and part of my soundtrack of life. And a couple of years later, Sitting at the Wheel.
     
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  23. opieandy

    opieandy MusicIsLife

    Location:
    Kennesaw, GA
    Classic song, album, band. Love it. Great memories.
     
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  24. opieandy

    opieandy MusicIsLife

    Location:
    Kennesaw, GA
    GREAT SONG by a weirdly eclectic band. This and Don't Fear the Reaper, great songs. DFTR reminds me of the great movie, Executioner's Song. Need more cowbell though.
     
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  25. Fischman

    Fischman RockMonster, ClassicalMaster, and JazzMeister

    Location:
    New Mexico
    But they came back. 2012's XXX is a stellar album.
     
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