On the March 21, 1981 issue of Billboard, the chart known today as Mainstream Rock was introduced as "Rock Albums & Top Tracks." It ranked the most played songs on rock radio stations across the United States, though despite being an album-oriented chart even into the 1990s, it initially served as another pop station for all intents and purposes. That much was demonstrated in a previous thread of mine where I went through every #1 hit on the chart. In this thread, I will go week-by-week through every song that made the top 10 between March 21, 1981 and December 30, 1989. All 816 of them. Hope you're ready to rock.
Eric Clapton, I Can't Stand It Written by Eric Clapton Produced by Tom Dowd Mastered by Mike Fuller Label: RSO Debuted at #1 - March 21, 1981 ^7 weeks in top 10 #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 #67 on the 1981 Year-End Hot 100 Album: Another Ticket (1981)
@Albuman, I am glad to find your new thread. Love that you're focusing on the 80s - that's my bread and butter! I'm expecting a lot of 'Holy crap, I haven't heard this in years!' moments. Looking forward to it. Thanks for your ongoing service to this community. Hereby buckling in for the ride.....
I can stand it (this song) ..... but don't have much affection for it. It's going to be interesting to see how these songs fared on the Hot 100, and at what point the charts begin to diverge.
Steve Winwood, While You See A Chance Written by Steve Winwood and Will Jennings Produced by Steve Winwood Mastered by John Dent Label: Island Debuted/peaked at #2 - March 21, 1981 ^7 weeks in top 10 #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 #68 on the 1981 Year-End Hot 100 Album: Arc of a Diver (1980) Funny thing... according to Wikipedia, this came out on December 31, 1980. So we missed the anniversary by two days. At any rate, the album and this song are good.
This song and album were Winwood's big commercial breakthrough as a solo artist. On this LP, while the pop hooks are apparent, you can still hear traces of the artist who once played with groups like Traffic and Blind Faith. Then he made an even more pronounced move toward almost straight-up pop on his subsequent 80s albums. It worked, as he sold in the multi-millions. I admire anyone who can write a series of popular music hits. But I don't like any of those later Winwood singles of the 80s as much as I like cuts from this album such as "Spanish Dancer" or the title track. "While You See a Chance" felt like something bigger than a #7 pop hit, as it seemed played to death to me at the time. Revisiting it all these years later, it's a solid record. I really like how the drama builds during the intro. PS: I hadn't realized until today that most of the tracks on Arc of a Diver were co-written by one Will Jennings. Wikipedia indicates Mr. Jennings credits include writing the lyrics for "My Heart Will Go On". Oof.
Journey, The Party's Over (Hopelessly In Love) Written by Steve Perry Produced by Kevin Elson Mastered by Bob Ludwig Label: Columbia Debuted at #3 - March 21, 1981 Peaked at #2 - April 4, 1981 ^5 weeks in top 10 #34 on the Billboard Hot 100 Album: Captured (1981) 1981's Captured was a double live album that closed with its only studio recording, The Party's Over (Hopelessly In Love). It will not be the only time we talk about an album like this.
Underrated little tune that's sadly forgotten nowadays for the most part. You forgot to post the song:
I'm probably neutral on the song itself. The record suffered from: Celine Dion's over-emoting Being played to death The general backlash against all things Titanic. (It's a good movie, in spite of some cheesy moments. But female teenage hysteria will ruin anything.)
.38 Special, Hold On Loosely Written by Don Barnes, Jeff Carlisi, and Jim Peterik Produced by Rodney Mills Mastered by Bob Ludwig Label: A&M Debuted at #4 - March 21, 1981 Peaked at #3 - April 11, 1981 ^7 weeks in top 10 #27 on the Billboard Hot 100 Album: Wild-Eyed Southern Boys (1980) .38 Special was co-founded by Donnie Van Zant, older brother of Lynyrd Skynyrd co-founder Ronnie Van Zant and their other brother, Johnny Van Zant. I'm sensing a pattern here. When I wrote about 38 Special in my other thread, I discovered in my research that Jim Peterik from the band Survivor had co-written some of 38 Special's biggest hits. So if you can imagine a cross between Survivor's I Can't Hold Back and Lynyrd Skynyrd's What's Your Name, that should give you a general idea of .38 Special's sound. Also, as long as we’re still at the very beginning, there’s something I’d like to explain. I believe it was in June 2021 when Billboard published the Greatest of All Time Mainstream Rock Artists list, which compiled the fifty most successful bands and artists in Mainstream Rock history so far. Everyone on that list has at least ten top-10 hits. We just covered two artists on that list, Eric Clapton (#38) and Steve Winwood (#48). It makes sense that they’d be included, but for some reason, .38 Special are not. This is in spite of them having thirteen top-10 hits. There are multiple artists that did make the list who had fewer hits and fewer charting songs overall, including Steve Winwood. I described this briefly in my other thread, but my best guess is that they used two methods in conjunction. For older data, Billboard may not have the number of spins on file, so they instead use what’s called an inverse point system. A song will get a certain number of points for every week it spends at certain positions. So let’s say a song gets 1,000 points for every week at #1, 950 for every week at #2, and so on. They add those up and then use multipliers, which is Billboard's equivalent of adjusting for inflation. That is my best guess, as I said, but even with that knowledge in mind, it’s still strange that there are songs and artists (like .38 Special) that seem like they should be on Billboard’s lists but aren’t.
This was my first exposure to .38 Special, and while it was weird seeing a band with a Southern rock image playing AOR-style songs (though that only applied to their hits, the album tracks still were pretty much straight Southern rock), the song still holds up IMO.
I forgot to mention that I Can't Stand It spent two weeks at #1. I will be including that piece of data for all the #1 hits from now on, starting with... The Who, You Better You Bet Written by Pete Townshend Produced by Bill Szymczyk Mastered by Ted Jensen and Greg Fulginiti Label: Warner Bros./Polydor Debuted at #5 - March 21, 1981 Peaked at #1 - April 4, 1981 ^5 weeks at #1 ^10 weeks in top 10 #18 on the Billboard Hot 100 #26 on the 1981 Top Tracks Year-End Album: Face Dances (1981)
This was exactly my issue with .38 Special. For a southern rock band, their singles weren't raw enough. Not that their hits weren't solid tracks. Just not enough oomph to really grab and hold my attention.
Loverboy, Turn Me Loose Written by Paul Dean and Mike Reno Produced by Bruce Fairbairn Label: Columbia Debuted/peaked at #6 - March 21, 1981 ^5 weeks in top 10 #35 on the Billboard Hot 100 Album: Loverboy (1980)
You Better You Bet-Didnt really like this song the first time I heard it, but after a long time away from it, I'm starting to get into it, it's got a pleasant enough sound. 60s-70s Who is still superior, but this is a decent foray into 80s music for them. Turn Me Loose-This actually sounds kind of darker for Loverboy (musically that is, with the menacing opening and the moody keyboard sound). While I liked their later stuff, I wonder what they would have done if they had kept this type of sound.
"Take Me to the Top" from the second album is another Loverboy track with a little darker sound. Probably why that one and "Turn Me Loose" hold up the better for me than some of their more lightweight hits.
The Loverboy singles of the early 80s are pretty top-grade arena rock. More-or-less taking the baton from 70s bands such as Foreigner, REO Speedwagon, Journey, etc. (Although overlapping with those bands, who were still scoring hits into the mid-80s.) Loverboy were never critics darlings. Not a surprise, because this kind of commercially oriented arena rock was never viewed as respectable by the hipsters of the time. I'm not a huge fan of the genre, but I can appreciate the singles. IMHO, bands like this are definitely worth seeking out hits compilations. As for "Turn Me Loose" in particular, I enjoy it to this day. Is it just me, or did Mike Reno bear a strong resemblance at the time to Brat Pack actor Emilio Estevez?
Rush, Limelight Written by Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart Produced by Terry Brown and Rush (Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart) Mastered by Bob Ludwig and Peter Jensen Label: Anthem Debuted at #7 - March 21, 1981 Peaked at #4 - April 18, 1981 ^6 weeks in top 10 #55 on the Billboard Hot 100 Album: Moving Pictures (1981)
Moving Pictures was Rush's commercial and critical peak. They were practically a mainstream band for a moment, with 5MM in U.S. album sales. I'd guess that "Tom Sawyer" is their most recognizable song to the average member of the public. While "Limelight" is a solid track, I wouldn't rank it among my top 30 Rush songs. Beginning with their next album Signals, the band's sound became increasingly dominated by synthesizers. It was a line of demarcation, leaving behind a decent chunk of their early prog rock fans. Sales fell significantly down to the single platinum level. I'm not arguing there is a correlation - it probably would have happened with or without the change in sound. As for me, I was still on board for Signals and the follow-up Grace Under Pressure; after which I largely checked out. Perhaps I spent too much time here discussing the band's albums, and less about this particular song. I'm just sorta excited for the opportunity to expound on the bands I grew up with.
Styx, Rockin' The Paradise Written by Dennis DeYoung, Tommy Shaw, and James Young Produced by Styx (Dennis DeYoung, Tommy Shaw, James Young, and Chuck & John Panozzo) Mastered by Ted Jensen Label: A&M Debuted/peaked at #8 - March 21, 1981 ^1 week in top 10 Album: Paradise Theatre (1981) This album is quite good, but the coolest thing about it would have to be the etching on the vinyl itself.
