This Weeks Top 10 Chart

Well, I'm a few days late and several dollars short having just returned from vacation (holiday for our British friends). I thought I'd log on and get caught up but there are so many new postings I doubt I'll get to them all. It's nice to see things have stayed active over the last week. I do notice that there don't seem to be as many postings from Tom Port, I hope you guys didn't hurt his feelings or something. I really like his posts. Besides anytime my wife starts telling me I've gone too far, I just say something like, "Well, Tom says...." and I suddenly seem much less fanatical.
Anyway, I thought I'd say "Hi" and post my weekly contribution.
This week's chart is from April 14, 1984

1. Footloose.....................................................Kenny Loggins
2. Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now).........Phil Collins
3. Somebody's Watching Me...............................Rockwell
4. Hello...........................................................Lionel Richie
5. Automatic....................................................Pointer Sisters
6. Miss Me Blind................................................Culture Club
7. Here Comes The Rain Again..............................Eurythmics
8. Hold Me Now.................................................Thompson Twins
9. Adult Education.............................................Daryl Hall - John Oates
10. Jump..........................................................Van Halen

 

A sad little lot except for Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart.

Regards,
Metralla

 

This week's chart...

Dave,

You could not have picked a weekly chart more typical of the mid 80's. I always liked Footloose inspite of the song's association with a pretty lame movie. This chart speaks "MTV" all the way...a lot of overplayed songs here. In hindsight, I guess I would have to pick the Phil Collins track as my favorite and it was associated with a much better movie...

Thanks for posting the chart!

Bob

 

Hey Dave,

Was beginin' to wonder where our top ten weekly fix had gone. I sorta missed it on Thurs.

Van Halen's Jump was the best of the lot though.

 

I like every song on that list! It was indeed a fun time in rock/pop history! I don't think much of the 80s music overall, but 1984 was the year that the US took back the Billboard charts from the Brits!

I really can't think of too many 80's years when music was so much fun.

I was going to supplement Dave's weekly charts with the R&B charts of the past but I doubt there would be a whole lot of interest. These are fine.

 

R & B Charts

Grant,

Go for it! Post the R & B charts. We can still enjoy Dave's regular Top 40 charts in addition to posted charts!

Bob

 

If you insist, i'll post them, as soon as I find my Joel Whitburn R&B bookl!

 

That list reminds me of why abandoned pop music in the 80's. Of all the lists posted so far I can state without reservation there is no song there I would ever willingly play for myself. I do have fond memeories of Eurythmics, but that wasn't a favorite track of mine. This is where Van Halen found out what they need to do to sell records. The Thompson Twins were corporate rock discovering the new wave. The titles are so dull that you couldn't draw blood with the fragemented shards of the vinyl if you plunged them into your chest. In April of '84 I was firmly convinced that rock, funk and soul were dead.

 

?

Van Halen s/t - certified 5x platinum in '84, total sales now 10.3 million
VH II - certified 3x platinum in '84, total sales now 5.7 million
WACF - certified 2x platinum in '84, total sales now 4.3 million
FW - certfied platinum in '81, total sales now 3.4 million
DD - certified 2x platinum in '84, total sales now 4 million
1984 - certified 4x plaintum in '84, total sales 10 million
5150 - total sales 6.9 million
OU812 - total sales 4.4 million
For Unlawful... - total sales 3.8 million
Right Here, Right Now - total sales 2.5 million
Balance - total sales 2.9 million
Best of - total sales 2.4 million
VH3 - numbers not worth printing, but it did go gold

[Numbers are U.S. only.]

If my math is correct, by 10/22/1984, their first 5 albums had sold at least 13 million copies.

I think 1984 is a brilliant album. It shows that an album that rocks and is fun can be popular -- a concept seemingly lost in the last few years.

 

Amen Patrick.

 

I had agreat year in '84 and I have to admit that much of it was spent listening to Van Halen's "1984"and 'Jump'. They were at the prime of commercialism and were all over the place. Especially MTV! All these tunes were big MTV tunes. I believe this was a time when we weren't sure if we could listen only to the albums or just watch the videos.

I also enjoyed the Thompson Twins (whom I saw at a rock show in Fresno with Oingo Boingo, The Fixx & the Police the same year).

I will have to agree with Metralla though. Dave Stewart is a musical genius.

Looking forward to the R&B charts, Grant. Especially those wonderful 70's soul hits!

 

I herein amend my original statement to "This is when Van Halen found out how to sell even more records". I never wanted to stir the wrath of Van Halen fans. Since I am not one - I can tell you that the only time they entered my consiouness was when they started making mega-hits like "Jump" that you couldn't escape from hearing on the radio. While I was AWARE of them both before and after that period, they never really did anything that "curled my toes", if ya know what I mean. Truth be told - I enjoyed those goofy cover songs DLR released as singles more than most of the bands output.

My point was "Jump" was the beginning of that phase of their career - probably the most successful phase as well - and easily the most "commercial".

 

Actually AL, at risk of turning this thread into the merits of Van Halen's output, I could argue that "5150" was also a very commercial album, and as much fun as "1984 is, "5150" is a much more durable, listenable album, with a load of hits as well.

I jumped on the Van Halen bandwagon in 1981 with "Fair Warning", got "Diver Down" the next year, and worked backwards from there. Personally, I was initially disappointed with "1984", but I loved "Jump", and not because of the video, either! "Jump" was fresh and full of energy, and featured a new sound for Eddie & Co.

You guys may have gotten tired of "Jump" but I got sick of hearing "Hot For Teacher" that following summer! "I'll Wait" was like the forgotten second single from that album.

But, I played 5150 like crazy! It was like a soundtrack for me in the summer of '86.

 

Anyway, back to the topic:

1. Footloose.....................................................Kenny Loggins
After a string of fine R&B flavored singles, he surprised me with this rave-up! I got sick of hearing this one fast, though.


2. Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now).........Phil Collins
I like this song but it helped set the sage for the ultimate undoing of his hit-making career: sappy ballads! He would produce a few more blockbusters with "No Jacket Required, though. His secret? Using Earth Wind & Fire's old horn section!


3. Somebody's Watching Me...............................Rockwell
This song was fun for five minutes. Another victim of Michael Jackson overexposure.


4. Hello...........................................................Lionel Richie
I take back what I stated about liking every song on the list. This song deserved to be overlooked!


5. Automatic....................................................Pointer Sisters
More of an R&B hit than pop, really. Not their best song, IMO. Then they had to go and rerelease "I'm So Excited" from 1982...which is a better song...


6. Miss Me Blind................................................Culture Club
Never cared for this band much but I like this song! It's a classic-style R&B tune.


8. Hold Me Now.................................................Thompson Twins
Nice R&B groove but MTV wore this one out fast!


9. Adult Education.............................................Daryl Hall - John Oates
Great Nile Rodgers production! But I prefer the original LP mix, not this hip-hop flavored single remix.

 

Analysis

Grant,

Solid analysis of the chart. I always preferred the 12" extended version of Automatic to the time reduced single edit. The 12" version gave us the full intent of the production. I could not agree more about your comments about Hello. It was overplayed and became laborious to listen to even while it was still on the charts--a sure sign of oversaturation.

Bob

 

I'm amazed at how polarizing it is whenever there is a top 10 list from the 80's!

But my sentiments about this list is about the same as the list from '86 which was put up here 2 weeks ago. I was a sophomore in high-school in '84. The only thing I've ever listened to from this list with any regularity is Van Halen "Jump". And I didn't have to buy it because this was more the type of album that my brother would've.

I'm far more a 70's Genesis fan so I never really liked this Phil Collins tune.

I could probably buy a Eurythmics compilation if I found a good one now. I can probably appreciate them a little more now then back in the day.

Hmmm... What was I listening to in April '84.

Rush - Grace Under Pressure came out the first week of April of 1984. I had this album and every album they've done since this one the day it hit the store except the live album A Show of Hands. I was in the Army playing war games at the time.

Big Country - The Crossing... They had the same producer as U2 (Steve Lillywhite) and I thought their albums were so much better recorded than U2. Thought this was a great album and still do. "The Seer" which came out in '86 was great too, but every remaster I've ever found of these albums is no-noised to death. But I guess you could put this band into the "where are they now" category.

Yes - 90125... Far more commercial than the 70's Yes and very slickly produced, but Yes had actually announced that they had broken up for good a few years before this so to me, any Yes was better than no Yes.

Triumph - Thunder Seven... Another great album by a band lead by the most under rated guitar player ever: Rik Emmett.

I think I listened to Marillion the first time in 1984.

Like everything else that comes out of my mouth (or my computer keyboard) these are JMHO, but I never really listened to "singles". I was looking for good Albums and listening to Album Oriented Music\Radio.

The one thing that I guess I should point out is that my parents never had cable or MTV when I was growing up, so the impact of a "good music video" was very small in my album purchases.