1982 - The Golden Age of Soundtracks?

Of the 16 songs to reach the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1982, three songs came directly from a movie soundtrack.  Far behind 1984 & 1985, it wasn't a stellar year for soundtracks, but not the worse we've looked at so far.  On my list of the Top 82 albums of 1982, only one soundtrack album made the cut (Night Shift at #45).

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		"Chariots of Fire - Titles" Vangelis #1 for one week, May 8  from the movie Chariots of Fire
"Eye of the Tiger" Survivor #1 for six weeks, July 24 - Aug 28 from the movie Rocky III
		"Up Where We Belong" Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes #1 for three weeks, Nov 6 - 20 from the movie An Officer and a Gentleman

Click on the year to check out similar soundtrack lists for the following years:

Year	No. of soundtrack #1's	Total no. of weeks at #1
1982	3 of 16	10
1983	2 of 17	8
1984	7 of 20	21
1985	9 of 27	14

I like all three of these tunes; they all reside somewhere in my music library.  Of the films they come from, I've seen Chariots of Fire many times, Rocky III a few, and An Officer and a Gentlemen only once (and that was in 1982).

Other soundtrack hits from 1982 that didn't make the top spot include:

• "Making Love" by Roberta Flack from Making Love  (peaked at #13)
• "Somebody's Baby" by Jackson Browne from Fast Times at Ridgemont High (#7)
• "Love Will Turn you Around" by Kenny Rogers from Six Pack (#13)

The winner of the Oscar for Best Original Song at the 55th Academy Awards was "Up Where We Belong."

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