MFD Random Five #24

In which I click the shuffle icon on the iTunes app and listen to the first five songs that pop up from the years 1976-85.

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1. "Feels So Good" (single edit) by Chuck Mangione (1977, A&M)
   This single topped the pop charts in June, 1978; I began playing trumpet in August, 1978. Cosmic coincidence? Not in 12-year-old Mark's mind. I bought the album on cassette and started a 3 or 4 year phase where I'd buy anything Mangione released. I bought the sheet music and discovered there were awful lyrics that didn't quite fit the music:
   

   There's no place for me to hide
   the thoughts of all
   the times I've cried and felt this pain
   that I have known
   because I need just to hear
   that special something
   
   And then one day
   you just appeared
   you said "Hello
   let's make love along the way."
   Your name is music to my heart
   I'll always really love you
   
   Feels so good when I'm with you
   I can't believe you love me too
   with you it feels like it should feel
   feels so good
   
   I'll trade my baseball cards for you
   Now I can't believe that dreams come true
   with you my smile sticks all the time
   with you the sun will always shine
   
   Feels so good when I'm with you
   I can't believe you love me too
   with you it feels like it should feel
   feels so good

   

   Pinback from the MFD archives



2. "Always Crashing in the Same Car" by David Bowie (1977, RCA)
   Mangione to Bowie: now there's a segue that's about as subtle as a Trump tweet. This track is a deep cut from side one of the Low album. While I prefer side two of that album, this song about the frustration of making the same mistake again and again resonates with me and I dig the guitar work by Ricky Gardiner. And Bowie sounds so calm about crashing as if he's resigned to the fact that he'll be doing this forever.


3. "California Über Alles" by Dead Kennedys (1979, Alternative Tentacles)
   The band's first single, the lyrics are just as timely today as they were in the late '70s. Over three minutes long; it's much longer than most surf-punk tunes you'll hear.


4. "Dirty Mind" by Prince (1980, Warner Bros.)
   If this isn't my favorite Prince song, it's certainly in the discussion. Insanely ahead of its time. That keyboard riff over the ostinato bass! Prince, never one to stick to convention, gives us a wonderful bridge but no chorus whatsoever. My friend Jim had this album and sometime in 1982 he let me borrow it for a dub. I arrived at my house and was met by my father in the kitchen. He asked what album I had and I reluctantly showed him the following cover which was met by silence, a look of disdain and disappointment, and a quick end of the conversation. I guess I should be glad he didn't want to hear any of the lyrics.
   
   

   

   and he wears this same outfit in the music video. Don't look, Dad!



5. "(Everytime I Turn Around) Back in Love Again" by L.T.D. (1977, A&M)
   Now this song will send me out the door in a good mood. The funk groove is enough to carry the thing, but they put some tasty horns on top of the groove and then the Jeffrey Osborne vocals transcend the whole arrangement. 11-year-old Mark loved this song and he wasn't alone: #1 R&B, #4 pop, #19 disco. Single sleeve offered below for no other reason than the out of this world graphic.
   
   
   

Adult Contemporary chart of July 4, 1981

Presented here for no other reason than it's one heckuva chart. Click and enjoy.

#	Song	Artist	AC Peak	AC Weeks	Hot 100 Peak
1	All Those Years Ago	George Harrison	1	15	2
2	I Don't Need You	Kenny Rogers	1	19	3
3	The One That You Love	Air Supply	2	20	1
4	Still Right Here in My Heart	Pure Prairie League	4	16	28
5	America	Neil Diamond	1	18	8
6	Boy from New York City	Manhattan Transfer	4	16	7
7	Seven Year Ache	Rosanne Cash	6	17	22
8	How ' Bout Us	Champaign	1	20	12
9	Sukiyaki	A Taste of Honey	1	21	3
10	Theme from "Greatest American Hero"	Joey Scarbury	3	19	2
11	Promises	Barbra Streisand	8	17	48
12	Fool in Love with You	Jim Photoglo	12	20	25
13	Queen of Hearts	Juice Newton	2	22	2
14	Elvira	Oak Ridge Boys	8	16	5
15	Is It You?	Lee Ritenour	15	13	15
16	Modern Girl	Sheena Easton	13	13	18
17	Stronger Than Before	Carol Bayer Sager	14	14	30
18	It's Now or Never	John Schneider	5	18	14
19	Sweet Baby	Stanley Clarke & George Duke	16	15	19
20	Hearts	Marty Balin	9	15	8
21	Living Inside Myself	Gino Vannelli	5	19	6
22	Slow Hand	Pointer Sisters	6	21	2
23	Medley	Stars on 45	11	16	1
24	Time	Alan Parsons Project	10	16	15
25	Touch Me When We're Dancing	Carpenters	1	16	16
26	Hard Times	James Taylor	23	9	72
27	Since I Don't Have You	Don McLean	6	15	23
28	What Are We Doin' in Love	Dottie West & Kenny Rogers	7	20	14
29	Some Changes are for Good	Dionne Warwick	23	10	65
30	No Gettin' Over Me	Ronnie Milsap	2	21	5
31	I've Been Waiting for You All of My Life	Paul Anka	16	13	48
32	Heaven	Carl Wilson	20	11	-
33	Say What	Jesse Winchester	12	13	32
34	Being with You	Smokey Robinson	4	20	2
35	We Don't Have to Hold Out	Anne Murray	33	12	-
36	Nobody Wins	Elton John	23	11	21
37	Feels So Right	Alabama	9	20	20
38	Rich Man	Terri Gibbs	37	9	89
39	Bette Davis Eyes	Kim Carnes	15	17	1
40	A Woman Needs Love	Ray Parker Jr & Raydio	11	18	4
41	Don't You Love Me Anymore?	Engelbert Humperdinck	41	5	-
42	Some Days are Diamonds	John Denver	12	18	36
43	I Loved 'Em Every One	T.G. Sheppard	3	18	37
44	Lovin' the Night Away	The Dillman Band	36	7	-
45	Halfway Home	Maureen McGovern	24	14	-
46	Going Through the Motions	Dennis Yost	46	4	-
47	Blessed are the Believers	Anne Murray	10	14	34
48	Who's That Look in Your Eye	Taffy McElroy	48	5	-
49	Watching the Wheels	John Lennon	6	14	10
50	Just the Two of Us	Grover Washington Jr	2	21	2

The British Invasion of 1983 (American Top 40 - June 25)

I'll let Casey set this up:

"You know, during the past couple of weeks, two all-time chart records were broken. One was the number of British acts in the Top 40 at the same time: 16. And the other was the number of foreign acts in the Top 40 at the same time: 22. Well, this week another British act debuts and none fall out, thereby adding to last week's total of British acts and foreign acts as well. So, there's a new all-time record in each case. The number of British acts in the Top 40 this week is 17. And the number of foreign acts is 23. Furthermore, listen to this: one of these foreign acts, Bryan Adams from Canada, has two hits in the survey, which means that among this week's forty most popular songs in America, 24 are by foreign acts and 16 by American acts. And let me remind you that the Top 40 hits each week are the choices of American record buyers and radio listeners."

24 songs by foreign acts in the Top 40 is a remarkable 60%. Allow me to breakdown this episode of AT40 by nationality:


United Kingdom

• Billy Idol ("White Wedding" 38)
• Chris de Burgh ("Don't Pay the Ferryman" 35)
• Thomas Dolby ("She Blinded Me with Science" 34)
• Eurythmics ("Sweet Dreams" 32)
• A Flock of Seagulls ("Wishing" 29)
• Jim Capaldi ("That's Love" 28)
• Rod Stewart ("Baby Jane" 26)
• Duran Duran ("Is There Something I Should Know" 25)
• Bee Gees ("The Woman in You" 24)
• Madness ("Our House" 19)
• The Kinks ("Come Dancing" 17)
• Elton John ("I'm Still Standing" 16)
• Naked Eyes ("Always Something There to Remind Me" 13)
• Kajagoogoo ("Too Shy" 10)
• David Bowie ("Let's Dance" 5)
• The Police ("Every Breath You Take" 4)
• Culture Club ("Time" 2)

United States

• Laura Branigan ("Soltaire" 39)
• Prince ("Little Red Corvette" 36 & "1999" 33)
• Bob Seger ("Roll Me Away" 31)
• Donna Summer ("She Works Hard for the Money" 30)
• Stevie Nicks ("Stand Back" 27)
• Champaign ("Try Again" 23)
• DeBarge ("All This Love" 21)
• Lionel Richie ("My Love" 20)
• Michael Jackson ("Wanna Be Startin' Something" 15 & "Beat It" 11)
• The Tubes ("She's a Beauty" 14)
• Journey ("Faithfully" 12)
• Styx ("Don't Let It End" 7)
• Hall & Oates ("Family Man" 6)
• Irene Cara ("Flashdance" 1)

Australia

• The Little River Band ("We Two" 22)
• Men at Work ("Overkill" 18)
• Rick Springfield ("Affair of the Heart" 9)

Canada

• Bryan Adams ("Cuts Like a Knife" 40 & Straight from the Heart" 37)

Brazil

• Sergio Mendes ("Never Gonna Let You Go" 8)

Barbados

• Eddy Grant ("Electric Avenue" 3)

American Top 40 - September 16, 1978

"Casey! How you gonna butcher 'Reminiscing' like that but play the entire Robin Gibb monstrosity?!?" - Your humble, but upset, blogger on a recent Sunday morning

This past weekend, I was making a five-hour car trip across the Great State of Texas and this 1978 episode happened to be playing on the Sirius/XM '70s on 7 channel so of course I tuned in. Overall, the bottom 20 can't compare with the top 20, but the show had enough going for it to keep listening. What really caught my attention, however, were the truncated versions of the singles to which we were subjected. The show was only three hours at the time and a new feature, the Long Distance Dedication, appeared once. The Sirius/XM broadcast had no ads and spared us from their usual "AT40 Extra" nonsense and I'll be doggoned if all 41 tunes didn't clock in at a speedy 2 hours, 10 minutes. I'll chalk that up to efficiency and the power of advertising dollars, but at the expense of the music. A few tunes get played at full length but some crimes against music are more heinous (there are also several aggravated crimes against editing technique but I'll let someone more qualified than I discuss that matter). Below, we'll compare the actual length of the single (taken from the labels as found at 45cat) and how much of said single was played on the aforementioned AT40 episode. Even the #1 song can't escape the splicing tape! And even though you didn't ask, I'll let you know the stars (✔) and stinkers (✘) of this countdown IMO. Those not marked I find pleasant enough and wouldn't feel compelled to switch stations should they be heard on my car radio.The graph is followed by a big announcement about the blog. But first, a word about this episode from Tom Rounds:

	Song	Artist	Single	AT40
40	Paradise by the Dashboard Light ✘	Meat Loaf	7:55	5:05
39	My Angel Baby ✔	Toby Beau	3:27	2:14
38	Two Tickets to Paradise ✔	Eddie Money	3:07	2:16
37	Love Will Find a Way ✔	Pablo Cruise	3:40	2:34
36	5.7.0.5.	City Boy	3:11	3:11
35	Who Are You ✔	The Who	3:22	3:22
34	Talking in Your Sleep	Crystal Gayle	2:53	2:53
33	I Love the Nightlife (Disco 'Round)	Alicia Bridges	3:10	2:58
32	You Never Done It Like That	Captain & Tennille	3:19	2:59
31	She's Always a Woman	Billy Joel	3:19	3:13
30	Rock & Roll Fantasy ✘	The Kinks	3:44	3:44
29	Come Together ✘	Aerosmith	3:45	3:00
28	Get Off ✔	Foxy	3:30	3:02
27	Just What I Needed ✔	The Cars	3:44	2:37
26	Back in the U.S.A.	Linda Ronstadt	3:02	2:52
25	Close the Door ✔	Teddy Pendergrass	3:37	2:46
24	Right Down the Line ✔	Gerry Rafferty	3:33	3:33
23	Love Theme from "The Eyes of Laura Mars" (Prisoner) ✘	Barbra Streisand	3:54	3:18
22	Magnet and Steel ✔	Walter Egan	3:25	2:16
21	Oh! Darling ✘	Robin Gibb	3:29	3:29

	Song	Artist	Single	AT40
20	Miss You ✔	The Rolling Stones	3:31	2:43
19	Whenever I Call You "Friend" ✔	Kenny Loggins	3:59	3:43
18	Grease	Frankie Valli	3:21	2:30
LDD	Sometimes When We Touch	Dan Hill	3:31	4:05*
17	Hollywood Nights	Bob Seger	5:00	3:01
16	You Needed Me	Anne Murray	3:38	3:38
15	Reminiscing ✔	The Little River Band	3:26	2:11
14	You and I ✔	Rick James	3:08	3:00
13	Love is in the Air ✔	John Paul Young	3:28	3:00
12	Fool (If You Think It's Over) ✔	Chris Rea	3:35	3:17
11	Hot Child in the City	Nick Gilder	3:06	3:06
10	Shame ✔	Evelyn "Champagne' King	2:55	2:48
9	Got to Get You Into My Life ✔	Earth, Wind & Fire	4:08	2:38
8	Don't Look Back ✔	Boston	5:53	2:33
7	Summer Nights	John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John	3:36	2:52
6	An Everlasting Love	Andy Gibb	4:06	2:36
5	Kiss You All Over	Exile	3:30	3:20
4	Hopelessly Devoted to You ✔	Olivia Newton-John	3:01	3:01
3	Hot Blooded ✔	Foreigner	3:03	2:56
2	Three Times a Lady	Commodores	3:35	3:35
1	Boogie Oogie Oogie ✔	A Taste of Honey	3:45	2:05

*Casey played the album version of the song for the Long Distance Dedication.

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Since its beginning four years ago, this blog has originated in the small East Texas town of Nacogdoches (pronounced NAC-uh-DOH-chiss) where I've been a university professor since 2006. However, I have recently accepted a job as a public school administrator in San Antonio and will be moving to that area in the coming weeks. This fact also explains the five-hour car trip I took this weekend. As a result, there may be some understandable lapses in blog postings during this transition, but I hope to be up to full speed as soon as possible as this blog and the interactions with its readers keep me (relatively) sane. Prayers and positive thoughts graciously accepted and appreciated!

David Sanborn on the Pop Charts

Alto saxophonist David Sanborn is a respected smooth jazzer in his own right (just check out 1982's Backstreet), but he was also all over the pop charts in various solos.  Here's a few off the top of my head; I'm sure I'll have to come back and augment this list. Please let me know if you can think of a guest Sanborn solo not listed here.

Linda Ronstadt - "Ooh Baby Baby" (1978)
Carly Simon - "You Belong To Me" (1978)
Pure Prairie League - "Let Me Love You Tonight" (1980)
James Last Band - "The Seduction" (1980)
Eagles - "The Sad Cafe" (1980)
Kenny Loggins - "Heart to Heart" (1982)

and, if you want to expand our parameters of 1976-85 a bit:
David Bowie - "Young Americans" (1975)
James Taylor - "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)" (1975)

and a deep album cut from The King of Comedy soundtrack
Donald Fagen - "The Finer Things" (1982)

Update: Faithful listener Dirk Digglinator suggests the following (as long as we're expanding our parameters):
Esther Phillips - "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes" (1975)
Regina - "Baby Love" (1986)

Promo posters as seen on "WKRP in Cincinnati" #28

Tour: The J. Geils Band - Freeze-Frame (EMI, 1981)
Episode:  Season 4, Episode 22, "Up and Down the Dial"
Original air date: Wednesday, April 21, 1982

Charting the Charts: Squeeze - East Side Story (1981)

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Here's a look at how Squeeze's 1981 album fared in various publications:

1981
Date	Billboard 200	Cashbox 200	Rolling Stone 100
May 30	148	122
Jun 6	128	108
Jun 13	106	90
Jun 20	86	82
Jun 27	78	76	82
Jul 4	68	74
Jul 11	62	73	33
Jul 18	61	72
Jul 25	55	69	31
Aug 1	49	62
Aug 8	48	56	29
Aug 15	45	55
Aug 22	44	54	25
Aug 29	53	67
Sep 5	66	73	25
Sep 12	58	76
Sep 19	52	74	13
Sep 26	52	71
Oct 3	67	85	22
Oct 10	83	92
Oct 17	91	118	31
Oct 24	120	141
Oct 31	141	179	40
Nov 7	164
Nov 14	198		56
Nov 26			70
Dec 10			79

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Smash Hits, May 14, 1981, p. 36

Cash Box, May 16, 1981, p. 16

From Robert Christgau: "They're finally beginning to show the consistency that's the only excuse for obsessive popcraft. The songs are imaginative, compassionate, and of course hooky--the warped organ on "Heaven" bespeaks divine intervention. And with Elvis Costello coproducing, the music is quite punchy, though I wouldn't go so far as to say it rocks. B+" Note: the album was listed at number 6 on the Village Voice's 1981 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll.

The album landed on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Best Albums of the Eighties in the #81 position.

MFD Random Five #23

In which I click the shuffle icon on the iTunes app and listen to the first five songs that pop up from the years 1976-85.

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1. "Money (That's What I Want)" by The Flying Lizards (1979, Virgin)
   A 1959 classic that's been covered by groups from Jr. Walker to The Beatles, this Flying Lizards version is more of a avant-garde New Wave deconstruction than a cover (in that regard, it reminds more than a little of Devo's similar take on "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"). And the quirky thing works somehow. This is one of those New Wave songs that's heard much more on TV ads and movies these days than it was heard on the radio when it was released in the US. Recollection from vocalist Deborah Evans-Stickland: "We recorded Money in a cold meat fridge in Brixton, London. It cost £6.50. Was I excited when it was a hit? Not really. "


2. "Puttin' On the Ritz" by Taco (1982, RCA)
   This single was a bigger hit than it should have been, but I'm glad I was living during a time when a cat calling himself Taco could have Top 40 hit with a crappy synth cover of Irving Berlin. That said, I must admit I really liked this drum-machine remake back in high school because I considered myself a "renaissance man" [snicker] that could appreciate Berlin. I didn't buy the LP, After Eight, but I thought about it. When he was about 11, my youngest son went through a month-long phase where he listened to this version all the time. Now when I hear the name Taco, I think of the FX series The League and my preferred version of this tune is by Peter Boyle.


3. "True" by Spandau Ballet (1983, Chrysalis)
   I'd call this a guilty pleasure except for the fact that I love the thing, I always have, and I don't care who knows it. I know all the lyrics and will also vocalize the sax solo. And when this track finishes, I'll hit the repeat button and do it all again before moving on. Not long after the following commercial was released, my buddy Blake sent me this text message: "in the annoying spandau ballet car commercial, you are the dude in the backseat." He's right, of course.





4. "Soweto" by Malcolm McLaren (1983, Atco)
   Cultural appropriation of the worst kind but I'll admit to liking it anyway. As I've written before, "it's very easy to ignore McLaren altogether and just enjoy what Trevor Horn has given us here." An overly repetitive track that could have used a B section and makes me want to listen to Graceland (more cultural appropriation, I know)


5. "On My Radio" by The Selecter (1979, 2 Tone)
   A great ska tune. I can handle ska in small doses, but after more than 30 minutes, my cup runneth over, so hearing ska in a shuffle is perfect. I wasn't hip to 2 Tone Records until almost 4 years after this was released but a big shout out to my buddy Jim for turning me on to such things. Big shout out to Walt Jabsco as well. For more on the subject: The Freaky Trigger Top 100 Tracks Of All Time No. 44.

CD Longbox #25

Prince - Controversy (1981)

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Exclusive photo courtesy of Dirk Digglinator of the Hambonian Archives.

For more information on the brief life of the CD longbox, go visit The Legend of the Longbox.

Random album ad #48

Prince - Controversy (1981)