Bubbling Under 1982 [Part 4 of 5]

Using information found in the above supplement, below is an annotated list of songs that didn't quite crack the Billboard Hot 100, provided with links in hopes of helping you find some vintage tunes that are new to you. Click on the title to hear the tune or see the video, click on the artist for a Wikipedia entry, and click on the album for the Discogs entry. In all, there were 105 tracks that "bubbled under" the Hot 100 in 1982, here's 21 of those.

Title	Artist	Album	BU	Rock	AC	RB	Dance	Country
It's Our Own Affair	Ray Parker, Jr.	The Other Woman	106			44
Brown Eyed Girl	Henry Paul Band	Anytime	105
Song on the Radio	Pinups	The Pinups	110
Sea of Heartbreak	Poco	Cowboys & Englishmen	109		35
Ghost Town	Poco	Ghost Town	108
Let Her Go	Point Blank	On a Roll	109
As	Jean-Luc Ponty	Mystical Adventures	108
Let's Work	Prince	Controversy	104			9	1
Keep This Heart in Mind	Bonnie Raitt	Green Light	104	39
Me and the Boys	Bonnie Raitt	Green Light	109
Yes It's You Lady	Smokey Robinson	Yes It's You Lady	107
My Old Piano	Diana Ross	Diana	109
Take a Chance with Me	Roxy Music	Avalon	104
Can't Get You Out of My Mind	Dan Seals	Harbinger	110
I Can Make You Feel Good	Shalamar	Friends	102			33
Wait for Me	Slave	Show Time	103			20	21
It's Alright	Gino Soccio	Face to Face	108				2
What	Soft Cell	Non-Stop Ecstatic Dancing	101				31
Love Connection (Raise the Window Down)	Spinners	Can't Shake This Feelin'	107			68
Six Months in a Leaky Boat	Split Enz	Time and Tide	104
Black Coffee in Bed	Squeeze	Sweets from a Stranger	103	26

Ray Parker, Jr. - Bad Boy (1982)

Bad Boy
b/w Let's Get Off

Released: November, 1982 (Arista) Written by: Ray Parker, Jr. Produced by: Ray Parker, Jr. Album: Greatest Hits

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Note: when I label a song a "Lost AT40 Single," I'm only speaking for myself. Your mileage may vary.

So I'm listening to a rerun of the American Top 40 broadcast from January 15, 1983 and the countdown begins with the debut of this song in the 40 spot. I either never heard the song in '83 or I'd forgotten all about it. The groove reminds me more than a little bit of the Brothers Johnson's song "Stomp!" but it's a decent song even if lacks a strong hook. Casey doesn't say much about the song's content and for good reason: the lyrics were definitely not family-friendly. In fact, I can't believe this got on the radio back in '83. S&M lyrics wouldn't bother anybody these days, but back in the early '80s, incense, wine, and candles could make for a freaky scene. Here's a sample from "Bad Boy":

Bad boy
I'll do the dishes, baby
Bad boy
Now I got to be punished

Spank me, whoop me
Let me come back home
Break out the leather, baby

Granted, doing the dishes is punishment enough, but then things escalate rather quickly, don't they? Like I said, not much to fret about these days, but those lyrics would have definitively caught my attention as a 16 year old. In any case, this is one of the rare cases where the lyrics have made more of an impression on me than the music. On the January 15 AT40 show, the song was at position 40; it would peak at 35 two weeks later. It spent a total of 4 weeks in the Top 40.

On a somewhat related note, Parker is a fantastic guitarist and did more session work, songwriting, and production than he's usually given credit for. Unfortunately, his legacy will be his derivative #1 single, "Ghostbusters." How do I know this? I saw Parker perform during halftime of a 2010 Memphis Grizzlies basketball game (it was "'80s Night") and the only song he performed was "Ghostbusters." And he brought down the freakin' house.

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1984 - The Golden Age of Soundtracks?

This post follows up a previous post that posed the same question for 1985.  In 1984, 20 singles reached the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100. Of those 20, seven came directly from movie soundtracks.  That's 35%, slightly higher than the 33% of 1985 (9 of 27).

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		"Footloose" Kenny Loggins #1 for three weeks, Mar 31 - Apr 14  from the movie Footloose
"Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)" Phil Collins #1 for three weeks, Apr 21 - May 5 from the movie Against All Odds
		"Let's Hear It For The Boy" Deniece Williams #1 for two weeks, May 26 - June 2 from the movie Footloose
"When Doves Cry" Prince #1 for five weeks, July 7 - Aug 4 from the movie Purple Rain.
		"Ghostbusters" Ray Parker, Jr. #1 for three weeks, August 11-25 from the movie Ghostbusters
"Let's Go Crazy" Prince and the Revolution #1 for two weeks, Sept 29 - Oct 6 from the movie Purple Rain
		"I Just Called To Say I Love You" Stevie Wonder #1 for three weeks, Oct 13 - 27 from the movie The Woman in Red

As far as the number of weeks that a soundtrack single topped the Billboard chart, 1984, with twenty-one weeks, easily bests 1985's fourteen weeks. Looking at those numbers, 1984 wins in terms of quantity, but I'm going to give the subjective edge to 1985 in terms of quality. 

Of these 7, my favorites are "Footloose" and "Let's Go Crazy".  I've never seen Against All Odds or The Woman in Red, but I watch Footloose fairly regularly - "I thought this was a party. LET'S DAAAANCE!"

Other soundtrack hits from 1984 that didn't make the top spot include:

• "I Can Dream About You" by Dan Hartman from Streets of Fire  (peaked at #6)
• "Twist of Fate" by Olivia Newton-John from Two of a Kind (#5)
• "Almost Paradise" by Mike Reno & Ann Wilson from Footloose (#7)
• "Breakin'... There's No Stopping Us" by Ollie & Jerry from Breakin' (#9)
• "Dancing in the Sheets" by Shalamar from Footloose (#17)
• "On the Dark Side" by John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band from Eddie & The Cruisers (#7)

The winner of the Oscar for Best Original Song at the 57th Academy Awards was "I Just Called To Say I Love You."

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