In which I shuffle through some music files and listen to the first five songs from the years 1976-85 that randomly pop up.
"Dancin' Tonight" by Bill LaBounty (1979, WB/Curb) Co-written by LaBounty and Michael Johnson, this is the lead track from the Rain in My Life album. It's slow getting started, but by the time the vocals kick in, it's an average soft-rocker. Could have used a better bridge and less abrasive sax tone, but worth a listen.
"This Charming Man" by The Smiths (1983, Rough Trade) Other than "How Soon Is Now," I've never really understood the attraction of The Smiths, but this track has shuffled around as part of Left Of The Dial: Dispatches From The '80s Underground, Vol 2. Morrissey's voice atop a wannabe Motown beat just leaves me wanting to hear The Jam or Culture Club do it better.
"The Best Will Survive" by Dwayne Ford (1981, Epic) A few years back, I ventured down a rabbit hole concerning early '80s AOR albums that never charted. That's a post for another time, but that must have been when I acquired the files for Ford's 1981 album Needless Freaking. Can't tell that this album was ever released in the US. Not exactly Toto, this is guitar crunching underneath overdubbed choir vocals sounds like it would come from an early '80s AOR album that never charted.
"Shake a Leg" by AC/DC (1980, Atlantic) Making a strong argument that there really wasn't any filler on the Back in Black album. I need to get out on the open road with that album and quick.
"That Girl" by Stevie Wonder (1981, Tamla) The segue seems jolting to me now, but going from AC/DC to Stevie Wonder was entirely possible on Top 40 radio in the early '80s. This single was big hit in early '82, I've only got two minor complaints: 1) would rather have had Wonder play the drums instead of programming them, and 2) longer harmonica solo (but I say that about every Wonder solo). Not the best random five, but it sure came on strong at the end.
So today's picks will leave many of you disappointed in me and it wouldn't be the first time.
Semifinal #1: While I enjoy "All Things Are Possible," it doesn't immediately take me back to 8th grade memories at McAllister Middle School like "Lead Me On" does. Hooks a'plenty. I didn't really understand the lyrics then, but that didn't keep me from singing them at the top of lungs, much to my mother's dismay. To her credit, she never told me stop singing.
Semifinal #2: Elsewhere on this blog, I once wrote the following about "Where Were You When I Was Falling in Love:" "This one doesn't float my boat. I find it boring, but it's harmless enough." That means another upset victory for Stevie, setting up an unprecedented 7 seed vs. 8 seed match-up in the final round.
Let's see how the quarterfinal match-ups panned out - bracket-busting-upset-alert!:
Quarterfinal #1: We start with upset number one - an eight over one, at that! There's nothing particularly wrong with the Air Supply tune - I like the thing, but Lead Me On is soooo freakin' smooth.
Quarterfinal #2: The Dan Peek tune didn't crack the Top 40, but the former voice of the group America gets the edge here with this CCM tune, if only for the Brain Wilson-esque bridge.
Quarterfinal #3: I've been hating "The Rose" for 40 years now.
Quarterfinal #4: Tough choice here. The Souther tune is a great homage to Roy Orbison (complete with falsetto) with help from Jackson Browne and members of The Eagles. The song is so true in style that I originally thought it was from the '60s. Elsewhere on this very blog, I gave "Send One Your Love" a grade of B+ and wrote "it's Wonder writing a memorable ascending melody over descending chords beautifully provided by electric piano and background vocals. Love that contrary motion. Plus, I love a sweet Stevie Wonder harmonica solo." Advantage Wonder simply because he's Stevie Effin' Wonder. Seven seed over a two.
I've created this bracket of the top eight Adult Contemporary singles from1980 and we'll match them against each other, round by round, until a winner emerges. I hope you'll play along as I'm sure your bracket will turn out differently from mine. Singles and seedings taken directly from the December 20, 1980 issue of Billboard magazine:
Quarterfinal #1: "Lost in Love" by Air Supply (#1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts for 6 weeks) vs. "Lead Me On" by Maxine Nightingale (#1 for 7 weeks)
Quarterfinal #2: "Broken Hearted Me" by Anne Murray (#1 for 5 weeks) vs. "All Things Are Possible" by Dan Peek (#6)
Quarterfinal #3: "The Rose" by Bette Midler (#1 for 5 weeks) vs. "Where Were You When I Was Falling in Love" by Lobo (#1 for 3 weeks)
Quarterfinal #4: "You're Only Lonely" by J.D. Souther (#1 for 5 weeks) vs. "Send One Your Love" by Stevie Wonder (#1 for 4 weeks)
I'll stipulate the majority of these tunes are from 1979 --
Title
AC chart debut
Lost in Love
2/16/1980
You're Only Lonely
2/29/1979
The Rose
3/29/1980
Broken Hearted Me
9/22/1979
All Things are Possible
6/30/1979
Where Were You...
7/21/1979
Send One Your Love
11/10/1979
Lead Me On
5/12/1979
-- but I'm going to keep the same seeding methodology that I've used for other bracketology appearances on this blog. ("A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds" - Emerson 😉).
Fill out your bracket with your personal favorites and check back for the semifinal round.
All chart positions are peak positions from Billboard charts. These are my personal top 79 singles of those that peaked on the Billboard charts in 1979. The list is solely my opinion. Using Joel Whitburn's book, Pop Annual 1955-1999, I started with the 475 singles that peaked on Billboard Magazine's Hot 100 chart in 1979. An initial pass through that list narrowed it down to 105 tunes, then listening, ranking, and editing began. The top 79 are presented here, in order.
For Halloween this year, my family and I had the distinct pleasure of attending the Stevie Wonder concert in San Antonio. That's Stevie Freakin' Wonder, unofficial music laureate of the U.S. What was supposed to be a concert performance of the Songs in the Key of Life album (of which the recorded version runs an hour and 45 minutes), was in actuality a 3+ hour worship service with Stevie preaching on life, love, and music. What follows are my random, unorganized thoughts on the show.
My father has lived in San Antonio since 1986, so after picking up my eldest son from his apartment in Bryan, we headed to SA on Friday the 30th. Heavy rains had caused flash flooding across the area which turned what is normally a five hour drive into an eight hour experience. But we arrived safely after detouring south and coming into San Antonio from the east.
From the Saturday morning paper:
My father recommended we leave the house early, but there was little traffic that evening (everybody trick-or-treating?) so it took only 15 minutes to get to the AT&T Center from his house. We had plenty of times to find our floor seats.
Stevie's voice is amazing. Still.
The concert started at 8:20, there was an intermission from 9:50-10:20. The concert ended promptly at midnight.
It was my first time in the arena and thought the sound was exceptional for a basketball/hockey venue.
What's more impressive - that Stevie Wonder wrote and recorded Songs in the Key of Life when he was only 26 or that he can still perform the crap out of this music for over 3 hours at age 65? Answer: D) all of the above
At intermission, my youngest son (age 18) told me that the 20-something young man in front of him had been on Facebook throughout the entire first half. He said he wanted to tap him on his shoulder and say, "You know that's Stevie Wonder up there on stage, right? Get off your phone!"
I haven't purchased a concert tee since a Sting concert in 1985, but I broke that 30 year streak because Stevie.
A blazing live version of "Contusion" completely blew my mind and I was still recovering from that when the band kicked into "Sir Duke" which brought the crowd to its feet in unison (because they were feelin' it all over, most likely). I was immediately transported to my bedroom in 1976, where my 10-year-old self was listening to the song playing on my bedside AM clock radio. I shook myself back to the present where I realized I was singing along with Stevie. The whole thing made me very emotional - wish I could explain it better, but I think my fellow music geeks know exactly what I'm talking about.
Learn something new everyday: Wonder played an instrument that's new to me - the hybrid string instrument by Marcodi called a harpejji. Of course, I now want one for myself. For the record, he used it mainly to perform "My Cherie Amour" and a cover of "People Get Ready."
As I've written over at The CD Project blog, my favorite song on the Songs in the Key of Life album is "As" so imagine my feelings when Stevie introduced that particular song as his mother's favorite and one that he performed at her service. As with every other tune, Stevie and the band tore it up, much to the delight of this fan.
Performing "As"
Photo credit: me
The newspaper review can be found here (include partial setlist).
There wasn't en encore per se, but the show closed with "Living for the City," "For Once in My Life," and "Superstition."
Putting me to shame, Stevie got up the next morning and went to church at San Antonio's True Vision Church along with jazz saxophonist Kirk Whalum.
When someone posts a setlist, I'll link to it. (here it is, accuracy not guaranteed) I was too busy enjoying the show to worry about keeping up with that.
Concert Instrumentation (as best I can remember):
Stevie
2 additional keyboardists
2 guitarists
Bassist (Nathan Watts, the bassist on most of the SITKOL album)
Send One Your Love
b/w Send One Your Love (Instrumental)
Released: November 1979 (Motown) Written by: Stevie Wonder Produced by: Stevie Wonder Album: Stevie Wonder's Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants"
U. S. Billboard Charts:
Hot 100
4
AC
1
R&B
5
Man, this thing is smooth. Admittedly, I, like most Stevie fans, were disappointed in the mostly instrumental album that followed Wonder's landmark album, Songs in the Key of Life. And this single is way more adult contemporary than funk. Still, it's Wonder writing a memorable ascending melody over descending chords beautifully provided by electric piano and background vocals. Love that contrary motion. Plus, I love a sweet Stevie Wonder harmonica solo. The song has been covered several times, most recently in the smooth
jazz genre where it fits perfectly.
I haven't seen the movie that Stevie's album was based on; I will put that on my to do list. But based on context, I'm assuming that Stevie isn't necessarily singing to another human being, but maybe a plant of some sort. This quote from the 2006 book The Sound of Stevie Wonder: His Words and Music by James E. Perone probably explains it better than I can:
This gentle ballad finds Wonder suggesting a return to the romanticism of the past: a time in which love was expressed both by the giving and receiving of flowers and the metaphorical flowers of the heart. Although "Send One Your Love" works as a romantic love song - undoubtedly there were couples at the time for which it was "our song" - the jaded listener might describe it as too sappy.
During the years 1976-1985, the Musician Laureate of the United States scored 7 hits on Billboard's Disco Chart, including 3 chart toppers. Here's a breakdown
table, including year, peak chart position, and number of weeks on the
disco charts. I've included the 10+ minute version of Do I Do with the Dizzy Gillespie solo because that song simply should never be heard in its truncated single version.
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).
"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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