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Top Albums of February 16, 1980

A look at the top ten albums in music industry magazines the week of February 16, 1980. Something for everyone here: prog rock, disco, R&B, soft rock, country, and plain ol' rock 'n' roll:

	Billboard	CashBox	Record World
1	The Wall Pink Floyd	The Wall Pink Floyd	The Wall Pink Floyd
2	Damn the Torpedoes Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers	Damn the Torpedoes Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers	Off the Wall Michael Jackson
3	Off the Wall Michael Jackson	Off the Wall Michael Jackson	The Long Run Eagles
4	The Long Run Eagles	The Long Run Eagles	On the Radio Greatest Hits Vols 1 & 2 Donna Summer
5	Phoenix Dan Fogelberg	Phoenix Dan Fogelberg	Damn the Torpedoes Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
6	Kenny Kenny Rogers	On the Radio Greatest Hits Vols 1 & 2 Donna Summer	Phoenix Dan Fogelberg
7	On the Radio Greatest Hits Vols 1 & 2 Donna Summer	Kenny Kenny Rogers	Kenny Kenny Rogers
8	Tusk Fleetwood Mac	Cornerstone Styx	Cornerstone Styx
9	Cornerstone Styx	Tusk Fleetwood Mac	In Through the Out Door Led Zeppelin
10	September Morn Neil Diamond	Freedom at Point Zero Jefferson Starship	Freedom at Point Zero Jefferson Starship

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Exclusive MFD meta-analysis of the above charts:

1. The Wall(30 pts)
2. Off the Wall (25 pts)
3. Damn the Torpedoes (24 pts)
4. The Long Run (23 pts)
5. Phoenix (17 pts)
6. On the Radio (16 pts)
7. Kenny (13 pts)
8. Cornerstone (8 pts)
9. Tusk (5 pts)
10. (tie) Freedom at Point Zero and In Through the Out Door (2 pts)
12. September Morn (1 pt)

AT40, February 16, 1980 [Part 3 of 4]

 

I'm breaking down the AT40 show of February 16, 1980 track by track.  For an a look at #40-31, click here, for #30-21 click here.

#20:  "Second Time Around" by Shalamar.  #1 on the Soul/R&B chart on this date, this is easily my favorite Shalamar tune. It's so dang easy to listen to. I don't recognize the names in the backing group but they sure could lay down a groove. It also hit #1 on the disco/dance chart.

Long Distance Dedication: "(You're) Having My Baby" by Paul Anka (#1, 1974). You know where this is headed, but here we go any way:

Dear Casey, I'm a lieutenant in the United States Army Engineers currently serving in Korea. I'm here without my wife and am currently on the early side of a twelve month tour. I miss her tremendously. We were married four years ago when I first came into the service. There was no honeymoon and she traveled with me across the country to Fort Stewart, Georgia where she assumed her role as an army wife.

During that first year of marriage, we were constantly separated as I went to Panama, field exercises, and school. She quietly accepted her role of being dragging around the country, uprooted from the home she cherished, and being left alone. There was never any doubt or questioning, but, rather, support, sympathy, encouragement, and, most of all, love. I've always felt guilty about leaving her behind to maintain a home while I was elsewhere. And I haven't always been supportive of her needs or been there when she needed me most. And that's what this letter is for.

Gigi is home in San Antonio, seven months pregnant with our first child. As my job dictates, I won't be home for the birth of our child, but I need to tell my wife how I feel about her. Much the same as Paul Anka put it in "(You're) Having My Baby." I dedicate this to you, Gigi. Loving you from so far away. Signed, Kirk.

Sheesh. Moving right along...

#19: "September Morn" by Neil Diamond. I never fully appreciated Diamond at the time, but that's on me. This isn't his best ballad, but it's pleasant enough. Love the Floyd Cramer-esque piano. This single was Diamond's 30th Top 40 hit; it would eventually peak at #17.

#18: "Another Brick in the Wall" by Pink Floyd. "The biggest climber of the week!" The second of Pink Floyd's two Top 40 singles ("Money" hit #13 in 1973), this smash would later spend 4 weeks at #1. School kids loved the lyrics; school administrators hated them. Some schools went to the ridiculous lengths of banning the song as if they could. To be honest, other than the truthful lyrics, this isn't that great a tune when compared to the rest of PF's canon. The best part is David Gilmour's guitar solo, which is first-rate. And remember kids, if you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding.

#17: "Working My Way Back to You/Forgive Me, Girl" by The Spinners. A great disco cover of a 1966 Four Seasons tune. There really wasn't any need to add a second song for a medley, but they didn't consult me.  The song would spend 16 weeks on Casey's show, spending two weeks in the #2 spot. I always liked The Spinners and enjoyed seeing them hang around into the '80s.

Casey teases a story with "the co-leader of the supergroup, The Eagles, earned his first set of drums when he was 15 by blowing up his mother's washtub with cherry bombs."

#16:  "An American Dream" by The Dirt Band. I liked this one when it was released, particularly the Linda Ronstadt harmonies.  It blends country with tropical with great success and I can sing all the harmonies if ya need it.

Casey shares the story of Don Henley blowing up his mom's wash tub with a cherry bomb so his father would be forced to buy her a washing machine. And she bought Don a drum kit as a thank you. It's not a great story, but Casey milks it for all it's worth.

#15:  "The Long Run" by Eagles. Around this time, anything by Eagles was welcome to these ears. I preferred their previous single "Heartache Tonight" but I liked this So-Cal rock tune with country harmonies, too.

#14:  "Romeo's Tune" by Steve Forbert. This was Forbert's only single to crack the Top 40, but I remember singing along with this one when it was on the radio.  I don't think it has a catchy melody, but I like the way the alliterative "meet me in the middle of the day" rolls out of my mouth. The single would peak the following week at #11.

#13: "Daydream Believer" by Anne Murray. This John Stewart tune is so happy and uplifting that I can't help but love it. This single would top the adult contemporary chart, peak at #3 on the country chart (it doesn't sound much country to me but I can plead ignorance on that), and eventually reach #12 n the Top 40.

AT40 Archives: "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac.  Casey's counting down the #1 songs of the 1970's' this tune is the last of three in this show. If this isn't my favorite Fleetwood Mac tune, it's certainly in the discussion.

--end of hour three--

Casey welcomes three new stations to the American Top 40 family:

• KIOC - Vidor, Texas
• WCCY - Houghton, Michigan
• WCIT - Lima, Ohio

#12:  "Don't Do Me Like That" by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. Petty's second tune in this week's Top 40 ("Refugee" was back at #26).  It had peaked at #10 the previous week. I dig everything about this tune from the Hammond organ to the middle 8, to the imminently singable, catchy-as-hell chorus.

"Several months ago, a listener in Minnesota made a Long Distance Dedication that resulted in his getting a long distance phone call from a famous and beautiful woman - one of Charlie's Angels. That story is coming up."

#11:  "This is It" by Kenny Loggins. This smooth classic won the Grammy award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male, and deservedly so. It takes the best parts of the previous two chart tunes (uplifting lyrics and a catchy chorus) and takes it all up a notch. It also marks Michael McDonald's second appearance on this week's chart (he also duetted with Nicolette Larson back at #39). There's some good tunes in the Top 10 this week, but in my book, none can top "This is It."

LDD dedication follow-up: A high school kid sent a LDD to Cheryl Ladd in hopes that she would go to prom with him. She didn't accept his invitation, but she did call to decline, which would have been enough to me. Heck, she could call me right now and I'd be a bumbling idiot.

Billboard, February 16, 1980, p. 94

More to come...

AT40, February 16, 1980 [Part 2 of 4]

 

I'm breaking down the AT40 show of February 16, 1980 track by track.  For a look at #40-31, click here.

#30:  "Don't Let Go" by Isaac Hayes. In the dying days of disco (before it was rebranded as "dance music"), this fun single was unleashed. I loved it then as much as I like it now even though back in 1980, I was clueless to Hayes' extraordinary history in the music business. Written by Jesse Stone, this tune was originally a hit for Roy Hamilton in 1958. None of that mattered to me, I just dug the low vocals and would try to imitate them even though my voice hadn't changed yet.

#29:  "Déjà Vu" by Dionne Warwick.  An Isaac Hayes two-fer! Hayes wrote this tune, Barry Manilow produced it, and it won a Grammy for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. Strange bedfellows, but they recorded a smooth, soulful ballad nonetheless.

AT40 Extra: Out of left field, Casey interrupts the countdown with this non sequitur. "The biggest chart hit The Rolling Stones ever had." "Honky Tonk Women" 1969. It's a classic, to be sure, but why play it here?

#28:  "Him" by Rupert Holmes. In the first of two songs by Holmes in the Top 40 this week. This one had debuted the previous week and was on its way to a peak of #6. Here's what I previously wrote about this tune over on The CD Project: "There's nothing special about it, just a solid 3½ minutes of soft rock if you ignore the strange vocal solo.  As an 8th grader, my gym classmates and I would mockingly sing this song (with slightly altered lyrics) to our first year teacher/coach, weakly trying to imply that he was gay.  I'll chalk that up to 13 year old ignorance, but its embarrassing now to think I ever acted that way.  Belated apologies to that coach as well as Mr. Holmes."

Before a commercial break, Casey teases a story about Tom Petty's contract troubles with Shelter Records and MCA.

Casey returns from the break by telling us that American Top 40 is heard in the 50 states and around the world every week on great radio stations like:

• WIZM - La Crosse, Wisconsin
• WJET - Erie , Pennsylvania
• WDRC - Hartford, Connecticut

#27:  "Wonderland" by The Commordores. This is an odd tune that can't decide if it wants to be a ballad or funk tune. Lionel Richie sings it but didn't write it. I like the synth solo, though. It peaked at #25, unusually low for the group at the time.

Casey shares the troubles of Tom Petty, his contract, and his lawsuit against MCA. Long story short, Petty was treated like a piece of meat, with the label giving few concessions. In Casey's revisionist, more wholesome version, however, "everybody won!" Hooray for capitalism!

#26:  "Refugee" by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. I like it now, but I didn't much care for this one back in 1980. It was a minor-key rocker and I was more into major key soft-rock and disco. Now I dig the thing.

#25:  "When I Wanted You" by Barry Manilow. I'm a Fanilow (heck, I saw him in concert not 2 months ago), but this overwrought ballad doesn't do much for me. It peaked a #20 but held the top spot on the Adult Contemporary chart for a week. I'm thinking it's the material, because the Addrisi Bros. and songwriter Gino Cunico couldn't do much with it, either.

#24:  "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" by Rupert Holmes. Here's Holmes again, this time with his former #1. I liked it at the time, not so much now although the hipster generation has embraced it for whatever reasons.  It reminds me of playing basketball after lunch in 8th grade.  At that age, just singing a song that included lyrics about an alcoholic drink made us feel more grown up.

AT40 Archives: "I'm Your Boogie Man" by KC & The Sunshine Band.  Casey's counting down the #1 songs of the 1970's' this is the second of three in this show. This tune was #1 for one week in June 1977.

--end of hour two--

#23:  "How Do I Make You" by Linda Ronstadt. Admittedly, I'm in a small minority, but Ronstadt's Mad Love album is my favorite release from her. This was the first single released from that album. This was Ronstadt's 14th Top 40 hit; it peaked at #10. But seriously, check out that album.

Casey teases a story about a group that had nine different albums enter theBillboard Lp chart within a seven week period. Details, and their latest hit, are coming up.

#22:  "Too Hot" by Kool & The Gang. Always liked this bit of smooth goodness; it fits perfectly within my vocal range which meant that unsuspecting ladies were often subjected to this song as a part of my failed, feeble attempts at flirting. Bonus points for the muted guitar throughout and a decent soft-rock sax solo. It would peak at #5 and deservedly so.

The group mentioned above with nine different albums on the chart is Led Zeppelin and their current hit...

#21: "Fool in the Rain" by Led Zeppelin.  One of those bands I'm told I should like, but I just don't. These days when I hear a LZ song, my first thought is usually "who did they steal that from?" In this case, it's Sly Stone. Don't worry, boys, Genesis also lifted that bassline later the same year for "Misunderstanding."

Billboard, February 16, 1980, p. 94

More to come...