Bracketology: 1980 Adult Contemporary singles, Champion

Normally, I'd pick Stevie Wonder in almost any contest, but there's just something about "Lead Me On" and I can't pinpoint exactly what it is, but I'm guessing just nostalgia - it takes me back and that's good enough for me.

CashBox, March 24, 1979, p. 18

Bracketology: 1980 Adult Contemporary singles, Finals

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.

Check back as we crown the champion.

Bracketology: 1980 Adult Contemporary singles, Semifinals

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.

Check back for the final round match-up.

Bracketology: 1980 Adult Contemporary singles, Quarterfinals

I've created this bracket of the top eight Adult Contemporary singles from 1980 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.

Bracketology: Donna Summer Singles, Champion

In a photo finish, I'm giving the edge to "Last Dance" and declaring it to be Donna Summer's best single. According to an interview with songwriter/producer Bob Etsy, the genesis of the single wasn't without controversy:

After "Shut Out" was recorded, Paul [Jabara] told me he locked Donna in her hotel bathroom in Puerto Rico and forced her to listen to a cassette of a rough song idea called "Last Dance." [...] Luckily, Donna liked the song. Paul asked me to do an arrangement so Donna could make a demo for Neil Bogart, the head of Casablanca Records, who had to OK it. Because they were producing with Motown Records a film ultimately named Thank God It's Friday, it was to be Donna Summer's song. So, working on the arrangement with Paul, I changed some of the chords and extended the "hook" to repeat 3 times to finish the last phrase of the chorus. I also added a bridge to build to a climax and suggested a ballad intro a la "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and another ballad in the middle of the song building again to a high note for the last chorus ending. To our knowledge, this had never been done in a disco track. I was willing to do this idea, and confident that it would work. We did the piano/vocal with Donna and me of the full version including the two ballad sections and the ending in one "pass". At the finish Donna ad-libbed "that's all folks!" and we all applauded! I recorded the full track in one day, rhythm in the morning, horns and strings during the day. That same night, Giorgio Moroder recorded Donna's vocal exactly as she sang the demo, in two takes, and banning me from attending the session. In spite of the fact Giorgio didn't like the song and didn't want Donna to sing in a full voice style, I thought I would be at least credited for co-producing the track and co-writing the song with Paul. He ultimately took credit for it. And Paul Jabara took the Oscar. I learned a bitter lesson from that...

But that's one man's story. Here's another: This song was popular when I was in 8th grade and it was the tradition in my small town to have a year end "8th grade dance" at the local country club (see photo below). So, on May 16, 1980, my classmates and I dressed up in our Sunday best and hit the parquet dance floor for a few hours. As the dance ended, the DJ naturally chose "Last Dance" to close things out and I danced with a girl who was one of my good friends. Turns out that dance marked the beginning of an on-again, off-again tumultuous romantic relationship that would last until 1985. "I Feel Love" can't possibly compete with that.

Your humble blogger at said dance looking
like a bit player from Saturday Night Fever, Jr.

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Bracketology: Donna Summer Singles, Finals

My personal semi-final picks. Upsets to follow:

• I realize that "Bad Girls" was the immensely popular title track from an immensely popular double album, but I prefer "I Feel Love" and simply feel both its writing and production are better. Plus, I told you in yesterday's post that "I Feel Love" would continue its streak of upsets.
• "MacArthur Park" is an epic suite written by the incomparable Jimmy Webb, but I just can't resist Last Dance. I'll even watch Thank God It's Friday because of it.

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Bracketology: Donna Summer Singles, Semifinals

My picks for the second round match-ups:

• 1 vs 9: Not much of a contest here. 
• 4 vs 12: Upset #1. "I Feel Love" should have been seeded much higher than #12 but, sadly, it peaked on the pop chart at #6. What did the American buying public (mistakenly) think was better than this single?
  
  
  
  
  
  Spoiler alert: I don't think this bracket-buster is done busting brackets just yet.
• 2 vs 7: Upset #2. "Last Dance" won an Academy Award. On the other hand, while I was in high school, I played a bad marching band arrangement of "Hot Stuff" more times than I care to mention. Advantage: "Last Dance."
• 3 vs 6:  Tough match, but I'm going with "MacArthur Park" because it gives me warm fuzzy feelings about middle school. And if you remember anything about your middle school experiences, warm fuzzy feelings are to be cherished.

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Bracketology: Donna Summer Singles, Quarterfinals

Let's see how the first round match-ups panned out (for me, at least):

• 1 vs 16: No upset here. I can't hear "The Woman in Me" in my head just from reading the title, so there ya go.
• 8 vs 9: I never much cared for "She Works Hard for the Money" back in the '80s and I like it only slightly better these days, so I'm going with "The Wanderer."
• 5 vs 12: "I Feel Love" is a groundbreaking song. With none of the typical disco strings and high-hat cymbal, the backing tracks are all electronic. Pretty gutsy for 1977, but the song paved the way for techno dance music in the '80s and beyond. People may argue that Kraftwerk was the real pioneer in electronic music and there's certainly some truth to that, but Kraftwerk didn't get nearly the same amount of radio airplay as "I Feel Love."
• 4 vs 13:  This match is pretty much a "pick 'em" and I'm having trouble choosing. Okay, okay...I'm saying enough is enough and calling "No More Tears" the winner simply because I liked that one more than the other at the time of their respective releases.
• 2 x 15: Believe it or not, I didn't purposely seed this Hot vs Cold match-up, that happened randomly because of the chart positions, but I dig the coincidence. To be honest, I'm not sure I'm smart enough to have put those two together anyway. But enough of that. The winner? Hot Stuff in a landslide.
• 7 x 10: Tough to pick. While I'll acknowledge Heaven Knows is catchy as all get out, I'm going with the song that won the Academy and Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song as well as the Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.
• 6 x 11: These two songs are very similar in structure and I'd guess they were written by the same person and I'd be half-right (Summer gets writing credit for both, but shares credit with Giorgio Moroder for "On The Radio"). Both take advantage of the popular slow-fast arrangement, but I'm giving the edge to "Dim All the Lights" because I dig the half-time intro.
• 3 x 14: In this match-up of cover tunes, I'm opting for the epic "MacArthur Park" and the old men playing Chinese checkers by the trees.

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Bracketology: Donna Summer Singles, Sweet 16

I've created this bracket of 16 of Donna Summer's Top 40 singles between the years 1976-85 (sorry, "This Time It's for Real") 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. I based the seedings on Billboard Hot 100 chart peaks.

• 1 vs 16: "Bad Girls" (#1 for 5 weeks in 1979) vs. "The Woman in Me" (#33 in 1983)
• 2 vs 15: "Hot Stuff" (#1 for 3 weeks in 1979) vs. "Cold Love"  (#33 in 1981)
• 3 vs 14: "MacArthur Park" (#1 for 3 weeks in 1978) vs. "There Goes My Baby" (#21 in 1984)
• 4 vs 13: "No More Tears (Enough is Enough)" (#1 for 2 weeks) vs. "Love is in Control (Finger on the Trigger" (#10 in 1982)
• 5 vs 12: "Love to Love You Baby" (#2 for 2 weeks in 1976) vs. "I Feel Love" (#6 in 1977)
• 6 vs 11: "Dim All the Lights" (#2 for 2 weeks in 1979) vs. "On the Radio" (#5 in 1980)
• 7 vs 10: "Last Dance" (#3 in 1978) vs. "Heaven Knows" (#4 in 1979)
• 8 vs 9: "She Works Hard for the Money" (#3 in 1983) vs. "The Wanderer" (#3 in 1980)

Fill out your bracket(s) with your personal favorites and check back for the semifinal round.

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Blog post #800

Bracketology: 1978 Adult Contemporary singles, Champion

If you read what I posted yesterday, you knew this final match-up wasn't going to require a photo finish. And it doesn't. "Just the Way You Are" wins by 5 lengths.

Bracketology: 1978 Adult Contemporary singles, Finals

The semifinal results are in and the people have spoken:

So today's picks will leave at least 53% of you disappointed in me (it wouldn't be the first time).

• Semifinal #1: Tough choice, but the 5 seed upsets the 1 seed. I'm hooked from the chromatic piano line that intros the song. Plus, Michael Johnson's voice is right in my range and I belt this one out every time I hear (which has gotten on my wife's last nerve this week). 11 year old me also loved the song because of misunderstood lyrics: I was seldom, if ever, alone in the house growing up, so being left alone in the house to run through it screaming would have been a joy in 1978.
• Semifinal #2:  I've attached many memories to "Just the Way You Are" - my family's 1978 move, a trip to see Joel in 1984 with high school friends, playing an arrangement of the tune in high school jazz band, my mother telling me that she liked the tune (if that doesn't tip the scales, nothing could). Joel may not like it much, but I still love it. Plus, Phil Freakin' Woods.

Check back as we crown the champion.

Bracketology: 1978 Adult Contemporary singles, Semifinals

Let's see how the quarterfinal match-ups panned out (for me, at least):

• Quarterfinal #1: No upset here. I love Roberta Flack's voice, but there's not much to this waltz movie theme that was the follow-up to "You Light Up My Life" and shares many of that song's characteristics. The #1 seed is a great soft rock tune with just a sprinkling of country.
• Quarterfinal #2: This was a tough decision, but I'm going with "Bluer Than Blue" because I've loved it since I first heard it and it's better than a slowed down cover of a Sam Cooke tune. I gotta admit, though, those three voices (Simon, Garfunkel & Taylor) blend together beautifully.
• Quarterfinal #3: One of the first albums I ever purchased was The Stranger and I absolutely crush "Just the Way You Are" on karaoke night.
• Quarterfinal #4:  I like the synthdrum/electric piano intro of the Chris Rea tune and the chorus is imminently singable, but it's up against a tune that won the most recent edition of bracketology. 

Check back for the final round match-up and head over to Twitter to cast your vote there.

Bracketology: 1978 Adult Contemporary singles, Quarterfinals

I've created this bracket of the top eight Adult Contemporary/Easy Listening singles from 1978 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 23, 1978 issue of Billboard magazine:

• Quarterfinal #1: "We'll Never Have to Say Goodbye Again" by England Dan & John ford Coley (#1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts for 6 weeks) vs. "If Ever I See You Again" by Roberta Flack (#1 for 3 weeks)
• Quarterfinal #2: "(What a) Wonderful World" by Art Garfunkel (#1 for 5 weeks) vs. "Bluer Than Blue" by Michael Johnson  (#1 for 3 weeks)
• Quarterfinal #3: "Just the Way You Are" by Billy Joel (#1 for 4 weeks) vs. "Three Times a Lady" by Commodores (#1 for 3 weeks)
• Quarterfinal #4: "How Deep is Your Love" by The Bee Gees (#1 for 6 weeks) vs. "Fool (If You Think It's Over)" by Chris Rea  (#1 for 3 weeks)

Fill out your bracket with your personal favorites and check back for the semifinal round.

Bracketology: 1977 singles, Champion

I really struggled with this one. As it should be, the final match-up was a tough one.  So tough that this post didn't get published last week because I couldn't make up my mind on a clear winner.  Since I kept going back and forth on my decision, I invented a tie-breaker: which song would the 11 year old version of me prefer? And if memory serves, I preferred the BeeGees tune back then. Photo finish.