This week we go back to the time when Affirmed was successfully holding off Alydar to become the second horse in a row to win the Triple Crown. With Animal Kingdom falling short last week, it's now been 33 straight years without another such equine accomplishment. And if you were on your way down to your nearby OTB to place a wager, you may have been accompanied on your journey by a few of the following musical nuggets:
40 - "Stay," Rufus featuring Chaka Khan
39 - "I Was Only Joking," Rod Stewart
38 - "Oh What a Night for Dancing," Barry White
37 - "Cheeseburger in Paradise," Jimmy Buffett
36 - "Two Doors Down," Dolly Parton
35 - "You're the Love," Seals and Crofts
34 - "Sweet Talking Woman," Electric Light Orchestra
33 - "Bluer Than Blue," Michael Johnson
32 - "Tumbling Dice," Linda Ronstadt
31 - "Lay Down Sally," Eric Clapton
Soul kicks us off. Chaka Khan and company return with a plea for your continued presence. They've done much better than this bit of elevator funk, but Chaka's always in top vocal form. And the Voice himself, Mr. White, had his last Top 40 of the decade with a ballad where he initially promises to just take you on the town, but then later adds "Girl, I'm gonna take you home and stick plenty love to you." Ah, that's the Barry we know.
Four in the rock category here. Rod Stewart is back with a regretful reminiscence of his youthful indiscretions. Straightforward rock balladry, and one of his best of this period. ELO's monster album Out of the Blue produced their current hit about a honey-tongued female. Always loved the violin breaks in this one. Our old friend Linda shows up with yet another cover, this time of the Rolling Stones. She tries her best, but it doesn't quite work as well as some of her others. There's a grit and a grime that's missing, and therefore this comes off as just a very good bar-band version. And Eric Clapton is here one more time, lazily asking some woman named Sally if she might want to have a rest in his arms.
This group closes with MOR. Head Parrothead Jimmy Buffett is here enthusiastically singing the praises of his favorite meal, which also involves onions, french fries, beer, and "a big kosher pickle." For cracking the Top 40 with a song about meat, Jimmy sinks his teeth into this week's Uneasy Rider. Dolly Parton followed up her pop breakthrough "Here You Come Again" with this number about giving up on heartbreak and joining the party that is life. Although it's hard to believe the early line "they're not aware that I'm around" coming from a lady with such a, shall we say, eye-catching appearance. Seals and Crofts had their last gasp of pop success by integrating a little disco into their blanditude. Meh, there were worse ways for them to go out. But they were not missed. And Michael Johnson (not the 1996 gold medal sprinter, surprisingly) had his biggest hit with this ballad in which he bravely tries to state the advantages of being left by his lover ("I can catch up on my reading.") but by the chorus, he's forced to admit that his life is a pit of darkness without her. As doctor's office pop goes, it's above average.
30 - "Jack and Jill," Raydio
29 - "Heartless," Heart
28 - "Dust in the Wind," Kansas
27 - "Because the Night," The Patti Smith Group
26 - "Dance with Me," Peter Brown
25 - "Every Kinda People," Robert Palmer
24 - "Werewolves of London," Warren Zevon
23 - "Deacon Blues," Steely Dan
22 - "Two out of Three Ain't Bad," Meat Loaf
21 - "Can't Smile Without You," Barry Manilow
This group is extremely heavy with rock, so we'll begin with the records that don't fit into that category. Ray Parker Jr.'s first band comes back with their twist on that famed pair of fictional hill-climbers. Disco footnote Peter Brown had his biggest hit that had all the hallmarks of the genre: wah-wah guitar, lots of strings, female backup singers ("Gotta keep on makin' me high!) and exhortations to dance. Nothing special. And The Manilow returns with his deceptively peppy number about his inability to be happy without you.
I'll divide the rock into groups and solo acts. The Wilson sisters are here with a rocker about lusting after the wrong kind of man. As a kid, I actually liked this better than "Barracuda." I've since learned the error of my ways, but this is still really, really good. The band named after Dorothy Gale's home state returns with their acoustic rumination on our insignificance in the grand scheme of things. Punk poet Patti Smith, much to my surprise, actually did crack the Top 40 once with this gritty Bruce Springsteen ballad about love and lust that she recorded after it was played for her by her producer, Jimmy Iovine (who was the least-heralded but ultimately best addition to this season of Idol). I know it probably doesn't matter, but I'm glad she did end up with a hit, like Lou Reed. And maybe she would have had another if she'd put out a version of "You Light Up My Life." Speaking of which, the guy who wrote that song died this week. I never knew how completely screwed up that guy was. Anyway, moving on, the last rock group in this section is Steely Dan, with a song that is some sort of metaphor involving the college football teams of Wake Forest and the University of Alabama. It's not like them at all to turn such obscure references into a pop song. Oh, wait...
We end with the soloists. Robert Palmer, the man who would find his greatest success surrounded by icy-looking women in the "Addicted to Love" video, had his first American hit with this soul-influenced number that reminds me a lot of the utopian R&B of the first years of the decade. "What's Going On" seems like a very obvious influence. The late great Warren Zevon is another iconoclast who managed but one pop hit, that being this piano-driven perennial about an English lycanthrope who enjoys Chinese food, Pina Coladas, and keeping his hair looking good. Shame more kids these days know that Kid Rock song that sampled it than the original. Oh, and get off my lawn! And Marvin Lee Aday, the man who renamed himself after comfort food, had his biggest hit of the decade with this conflicted ballad about a woman he wants and needs, but for some reason can't love. This was off the blockbuster Bat Out of Hell album, and like the rest of that record was written by Jim Steinman, whose operatic pop mini-epics are a guilty pleasure of mine. Be they performed by Meat, Bonnie Tyler ("Total Eclipse of the Heart",) Air Supply ("Making Love Out of Nothing at All") or even Celine Dion ("It's All Coming Back to Me Now,"), they frequently hit my aural sweet spot. It's a weakness. I admit it.
Tomorrow: songs about changing locations, taking risks, and a really big fire.
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