August 30, 1980 Part Two

Concluding matters.

20 - "Old-Fashion Love," The Commodores
19 - "You're the Only Woman," Ambrosia
18 - "Why Not Me," Fred Knoblock
17 - "JoJo," Boz Scaggs
16 - "Drivin' My Life Away," Eddie Rabbitt

We begin Part Two with Lionel Richie and his fellow Tuskegee soulmen, with a song about an old school-beauty. This would not have sounded out of place on the radio ten years earlier. Not one they're remembered for, but worth seeking out.

Next are Ambrosia with another one of their boring hits. They did do more interesting things, like playing on The Alan Parsons project's debut album and putting out a song with lyrics from Kurt Vonnegut's novel Cat's Cradle. But they had most of their success as a blandness delivery system. Unfortunate.

Then it's Mississippi country singer Fred Knoblock's only pop hit. On it, he's attending the wedding of an ex-lover, all the while wondering why it couldn't have been him up their with her. Not only is this not a new experience for him, but the lyrics seem to indicate that there are a group of other guys in the same position as him that he always runs into at these nuptials. Kind of weird. And kind of weird is good enough this week for an Uneasy Rider award. Oh, and I forgot to announce the winner last week. It was "Puttin' on the Ritz."

The man born William Royce Scaggs with a song about a flashy drug dealer/pimp who digs "spinning lights" and "Broadway nights." It's cool midtempo funk that sounds like a cross between George Benson's "Breezin'" and a Toto song. You wouldn't think that combo would work, but it does. And to my knowledge, the song has nothing to do with either figure skater JoJo Starbuck nor Boston Celtics guard Jo Jo White, both of whom were household names at the time.

Last in this bunch is Eddie Rabbitt's first pop Top Ten, a rollicking number about life on the road from the soundtrack of the movie Roadie, which starred Meat Loaf in the title role and featured appearances by Alice Cooper, Blondie, and Roy Orbison as themselves. Haven't seen it.

15 - "Take a Little Rhythm," Ali Thomson
14 - "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me," Billy Joel
13 - "Lookin' for Love," Johnny Lee
12 - "Into the Night," Benny Mardones
11 - "Late in the Evening," Paul Simon

This quintet opens with Scotland's Ali Thomson, whose brother was in Supertramp. His only moment in the spotlight was this pleasant soft rocker that recommends that those who are overwhelmed by the stresses of life "just sit back and let the music flow." Not an original sentiment, and one that's been expressed better by others, but this is okay radio fodder. Nothing to be ashamed of.

Next is Billy Joel with his first career #1, a pulsing declaration that in spite of changing looks and trends, the genre that developed in the mid-50s remains alive, and he loves it all: "hot funk, cool punk, even if it's old junk." His mashup of a Cars-like bass sound with rockabilly swagger and a raucous sax solo hasn't dated well, but it still has it's charms.

Then it's country singer Johnny Lee, the pride of Texas City, Texas, with his only pop hit, a song about searching for romance "in all the wrong places" that was featured prominently in the hit John Travolta movie Urban Cowboy. By the end of the song, thankfully, Johnny finds true love at last, presumably by looking in the correct locations. Oh, and if you think you don't know this song, let me ask you this: Have you ever seen the Eddie Murphy SNL sketch "Buckwheat Sings?" And if so, do you remember him singing "Wookin' Pa Nub?" That's this song.

Cleveland singer Benny Mardones only had one hit, but it had two runs in the Top 40, nine years apart. It reached #11 this year, then in 1989, an Arizona radio station played it as part of a "Where are they now?" feature, and it got such a response that it was added to the station's playlist, and other stations in other cities followed suit, propelling it to #20. The song itself is a big, belted ballad that seems romantic until you consider that the guy singing "She's just sixteen years old/'Leave her alone,' they say" was in his early 30s at the time, and in his early 40s when it became a hit again. He shouldn't have been taking her anywhere, let alone showing her a love like she's never seen. We know what you really mean by that, creep.

Finishing this section is Paul Simon's first 80s hit, a song from the soundtrack of his semi-autobiographical movie One-Trick Pony. I haven't heard good things about the movie, but I did love this song as a kid, and I still do. It's a Latin-flavored bumper about a guy reminiscing about how music has touched his life over the years. I didn't know at nine what Paul meant when he referred to smoking a "J." I probably thought it was just another brand of cigarettes.

Hittin' ya with a ten-spot:

10 - "More Love," Kim Carnes
This was the Hollywood native's first solo hit, a state-of-the-art uptempo pop song in which Kim pledges that "my love will be so sound it'll take a hundred lifetimes to...wear it down." Not bad, but there was no indication here that the awesomeness that is "Bette Davis Eyes" was soon to follow.

9 - "Let My Love Open the Door," Pete Townshend
The Who guitarist's first Ametican hit, a catchy pop-rocker in which Townshend promises to be there for you in tough times. Some have interpreted this song as having Christian connotations. Apparently, Pete himself has even stated that the concept behind the song is "Jesus sings." All I know is that I often confuse the keyboard opening of this song to that of the 1982 Who song "Eminence Front."

8 - "Give Me the Night," George Benson
On this, his biggest hit, the jazz guitarist tries to coax a lady to come out with him and enjoy the pleasures of the nightlife, both public and private. Not much to say about this one. Just doesn't inspire much passion in me either way.

7 - "All Out of Love," Air Supply
This big ballad was the second American hit for these Aussie softies, which Casey informs us broke the record for longest held note in a Top Ten single. (Russell Hitchcock holds the word "wrong" for 16.1 seconds at the very end.) Never did much for me, but I always got a chuckle from the opening line "I'm lying alone with my head on the phone."

6 - "Fame," Irene Cara
"I'm gonna live forever!" Cara declares on her first hit, the strident title song from the film about students at a performing-arts high school in which she starred. Years later, the staff of Springfield Elementary would perform their own version of this as the opening number of a faculty talent show.

5 - "Take Your Time (Do it Right)," The S.O.S. Band
The initials in this R&B group's name stand for "Sounds Of Success," and they did indeed find success on their debut single, a discoey funk workout about slowing down to do things properly. It features some great belting from singer Mary Davis, and an understated-yet-funky guitar line. This would be their only American pop hit, but they had enough R&B hits to keep them going throughout the decade.

4 - "Emotional Rescue," The Rolling Stones
Though disco had been declared dead by this time, its influence was still being felt on the charts. We saw that in the previous song, and it's here again in this Stones hit that continues in the vein of "Miss You." This time, Mick sings all the verses in the falsetto he reserved for "Miss You"'s wordless chorus. It still has a grimy charm, though I think that spoken word ending in which Jagger goes on about "riding across the desert...on a fine Arab...chaaarjerrrr." is a little much.
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3 - "Magic," Olivia Newton-John
The third, and most successful, Xanadu hit on this countdown, in which ONJ's Greek Muse character tries to convince the young painter she came down to help to follow his dreams and achieve his destiny. This one, I'll admit, I liked a lot better then than I do now. But I always like Olivia's voice. So warm and sweet.

2 - "Upside Down," Diana Ross
For her first album of the 80s, Miss Ross turned to the duo behind Chic, Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, for writing and production assistance. And although "disco" was becoming a dirty word, the slick funk that made "Le Freak" and "Good Times" monster smashes could still move records, and so this first single from the diana LP rocketed to #1. I like this one more than I did then, though I still find its use of the Olde English pronoun "thee" sticks out like a sore thumb

And 31 years ago this week, the track that rose above all other recorded piece of music released on 45 rpm vinyl discs was:

1 - "Sailing," Christopher Cross
The second hit for Texan Cross following the #2 "Ride Like the Wind" is a somnambulant ode to wind-aided boating that I can only assume became so successful because dental receptionists requested it on their local radio stations because it was useful pre-anaesthesia for patients getting root canals. Boring as fuck. But I will use it to do a "three degrees of separation" thing between Cross and another artist in this week's Top Twenty. You see, Chris Cross(lol)'s only other #1 was the theme to the 1981 movie Arthur. That movie starred Dudley Moore, who once dated actress/singer Susan Anton, who had a Top 40 hit with a song called "Killing Time," which was a duet with...Fred "Why Not Me" Knoblock. And that is infinitely more stimulating to my mind than "Sailing."

Lots of extras. The NotCaseys were Whitesnake's "Fool for Your Loving," Boz Scaggs "Look What You've Done to Me," Al Stewart's "Midnight Rocks," and Devo's "Whip It." Casey himself opened the show with the previous week's Top 3 (in reverse order: "Take Your Time," "Sailing" and "Magic."), and later played three #1's from 1961: "Surrender" by Elvis Presley, "Blue Moon" by The Marcels, and "Runaway" by Del Shannon. And there were two Long Distance dedications. A woman dedicated "Babe" by Styx to her husband in prison, and a high school girl had Casey play "Runaround Sue" to try and get a high school classmate to give up his crush on her.

So there's this week's 80's reflections. In the next 24-48 hours, I will be giving you two entries recapping this week's 70s offering. Yes, more double duty, but I'll try to make it worth your reading time.