Before we complete 1981, let's have a brief look at the list from September 21, 1974:
Barry White was on top with "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe." And below...
Cat Stevens was at #11 with his last Top Ten, an okay cover of Sam Cooke's "Another Saturday Night"...Yes, Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods had another hit besides "Billy, Don't Be a Hero," and here it is at #15, "Who Do You Think You Are"...And similarly, Blue Swede charted with something other than "Hooked on a Feeling." They actually made it all the way to the Top Ten with another cover, this one of The Association's "Never My Love," which landed this week at 21. But there are no "ooga chakas" or anything similar, so who cares?...R&B vocal group The Tymes invented a new term of endearment on the cool strut "You Little Trustmaker" at 22...Joni Mitchell's feeling "unfettered and alive" on the wonderful "Free Man in Paris" at 23...The Ohio Players appreciate "Skin Tight" pants in their usual funky-as-hell way at 27...Charlie Rich had his last major pop hit with "I Love My Friend," a ballad about finding comfort from loneliness one night in the arms of a to-that-point platonic companion that peaked at 28...Cool, this week I actually got to hear Carole King's original "Jazzman" at 29. It's nice...James Brown insists that "Papa Don't Take No Mess" at 38. Nor should he...And The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band, a country-rock supergroup assembled by David Geffen, are here at 39 with "Fallin' in Love." It isn't the same song that Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds would go to #1 with the next year. Thank God. But I've decided to shine my spotlight this week on...
19 - "Earache My Eye featuring Alice Bowie," Cheech and Chong
The stoner duo not only moved millions of comedy LPs in the 70s, they also found their way onto the pop charts three times, with "Sister Mary Elephant," "Basketball Jones featuring Tyrone Shoelaces," and most successfully, this Top Ten riff (and I do mean riff, as the guitar part that drives this song has become somewhat of a classic on its own) on glam rock performed by a character inspired by two of the genre's biggest names at the time. The song begins with the sound of someone waking up and then putting on the "Alice Bowie" record. In the lyrics, the singer describes the hardships he had growing up, like being disowned by his father for cross-dressing and being kicked off a basketball team for "wearing high-heel sneakers and acting like a queen." But of course, his outrageousness eventually paid off and made him a famous rock star, a fact which "Alice" rubs his listeners' faces in at the end of the song. But then thesong ends with the sound of a needle being ripped off of a record, and then we're transported to a teenage boy's room, where his father is trying to get his lazy son out of bed and off to school. The boy begs off sick, claiming an earache, which provokes the immortal response "Earache, my eye! How would you like a buttache?" Eventually the father can put up with the disobedience no more, and he gives the boy an unholy beating then leaves, assuming the message has been recieved. But moments later, the kid puts the record back on, and presumably has gone back to bed. Good stuff all around.
And now, we wrap up September '81.
20 - "The Night Owls," The Little River Band
19 - "For You Eyes Only," Sheena Easton
18 - "The Voice," The Moody Blues
17 - "The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em)," The Greg Kihn Band
16 - "Cool Love," Pablo Cruise
We kick off with my old friends The Little River Band. I'm not sure what this song is about, but I think it's their attempt at being "gritty." Actually, for them, it's not bad. But all in all, they're still awful.
Next is Sheena Easton with the theme from the twelfth James Bond film. Easton was not the first choice. Blondie had written a song for the movie, but the producers preferred another song co-written by Bill "Gonna Fly Now" Conti, and Blondie refused to record someone else's song. Conti had written the song with singers such as Donna Summmer and Dusty Springfield in mind, but the producers steered him to the then-hot Easton. I don't think it would have mattered who sang it. It's not among the best Bond themes, plain and simple.
Then it's the Moody Blues in their synth-heavy 80s incarnation. This song is about some sort of mystical, life-changing force. I think. It's all right, but I like "Gemini Dream" better.
Berkeley, California's The Greg Kihn band scored the first of their three Top 40 hits with a song about drowning one's sorrows over a fractured relationship in classic sad songs. It's like the downer polar opposite of "Old Time Rock and Roll." But a much better song.
Closing out this section are Pablo Cruise with their last hit. Unlike their others, this is a bluesy rock ballad. A much better direction for them, as far as I'm concerned. Better this than bland background music.
15 - "Believe it or Not," Joey Scarbury
14 - "The Beach Boys Medley," The Beach Boys
13 - "Jessie's Girl," Rick Springfield
12 - "Hold on Tight," The Electric Light Orchestra
11 - "Start Me Up," The Rolling Stones
This group opens with Joey Scarbury and his theme to The Greatest American Hero. We covered it on our first visit to '81, and all I have to add this time is that Scarbury sounds like a poor man's James Taylor.
With the popularity of "Stars on 45," record labels decided that medleys were a good way to repackage old songs to get more airplay and sales mileage out of them. And so, we have this mix containing snippets of the original recordings of "Good Vibrations," "Help Me Rhonda," "I Get Around," "Shut Down," "Surfin' Safari," "Surfin' USA," and "Fun, Fun, Fun." Who knew the music industry could be so cynical and calculating?
Next is Rick Springfield, still hanging on with his first #1, still angsty with envy over his buddy Jessie's woman. It remains a classic manifestation of male lust, and by far the best thing he ever did.
Then it's ELO with their final Top Ten, a song about hanging on to one's aspirations no matter what obstacles present themselves. And to make sure their point reached as wide an audience as possible, they did one of the verses in French. That was nice of them. Tres bien.
This bunch ends with the Stones and their biggest hit of the 80s. I liked it a lot as a kid, but overuse in popular culture has dulled it for me. But I still think about my initial reaction to the line "You make a dead man come." I'm pretty sure I thought he meant the woman he was singing about could make a dead man come back to life and come to her. But years later, I figured out the real meaning, and, um, eww.
Here come ten from way back when.
10 - "Slow Hand," The Pointer Sisters
Ruth, June and Anita had another big one with this sultry number about wanting a man who takes his time during intimate situations. Later, country singer Conway Twitty covered it. I like this version much better.
9 - "Step by Step," Eddie Rabbitt
The New Jersey country star followed up the #1 "I Love a Rainy Night" with this guitar ballad that provides advice for reluctant men on asking out women. Treat her like a lady, share your feelings, that sort of thing. If he'd wanted to, he probably could have stretched this out into a book. But the concise approach was the better one.
8 - "Lady (You Bring Me Up)," The Commodores
One of the groups last hits with Lionel Richie, this is a discoey number about a woman who changed a man's life for the better. All right, but I think I can hear them running out of steam. Lionel picked the right time to get out.
7 - "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)," Christopher Cross
Cross would top the charts for the second and last time with the theme song from the Dudley Moore comedy about an irresponsible multimillionaire. It was co-written by Cross with songwriting pros Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager, and Peter Allen, so it's clearly well-crafted. But it doesn't do much for me.
6 - "Who's Crying Now," Journey
The San Francisco rockers cracked the Top Ten for the first time with this ballad about a volatile relationship that may or may not last. I liked it enough as a kid to buy the album it came from on cassette. Or maybe I didn't buy it until "Don't Stop Believin'" came out. I can't remember.
5 - "(There's) No Gettin' Over Me," Ronnie Milsap
This blind singer from North Carolina was a huge country star in the 70s and 80s, racking up an amazing 35 country #1s. This slick poppy tune (complete with sax solo) about how the woman who left him will not be able to get him out of her head ("I'll be the song on the radio...I'll be the book that you just can't put down.") was his biggest pop hit. I'm not a fan of country that doesn't sound like country, but put that aside, and this is pleasant enough.
4 - "Urgent," Foreigner
Lou Gramm and his British friends are back in the upper reaches of the charts with this appropriately desperate-sounding rocker about when lust rises to the level of emergency. Solid song, enhanced greatly by the saxophone of Motown legend Junior "Shotgun" Walker.
3 - "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around," Stevie Nicks with Tom Petty
The first single from Nicks' solo debut, Bella Donna, featured vocal assistance from Tom Petty and musical backing from The Heartbreakers. It basically sounds like a Petty song sung by the witchy lady from Fleetwood Mac, but that's certainly not a bad thing.
2 - "Queen of Hearts," Juice Newton
Juice's second pop smash. We covered this on our first 1981 excursion, and I have nothing more to say. It's a great song. Someone should recommend it to Carrie Underwood for a cover version.
And the song that put the "one" in "eighty-one" this week was...
1 - "Endless Love," Diana Ross and Lionel Richie
The ex-Supreme and the soon-to-be ex-Commodore were on their sixth week at the top with this passionate duet that was featured in a movie of the same name that starred Brooke Shields. I've never seen it, but I just looked it up now, and it sounds pretty fucked up. So much so that when I saw that James Spader was in it, my thought was, "Of course he is." You can look it up for yourself, but all I'll say is, it wouldn't stand a chance of getting made by a major studio today.
The NotCaseys were "Theme from Hill Street Blues" by Mike Post featuring Larry Carlton, "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" by Billy Joel, "Our Lips are Sealed" by The Go-Go's, and "At This Moment" by Billy Vera and the Beaters. Casey himself opened the show with last week's top two ("Endless Love" and "Slow Hand"), and later played three #1's from 1968: "Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)" by John Fred and his Playboy Band, "Green Tambourine" by The Lemon Pipers, and "Love is Blue" by Paul Mauriat. He also played "Ferry Cross the Mersey" by Gerry and the Pacemakers, because they were at that time the only British group to top the UK charts with their first three singles. And there were two Long Distance Dedications: A woman dedicated Jim Croce's "Time in a Bottle" to her husband of ten years for being loyal to her in spite of the fact that they "had to get married.," and a college girl dedicated "Lady" by Kenny Rogers to the boy she left back home who still loved her in spite of her being "overly social" in her new surroundings. Even as recently as the early 80s, there were clearly still some retrograde sexual politics in play.
I shall return next week, looking back again, but not in anger.
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