The fall of '87. I was a couple weeks into Grade 11. The next month would see a major worldwide stock market crash. And these were the popular songs in the United States at the time.
40 - "Don't Look Down - The Sequel," Go West
39 - "Don't Make Me Wait for Love," Kenny G
38 - "Rock Steady," The Whispers
37 - "It's a Sin," Pet Shop Boys
36 - "Something Real (Inside Me/Inside You)," Mr. Mister
35 - "Don't Mean Nothing," Richard Marx
34 - "Who's That Girl," Madonna
33 - "Victim of Love," Bryan Adams
32 - "Mony Mony (Live)," Billy Idol
31 - "In My Dreams," REO Speedwagon
We'll start with a couple of British synth-pop duos. Go West had just missed the American 40 with 1985's "We Close Our Eyes," then just scraped in two years with a remix (hence "The Sequel") of one of their UK hits. This is a peppy little song that encourages courage, but personally, I think "We Close Our Eyes," is better by miles. And the Pet Shop Boys picked up their third U.S. Top Ten with this epic-sounding confession in which Neil Tennant declares "At school they taught me how to be/So pure of thought and word and deed/They didn't quite succeed." He was inspired by his Catholic-school education, and even included some passages from Latin masses. These guys had a bunch of great singles, but this may be the best of them.
Next we have three songs that I've decided to lump into a category called "R&B/Dance." Kenneth Bruce Gorelick, the man who brought the soprano saxophone to elevators everywhere, followed up his first hit, the instrumental "Songbird," with this ballad featuring vocals by someone named Lenny Williams. It's meh until the very end, when Kenny's sax playing becomes especially grating. L.A. vocal group The Whispers had been releasing singles since 1969, but didn't score a pop Top Ten until 18 years later with this nice little dance jam about finding love and acting on it. And Madonna had her seventh Number One single with this bouncy title track to one of her bad movies. A typically fun Madonna hit of that era, although the inclusion of Spanish lyrics makes less sense here than it did on "La Isla Bonita."
Then it's a couple slices of lightweight pop-rock. In 1986, Mr. Mister burst on the scene in a huge way, scoring three Top Ten hits, including the #1s "Broken Wings" and "Kyrie." One year later, they scored what would be their last hit with this little ditty about searching for the genuine in all of us. It only hit #29, and deservedly so. It's a safe bet that this wasn't the song that guy from Train heard on the radio. And the band named after a fire truck shows up again with a ballad about retreating to subconscious reverie to pretend the one one loves loves one back (awkward sentence, but I stand by it). It's terrible, and so limp it makes "Can't Fight This Feeling" sound good. And I didn't think that was possible.
We finish with solo male rock singers. Richard Marx had experienced some success as a songwriter before making his own record and picking up his first hit with this poppy number. It not only borrows from the Eagles in terms of sound and lyrical theme (the dark side of the glamorous Hollywood dream), but from the band itself, as three one-time members of the band play on the song. It's not a classic by any means, but it's undeniably catchy. Canada's Bryan Adams notched his last hit of this decade with this unremarkable ballad about the tribulations of l'amour. And William Broad, who changed his name in part because a teacher once called him a certain synonym for "lazy," would hit #1 in America for the first and only time with this live version of a Tommy James and the Shondells hit that he'd first recorded in 1981. This rendition is harder rock than the synth-driven studio version, but it's that first recording that has stood the test of time and inspired millions to chant obscenely.
30 - "Breakout," Swing Out Sister
29 - "Bad," Michael Jackson
28 - "I Think We're Alone Now," Tiffany
27 - "Never Let Me Down," David Bowie
26 - "You are the Girl," The Cars
25 - "Fake," Alexander O'Neal
24 - "Little Lies," Fleetwood Mac
23 - "Causing a Commotion," Madonna
22 - "Let Me Be the One," Exposé
21 - "Only in My Dreams," Debbie Gibson
We start with some soul-dance-pop. Britain's Swing Out Sister had their only American hit with this sprightly Top Ten about overcoming fears and obstacles to reach your goals and dreams. This kind of message can come off as cheesy, but the delivery here is so funkily classy that it works. Alexander O'Neal, who was the lead singer of The Time until they became associated with Prince and he was replaced by Morris Day, had his biggest hit on his own with this Jimmy Jam/Terry Lewis produces slice of rubbery funk that criticizes women who wear false eyelashes, hair extensions, and colored contacts. One can debate the merits of his arguments, but you can't argue with the groove. And Miami-based girl group Exposé had their third hit with this Latin-flavored request to be someone's lover. They never did anything at all for me. Didn't get it. But they had a bunch of hits, so what do I know?
There are two songs here by gigantic pop stars who had multiple hits on this week's countdown. Michael Jackson, who at this time had not yet crowned himself the King of Pop, is here with the tough-talking title track to his follow-up albun to Thriller. At the time it came off to me as a little overblown, and perhaps that overstuffed Martin Scorsese video didn't help matters. But the song has grown on me to a certain degree over the years. Cha'mon! And Madonna borrows the phrase "the love you save may be your own" from Michael and his brothers for a lyric on her second Who's That Girl? single. Not one of her better big hits, as far as I'm concerned.
Next we have the battle of the teen-girl pop stars. This was the week Tiffany made her debut with her machine-driven cover of a Tommy James and the Shondells song about two young lovers finding solitude at long last, and presumably taking that opportunity to fuck. But I don't think the then-fifteen Ms. Darwish understood that, and that's for the best. This is by far the second best Tommy James cover to enter the Top 40 this week. Meanwhile, her rival for shopping-mall supremacy, Debbie Gibson, had been on the charts since June with her first hit, an original song about missing someone and wanting them back that she wrote all by herself. Decent lyrics, catchy, and it sounds much more natural than the Tiffany track. Tiff won the first battle, as she hit #1 while Debbie stalled at #4. But in the end, Deborah had more hits. They apparently toured together this summer, and I've heard reports that Tiffany was the better singer. Both have posed nude in Playboy, and...I have no comment on that.
We finish with three 70s survivors. David Bowie is here with the title track to the album that he promoted with the massively theatrical Glass Spider tour. An unremarkable midtempo ballad about a devoted friend, but it is notable because it is the first time that I can remember offhand hearing harmonica on a Bowie track. The Cars are here with their final Top 40 hit, an uptempo love song from the last album that featured their original lineup. It's a sweet song, but it sounds kind of, I don't know, neutered. And Fleetwood Mac had their third hit from the Tango in the Night LP with this melancholy synth-popper in which Christine McVie asks her lover to supply her with falsehoods so their relationship can continue. Well, this band isn't exactly known for stability in their love affairs.
Tomorrow: Rap goes surfing, a singer appears on the same chart as a song about him, and the "sporting event" we all dream of.
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