This week, we arrive smack in the middle of the decade. This was the week I started high school. And these were the songs I was supposed to be too cool to like. In many cases, I actually was, but in others...well, let's just get on with it.
40 - "Spanish Eddie," Laura Branigan
39 - "I Wonder if I Take You Home," Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam with Full Force
38 - "I Got You Babe," UB40 and Chrissie Hynde
37 - "Do You Want Crying," Katrina and the Waves
36 - "No Lookin' Back," Michael McDonald
35 - "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)," Dead or Alive
34 - "C-I-T-Y," John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band
33 - "Dancing in the Street," Mick Jagger and David Bowie
32 - "Fortress Around Your Heart," Sting
31 - "Who's Holding Donna Now," DeBarge
This section doesn't seem to break off into groups as naturally as the ones from past countdowns. So, okay, I'll start with a couple female-fronted pop songs. Laura Branigan barely scraped into the 40 with this dance-popper that seems to be about the death of a young Latino gang member. A lot of odd little things in the lyrics, like "we was mixin' Vicks with lemon gin" and repeated mentions of the Bob Dylan song "Desolation Row." A strange little song, but not that memorable. And Katrina and the Waves followed up their everlasting gobstopper of a hit "Walking on Sunshine," with this much less upbeat song about a nasty breakup. It's all right, but there's a reason no one remembers it.
Next we'll look at a couple songs that have been repurposed into new hits in the last few years. Lisa Lisa and her cohorts had their first hit with this catchy bit of what would become known as "Latin freestyle" whose chorus was borrowed by those pop scavengers The Black Eyed Peas for "Don't Phunk With My Heart." I wish they hadn't phunked with this song. And Dead or Alive had their biggest hit with this propulsive and catchy dance typhoon who also had its chorus nicked recently, this time by rapper Flo Rida for a song about a guy who has a crush on a stripper and wants her to perform oral sex on him. Call me a bitter old man, but isn't that what most Top 40 rap songs have been about in the last few years? Oh, and that song also loses points for introducing the world to Ke$ha. Ugh.
All right, we've got a couple covers. British reggae band UB40 teamed up with lead Pretender Chrissie Hynde for a cover of the song that introduced the world to Mr. and Mrs. Bono. I liked this a lot when it came out, but now, I'd much rather hear the original. And the lead Stone and the Thin White Duke teamed up for this boisterous but musically pointless cover of the Martha and the Vandellas classic. But it was made for that year's Live Aid concert, and the proceeds from it went to African famine relief, so its existence is justified.
Then there are a couple songs from ex-lead singers of big bands. Michael McDonald's work wussifying The Doobie Brothers was long done when he put out this solo single, co-written with fellow mellow man Kenny Loggins, that's about moving forward and stuff like that. Not horrible, as Michael McDonald goes. And Sting's second post-Police hit was this big ballad that uses imagery evoking some sort of medieval battlefield as a metaphor for the dissolution of his first marriage. Pretentious, but not painfully so. That would come later.
And the two that are left are by groups, so they have thiat in common, which is nice. Rhode Island's John Cafferty and his backing band that reportedly took their name from a shade of paint are here with a Springsteen-lite rocker about hard times for a working-class guy in Detroit. It's not as good as the stuff they did for the movie Eddie and the Cruisers, and that was mediocre at best. And the DeBarge siblings weren't as successful a family act for Motown as the Jacksons were, but they did manage a handful of Top 40 singles and two Top Ten hits, the last of which was this okay ballad about singer El DeBarge's wish to be back with his old flame Donna. Meh, I was glad when El went solo and started singing about robots.
30 - "Every Step of the Way," John Waite
29 - "Every Time You Go Away," Paul Young
28 - "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free," Sting
27 - "Mystery Lady," Billy Ocean
26 - "There Must be an Angel (Playing with My Heart)," Eurythmics
25 - "Lonely Ol' Night," John Cougar Mellencamp
24 - "Cry," Godley and Creme
23 - "Saving All My Love for You," Whitney Houston
22 - "Shame," The Motels
21 - "Take on Me," A-ha
Okay, we'll break this group up by starting with the four British male solo singers who fill slots 30-27. Ex-Baby John Waite had his last American solo pop hit with this tepid rock band. But he may not have minded the down period in his career that followed, for he tells the person he's singing this song for "you're the meaning of success to me." Awwwww. Paul Young had a couple more U.S. hits than Waite, and his effort here, a slick, effective cover of a Hall and Oates album cut, went all the way to Number One. Every time that song goes off the air, it takes a piece of me with it. No, not really. Sting pops up again with his solo debut, a nice piece of faux-soul about allowing someone you care about to roam unfettered. It's the opposite sentiment to "Every Breath You Take," and apparently, that was intentional. And the Trinidadian-born Londoner originally named Leslie Charles is here with the fourth single from his breakthrough album Suddenly, a smooth loverman ballad in which he makes a promise to the titular enigmatic female that "when the nights are cold and lonely, I will keep you warm." And I don't think it means that he will pay her heating bills for her.
Then we have three European groups. Britain's Eurythmics are here with this pretty little pop celebration of heavenly romance. Annie Lennox sounds more joyous than she ever has, and having Stevie Wonder show up to do a harmonica solo doesn't hurt either. Two more Brits, ex-Hotlegs and 10cc members Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, took time out from their successful video-directing career to record this haunting new-wave ode to lachrymation. And yes, the did direct the video to their own hit, a song that features faces blending into each other in a way that presaged Michael Jackson's "Black or White" video. And Norway's A-ha are here with one of the decade's most familiar hits, a synth-driven pop powerhouse whose lyrical meaning is shrouded in broken Scandinavian lyrics. But no one cared, especially when there was that awesome half-animated video where the singer is chased by guys with wrenches. For whatever reason, the song lives on, and is currently being performed by a dog and a parrot in an insurance commercial.
We close this first half with acts made in the U.S.A. John Cougar Mellencamp, during his transition from using his stage name to his real one, scored a solid Top Ten with this catchy rocker about people looking to spend a night togethter to avoid being alone. It was the first single from his biggest album, Scarecrow. I'm not ashamed to admit I bought it. Whitney Houston is here with her second hit, a sultry ballad about a woman committed to a man who belongs to another. Her star power was beginning to shine through. This was her first #1. Ten more charttoppers would follow. But so would Bobby Brown. And L.A. New Wavers The Motels had their last pop hit that explores the guilt that comes with infidelity in lines like "A lot of selfish dreams are waiting here for you." Bummer.
Tomorrow: a few spotlight tracks from this week in 1971. Plus: more music to Swiff by, a song that was banned in Canada (sort of), and silver screen domination.
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