This week we return to '85. Quite a few repeaters from last time, but there's enough new stuff for me to give it the full treatment.
40 - "One of the Living," Tina Turner
39 - "So in Love," Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
38 - "The Power of Love," Huey Lewis and the News
37 - "Separate Lives (Love Theme from White Nights)," Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin
36 - "Boy in the Box," Corey Hart
35 - "Who's Zoomin' Who," Aretha Franklin
34 - "Communication," The Power Station
33 - "Never," Heart
32 - "Love Theme from St. Elmo's Fire," David Foster
31 - "Dare Me," The Pointer Sisters
There are two repeaters in this bunch. Huey and the News return with the song Huey himself hated when Marty McFly's band played it for his teacher character in Back to the Future, and the Pointer Sisters want to be challenged.
There are three solo singers in this pack. Tina Turner is here with the her second hit from the Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome soundtrack. It's an atmospheric rocker about surviving in an unforgiving wasteland. I actually like it better than "We Don't Need Another Hero." Corey Hart followed up "Never Surrender" with the title song from its parent album, a noisy bit of paranoia and fear. One question, though: Why would a wolf cry "Fox!"? And Aretha Franklin continued her comeback with a smooth midtempo number about the games prospective lovers play with each other. I'm still not quite sure what the title phrase means, but this is one of those times when such minor details don't matter at all.
Three groups are present and correct. British synth-poppers OMD had collected quite a few hits at home before finally breaking through in the States with this evocative song about leaving behind any thoughts of rekindling an old relationship. A very cool blend of synth and sax. The Power Station, a supergroup featuring two of the three unrelated Taylors from Duran Duran, solo star Robert Palmer, and Chic drummer Tony Thompson, had their third and final hit with this numberabout desperately trying to get through to someone. It's got the big beat and the breathy vocals of their other hits, but it just doesn't click on the same level as "Some Like it Hot," or their cover of "Bang a Gong (Get it On)." And Heart followed up the ballad that revived their career but made me lose all respect for them with a glossy rocker in which Ann Wilson tries to convince a would-be lover to stop being so bashful and "walk those legs right over here." It just lacks the edge and passion of a "Barracuda" or a "Heartless." Too much production and cold calculation.
We finish this first section with two movie love themes. Phil Collins teamed with then-unknown session singer Marilyn Martin for this song about two people who think they might want to get back together someday, just not now. This was from a movie about ballet and the Cold War that starred Mykhail Baryshnikov, Gregory Hines, and Helen Mirren. The song hit #1 and was nominated for an Oscar, but lost to another charttopper from the same movie, Lionel Richie's "Say You, Say Me." And super-producer David Foster had his biggest hit on his own with this instrumental from that Brat Pack summit movie. Lots of strings, piano and sax, but nothing that makes it rise above waiting-room level.
30 - "Lay Your Hands on Me," The Thompson Twins
29 - "You are My Lady," Freddie Jackson
28 - "And We Danced," The Hooters
27 - "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)," John Parr
26 - "Sunset Grill," Don Henley
25 - "We Built this City," Starship
24 - "You Belong to the City," Glenn Frey
23 - "Be Near Me," ABC
22 - "C-I-T-Y," John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band
21 - "One Night Love Affair," Bryan Adams
We'll begin this section with two British groups. The unrelated, non-identical trio The Thompson Twins scored the second of their three U.S. Top Tens with this midtempo synth-ballad about wanting to "see your face and sense the grace and feel the magic in your touch." Wow, they expect a lot. Good song, though. And ABC do their classy thing with a simple song with a simple message. Not much to it, but what there is is somehow enough.
We have three solo singers who were never in a certain L.A.-based country-rock band. Freddie Jackson had ten #1s on the soul chart, but he didn't even have that many Top 40 pop hits, and this decent-but-unremarkable wedding ballad, his biggest pop hit, only reached #12. That seems wrong somehow. John Parr's theme from that Brat Pack movie was on its way down this week, but it was also used as a Long Distance Dedication from a Chilean woman to both her late paraplegic cousin and his hero, wheelchair athlete Rick Hansen, the "Man in Motion" whose worldwide journey inspired the song. And Bryan Adams had the fifth of six hits from his mega-album Reckless with this catchy rocker about a one-night stand that both participants hope would turn into something more, but neither makes a move to create that situation, and so "now we're left with nothing." Oh Bryan, you shy heartbreaker you.
Three American bands make the scene. Philadelphia's The Hooters had the first of their two Top 40 hits with this pleasant rocker about young teenage romance. Okay, but not as weird as my favorite song of theirs, the Biblical reggae number "All You Zombies." Oh, and their name was inspired by a nickname for the melodica, a musical instrument that's like a flute with a keyboard on it. Not owls. Or tits. Starship had finally, mercifully dropped "Jefferson" from their name, and they debuted the new moniker with this immortal bit of big dumb rock disguised as some sort of deep treatise about the man who invented wireless radio, corporate and police malfeasance, and the power of music to save us all from it. Or something. Anyway, this song is hated by many, but I always liked it somehow. Except when local radio stations would replace the DJ patter near the end with one of their own jocks. I hated that. Say what you want in between songs, but don't fuck with the songs themselves, no matter how tempting it is. And John Cafferty's crew are back with their lesson in both spelling and how to chart with watered-down Springsteen.
We finish with a pair of Eagles and what they did while they were broken up. Don Henley is here with a downbeat song about life in L.A. Surprise, surprise. Oh, and there's an actual Sunset Grill in Los Angeles, and I would hope that eating their is a happier experience than listening to this song about "jerks" and "basket people." Not that it's a bad song, it just feels like work at some points. Glenn Frey, on the other hand, seems to celebrate the idea of going out into the seedy big city night, with dark-yet-enticing sax and synths helping him make his point. But the city he's singing about is Miami, as this song was from the Miami Vice soundtrack. I know I wasn't enthusiastic about the Henley song, but I'll take it over "You Belong to the City" every time. I just don't like solo Glenn Frey.
Tomorrow: the sixties meet the eighties, a song to chase drug dealers on speedboats by, and another disappointment from one of my favorites.
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