Once again, back to the beginning. Ronald Reagan was two weeks away from crushing Jimmy Carter. And these were the songs that accompanied the last days of his campaign:
40 - "Hit Me with Your Best Shot," Pat Benatar
39 - "She's So Cold," The Rolling Stones
38 - "Could I Have this Dance," Anne Murray
37 - "Touch and Go," The Cars
36 - "Walk Away," Donna Summer
35 - "More than I Can Say," Leo Sayer
34 - "I'm Almost Ready," The Pure Prairie League
33 - "That Girl Could Sing," Jackson Browne
32 - "Let Me Be Your Angel," Stacy Lattisaw
31 - "The Legend of Wooley Swamp," The Charlie Daniels Band
A good chunk of rock kicks off the proceedings. Pat Benatar debuted this week with what would become her first Top Ten, a "real tough cookie" of a rocker where she dares a prospective suitor to do his best to impress her before she will allow him to become "another notch in my lipstick case." It's gotten a bit overplayed over the years, but the swagger that made it connect in the first place still shines through. The "good old Rolling Stones," as Casey referred to them this week, followed up the slinky funk of "Emotional Rescue" with a stuttery rock number about a particularly frigid lady. compared to whom Mick Jagger is "a bleedin' volcano." Kind of an odd image, but still a solid song. The Cars cracked the 40 for the first time in the 80s with this unspectacular bit of new wave that is somewhat redeemed by the following fantastically weird verse: "All I need is you tonight/Flying like a cement kite, yeah/In your headlock on the floor/Who could ever ask for more?" I have no idea what it means, but I love it. And Jackson Browne shows up this week with a tale of a dalliance with a lady who was fun to be with, but too much of a free spirit to be tied down. Oh yeah, and she was a pretty good singer. Anyway, it's typical Jackson Browne, and it's all right.
A couple of country tunes are in this section. Anne Murray had her next-to-last Top 40 with her contribution to the huge Urban Cowboy soundtrack, a twangy, sappy waltz that I'm sure has been a wedding staple ever since. It won't be played at mine, though, this I promise you. And Charlie Daniels made one of his last marks on the pop charts with this fun, swampy stomper that spins a yarn about two young punks who rob and murder an old, miserly hermit to try and steal the money he has buried in the woods. The thieves dump the body in the swamp, but as they try to get away, they find themselves sinking in quicksand, and as they die, they hear the creepy laughter of the old man. And even 50 years later, the last verse goes, their are nights when you can hear the dying screams of the thieves and the cackling of the miser. A cool little ghost story, with echoes of Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein" in the keyboard riff. Perfect for this time of year. And once again, Charlie Daniels fittingly wins this week's Uneasy Rider.
Two R&B ladies are present. Donna Summer is here with a song that her old label, the infamous Casablanca Records, released to compete with the new single she was putting out on her new label, Geffen. It barely scraped into the 40, and as it's mediocre-for-her dissco, that's about right. What happened to her Geffen single? Stay tuned. And Stacy Lattisaw hadn't yet turned 14 when she made her Top 40 debut with this sweet retro-soul ballad that, of course, contains the line "You might think I am much too young to understand." It's actually pretty good, though. It sounds like something they might have given to Michael Jackson at that age, and Stacy sings it solidly.
We finish with a couple of acts driving down the middle of the road. Leo Sayer is here with his last American Top Ten, a gentle midtempo song of devotion. It's nice, especially because he tones down the falsetto. Maybe this is why the guy who taught Barney Gumble how to fly a helicopter likes Leo so much. And the Pure Prairie League, with future country star Vince Gill up front, had their penultimate hit with
this bit of mild Southern rock about having had just about enough of a lover's cheatin' ways. I can't say I like Vince Gill as much as my Dad does, but I gotta say, he's got a nice voice. I still like his wife's better, though.
30 - "Out Here on My Own," Irene Cara
29 - "Who'll Be the Fool Tonight," The Larsen-Feiten Band
28 - "Lovely One," The Jacksons
27 - "You've Lost that Lovin' Feeling," Daryl Hall and John Oates
26 - "Whip It," Devo
25 - "Midnight Rocks," Al Stewart
24 - "On The Road Again," Willie Nelson
23 - "Dreamer (Live)," Supertramp
22 - "How do I Survive," Amy Holland
21 - "Lookin' for Love," Johnny Lee
We start with R&B. Irene Cara is here with her secondFame hit, a showpiece ballad about overcoming adversity that I'm sure many a diva-in-training has belted out in her room over the years. Not my cup of tea, but certainly a good vocal/acting exercise. And Michael Jackson's first hit with his brothers after the mega-success of Off the Wall was this fun bit of disco-funk that might as well have been another MJ solo single, because you can't really hear any of the other brothers on it. It's a notch or two below the likes of "Don't Stop 'til Your Get Enough," but still pretty damn awesome.
Our next category is "American Bands." Keyboardist Neil Larsen and Howard "Buzz" Feiten were session vets who'd played on, among other things, the 1979 Rickie Lee Jones smash "Chuck E.'s in Love." This, their only hit under their own names, isn't nearly that good, but it's serviceable, Boz Scaggs-ish jazz-pop. Daryl Hall and John Oates had their biggest hit in a while with this faithful cover of the Righteous Brothers classic. Musically inessential, but it did set the table for H&O's long run of Top Tens through the first half of the decade. And Devo, the former Kent State art students who took their name from the concept of "de-evolution," had their only Top 40 single with this jittery synth-pop treat about dealing with problems and avoiding cracks in the sidewalk. Not even its use in a Swiffer commercial could detract from my eternal love of this.
This group contains three acts from Britain and Europe. Scotland's Al Stewart had his last hit with this boring bit of MOR about not wanting a relationship to end. There's nothing interesting about it, unlike "Year of the Cat" or "Time Passages." He went out with a whimper. England's Supertramp had their first hit of the 80s with this live-in-Paris cover of a track from their 1974 LP Crime of the Century. To me, it's just a lot of keyboard noise and Roger Hodson caterwauling, but it sounds like the French loved it. And Dutchwoman Amy Boersma changed her name and scored one American hit with a pop-rock snoozer that no one who's ever heard it will be surprised to learn was produced by Doobie Brother Michael McDonald. Amy didn't get any more hits out of her collaboration with Mikey Mac, but she did get a marriage and two children, so I guess that's some consolation.
This half closes out with country. This year, Willie Nelson tried to launch a film career by playing a country singer in Honeysuckle Rose. The movie has faded into obscurity, but the hit from its soundtrack, this jaunty pickfest celebrating the life of the traveling musician, had endured and is now one of Willie's best-known hits. You can't not smile while listening to it. And Johnny Lee is back from last time, still searching for affection in inappropriate locations. I have no more to say about it.
Tomorrow: a song I didn't know was reggae, but I liked it; an empowerment anthem inspired by drag queens;, and a genre monarch's new direction.
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