Before we return to '87, let's take a detour to November 18, 1978. The show had expanded to four hours, so this week's broadcast started at 30. Here are the highlights
Donna Summer's cover of "MacArthur Park" was at #1...The rest of the Top Ten includes such smashes as "Double Vision," "You Don't Bring Me Flowers," "Hot Child in the City," and "Kiss You All Over"...The first new to BGC song is at #18, and it's none other than the Rolling Stones classic "Beast of Burden." I'm ashamed to say that the first version of this I remember hearing was Bette Midler's...The Bob Seger of Chicago, Styx, are at #21 with their song of working-class struggle "Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)" Reportedly, the main riff of this song was inspired by the sound guitarist Tommy Shaw's motorboat made when it had trouble starting. The strange provenances of some of these songs never cease to amaze me...And George Clinton's other funk-rock collective, Funkadelic, are at 28 with their biggest hit, in which they imagine "One Nation Under a Groove," where people are "gettin' down just for the funk of it." I'd live there...But this week, I've decided to spotlight...
20 - "Dance (Disco Heat)," Sylvester
Sylvester James got his first taste of musical adulation as a child singing gospel at various churches in his native Los Angeles. But as he grew, his awareness of his homosexuality caused problems at home, and he would move to San Francisco in 1967. While there, he performed in bands, as well as with a drag troupe called The Cockettes. Then in 1977, he signed a solo record deal, and his music went in the direction of disco. This, his highest-charting hit, is your basic uptempo boogie celebration, but you don't really hear Sylvester over his backup singers, Two Tons o' Fun (who would later achiever greater notoriety as The Weather Girls of "It's Raining Men" fame). He would score two more pop hits, including his best known song "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)," and several more dance club smashes before he died of AIDS in December 1988.
And now, let's wrap up 1987.
20 - "Causing a Commotion," Madonna
19 - "So Emotional," Whitney Houston
18 - "Hourglass," Squeeze
17 - "Don't You Want Me," Jody Watley
16 - "Is This Love," Whitesnake
The second half begins with Madonna, back from last time with a hit from Who's That Girl? Again, I find it one of her more forgettable hits. It doesn't even come close to causing any kind of kerfuffle or brouhaha.
Whitney Houston is here with what would be her sixth straight #1, a fluffy bit of dance-pop that asks the question "Ain't it shocking what love can do?" She doesn't do this type of thing quite as well as she does big ballads, but she still does more than all right.
Next are British New Wavers Squeeze, who had scored several hits at home since 1979 but hadn't gotten higher than #49 in the USA (with 1981's "Tempted) until they released this bouncy pop gem that's about the march of time, and also about something involving a ship (at least in the rapid-fire chorus). Whatever, it's fantastically catchy. While I admit I like earlier songs of theirs like "Up the Junction" and "Pulling Mussels (From a Shell) better, this is still a worthy calling card.
Then it's Chicago's Jody Watley, a former member of Shalamar, with her second solo pop hit. I never found her stuff to be more than forgettable dance tracks, but she had six Top Ten hits between '87 and '89, so what do I know?
Closing out this section are Whitesnake with their ballad follow-up to breakthrough hit "Here I Go Again." A boring little rock ballad, but it went to #2. And Tawny Kitaen was in this video too, so there's that.
15 - "It's a Sin," Pet Shop Boys
14 - "Shake Your Love," Debbie Gibson
13 - "I Won't Forget You," Poison
12 - "The One I Love," R.E.M.
11 - "We'll Be Together," Sting
This quintet is led off by the Pet Shop Boys, returning with their gothy epic about the inner struggle between right and wrong. It's just so damn good.
Debbie Gibson is here with her second hit, an exuberant bit of pop about not being able to get over someone. It might be her best single. She's wholesomely appealing on this, but not to the point of annoyance.
Next is the second Top 40 hit by Poison, the hair metallers who emerged from the Sunset Strip by way of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. This is just a standard power ballad, nothing special. Nothing like the over-the-top sap of "Every Rose Has its Thorn" or the stab at social consciousness "Something to Believe In."
Then it's Athens, Georgia's R.E.M., who finally cracked the pop charts after five years as college and "alternative" radio superstars with this catchy jangle-rocker that isn't nearly as romantic as its title would indicate, as the one Michael Stipe claims to love is merely "a simple prop to occupy my time." A great song, and in a thin field, this week's Uneasy Rider.
Rounding out this bunch is Sting with the first single from his second solo album. Lyrically and musically, it's arguably his most straightforward hit, a simple, soul-inflected declaration of love and desire. And that becomes him, I must say.
If you want Top Ten you've got it.
10 - "Faith," George Michael
Here he is, Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou, with arguably his most memorable solo smash. We all remember the song, with its catchy acoustic guitar riffs and George's breathy delivery. We all remember the video, with George's beard and shades and jeans and the jukebox. And we all remember Limp Bizkit's cover version ten years later. Wait, we all don't remember that? Well, good for those who don't. I wish I was one of you.
9 - "I've Been in Love Before," Cutting Crew
The second and last Top Ten for these nondescript Brits, best remembered for their #1 "(I Just) Died in Your Arms." That was terrible, but at least spectacularly so. This is just a boring-ass ballad that I'm sure 99% of the population forgot immediately after radio stopped playing it regularly. It's a nothing song by a nothing band.
8 - "Little Lies," Fleetwood Mac
The Mac are back with this slick request for dishonesty. Don't really have anything to add from last time.
7 - "Should've Known Better," Richard Marx
The Chicago boy followed up "Don't Mean Nothing" with this unexciting pop-rocker about falling in love with the wrong woman. It was much more fun listening to him rip off the Eagles.
6 - "Breakout," Swing Out Sister
The biggest American hit by these U.K. soul-poppers returns. Classy, positive, soothing. Like a three-minute trip to the spa.
5 - "Brilliant Disguise," Bruce Springsteen
The Boss's first studio single since Born in the U.S.A.'s "My Hometown" is an understated affair about a man having doubts about his relationship, mostly "what a woman like you is doing with me." It probably wasn't what people expected, but to me, it's probably second only to "Dancing in the Dark" among his 80s hits.
4 - "I Think We're Alone Now," Tiffany
The mall princess returns, limply covering Tommy James. I'm still not sure how this hit #1.
3 - "Heaven is a Place on Earth," Belinda Carlisle
The ex-Go-Go's only solo charttopper was this lush celebration of lasting romance. It's just so big and pretty, I can't help but like it. Belinda's was a voice the 80s would have been much poorer without.
2 - "(I've Had) The Time of My Life," Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes
Ex-Righteous Brother Medley and proven soundtrack-duet voice Warnes ("Up Where We Belong") were tapped to sing the climactic song from a little movie about dancing and forbidden love at a Catskills resort in 1963. The movie became a surprise hit, and this song, an overwrought hunk of cheese-pop that doesn't sound like 1963 in any way at all, went all the way to #1 and helped the soundtrack sell over 40 million copies around the world. Later, the song would be adapted to accompany a halftime parade at a Springfield University-Springfield A&M football game.
And at the highest peak of pop 24 years ago, we find...
1 - "Mony Mony (Live)," Billy Idol
Billy's only #1 immediately followed "I Think We're Alone Now" at the top, making it back-to-back Tommy James and the Shondells covers at the pinnacle. This is by far the better one, but I imagine Tommy found that the royalty checks from both spent the same.
The NotCaseys were "The Power of Love" by Laura Branigan, "Don't Shed a Tear" by Paul Carrack, "I Want to be Your Man" by Roger, and "I Found Someone" by Cher. And there were two Long Distance Dedications. A teenage girl dedicated Elton John's "Daniel" to her brother (not named Daniel), whom she didn't become close with until recently and was now in the Navy. And a woman dedicated "Somewhere Out There" by Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram on behalf of her whole family to the now 18-year-old boy she gave birth to and gave up for adoption when she was 14 and her future husband was 18. No comment.
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