Carrying on, as we must.
20 - "Don't Stop Believin'," Journey
19 - "Yesterday's Songs," Neil Diamond
18 - "Leather and Lace," Stevie Nicks with Don Henley
17 - "Harden My Heart," Quarterflash
16 - "Trouble," Lindsey Buckingham
The second half begins with what has become Journey's best-loved song, an anthemic, keyboard-driven number about two strangers who "took the midnight train going anywhere." It's become a theme song for multiple professional sports teams, and was memorably used in the final scene of The Sopranos. I'm not sure I like it as much as I did when I bought its parent cassette at age 10, but it still gets me.
Next is Neil Diamond with a sparkly bit of MOR about how pop songs can be fleeting, but love is timeless. I think. Anyway, the female backup singer on this annoys me. She seems out of place.
Then it's Stevie and Don with a sweet country ballad about two lovers: a woman who appears fragile on the outside but is "stronger than you know;" and a man who seems strong but is "sometimes cold and scared." I'm genuinely glad they found each other and exchanged materials.
Portland, Oregon's Quarterflash are here with their biggest hit, a sultry rock semi-ballad about a woman who decides to thicken her skin agains heartbreak after one too many disappointments. Love the sax on this, as well as the way Rindy Ross sings "I'm gonna turn...and...lee-heeve yoo-hoo heeeeeeeeere."
This section ends with a second solo Fleetwood Macker, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, with a smooth soft-rocker about sleeping with someone he knows he shouldn't. I'd imagine being in Fleetwood Mac, he was singing from experience. Good, but I like "Go Insane" way better.
15 - "The Old Songs," Barry Manilow
14 - "Theme from Hill Street Blues," Mike Post
13 - "The Night Owls," The Little River Band
12 - "Young Turks," Rod Stewart
11 - "Let's Groove," Earth, Wind and Fire
This group is led off by Barry M. It has a similar theme to "Yesterday's Songs, but in this case, Barry is attempting to use the music of the past to rekindle a flickering romance. Meh, he can do better.
Next is TV-theme maestro Mike Post's sombre-yet-catchy theme tune to a grounbreaking NBC cop show. I didn't watch it much, but I do have fond memories of the guy who used to say "Let's be careful out there."
The Little River Band are back with the song they had on here last time.
Then it's Rod Stewart with a propulsive pop-rock tale of Billy and Patti, two teenage lovers who run away from home because their parents don't understand them. In most songs, this would have a tragic, or at least downbeat, ending, but this one ends on a happy note, with Billy telling Patti's parents in a letter that the two of them are doing fine and now have "a ten-pound baby boy." Okay song, but it always reminds me of Catherine O'Hara portraying Brooke Shields and singing it for Big Jim McBob and Billy Sol Hurok. And then blowing up good. Blowing up real good.
This bunch is rounded out by Earth, Wind and Fire's last Top Ten, a solid funk workout that encourages you to "glide like a 747." This groove will "set in your shoes." And it's all right.
Top Tenify yourself.
10 - "Why Do Fools Fall in Love," Diana Ross
Diana scored another Top Ten with this unnecessary cover of the Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers doo-wop classic. Just find the original, love it, and don't even bother with this version. There are so many other better options in Miss Ross' catalogue.
9 - "Arthur's Theme (Best that You Can Do)," Christopher Cross
Chris Cross returns with his smash from the Dudley Moore comedy that Russell Brand unsuccessfully remade this year. Oh well, at least he still has Katy Perry.
8 - "Tryin' to Live My Life Without You," Bob Seger
The Styx of Detroit opens this live cover of a 1972 Otis Clay R&B hit by asking "You guys feel funky tonight?" And he and the Silver Bullet Brand actually do bring respectable levels of funk to this song about a woman who's a harder habit to break than cigarettes and alcohol. This might be Seger's best single.
7 - "Start Me Up," The Rolling Stones
Mick and Keef, back again with this biggie. You really do need to clear your head of its overplayedness to appreciate how good it is.
6 - "Oh No," The Commodores
The Tuskegee soulmen with another ballad, this one about wishing for someone else's lover. This was their last hit with Lionel Richie. Kind of an underwhelming finale.
5 - "Here I Am (Just When I Thought I Was Over You)," Air Supply
The Aussie mild boys had yet another Top Five in this time period with this typically bombastic ballad about still pining for a lost love. Probably on the low end of my ranking of their hits, if I ever took the time to do that. Which I most assuredly won't.
4 - "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic," The Police
Sting and co.'s first American Top Five, a sweet soft-rock gem of appreciation for the charms of a lady. Although it's probably best that he was too scared to call her a thousand times a day with marriage proposals. There's a fine line between flattery and stalking.
3 - "Private Eyes," Daryl Hall and John Oates
And speaking of stalking, here's Daryl and John's second entry this week. It follows the template of their 80s sound pretty closely, but it works.
2 - "Waiting for a Girl Like You," Foreigner
This tender ballad never made it to the top spot, but it hung on at #2 for a whopping ten weeks. But they'd make it three years later with a better ballad, "I Want to Know What Love Is," so shed no tears for these guys.
And the song that was primarily responsible for keeping Foreigner out of pop's pole position was...
1- "Physical," Olivia Newton-John
The gradual transformation of ONJ from wholesome girl next door to sultry sex siren culminated with this dance-pop megasmash in which she declares that, after taking her date to a nice bistro and an R-rated film, "there's nothing left to talk about unless it's horizontally." Whoa. I was over my ONJ crush by then, but I'm not sure if there was a cause-effect relationship re her turn to the "dark side." Anyway, this worked for her like a libidinous charm, as it stayed at #1 for 10 weeks, longer than any other song in the 80s. I will say that the gym-themed video is good fun, though.
The NotCaseys this week were "She's Got a Way" by Billy Joel, "Come Go With Me" by The Beach Boys, "Under Pressure" by Queen and David Bowie, and "Shake it Up" by the Cars. Casey himself played the last two #1 hits of the 1960s, which were "Leaving on a Jet Plane" by Peter, Paul and Mary, and "Someday We'll be Together" by Diana Ross and the Supremes. And there were two Long Distance Dedications. A man with a visual impairment dedicated Kenny Rogers' "Lady" to a bus driver named Kitty, on whom he depends for transportation (and on whom he also has a bit of a crush, even though she's married). And a woman dedicated "Sweet Life" by Paul Davis to the husband she literally prayed to God for.
We're not done for this week. Try to restrain yourselves. This week's 70s show is from 1971, and there's enough unmined material in it that I'm giving it the full two-part treatment. So it'll be there in the next couple days, if you're interested.
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