March 19, 1983 Part One

This week we go back to the third month of 1983. At this time, Jim Valvano and the North Carolina State Wolfpack were in the midst of their improbable run to the NCAA basketball championship. As far as I'm concerned, this was the year March truly went mad. While that was happening, the following music was popular:

40 - "So Close," Diana Ross
39 - "Burning Heart," Vandenberg
38 - "Winds of Change," Jefferson Starship
37 - "Little Red Corvette," Prince
36 - "She Blinded Me with Science," Thomas Dolby
35 - "On the Loose," Saga
34 - "Your Love is Driving Me Crazy," Sammy Hagar
33 - "Pass the Dutchie," Musical Youth
32 - "Lies," The Thompson Twins
31 - "My Kind of Lady," Supertramp

We'll start out with American solo acts. Diana Ross is here with a retro-love song that sounds kind of like "Earth Angel" or maybe even "Hey Paula." Serviceable, but I can see why it never got higher than 40, Prince returns from 1he '83 year-end special with his song that compares a Chevrolet to a certain part of a woman's anatomy. Only he could get away with that. From anyone else, it'd be crude and awkward. Prince had a gift. An odd, odd gift. And Sammy Hagar also cracked the year's Top 100 with this bland bit of commercial rock. At least "I Can't Drive 55" had a little personality.

Then we have bands from outside Britain. Dutch rockers Vandenberg had their only American hit with this cheesily charming power ballad. There's something about hair-metal with an accent. Still, as far as songs with that title go, it would get destroyed a couple years later by Survivor. Jefferson Starship have another song on one of these. I dreaded it, but it turns out it's not another terrible ballad, but rather a midtempo rocker about how one must prepare for life's unpredicability. You can actually hear a little Airplane in it, especially when Grace Slick is singing. I like it. And Canadian prog-rockers Saga (originally called Pockets) had their only American pop hit with this catchy ditty about casting inhibition aside and letting go for a little. I think that's it. Pretty good, and I like the instrumental bridge, but I still prefer one of their other singles, "Wind Him Up."

This section closes with acts from the U.K. Thomas Dolby is back with his delightfully daft synthpop experiment about the ultimate chemical reaction. May we all be renedered sightless in such fashion at least once in our lives. Musical Youth, a schoolboy reggae band from Birmingham, had their one American hit with this breezy singalong classic that was adapted from a song about marijuana called "Pass the Kouchie." A kouchie, apparently, is a bong, and so that was changed to "Dutchie," which is a sort of cooking pot. But the song's druggy origin still shines through (Pass the cooking pot on the left hand side? Suuuure.). Anyway, the earwormy nature of the song, combined with the exuberant performance, made it an international smash that's still well-remembered to this day. And for the strange, and ultimately unsuccessful, attempt that was made to not make people think the song was about weed, it wins this week's Uneasy Rider. The Thompson Twins had their first American hit with this poppy denounciation of deceit. It comes off as a bit dated now, with those brief detours into "Asian" and "Arabic" motifs now seeming extremely silly. But it's still pretty fun, and was a good setup for their run of hits to come. And Supertramp had their last hit with their classic lineup with this okay love ballad. I do, however, question Rick Davies' decision to go to the falsetto in a couple parts. It worked on "Goodbye Stranger," but here, it's just distracting.

30 - "Dreamin' is Easy," Steel Breeze
29 - "Make Love Stay," Dan Fogelberg
28 - "Change of Heart," Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
27 - "Poison Arrow," ABC
26 - "You and I," Eddie Rabbitt and Crystal Gayle
25 - "Little Too Late," Pat Benatar
24 - "Beat It," Michael Jackson
23 - "Allentown," Billy Joel
22 - "Down Under," Men at Work
21 - "Baby, Come to Me," Patti Austin and James Ingram

We begin our look at this group with, well, groups. Sacramento, California's Steel Breeze had their second and final hit with this unremarkable pop-rocker about loneliness. "No one likes to dream alone," they sing. Wait, is their any other way to dream? Forgive me, I haven't seen Inception yet, though I fully intend to. Until then, this doesn't make sense. Tom Petty and company are here with a rockin' kiss-off to a lover. "You were the moon and sun, you're just a loaded gun now." Ouch. Well that certainly gets the point across. England's ABC had their secon American hit with another bit of slick, sophisticated New Wave, this one about love gone wrong. For some reason, I really enjoy the way Martin Fry sings the word "stupid" on this. And Aussies Men at Work are back from the Top 100 of the year with their second #1, the song that taught us the word "Vegemite." No, I've never tried it. And I've never wanted to. I would, however, be interested in having a strange lady take me in and give me breakfast.

Then we have some good old easy listening. Dan Fogelberg, one of the monsters of the genre, had another hit with this ballad about the mystery of what makes relationships last. I don't know the answer, but surely it doesn't involve lyrics like "precious flesh is greedily consumed." Make your lover think of cannibalism. Yeah, that'll work. And there are also two duets we've covered before, from the teams of Rabbitt/Gayle and Austin/Ingram. Both bore me to the point where I'm not going to say any more about them.

We end the first half with three of the decades prolific American hitmakers. Pat Benatar shows up with a solid diss of a guy who wants to come back to her after leaving her for "a good offer down on Third Avenue." I don't really remember this one, but it turns out it's one of her better ones. Michael Jackson cemented his emergence as the world's biggest music superstar by proving he could rock on this classic about, appropriately enough, proving oneself. He did indeed show how funky and strong he was. And Billy Joel is back again with his portrait of a dying Pennsylvania steel town. Besides the title burg, the song also mentions another city, Bethlehem, which gives me the opportunity to congratulate the latter community's Lehigh University Mountain Hawks for upsetting mighty Duke in the first round of the NCAAs. That was fun to watch.

Tomorrow: espionage, robots, and famished lupines.