June 18, 1983

This week, it's back to 1983.  On the date this countdown originally aired, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space.  That's pretty cool.

This is another week where a lot of the songs have been covered already, so here's 40-11, with the newbies in bold:

40 - "No Time for Talk." Christopher Cross
39 - "1999," Prince
38 - "The Closer You Get," Alabama
37 - "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)," Eurythmics
36 - "Stand Back," Stevie Nicks
35 - "Don't Pay the Ferryman," Chris DeBurgh
34 - "She Works Hard for the Money," Donna Summer
33 - "Roll Me Away," Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band
32 - "Is There Something I Should Know," Duran Duran
31- "Solitaire," Laura Branigan
30 - "Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You)," A Flock of Seagulls
29 - "Straight From the Heart," Bryan Adams
28 - "That's Love," Jim Capaldi
27 - "Baby Jane," Rod Stewart
26 - "Little Red Corvette," Prince
25 - "All This Love," DeBarge
24 - "The Woman in You," The Bee Gees
23 - "Try Again," Champaign
22 - "We Two," The Little River Band
21 - "Our House," Madness
20 - "She Blinded Me with Science," Thomas Dolby
19 - "Come Dancing," The Kinks
18 - "I'm Still Standing," Elton John
17 - "Wanna Be Startin' Something," Michael Jackson
16 - "She's a Beauty," The TubesL
15 - "Too Shy," Kajagoogoo
14 - "Every Breath You Take," The Police
13 - "Never Gonna Let You Go," Sergio Mendes
12 - "Faithfully," Journey
11 - "Beat It," Michael Jackson

An even dozen newcomers.  Okay, let's split 'em up.

We'll start with North American solo men.  Christopher Cross had his penultimate Top 40 hit with this synth-heavy midtempo ballad about how his recent breakup was so devastation, it made the front page of the Melancholy News.  I've never heard of that publication, but I'm sure I'd never want to read it, let alone be covered by it.  One of his better ones, but that says very little.  And Bryan Adams picked up his first American hit with this ballad about wanting a second chance from one's ex.  Many of his future slow songs would be overblown and mushy, but this is just straight ahead and sincere.  I can stand this one.


Now to the American bands.  County-pop megagroup Alabama had their last pop Top 40 with this tune about how proximity to the object of one's affection makes one fall more deeply in love.  I trust the science behind this theory (assuming there was any), but the song isn't any better than okay.  Bob Seger and the Styx of Detroit are here with an anthemic rocker about hitting the open road on a motorcycle.  This isn't world-changing stuff, but it does what it sets out to do.  I like it.  El DeBarge orignally wrote the soulful ballad "All This Love" with Marvin Gaye in mind, but he ended up recording it with his family band, and it became their biggest hit.  Yeah, I think Marvin would have owned it, but El does pretty damn well.  It's probably DeBarge's best moment.  And Champaign, of "How 'Bout Us" fame, had their only other pop hit with this starting-over ballad.  It's their better hit, to my ears.

Then there's the solo acts from the British Isles.  Argentine-born, Irish-raised Chris DeBurgh had his first American hit with this dramatic pop-rocker about a man who boards a mysterious boat piloted by "a hooded man."  The journey on the water is plagued by storms and other mysterious happenings, and because of this, the ferry's captain demands to be paid immediately.  But "voices in the night" tell the passenger not to do so "till he get you to the other side."  This song is based on myths like that of Charon, the Greek mythology figure who guides the dead across the River Styx.  However, the song doesn't reveal whether or not the man heeded the voices' advice.  Again, a song disappoints me with a lack of closure.  But still, this is way better than "The Lady in Red," and it also captures this week's Uneasy Rider.  Jim Capaldi, formerly of the prog-rock band Traffic, had his biggest American solo hit with this look at all the ups and downs of romance:  the fights, the heartbreaks, and the good times that make it all worth it.  It's slickly produced by Capaldi and his ex-Traffic bandmate Steve Winwood, but it's still got a simple charm.  And Rod Stewart is here with a synth-heavy pop number about saying goodbye to a woman who has left him for bigger and better things in "high society."  I know songs like this often are based on the singer's real-life experiences, but in this case, I don't think that's true.  Don't ask me why.  And my buddies The Little River Band are here with their next-to-last hit, a song about how hard it is to find love and wanting "to fly away in a big balloon."  I must admit I find this tolerable, which by their standards makes it damn near a masterpiece.

We close our look at the new meat with the groups from outside the U.S.  New Wave punchlines A Flock of Seagulls had their final American hit on which singer Mike Score bemoans the fact that he doesn't have a picture of the woman he loves.  This isn't a problem that people seem to have nowadays.  But anyway, cool keyboard riff, and to me, it's just as good as "I Ran."  The Bee Gees attempted a return to past glories with their entry here, one of their contributions to the soundtrack of the Saturday Night Fever sequel Staying Alive.  It's somewhat edgier funk than the disco of five years earlier, and it's actually pretty good when one listens with open ears.  But the Gibbs were still tainted by disco, so this wasn't as big a hit as it might have been.  Plus, the movie sucked.

Have the Top Ten and a smile.

10 - "Family Man," Daryl Hall and John Oates
Again, probably my favorite H&O of the 80s.  Leave poor weak Daryl alone, you hussy!

9 - "Affair of the Heart," Rick Springfield
Sorry, Rick, but I don't buy that your relationship with this girl isn't "just physical."  You're probably still pining for Jessie's girl.

8 - "Always Something There to Remind Me," Naked Eyes
New wave and Burt Bacharach:  Two great tastes that taste...okay together.

7 - "Don't Let it End," Styx
No, do let it end so I can hear "Mr. Roboto" again.

6 - "My Love," Lionel Richie
"Thinkin' about you baby just blows my mind."  You know what blows my mind, Lionel?  The fact that you have one of the biggest-selling albums of 2012.

5 - "Overkill," Men at Work
Their other hits may be more fun, but this was their best pure pop song.

4 - "Electric Avenue," Eddy Grant
Political reggae-funk at its catchiest.  And nearly thirty years later, we still can't figure out "who is to blame in what country?"

3 - "Let's Dance," David Bowie
If I had red shoes, I would most definitely dance the blues to the song they're playing on the radio.  Especially if it's this one.

2 - "Time (Clock of the Heart)," Culture Club
Underneath the image, Boy George was one of the great white soul singers of all time.  Laugh at that if you will, but prove me wrong.  I don't think you can.

And at the top of the charts way back when was...

1 - "Flashdance (What a Feeling)," Irene Cara
Yeah, it's a decent song for what it is, but what I want to talk about is the weirdest thing that came out of that movie's wake.  I'm talking, of course, about It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown.  Charles Schulz, I love you, you were a genius in so many ways, but what could have possibly made you think the world wanted to see Snoopy dancing around in leg warmers?

This week's NotCaseys were "Down Under" by Men at Work, "(Keep Feeling) Fascination" by The Human League, "White Wedding" by Billy Idol, and "Saved by Zero" by The Fixx.  And there were two LDDs.  In the first, an Egyptian man named Osama (!) dedicated Air Supply's "The One that You Love" to his American girlfriend who can't join him in Egypt for another three years.  And later, a college girl and her five siblings sent out Dan Fogelberg's "Leader of the Band" to their retiring father, whom they had misunderstood and unnecessarily feared growing up.

Tomorrow:  This week's 70's list found an opening in my 1976 coverage, so I'm going to write that one up this week too.  Aren't you lucky?