This week we go back to the eve of the United States' 206th birthday. Around the time this countdown originally aired, a California truck driver named Larry Walters attached 45 helium-filled weather balloons to a lawn chair and managed to rise over 15,000 feet in the air. When he returned to the ground and a reporter asked why he had done this, Walters answered, "A man can't just sit around." Meanwhile, these were the the 40 songs that were flying the highest on the American charts:
40 - "Angel in Blue," The J. Geils Band
39 - "Hooked on Swing," Larry Elgart and his Manhattan Swing Orchestra
38 - "Dancing in the Street," Van Halen
37 - "Island of Lost Souls," Blondie
36 - "Hope You Love Me Like You Say You Do," Huey Lewis and the News
35 - "Be Mine Tonight," Neil Diamond
34 - "Hard to Say I'm Sorry," Chicago
33 - "This Man is Mine," Heart
32 - "After the Glitter Fades," Stevie Nicks
31 - "Early in the Morning," The Gap Band
A bunch of bands here. We'll start breaking them up by going with the male-fronted rock groups. The J. Geils Band are here with the third and least successful hit from the Freeze-Frame LP. It's a midtempo, slightly mournful song about a girl who lives a wild life and feels that she is no longer worthy of salvation or love. The lyrics are much more interesting than the way the song is delivered. "She never had dreams, so they never came true." Sad. Van Halen had the third and last of their hit 1964 covers with this version of Martha and the Vandellas classic call to boogie. It's the weakest of the three. David Lee Roth sings it well enough, but the burbly, noodly arrangement isn't nearly as easy to dance to as it should be, which kind of defeats the whole point. And Huey Lewis and the News had their second Top 40 hit with this soulish ballad about romantic doubt. A forgotten entry in their catalogue, and justifiably so.
There there are three bands that I can't call "rock" Larry Elgart first found fame in the swing era, leading a big band with his brother, Les. In 1954, the band recorded the theme song for a small Philadelphia music show called Bandstand, which would later go national and become kind of famous. Eventually, Les Elgart left the music business, but Larry kept on, and after seeing the success of the classical medley "Hooked on Classics," he put a band together and recorded his own mix of snippets of hits by Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, and other giants of the swing genre. The songs are familiar, and this works as an introduction, but you're better off looking up the origianls. Still, "Hooked on Swing" accomplishes something its forebears could not: winning an Uneasy Rider. Chicago are here with their first hit of the 80s, a big goopy ballad that unfortunately set the tone for what they would be this entire decade. Just mediocre playlist-filler. And funksters The Gap Band had their first pop hit with this solid jam about how singer Charlie Wilson needs to rise in the wee hours of the AM to successfully replace his old lover, Annette. It's not quite as good as their other Top 40, the fantastic "You Dropped a Bomb on Me," but the rooster at the beginning was a nice touch.
Now we go to the two groups here that are fronted by women. Blondie had their last American hit with this jaunty calypso number about running away to a place where you can ignore your worries and cares. Unfortunately, things weren't quite so upbeat for the band itself, as the serious illness of guitarist Chris Stein ultimately led to the band's breakup later that year. But they did reunite 15 years later, and they didn't embarrass themselves in doing so, so good for them. And Heart are here with their last pre-"What About Love" Top 40, a sassy girl-group homage in which Ann Wilson warns would-be romantic rivals to stay away from her lover. There's more soul in this than all of the hits that came after it combined.
And finally, we look at this bunch's only two solo acts. Neil Diamond had one of his last few hits with this plea to briefly rekindle an old flame. It's actually a pretty good song, possibly his best of this decade. Soundwise, it's reminiscent of early hits like "Cherry, Cherry" and "Kentucky Woman," so that helps. And Stevie Nicks is here with an affecting lament about how life as a travelling musician may be a hard and lonely one, it's still rewarding and fulfilling at the end of the day. A hidden gem in her repertoire.
30 - "Going to a Go-Go," The Rolling Stones
29 - "Wasted on the Way," Crosby, Stills and Nash
28 - "Body Language," Queen
27 - "Even the Nights are Better," Air Supply
26 - "Break it Up," Foreigner
25 - "Personally," Karla Bonoff
24 - "Still They Ride," Journey
23 - "Forget Me Nots," Patrice Rushen
22 - "Hold Me," Fleetwood Mac
21 - "What Kind of Fool am I," Rick Springfield
I'll start this section off with bands whose membership comes entirely from either Britain or the United States. The Rolling Stones added to their hit tally with this cover of a 1965 Smokey Robinson and the Miracles hit, recorded live during their 1981 U.S. tour. It doesn't quite match the original, but Mick still makes the titular establishment sound like the place to be. Queen are here with a sultry bit of synth-funk it which Freddy Mercury shouts "You've got the cutest ass I've ever seen, knock me down for a six every time." The latter part of that sentence, I now understand, is a cricket metaphor. The first part, I think, might be about a pet donkey. Or do you have another interpretation? And Journey show up yet again with this power ballad that, I think, is about bikers who are past their prime. I'm not sure, though. But this song isn't good enough for that to matter to me.
Then we have three groups with a mixture of American and British participation. Yanks David Crosby and Stephen Stills had a long and successful collaboration with England's Graham Nash, and it continued with their first hit in five years, a folky song that encourages chasing one's dreams, even if one feels it might be too late. Good message, pleasant tune, well done. Foreigner, the Brits led by American Lou Gramm, are here with an okay rocker about wanting to save a relationship. A lot of why I like this is down to Lou. As I've said before, he's one of the best stadium-rock vocalists around. And the three U.K.er/two U.S.A.er combo Fleetwood Mac picked up a Top 5 hit with this slick-but-catchy uptempo love song. I liked it more as a child than I do now, but I still will admit a soft spot for it.
Two Australian acts are in this batch. Air Supply picked up their seventh straight American Top 5 with a ballad about how life sucked until love came along. Weak, even by their standards. And Rick Springfield is here with a limp ballad about missing a woman that he's probably better off without. That's my judgement, not the song's. Oh Rick, you really weren't all that good aside from "Jessie's Girl," I'm sad to say.
And what's left for me to close with are two solo women. Karla Bonoff made her name writing songs for artists like Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, and Wynonna Judd, but her only pop hit as an artist, this mild adult contemporary number about a message that can only be delivered one way, was written by someone else. Things sometimes work out strange like that. And Patrice Rushen had her only pop hit with this disco-funk classic about sending an ex the title flowers to help him remember that she still loves him. This was later repurposed by Will Smith for the theme to the movie Men in Black. The original is way better. And Ms. Rushen has done pretty well out of the spotlight as a composer, musical director, and professor. I like that.
Tomorrow: magic, infidelity, and a song that might come in handy if you ever have to fight Mr. T.
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