John Hall Band,
“Crazy (Keep On Falling),” #42, 2/20/82
Final chart hit for John Hall (and the only one for this
band), but still only part of an interesting music career.
He was a founding member of Orleans, who had two huge hits in the
mid-1970s, “Dance With Me” and “Still the One” (a third, “Love Takes Time,”
came after Hall left the band). He also
spearheaded the No Nukes concert and
album, which is still in print today, and wrote two songs for the show,
“Plutonium Is Forever” and “Power.” He
still performs and writes today (and he did reunite with Orleans for a lengthy
period of time), but he’s also moved into the political arena, winning two
terms as a Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives in New York’s 19th
Congressional District (the Hudson Valley area – it includes Woodstock,
NY). Having lost in the Tea Party sweep
in the 2010 elections, he decided not to seek the seat again in 2012.
AC/DC, “Let’s Get It
Up,” #44, 2/20/82
Subtle, eh? First
single from For Those About to Rock,
and while it didn’t crack the American top 40 (in fairness, AC/DC has only had
one top 30 hit in the states, 1991’s “Moneytalks”), it cemented the band’s
popularity, as the parent album became their first stateside #1. Their second was their most recent release,
2008’s Black Ice, and they just
issued a live album last November.
Player, “If Looks
Could Kill,” #48, 2/20/82
Sixth and final chart hit for a band that probably would
have done better if they’d had better luck with their record labels, and been
able to keep personal issues from bugging them.
They had three or four different lineups during the four years between
the #1 “Baby Come Back” and this song, and it’s easier for fans to root for a
band who keep the same guys on the stage.
They split with RSO (I don’t know if it was their idea or the label’s)
after their second album, and recorded one album for the post-disco Casablanca
Records in 1980; this one came out on RCA.
30 years, 18 band members, and some weird detours later (the bass
player, Ronn Moss, spent a quarter of a century on the CBS soap The Bold and The Beautiful), and they’re
actually going to release another album later this year.
Conductor, “Voice on
the Radio,” #63, 2/20/82
I have nothing on this band.
Nothing. I even
checked Popdose’s excellent series Bottom Feeders, which had downloads for
every song that charted in the 1980s as long as it peaked below #40 (don’t
bother downloading them now, they were only there for a week after posting),
and they had nothing.
The Doobie Brothers,
“Here to Love You,”#65, 2/20/82
Here’s an elaborate theory on why this song was issued as a
single about three years after it first appeared on an album:
1. Warner Brothers put out a new Doobie Brothers greatest
hits set in the fall of 1981, hoping it would match the sales of the first one,
which has (as of now) sold over 10 million copies. However, since the first best-of had all the
hits from their first six albums, this one is limited to the last three: Livin’
on the Fault Line, Minute By Minute, and One Step Closer. The reason
this was issued, because scraping a best –of together from three studio albums
is no easy task? Maybe because everybody
in the music industry knew Michael McDonald was on the verge of going solo (and
probably not everyone knew that co-founder Patrick Simmons was also out the
door as well, although both would stick with the band for their 1982 “Farewell
Tour”).
2. Seven of the ten songs on the album were chart
singles. “You Belong to Me” wasn’t a hit
for the Doobs, but Carly Simon did have a hit with her version. “Here to Love You” and “One by One,” album
tracks that were never hits, are included, while “Keep This Train A-Rollin’”
and “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod” (the latter a track from Sesame Street’s album In
Harmony), both of which charted in 1981, are left off.
3. Somebody decides a single is needed, so “Here to Love
You,” from the most successful of the three anthologized albums, Minute by Minute, gets the nod. (Note both are written and sung by McDonald,
who was under contract to Warner Brothers.)
4. It doesn’t sell, and the second best-of sells
approximately 9,500,000 copies less than its predecessor – which is still in
print, 35 freaking years later, even though there are at least two or three
more comprehensive best-ofs now on the market.
Volume 2 is long out of print.
-
The Commodores, “Why
You Wanna Try Me,” #66, 2/20/82
Third and final chart single from their album In the Pocket (it’s possible a fourth
single, “Lucy,” didn’t chart), and it’s significant only because it’s the last
chart single with Lionel Richie as a part of the band. Ever since Lionel Richie and Diana Ross hit
#1 for nine weeks with the theme to the movie Endless Love, it seemed pretty obvious Richie would be headed out
the door sooner rather than later, and this midtempo song’s chart showing
didn’t change things (he may have already been recording his first solo album
at this point). Oh, and kids - that thing in the video is called a turntable.
Grover Washington Jr.,
“Be Mine (Tonight),” #92, 2/20/82
One year after his huge hit “Just the Two of Us” with Bill
Withers on vocals, this single from saxophonist Washington’s album Come Morning didn’t do nearly as
well. This time, it’s Grady Tate on
vocals (a drummer by trade, he played with The
Tonight Show band for a few years in the 1970s has played with artists from
Stan Getz to Lena Horne, and sang “I Got Six” and “Naughty Number Nine” on Schoolhouse Rock). To my knowledge, this was Washington’s last
chart single. He died in 1999 of a heart
attack.
McGuffey Lane, “Start
It All Over,” #97, 2/20/82
Country rock band that had been around in one form or
another since 1972(and is still around today, believe it or not). This was the followup to their biggest hit,
“Long Time Loving You,” which hit #87 in 1981.
They have a couple of live and rerecording albums available for download
(the hits were on Atco/Atlantic Records, but they’re long out of print); this
song, however, isn’t available in any form for download.
Journey, “Open Arms,”
#2, 2/27/82
The ultimate high school prom song of the first half of the
1980s, complete with string arrangement, Steve Perry’s bellowing lead vocal,
and tender sentiments begging forgiveness.
I couldn’t stand it the minute I heard it, and I still can’t stand it
now (and apparently some of the band members weren't crazy about it either), but it’s the group’s biggest hit, and cemented their reputation (for
better or for worse). I’m sure this has
been on Glee at some point, right?
The Cars, “Shake It
Up,” #4, 2/27/82
After barely scraping into the top 40 with “Touch and Go,”
the lead single from 1980’s Panorama,
The Cards promptly knocked out one of their biggest hits. 1984’s “Drive” would hit #3, but it would
seem to me this is the one that’s lasted the longest – it’s an easy song to
dance to, and Ric Ocasek’s hiccupping lead vocal here is more emblematic of the
band than the late bassist Ben Orr’s smoothy singing on that hit. It also has a classic video that clued the
people at MTV in that their audience would happily watch scantily-clad women
gyrate for hours if the song they played had a good beat and it’s easy to dance
to. (Yeah, Dick Clark had discovered
that 25 years earlier, but still.)
Peabo Bryson, “Let
the Feeling Flow,” #42, 2/27/82
He’s mostly known nowadays as the guy who sang all those
Disney duets, but Peabo Bryson’s been around awhile. His first album came out in 1976, and he
notched a pair of gold albums in 1978 with Reaching
for the Sky and Crosswinds. More popular on the R&B album charts than
pop albums (he’s had ten top 20 R&B albums), the most amazing thing about
the man is his duet partners. In
chronological order, he’s sung with (deep breath) Natalie Cole, Roberta Flack,
Melissa Manchester, Chaka Khan, Regina Belle, Celine Dion, and Linda Eder. Up to this point, “Let the Feeling Flow” was
his highest-charting pop hit; he’d beat that with one of the Roberta Flack
duets, “Tonight I Celebrate My Love,” in 1983.
Teddy Pendergrass,
“You’re My Latest, My Greatest Inspiration,” #43, 2/27/82
And here’s another guy who didn’t cross over that often,
with “Close the Door” his only top 40 pop hit (in fairness, he’d charted fairly
frequently in the 1970s as lead singer of Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes). Pendergrass, however, had eight gold albums
as a solo artist, four of which went platinum as well, and twelve top 10
R&B albums. Inspired by Marvin Gaye
among other bedroom crooners, Pendergrass was astonishingly popular as a
concert draw as well. “You’re My Latest,
My Greatest Inspiration” would be the last of his singles to hit the pop charts
on Philadelphia International records (run by seminal soul masters Kenny Gamble
and Leon Huff). None of this would mean
much a few weeks after this song peaked at number 43: on March 18, 1982, Pendergrass would wreck
his car driving in Philadelphia, and wound up paralyzed from the waist down for
the rest of his life.
Madleen Kane, “You
Can,” #77, 2/27/82
If you’re keep lists within this list, this is an important
one: Singers You Should Not Google at
Work. (No, I didn’t, and there will be more than one; trust me on
this.) Madleen Kane was a Swedish model,
occasionally appearing in men’s magazines.
She released a few albums for the disco market, which sold very well in
both Europe and the United States, from 1978 through 1981; this was her one
song that hit the Billboard Hot 100. “You
Can” also hit the top of the dance charts.
To my knowledge, he hasn’t released anything new since 1982.
Chubby Checker, “Running,
“ #91, 2/27/82
Geez, this guy’s been around forever. Yeah, everyone knows “The Twist,” but he had
a #1 dance hit in 2008 with “Knock Down the Walls.” Anyway, this was one of his many comeback
hits, although this one barely scraped onto the charts. Nevertheless, he’s still out there singing,
and his Super Bowl halftime show in 1988 (Washington vs. Denver; I didn’t see
it because I was escaping a partyful of Bronco fans after the Redskins racked
up 35 points in the second quarter) has to have been better than anything Up
With People did.
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