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1982 #1: fodder for Weird Al

three movie songs

As I looked at the 1982 #1 hits on the Billboard singles chart, two things occurred to me. One was that I’m positive I own at least 14 of these 15 songs, usually on greatest hits albums or compilations, even though there are a few I don’t particularly like. I’m not sure of the Vangelis track. The other is that a few of them were parodied by Weird Al Yankovic.

I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll – Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, 7 weeks at #1, platinum record. A song originally performed by a group called the Arrows. Weird Al parody: I Love Rocky Road
Ebony and Ivory – Paul McCartney with Stevie Wonder, 7 weeks at #1, gold record

Eye Of The Tiger – Survivor, 6 weeks at #1, double platinum record. The theme to the movie Rocky III, which like its predecessors, I did see. Weird Al parody: Theme From Rocky XIII (The Rye or the Kaiser)
Centerfold – The J. Geils Band, 6 weeks at #1, gold record

Maneater – Daryl Hall and John Oates, 4 weeks at #1, gold record. Weird Al parody: Spameater, which was not commercially released.
Jack and Diane – John Cougar, 4 weeks at #1, gold record. Weird Al parody, sort of: Buckingham Blues.

Don’t You Want Me – The Human League, 3 weeks at #1, gold record
Up Where We Belong – Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes, 3 weeks at #1, platinum record. Used in the movie An Officer and A Gentleman, which I saw at the time. Jennifer Warnes’ Famous Blue Raincoat is a great album of Leonard Cohen covers.

Abracadabra – the Steve Miller Band, 2 weeks at #1, gold record. Album cut.
Hard To Say I’m Sorry – Chicago, 2 weeks at #1, gold record
Truly – Lionel Richie, 2 weeks at #1, gold record

A single week at #1

I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do) – Daryl Hall and John Oates, gold record; Album cut
Mickey – Toni Basil, platinum record. Weird Al parody: Ricky, based on I Love Lucy
Who Can It Be Now – Men At Work
Chariots Of Fire: Titles – Vangelis. The only instrumental on the list. I saw the movie with my girlfriend and her son right after it won the Oscar, and we were disappointed. “That was Best Picture?” I probably should watch it again.

1962 as a transitional year

TWO 4 Seasons #1s

Looking back, I thought of 1962 as a transitional year. It wasn’t the 1950s anymore, but nor was it the 1960s as we later thought of it with the Beatles, Motown, and, later, the antiwar movement.

1962 was the Cuban Missle Crisis when even a nine-year-old might think the world was about to end. The movies To Kill a Mockingbird and Lawrence of Arabia were released that year, and Marilyn Monroe died.

I Can’t Stop Loving You – Ray Charles, five weeks at #1, gold record. It also spent TEN weeks at #1 on the rhythm and blues charts and five weeks at #1 on the adult contemporary charts. And it appeared on the album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. Truly a genre-bending smash.
Big Girls Don’t Cry – The 4 Seasons, five weeks at #1, gold record. Three weeks at #1 on the RB charts.
Sherry – The 4 Seasons, five weeks at #1, gold record. Also a week at #1 on the RB charts.

Roses Are Red (My Love) – Bobby Vinton, four weeks at #1, gold record. Likewise, #1 for four weeks on the AC charts and got to #5 on the RB charts.

Peppermint Twist, Part 1 – Joey Dee and the Starlighters, three weeks at #1, gold record. And #8 on the RB charts.
Telstar – The Tornadoes, three weeks at #1. #5 on the RB charts. I remember this because it would be one of the instrumentals that would be played to the news breaks
Soldier Boy – The Shirelles, three weeks at #1, gold record. Three weeks at #3 on the RB charts.
Hey! Baby – Bruce Channel, three weeks at #1, gold record. Also #2 on the RB charts
Duke Of Earl– Gene Chandler, three weeks at #1, gold record. Plus five weeks at #1 RB

Two weeks at #1 pop

The Twist – Chubby Checker, and #4 RB. In 1960, this ALSO went to #1 pop, and #2 RB for three weeks
Johnny Angel – Shelly Fabares. Was in three Elvis movies and played the daughter on The Donna Reed Show
He’s A Rebel – The Crystals. Also, #2 RB
Breaking Up Is Hard To Do – Neil Sedaka. #12 RB
Monster Mash – Bobby “Boris” Pickett, gold record. #9 RB. The novelty song received airplay every Halloween
Good Luck Charm – Elvis Presley, platinum record
Sheila – Tommy Roe, gold record. #6 RB

A single week at #1 pop

Stranger On The Shore – Mr. Acker Bilk, gold record. The instrumental was #1 for SEVEN weeks AC, and #7 RB
The Stripper – David Rose and His Orchestra, gold record. The instrumental was #1 for two weeks AC and #12 RB. But I (and a lot of people) remember it best from this 1967 TV commercial for Noxema Medicated Shave Cream, featuring Swedish model Gunilla Knutson saying, “Take it off. Take it ALL off.”
The Loco-Motion – Little Eva, gold record. Three weeks at #1 RB. Carole King’s babysitter had the first #1 of this song, but Grand Funk also hit the top of the charts in 1974
Don’t Break The Heart That Loves You – Connie Francis. Four weeks at #1 AC

The Most Awarded Songs #2

proest songs and sadness

From Joel Whitburn’s Top Pop Singles book, The Most Awarded Songs #2. This covers a range of categories: ASCAP, BMI, RIAA, Rolling Stone magazine, plus Grammys and Oscars, and more.

140. Need You Now – Lady Antebellum. Of the 150 songs on this list, this is one of the very few I don’t own. Indeed, I have no Lady A, which the group has renamed itself in light of their realization that antebellum suggests slavery. A black singer of blues, soul, funk, and gospel named Anita White, who’d been using Lady A in the Seattle area for more than two decades, was less than pleased.

139. Ohio – Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. I was 17, and regularly protesting the war in Vietnam when Kent State and Jackson State took place, and they were gut-wrenching, and frankly, scary events.

138. Born In The U.S.A. – Bruce Springsteen. When I searched for the lyrics, Google responded to the question of whether the song was patriotic. I would posit that it most certainly is, but not in the rah-rah, unthinking sense.

137. White Rabbit – Jefferson Airplane. Grace Slick joined the group when Signe Anderson left to have a child. Grace brought White Rabbit, which she wrote, from the playlist of her previous group, the Great Society. It appears on the Airplane’s second album, and the first with Slick, Surrealistic Pillow

136. U Can’t Touch This – MC Hammer. Somehow I never heard the song Super Freak until AFTER the Hammer song came out. I recall that some folks gave the artist grief as lacking street cred. He actually got permission and shared royalties with the writers of Super Freak, Alonzo Miller and its performer, Rick James

“In Birmingham, they love the governor”

135. Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynard. In the documentary 20 Feet From Stardom, which I highly recommend, Merry Clayton spoke of her and Clydie King, two well-known black studio singers, singing backing vocalists on the track, and her struggling with her decision to take the job. Neil Young, who is namechecked in the song, said that his song Alabama “richly deserved the shot Lynyrd Skynyrd gave me with their great record.” I still find parts of the song discomforting, and catchy as hell.

134. (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher – Jackie Wilson. This song is so great in part because it features four members of the Motown Records house band The Funk Brothers, plus two of Motown’s house session singers, The Andantes. And Maurice White, later known as a singer for Earth, Wind, and Fire, played drums.

133. Walk This Way – Run-D.M.C. When I saw the video in 1986, with two members of Aerosmith present, I was thinking, “This is when hip hop has gone mainstream.” In a good way.

132. Crying – Roy Orbison. His 1961 hit was outstanding. But I have a soft spot for his 1987 duet with k.d. lang.

131. Tears In Heaven – Eric Clapton. I’m fascinated by how one can make art out of tragedy. The song, written by Clapton and Will Jennings, was about the tragic death of Clapton’s four-year-old son, Conor. The song was for a movie called Rush. It was Clapton’s biggest hit in the US. I first heard it on the MTV Unplugged series.

Most awarded songs #1

Top Pop Singles

Elvis Presley in Jailhouse Rock (Photo by �� John Springer Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

I bought Joel Whitburn’s Top Pop Singles book recently. This is the 17th edition, very different from the previous iterations, most of which I’ve purchased since at least edition 12. For one thing, it’s broken into TWO books, one covering 1955-1989, and a second, to be published, for 1990-2022.

The previous version, covering 1955-2018, runs 1200 pages. The new one is 850. So what’s been added? Top 10 albums. The Pre-Rock Era hits of values, rhythm and blues, rock, and country.

Also The Most Awarded Songs. This covers a range of categories: ASCAP, BMI, RIAA, Rolling Stone magazine, plus Grammys and Oscars, and more.

150. You Are The Sunshine Of My Life – Stevie Wonder, #1 in 1973. Grammys, RS, RIAA. This is from the Talking Book album, which went to #3 for three weeks. Unsurprisingly, I own it on LP and CD. I was always taken by the fact that the first two voices are NOT Stevie but Jim Gilstrap then Gloria Barley.

149. Y.M.C.A. – the Village People, #2 for three weeks in 1979. Grammys, RIAA. I must own this on vinyl. This is a perennial at wedding receptions and other festive occasions. Incidentally, I was actually on the board of the Albany YMCA in the late 1980s. And I played racquetball there from 1983 until it closed in 2010.

The third of June

148. Ode To Billie Joe – Bobby Gentry, #1 for four weeks in 1967. Grammys, RS, RIAA. I belonged to the Capitol Record Club at the time, and because I did not send my negative option card back in time, I received the Ode To Billie Joe LP, which spent two weeks at #1. I still have it. Here’s a 2007 blog post I wrote, naturally on the third of June.

147. Le Freak – Chic, #1 for six weeks in 1978. Grammy, RRHoF. I have this on some compilation CD.

146. Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag – James Brown, #8 in 1965. Grammys, RS. There are over 100 hits in the book for the Godfather of Soul. When I was growing up, we used to get Jet magazine, put out by the same folks that put out Ebony. James ALWAYS dominated the charts in the 1960s, often with songs I had never heard. This song I have on the greatest hits CD.

145. Stayin’ Alive – the Bee Gees, #1 for four weeks in 1978. RRHoF, RS, RIAA. Of course, now known as the CPR song. From the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, which spent 24 weeks at #1. I had it on vinyl at the time, and the son of my girlfriend at the time gave me considerable grief for owning a “disco” album. I now have it on CD.

144. Jailhouse Rock – Elvis Presley, #1 for seven weeks. Grammys, RRHoF, RS. My father hated Elvis, so my knowledge of Elvis was done rather surreptitiously. The video for Jailhouse Rock, from the movie, was oddly captivating. Now, I have the song on two different greatest hits CDs.

A seven-minute single?

143. Hey Jude – the Beatles. #1 for nine weeks in 1968. Grammy, RRHoF, RS. I actually have this on the single, the Beatles Again/Hey Jude LP (#2 for four weeks), and various CDs (Past Masters, blue album). This song ONLY went to #4 in the UK and #3 in Canada. Ken Levine is not a fan of the song.

142. Piece Of My Heart – Big Brother and the Holding Company, #12 in 1968. The Cheap Thrills album, featuring Janis Joplin, was #1 for eight weeks. Yes, I own that LP, as well as a Joplin greatest hits CD.

141.Sexual Healing – Marvin Gaye, #3 for three weeks in 1983. Grammy, RRHoF, RS, ASCAP. I hadn’t bought a Marvin Gaye album in a while. Then he moved from Motown to Columbia and put out the Top 10 album Midnight Love, which I bought. When Motown put out a Gaye boxed set, which I purchased, Sexual Healing was included.

I might not have gotten this book except that my MIL gave me a generous check for Christmas. I suppose I COULD have spent the money on paying bills, but that sort of violates the spirit of the gift, or so I’ve decided to believe.

Back to the top of the charts, part 3

posthumous

Here’s another edition of going back to the top of the charts. The premise is that an artist had once had commercial success on the Billboard pop charts. After some period, they regain that status. Again, this isn’t about album sales, just what used to be 45s.

It’s Your Thing – The Isley Brothers. A change of labels, from Tamla/Motown, which released This Old Heart of Mine (#12, 1966), to T-Neck, gleaned a #2 hit in 1969.

Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough – Michael Jackson. He WAS busy recording with his brothers between Ben, #1 in 1972, and this track, #1 in 1979.

Dancing Machine – Jackson 5. Never Can Say Goodbye, #2 in 1971. This cut, #2 in 1974.

The River of Dreams – Billy Joel. This #3 hit in 1993 was his first Top 5 since I Didn’t Start the Fire, #1 in 1989.

Candle In The Wind 1997 – Elton John. Another artist with multiple “comebacks”. But his last #1 was Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, way back in 1976. Of course, this special version of the #6 hit in 1988, was #1 for fourteen weeks!

Jazzman – Carole King. It’s Too Late was a #1 in 1971. This was #2 in 1974, and a favorite of Lisa Simpson.

Come Dancing – the Kinks. #6 in 1983. the previous Top 25 was Lola, #9 in 1970.

Neither One Of Us – Gladys Knight and the Pips. The group had two #2 hits with Soul/Motown, this one in 1973 and some grapevine song in 1967.

The ell you say

Is That All There Is – Peggy Lee. At #11 in 1969, her highest-ranked single since Fever, #8 in 1958.

Starting Over – John Lennon. The first single after his hiatus went to #1 posthumously at the end of 1980. Whatever Gets You Through the Night went to #1 in 1974 with the help of Elton John.

Mighty Quinn – Manfred Mann. #10 in 1968, it was the first Top 10 single since Do Wah Diddy Diddy hit #1 in 1964.

Don’t Mess With Bill – The Marvelettes. Like Playboy in 1962, this song also went to #7, in 1966.

Too Much, Too Little, Too Late – Johnny Mathis. #1 in 1978 with Deniece Williams, it was his second #1, after Chances Are in 1957. JFK was President the last time he had had a Top 10 hit.

The Rose – Bette Midler. At #3 in 1980, it was her first Top 10 since Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, #8 in 1973.

Garden Party Garden Party – Rick Nelson. He had 18 Top Ten hits. the 17th was For You, #6 in 1964. This song, #6 in 1972, was the #18 and last.

Don’t Know Much – Aaron Neville and Linda Ronstadt. This song hit #2 in 1989. Aaron only did that well with Tell It Like It Is in 1967. Linda’s duet with James Ingram was also #2, in 1987. Her previous solo Top 10 was Hurt So Bad, #8 in 1980.

You Got It – Roy Orbison. Posthumously, his first Top 10 song – #9 in 1989 – since his #1 Oh, Pretty Woman in 1964.