These are the Billboard Hot Country Singles of 1985, part 1. Why only part 1? Because 51 songs made it to #1 that year. And it wasn’t just 1985 but the whole decade. There were 33 #1s in 1979. In the ’80s, there were, in chronological order: 43, 47, 47, 50, 50, 51, 51, 49, 48, and 49, #1 country hits. In 1990, 24, and never more than 32 in any year for the rest of the century.
Why was that? From this music forum: “I just received a response to my question from Joel Whitburn himself, who sheds some more light on the issue.” The late Whitburn was the publisher of the Record Research books that line my bookshelves.
“I’m well aware of the different methodologies Billboard has used in compiling their charts. I was told by Billboard’s chart manager back in the mid-70’s that the Country charts were tabulated mostly by airplay and that the record companies wanted fast turnover at the top of the charts, so that more artists (and labels) would share in the bounty of a #1 hit. He said the promotional staffs of the record labels worked with radio so that as soon as a song hit #1, it would be pulled from their hot playlist and another song would peak at #1, etc.
It’s a different story today, as the Country chart is compiled by a combination of monitored airplay and sales data.”
This created a dizzying list of songs where only two, Have Mercy – The Judds, and Lost In The Fifties Tonight (In The Still Of The Night) – Ronnie Milsap, led the charts for even two weeks. BTW, In The Still Of The Night was a hit single by the Five Satins as early as 1956 (#3 RB, #24 pop).
First half, in chronological order, all one week at #1
Note that some artists had consecutive #1s (Reba, Alabama, Twitty, Haggard, Judds), and if you see the list of the previous or subsequent six months, you’ll find the same pattern.
I finally saw the movie Dirty Dancing (1987). My wife had seen it years before, but misremembered parts of it. We went to a matinee at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany in early July.
One thing that worked that should not have was the seemingly seamless mix of music from the early 1960s and mid-1980s. One critic noted: “The dance finale…, although an obvious crowd-pleaser, is performed to a contemporary song, clearly intended for the charts, which blows the period feel right off the dance floor.” I think is mitigated largely by the voice of former Righteous Brother Bill Medley, whose duet with Jennifer Warnes, Time Of My Life, seemed to fit.
As a couple of critics noted, the film was pro-sex. The seeming differences between the haves, such as the family of Baby/Frances (Jennifer Grey), and the performers, such as Johnny (Patrick Swayze), gave it a certain Romeo and Juliet vibe, except that (SPOILER!) no one dies.
In many ways, the film’s hero was Baby’s father, Dr. Jake Houseman, played by the late, great Jerry Orbach, whose relationship with his daughter is one of the two most important in the movie.
The Rotten Tomatoes scores were 72% positive with critics and 90% with audiences. The negatives were that it was “dull and charmless,” “boring,” “blah,” and/or “objects of choreography used to push a thoughtless agenda of sound and movement.” Meh.
Bias
While I liked it far more than I thought I would, separating the movie from the vaguely familiar setting, a Borscht Belt resort, isn’t easy. I traveled past a few of these buildings in the Catskill Mountains. “The movie is based on Grossinger’s, “a major star in the upstate New York constellation of recreation.
Deep in the recesses of my memory, I know I’d been in one of the resorts, but I don’t think it was with my family. Could it have been a high school choir trip? I distinctly remember the separation of meat and milk.
The movie also nameschecks New Paltz, where I went to college.
The Billboard 1985 Top 100 #1s is largely familiar to me. Oh, check out Arthur’s take on the songs of that year.
Say You, Say Me—Lionel Richie (Motown), #1 for four weeks, gold record. The song was featured in the 1985 film White Nights, directed by Taylor Hackford and starring Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines, which I saw at the time. Incidentally, that was the year Mikhail Gorbachev became the Soviet leader.
We Are The World – USA for Africa (Columbia), #1 for four weeks, quadruple platinum record. Written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson, and famously produced by Quincy Jones. I think I watched the video so often that I could tell you who soloed when. I know how Dan Aykroyd, the first guy alphabetically on the session, got there. But I never bought the single; I bought the ALBUM.
Careless Whisper – Wham! featuring George Michael (Columbia), #1 for three weeks, platinum record
I Want To Know What Love Is – Foreigner (Atlantic), gold record. Okay, I own it on an album: I LOVE this song. It’s a sappy video, but the choir is great.
The Power Of Love – Huey Lewis and the News (Chrysalis), gold record. Obviously, per the video, from the movie Back To The Future, which I saw at the time.
Everybody Wants To Rule The World – Tears for Fears (Mercury). I love the beat, which is described as a shuffle; it has a strolling element. And it’s an antiwar song.
We Built This City – Starship (Grunt), gold record. When John Hebert, Tom Skulan, and I wrote a parody comic book called Sold Out, it referenced this song with the lyrics, “We bilked this city on black and whites.” It is a well-hated song, and I’m not a fan.
St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion) – John Parr (Atlantic). I’ve never seen that movie.
Here are the songs that were #1 pop but not on Billboard in 1975. This means they were #1 on Record World, Cash Box, or both. Some of the songs are great, and at least one is awful.
The number after the RW and CB designation is the number of weeks at #1. The * indicates the songs I positively own in some physical form, though I likely also possess the Barry White and Janis Ian tracks.
*Boogie On Reggae Woman – Stevie Wonder (Tamla), CB 1, RW 1, produced, arranged, and written by Wonder
*No No Song – Ringo Starr (Apple), CB 1, the last Starr single release to top any U.S. pop charts. Written by Hoyt Axton and David Jackson, produced by Richard Perry
*How Long – Ace (Anchor), CB 1. Written by lead singer Paul Carrack.
*When Will I Be Loved – Linda Ronstadt (Capitol), CB #1. Written by Phil Everly; produced by Peter Asher.
If at first…
*Please Mr. Please – Olivia Newton-John (MCA), CB #1. Co-written and previously sung by Bruce Welch, a long-time member of The Shadows, who “also wrote several hit singles for the group and Cliff Richard.” He was once engaged to ON-J
*Someone Saved My Life Tonight – Elton John (MCA), CB 1, RW 1 from the Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy album that went to #1 in its first week of release
At Seventeen – Janis Ian (Columbia), CB 1. Written by Ian when she was 23.
Run Joey Run – David Geddes (Big Tree Records), CB 1. How did I miss this throwback from the 1950s?
Mr. Jaws – Dickie Goodman (Cash), CB 1, RW 1. One of those break-in novelties like his “The Flying Saucer” (1956)
*They Just Can’t Stop It, The (Games People Play) – The Spinners (Atlantic), RW1. Produced, arranged, and conducted by Thom Bell. I never understood why Games People Play was the info in the parentheses.
How to champion libraries in Congress: a free virtual event on Tuesday, September 9 at 5 PM ET / 4 PM CT / 2 PM PT, where ALA policy experts and special guests will share updates, inspiring stories, and how you can pitch in at the start of this school year.
Mike Lindell & MyStore: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Marvel v. DC: The 25-Cent War from Tales From My Spinner Rack! by Gary Sassaman
Now I Know: The Dancing Plague and The Baseball Player With The Special ID, and He Bought His Freedom With Fake Money, and Why Some Movies Can’t Give it a Rest, and His Hometown Went to Pot? and Excel Has Bad Genes
ICE Raids and DC Occupation
Make democracy work part of ordinary life, not an add-on (ht/Paul Tonko). Lauren DesRosiers quoted Audre Lorde: “Every day of your lives is practice in becoming the person you want to be. No instantaneous miracle is suddenly going to occur and make you brave and courageous and true. And every day that you sit back silent, refusing to use your power, terrible things are being done in our name.”
DHS is using the Bible to promote ICE, claiming ‘righteous’ fight against immigrants. The agency refers to Scripture, including Micah 6:8, as it seeks to recruit agents.
New York State has seen a surge in ICE arrests, with totals four times the number seen during the same June-July period last year.
Don’t Let ICE’s Legal Abuses Stop You From Asserting Your Rights
My Congressperson, US Rep. Paul Tonko: “I traveled to the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia… This visit was even more urgent given the results of a report from ICE’s Office of the Inspector General from an unannounced facility inspection earlier this summer. The report found the facility and ICE staff were not in compliance with federal law and used excessive, inappropriate force, including striking detainees and spraying them with pepper spray.
“Despite the pressing need for oversight and in violation of federal law that grants me and all Members of Congress access to these facilities, I was denied at the gate. The facility guards blocking my entry went so far as to confirm that they knew they were in violation of the law. If they are fine ignoring the legal rights of a Member of Congress, what does that mean for our own communities and individuals who are detained?”
You may or may not be able to read my state senator, Pat Fahy’s, newest op-ed in the Times Union, “about the paramilitary-type tactics taking over our streets.
“No visible identification, no judicial warrants, no due process – these are setting a dangerous precedent for Americans and normalizing paramilitary secret police style tactics on our streets. That’s why I introduced legislation to prohibit ICE agents from wearing masks or face coverings during civil immigration enforcement in New York.
“Security and humanity can both exist, and instilling fear will not create the immigration reforms we need to enrich America and honor its legacy.”
Kudos to them both.
MUSIC
Not Me No Way – Rebecca Jade ℗ 2025 Ultimate Vibe Recordings, Released on: 2025-08-18
Coverville 1545: Cover Stories for Steve Martin and Modest Mouse and 1546: The Mamas & The Papas Cover Story
The Mamas & The Papas cover Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart songs: My Heart Stood Still (from One Dam’ Thing after Another, 1927); Glad To Be Unhappy (from On Your Toes, 1936); Sing For Your Supper (from The Boys from Syracuse, 1938). They sang those three songs and Here In My Heart (from Dearest Enemy, 1925) for Rodgers and Hart Today, a salute to the composers, which aired March 2, 1967, on ABC TV, then reworked it as No Salt On Her Tail.
These are the Billboard Hot Country Singles of 1985, part 1. Why only part 1? Because 51 songs made it to #1 that year. And it wasn’t just 1985 but the whole decade. There were 33 #1s in 1979. In the ’80s, there were, in chronological order: 43, 47, 47, 50, 50, 51, 51, 49, 48, and 49, #1 country hits. In 1990, 24, and never more than 32 in any year for the rest of the century.
I finally saw the 
The Billboard 1985 Top 100 #1s is largely familiar to me. Oh, check out Arthur’s 
Here are the songs that were #1 pop but not on Billboard in 1975. This means they were #1 on Record World, Cash Box, or both. Some of the songs are great, and at least one is awful. 