The Music of My Life – 1986

Welcome back to The Music of My Life, where I feature ten songs from each year of my life. In most cases, the ten songs I choose will be ones I like personally (unless I explain otherwise). The songs will be selected from Billboard’s Year-end Hot 100 Chart, Acclaimed Music, and will all be released in the featured year.

I turned sweet sixteen in 1986. MTV was 5 years old and music videos were becoming more and more iconic. To make that point, we kick off my list with a video that is often listed as one of the best of the 1980’s.

Robert Palmer released Addicted to Love in January of 1986. It was accompanied by a video where he is singing in front of a “band” of beautiful women who look exactly alike. They wear lots of makeup and identical outfits as they pretend to play the instruments.

According to songfacts: the funny thing about the video is that the models posing as a band were selected precisely because they did NOT know how to play the instruments. As a result, each girl is keeping her own time and moving to a different beat. The video is constantly parodied, including in a Pepsi commercial with Britney Spears.

You might say the song came to Palmer in a dream. It all started with a guitar riff that came to him in a dream one night. He told Q magazine in 1988, “That noisy riff woke me up. I went downstairs, got out the tape recorder, then went back to bed. Next morning, I thought, Phew, caught one there!”

From the “What Might Have Been” file: Palmer wanted this song to be a duet with Chaka Khan, and he almost got his wish. He recorded it with her, but Chaka’s label, Warner Brothers Records, would not allow her voice to be used on the record, so Palmer had to erase her part and re-record her high notes before releasing it.

If you’re going to be addicted to something, love is a good thing, wouldn’t you say?

Addicted to Love

Next, we have a song whose video was like nothing that had been done before. Depending on the source, some say it was the 4th most played video on MTV. The video is so fun to watch, you may actually forget that the song is full of sexual innuendos.

Sledgehammer was a BIG number one song for Peter Gabriel. It was his first solo number one. It actually bumped his old band, Genesis, out of the number one spot.

The song was influenced by the ’60s soul music Gabriel listened to as a teenager, in particular Otis Redding, who Peter saw perform at the Ram Jam club in London in 1967. The horn section was typical of this sound. As a matter of fact, the horn section that he used was the legendary Memphis Horns, who played on several hits from Stax Records.

The wildly innovative video was directed by Stephen R. Johnson and featured stop-motion claymation techniques. It swept the MTV video music awards in 1987, and is considered a major breakthrough. It was a bit hard for Gabriel, though. He once remembered how he spent 16 hours lying beneath a heavy sheet of glass for the video, while each frame was shot, one after the other.

I’ve always felt that this song had at least some influence in the blues. It just sounds like a great blues song to me.

Sledgehammer

Songfacts says that this song has a lot of haters and has appeared on various “worst of” lists over the years. An example: it was listed #1 on VH1’s 40 Most Awesomely Bad Metal Songs. As a Michigan guy, I can tell you that they used this song as the Detroit Pistons theme song for years. Heck, they use this song at all kinds of sporting events.

Europe’s The Final Countdown is like an anthem. The iconic keyboard riff was composed by lead singer Joey Tempest five years before the song was recorded. The band’s keyboard player Mic Michaeli had lent him the instrument.

Despite writing the song, Tempest still cannot believe the success. He said, “It was quite a surprise that the song ‘The Final Countdown’ became such a big hit because it was written for the band, it was written for our concert, it was written to be the opening song in our concert. It was almost six-minutes long, it was never intended to be a short pop hit or anything, it was very much a surprise and its been used for all kinds of events, anything from Formula 1 to boxing. It’s been used a lot.”

I liked this song before Arrested Development aired on Fox, but came to love it even more because of the way they used it on the show. Will Arnett is a magician on the show and they often used the song as background music as he performed his “illusions.” The song only made a very funny scene, even funnier for me.

The Final Countdown

The next pick is not quite a duet, but it brought back a legendary voice and put her back in the spotlight. It almost didn’t happen, but Eddie Money stepped in and made it happen.

My favorite track on Eddie Money’s Can’t Hold Back album is Take Me Home Tonight. The song is based on The Ronettes’ 1963 hit “Be My Baby,” and features their lead singer, Ronnie Spector, on the chorus performing her famous line, “Be my little baby.”

At first, the song was going to be a duet with Martha Davis, lead singer of The Motels. Eddie, however, wanted “the real thing” (Ronnie) on the song, so he called her to ask, telling her, “This is a tribute to you. The song is all about you.” According to Spector, she got on board as soon as she heard the lyric, “Listen honey, just like Ronnie sang… be my little baby.”

“When they said that, I was sold,” she told Entertainment Weekly. Spector says Money was very excited when she showed up to record it. “He was a crazy person – freaking out in the studio, going, ‘I’ve got the real Ronnie Spector singing ‘Be My Baby’ on my record!,'” she said.

This cracks me up because I can see Eddie going crazy. He was a bundle of energy. Every time I interviewed him on the radio, it was hard to get a word in because he would just chat away with that “Eddie Money” energy!

Take Me Home Tonight

It must have been the summer of 1987 when our band took a trip to Cedar Point. I am not a ride person, so I hung out with guys who also didn’t ride them. As we walked the streets of the Point, we saw a “You Be The Star” booth. I suppose you would call it an early form of Karaoke.

There was a book that listed a bunch of songs that they had a music track from. They ushered you into this little recording booth with a microphone and headphones. I don’t remember if you got to rehearse the song first, but I thought that was the case. At the end of the session, they played your song on the speakers for all to hear and you got a cassette of the tune to take home. It cost a pretty penny to do and the music tracks were very cheap sounding.

I had some money and made a tape of Mack the Knife for my grandma (which was awful). I sounded so bad on it. Then, me and my three friends chose Hip To Be Square. I had heard the song before, but didn’t know it well enough to sing the lead. My buddy, Steve knew it and sang it like he had a record deal! Chris and I were satisfied enough to be the “Here, there and everywhere” guys.

The music video was directed by the team of Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, who made some of the most innovative videos of the ’80s. They got a distinctive look by using a medical camera – the kind doctors use to see inside the human body. They had the band perform the song a few times a few feet away from the camera, and did the heavy lifting in post production – the band loved it because it was so easy for them. The resulting video contained angles previously unseen on MTV, including one from the point of view of the drumsticks. It was nominated for Best Experimental Video at the 1987 Video Music Awards.

Hip To Be Square

The next pick is one that didn’t mean much to me in 1986, but two years later it sure did. I remember early in my senior year receiving a ballot in which I was to vote on our class song. Honestly, I don’t remember what songs we were picking from, but I do recall some of them being not very “class song-like.”

Our class chose Time to Remember by Billy Joel. It was the third single from his The Bridge album. The chorus is about looking back on the good times with appreciation and gratitude, making it a perfect song for proms, graduations, and just about any occasion where memories are shared:

This is the time to remember
‘Cause it will not last forever
These are the days to hold on to
‘Cause we won’t, although we’ll want to

Our teachers told us that the high school years would fly by. We never really felt that, especially during some boring lecture. Of course, the senior years goes by the quickest. Those lyrics should have been posted somewhere for every one to see, because by the time I heard them, and the meaning sunk in, it was graduation day.

I’m reminded of a quote from Ed Helms’ character Andy on the final episode of NBC’s The Office:

“I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.”

I don’t have to tell you, especially if you are a regular reader, that those days are definitely a time I remember, and remember them fondly!

Time To Remember

The group Cameo was formed in 1974, however, it wasn’t until 12 years later that they had their first Top 40 Hit. Word Up was the title track from their 13th album! The song was written by band members Larry Blackmon and Tomi Jenkins.

“Word Up” is a saying that was popular in New York and other urban areas in the US that acted as an affirmation of what was said, kind of a hipper “you bet.” Blackmon said this about the song:

“It just sounded good, and it was before its time. You can play “Word Up” anyplace anywhere, and someone is going to be grooving and bobbing their head. Our sound was unique, as well. I haven’t heard another one like it, and we probably won’t hear another one like it in the future. It was that significant for us.“

This was one of those songs that everyone at school seemed to be singing as they walked down the hall to class. We all seemed to know the words.

It got a lot of radio airplay and MTV played the video a lot. I’ve seen the video many times before, but I had forgotten about a neat cameo. (LOL – a cameo in a Cameo video!) Watch for Star Trek: The Next Generation’s LeVar Burton as a policeman.

Word Up

I am almost 100% against remaking movies. I feel the same way about television shows. Music on the other hand is a bit different. When an artist covers a song, they bring to it their own interpretation of the song. Think of all the different versions of an old standard like “Georgia on My Mind.” Off the top of my head I can throw out 5-8 versions that I absolutely love.

I remember the first time I heard the Art of Noise doing Peter Gunn. I was in the car and I thought, “What in the world is this?” The more I listened the more intrigued I was. I was impressed with how close the guitar sounded like Duane Eddy. Of course, I was even more surprised to hear that it WAS Eddy!

It didn’t do much on the charts, but the sound was so different and unique that I had to go pick up the tune. The video was a private eye parody with comedian Rik Mayall as the detective. The song was a Grammy winner, as it took home the award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.

Peter Gunn

I mentioned that Sledgehammer had a bit of a blues sound to it earlier, and so does this one. Take a little blues and mix in some rock and you get some good stuff from The Fabulous Thunderbirds.

The title track from their Tuff Enuff album was a top 10 record for the group in 1986. They are often considered to be a one hit wonder band, but their song Wrap It Up was a minor hit. Kim Wilson wrote it and sings lead on the song.

The song is about a guy who will do pretty much anything for his gal, including wrestling with a lion or a grizzly bear, swimming the sea, put out a fire, and fight Ali. He’d even walk ten miles on his hands and knees, which really isn’t walking I suppose, but walk sounds better than crawl.

There is so much I love about this song, the syncopated guitar lick, the lyrics and the attitude. It made for a perfect sing along driving song.

Tuff Enuff

My last pick is another cover song, and this one I think tops the original and most of the other versions. That is saying a lot, because I am not the biggest Beach Boys fan.

California Dreamin’ was a hit for the Mamas and the Papas. It was written by John and Michelle Phillips. Barry McGuire (who had a hit with Eve of Destruction in 1965) actually recorded it first with the Mamas and Papas singing backup. They, of course, recorded their own version of the song soon after.

The Beach Boys recorded it for their Greatest Hits album, Made in U.S.A. The song was produced by the great Terry Melcher and had Roger McGuinn of the Byrds playing the 12-string guitar on it. Naturally, there was a video which featured McGuinn along with every living member of The Beach Boys and the “California Dreamin'” songwriters, John and Michelle Phillips. This primed the group for a big comeback two years later with their #1 hit “Kokomo.”

There are so many things about this song that I just love. That opening 12-string is fantastic. With the opening line, you get it and an echo of it which I thought sounded cool. Even cooler, after the line “and the sky is grey” there is that rumble of thunder that makes you feel the chill of the wind and the anticipation of a storm. Then there is that fantastic harmony! It is perfect for this song. Finally, their version opts for a jamming sax solo and loses the wimpy flute solo used in the Mamas and Papas version. That sax aids in conveying a “haunted sounding ending” as the song begins to fade away.

The song never hit the Top 40 on the Hot 100 chart, but on the Adult Contemporary charts it went to number 8.

California Dreamin‘

Next week, we’ll take a look at 1987. I’ll feature two fantastic duets, we’ll shake, rock, and roll, and hear about 6 beautiful ladies … er, 5.

What was your favorite from 1986? Tell Me about it in the comments. See you next time….

The Music of My Life – 1982

Let’s jump right into 1982. We start with a song that was released in January of ’82 in the United States. Believe it or not, this song would go on to have a special meaning for me and many others from my high school. More on that in a minute.

The Go-Go’s were one of those bands who wrote most of their own songs. “We Got The Beat” was written by guitarist Charlotte Caffey, who drew inspiration from some Motown beats, specifically one that mentioned the name of her group. She explains, “I thought it would be very clever to do ‘Going to a Go Go’ (by the Miracles). I thought, Well, let’s try working this out as a cover song. Which is really funny when I think about it. I was listening to it a lot one day, and later that night, the song came to me within five minutes. I don’t even know if it has anything to do with listening to that song, but this whole idea came to me. It was one of those things that just went right through me and came out my hand; I wrote it down, recorded it a little bit, and then brought it into rehearsal a few days later.”

The Go-Go’s released an early version of “We Got The Beat” in the UK as their first single. It was issued on Stiff Records, which was home to The Specials and Madness, both groups The Go-Go’s toured with in England to promote it. Sadly, it flopped, but the group fared far better in America, where they were signed to IRS Records by Miles Copeland, who managed The Police. In the US, “Our Lips Are Sealed” was released as their first single in the summer of 1981, followed by a new version of “We Got The Beat” in January 1982. This release was The Go-Go’s biggest hit, spending three weeks at #2. (I’ll include both versions below)

Band Camp – Summer 1985. We Got the Beat was a favorite of my high school marching band. I have no idea how long they had been playing it prior to my first year, but it was always played at pep assemblies and when our team won. It was a staple in the marching band music folder. It was the one song that we could play and just have fun. We danced, we jumped, we acted the fool while playing it. It was a celebratory song.

Our band director would say, “Let’s do the little Italian number” during rehearsals. We all knew what he was talking about because he’d often call it, “We Gotta Da Beat.” I want to say our alumni band was around for at least 10 or 12 years after I graduated and they were still playing it. We always joined it because we all had it memorized. I haven’t played my trumpet in years, but I can assure you that if I were to pick it up today, I could still play this song!

We Got the Beat

Real life once again inspired another big hit. Songwriter Wayne Carson, who wrote The Box Tops’ 1967 #1 hit “The Letter,” came up with “Always On My Mind” when he was working at a recording studio in Memphis. He lived with his wife in Springfield, Missouri, and the trip to Memphis had gone 10 days longer than expected.

When he called the missus to tell her he would be there even longer, she let him have it. He tried to assuage her by telling her that was thinking about her all the time – she was “always on my mind.” “It just struck me like someone had hit me with a hammer,” he told the LA Times, “I told her real fast I had to hang up because I had to put that into a song.”

Willie had never heard the song before the song’s co-writer, Johnny Christopher, brought it to him and Merle Haggard, who were busy recording the album Pancho & Lefty (Christopher was playing guitar on the session). “‘Always On My Mind,’ bowled me over the moment I heard it, which is one of the ways I pick songs to record,” Nelson recalled in his 1988 autobiography, Willie. “There are beautifully sad songs that bowl me over… haunting melodies you can’t get out of your mind, with lines that really stick.”

Nelson figured he and Haggard would do the song together, but Haggard didn’t care for it. After they finished recording their album, Nelson stayed in the studio and recorded the ballad solo, just to see what it would sound like. Of course, it sounded like a hit, but Nelson wondered, “We’ll never know what would have happened if Merle had really heard the song right.”

You may remember that Willie Nelson played a big part in my childhood. His Stardust album was played all the time by my grandfather. My grandfather passed away in 1981. Any song by Willie reminded me of my grandpa. My mom really struggled with his passing and I remember being in the car with her when Always on My Mind came on the radio. She had to pull over because it really hit her hard.

It hit me the same way. I know that it is far fetched to believe that grandpa sent a message from beyond the grave, but it felt that way. From Stardust to Always on My Mind and every Willie album that followed, there always seemed to be one song that fit into something that was going on in my life. This one helped me cope with the first death I ever experienced, even though it was more of a love/apology song.

Always on My Mind

One of the things that I noticed as I scanned over the list of singles released in the early eighties was the prominent use of the synthesizer. Rock bands like ZZ Top, Van Halen, and Yes added synthesizers to their mix in the ’80s and scored huge hits by adapting what songfacts.com called “the sound of the decade.” The Steve Miller Band started out as a blues band in the ’60s, evolving into a rock outfit in the ’70s. They often sprinkled electronic effects into their songs, so the keyboards and synth stabs in this song weren’t out of character.

“Abracadabra” was the last US Top 40 hit for the Steve Miller Band, and their third #1. The song was written by Miller and the lyrics were inspired by Diana Ross and the Supremes, whom he had met while performing together on NBC’s Hullabaloo in 1966. “‘Abracadabra’ started off as a great piece of music with really atrocious lyrics,” Miller explained to The Dallas Morning News. “One day I was out skiing in Sun Valley and, lo and behold, who did I see on the mountain but Diana Ross. I skied down off the mountain to go have lunch. I started thinking about the Supremes and I wrote the lyrics to ‘Abracadabra’ in 15 minutes.”

Honestly, I’m really not sure how the Supremes led to the song, but I remember it being a song that really stood out to me on the radio. I rushed out to buy the 45 and it was always a song that wound up on my “driving music” tapes.

Abracadabra

1981 was the year that many were introduced to Men at Work. Their debut single, “Who Can It Be Now” shot straight to #1 on the charts. The group started as an acoustic duo with singer Colin Hay and guitarist Ron Strykert. After a few years playing pubs in Australia, they were discovered by an American who worked for CBS records and signed them.

Colin Hay wrote the song and explained how it came about:

“I was up in the bush in Southern New South Wales with my girlfriend, just sitting outside at night. We had this little tree hut in the middle of the bush. It was a great place to kill the time, mess around with ideas. It was just an idea that popped out, it took about half and hour to write that song. I was living in St. Kilda in Melbourne, which is a great part of Melbourne. At that particular time it was a very interesting area, it was frequented by everybody from the high Jewish population, punks, drug movers, all kinds of different people. It was about six or seven hours drive away, sitting in the middle of the bush in New South Wales and that song just popped out. My girlfriend at the time said, ‘that will be your first hit, that song,’ and she was right.”

Their Business as Usual album was one that I played often.

Fun Fact: The famous saxophone part originally didn’t come in until the middle of the song, which suited when the band played it in bars. When they recorded it, producer Peter McIan identified the sax as a hook and moved it to the beginning of the song, also making it more prominent throughout. This opening sax riff made the song instantly identifiable.

Who Can It Be Now

Juice Newton had a few big hits between Queen of Hearts and Love’s Been a Little Bit Hard On Me. The latter is one of those fun sounding songs, even though it is about the hardships of a relationship. The song was released exactly one week after my 12th birthday.

Juice reminds me of Carlene Carter who had some jumpy, fun songs like this one. Even though she channels Neil Sedaka and sings harmony with herself on the song, that’s one of the reasons I love it. It’s nothing fancy, but it is just good harmony and it blends so well.

One of the things I have enjoyed while picking songs for this year was seeing the videos that were made for certain songs. Wiki describes the music video for this one perfectly. It says that it comically plays off the emotional hurt of love by showing Juice Newton being physically injured by her lover in a series of accidents. The final shot is of Newton singing in the hospital in a full-body cast with her broken leg in the air. The video was awarded Video of the Year by the American Video Association in 1982.

Love’s Been a Little Bit Hard On Me

There is an outdoor amphitheater in the Detroit area that packs in some fantastic shows every summer. I cannot tell you how many shows I have seen at Pine Knob (For some time DTE Energy paid to have the name and even though shows were at “DTE Energy Music Theater,” everyone still called it Pine Knob!). I’ve seen rock shows, comedy shows, country shows, and more there.

For many years, Eddie Money was ALWAYS the guy who played the first show there. He kicked off the summer concert season annually and it became a tradition. One year, I had the opportunity to interview Eddie on the air. It was the easiest interview in the world! Why? You never had to ask questions after he got on the phone. “Hey, Eddie! How are you?” Then Eddie would roll – he’d promote the show, promote an album, share some funny story, talk about the venue, and more. The “Money Man” was great!

I dated in high school who loved Eddie Money’s Music. She had the No Control album on cassette and we’d listen to it in the car. Think I’m in Love was on that album and I remember the first time I saw the video on MTV. Again, these early videos are fun to watch. Eddie plays a sort of vampire character in it. It was a very popular video.

Think I’m In Love

Growing up I listened to Elvis, Bill Haley, Carl Perkins, Eddie Cochran and other artists who played some rockabilly music. So when I heard the Stray Cats in 1982, it was like hearing stuff I was already familiar with. The Built For Speed album was one I played over and over.

Brian Setzer was born in New York and was exposed to a lot of genres of music. He learned to play the guitar at a young age, and when he was a teen, he formed a trio he called the Tomcats, That group would later change their name to the Stray Cats. They were influenced by all those artists I just mentioned and their group developed a fairly large following in the underground punk scene of New York City during the late ’70s. Their fan base expanded so quickly that they found themselves being courted by no less than a half dozen record labels in 1980.

Brian Setzer opted to record and produce the Stray Cats’ debut album in the UK Rock This Town was released there over a year before it was released in the US. Rock This Town was a Top 10 hit for the band. It’s crazy to watch the video and see Brian. He looks like a baby in it. Hard to believe he was only 23 when this video was shot.

Rock This Town

My dad and my uncle used to play old blues music on records and on the guitar. At my graduation party, they played stuff from Jimmy Reed, Bo Diddley, and other blues legends. Because of that, I’ve always loved the blues. Because of that, I was naturally a fan of George Thorogood.

Bad to the Bone is based on the Bo Diddley blues song “I’m a Man.” Bo Diddley was one of George’s heroes. His “version” has a much heavier guitar sound, which replaces the harmonica in Diddley’s recording. Songfacts.com says that “both songs are full of swagger, with the singers exuding lots of testosterone.”

Songfacts.com goes on to say, “With MTV coming on the air in 1981, Thorogood picked a good time to release a memorable video. The clip shows Thorogood playing pool against Bo Diddley in a place where there is no chance of a dance sequence breaking out. Pool champion Willie Mosconi also appears in the clip, which introduced Thorogood – and to some extent, Diddley – to the younger MTV crowd. Among the British New Wave acts that dominated MTV’s playlist at the time, Thorogood certainly stood out, and he created an image of a bad man. While Thorogood is a disciple of the blues, he was raised in a Delaware suburb and by most accounts is actually a pretty nice guy, despite what he claims in this song.”

I love the fact that Diddley is in this video! The song is one that has a life of it’s own. It is used as intro music for wrestlers, it has been used during the removal of the bride’s garter at weddings, and has been used in both movies and television in seriousness and for comedic effect. It is a classic.

Bad to the Bone

I love a great intro. Sometimes a great guitar riff or a neat drum thing is all it takes to hook me. The intro to Everybody Wants You was one of those intros. It appeared as the opening track of his multi-Platinum 1982 album Emotions in Motion.

The song itself didn’t do that great on the Hot 100 chart, as it only went to number 32. However, it was around this time that one of the radio formats that was big was called AOR – Album Oriented Rock. It had great success on these and rock stations. It reached number one on Billboard’s Top Rock Tracks chart. Naturally, the video did well on MTV, too. It remained in heavy rotation for quite some time.

The minute I hear this one, I think back to those nights of shooting pool with my buddies. It was always on the jukebox.

Everybody Wants You

The next song is one that is still applicable today. Perhaps even more so. What exactly is “news” today? Turn on any local news channel or entertainment news show – it is chock full of stories like the ones referenced in Don Henley’s first Top 40 hit as a solo artist – Dirty Laundry.

Again, the intro of this really stood out for me. The lyrics take it to an entirely new level. They are so good and perhaps that is because Henley had plenty of real life to draw from. This song is about unscrupulous news people doing anything for a story. Henley values his privacy, and hates it when reporters pry into his personal life. He had to deal with increased press attention when his girlfriend at the time, Maren Jensen, came down with Epstein-Barr Syndrome. She recovered, but they broke up soon after.

Songfacts.com states: “Henley sings from the standpoint of a news anchorman who “could have been an actor, but I wound up here”. The song’s theme is that TV news coverage focuses too much on negative and sensationalist news; in particular, deaths, disasters, and scandals, with little regard to the consequences or for what is important (“We all know that crap is king”). The song was inspired by the intrusive press coverage surrounding the deaths of John Belushi and Natalie Wood. It was also inspired by Henley’s own arrest in 1980 when he was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and possession of marijuana, cocaine, and Quaaludes after a 16-year-old girl overdosed at his Los Angeles home”

While Don’s version is the best, Lisa Marie Presley (who had to deal with a lot of press intrusions on her personal life) also does a really neat version of Dirty Laundry.

Dirty Laundry

There were plenty of great songs in 1982, I’m sorry if I missed one of your favorites. Next week, we’ll move ahead to 1983 where there will be a good mix of rock, country, pop, soul and a movie song that will forever be associated with summer vacations ….

See you then!

The Music of My Life – 1980

This week we enter a new decade – the 80’s! As the final years of the 70’s ticked away, you could already start to hear the “eighties sound” creeping in. As we move through the decade that sound will change even more. What is also interesting is the amount of crossover hits in the years ahead. 40% of my list for 1980 has roots in country music.

So what was my 10 year old self listening to in 1980?

I did not know that the first song would perhaps unknowingly influence my career choice at 10 years old, but it may have. Released in February in the US, Charlie Dore reached number 13 on the Hot 100 charts with her ode to the radio DJ, Pilot of the Airwaves.

The lyrics are from the point of view of a woman who frequently listens, late at night, to a radio disc jockey whom she calls a “pilot of the airwaves”, keeping what has often been called the “dawn patrol”. She admits that she has few real-life friends and that the DJ keeps her as much company as she believes she needs, describing her life and the feelings she has2 surrounding the fact that she considers the radio DJ her only true friend. The DJ does not need to play the selection she has requested; she does hope the DJ will do his best along those lines, adding:

I’ve been listening to your show on the radio,
And you seem like a friend to me.

Looking back on this song now, I can tell you that the one thing I learned was most important about being on the air was to have the listener feel as though they were just hanging out with a friend. That was always my goal – speaking one on one and keeping my listener company.

The song played a role in an early relationship, too. Two gals used to call the station all the time and one of them always wanted to hear this song. They decided to bring me coffee one night and I hit really hit it off with one of them. We dated for a while, and when an ex of mine called to ask me to take her back, I did. Ah, young love …. it really gets messy

Pilot of the Airwaves

A songwriter and producer named Steven Greenburg wrote a song when he became bored with Minneapolis and wanted to move to New York, which he called “Funkytown.” Lipps Inc. (pronounced “Lip Synch”) was formed especially for this song. The vocals were done by Cynthia Johnson, who was Miss Black Minnesota 1976. The song reached number one on the charts and stayed there for four weeks!

The group continued to record until 1985 with a changing lineup, but they failed to see the success they’d had with their first hit. Steven Greenburg, however, went on to have great success. He became A&R Vice President for Mercury Records, signing Hanson, among other acts. Later he headed the S-Curve Records label, signing the Baha Men and Joss Stone.

This song shows up in a lot of movies (Shrek 2, History of the World Part 1, Selena) and TV shows (Everybody Loves Raymond, Will and Grace, Malcolm in the Middle, and Friends) and VH1 ranked the song at #37 in the Top 100 One Hit Wonders.

Funkytown

It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me from Billy Joel’s Glass Houses album was one of Joel’s most popular songs and was his first #1 hit on the Hot 100, spending two weeks at the top spot in July 1980. The song spent 11 weeks in the top 10 and was the 7th biggest hit of 1980. It was released on May 12, 1980 – 3 days before my 10th birthday.

In this song, Billy Joel was making a comment on musical styles and trends. At the end of the disco era, the music press began touting the “New Wave” sound, which included bands like The Police and The Cars. Joel thought that this new sound was just a variation on power-pop that had been around since the ’60s. He didn’t have a problem with the music, just the way it was being categorized. “I like it, but it’s not particularly new,” he said.

He said in a Rolling Stone interview that “new wave songs, it seems, can only be about two and a half minutes long… only a certain number of instruments can be played on the record – usually a very few… only a certain amount of production is allowed or can be heard… the sound has to be limited to what you can hear in a garage… a return to that sound is all that’s going on now.”

It’s Still Rock and Roll To Me

Despite the next song being a huge hit in 1980, it is interesting that it goes all the way back to 1959 and has ties to Buddy Holly and the Beatles.

More Than I Can Say was originally written and recorded by Sonny Curtis and Jerry Allison in 1959. Curtis and Allison were both members of Buddy Holly’s band, the Crickets. They recorded it in 1959 soon after Holly’s death and released it in 1960 on their album In Style With The Crickets. The hook was left unfinished at the time, and at the time of recording, the hook was left this way with no lyrics, only the “wo-wo yay-yay,” which became a memorable part of the song. The single went on to become a minor hit in the UK. Curtis considers this song to be one of his most enduring, looking back at the success subsequent artists have had performing it.

It was also covered by Bobby Vee in 1961. Bobby, you may recall, was one of the artists who was chosen to play the remainder of the tour that Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Richie Valens were doing when they died. Bobby’s version never cracked the Top 40 in the US, but was a Top 5 song in the UK.

From Wiki: According to author Mark Lewisohn in The Complete Beatles Chronicle, The Beatles performed “More Than I Can Say” live in 1961 and 1962 (in Hamburg and Liverpool and elsewhere). Author Allen J. Weiner in The Beatles: The Ultimate Recording Guide confirms this, noting that it came from a setlist made at the time by George Harrison. It is unclear who sang the lead vocals and no recording is known to survive.

The best known version of the song was by Leo Sayer. Sayer was looking for an “oldie” for his 1980 album Living in a Fantasy. He saw a television commercial for a greatest hits collection by Bobby Vee and chose the song on the spot: “We went into a record store that afternoon, bought the record and had the song recorded that night.” It spent five weeks at #2 on the Billboard pop chart in December 1980 and January 1981.

What I remember most about this song is that my dad’s wedding band used to play this in the set. My brother and I often heard it over and over as they rehearsed it.

More Than I Can Say

I will always see a dancing gopher whenever I hear the next song. “I’m Alright” is the theme to the movie Caddyshack, and plays at the beginning and end of the film. Kenny Loggins saw a rough cut of the movie before he wrote the song. He used the character Danny Noonan, who was a caddy with hopes for a brighter future, as inspiration.

Loggins told the St. Petersburg Times: “The character was trying to figure out where he fit. But at the same time he wanted people to leave him alone and let him find his own way. So I wanted to grab him and summarize that character, and that’s what ‘I’m Alright’ is doing.”

Do you recognize a familiar voice in the song? Eddie Money was recording in a nearby studio, and Loggins convinced him to sing a line on this song. That’s him in the background singing, “You make me feel good!” Money was unhappy that he never got credit for his contribution. “I’m not a fan of Kenny Loggins to tell you the truth,” he told Cincinnati morning show host Kidd Chris of WEBN in 2014. “I sang the bridge in that. We were label mates, you know.”

Fun Fact: When Loggins launches back into the chorus partway through the song, he stutters on the lyric, singing, “I- I’m Alright,” which was a happy accident. “I actually misjudged the entrance. In the arrangement, I delayed that entrance but I forgot when I was doing the lead vocal.” They decided to leave it in the song.

I’m Alright

Urban Cowboy was released in 1980 and country music was big. There were many country songs that crossed over to the pop charts. The next song, however, makes my list because I loved watching the Dukes of Hazzard every week. The first autograph I ever received was a postcard from James Best ( Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane)!

Waylon Jennings was the narrator in the 1975 movie Moonrunners, where he was credited as “The Balladeer.” When CBS created a TV show based on the movie, they asked Jennings to reprise his role as narrator (again credited as “The Balladeer”) and write the theme song. He came up with an outlaw-Country theme that fit the story of Bo and Luke Duke, who were good-hearted rebels from the fictional Hazzard county in The Dukes of Hazzard. Jennings appeared in all 121 episodes of the show until it ended in 1985.

Waylon recorded two versions of the song. The commercially available version receiving radio airplay contains a musical bridge which follows the first verse and chorus. Also, following the commercial version’s second chorus, Jennings makes a tongue-in-cheek reference to his faceless appearance in the credits by singing, “I’m a good ol’ boy, you know my mama loves me, but she don’t understand, they keep-a showin’ my hands and not my face on TV” (a statement referring to the opening shot in the television theme version where Jennings is only shown below the neck playing guitar). This version was a #1 Country hit.

Personally, I think the TV version is the superior version. One of the reasons is that it features Larry McNeely’s banjo work which the commercially available version does not. That banjo really makes a difference! Additionally, the television version’s third verse contains the lyric, “Fightin’ the system like two modern-day Robin Hoods”, which is accompanied by a “Yee-haw!” said by characters, Bo & Luke Duke (John Schneider and Tom Wopat. Fun Fact: The “Yee-haw is Schneider’s vocal used twice.

Here are both versions.

Theme from The Dukes of Hazzard

Another country themed movie from 1980 starred Willie Nelson, Honeysuckle Rose.

On The Road Again was written on the spur of the moment on an air sickness bag when Nelson was on a plane with Jerry Schatzberg, the director of the movie Honeysuckle Rose and its executive producer Sydney Pollack. He recalled to Uncut magazine: “They were looking for songs for the movie and they asked me if I had any idea. I said, ‘What do you want the song to say?’ and Sydney said, ‘Can it be something about being on the road?’ It just started to click. I said ‘You mean like, On the road again, I can’t wait to get on the road again?; They said, ‘That’s great. What’s the melody?’ I said, ‘I don’t know yet.'”

Willie put off writing the melody for months until the day before he went to the studio to cut the song. “I saw no reason to put a melody to something I wasn’t ready to record,” he explained in his 1988 autobiography, Willie. “I knew I wouldn’t have any problem pulling the melody out of the air.”

This was a #1 Country hit for Willie Nelson, and also one of his biggest crossovers, reaching #20 on the Hot 100, his highest placing at the time. It also won him a Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 1981.

On The Road Again

Hit Me With Your Best Shot was the first Top 10 record for Pat Benatar. It was the second single from her Crimes of Passion album. The song was written by guitarist Eddie Schwartz. His inspiration? A pillow.

Eddie says, “I was in a kind of weird therapy when I was in my mid-20s, it was called bio-energetics, I believe. One of the things we did was punch pillows, I guess it had something to do with getting out hostility. I went to a session where we punched the pillows for a while. It all seemed kind of strange, but I remember walking outside of this therapy session and standing on the doorstep of the building I’d been in, this small house in Toronto, and the title just came to me, ‘Hit Me With Your Best Shot.’ I haven’t been to therapy before or since. Maybe I should go back.”

The song can be interpreted as a song about a one-night-stand, but that’s not what its writer had in mind. Schwartz says, “The song is laden with sexual innuendo, but at the core is a song about self confidence. It’s a song saying ‘no matter what you throw at me, I can handle it, I can play in your league.'”

Pat Benatar retired “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” from her live sets in 2022 when she deemed the lyrics inappropriate in the light of a spate of mass shootings in the United States. “We’re not doing ‘Hit Me With Your Best Shot’ and fans are having a heart attack and I’m like, ‘I’m sorry, in deference to the victims of the families of these mass shootings, I’m not singing it.’ I tell them, if you want to hear the song, go home and listen to it,” she told USA Today.

Benatar added that though the title is tongue-in-cheek, she had to draw the line. “I can’t say those words out loud with a smile on my face, I just can’t,” she said. “I’m not going to go on stage and soapbox – I go to my legislators – but that’s my small contribution to protesting. I’m not going to sing it. Tough.”

Hit Me With Your Best Shot

I guess I would call the next song one of my forgotten favorites. You don’t hear it too often anymore, and it was really Terri Gibbs only bonified hit. I’ve always loved the sound of it and remember hearing it a lot on the radio growing up. Somebody’s Knockin’ was released in October of 1980.

When Terri was only six months old, she was diagnosed with retrolental fibroplasia and declared blind. She began playing the piano when she was three. When she was seventeen, she opened up for country legend Bill Anderson. It was another country legend who told her to move to Nashville and pursue a music career – Chet Atkins. She did just that when she was eighteen, but had no luck getting a record deal.

She moved back to Georgia and toured with a trio. She made a demo tape and sent it to record producer Ed Penney of MCA Records who signed her to the label in 1980. Penney was a former Boston disc jockey and a long-time songwriter. He liked her voice on her demo, but he felt she needed stronger material. So he co-wrote “Somebody’s Knockin'” for her and also produced the song. He also became her manager.

This song was a crossover hit upon its 1980 release, reaching No. 8 on the U.S. country charts, No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 3 on the Adult Contemporary charts. Her debut album won her the Academy of Country Music’s Top New Female Vocalist award. She was also the first winner of the Country Music Association’s Horizon Award (which is awarded to emerging artists), and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance for the song.

In 1987, after struggling to have another country hit, she switched her focus to Contemporary Christian music. Her last album was released in 2017.

Somebody’s Knockin’

It is probably just a coincidence that I am writing this during a Michigan thunderstorm, but it is the appropriate background noise to accompany my last entry of 1980. Eddie Rabbitt was a country singer and songwriter who had a fair share of country and crossover hits. Here is another example of real life inspiring a song.

Eddie first got the idea for the song I Love a Rainy Night in the ’60s when he was sitting in his small apartment on a rainy night. He sang, “I love a rainy night, I love a rainy night” into a tape recorder, but didn’t complete the song until 1980, when he discovered the tape in his basement. He finished the song with the help of fellow songwriters Even Stevens and David Malloy.

The one thing I truly remember about this song was the intro. The song has a very distinctive feature – its rhythmic pattern of alternating finger snaps and hand claps. The snaps and claps were included with the help of percussionist Farrell Morris, who, according to The Billboard Book of Number One Country Hits, mixed two tracks of each to complete the record. I am sure this is what they intended, but I always picture the windshield wipers going back and forth in that rhythm (just like Eddie sings).

This song was a huge crossover hit! Eddie had great success with the song going to #1 on the Pop, Adult Contemporary and Country charts.

I Love A Rainy Night

So that brings my list for 1980 to an end. As I continue to listen to the thunder, I’ll ponder a bit on what is to come next week as we look at 1981. That was another important year for me and the influence of radio in my future. Why? Because I discovered a show that featured one of the best on air personalities to ever grace the airwaves …..

See you next week – in 1981.