Coming off the heels of their #1 U.S. Rock hit "New World Man", Rush released today's song, and rock radio ate it up, too.
So did I.
After careful consideration, "Subdivisions" is my all-time favorite Rush song. First, phenomenal music and production values. Secondly, the message of the song was very timely to a guy just completing two miserable years of junior high school from a social standpoint. Mind you, I had made a group of friends, but I didn't fit in much anywhere else.
I knew all too well about the "subdivisions" dividing Liberty Junior High School. "Be cool or be cast out", the song says. Millions of teenagers know that, then, and now, all too well.
I'm hoping one day at somewhat quirky, and always challenging social experiments such as middle and high school, kids won't be so quick to build subdivisions. One can only hope.
Meanwhile, I can enjoy my favorite Rush song. There were four overall in the Rob Witham 500. :)
We begin The Top 100 Songs today! Thanks so much for being with me on this musical journey.
Today, the one appearance from Dave Edmunds, who hit radio in 1983 with a catchy tune, especially the chorus, the bridge, and the fade. It's all about a guy watching his love slowly go away from him, now desperate, asking for "one more try", for "one more chance to wipe these tears from my eyes".
As the song ends, you get the feeling he never gets that opportunity.
First, before today's very appropriate song, a quick story.
I've always been a big college basketball fan (well, big until the last, say, decade), but the apex of my love for the sport and especially for The NCAA Tournament came in 1990 when the first two rounds were being held for the first time at the Richmond Coliseum.
The night before the first round, I'm at the Richmond Marriott for the radio station helping them produce a VCU talk show since the Rams were the host school for the tournament. I got to thinking, why not ask for a press pass and just go??
Amazingly, I was able to procure one. What's even more amazing is that I convinced my boss to let me get someone to fill in my Friday afternoon drive airshift so I could file live reports from the Richmond Coliseum.
Having no time to secure a sponsor, I told my boss we would do free ads for the latest edition of our "Christian Yellow Pages" that had just released called, "The Light Pages". He said yes.
I missed almost all of the first game that Friday, but arrived in time to see Maurice Newby of Northern Iowa make this insane shot to send third-seeded Missouri packing. By the end of the weekend, we saw Syracuse, Digger Phelps and Notre Dame, and the last game ever coached by Terry Holland at Virginia.
The following year, I began taking vacation days during the first week of the tournament so I could stay home, watch all the action, and record the best moments. And, I LOVED their theme song, which is another story for another time (hint, hint).
Fast forward to March, 1993. I'm home, in my new home, ready for the first round on that Thursday. Imagine my horror when they started the show, and a new song debuted.
WHAT??!?!?! Where's my beloved theme song???
The good news is I settled down, and, it didn't take very long to fall in love with this one, too, even though it can never have the meaning the other one did. So, as the real tournament action gets set to start tomorrow, enjoy this throwback to tournament action gone by!
NOTE: This version was used by CBS Sports from 1993-2003. A more orchestrated version debuted for the 2004 Tournament, and a revised version of that debuted in 2011 when CBS and Turner Sports began its current arrangement.
It's a Sunday morning, and the Withams are packed up in the van, heading down I-295 for another great Sunday School and Worship Service at Bethlehem Congregational Church.
That means it was time to tune in "Radio Disney" for their weekly countdown to pass the 50-minute drive away. We got to hear lots of good tunes from Sunday to Sunday, but one is most memorable.
Radio Disney played a special version of the song where, after the chorus, you have a father-like figure asking children about their homework, and eating their vegetables.
The beat is very hypnotic, and it's very fun to sing along with, especially with, say, an eight and a three year old.
So, climb in the van with us and get ready to not remember! :)
Today, we give a final salute to, perhaps, the greatest debut album in rock music history, as I reveal my favorite song from Boston.
For all the great hits found on "Boston", released almost 41 years ago, songs you still hear on classic rock radio today from "More Than A Feeling" to "Long Time", I am very partial to a song from side two which begins very quietly and with great introspective power, then, breaks out into that classic Boston sound.
That sound carried a message of a man who, despite his faults, wants so badly to love, take care of, and please the woman he loves.
Thank you Boston for fantastic music, and the great trivia question of my teenage years, "When's the third Boston album coming out?" You answered that in 1986. :)
It's the Summer of 1986, and I'm working literally every day for WUHN-AM and WUPE-FM in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, opting not to come home for the summer and choosing instead to work as much as I could to gain valuable on-air and other experience in the world of radio.
Among the soundtrack choices of that summer was the follow-up single to The Moody Blues' big hit, "Your Wildest Dreams", which is today's song. It is also the tenth of twenty Moody Blues songs to make the Top 500, meaning, yes, a full ten percent of the Top 100 will belong to Justin, John, Graeme, and company.
Here's "The Other Side Of Life", which clocked in at 4:56 and faded out, by the way, as I remember the cart label. This, though, below, is the extended version. You know how we like them. :)
June, 1984 was a really good month at the record store.
"Born In The U.S.A." by Bruce Springstreen hits streets on June 4, then, three weeks later, buoyed by the monster radio success already generated from "When Doves Cry", here came the soundtrack to Prince's motion picture "Purple Rain".
While Purple Rain would dominate the Summer of 1984 and generate massive sales, as the calendar turned over to 1985, the last Prince single, "Take Me With U", only managed to climb to #25 on the chart. Meanwhile, The Boss was just getting started.
"Dancing In The Dark" got us going in the Summer of 1984 (complete with a Courteney Cox video appearance, jumping on stage to dance with Springsteen long before anyone knew her), followed by "Cover Me" and the title track.
In 1985, the haunting "I'm On Fire" climbed the charts, setting the stage for today's tune. Now, by the time it was released to Top 40 radio on May 31, 1985, many of us already knew and absolutely loved the song, thanks in part to AOR Radio grabbing it early, and, of course, by buying the album, as I did.
So, I couldn't have been happier that a song that talks about looking back at the glory days of your life was suddenly everywhere on radio just as I was wrapping up my first significant era of "Glory Days", high school.
"Walking On Sunshine" by Katrina and The Waves was the soundtrack to the Summer of '85, "Into The Groove" by Madonna the dance tune,
But it was definitely "Glory Days" that stood out as the anthem of that summer. And now, I sit here, 32 years later, believing I have much more than just "boring stories". :)
It's the swan song on American radio for the Electric Light Orchestra when they had their biggest hit in three years back in 1986 with this catchy tune about wanting to contact someone state side, only how could they do it in an age of AT&T, MCI, phone cards, pin numbers, cheaper at 11pm (there or here?), etc, etc.
Today's new generation absolutely has no concept concerning how the simple act of using a phone was for those of us who grew up in the 1970's and 1980's. Party lines, only one phone in the house, tethered to the kitchen wall. Heck, you even had to lower yourself to use the rotary dial. :)
Today's song finished at #18 in the Billboard Top 100, and it marked ELO's final appearance on American Top 40 with Casey Kasem.
We have now revealed six of the nine Electric Light Orchestra songs that dot our countdown landscape.
Today, the highest debut in the Top 500 by an artist/group that has a minimum of three songs listed. It took over a year for the first of three songs from Dale Bozzio and the group Missing Persons to, no pun intended, appear.
Sadly, Missing Persons never had a single crack the Top 40. But it was the 1980's, and by then, you could get popular in other ways, even before the advent of the Internet.
Missing Persons became pretty popular on MTV, and very popular in multiple major cities. Those of us outside of both realms who were blessed to have cool rock stations that still accepted the more "new wave" kind of acts also were exposed to their unique sound.
From their "Spring Session M" release, the first of three entries from Missing Persons, which, if memory serves me correctly, was part of the soundtrack of my incredible Spring of 1983. :)
Did you know that Billy Joel's first number one song came from his 1980 album "Glass Houses", and it wasn't "You May Be Right"?
It actually was "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me", which shows the depth of this Joel album, my personal favorite from him. In fact, my two favorite Billy Joel songs of all time come from "Glass Houses", beginning with today's tune.
It's a "feel-good" song with far from "feel-good" lyrics, as a guy looks at the problems around him in his neighborhood, his nation ("I'd start a revolution but I don't have time"), and, then, inward.
But, in the end, he lives to fight another day, even if his nicely polished dress shoes inch a hair closer, closer to the borderline.
One more Billy Joel song to go in our Top 500, and you know which album it comes from. What song will it be, and when will we see it?? :)
I am so honored that today's song was released in the same year that, er, ah, well, I was released. :)
Thanks to my brother for my first exposure to this song close to ten years after its release, never dreaming that, one day, I'd live just north of the "scene of the crime", Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and that I would actually drive past Alice's Restaurant.
If you've never listened to this 18 minute, 34 second masterpiece, I implore you to do so. There are a couple of language/adult theme issues, and, yes, it has a certain political bent to it, but, now, almost 50 years after its debut, Arlo Guthrie takes us back to a time where so many things were different, yet so many issues are the same.
Take garbage, a "friendly gestue", a closed dump, a cranky police officer, "shovels, rakes and implements of destruction", a "closed" sign, some blind justice, the Vietnam War, the draft office, and a simple tune played over, and over, and over, and you have the ingredients of an absolute classic that must be a part of every Thanksgiving, or any other day for that matter.
And, yes, this is the longest song in The Rob Witham 500. :)
By the way, does anyone know what happened to the 27 8 X 10" color glossy photographs with circles and arrows on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence?
Those of us who listened to radio stations like XL102, DC101 and 3WV back in 1982 got exposed to so many of the great songs of that era that listeners of strictly Top 40 stations like Q94 simply didn't hear.
Today's song is a perfect example. And it came at a perfect time after my first serious relationship came to a close in mid-summer, and I had about five weeks to psych myself up and get ready for the petrifying thought of......high school.
I did not follow the song's blueprint and go out with a friend with lips full of passion and coffee in bed, but I did listen to this song tons and tons in what I remember as an unforgettable summer of music.
Music was my refuge, and, many long summer nights, not just that summer, but every night growing up, music was my very, very good friend.
Another Squeeze tune, "Tempted", just missed the Top 500, so here now enjoy their contribution to our musical journey.
From the soundtrack to the motion picture "The Woman In Red" comes the first of two Stevie Wonder contributions to the Top 500, a song that was panned by some critics, probably some of the same critics who panned Nancy Reagan's "too simple" message of "Just Say No" to drugs back in the 1980's.
You combine the super funk of Stevie with a much-needed message, then, and now (so maybe it wasn't so worthy of panning, you know?), and you have the makings of what I have always believed was an underrated Wonder tune.
It charted in the Netherlands and in the United Kingdom, but not in the United States, and I can remember stopping everything when I did hear it on the radio, because its airplay amount was, at best, scarce.
But now we have it for all time. :) One more Stevie appearance coming soon!
A lot of people assume that A Flock Of Seagulls qualifies as a "one-hit wonder" thanks to the smash success of their hit song from the Summer of 1982, "I Ran".
But they actually hit the Top 40 twice more, the final time in America in the Summer of 1983 with an absolutely mesmerizing song about a man who simply wishes for something we definitely take for granted in the age of cell phones and selfies: a photograph.
The best part of the song is its quintessential early '80's jam, "Synthesizer City", if you will, that matches the obscurity of the song's meaning. Is this a faceless love? Has he even met this woman? Does she even exist?
Would the photograph really help? In the end, the song, maybe like the fantasy it portrays, simply winds down, and blows out its own candle.
This is the second and final appearance for A Flock Of Seagulls.
The worldwide phenomenon that was Abba began 43 years ago with today's song, one they sang to win a big music contest in Europe, bursting out of their native Sweden to reach around the world.
It is the fourth of six contributions by the quartet on our Top 500, so two more songs to come. We've enjoyed "Chiquitita", "Knowing Me, Knowing You" and "Voulez-Vous" so far, now "Waterloo". Down the road, we'll discover the final two, neither of which became the title of a Broadway musical. :)
Would any of you be willing to wear any of the outfits used in this video? In public? :)
This song fits many categories on this countdown, from "one-hit wonders", "one song appearances" and "songs from 1979", if I had a personal Top 500 search engine of sorts.
In a transitional year for popular music, a lot of people forget this gem from the final year of the 1970's from a man who wrote another, bigger hit for that year, Robert Palmer's "Bad Case Of Loving You".
It begins with an unmistakable flute solo with a hint of orchestration behind it, ushering in a seven-plus minute masterpiece, a song that makes one think of all of the twists and turns of life, from best decisions to deepest regrets, with its primary focus on wishing to simply be with the one you love.
The flute moves, weaves, winds its way through the composition, and brings it to a dramatic, emotional close. I use this opportunity to give a nod to the great Norda Mullen, who has stepped in at this most important instrument for The Moody Blues for well over a decade since the retirement of Ray Thomas at the end of 2002.
Norda is an incredible artist and I'm deeply thankful that the rest of the group welcomed her in to allow the greatness of The Moody Blues live to continue.
Here's a live performance featuring Norda on flute from 2013.
A unique voice of the 1970's, and there were many of them, makes his one and only appearance along our journey today, and in a most unusual way.....
There's more than one song in the Top 500 that was originally discovered by being on the flip side of a 45 RPM record bought at either Woolco or Woolworth at Azalea Mall in the mid to late 1970's. And, after purchasing the John Denver single "I'm Sorry", which topped the charts, we take it out of the sleeve for the first time and flip it over to discover a tribute to Jacques Cousteau.
Now, at eight years old, my knowledge of Cousteau was this: he liked seas and oceans and ABC showed specials starring him from time to time. That was it. And, to this day, I don't think I've watched an entire show that he did. I also couldn't pronounce his name when it popped up in TV Guide. :)
I didn't realize this song was Denver's tip of the cap to Cousteau, singing about his research ship. I just knew that I really thought the song was cool. I wasn't the only one. Radio stations across the country also flipped to the B-side and started playing this song, so much so that once "I'm Sorry", started falling off the chart, "Calypso" vaulted to #2. That simply did not happen for B-side songs.
The only other instance I can think of in this era that I can remember was Linda Ronstadt's "Love Is A Rose", the single which produced another hit on side B, preferred by pop radio, in "Heat Wave".
If you can think of any others from the mid-1970's, let me know. :) For now, enjoy my favorite John Denver song (and I do thank him for the great contribution to Baltimore Oriole lore with the playing of "Thank God I'm A Country Boy" in the seventh inning stretch!).
My first taste of the group Thompson Twins came during the crazy first few months of 1983 when today's song first hit American radio.
What would follow was a string of hits from another Top 500 entry in "Love On Your Side" to "Lay Your Hands On Me" and "Hold Me Now".
For my money, my first taste was the best taste, as "Lies" is my favorite song from the band, and a quirky song with a sound that reminds me of the frenetic pace of my life back in early 1983, finally finding a footing after two awkward years of junior high school, finding a passion in theatre, getting an incredible role as my first in a musical while surprising myself and everyone else in forensics competitions, all while watching my beloved N.C. State Wolfpack make the miracle run to the National Championship.
It's the second of two Top 500 entries for the mid-1980's group Mr. Mister, the first, also from 1986, appearing here.
This song made a lot of people investigate (as oppose to Google) the meaning of the term "Kyrie Eleison", a term that appeared in a song we sang in Vocal Ensemble back at Patrick Henry. The answer, essentially, is "Lord, have mercy".
Lord, have mercy down the road that I must travel,
Lord, have mercy through the darkness of the night.....
I suspect many have worshipped over the decades via this pop song from 31 years ago this spring....
It's a shame. The 1984 Toto album, "Isolation", has ended up, in part, as a partial footnote on their discography.
Two of my four favorite songs from the group are from this album, including today's, a great story of a guy simply infatuated with a girl named Hollyanna, who disagreed with her mother, wasn't acting like a proper girl, and, I hope, the singer had her best interests at heart. He should have.
It's early 1989, and I'm really digging into material at my job at WDYL Radio, about to dive head first into an additional job, that of Music Director. I had already shifted my focus to Contemporary Christian Music with the job, meaning listening to the Q94's and B103.7's, well, my "Time Spent Listening" to them literally disappeared.
But, one Sunday afternoon, heading to Colonial Heights for a baseball card show as that hobby began its late 1980s explosion (Remember Tuff Stuff?), I heard today's song at the end of American Top 40 with Casey Kasem, and immediately got hooked.
Roxette's contribution to our countdown has "late 1980's" written all over it. Super beat, mesmerizing vocals, overall, just a super jam.
Flip the clock back to 28 years ago in March, as Roxette topped the charts....
It's the title track from the 1977 release from Kansas, who haven't appeared in our countdown since very early on, here, also from this album.
Today's tune only peaked on Casey Kasem's chart (Billboard Hot 100) at #28, the follow-up single from Kansas, a tune called "Dust In The Wind" would be more chart successful.
But I totally love this musical work, with a strong but simple opening, an easy to sing chorus, great harmony, and a perfect fade-out.
Kansas will return one final time.....down the road. Maybe way down the road. :)
Side two of George Harrison's self-titled 1979 album began with the fade-up soundtrack of classic Formula 1 racing heading into a tribute to the men behind the wheel, and those who create the machines.
A look into the cockpit, the heart of a driver's wife, the fans, the sounds, all captured perfectly with the lyrics, and absolutely genius production work for this song, my favorite George Harrison solo effort of all-time.
Settling in to my part-time role at my first FM Radio job in Pittsfield, Massachusetts in late spring of 1986, I was so happy to see a new cart enter rotation as summertime approached, the one containing today's song, the eighth of twenty Moody Blues contributions to our journey.
It was the most successful single from the album whose name shares a title with today's song, which is just as fun to sing along to today, whether at a concert, or in the privacy of your car. And on another unusually pretty February day, it looks like I will open the sun roof and listen along, since I still don't have a voice to sing along with. :(
We start the new week saluting my favorite song from an artist, in this case, the great Bob Seger.
As you may remember, all three of his entries in the Top 500 came from his awesome 1980 "Against The Wind" album. Today's tune, a celebration because, well, Betty Lou's getting out tonight! We hear about all the boys, we had Mom's reaction (Mom's so understanding, well, after awhile....), and we had a recipe for a jammin' song. :)
Thank you, Mr. Seger for one of my all-time favorite albums, and for freeing Betty Lou!
We've had two Mitchells make appearance on the countdown as solo artists, here's the second, with a song I really, really dug in its heyday when WRVA played it quite often.
As young as I was, I really didn't understand its overtones, and now, many years later, I do, and agree with it on some occasions. I'm a realist in that there has to be growth for accommodation purposes. But soon, shouldn't we get developers to come back in towards a city, tear down older, unused buildings, and spring life anew?
Joni gets the nod here as the original singer, though I really liked Amy Grant's remake back in 1994.
It's my senior year, we are about to witness the second biggest upset in NCAA Tournament Championship in history (sorry Wildcats, but N.C. State in 1983 is the gold standard....)
Of course, we're knee deep into the glorious age of Magic and Bird in the NBA with Dr. J, Moses Malone from just down the road in Petersburg, Kareem was still hooking for deuces and so much more.
What's fun about listening to Kurtis Blow's tribute is enjoying the references to players that, for many in today's millennial generation, are just footnotes.
For every Russell Westbrook is the GOAT reference I see, I think about Oscar Robertson. When people think pure shooting ability, I think of George Gervin and Alex English. Need someone to run the point? Tiny's got you.
Then, in the snapshot of time that is early 1985, hear the younger sounding man promoting a rookie, at the time, in Chicago by the name of Michael Jordan.
Bernard King? Willis Reed stood so tall? Classic, and historic stuff. Turn it up and rap along....while I go get ready to cover another week of postseason high school basketball. Maybe they'll rap about one of our current players in the future. :)
First of all, only in 1981, I believe, can a song like today's make headway in Top 40 radio, as we've discussed on multiple occasions on our journey how transitional the year was and that there was no dominant form of music jamming up the charts.
So, if "Stars on 45", Juice Newton, The Police, and the return of The Moody Blues to the Top 40 work, why not a song from an unknown commodity that feels like a "pop opera anthem"?
Then, on top of that, we spend that year jamming to the song, preferring, as usual, the long-album version with the great pseudo-acapella reprise to the end.....only to find out Jim Steinman didn't actually sing the song!
Who did? How about fellow Canadian Rory Dodd, who we would later hear as the "Turn Around, Bright Eyes" guy on Bonnie Tyler's 1983 hit, "Total Eclipse Of The Heart".
You also know Dodd from his work in commercials for, of all things, a great game of our youth, "Hungry Hungry Hippos"!
Only in 1981. Here's Rory, posing as Jim singing a pop opera (that would be covered by Meat Loaf a decade later).....
Here it is, the seventh and final song from Styx in our musical journey, a beautifully penned and produced song that kicked off a Styx LP that, in history, often gets overlooked, having been released between the enormously successful "Pieces Of Eight", and "Paradise Theatre".
We already featured one song from "Cornerstone", "Why Me?" earlier in the survey, which actually has a feel of "Lights" on steroids when you compare the two songs.
Now, enjoy Tommy Shaw's great vocals and a thriller of a final minute of music with "Lights".
A song originally written in 1966 by a songwriting duo at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, which would become infamous two years later as the site where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed, later covered by the likes of Otis Redding and David Bowie, found its greatest success as a one-hit wonder.
Nobody knew Amii Stewart, and we certainly didn't know how to pronounce her name, when she released her disco-twisted version of "Knock On Wood" in January, 1979. But it exploded onto radio, even as the disco era was beginning to realize its time was short, it got a needed boost in the arm by this brilliantly produced song.
The drums. Oh, the drums. They make this song. Everything else, from Stewart's vocals (which are so good and so strong), to the synthesizers, et al, revolve around and pay homage to the drums.
Its sound pulled you in, and you didn't pull back. You wanted to experience all of it. When I was alone at home and it would hit the radio (or later, when I played the record), it was at full, full blast.
What happened to Amii? I don't know. Wikipedia tells me she is now 61 years old and lives in Italy. I hope she's well, and I thank her for this powerful contribution to our musical journey, a rare bit of disco in our countdown.
And yes, we put the extended version on here, because that's the way we like it!
Imagine an all-girl rock band taking a classic song from Simon & Garfunkel, and turning it into an even bigger hit.
That's exactly what The Bangles did with today's song, recorded for the soundtrack of the movie "Less Than Zero" in 1987. The group was very familiar with the song, having covered it in concerts for several years prior.
This song lulls you in with the soft opening, and completely ensnares you with the first sounds of the driving guitar riff and drum beats. After that, you are putty in its hands.
The video for the song, for its time, was pretty futuristic. Had they had a stage filled with Samsung Galaxy S7 phones rather than TV screens......hmmm.......
We have one more Bangles song to go, coming up, in the spring, maybe even late in the spring. Hint. Hint. :)
When this song first hit the radio after being rushed to completion in November, 1978, it made phones, as we say in the radio business, "blow up". I guarantee you, ask any WRVA veteran of that era and they will tell you they were besieged with request calls for "that Mary's Boy Child song".
The "Mary's Boy Child" part of this now Christmas classic was originally a hit for Harry Belafonte back in the late 1950's. Now, a Caribbean based group teams with a German producer to form a mesmerizing sound with the carol, and then add a twist that would cement the song's legacy on All-Christmas radio stations forever.
The addition of the newly written, at the time, "O My Lord", to create, in essence, a medley, was the cherry on top. And, every year since, you can hear Boney M on radio, on Pandora, or in malls and stores across America during the holiday season.
Knowing how important it was to get my hands on a copy of this song, and being unable to find it on a CD or LP in 1989 when we debuted "The Christmas Station" on the former WDYL-FM, I got a buddy of mine in Pittsfield, Massachusetts to record a copy and mail it to me, and we played that song on cassette, probably a thousand times over the years. It was a heavy rotation mainstay.
This is the #2 Christmas song on our countdown. Number one will probably around the time the temperatures are starting to surge towards summer...as if they haven't already. :) :)
It's the fourth of five tunes from Chrissy Hynde and a group that made more than its mark on multiple forms of music in the early years of the 1980's. It also did it while overcoming multiple tragedies, losses of band members.
"Message Of Love" would be on "Pretenders II", their second studio album release, the last release with the original band. I remember distinctly when this song debuted on AOR radio stations like XL102, 3WV, and K94 back in 1981, and immediately digging the tune, first, for its mesmerizing use of a hypnotic beat that started from the word go, and weaved its way through the song, giving the final part of the bridge an extra kick.
Next month, The Pretenders come to Charlottesville along with Stevie Nicks. If it were just The Pretenders, my butt would be at John Paul Jones Arena. I'd love to hear this song, and many others, live, including my all-time favorite Pretenders song, which I will unveil.....later this Spring. :)
With the release of their LP "Abacab" in 1981, Genesis had completed the turn of the page from its experimental rock roots of the 1970's to a pop band for the 1980's, but not without taking some of the best elements of its past into its future.
The case in point is side one of the album. It begins with the title track, a seven-minute masterpiece of a rock song, continued by the eventual hit single, "No Reply At All", and concludes with today's song.
"Keep It Dark" wasn't released as a single in America, but was quickly discovered by fans who bought the album, and later by AOR radio listeners when they chose this as a "deep cut" from the LP.
What is a "deep cut"? That's when album-oriented rock stations (see? AOR?) would decide what non-single track(s) to play from a current album by an artist that fit their format. Genesis certainly continued to fit, even with its metamorphosis of sorts.
Parts of this song sound like they can be replicated in the kitchen with some wooden spoons and a few pots and pans turned upside down. In all, it's a great jam.
This is the fifth of ten Genesis songs in our countdown, meaning a whole lot of Genesis between now and the end. Partial spoiler alert! My favorite Genesis song will come late, perhaps, very late, or even near the end, of our journey. :)
One year ago today, we began this Top 500 musical journey, and for each of you who have visited us along the road from time to time, I am very thankful. :)
Now.....about today's song.....
Today, it's my runaway favorite song from the great Glen Campbell, who, when you survey his discography, had a simply remarkable career.
His early hits, such as today's song, in the late 1960's, put him on the map, and, in America's living rooms with a successful television variety show. He blitzed the charts in 1975 with the "Rhinestone Cowboy" LP, and even had a very successful run in the Christian County and Contemporary Christian music genres in the early 1990's.
The premise of this tune, written by Jimmy Webb, is quite simple. His inspiration for the song reportedly came from driving through part of Oklahoma, seeing endless lines of telephone poles, eventually noting what looked to be a silhouette of a lineman at the top of a pole. Webb then wondered what the lineman was saying into the receiver.
Never really taking into account the lines being for telephones, I always thought they were electrical lines. So my mind has always thought like this when I hear the song:
A blue-collar, hard-working man working the electrical lines hears his lover through those same lines, and he wants her to know that, no matter how much the job, the lines, take him away from her, because he hears, he feels her electricity, her power, and her love, in reality, they are always together.
Note the incredible orchestration in verse one with these lyrics:
"I hear you singing in the wire,
I can hear you through the whine...."
This is musical perfection. I get a chill down my spine every time I hear this song.
And, in closing, the song has one of the most powerful love lyrics of all time:
"And I need you more than want you,
And I want you for all time...."
I have talked several times about my love of the Big Band/Swing era of music and how my first commercial radio job was at a station that played it. The Glenn Miller Orchestra makes its fourth and final appearance today with, perhaps, his signature song.
Glenn and the boys recorded this originally in 1938, the year my Mama was born. Quickly it became the band's "theme song", as bands tended to have back in the day. It ended as the fifth biggest song of 1939 on the Billboard music chart.
Those who produced the motion picture "The Glenn Miller Story" over a decade later are to commended for making a masterpiece. That movie will be forever in my heart, as it came on in the pre-dawn hours of June 15, 2010, a night where I couldn't sleep, so anxious and excited for my son Robbie's graduation from high school later that day, an event that more than one person told us over the years that it wouldn't happen.
When the movie draws to its heartbreaking conclusion, and June Allyson, playing Miller's wife, heard "Little Brown Jug" for the very first time over the radio, the tears flowed. But, interestingly when I think of that movie, and of that early morning six and a half years ago, I think of today's song, my favorite from the great Glenn Miller.
For all of us, it's very likely that the first time we heard today's song was on television, during a Peanuts special, and most likely it was the 1965 classic, "A Charlie Brown Christmas".
A year earlier, this song was actually released by composer Vince Guaraldi with his trio on his album entitled, "Jazz Impressions Of A Boy Named Charlie Brown". But it was when CBS premiered the aforementioned special during the holiday season over 51 years ago that America began to fall in love with "the unofficial music of Peanuts".
Now, over a half-century later, millions own the soundtrack CD to the special, the backbone of which is certainly this catchy tune.
A quick radio story: Back when I programmed the all-Christmas music format for the former WDYL-FM here in Richmond from 1989 to 1996, in the later years, I used this song as the background music for our traffic reports.
For all the great music Ann and Nancy Wilson created in the first great run in the 1970's, Heart only got one song, "Magic Man", to hit the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.
It would be 1985 before they finally cracked the top five, and a year later when "These Dreams" hit #1. A year later, today's song, the first single from their ninth studio project, began its ascent to the top of the chart.
Between the piano opening and closing, this song is power packed with classic Wilson vocals, classic Wilson guitar play, and it oozes with burning, unquenchable desire to begin a relationship.
It's also my favorite Heart song, a group that, to me, never gets enough credit for its incredible contributions to rock music.
Today, the seventh of eight songs from The Fab Four in our musical journey, one that played a part of the memorable appearance of The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, ironically, 53 years ago this Thursday.
Still less than three months removed from the John F. Kennedy Assassination, the nation was in need of some distraction, something new, exciting, and positive. Now, parents back then probably didn't think this to be the case, but, compared to some of our "role models" in 2017, John, Paul, George and Ringo seem pretty tame by comparison.
From that musically altering Sunday night on CBS, here they are.
NOTE: You have to hit the pause button at 1:27, and look at the woman's reaction in the front of the shot, but, more interestingly, the reaction of the two older geezers behind her! :) :)
America discovered The Police a little later than those in their home continent of Europe. For example, today's song was never released a single in the United States. My first remembrance of the group was when "De Do Do Do, De Dah Dah Dah" hit radio in the fall of 1980.
We haven't heard from The Police in the Top 500 since the first week of the countdown, but they return today for the second of four appearances with a song that, when you really listen to it, is about as hopeless as it gets. Comparing the absolute despair of the words with the quirky nature of the tune, however, and, all of a sudden, you find yourself singing right along.
The Police returns twice more before our countdown ends June 23rd.
In the opening week of January, 1972, Karen and Richard Carpenter released a song as a single that had already been recorded several times by multiple artists over the previous six years. From the album, "A Song For You", today's song was one of many excellent selections on that piece of vinyl, from "Top Of The World" (which WRVA played to death!) and "I Won't Last A Day Without You".
In the end, it's my favorite Carpenters song, a riveting story of a couple seemingly in an endless cycle of loving and hurting, with the usual masterful work of Karen vocally evoking every emotion from every part of that cycle.
We lost Karen Carpenter far too soon, but what a legacy of music we have to enjoy forever from her and from Richard.
When most people think of 1975 and Glen Campbell, they think of his monster hit, "Rhinestone Cowboy", which was Campbell's first #1 country single in six years, and his first #1 song ever on the U.S. pop chart.
But it's his follow-up single, today's song, that is the second of three Campbell tunes to appear on this countdown, and it, too, was a chart success. Over forty years ago, I preferred this song over Rhinestone, and still do today. What's my favorite Glen Campbell song? We'll reveal that very soon. :)
46 years ago, today's song zoomed to the top of the "Cashbox" chart (Cashbox was a direct competitor to Billboard which eventually went out of business), and to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The music part of this song is just crazy good, then add excellent lyrics and strong vocals, and this is a song that made me stop and listen every time they would spin it on the old WRVA back in their wonderful music days (save "Open For Opinion" from 12:30 to 2pm). :)
HJF&R make their contribution to our musical journey with this early 1970's classic!
We've gotten to the point in the Rob Witham 500 where you will, on more and more occasions, here me say, "it's my favorite song from (insert artist name here)".
That category returns today as we salute my top song from The Little River Band, a group with a string of hits in the 1970's and early 1980's. Two of them made this journey, both from their 1979 album, "First Under The Wire".
Great vocals, and an excellent transition from the bridge to the final chorus, this was definitely a crank it up sing-along song from early in my seventh grade year in the late summer and fall of 1979.
Which reminds me of my Baltimore Orioles blowing a 3-1 World Series lead that October to those dreaded Pittsburgh Pirates and.....well.....but we weren't lonesome losers, we were at least American League Champions! :)
Our one contribution from The Mamas and The Papas to our musical journey has a wild background.
First, though, my first exposure to the song was on a promo for my late, great friend Mike Rancourt's Saturday Night Oldies Show that aired on WUPE-FM on Saturday nights. Once a month, he'd go all night, going past the usual 2am ending, rolling on to 5am and "Ask The Professor", which was the coolest public affairs show in radio history. But that's another story for another day.
After success with their first LP release, and having "California Dreamin'" become their first hit, the group returned to the studio for their next project.
Today's song was created thanks to John Phillips' wife, Michelle, having an affair with the other male member of the group, Denny Doherty. The affair ended, John and Denny reconciled, and, incredibly, they wrote this song inspired by all the events.
And yes, the fake start to the chorus by Denny near the end wasn't supposed to be there in the final mix. They tried to expunge it, had trouble doing it, and finally the producer, Lou Adler, said to leave it in, as he reportedly actually liked its effect.
There's a million ways to get the inspiration to write a hit song. Here is one of the stranger ones.
The one song from REO Speedwagon's massively successful "Hi Infidelity" album to make our Top 500 is, indeed, my favorite Speedwagon song of all-time.
From its drum-driven fade in beginning to the so-easy-to-sing-to chorus, it's a song that pleads for someone not to make a huge mistake, but it's done in rock n' roll mode rather than in ballad form.
It's a fantastic combination of message, energy, and urgency, from an album that produced some incredible songs, from "Tough Guys" and "Out Of Season" to "In Your Letter".
Back in July, we talked about the importance of Asia's 1982 debut album to my teenage years when I posted the first of four songs from the release that made the Top 500 here.
Today, it's the second of those four songs, as the "supergroup" returns with driving drums, and the perfect mixture of musical fits and spurts, which ideally match the subject matter of the song. One moment calm, another in realization mode, and another which some people could interpret as panic, others anticipation, still others a combination of both, as "the feeling" comes again.
As stated last summer, this is from one of my five "must-have" LP's from my high school years. The others will become known as we hit the latter stages of the countdown.
Late in 1982, I got my first-ever taste of Chris DeBurgh, a UK-based artist born in Argentina, a member of the A&M Records label since 1974 who once toured with Supertramp.
This song, like many that I loved back in my high school days, was not a big Top 40 chart success, so you had to go to rock radio to discover it. Sure enough, XL102, 3WV, K94 and others gave this song the attention and exposure that it well deserved.
Not long later, DeBurgh would enjoy major chart success, but with a tune I would likely put in a countdown of my Top 100 Most Disliked Songs, "The Lady In Red".
If you missed this song back in its heyday, take four minutes and click the player below. This is Chris DeBurgh, and his contribution to our musical journey.
Released on my eighth birthday, June 23, 1975, today we salute my all-time favorite Elton John song.
It comes from the monumental release, "Captain Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy", a concept album about the early years of John and longtime music collaborator Bernie Taupin, back in Great Britain in the late 1960's. Today's song is the lone radio hit from the album, and it made some history back in the Summer of 1975.
At 6:45 in length, MCA Records was, as was always the case, planning to release an edited version for radio, as stations just wouldn't play a song this long. John absolutely refused, and, surprisingly, he won, and when you went to Woolco or Woolworth at Azalea Mall to buy the 45 RPM record for 86 cents, you got the whole version, and you heard it all on WLEE.
Now, some stations did find a way to edit out the expletive in the second verse (it was an issue back then, certainly wouldn't be today), but otherwise, it was presented in its entirety. And my favorite part is, by far, the bridge through the end fade. You can feel someone rising from the ashes of considering suicide (which John did in the late 1960's) to rediscovering themselves again and moving forward.
Imagine for a moment popular music without Elton John. Wow.
Today, a confession of sorts, as I introduce my all-time favorite James Taylor song.
There is the age-old question of, when you are blessed with multiple children, how you love them equally. I most certainly do. I've also learned that, in nearly 25 years (GASP!) of parenting, the love may be equal, but it's different, and it's for different reasons.
When Bonnie and I found out we were expecting for a second time in August, 1991 (almost six months after losing our first pregnancy), we were certainly excited, but decided, due to recent circumstances, to keep the news to ourselves until she was through her first trimester. For years, I had dreamed of having a son, of continuing the Witham name, of having a Robert Edward Witham III.
That dream came true on April 29, 1992. He assumed my nickname of Robbie, causing much confusion at our house in the months leading up to a high school class reunion. Robbie is my high-flyer, my surprisingly deep thinker (on the surface, you wouldn't think he does that), and a survivor. He's gone through much more in his first 25 years than I did in mine, and I'm so incredibly proud of him for his perseverance.
Then came my daughter, Rachel, on my Dad's 65th birthday, February 26, 1997. Our bond is different, forged in the fact that I was her stay-at-home Dad for her first two years and eight months. Time spent together like that creates a union that you can only understand if you do it.
My heart attack, and her response to it in April, 2013, combined with her love of activities in high school at that time that were similar to mine, but not forced or even suggested by me (drama, forensics), galvanized the bond. And it was shortly after all this that I began to identify today's song with my baby girl.
There is a song for Robbie coming much later in the countdown, and it will not make sense for most of you, but it makes perfect sense for me. Today I salute Rachel, who helps me feel fine, whether she's at home or 72.4 miles away in Farmville. :)
We begin the Top 150 today paying homage to a short, but influential portion of pop/rock music history.
"New Wave", in its mainstream popularity, didn't last a long time as an "era". There were rumblings of it on Top 40 radio in the late 1970's as the disco stranglehold began to finally wane, but 1980 was the year that the genre took over, for a time, the charts.
After M's "Pop Muzik" helped usher in the new decade, you had everyone from Gary Numan and Devo to early radio songs from The Police, as well as today's group from New Zealand, putting New Wave on stereos and car radios nationwide.
The genre's effect, however, lasted well into the decade as it morphed and evolved, but 1980 was a special year for its sound, and from that year, today's tune, the only charting song for Split Enz in America.
They almost had two songs in our Top 500, as "Nobody Takes Me Seriously" fell just short, but they do make the countdown with a song that caused me to immediately turn up the radio back in the magical, transitional year (personally and musically) of 1980.
After the success of her "Lady Sings The Blues" soundtrack album in 1972, three years later, the former lead singer of The Supremes releases another soundtrack, "Mahogany".
The motion picture was the rags to riches story of Tracy Chambers, played by Ross, who went from having essentially nothing to become a noted and popular fashion designer in Rome. It was released in October of 1975, a couple of weeks after today's song first hit radio. It took awhile, but the tune finally made the top of the Billboard charts as 1976 began.
This is an absolutely beautiful song with a simple yet profoundly probing question, one that every human being asks themselves, at many points, in their lives. We're still in January, so, today is another good time to do a "quick reset", ask yourself where you are, where you want to be, if you're headed in that direction, and, if not, what do you need to do to change things.
This is the final countdown appearance for Ross, and thus, my favorite song from the legend.
Today, it's the story of my first major crush. And when I say major, I mean MAJOR.
The world learned that "Sedaka was back" when Daryl Dragon and Toni Tennille released what would become the #1 song of 1975, dominating radio over the summer with "Love Will Keep Us Together". Neil Sedaka wrote a lot of great tunes over the decades, but I think this is his best work.
It put him back in the top songwriters conversation after being out of the loop for awhile, and happened as his solo career had rebounded with "Laughter In The Rain" and other hits, including a duet with Elton John, "Bad Blood".
If you break down today's song, the music is perfect for its time, Toni's vocals are unreal, the pacing rocks, there's just no weakness to this one. And its wild success made Captain & Tennille household figures, as they premiered their own variety show on ABC one year later.
By then, my crush on Toni was based on album covers, her voice and some TV appearances. Now, every Monday night, I got to watch her on TV for an hour. Heaven at nine years old. :)
Looking back, I can't believe that this is the only C&T song in our countdown. There were so many other songs of theirs I listened to so many times in the mid to late 1970's, but none of the others broke out like the song that, well, broke them out and made them major stars.
This one's for you, Toni! Thanks for the incredible music and memories. :)
NOTE: Five months from today, we reveal the #1 song!
Time for some more full disclosure as our countdown continues.
1) I have never tasted a beer in my life. Ever. Not once. The smell, to me, is repulsive. When Robbie was very little and we passed the beer section at the store, I would point to it with a wretched looking face and call it "horse-pee", trying to instill a non-interest in it. Bless his heart, he took it, reversed it, and for years at the store would call out, "pee-horse, pee-horse!"
2) Generally, I don't drink. I don't like wine, can't stand champagne, and there's nothing "stronger" I care to carry out of the ABC store in a paper bag.
3) I drank WAY too many sodas for 45 years. That's not the case any longer.
But, if you're young, and thinking of having "one more round" or "one for the road", today, Canadian Kim Mitchell reminds us all what sounded so old-fashioned when we came of age in the 1980's, but we find ourselves telling our kids the same thing now 30 plus years later:
"Might as well go for a soda, nobody drowns, nobody dies."
A 21st-Century remake, say, called "Go For Water" would be cool.
I really, really, really loved this song my senior year of high school because of its great music, good instrumentation, and it made my opinion sound cool. For once. :)
Released as I was getting settled in at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg for my unforgettable month at The Governor's School for The Gifted, the Summer of 1984 gave us a song that never got the recognition, or chart position, that it deserved.
This song came from Buckingham's second solo project done during an extended hiatus by the group Fleetwood Mac, and it's my favorite song from him. Love, love, LOVE the chorus and the way the song ends is very unique, and almost gives off a bit of a vibe of insanity.
I look at myself that way, too, as very unique, and usually giving off a bit of a vibe of insanity. :)
As the countdown draws in towards the Top 150, we'll be seeing my favorite songs from dozens of artists over the next five months. Today, it's my favorite Barry Manilow song.
It's one of the best love songs ever that deals with unfulfilled love as a major part of its theme. It's not "waiting for the first kiss, first embrace" kind of unfulfilled love. They've been together before, and Barry wants to return to "long rocky beaches and you by the bay".
Musically, the pacing is breathtaking, from verse to chorus, the building bridge, then the final chorus, almost an anthem to the inevitability that Manilow feels in his vocals knowing that, one day soon, they'll be together, forever, at last.
And the key change is to die for (I'm a sucker for them, aren't I, Rachel Witham?)!
This song had personal meaning for a time, but that wasn't meant to be. And that's cool, nor does it diminish my love for this song. Kudos to Randy Edelman for a love song that's been around for 40 years, and should be around for 400 more.
I'm having a whole lot of school memories in recent days, which makes sense, as most of the countdown entries made their mark while I was still working hard on that education thing. :)
Today, I have a very vivid memory. The Summer of 1980 was complete, and I woke up on the morning of Monday, August 25th, 1980, well, frankly, petrified.
It was my first day as an eighth grader at Liberty Junior High School after seven years plying my educational trade at Beaverdam Elementary. Longer bus ride, much bigger class, unfamiliar school, stairs, strangers. It was too much.
Man, I struggled eighth grade year. There were days where I just tried to survive to 3pm so I could get on the bus and go home. You also have to remember that, at this time, I'm less than a year into the sometimes debilitating symptoms of Sudden Onset Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder which came along in 1979.
So, I'm not fitting in and I feel like a freak. Perfect combination for 13 years old.
But I got a boost for Day 1 at Liberty when, much to my surprise, driving up to Beaverdam to see me off to school that first morning was......my incredible brother.
36 years later, I haven't forgotten that gesture and want everyone to know just how much I appreciated it, both then, and now. :)
So, here it is, my favorite song from Paul Simon: Late In The Evening, which was in heavy rotation on my stereo back on 8/25/1980. :)
About 12 months after yesterday's entry, "The Things We Do For Love" by 10CC debuted on radio, we first heard Jay Ferguson and his story of what goes on out on Thunder Island as 1977 drew to a close, and I continued laboring hard in Mrs. Hartsell's fifth grade class at Beaverdam Elementary.
That was one of my favorite years of school, good ol' fifth grade. Except for the part where I got ripped off the ladder of the sliding board one morning before school on the playground, landing on my left side and ripping a nice gash in my left elbow (I still have a scar to this day).
That's okay, one of my teachers, when he/she found out about it, exacted punishment on my classmate that I could never have done. It was, however, the closest I ever came to getting into a fight at school.
Now that we've gone completely off topic, let's see how I can tie these two things together. Oh!
Ahem......and now, for a feel-good song filled with testosterone, it's Jay Ferguson and Thunder Island.
As 1976 was drawing to a close and I was knee-deep in Mrs. Ford's fourth grade class at Beaverdam Elementary, we were treated to this, my favorite song from the group 10CC, who appeared earlier in the countdown with the haunting ballad, "I'm Not In Love".
I remember owning, and playing, this 45 single a lot. Well crafted song, easy to sing to, and lots of fun. You just get a good feeling with this one, now 40 years since its original release. :)
From "In Search Of A Lost Chord", this hit single from the Moody Blues from 1968 has become their encore anthem to conclude all of their fantastic concerts.
It's a great choice, because, as the audience, we're already so psyched up from the show, especially the final 25 minutes of Act II, that you can just go into absolute full party mode when they return with this gem.
If you've never seen me dance, go into the flow of music in any way at any time, I promise, if you're with me when Ride My See Saw begins at a Moody Blues concert, you'll see it. And you'll likely wish you could hit erase. :)
But, even with all the health challenges I've had the past several years, I allow myself a good exercise with this, the seventh of twenty songs in our countdown by my favorite band.
It's incredibly hard to believe that today's song is the lone Top 500 contribution from the legendary group Earth, Wind & Fire, but it is. "In The Stone", which first reached audiences in the latter half of 1979, got some rub here in the Mid-Atlantic as it was chosen by C.D. Chesley to be its theme song for ACC Basketball broadcasts as the 1980's got underway.
It was a minor hit for the group, which found bigger success on this album, "I Am" with the hits "After The Love Has Gone" and a little tune called "Boogie Wonderland".
I think of so many good songs that were part of the soundtrack of my early years, from Shining Star and Sing A Song to Getaway, Serpentine Fire, and their final major hit, 1981's "Let's Groove".
But "In The Stone" is definitely my favorite from them, and not just for its connection to ACC Basketball, because there, you never heard the lyrics, or the fantastic ending. Enjoy both below!
Today, it's the fifth of eight songs from Linda Ronstadt in our Top 500 countdown, truly one of the most gifted singers of the Twentieth Century. We've talked about her ability to sing so many different genres of music with ease.
But today's song shows Ronstadt's uncanny ability to bring out the very raw emotion of a song's content. In this case, it's the story of someone who seems almost broken to the point of no return, hoping for at least some attention, some affection, thinking that's all she's ever going to be able to find in this life.
Linda's vocal performance brings out every reality of the song, written by the highly talented and underrated Karla Bonoff. This song is from Linda's fantastic 1976 "Hasten Down The Wind" LP, which also contained her rendition of "Rivers of Babylon" and the hidden gem "Try Me Again".
Linda returns three more times, and two of them (hint, hint) won't be for awhile. :)
It was a pleasant surprise when Crosby, Stills and Nash returned to radio in a big way in the Summer of 1982 with "Wasted On The Way". CSN was one of a few "retro" groups to breathe life into radio that summer, including America, The Steve Miller Band, and Toto.
But the second single from CSN, today's song, has really stood the test of time and is my favorite from the band, by far. Beautifully crafted, you feel as if you are sailing free in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay from the very start of the song, thoughts provoked throughout looking back at life, and looking forward, too.
Yes, this group had many hit songs, many great tunes, but to me, this is a masterpiece.
It's a doggone shame that Patty Greene and Lauren Hutchinson couldn't have had the same three-year ride through high school that my friends in the Class of 1985 had. Just as my class was settling in as the slumpy sophomores in our first year at Patrick Henry, CBS premieres the new television series, "Square Pegs", and, for many my age, it immediately became appointment television.
Unfortunately, not many of us who were 15 or 16 in 1982 had discretionary income, and not nearly enough of our parents wanted to sit through our teenage angst each week, and a little over five months after its debut, "Square Pegs" was cancelled.
But one long-lasting reminder of the genius of this show is the theme song, done perfectly by The Waitresses. Honestly, no one else could have pulled off the psuedo-Valley Girl, serious-attitude sound like The Waitresses could.
And, this song contains one of my all-time favorite quotes:
"Ya know, our school colors should be black and blue....."
So wear your glasses....or not....and return to those first frightening days of high school. :)
Today, it's the third of four song contributions in our countdown from one of the giants of the "Big Band" and "Swing" eras of popular music from the 1930's and 1940's, the era that saw my Dad growing up as a child in Maine, and my Mom in her early years on the tobacco farm in Four Oaks, North Carolina.
My first real exposure to this genre of music was while playing a role in "The 1940's Radio Hour" my sophomore year at Patrick Henry. My first professional radio job, as I've mentioned before, was at WUHN-AM in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, a Big Band/Adult Standards station. I was already familiar with some of their playlist upon arrival, and that helped an 18-year old guy feel more comfortable on a station such as that. :)
Glenn and company will return one more time for a timeless classic, but, then again, all four of the songs we've posted certainly have stood the test of time.
Now, to find an operator so I can make this call.....
Today's song only hit #104 on the Billboard singles chart, but hit the Top 40 in their native Great Britain, and, I believe the reason why I was familiar with the song was because my favorite radio station at the time, Q107 in Washington, D.C., had the guts to play this song for awhile in a Top 40 or "CHR" format.
But Q107 was unique as a Top 40 station during its brief stint at brilliance. Their morning team was Dude Walker, whose voice you have undoubtedly heard on voiceovers on radio stations for decades along with other work, and his newsman/sidekick was the one and only Doug Limerick, who went on to a huge career at ABC Radio as an anchor, and, for a long time, as Paul Harvey's fill-in when Harvey was away from the microphone.
Afternoon drive was handled by Joe Cipriano, who you know as the voice of Fox Television comedy show promos. Heard a "Simpsons" promo? That's Joe.
Then, from 6-10pm was Uncle Johnny, who had more personality in his thumb than 90 percent of all disc jockeys ever hired. He was a nut, in a good way, and made evening listening fun. Sandi Weaver was next, hosting the "Top Five At Ten" at 10pm, the first station I heard do that feature, which I immediately fell in love with.
Then there was the Q lady, Chris Delisle, on their TV commercial (below), which ended with "Q107 is a remarkable radio station!" It most certainly was. Too bad the magic ended when they wooed "Elliott and Woodside" from rival WPGC to host mornings, replacing Walker and Limerick. The station was never the same after that.
There's another song happening later in the countdown (that few of you will even know exists) that is thanks to the geniuses who programmed music at Q107 at the time. That radio station, in 1980, was just about perfect.
Boy, did this song come out of nowhere during the late spring and summer back in 1987. Full disclosure story, during my time working overnight weekends at "Soft 96", WQSF-FM down in Williamsburg, during 20-25 music sweeps of the 101 Strings Orchestra and others whose sole musical purpose was to induce deep sleep, I would flip on my Sony Walkman, tune to a Top 40 station, and pray this song would come on to give me boost, especially since this wasn't available in 1987.
When it did, I jammed, and, when I was off the air, whether in the car or on the stereo, I maxed out the sound with this number. By now, I had my first "new" car, a 1987 Chevrolet Cavalier that was officially used since it was, I believe, either used by the dealership, or by a car rental company, for some time.
That car ended up getting us through the first three and a half years of our 14-year newspaper route odyssey in Raintree subdivision. I can tell you, by the time we had to trade it in shortly after Robbie's birth in 1992, we had utilized it......yeah, from head to toe. :)
If "Walking On Sunshine" from Katrina and the Waves was the official party song of high school graduation in the Summer of 1985, and if "Glory Days" from Bruce Springsteen was the official "in the moment" song, both looking forward and back, trying to warn us how we'd feel now 31 years later, then today's song, my favorite song from Madonna, was the official "dance track" of the Summer of 1985.
Try to listen this song and not allow any part of your body to move.
Good luck with that.
This song immediately screamed, "TURN UP THE RADIO!!!", whether in the 1979 Chevette or in my bedroom with the headphones on, jamming to the stereo. It's an important part of the soundtrack of one of the biggest summers of my life, for sure. :)
P.S.--To this day, I've never seen "Desperately Seeking Susan". :)
It is the only song from this British group to crack the American charts, peaking at #35 on the mainstream rock chart. You had to be an XL 102 or 3WV fan in the first quarter of 1983 to get to hear this gem, an anthem to guys who want to goof off all day while their woman works, hoping to get lucky later that night.
The ultimate lazy man song. Can't agree with the premise, but it's sure fun to sing to. I know I won't ever be known by this song. Heck, at Target there's a cashier who knows me as "the guy who buys his wife's yogurt". Gotta keep her happy, you know. :)
Shop by day, cover games by night. By the way, good luck to my "Working Girl" who starts her new job on Monday!!
It wasn't released as a single until three years after it made its debut, but today's song, a collaboration of Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder and Hank Cosby, first arrived on the scene on the 1967 album, "Make It Happen".
How it took the braintrust three years to figure out they had gold on their hands is beyond me, but I'm thankful someone did. To me, it is the masterpiece of Robinson's career and will sound just as good in 50 years, in 2067, than it did when it debuted the same year I did.
Originally written in the mid-1960's by Art Reynolds, whose own group recorded it, this song was covered once by The Byrds before The Doobie Brothers got their hands on it and created a hit in the United States in late 1972.
The song got popular in multiple circles, including within the "Jesus Movement", which was the launching point of what we know today as "Contemporary Christian Music" or "CCM". There wasn't much Christian rock in late 1972, and while people like Larry Norman were working to change that, Christians took to this song big time, and for good reason.
Interestingly, it peaked in the Hot 100 at #35, but its real mark was on AOR radio, and later, classic rock, as nearly 45 years later, Jesus is still alright with program and music directors.
(Note: 20 years later in 1992, the Christian rap group DC Talk came out with their own version of the song, which was very good, and was a Christian Skate Night staple for years, but isn't quite as good as the version below.) :)
1981 may have been the only year, musically, in my lifetime where a song like this could be conceived, produced, and actually succeed..
Stars On 45, the group, hailed from the Netherlands, and found quick, if not fleeting success at home, in the United Kingdom and here stateside. The originator, for lack of a better term, looked long and hard for soundalikes of the late John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The original version of the song lasted 11:30. Inside of it was the four plus minute segment that we all eventually heard on the radio in the middle of 1981.
1981 was a musical year of upheaval, which saw disco buried, new wave quickly begin to wane (quicker than many thought it would), a year where Bette Davis Eyes by Kim Carnes could be the top song of the year, The Moody Blues could have a career resurgence, Juice Newton could keep the country alive, and Olivia Newton-John could suddenly get really, really sexual.
In the midst of change, there was a sliver of opportunity for Stars On 45, and they took full advantage of it. :)
Today, the title track from Abba's big 1979 release, and the second single from the album, which got plenty of radio airplay in the unforgettable musical summer of 1979.
This song just jumped off the record player when playing the album for the first time, a perfect dance track for the era which it was in, and I believe it translates very well now.
Abba returns a few more times as our musical journey rolls on here in 2017! Thankfully, they won't be taking their outfits with them. :) :)
We will hear from Justin and the gang fifteen times in the final 173 songs of our Top 500, starting with today's song, which can be argued to be the group's final successful hit.
Two years after the massive success of "Your Wildest Dreams" came today's song, the anthem for people who are not currently with the love of their life but continue to burn the flame, holding out hope that "somehow I'll return again to you".
This song, though a big lengthy, translates very, very well in concert, as you will see below. :)
From his "Snakes and Ladders" release comes what ended up being the final successful radio single for Gerry Rafferty, and the second of four tunes that made my Top 500, as I was, and continue to be, a huge Rafferty fan.
There are two songs to go, which we will hear in this new year of 2017! Thanks so much for being with us this far into this look back at my favorite music. I know I've had a few people unfriend me on Facebook, likely because of this (at least I know it wasn't due to political postings!!), but that's okay. This is a project I first thought about maybe eight to ten years ago, and I'm so proud of the fact that I actually had the discipline to make it happen.
I also hope it's brought back a good memory or two for you, too, and, believe me, at least in my view, the best is yet to come as we head to June 23, the #1 song, and my 50th birthday. :)
