Rupert Holmes - "Answering Machine"

(Debuted May 3, 1980, Peaked #32, 10 Weeks on the Chart)

Today is Valentine's Day, so here's a song that is twist on the usual love song using a conversation that played out over a pair of answering machines. Since there was a 30-second recording time on the tapes used in those days, that limitation was incorporated into the lyrics for a comical effect.

It's odd that Rupert Holmes is sometimes pegged as a One-Hit wonder for the #1 single "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)," because that ignores the fact that he scored two more Top 40 hits after that from the same LP, Partners in Crime.  All three singles were noted for their humorous take on life and love (though the #1 hit was a little too much for some listeners). In a perfect world, he'd have gathered more hits after "Answering Machine," but it would be his last appearance as a singer in the Top 40.

Pat Benatar - "You Better Run"

(Debuted July 26, 1980, Peaked #42, 11 Weeks on the Chart)

When MTV began life on August 1, 1981, the first video they played was The Buggles' prophetic "Video Killed the Radio Star." Since that was a hit in 1979, it falls outside of the time frame to be included in this blog. The second video shown by the fledgling network was Pat Benatar's "You Better Run," a song that had peaked outside the Top 40 the previous summer.

"You Better Run" was a track from Benatar's best-selling LP Crimes of Passion. Although her next album Precious Time would become her only #1 album, it's worth pointing out that Crimes of Passion was kept at #2 behind John Lennon's Double Fantasy; were it not for the actions of Mark David Chapman, it would have likely topped the LP chart. While the songs on the set had an odd flow (for instance, "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" was followed by the anti-child abuse "Hell is For Children"), it was a great guitar-driven album in a sea of synthesized pop.

While many of us who grew up in the 1980s associate the song with Benatar, "You Better Run" was an early song by The Young Rascals that had been originally released in 1966. It was written by group members Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigatti and ironically featured keyboards, which didn't fit with Benatar's image at the time she recorded it. However, her rendition helped establish her as a sassy, hard-edged performer and the video's inclusion in MTV's early days cemented her image even without getting the song into the Top 40.

10,000 Maniacs - "Trouble Me"

(Debuted June 17, 1989, Peaked #44, 12 Weeks on the chart)

By 1989, I had stopped listening to Top 40 radio for the most part. That summer I was 16 and about to start my senior year of high school, and found the constant dance beat and the repetition of the same 15-20 songs to be too grating. So, I played around with my radio dial and watched shows like 120 Minutes and Post Modern when I watched MTV. As a result, there are several songs from that era of my life that are very familiar to me that weren't Top 40 hits, including this one from 10,000 Maniacs.

I featured another song by 10,000 Maniacs in this blog back in July, but "Trouble Me" was a little different from their previous hit because it wasn't trying to expose some type of social problem. Instead, Natalie Merchant's vocal was saying, "talk to me." Whether the subject is good or bad, there's nothing that can't be discussed. It's a piece of advice that I should have listened to a little more closely, since there are people from that time who are no longer around that I would love to get the chance to speak with today.

Soul II Soul - "Back To Life"

(Debuted September 23, 1989, Peaked #4, 27 Weeks on the chart)

As the 1980s came to a close, R&B acts from England were often able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the home-grown acts from the United States. Many fans might not think of British artists as big R&B acts, but it should be pointed out that much of the excitement that marked the British Invasion of the 1960s was the fact that the music was heavily influenced by R&B music. Even after that, the Northern Soul movement was big during the 1960s and '70s and remained ingrained in the minds of fans for years afterward. By the late 1980s, there were British R&B fans who were much more knowledgeable about the style than many American fans.

Soul II Soul was a London-based combo that consisted of the DJ Jazzie B and a revolving roster of musicians (notably Caron Wheeler, whose vocals grace "Back To Life" as well as the earlier hit "Keep On Movin'"). Their biggest American pop hit was "Back To Life," which went to #4 on the pop chart and topped the R&B chart. It was also #1 for four weeks in their native U.K. It was a new twist on the R&B style, as well as a tip of the hat to the past.

Young MC - "Bust a Move"

(Debuted July 29, 1989, Peaked #7, 38 Weeks on the chart)

"Bust a Move" is a song that is definitely a product of its time. That's not necessarily a bad thing. The late 1980s were a "Golden Age" of  Hip-hop because it was allowed room to grow and expand in its own directions. In effect, there were few rules so experimentation was rampant. Occasionally, something showed up that was able to cross over to the pop chart.

With "Bust a Move," its rhythm is catchy, Young MC's rhymes are humorous and a deep bass line (provided by Flea of The Red Hot Chili Peppers) sticks in the listener's head after the song has ended. Not only that, but the song is simply about getting out on the dance floor, an element that has been part of music for long before there was rock & roll. Proof that its message was universal can be seen by the way it hasn't grown stale over the years or become the object of jokes (like "U Can't Touch This" or "Ice Ice Baby" from the following year).

Not only was "Bust a Move" the first hit Young MC managed to get, it was the biggest. He had previously written two monster hits for Tone Loc ("Wild Thing" and "Funky Cold Medina"), which made 1989 a very good year for him.

Stevie Nicks - "Rooms On Fire"

(Debuted May 6, 1989, Peaked #16, 14 Weeks on the chart)

During the Summer of 1989, I was dating a girl named Valerie. It was a short relationship, though; she was a free spirit that couldn't be contained and it was silly for me at that age to try. She looked a little like a red-headed version of Stevie Nicks (in fact, she looked an awful lot like the shot of Nicks on the back cover of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours LP), and since "Rooms on Fire" was the current Nicks hit during our time together, I immediately think of her when I hear it.

"Rooms On Fire" was the only single from Nicks' The Other Side of the Mirror LP to hit the pop charts. It peaked at #16 and was #1 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart as well. With lyrics that seem to be purposely opaque and partially biographical, it was comparable to much of Nicks' material, both solo and with Fleetwood Mac. However, the album was panned by critics. Nicks was fighting a tranquilizer addiction at the time (in fact, she has said in interviews that she has no memory of the tour she took to support this album), so that might account for the seeming decline in her musical output.

That said, I like the song. I liked it then, and it brings back memories that are good ones from my teen years, which weren't always a bowl of cherries. I haven't seen Valerie in over 20 years, so the song is a little like running into an old friend after a long time apart. That is always a good thing.

Tommy Conwell & the Young Rumblers - "If We Never Meet Again"

(Debuted December 17, 1988, Peaked #48, 10 Weeks on the chart)

I featured a song by Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers in this blog last April, during my first trip around the 1980s. The link above will give some background about Conwell and his group, but where "I'm Not Your Man" was a very unsubtle, in-your-face massage, the follow-up was surprisingly philosophical by comparison.

Thought it wasn't a #1 Rock Tracks hit like its predecessor (it stopped at #9 there), it reached #48 on the pop chart, which was a better showing than "I'm Not Your Man" managed. While sounding like a mix between the more introspective material that Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp had already been putting out, there's a story going on between the lines that is whatever the listener determines it to be.

Where "I'm Not Your Man" was a preemptive reminder that the narrator wasn't ready to settle down, in "If We Never Meet Again," he's finding that he's leaving part of himself behind as he travels farther down "life's highway." The lyrics (co-written by Jules Shear) don't say whether this was the result of a breakup or was simply the result of a missed connection, only that he's moving on alone and is carrying only good thoughts with him about what happened. it's an interesting counterpoint to the attitude expressed in the earlier single.

Cher - "Skin Deep"

(Debuted July 30, 1988, Peaked #79, 4 Weeks on the chart)

Cher was already an icon long before the 1980s, but spent much of the decade focusing on other pursuits beyond singing. Her main priority revolved around acting in films, and she was about to get her Oscar when she returned to the recording studio and released Cher, her first album in more than five years. Using a revolving door of producers including Michael Bolton, Desmond Child, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora, the record represented her comeback and showed that -- given the right material -- she was as capable as ever of doing what earned her fame in the first place.

The album's first two singles ("I Found Someone" and "We All Sleep Alone") were Top 40 hits, but the third -- "Skin Deep" -- missed the Top 40 entirely. That may have been a surprise, given how popular dance-related music was in 1988. It was quickly forgotten in the wake of her future hits like "If I Could Turn Back Time," "Just Like Jesse James" and her Peter Cetera duet "After All."

Taylor Dayne - "Tell it to My Heart"

(Debuted October 10, 1987, Peaked #7, 24 Weeks on the chart)

"Tell it To My Heart" pretty much exemplifies the brand of dance-pop that ruled the pop charts during the late 1980s. Although her big voice is front and center in the performance, there is also a wall of synthesizer sound, drum machines and sequenced rhythms.

"Tell it To My Heart" was the first single and lead track of Dayne's major label debut LP, also called Tell it To My Heart. Straddling the line between pop and R&B, it was quite a first impression. It was also the first of the four Top 10 pop singles Dayne racked up on the album.

Heart - "There's the Girl"

(Debuted November 7, 1987, Peaked #12,18 Weeks on the chart)

When the group Heart gets brought up, most of the focus is given to the Wilson sisters: Ann on vocals and Nancy on the guitar. However, that totally discounts the fact that Nancy is also a very good singer in her own right. She handled the vocals on Heart's first #1 single "These Dreams" and does them again on "There's the Girl."

Nancy Wilson also co-wrote "There's the Girl" with Holly Knight, who had previously penned the songs "Love is a Battlefield," "Better Be Good to Me" and others. It was the only single released from the Bad Animals LP that one of the Wilson sisters had written, which was unusual for them.

While infused with the sythesizer lines that seemed to be de riguer by 1987 and the hard-edged guitar that found its way into a lot of that era's music, "There's the Girl" is a song that seems to have aged really well regardless.