(Debuted March 27, 1982, Peaked #25, 14 Weeks on the Chart)
While Donnie Iris enjoyed several hits in the early 1980s, he wasn't exactly new to the music scene. Under his birth name of Dominic Ierace, he was a member of the Pittsburgh-based band The Jaggerz and wrote their 1970 #2 hit "The Rapper." He was also a member of the group Wild Cherry, but not until after they did the #1 single "Play That Funky Music." We went solo in time for the 1980s and placed three of his songs into the Top 40. "My Girl" was the third of those hits.
Using a rock foundation but clearly showing a doo-wop influence, "My Girl" (not a remake of The Temptations' hit from 1965), ended up being his highest-charting pop hit, even though 1981's "Ah! Leah" has been better-remembered. It is a great song that really deserves to get more exposure on its own merit.
(Debuted October 24, 1981, Peaked #38, 10 Weeks on the Chart)
After flirting with pop and disco as the decades switched, the Electric Light Orchestra returned to its more progressive roots with its 1981 LP Time. A concept album that had a man from the present (well, 1981) finding himself in the year 2095 and dealing with the changes that have taken place. "Twilight" was the first song after the prologue that began the set, as well as the second single off the album.
At its core, "Twilight" evokes the group's mid-1970s period musically, with the noticeable addition of the synthesizer in addition to the orchestration. Fans would hear more of the electronic stuff in the future and less of the orchestration, so the song was a last hurrah in a way. It barely scraped into the Top 40 before being relegated to the jukebox that rarely gets looked at.
(Debuted July 11, 1981, Peaked #22, 17 Weeks on the Chart)
Balance was a New York City-based pop-rock group that consisted of Peppy Castro (who was part of the 1960s group The Blues Magoos), guitarist Bob Kulick and keyboardist Doug Katsaros, with bass player Dennis Feldman and drummer Chuck Burgi joining after their self-titled first LP was recorded. Though they only managed one Top 40 hit and two chart singles, the members have contributed to a lot of music as touring performers and session players over the years.
"Breaking Away" was their biggest hit, a very tasty slice of early 1980s pop that was both radio friendly and appealed to the record buyers of the era. Despite Peppy Castro's psychedelic roots, the rest of the band was solidly grounded in the rock style and that showed in their performance of the song.
(Debuted March 21, 1981, Peaked #9, 19 Weeks on the Chart)
Styx is one of those bands who have very rabid fans and detractors who are just as rabid. They were a study in contrasts: too theatrical to be a hard rock band, too rock-influenced for a progressive band, able to knock out the ballads as well as the straight-ahead rockers. There was a lot that could be loved or hated about the group.
The concept album Paradise Theater was one of their finest moments. Using a defunct theater in the city's hometown of Chicago as a corollary for America between the Roaring 20s and the recent past, it had its share of theatrics as well as a healthy dose of guitar-driven rock. "Too Much Time on My Hands" was squarely in the latter group, though it was infused with a synthesizer that was integral to the overall sound and a great performance on the drums by John Panozzo. The song was written by Tommy Shaw, who also sings lead and lends a memorable guitar solo in the instrumental bridge.
There's a story in the lyrics as well, as Shaw sings about hanging out at a bar all day long and trying to seem like the most popular guy around. And he believes it, too...that is, as long as he's picking up the tab. That is something that can be extrapolated to represent many members of the "Me" generation, as well as the politicians who try to be all things to all people. For a band whose critics claimed was all pomp and theatrics, there's actually some depth to "Too Much Time On My Hands."
(Debuted May 9, 1981, Peaked #18, 18 Weeks on the Chart)
"Modern Girl" had two different chart histories. In the U.K., it was Sheena Easton's first single and was issued as she was set to appear on the BBC program The Big Time. The show eventually helped push the single (as well as her followup single "9 to 5") into the Top 5. In the U.S., it was the followup single, as "9 to 5" -- retitled "Morning Train (9 to 5)" in the states to avoid confusion with Dolly Parton's hit -- was Easton's first Stateside hit.
"Modern Girl" is something of an updated version of a feminist anthem like "I Am Woman." This time, however, she's not saying she's as good or can do anything better; instead, she's living life on her own terms and doing her own thing. If she wants to just sit around her house after a long day at work and watching TV, that's okay. It's exactly what men have been doing for years.
(Debuted September 5, 1981, Peaked #43, 12 Weeks on the Chart)
"Working in the Coal Mine" has been recorded several times since 1966, when it was first performed by Lee Dorsey. That version went to #8 on the pop chart and is undoubtedly the best-known version of the song. When Devo recorded it in 1981, it was kept off the LP New Traditionalists by their record label, so leader Mark Mothersbaugh let it be included on the soundtrack of the animated film Heavy Metal, where it was part of the final segment "Taarna." Interestingly, it would be the only charting single from the soundtrack, despite the presence of several big-name artists.
The song was written by Allen Toussaint, a New Orleans native who'd been writing, recording and producing since the 1950s. His influence has long been felt in the music business, even if it hadn't been overt. "Working in the Coal Mine" appeared shortly after he had done a two-year hitch in the Army, which might have helped inspire the song. There weren't that many coal mines to be found in the Mississippi delta area where he grew up.
Devo's version of the song is a radical reworking that strips the New Orleans-flavored rhythm and reworks it to fit the group's brand of post-modern electronic wizardry. They were able to bring what had been a familiar song into a new decade and put their own unique stamp on a relatively "old" standard.
This really isn't news now, but Whitney Houston passed away last weekend. As one of the biggest acts of the 1980s, she scored seven #1 pop singles (consecutively) and a pair of #1 LPs before the decade was over. She also scored three #1 R&B hits, seven #1 adult contemporary singles and three #1 dance hits on the Billboard charts.
Just like what happened when Michael Jackson died, the news tilted pretty heavily towards the negative aspects of her life. Here at 80s Music Mayhem, we prefer to simply focus on the music and let an artist's body of work speak to their life. Whitney leaves behind a family who misses her dearly, and fans who debate her place in music history. She was already featured in this blog last summer, in a post that spotlighted her debut single, a duet with Teddy Pendergrass that is much more poignant now that both of them have left us far too soon.
While Whitney was running her string of seven straight #1 singles, today's featured song showed up on MOR-leaning and R&B radio stations during the Summer of 1986 but was never officially released as a single and didn't make the Billboard chart as a result. I never understood why, as "All At Once" is probably one of her best performances on an album that features many of them. It was written by Jeffrey Osbourne, with producer Michael Masser handling the arrangement; however, Whitney takes the words and makes them her own. And now that her voice has been silenced, the performance has taken on an entirely different (and bittersweet) meaning.
For more on Whitney's career that doesn't focus on the negative aspects, check out JB's post from The Hits Keep On Coming or this post from Any Major Dude With Half a Heart that has a number of tunes by other artists that were later performed by Whitney (reverse "covers," if you will).
(Debuted November 17, 1979, Peaked #34, 11 Weeks on the Chart)
After being sidelined from The Doobie Brothers due to some medical issues, Tom Johnston was ready to get out and record again. He had become very ill in 1975 and was only able to contribute sporadically to the group's albums before leaving in 1977. He recorded his first solo album Everything You've Heard is True in 1979, and "Savannah Nights" was his first single.
While it came out late in 1979, it was shortly after the disco backlash. Yet here was one of the Doobie Brothers -- one who wasn't part of "What a Fool Believes," for Pete's sake -- doing a record that may not have been totally disco but certainly had a dance groove in it. There may have been a guitar solo in the record, but the clavinet laying down a funky groove wasn't fooling anybody.
Despite having a dance beat, the video was part of the rotation that played on MTV during its first day of programming in 1981. It's not exactly what the channel would be remembered for playing; they used anything they had during those first few months on the air.
(Debuted August 23, 1980, Peaked #14, 17 Weeks on the Chart)
The film Urban Cowboy is one of my guilty pleasures. It's one of those movies where I'll watch it if I find it on TV no matter how deep into the story it's gotten. The soundtrack was a runaway success on the pop charts as well, sending six hit singles and helping to kick-start a country music trend that brought some of Nashville's hitmakers onto the pop charts for a few years. That said, the "Countrypolitan" style was well in effect by 1980 and two of those hits aren't really what would have been counted as "country" music by any stretch of the imagination at the time. One of those hits was Joe Walsh's "All Night Long" and the other was Box Scaggs' "Look What You've Done to Me."
According to legend, the song was written and hastily recorded in one night to provide a musical backdrop to a scene that was going to be filmed the next day. The scene featured Bud (John Travolta's character) taking up with another woman for the evening to get back at his on-again/off-again wife Sissy (played by Debra Winger).
Urban Cowboy's music was coordinated by Irving Azoff, who had been managing The Eagles. For "Look What You've Done to Me," his superstar clients were put to use as backup musicians. For the version used below, the members of The Eagles provide the backing music as well as the backing vocals; in the movie and on the soundtrack, the song features female backup singers instead.
(Debuted November 17, 1979, Peaked #3, 18 Weeks on the Chart)
Some critics like to ridicule country music because of its sometimes predicable subject matter: songs about the simple life, "God and mama" songs, even songs about getting drunk and committing adultery. Well, here's a song that had a prison death, a triple rape and three guys getting the stuffing beat out of them in a barroom. Somehow, a song with such implicit sex and gratuitous violence in it still managed to hit #3 and become a crossover hit without corrupting the impressionable youth of America, nor was it even brought up a few years later when the PMRC took their crusade about what they deemed "filthy" song lyrics to Capitol Hill.
Perhaps I oversimplify the song. The triple rape is implied (though it's hard to think of much else, given the lyrics), the barroom beatdown is casually mentioned, and Kenny Rogers really doesn't say what made Tommy's father die in prison but it was likely an execution. However, even though he rambles his way through the song, the story has some rather dark elements in it. And none of that could stop it from becoming a huge hit, thanks to Rogers being at his peak of popularity at the time.
In addition to reaching #3 on the pop chart, "Coward of the County" was the first new #1 single of the new decade on Billboard's country chart. It also hit #1 in the U.K. in February '80, which makes the last U.S. country single to date to reach the top there.
