Billy Satellite - "I Wanna Go Back"

(Debuted December 8, 1984, Peaked #78, 4 Weeks on the Chart)

While "I Wanna Go Back" is associated with Eddie Money, it charted well before he recorded it. It was written by three members of Billy Satellite, a band from Oakland, California. Monty Byrom, Tom Chancey and Ira Walker wrote the song, which sounds like a streamlined version of the tune that Money took into the Top  40 in 1987. It has the synthesizer lines, but fewer guitar riffs and no saxophone.

They ended up with two minor chart singles, but split up before recording a follow-up LP. After the split, Byrom worked with Money (after he recorded "I Wanna Go Back") and led the country band Big House. Chancey joined the group .38 Special in 1987 and remains with them today.

Talk Talk - "It's My Life"

(Debuted March 24, 1984, Peaked #31, 14 Weeks on the Chart)

Last year, I featured Talk Talk's first U.S. hit on this blog. Their second would be their biggest on these shores, as well as their only Top 40 single. Before recording the album It's My Life, producer Tim Friese-Greene joined as an unofficial "fourth" member and helped write several songs with the band's leader Mark Hollis. One of those songs was "It's My Life," which leaned toward the New Wave/New Romantic style the band used for its first album.

After this LP, the band would go in its own direction musically, a move that gained it a lot of fans among other musicians but killed its future potential for more hits. They broke up in 1992 but are listed as influences by an awful lot of artists. "It's My Life" would appear again in 2003 when No Doubt took their own rendition of the tune into the Top 10.

Christopher Cross - "Think of Laura"

(Debuted December 10, 1983, Peaked #9, 16 Weeks on the Chart)

The TV soap opera General Hospital was at the peak of its popularity during the early 1980s. Not only did it help two songs become #1 hits (1979 "Rise" and 1983's "Baby, Come To Me") due to their exposure on the show, but one of its own actors -- Rick Springfield -- enjoyed a string of hits during the same time he played Dr. Noah Drake on the show. It even inspired a Top 40 spoof hit called "General Hospi-tale" in 1981.

In 1983, it helped another song, Christopher Cross's "Think of Laura." One of the show's popular couples was Luke and Laura Spencer, who "split" when Genie Francis left the show. Her character was killed off, but would reappear later...because soap operas just work that way. After Laura's "death," whenever Luke would think back to the life they shared, "Think of Laura" would play in the background.

However, the song wasn't written with the show in mind. Instead, he was writing about a Denison University lacrosse player named Laura Carter, whose death was much more of a reality than the TV show's. She was tragically killed by a stray bullet that was fired from a block away. Carter's roommate was Cross's girlfriend at the time, so he wrote the tune as a way of helping her out.

While "Think of Laura" would be Cross's last Top 10 and final Top 40 hit, it also spent four weeks at #1 on the adult contemporary chart, which matched 1981's "Arthur's Theme (The Best That You Can Do)" for his best showing on that survey.

The Eurythmics - "Here Comes the Rain Again"

(Debuted January 28, 1984, Peaked #4, 20 Weeks on the Chart)

It was pretty hard to miss The Eurythmics. In 1983, Their breakout song in the U.S. was "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)," which was all over the radio and MTV as it went to #1. The memorable synth line mixed with the bright orange hair of Annie Lennox to make the song and video a reminder of that moment in time.

Personally, I found the duo's second Top 10 hit to be more interesting. While an actual string section shows up here (though I didn't pay any attention to that at the time), the song eschews a traditional verse/chorus structure for two distinct parts -- beginning "Here comes the rain again" and "Walk with me..." --  that are separated by short instrumental sections. Where "Sweet Dreams" seemed to be pushed because it was new or innovative, "Here Comes the Rain Again" seemed to me to be a better song. Its success proved that the duo wasn't just another act that came out with one interesting song or video and then just disappeared. Fortunately, they stuck around for several more hits.

There's an interesting back story behind The Eurythmics. Where some groups form during a pairing of the leads, Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox were a couple first and became a musical act as their personal relationship broke up. As exes, they found the music had much more chemistry than it would have if they'd stayed together. 

Rodney Dangerfield - "Rappin' Rodney"

(Not Available on iTunes)

(Debuted December 3, 1983, Peaked #83, 7 Weeks on the Chart)

There was no surer sign that rap music had "arrived" than the fact that it was added to a novelty record as a music bed to play behind some of the gems in Rodney Dangerfield's stand-up act.

Born Jacob Cohen in 1921, his early attempts at show business failed, so he became an aluminum siding salesman and was in his mid 40s before a last-minute chance on The Ed Sullivan Show made him a star. Dangerfield was at his peak in the early 1980s, with his appearance in the film Caddyshack, on the Johnny Carson TV show and in HBO specials from his comedy club. His onstage persona was the lovable loser, whose "I don't get no respect" schtick formed the basis of "Rappin' Rodney."

The song was part of his 1983 LP No Respect, the song was an early MTV favorite. Today, it may come across as simply Dangerfield's routine set to music, but it's also a time capsule to itself.

Shakin' Stevens - "Cry Just a Little Bit"

(Not Available on iTunes)

(Debuted April 21, 1984, Peaked #67, 6 Weeks on the Chart)

In the U.K., Shakin' Stevens was one of the biggest-selling acts of the 1980s. In a five-year period, the Welsh-born singer racked up 14 Top 10 hits and five #1 singles. After more than ten years of paying dues, he took an appearance in a stage play about Elvis Presley and began a new phase as a phenomenon. His photogenic looks and stage charisma made him appeal to multiple age groups.

In the U.S., however, Ronnie McDowell had already done the trick of turning an Elvis association into a career jumpstart, and "Cry Just a Little Bit" ended up being Stevens' only chart single. The song peaked at #67, meaning that few Americans would be exposed to Stevens at all.

To add insult to injury, Stevens' rendition isn't even the best-known version of the song in America. It was later performed by the country singer Sylvia, who took it to #9 on that survey the following year.

Tony Carey - "A Fine Fine Day"

(Debuted March 3, 1984, Peaked #22, 15 Weeks on the Chart)

While largely seen as a One-Hit Wonder, Tony Carey had been active in the music business for a decade before "A Fine Fine Day" became his biggest hit. He had been a member of Rainbow during the late 1970s and fronted The Planet P Project in the early 1980s. The two bands could not have been more different; Rainbow was a hard rock outfit, while The Planet P Project was an experimental outlet. As a keyboardist, the two acts suited Carey, though.

Eventually, Carey cut some solo records as well. In 1984, he appeared with an album called Some Tough City, a collection of songs about people struggling (and often failing) to stay afloat in the big city. One of those characters was "Uncle Sonny" in "A Fine Fine Day," who was shown in the video (shown below) to be a Mafia associate who'd run afoul of his old friends after leaving prison, but whose fate in the song is rather vague.

The images in the video were a stark contrast; the bright harmonies of the synthesizer and the hopeful sound of the chorus didn't exactly match the visuals. To me, that was part of its charm. Here's a song that acknowledges that life isn't always nice or easy, even when it seems that way on the exterior.

The Style Council - "My Ever-Changing Moods"

(Debuted April 7, 1984, Peaked #29, 14 Weeks on the Chart)

The Style Council was formed out of the ashes of The Jam, who were wildly popular in the U.K. but never managed to chart on the U.S. single charts. After that group split in 1982, singer Paul Weller joined with Mick Talbot and continued with the duo through the rest of the 1980s. Like with The Jam, most of the successes of The Style Council came in their native country, but a couple of singles managed to chart on this side of the Atlantic as well.

The only Top 40 hit was "My Ever Changing Moods," but the success wasn't able to sustain itself. Weller broke up the band in 1989, claiming that passing time would show that their music was overlooked. To date, "My Ever Changing Moods" is Weller's highest-charting U.S. single, between his groups and solo work.  

Alan Parsons Project - "Prime Time"

(Debuted May 19, 1984, Peaked #34, 11 Weeks on the Chart)

Today, I'm going to feature a song that is often overlooked in favor of bigger hits by the same band. While The Alan Parsons Project was often an acquired taste for listeners, there was a period when they were quite accessible to a wide pop audience. For many, songs like "Time," "Eye in the Sky" and "Don't Answer Me" represented their nadir, but there were a couple of other lesser hits that should have been just as big.

With "Prime Time," the group composed of Parsons and singer Eric Woolfson and whoever they happened to have playing in the studio enjoyed what eventually proved to be their last Top 40 hit. The song is every bit as sharp as "Don't Answer Me" (but without the retro feel of Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound"), but may have sounded too close to "Eye in the Sky" to sound like its own composition. That said, "Prime Time" exemplifies the studio perfection and craftsmanship Parsons tried to get into his songs. It really is a better single than its final chart position would indicate, and it's a shame that it has largely been forgotten by many.

Josie Cotton - "Jimmy Loves Maryann"

(Debuted April 7, 1984, Peaked #52, 4 Weeks on the Chart)

In the 1980s, it seemed that nothing was quite so uncool as the 1970s. Disco was sneered at, the more intimate singer/songwriter material was disregarded in favor of power chords and "bigger" production. Synthesizers were there to replace the need for strings and brass. However, the occasional nugget from that much-maligned decade was tossed out to fans in the new one, and few complained when it happened.

I say that because I actually fell for that midset back then. In my own defense, I'll point out that I was young and quite impressionable. Around 1987, I grew tired of a lot of the material played on Top 40 stations and began looking through the old records of my parents, as well as those of my friends' older siblings. I began to find out that the era wasn't as bad as advertised...but I had to wait until the next decade before I could admit it in mixed company.

That brings us to Josie Cotton's second Hot 100 entry. I didn't know it at the time, but it was a remake of a 1973 Looking Glass hit that peaked at #33. It was likely familiar to those who grew up in the era, but enough time had passed that a new generation of listeners raised on MTV had little idea that it wasn't original. Of course, being done in a New Wave style (1984's version of New Wave, that is) didn't hurt either.

The song featured guitar work by Lindsey Buckingham, who was free because Fleetwood Mac was on a five-year hiatus at the time. However, his work is underrated on the track. As for Josie Cotton, the promise she showed with her first LP didn't hold up, and "Jimmy Loves Maryann" was her final chart single.

Rockwell - "Obscene Phone Caller"

(Not Available on iTunes)

(Debuted May 15, 1984, Peaked #35, 14 Weeks on the Chart)

"Rockwell" was the stage name of Kennedy Gordy, the son of Motown founder Berry Gordy. The story goes that he changed his name to avoid charges of nepotism and that he secured his singing with Motown without his father's knowledge. That said, I'm not sure what to make of the claim. The Motown family was small enough that -- even if Gordy wasn't aware that his own son was signed to the label right away -- there was no way to get on the label without somebody knowing they were putting his son on the label. Also, there was no secret about Rockwell's true identity during the chart run of his biggest hit "Somebody's Watching Me." Radio announcers, MTV VJs and Casey Kasem were all quick to point out his bloodline at that time.

That song would get Rockwell labeled as a One-Hit wonder, but he did manage to get a second hit that peaked in the Top 40 during the Summer of '84. A song that could be categorized as a novelty in the hands of some artists, the main theme of "Obscene Phone Caller" fed in to the paranoia behind his first hit quite neatly. The two songs were his entire slate of chart entries, so he was off the Motown label around the same time his father sold it.

Corey Hart - "It Ain't Enough"

(Debuted September 29, 1984, Peaked #17, 18 Weeks on the Chart)

For those of us who grew up in the 1980s, this may come as a bit of a shock: Corey Hart will be celebrating his 50th birthday in a couple of months. The Canadian-born singer made his first appearance on the Hot 100 in 1984 with the instant classic "Sunglasses at Night," and followed it up with a ballad called "It Ain't Enough" that was a totally different feel from the synth-driven sound of the first hit.

That said, there are several 1980s music cliches on display in the song: the sparse guitar chords that accent to lyrics, the brooding saxophone, the background singers echoing his words and the drums that are mixed way too loud in the mix. Despite all that, the lyrics express a devotion that is unending (even as he seems to be complaining that he isn't able to do enough to please her) but is metaphorical. I'll bet that once he got married, he learned a totally different idea about what "ain't enough" for her.

In 1984, however, the song was an easy touch that was a popular "request line" song even though it stalled at #17 in its chart run. Funny thing about Corey Hart's career...he had 9 songs that reached the Top 40 through 1990 and even had a bigger hit in 1985 with "Never Surrender," but is often considered to be a One-Hit Wonder for "Sunglasses At Night."

The Go-Gos - "Head Over Heels"

(Debuted March 17, 1984, Peaked #11, 16 Weeks on the Chart)

The Go-Gos are labeled as pioneers today, vanguards of a New Wave sound that saw them become one of the first all-female acts (who played their own instruments as opposed to a vocal combo) to make regular inroads into the Top 40. I was too young to appreciate that when I was a kid. Back then, their music was just fun.

In 1984, they came out with a new LP called Talk Show, which skewed more pop than the two previous albums that made them stars. While that might have otherwise led to more hits, it sold poorly when compared to their earlier work. There was also some internal dissention between group members and personal problems that eventually led to their breakup. That said, the new album managed to contain two Top 40 hits including "Head Over Heels," which was a bright spot on a record that many of the bandmates really want to forget. It was the perfect marriage of pop music and solid production, and the video for the song was fun to watch. For a band that was about to fracture, they didn't look like it from afar.

Barry Manilow - "Read 'em and Weep"

(Debuted November 19, 1983, Peaked #18, 13 Weeks on the Chart)

At the end of 1983, Jim Steinman must have seemed like one of the most importatnt writers and producers in the music business besides Michael Jackson. At one point in October, he held down the top two spots as writer and producer with Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and Air Supply's "Making Love Out of Nothing at All." As both of those songs were making their way down the chart, another song written and produced by Steinman appeard on the Top 40: Barry Manilow's "Read 'em and Weep."

Unlike the other two hits, "Read 'em and Weep" was a song that had already been done. It was originally recorded and released in 1981 as part of an album by Steinman's most famous partner: Meat Loaf. On the Dead Ringer LP, the song had a slightly different second verse and had been given his over-the-top vocal treatment. It was a hit in the U.K., but American listeners had grown tired of Meat Loaf's music and largely ignored it. So, in 1983 it was given new life by a similarly over-the-top performer, Barry Manilow, who included it as one of the three new songs in his Greatest Hits, Vol. II compliation. It would be a Top 40 pop hit and a #1 adult contemporary hit, marking the last time Manilow would ever reach those marks.

Barry Manilow gets a lot of greif about many of his 1970s hits and is often seen as something on an anachronism in the 1980s, but too many of his songs are too well-known to dismiss his effect. In fact, his style is almost perfect for Steinman's often bombastic production. The lyrics are typically (for Steinman, that is) obtuse and borrow heavily from the theater, and the video shown below appropritely features Manilow in the makeup of a clown. His rendition of "Read 'em and Weep" was well-suited for the early 1980s, even if few wanted to realize it at the time.

The Scorpions - "Still Loving You"

(Debuted July 7, 1984, Peaked #64, 6 Weeks on the Chart)

Here's another song that was played a lot more often on MTV than its peak position would indicate. The Scorpions were a band from Hannover in what was then West Germany, a band that had become synonomous with German hard rock since the 1970s and had gained success as a album act in the U.S. as the 1980s started.

"Still Loving You" was a power ballad that finished the group's LP Love at First Sting. Though largely seen as a love song that has a couple trying to figure out whether to go on together or separately, it's interesting to point out that a band from West Germany had a line like "only love can bring down a wall someday" when there was still a literal wall dividing their country in two parts.

While failing to reach the pop Top 40 as its predecessor "Rock You Like a Hurricane," "Still Loving You" is one of the band's best-known ballads and was a frequent resident of mix tapes of the era. Written by singer Klaus Meine with the band's guitarist and founder Rudolf Schenker, it epitomizes the 1980s proto-metal power ballad. Even today, it still brings down the house when performed in concert.

The Pretenders - "Show Me"

(Debuted March 17, 1984, Peaked #28, 13 Weeks on the Chart)

The title of the album Learning to Crawl was inspired by Chrissie Hynde's young daughter, but it ended up being a fitting description of the band she played with. In the two years since the group's last LP, it had been altered due to tragic circumstances. Both guitarist James Honeyman-Scott and bassist Pete Farndon would overdose on drugs. The group would continue, but fate made it more like a backup unit for Hynde than the cohesive lineup it originally was.

With new members Robbie McIntosh and Malcolm Foster aboard, the group laid down the tracks for Learning to Crawl in 1983. While not as well-regarded as the group's previous two LPs, the album was still a great listen. Including the two sides of a single from late 1982 ("Back on the Chain Gang" and "My City Was Gone," both of which are great songs), there were four songs from the album that charted on the Hot 100. "Show Me" was the third of those hits, making the Top 40 in the Spring of 1984.

The video below shows the band performing the song live in Germany during the same era it was a hit.

Peabo Bryson - "If Ever You're in My Arms Again"

(Debuted May 12, 1984, Peaked #10, 25 Weeks on the Chart)

To pop fans, Peabo Bryson was best known for his duet with Roberta Flack called "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love," which had hit #16 in 1983. However, he'd been singing -- as part of several groups as well as a solo act -- since he was a teenager in the 1960s. He was part of Michael Zager's Moon Band in the 1970s and sang on their minor hit "Do it With Feeling." Despite a handful of pop singles that either "bubbled under" or missed the Top 40 altogether, he had greater success on the R&B charts, where he cultivated a more sophisticated-sounding "urban contemporary" sound that sprung up after the decline of Disco.

Besides his penchant for duets, perhaps Bryson's ultimate ballad was "If Ever You're in My Arms Again," a song written by Michael Masser, Cynthia Weil and Tom Snow. A song about realizing what you once had after it's slipped away, it was crafted to suit Bryson's style well, with emotional bridges before the choruses that allowed him to use his vocal range, and became his first Top 10 pop hit (and his only one that wasn't a duet). It also went to #5 on the R&B chart and topped the adult contemporary chart. It was one of his finest moments on record.

Tracey Ullman - "They Don't Know"

(Debuted February 25, 1984, Peaked #8, 17 Weeks on the Chart)

No blog that covers the 1980s would be complete without a mention of Tracey Ullman's influence. Her TV show on Fox during the early days of that network was highly-acclaimed and introduced us to The Simpsons, a cartoon that is still with us over 20 years later. But prior to her American acting breaktrough, Ullman managed to get a Top 10 pop hit that certainly sounded like it came out of the bubblegum era of the 1960s.

That said, it would be remiss to mention "They Don't Know" without mentioning that it was written and originally sung by Kirsty MacColl in 1979. MacColl sings backup on this version as well, even belting out the high-pitched "bay-ay-bee" at the end of the instrumental bridge. The video is notable because Paul McCartney makes a cameo appearance at the end. Ullman was appearing in McCartney's film Give My Regards to Broad Street at the time and he was glad to help her out.

REO Speedwagon - "I Do' Wanna Know"

(Debuted Ocober 27, 1984, Peaked #29, 12 Weeks on the Chart)

After two years, REO Speedwagon came out with a new LP called Wheels Are Turnin' in 1984. The first single (and leadoff track) of that album was a guitar and piano-driven adrenaline shot that was quite memorable to me as a 12 year-old. Not only did the guitar catch my ear, but the words "I don't wanna do what I'm supposed to do, I don't want to wear what I'm supposed to wear" definitely appealed to the budding nonconformist in me.

And then, just as quickly as the song arrived, it disappeared. Other (bigger) REO Speedwagon hits -- "Can't Fight This Feeling," "One Lonely Night" -- replaced it and caused it to be unfairly forgotten. In that sense, "I Do' Wanna Know" is the perfect type of song to feature in this blog: something that should have been better remembered than it was. It's something I fondly remember, seemingly out of place on the radio with "I Just Called to Say I Love You," "Missing You" and "Caribbean Queen" yet still great to hear when its turn came.

The Dazz Band - "Joystick"

(Debuted February 11, 1984, Peaked #61, 11 Weeks on the Chart)

One of the biggest icons of the 1980s was the video game system. Whether it was an Atari (which my family had), Intellivision, Colecovision or a Nintendo (which came out much later), it gave people a method of enjoying video games from their homes without having to get their fix one quarter at a time in the arcade. Early in 1984, I was also a sixth grader, and the term "joystick" had a double connotation: not only was it the device we used when we moved Pac-Man around the maze, but it was also a slang term given to very different device altogether. A more biological one we carried around with us.

The Dazz Band also used that double entendre in their song "Joystick," using sound effects in the song and explicitly mentioning the video game in the lyrics, yet still slipping in "take control of the stick...turn me on" in there as well. Anybody who paid attention to the words was going to know that these guys weren't necessarily singing about any Atari.

The Dazz Band was a Cleveland-based funk group that had formed during the late 1970s. Originally, they had the horn section that accompanied many funk units, but realized as the early 80s started that the "sound" was becoming more electronic and moved toward incorporating a drum machine and synthesizer into their act. "Joystick" was the band's first Hot 100 single since the #5 "Let it Whip" from 1982 but never managed to get it or any other song into the pop Top 40. On the other hand, they kept scoring hits on the R&B survey and to a lesser extent on the dance chart through 1988.