Missing Persons - "Words"

(Debuted August 28, 1982, Peaked #42, 11 Weeks on the Chart)

Missing Persons was an L.A.-based band made up of three former Frank Zappa session performers: husband-and-wife team Terry and Dale Bozzio, along with Warren Cuccurullo. Zappa associate Patrick O'Hearn and Chuck Wild were also members. The line-up gelled after the recording of Zappa's LP Joe's Garage, which explains the rampant experimentalism behind the band's music. Dale Bozzio had her own distinctive delivery, which often included "hiccuping"as she sang...something quite evident in "Words."

"Words" and its followup "Destination Unknown" are played often of 1980s stations and appear in compilations, which obscures the fact that neither song made the pop Top 40 during its chart run. They both peaked at #42 and were as close to the Top 40 as Missing Persons would ever get. Both cuts appeared on the LP Spring Session M -- an anagram of the band's name --  and both were staples of MTV during that channel's infancy.

Strife between the Bozzios led them to split the group (and their marriage) in 1986. Cuccurullo went on to join Duran Duran later that year, cementing his standing as a figure of 1980s music even as he might not have been as warmly embraced by the fans.

Buckner & Garcia - "Pac Man Fever"

(Debuted January 9, 1982, Peaked #9, 19 Weeks on the Chart)

One of the biggest crazes of the 1980s was the video game arcade, which was home to Space Invaders, Asteroids, Berzerk, Frogger, Centipede and a whole host of electronic characters. However, the biggest video game of them all was Pac-Man. It was a phenomenon, spawning a "sequel" (Mrs. Pac-Man), a Saturday-morning cartoon series and a whole host of novelty items.

It was also the source of the biggest song of the era related to a video game. Performed by the songwriting duo of Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia, it was part of an album that was entirely based on different video games. It was also the duo's only hit under their own names as performers; they were tagged as "novelty" artists and affected by the inevitable crash of the games' popularity by 1983. Buckner and Garcia continued to write for other artists and perform their own material after that.

Sadly, Gary Garcia died in November 2011 from an illness at his Florida home.

Journey - "Open Arms"

(Debuted January 16, 1982, Peaked #2, 18 Weeks on the Chart)

When he came to Journey in 1981, Jonathan Cain had the music worked out for "Open Arms." He had written it while he was still a member of his previous group The Babys, but leader John Waite rejected it for being too "syrupy." However, when he joined Journey and played it for fellow member Steve Perry, he loved it and helped Cain finish the song. It was one of the early power ballads, and Waite had to wait three years before touching on his own ("Missing You").

Whaen they recorded the song, guitarist Neal Schon reportedly wasn't thrilled with the idea of a ballad, but came around after performing it live and seeing the concertgoers' response. It was something different than the band had ever tried before, and was almost kept off the Escape LP as a result.

"Open Arms" was a #2 smash, kept out of the top spot by the twin puch of "Centerfold" and "I Love Rock & Roll," showing how powerful those two songs were in 1982. It ended up being as close as the band ever got to the top of the charts. It was used twice in the 1982 film The Last American Virgin and has appeared in several movies since, in addition to becoming a standard Karaoke tune and a frequent choice of reality-based TV performance shows.

Jennifer Holliday - "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going"

(Debuted July 3, 1982, Peaked #22, 14 Weeks on the Chart)

The showstopper has long been a part of Broadway shows, but by the 1980s they weren't as much a part of the general landscape of the pop scene as they were until the 1960s. You can blame the decline of the movie musical for that, as they gave way to the rock operas and the occasional project like Grease. However, stage shows were still going strong, and one of them that premiered late in 1981 was called Dreamgirls, which was largely taken from the story of The Supremes but fictionalized just enough to keep from getting sued by Motown.

That play's showstopper was "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going," which was performed be the character Effie in the play and originally voiced by Jennifer Holliday. The Texas native immediately caught notice, driving the song into the pop Top 40 and the top of the R&B chart. It was the first song from a stage show in several years to hit the Top 40; even Grease had to wait for a movie version before it generated any hits.
Today, the song seems to be better known for Jennifer Hudson's rendition in the 2006 movie version of Dreamgirls, as well as the way it tends to get picked by every big-voiced ingenue on reality-based TV shows as a way of demonstrating their vocal range. While that can be occasionally disheartening, Jennifer Holliday set a pretty high bar with her performance.

Donald Fagen - "I.G.Y. (What a Beautiful World)"

(Debuted November 27, 1982, Peaked #26, 13 Weeks on the Chart)

The I.G.Y. referred to in this song is the International Geophysical Year, and depite the futuristic and utopian lyrics the event actually took place in 1957-'58, but was propagated by a group of scientists who saw visions that were expressed in the song's words. The entire content of Donald Fagen's LP The Nightfly was based on his recollections of growing up during that time, surrounded by optimism and great hopes for the future. In a way, it was a much brighter collection than the albums of Fagen's former group Steely Dan.

Speaking of Steely Dan, while The Nightfly was a solo effort, its recording was similar to the "old days" for Fagen. With 31 session musicians supplementing the music and Steely Dan producer Gary Katz onboard, it seemed all that was missing from the project was co-member Walter Becker. It was also one of the first albums that was recorded digitally, with several audio engineers using it to check their own setups due to the way it was laid down. And this was even before the advent of the CD and the digital age that followed.

Robert Gordon - "Someday, Someway"

(Not Available on iTunes)

(Debuted June 27, 1981, Peaked #76, 4 Weeks on the Chart)

 Robert Gordon was a kid who grew up in the turbulent 1960s but had an affinity for the rockabilly music from when he first remembered listening to the radio. He was able to bring that raw sound to his recordings, which ironically bridged punk, New Wave and alternative. His first chart success was a collaboration with the 1950s guitarist Link Wray called "Red Hot" that was given a bump after the death of Elvis Presley despite the fact that it wasn't a tribute to him.

"Someday, Someway" was a retro-sounding song written by Marshall Crenshaw, who was similarly interested in music from the past. Opening with a great guitar riff, Gordon rode that through the song and gave it a great vocal. When Gordon's version stalled at #76, Crenshaw recorded it himself (his version was reviewed here last year) and took it into the Top 40.

The Police - "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da"

(Debuted October 25, 1980, Peaked #10, 20 Weeks on the Chart)

For the second day in a row, here's a song that was in the film The Last American Virgin but isn't really remembered for that. Which might be a good thing, as the scene with the song involved teenage boys trying to kill a case of of the crabs by drowning them in a pool. I really don't think Sting and company really had that in mind when they conceived the song.

In fact, when Sting wrote the lyrics, he was trying to make a comment about how people claimed to like high art but then still gravitated to songs like "Doo Wah Diddy" and "Da Doo Ron Ron." They were good songs, but their catchy refrains were essentially gibberish. So, he wrote a song that used some nonsense lyrics. However, once the band's reggae-like rhythms were added and a groove was created for it, it was easy to miss the meaning of the song.

I really don't know if that proved Sting's point or not.

REO Speedwagon - "Keep On Loving You"

(Debuted November 29, 1980, Peaked #1, 28 Weeks on the Chart)

While this is another song that was included in the soundtrack for the film The Last American Virgin, it is better known on its own terms. In 1981, it hit #1 on the pop chart and solidified REO Speedwagon's stature as much more than a live band. Adding the power ballad to their arsenal, it helped gather them more fans than their vaunted live sets ever could.

A listen to the lyrics reveals that the protagonist of the song is borderline possessive. His girl is beginning to look for other men and has begun to act on those impulses. It isn't really said in the song if their relationship has ended or not (though I'm guessing it has), but this poor guy isn't ready to let go of something that once seemed so right. Seen through that lens, the lines "when I said that I loved you, I meant that I love you forever" can be ominous rather than resilient. Dude...she's moving on, you need to let her go. For your own good.

In any case, "Keep On Loving You" was the first #1 hit for a band that was poised to become one of the biggest acts of the 1980s. The song was everywhere in 1981, and soon it seemed that all of their music was pulled out of the vaults because of it. That's good, because certain songs like "Ridin' the Storm Out" were too good to merely be brushed off only when a hurricane or tornado were in the area.

Jim Steinman - "Rock & Roll Dreams Come Through"

(Debuted May 30, 1981, Peaked #32, 16 Weeks on the Chart)

Before it was released as a single by Meat Loaf in 1993, "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through" appeared as a Top 40 single for Jim Steinman, who wrote the material that Meat Loaf was spinning into gold. However, when the pair were recording the followup to Bat Out of Hell, Meat Loaf lost his voice and the material eventually appeared as a Steinman solo project. So, "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through" was written with Meat Loaf in mind; his recording of the song was essentially righting a wrong that fate played in his life.

Actually, calling it a Steinman solo project is a misnomer. While his name was on the record label for the LP Bad For Good and he was shown in the video singing the words, the vocals were actually recorded by Canadian singer Rory Dodd. It features many of Steinman's signature styles, and listening to it after Meat Loaf finally recorded it...it really needed his wider range to work. That's not to say that Steinman's version was bad; he simply played with the cards he was dealt.

The video below has the shortened single version. On the album's extra EP, the song is faded back in and given a coda that was simply cut off for the single.

Get Wet - "Just So Lonely"

(Not Available on iTunes)

(Debuted April 25, 1981, Peaked #39, 9 Weeks on the Chart)

Here's a song that proves the maxim that everything old is indeed new again. At first, "Just So Lonely" sounded like it could have been a relic of the "girl group" sound of the 1960s with some early 1970s bubblegum mixed in. Yet it is infused with a New Wave sensibility. It's possible that the duo Get Wet were paying homage to styles they grew up with, and those were just part of the sound they wanted to project.

In any case, the record was produced by Phil Ramone, who definitely was involved in the recording of those earlier styles. He certainly had a blast putting together the record.

"Just So Lonely" was the only chart hit for Get Wet in the U.S. While they were essentially a duo of Sherri Beachfront and keyboardist Zecca Esquibel, they were supported by a backing band. On "Just So Lonely," there is a guitar solo, a sax part and a rhythm section. Those weren't done on Esquibel's keyboard. Not in 1981, at least.That type of technology was years away from being realized.