I was supposed to post this like last month or whatever. Better late than never I guess as I get the ball rolling on this long-running series again. This is the bonus post for 1984. I did part one last month in case anyone forgot, which is probably everyone since it was awhile ago.
As always – these are five (or for this year ten) of my favorite songs from a year, not necessarily my five absolute favorites. Nothing definitive here, though these are in the ballpark. Whatever the case, let’s get to it.
Prince – Purple Rain
I’ll start off with the spectacular power ballad from the seminal album and film that turned Prince into a massive superstar. This is a gorgeous song that explores coming of age and the day of judgment, which I guess will involve rain. Not sure my copy of Revelations mentions that but I digress. While Prince showcased an array of instrumental and songwriting prowess to this point, here he lets his voice get in on the action.
Bruce Springsteen – Born In The USA
The Boss wrote this to recall the hard times Vietnam War vets faced when coming back into society. The song got confused by some as a patriotic anthem, but it is most certainly not. Rather it’s a dire look at people whose lives are essentially dead ends – no jobs, no hope, no future. I don’t know how so many people got the message mixed up, I turned seven the year this came out and I understood what it was about. No matter though, it is an awesome song and one of Bruce’s shining moments.
Hall and Oates – Out Of Touch
This crazy track was the final top ten hit for the massive pop duo. It’s quite the electro-dance number replete with the smooth harmonies Hall and Oates were famous for. I’m not a “fun and dancing” kind of person but even I can jam out to some Hall and Oates. This was a great way for them to cap off their electric string of hits through the early ’80’s.
Dokken – Don’t Close Your Eyes
This quasi-ballad but super hard rocker was one of many shining stars from the amazing Tooth And Nail record. This song is the perfect marriage of Dokken’s rock attack and melodic sensibilities that would come to define the “hair metal” era.
Ratt – Back For More
This song was re-recorded from an EP released a year prior, but the Out Of The Cellar version is one of many kick ass tracks on an amazing debut album. But this song is the one that puts it all over the edge for me, it’s snarling and pounding and right in your face. Ratt’s sound and presentation would go a long way to defining the 80’s metal movement for sure.
That does it for my bonus 1984 content. It’ll be 5 songs a year from here on out, and I think with my massive procrastination this series will now run into next year. But I’d have to count too much to figure it out one way or another, I’ll know more come September.
By 1984, Bruce Springsteen had been on quite a run of albums – his past four records shaped his sound and defined who he was as an artist. But in 1984, The Boss would embrace some pop stylings and conquer the world.
Bruce Springsteen – Born In The USA
Released June 4, 1984 via Columbia Records
My Favorite Tracks – Born In The USA, Glory Days, I’m Goin’ Down
Recording of this landmark album turned out to be really easy – a lot of these songs were written during the same sessions for The Boss’s prior album Nebraska. In fact, there was a point where Nebraska and this record could have a been released as one double album. A trove of unreleased songs from this time period also exist, many of which wound up in the box set Tracks.
Springsteen recorded the album with his E-Street Band – Roy Bittan, Clarence Clemons, Danny Federici, Garry Tallent, Seven Van Zandt and Max Weinberg all on their chosen instruments for recording. Production was handled by Jon Landau, the journalist who had deemed Springsteen the “future of rock” in 1974 and would be Springsteen’s co-producer until the mid 1990’s. Also involved in production were Chuck Plotkin, Springsteen himself and Steven Van Zandt.
The album would get immediate press for its striking cover image – The Boss’s backside clad in jeans with a ballcap hanging in his ass pocket, standing in front of the American flag. The shot was taken by Annie Leibovitz and is one of rock’s enduring album covers. The Boss reportedly worked out to make sure his butt was in prime shape for the photo shoot.
This record comprises 12 songs with a run time of 46:57, none of the songs venture beyond 4 minutes and it’s a fairly lean playing time for that many songs. Fans have long awaited a massive reissue of this album with the surplus of unreleased songs from this time period though to date that reissue has not seen the light of day.
A note on the album’s singles – there were a total of 7. All of them wound up in Billboard’s Top 10, though famously Springsteen did not generate a number 1 hit that he performed. He still has not to this day, his only number 1 is Manfred Mann’s performance of his song Blinded By The Light. I wanted to make the note about singles here so that I don’t have to bring it up through each song.
Born In The USA
Right off the bat we’re into the storied title track. It’s a very simple song, bright keyboards and a steady march through verses and chorus that keeps a consistent tempo. While sounding very bright, the song’s verses are a dark portrayal of the struggle of the common American – many Vietnam veterans returned from an unpopular war, only to find a lack of available jobs. The simple chorus is just Bruce’s raspy delivery of the song’s title. Set against the upbeat, pop-tinged music, many mistook the song to be a celebration of the US rather than a criticism. It’s a misinterpretation that still goes on sometimes today.
In the end the song is brilliant in its simple delivery and stark contrast between the music and the theme. The plight of the working person in the early ’80’s dark economy was a focus of Bruce in his songwriting and here he hit a grand slam in his effort to highlight it.
Cover Me
This bright and grooving track was originally a song Bruce composed for Donna Summer, though Jon Landau convinced The Boss to hold on to it for his own album. Summer got the song Protection from Springsteen and Cover Me stayed here.
The song is a great jam featuring all of the E-Street band going off. The song’s theme is again a few shades darker than the music’s beat – here, Bruce seeks a companion to be into and see their way through the rough and tumble world. Stay in with the one you love to weather the “storm” of society.
Darlington County
Up next is a very fun song, highlighting two guys who couldn’t hack it in New York so they move to South Carolina to try and swing in a smaller town. They come with tall tales, bragging that their dads own the World Trade Center, and they’re trying to get lucky with the southern girls because they couldn’t get any action in NYC. It’s song that both in theme and musical style really sets the tone for the Heartland Rock scene that would explode after this album’s release.
Working On The Highway
This one has a marriage of rockabilly and ’80’s synth pop to it, another really fun song that still again possesses a darker lyrical offering. This time the song’s main character of a guy who worked on highway construction and winds up with a pretty young girl. The girl’s family is not happy with her relationship with this older, salt of the Earth kind of guy and the couple run off to Florida for a bit. The guy winds up getting busted and is out working on the highway again, this time as part of a prison work gang. It is a pretty amusing story so it’s not as “down” as other songs.
Downbound Train
Popularly known as the depressing song on this record, this song’s music actually matches the harrowing tale it tells. It’s about a guy who gets laid off of his job and loses his love in the process. The guy winds up working on the railroad, pretty brutal work that ties into the title’s figurative train. The music retains the fit of a song from this pop-oriented record but it’s also clear that this was conceived during and could have been put on the Nebraska album.
I’m On Fire
Very interesting stuff going on with this very brief song. A quiet rolling guitar part is accented by very, very quiet drums as Bruce is trying to pick up a married woman. Some misinterpret the song and believe Bruce is after an underage woman here but that is totally not the case and honestly it’s a pretty stupid take on the song. It’s clearly Bruce in over his head for a taken woman.
No Surrender
This is another straight up 80’s rock track that offers up a far more positive energy than the doom-laden lyrics of other songs. The song is a tribute to childhood friendship that endures through the struggles of life. There are some confusing parts of the song that seem to intertwine romantic interest, the meaning there is unclear and has been speculated on but I’ll leave all that alone for today.
This cut made the album at the insistence of Steven Van Zandt and can be seen as a tribute to Bruce and Steve’s long-running friendship and musical partnership. Van Zandt had wanted to see Bruce get famous and this album would accomplish that, and Van Zandt left the E-Street band just after recording on the album was wrapped. He would jump in as a guest and then later return to the group in full.
Bobby Jean
It’s on to what is another tribute to Van Zandt, the song was composed after Steve announced he was leaving and was one of the final tracks recorded. The song fits as a lost love sort of thing as well, with the fictional Bobby Jean. This one really goes in to a groove that eclipses the music found elsewhere on the album and could be seen as a lead-in to Bruce’s upcoming pop phase.
I’m Goin’ Down
This song offers up tinges of rockabilly in a very simple and pleasing rhythm through music and words. The music is again upbeat but the story told is a sad one of a couple that’s had the magic of their relationship wear off. Bruce also repeats the title about a million times through the song, making Iron Maiden and The Scorpions jealous. This one doesn’t get played much live because the band has a hard time recreating the swing of the recorded track, but the song is also offered up by some critics as one of Bruce’s best tracks.
Glory Days
Up next is one of the more well-known songs and one that still lingers on airwaves today. It’s another fun, upbeat jam with some thought-provoking lyrics but not necessarily down and dark this time. This is a tale of people who’ve gotten older looking back on their younger, more fun days as a way to relieve the tension and monotony of common adult life. It could be seen as a shot at those who “peaked in high school” but the idea of “glory days” is fairly universal.
This song did have a verse cut, it was about Bruce’s father being laid off of his long-time factory job. Versions with the missing verse are out there though it does cast the song in a more depressing light.
Dancing In The Dark
The album heads to the close with the lead single and a song that Bruce didn’t want to write that also became his biggest solo hit.
As the album was being compiled, Jon Landau felt like it needed a good hit single. Bruce and Jon got into it arguing over the point, then Bruce spent the night writing this track. The lyrics are Bruce’s frustrations with trying to do exactly what he wound up doing – writing a hit single. It’s set to a danceable pop rock beat, nothing overly complex here.
The song was the highest-charting of Springsteen’s career – it went to number 2 on the charts, blocked at first by Duran Duran and then Prince’s mega-hit When Doves Cry. It’s also the only Bruce single that sold over a million copies in the US. The music video featured a young Courtney Cox in an early acting role being picked as the girl to come on stage and dance with Bruce.
My Hometown
The finale is a somber and sparse atmospheric pop track that recounts a kid growing up and being stuck in his hometown. The song runs through racial tensions of the 60’s and the deterioration of the American job market in the 70’s. The final verse sees the narrator pass on the “legacy” of the hometown to his kid in the present day, just as his father did with him way back when. The narrator and his wife talk about packing up and splitting town, which I personally did to get out of my small hometown and I fully recommend. It’s a pretty nice song to wrap up the album.
Born In The USA was a runaway hit. The album spent a month of 1984 at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, then re-entered the top spot for 2 weeks in 1985. It was number 1 in 10 other countries and in the top 10 of 5 others. It has been certified diamond in the US for sales of 10 million copies, presently it has sold 17 million US and a total of 30 million worldwide. It is the best-selling album of Springsteen’s career and the best-selling album from 1984.
For Bruce this was a leap into the pop fray after years of more pure rock styling. He would continue to explore that ground on his next few albums as the E-Street band, at least officially, broke up around this time.
The success of Born In The USA would thrust the concept of “heartland rock” into the spotlight. It was already a term, meant to corral artists like Bob Seger, Tom Petty and Springsteen together. It would also envelop a few country artists, notably Steve Earle. This subgenre term, with country and rock leanings and a socially conscious song message, would mostly become entwined with Bruce and the man who’d quickly become his spiritual twin, John Mellencamp. It’s not hard to find people who confuse the two, some believing both artists are the same person.
For Bruce Springsteen, this album was the all-conquering victory he had long been plugging away for. He crafted one of the best-loved and best-selling albums in history. The seven singles from this record were inescapable in 1984 and for years beyond, the songs are still around today. The legend of The Boss was now solidified.
This being the 40th anniversary of 1984 and all of the great music that came from that year, I want to go a bit beyond just looking at albums from then and get into some other stuff. I will be looking at albums again today but in a different context – today I’m going to discuss all of the albums that topped the Billboard 200 chart in 1984.
If I were doing this for most any other year, I’d be up against it. Many years feature between 15 and 20 albums that hit the top chart spot, sometimes even more. It can be absolute carnage up there, especially now with several different genres commanding attention and shorter attention spans leading to more albums going number one, then heading off down the Billboard slide afterward.
But my cup runneth over with luck – in 1984, only five albums reached the top of the Billboard chart. It was the lowest amount for any year in Billboard history and is not something likely to ever be repeated. Seeing the very short list will shed light on exactly why that is, two artists basically dominated the number one spot that year and it’s glaringly obvious who those are, to anyone who was around at that time.
Michael Jackson – Thriller
Of no surprise to anyone, the King of Pop dominated the charts in the early going in 1984. Released in late 1982, Thriller spent 37 total weeks on the top of the chart. Here 40 years later in the year of our lord 2024, the album is still on the chart and has been for 612 weeks. Oh, and it’s the best-selling album in history.
The thing is that Thriller doesn’t relate to the music of 1984, at least in terms of my evaluation of the year, with it obviously having been released in 1982. Now, Michael Jackson certainly does relate to 1984 and the whole of the ’80’s – this guy was THE star and he was still grabbing the spotlight even with an album over a year old. All seven of the album’s singles had been released by the end of 1983, but the title track and its crazy video were omnipresent through 1984. Jackson was on top of the world in a way very few stars ever had been.
For the purposes of my year-long look at 1984, Thriller won’t be a part of it for obvious reasons. But I am certain to discuss the album at some point in time.
Footloose – The Soundtrack
Finally on the chart issued April 21, the King of Pop’s reign was over. It was a movie soundtrack that took the crown. Footloose the movie was about a dancing ban in a small Midwest town, and that would put a focus on the movie’s music. The movie did respectably well at the time and is fondly remembered by many, but the soundtrack was the true star of the show. It would spawn six top 40 hits, two of them going to the top of the Billboard 100.
The Footloose song by Kenny Loggins was the prime hit, and Let’s Hear It For The Boy, performed by Deniece Williams, joined it as a Billboard number one. Almost Paradise, performed by Mike Reno of Loverboy and Ann Wilson of Heart, hit number seven on the charts. The Jim Steinman-penned and Bonnie Tyler-performed Holding Out For A Hero charted at 34 in the US, but would take the top spot in the UK.
The soundtrack album hung on to the number one spot for two months, finally bested in late June. Movie soundtracks were big business in the ’80’s and Footloose was a monster even among them. It was certified nine times platinum in the US and has a host of other platinum and gold certifications around the world.
I do not have any plans to discuss this soundtrack further as I look back on 1984 – nothing against it, but a lot of it wasn’t really my jam beyond the Bonnie Tyler song and I have plenty else to talk about.
Huey Lewis and the News – Sports
1984 was often about an album hitting the top spot and hanging around for awhile, but in this lone instance, the album hit number one and was dethroned the next week, though the album did spend a total of 160 weeks on the chart.
But that is no shade to Huey Lewis and his band. Sports was the group’s breakthrough – after a gold record on their prior album, this one would catch fire and wind up 7 times platinum. Four of these songs would hit the top ten of the singles charts, stuff like If This Is It and The Heart Of Rock & Roll were commonplace on airwaves during this time, and for years afterward. It was catchy and pleasing music that just about everyone could get into and a lot of people did.
I will be covering Sports at some point this year, I’m not sure exactly when that will be.
Bruce Springsteen – Born In The USA
Just after Independence Day in the US, The Boss arrived with a transformative album that would define his career and sell like hotcakes. The July 7th chart was the first of four consecutive weeks at number one for this record, which would then again claim the spot for a few weeks in early 1985.
The album would offer up seven singles, all of which went top ten in the Billboard 100. Famously, none of these or any of Springsteen’s other singles would ever hit the top spot on the singles chart, but success is relative.
And success was here in droves – the album was the best-selling record from 1984, moving over 30 million units eventually. (distinct of course from the best seller in 1984, which was Thriller) Bruce has recorded several heralded albums, but Born In The USA is the one that is the first mention when he is discussed. We can wax poetic about many of his works before and after, but this is where the conversation with Bruce Springsteen comes or goes.
There is a lot to say about this record – in term of Springsteen’s shift to pop rock, themes of working class struggles and triumphs, and the misplaced political implications behind the title track. And I will get into all of that – here soon, when I discuss the album in detail, which is coming up in the next month.
Born In The USA would reign atop the Billboard 200 for a month, then the rest of the year would be defined by someone we can only call “the artist.”
Prince and the Revolution – Purple Rain
Springsteen would be bounced out of the top chart spot on the chart released August 4 of ’84. The replacement album would reign supreme for the rest of the year, 22 weeks, then the first 2 weeks of 1985 before the favor was returned by Springsteen.
Purple Rain was not just an album, but also the soundtrack to Prince’s first feature film of the same name. The movie was a hit, raking in ten times the amount of money spent on it, while the soundtrack was an absolute monster smash. The album has gone on to sell 25 million copies across the world, with 13 platinum certs in the US. Prince joined the rare company of Elvis and The Beatles by having the number one film, album and song all at the same time.
Prince’s landmark offering saw him slide more into the pop world, but also utilizing a grand scope of band composition and arrangement. A handful of Prince’s signature songs can be found here, including the title track and the mega-hit When Doves Cry. The controversial Darling Nikki is also featured in both the film and on record – it would be the song that kicked off the PMRC and the “Filthy Fifteen.”
Prince ruled the roost for the back half of 1984, and Purple Rain was the Billboard chart champion for most weeks at number one. I will do a write-up on this one, but be warned – I have always planned it to be the final post for the 1984 anniversary thing, so it’s not coming ’till the end of the year.
That covers the number one albums of 1984. A bit down the line I’ll look at a few records that were blocked out of the top spot by the stone cold lock these few releases had on the year. I’ll also dive into the number one songs of the year, a spot open to a lot more variety. And I’ll have some more companion pieces dealing with various things in 1984 as we go along. Enjoy the weekend.
The Crooked Wanderer 