As a quick note – next week I’ll have my top ten albums of 2024 list, as well as my write up of Prince’s Purple Rain to cap off my celebration of 1984.
But for today, it’s off to pick five songs from 1982. This one was kind of fun as there seemed to be a bit more variety, I wasn’t necessarily slammed by 10,000 heavy metal songs I love that I had to winnow down. Still plenty of great music but a pretty simple list here.
As always on these and especially for this decade – these are simply five of my favorite songs from the year, not a definitive list of my absolute five favorite songs. I ain’t got time for all that. Let’s have at it.
Iron Maiden – Hallowed Be Thy Name
Pickings are easy when your favorite band offers up what is widely considered the greatest song they ever recorded. This is a haunting tale of a condemned man who is in his final moments. Maiden were able to couple the dread of the story with their trademark harmonizing and rhythm and Bruce Dickinson delivers a performance for the ages. Things really don’t get much better than this heavy metal standard.
Judas Priest – Electric Eye
Choosing just one song from the seminal Screaming For Vengeance album is kind of tough but it’s pretty easy to go with this one. This is a heavy metal smorgasbord with all kinds of quiet and loud, mid-paced and fast stuff. It’s both heavy as hell and quite accessible. The dark theme of overbearing surveillance is on point, even more so now than 42 years ago. I can’t do anything about the hosed state of civilization but I can headbang along to its demise with this.
Michael Jackson – Thriller
This list is shooting fish in a barrel kind of easy. The title track of what is largely held as the best-selling album of all time is an absolute winner – a melodic romp through a zombie horror show. While the song itself is actually a fairly simple premise of picking up a girl by spooking her out with scary movies, the music video was an all-out zombie invasion that wowed audiences the world over. The song remains a Halloween staple to this day and of course Michael was the defining artist of the greatest decade in music.
Prince – 1999
But Michael did have a rival, he was not as alone atop the pop and rock mountain as some would like to believe. Prince would score his first widespread recognition with this apocalyptic hit. The thing to do when facing the end of the world is to party, which The Purple One summed up with a synth-funk track to boogie ’till the end to. It wound up being very fitting when 1999 actually came around, with the ultimately unfounded fears of Y2K. That was some weird shit to live through. But Prince provided the perfect soundtrack for it.
Scorpions – No One Like You
The Scorpions did rock as well as anyone ever. They also made their mark with a series of awesome ballads, but this song did not head into ballad territory – while proclaiming love, it’s a total rocker. It has been a live staple and one of the band’s signature songs since its release on their landmark Blackout album.
The song also holds significant personal meaning for me. I started dating a gal in 2009, still in the age of setting phone ringtones. I set this as her ringtone and it became our song. We were together for nearly 15 years and boyfriend and girlfriend before this past June when we did the deed and got married. And while she is not an ’80’s metal fan of any real sort, she has always appreciated this as our song. So it’s an easy add to close out this list.
That wraps up 1982, which will likely be the easiest by far of any of the ’80’s stuff to do. The next few are absolute hell, let me tell you.
Yesterday I had a look at the first ten songs that hit number one in the year 1984. Today I’ll finish the list with the other ten. Part One is back this way if you want to catch up.
Prince And The Revolution – When Doves Cry
Right off the bat we get to the other song to stay on top for five weeks during the year. We also get to what was crowned the single of the year in many contexts, including being the best seller. It was also a soundtrack song to the film Purple Rain, landing Prince the rarity of having the number one album, song and movie all at the same time. Only Elvis and The Beatles can also brag about that.
When Doves Cry is a masterpiece of a song. Equal parts pop, synth and funk, this track has all the emotions in it. It’s fairly complex lyrical fare, revolving around a complicated childhood and a love affair. It’s considered one of Prince’s greatest tracks and it is the reigning winner, with a few qualifications to discuss later, of 1984.
Ray Parker Jr. – Ghostbusters
Up next is yet another soundtrack song, and no we’re not done with those. Movies and music were huge business in the 1980’s. Ray Parker Jr. got a lot of mileage off of his hit theme song for the smash movie, it stayed on top of the charts for three weeks.
Here is where I get to save a lot of time – I talked about this song earlier this year and I can just link that post here. Needless to say I love the song, I don’t often write about songs I don’t like in full posts. But I’m sure it will happen someday.
Tina Turner – What’s Love Got To Do With It
And now it’s on to a much deserved comeback and career-defining achievement. Tina Turner’s only number one hit came from her 1984 album Private Dancer and logged three weeks on top in September of ’84. This song also cleaned up at the Grammys, being the huge winner for 1984 songs at that awards show.
The song is smooth and deceivingly upbeat musically as the subject matter is pretty complex and a bit down. For Tina it was a smash success, the second best-selling single of the year, and launched her into a new phase of superstardom that was well-earned after all she’d been through. Quite the triumphant story here.
John Waite – Missing You
When I first looked over the list I honestly couldn’t remember this song, but it came back pretty quickly when I pressed play. This song occupies a unique spot on the 1984 number one list – it was the only song to be in the top spot for only one week. It would be John Waite’s only number one as a solo act – he would score another as the singer for Bad English a few years later on.
After looking back on it I don’t mind this song. I’m not all that into it, it’s a bit too soft rock for my tastes really. I’m literally writing about Exciter’s Violence And Force album for a future album post so this here isn’t totally my cup of tea. But it’s ok and a bit better than what I was expecting going in.
Prince And The Revolution – Let’s Go Crazy
Prince logs his second number one of the year, the only artist to pull that off in 1984. This spent two weeks on top and gave Prince the most weeks at number one for the year. The song is fun and fast and, like the title and its creator, crazy.
Stevie Wonder – I Just Called To Say I Love You
One of the world’s most innovate musicians took a career turn in the ’80’s to more commercial accessibility, and this song was the ultimate payoff. Crafted as a song for the movie The Woman In Red, this spent three weeks at the chart’s top. It didn’t just go number one in the US either – the world charts show bunch of 1’s in the chart positions list.
This is another one I remember being all over the place back then, no real getting away from it. I won’t call it my favorite song in the world but I do enjoy hearing it again, it does take me back to that glorious time.
Billy Ocean – Caribbean Queen
Billy Ocean would land the first of a handful of number one hits with this track. The funny thing was this song bombed originally in Europe with a different name, then won over the same audience after the reworked Caribbean theme caught hold in the US. This had two weeks topping the chart.
This may seem odd but I’m honestly enjoy Billy Ocean’s music quite a bit. There’s something maybe a bit more accessible or fuller about his songs and I’ve always had an ear for when he had a song on radio or TV. I clearly wasn’t the only one, Billy caught on with a hell of a lot of people given his solid run through the years.
Wham! – Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go
It was now go-go time for Wham!, as George Michael would kick off a stellar career with, well, a pretty goofy song and an extremely goofy video. It hung out at the top of the chart for three weeks and was the start of a run of three number one songs for the group as Michael morphed into a solo artist in the next year.
This song is, well, it’s certainly a song. I don’t mean to dump on it as it was intentionally crafted to be bubblegum pop as opposed to a song like Careless Whisper that has something deeper going on with it. The video might call for actual eye bleach depending on just how ’80’s you wanna get and it was an outlier even then. But overall I do enjoy Wham! And I can even jam out to this one now and again.
Hall and Oates – Out Of Touch
The dynamic pop duo would land their sixth and final number one hit with this snazzy dance number toward the end of 1984. The song got two weeks at the top.
I can again save a lot of time here since I wrote about this one not too long ago, so here’s that post.
Madonna – Like A Virgin
The year wrapped up with one hell of a bang, as Madonna landed the first of 44 singles at the top of the Billboard chart. Yes, 44. The Queen of Pop had arrived. Like A Virgin held the spot for one actual week in 1984 though the calendar shows two – Billboard didn’t do a last-week chart so positions were frozen for the holidays. It held on to the top spot for four weeks in 1985, so it matched When Doves Cry and Jump with five weeks at the top of the chart.
Even with such a long line of hits, Like A Virgin is extra iconic. It was both a catchy song and a provocative statement, the open sexuality of the song being a massive topic of conversation. 1984 went out with one hell of a bang and one of music’s biggest stars was on the big stage.
That does it for the number one songs of 1984. When Doves Cry is generally hailed as the “winner” of the year, though Madonna has a hell of an argument for that title. Tina Turner also came away with a ton of accolades for her signature song. There were a few last-time number ones, a few first timers and a hell of a lot of soundtracks.
1984 was curious chart-wise for a few reasons. When I did the top albums list that was one short section, with only five albums when other years see over twenty. The songs were a stable rotation of stuff up and down – many other years see songs bounce in and out of the top spot but that never happened once in 1984.
And none of these can be considered one hit wonders. Everyone had other hits on the charts and many of these folks had other number one hits. It was a true hit maker’s parade at the top of the Billboard in 1984.
That does it for this post. I will continue my year-long celebration of 1984 with more album and song discussions as the second half of the year winds along, and probably a few more special looks at other things from the year. Enjoy the ride, because we’re not ever getting the 1980’s back again.
Questions, comments or concerns? Use the comment form below or head to my contact page.
It’s time to have a look at the songs that hit number one on the Billboard charts during 1984. It’s a pretty memorable selection overall so this will be fun to go through. There is a fair bit of trivia and whatnot to go through and it cuts through a fair cross section of music, while of course being mainly oriented toward pop.
There were twenty total number one songs so that makes it easy for me to divide this into two parts. Part two will arrive tomorrow.
Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson – Say Say Say
Up first is one of three holdovers from 1983. This song comes from Macca’s 1983 album Pipes Of Peace. The album itself wasn’t fawned over but this song was a massive hit, hanging out on the top of the chart for six weeks, two of those being in 1984. It of course doesn’t hurt that it had Michael Jackson on it, who had cemented himself as the King of Pop after the world-conquering run Thriller had been on.
Say Say Say is a pretty simple pop track, there isn’t a whole hell of a lot to it. I don’t find it all that interesting, though Jackson does add some spice to the song and is the worthwhile part of it. It honestly sounds more like a Jackson song that McCartney showed up on rather than the other way around. Nothing really wrong with it, but it was number one because of Michael and everyone knows it.
Yes – Owner Of A Lonely Heart
This next song from 1983 became the one and only chart topper for the progressive rock act. There’s a whole story behind this song but it’s too long and windy for here. Basically the band got back together with a few new members, one being Trevor Rabin, who brought this song with him. The band fussed over recording it for several months before finally nailing it down.
This is a really cool song that I remember fondly from back then. It has the fit of a nice synth rock track from the era, though it does incorporate some noisy zaniness as well. I’m not familiar with Yes’s initial era so I didn’t feel “burned” by their pop turn, hell I wasn’t even alive for most of their 70’s stuff. So I can enjoy this one with no reservations about the band’s changes. This one held down the top spot for two weeks.
Culture Club – Karma Chameleon
This is the final song from 1983 on the list and also the only number one US hit for the British pop merchants. This song was massive and sold millions of copies, both of single and album. Culture Club were a relatively brief phenomenon and Boy George’s tabloid presence long outlived the music itself, but this band sold records like hotcakes back in the day. I’m sure one thing helped the other there, of course.
This one is a fun, upbeat new wave number with just a small twinge of country in it. The music video is also fun, filled with vibrant colors that catch attention. It’s probably fun to watch the video while on certain drugs but I wouldn’t know. The song spent three weeks at number one though it was a cultural moment that hung around for quite awhile after its run at the top. I also can’t imagine what people a lot younger than me think of it, especially the video, but hey it was the 1980’s and this is what we did.
Van Halen – Jump
And now we’re on to one I’m very, very familiar with. Van Halen turned gears a bit for their 1984 album and Eddie used synth lines to full effect, including as a foundation for this song. The recipe was a successful one and Van Halen rode this to their one and only number one single.
Jump hung out on the top of the chart for five weeks. Only one other song did five weeks at number one in 1984 and one other did six weeks bleeding into 1985, both obviously will be covered tomorrow.
I personally love this song. Van Halen and specifically this album got me really into rock music at a young age so this is kind of where things really kicked off for me. It’s easily my favorite of the number one list, though there are plenty of other worthy songs to go over.
Kenny Loggins – Footloose
This is the first of two songs from the film soundtrack that hit number one. It hung out on top for three weeks as soundtracks took over the top spot for awhile in this period of the year.
I don’t have a ton to say about this one. I honestly was never into the movie and I have no affinity for it. I do like Kenny Loggins’ music though and this song is fine, I get why it caught on like it did.
Phil Collins – Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)
Up next is a song from a different soundtrack, as Phil Collins cut a song for a film of the same name. The song was Phil’s first US number one hit, he would go on to have several more. This one did what seems to be a standard run of three weeks at the chart’s peak.
I only very, very vaguely recall the movie and I can only recall that I think it sucked. The song isn’t nearly that bad although it’s also maybe a bit meh. I’m not down on Phil Collins like a lot of people can be, I’m pretty sure he’s taken so much shit that it makes Nickelback hate look like child’s play. I even like some of Phil’s stuff, both with Genesis and his solo songs. But this one doesn’t quite move me the same way as other songs of his. It’s ok but not one I’d playlist or anything.
Lionel Richie – Hello
We get a brief respite from soundtrack songs as Lionel Richie jumped into the number one fray for two weeks with this slow jam. Richie was becoming quite the megastar during this time, by 1985 he’d be pretty well on top of the world and solidified himself as one of the best-selling artists of the 1980’s. He was all over the place back in the day and this was a time when there were only like three real TV channels, not the wall-to-wall coverage like we have today.
Hello is a quiet, soft ballad in the style Richie had taken up for his solo run. It was one of his biggest hits so obviously he got it right. He put together quite the concept piece for a video too, with full on acting and an actual story as opposed to just flashy images and clothing.
Deniece Williams – Let’s Hear It For The Boy
Back to the Footloose soundtrack here for the other number one hit from that record. This was Williams’ second of two number one hits and this one did two weeks on the top. Also of note are backing singers George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, who would go on to form the writing and performing duo Boy Meets Girl. They would craft a pair of Whitney Houston’s number one hits a few years down the road.
Again not a whole lot to say here. It’s a fun, upbeat track and I remember this being on radio and TV all the time. A very easy, inoffensive song to play for most any occasion.
Cyndi Lauper – Time After Time
Up next is this pop ballad from Lauper, who found her first number one with this and kept the spot for two weeks. She would hit the top again but not for several years, though she had a lot of other hits that were not far off of the top. And she’s an artist that many people might not realize is as successful as she truly is, she’s had quite the career.
This is a song I do really like and one again I remember fondly from 40 years ago. It’s a nice ballad with some tempo and atmosphere to it and it’s a very sweet and affirming message. Always nice to hear this song.
Duran Duran – The Reflex
We’ll close out part one of the list with one of two songs to go number one for the iconic British new wave group. The song spent the customary two weeks on the chart before giving way to what became the single of the year. This was also part of a two-song “block” that prevented Bruce Springsteen from having a number one single, a feat the Boss hasn’t accomplished with work he has performed to this day.
The Reflex is a crazy ass song, in fact this is a dance remix that is different from what is on the studio album. This isn’t my favorite Duran Duran song but I don’t have anything bad to say about it, just not my cup of tea really.
That wraps up part one. Tomorrow I’ll kick things off straight away with the top song of 1984, a few other titanic cuts including Tina Turner’s massive comeback and Stevie Wonder’s best-charting song, and also what actually counts as the most successful charting song of 1984. Oh, and after nearly three years of writing this blog, I’ll finally get to talk about Wham! Looking forward to it.
For questions, comments or concerns, use the comment form below or head to my contact page.
Let’s head back to 1984 and hop up to the Great White North for the song of the week. We’ll revisit the first hit of someone who became a prolific hitmaker in both the US and his native Canada.
Corey Hart had just launched his music career in earnest with his debut album First Offense, which hit shelves in November 1983. Oddly enough, Sunglasses At Night was the lead single but was not released in advance of the album or even with the full-length – it was served up as a single in January 1984.
The single did reasonably well for a debut artist – it was a top 10 hit in the US, landing at 7 on the Billboard 200. It charted at 24 in Canada and landed in fair spots in Australia and Europe as well. As a note to those unaware, Corey Hart was far from a one-hit wonder – this was only his first successful single. He would have subsequent hits that landed higher in the US and he has 30 Canadian Top 40 hits, on top of selling over 16 million albums. This is likely the song most people remember, but Corey was on top of it at several different points in his career and has done amazingly well through the years.
Sunglasses At Night is a pleasing synth-driven offering. It is at times bright but also with a subtle dark and twisted bent to it. The lyrics are vague and not out for easy meaning, but there’s a tale of a guy being cheated on here, he wears his sunglasses to hide his eyes from the truth of his unfaithful lover. It’s both a bit cheesy and also sensibly crafted for the time period, a nice pop rock hit for the era.
The actual origins of the song are very practical. Corey states in this 2019 interview with the CBC that he had bought a pair of shades while he was recording in England, but never got the chance to wear them. He joked that he’d have to wear them at night, then the idea stirred for a new song right as the record label asked for one more track. There is also an unverified story about an air vent being right over the mixing console in the studio and people wore sunglasses to shield their eyes from the forced air, but again I can’t corroborate that one. Either way, the genesis of the song was pretty simple.
The music video was put together with thought and care, and was also a vehicle to the song’s success. In it Corey is living in an Orwellian world, he winds up arrested for not wearing his sunglasses at night. He is eventually let out by the jail guard, played by Canadian TV personality Laurie Brown. The video went on to win the first ever award for Video of the Year at the 1984 Juno Awards. Corey relates in the same CBC interview I linked above that he had to borrow a suit from Rick Springfield for the awards event.
All told, Sunglasses At Night is a song that outlived its 1980’s lifespan and still gets brought up all these years later. It would lead Corey Hart to a run of success that spanned decades and the concept of sunglasses at night is something that gets brought up a fair bit, thus keeping the song in public discourse. A pretty nice outcome for something based originally on how England’s weather is cloudy.
It’s time to continue the 40th anniversary celebration for 1984. And today I’ll have a look at one of the big pop and dance hits of the year. If there’s anything my site is known for, pop and dance are not it, but there is no denying the song-crafting genius of Hall and Oates.
Out Of Touch hails from the duo’s twelfth album Big Bam Boom, which arrived in October of 1994. The album would hit Billboard top 5 and go double platinum and was carried mainly on the success of today’s single. Out Of Touch would be the duo’s sixth and final number 1 single. It was also their 14th consecutive Top 40 single, they would go on to have 29 total Top 40 placements.
With this song Hall and Oates were exploring new wave and dance territory. The group had worked with many different music styles over their long tenure, and by 1984 they were riding a wave of huge pop hits and were working with the sounds of the day. It was a synthesizer where the track was born, and John Oates came up with the chorus on the synth while not really knowing how to use the instrument and while also enjoying herbal supplements. He intended the song to go to Philadelphia soul group The Stylistics but a producer told him to keep it for Hall and Oates, which he did. Oates and Daryl Hall finished the track and yet another number one hit was born. Oates tells this story in pretty funny fashion during a performance for Ditty TV, I have embedded that video below.
Today’s song is not overly loud or obtrusive by any means but it is still a banger. It does the dreamy synth thing pretty well through the chorus while the verses are honestly standard pop rock. It is, just like the duo’s other hits, insanely catchy and this one hooks in right off the bat. Hall and Oates were able to maintain their precision songwriting while using a host of new music tech. It was exactly the kind of ear-pleasing pop that would turn heads in 1984 and the song has been one of a handful from the group to still hook in listeners many years later.
If the standard version of Out Of Touch is a bit pedestrian for you, well, you’re in luck. There is an extended club mix of the song too, which the music video uses a few parts of. If you like your songs harder and probably also your drugs harder, then the Out Of Touch club mix is just up your alley. I’ll toss that one down below, it’s totally worth a listen.
And speaking of the music video – it’s another total ’80’s offering. The beginning is a funny sequence that sees Hall and Oates trapped in a drum, then steamrolled and pinned on a wall. The video then goes into a more conventional performance bit after that, but the giant drum set does get some more screen time.
Not much more to say about this one – Out Of Touch is a quintessential ’80’s hit and another jewel in the Hall and Oates crown. I doubt anyone made it through the early ’80’s without hearing Hall and Oates and if they did they are much poorer for it.
For questions, comments or concerns, use the comment form below or head to my contact page.
As a note – I am changing my post order this week. I’m doing a song today, I’ll have a different post on Wednesday, and I’ll do the album of the week on Friday to mark the exact 30th anniversary of that album. The change is simply to accommodate that and things will go back to normal next week.
There was so much music released in 1984 that it’s tough to nail down a song that really defines the year. But one possible candidate is this monster of a theme song for a movie soundtrack, a song so catchy attached to a movie so popular that the song was literally everywhere.
Ray Parker Jr. had formed the R&B group Raydio through the late ’70’s and into 1981. They landed several top ten hits on the singles chart, then Parker went solo and had continued success. But no matter his other accomplishments, his calling card is the Ghostbusters theme song.
This song has quite a story, involving other artists, lawsuits and the whole rigmarole. The movie heads approached Lindsey Buckingham about doing the song – he turned it down, not wanting to be typecast as a soundtrack artist. Glenn Hughes and Pat Thrall submitted a song for consideration, but were rejected. Huey Lewis and the News were offered the song but also declined, and that part will be important here in a bit.
In the end Parker was offered the song with very little time to compose it. He came up with the idea of the song being a faux commercial jingle and was off to the races, it was an easy way to create a good song while also incorporating the odd name of the movie.
The song fit the movie like a glove, and both song and movie would see blockbuster success. Ghostbusters would bring in over $200 million dollars, making it the second-best grossing movie of 1984. The movie went on to become a billion dollar franchise with licensing, toys, cartoons and sequels and that money train is still rolling 40 years later.
As for the song, it wound up on a lot of charts and its position was at or near the top of many of them. The song was number one on the charts of seven countries and top ten in at least eleven others. It would remain the number one hit in the US for three weeks and it stayed on the Hot 100 chart for four months. It sold in excess of one million copies in the US, the UK and France. In short -this song was a massive hit.
And the song is about as effective as it could possibly be. Parker worked in a load of supernatural problems one could have and offered up the catchy jingle “who you gonna call?” The refrain of Ghostbusters! Rang through to make a sing-along that everyone could get into, including kids who would want anything Ghostbusters-related. I would know as I was one of those kids – the movie came out just before I turned seven and that’s all we cared about during the summer and well beyond.
The song was aided in popularity by its music video. The clip features shots of the movie and also features an assortment of guest shots from notable actors including John Candy and George Wendt, all of whom agreed to film for free as a favor to movie and video director Ivan Reitman. The video clip was super popular across MTV and became the model for how to market a blockbuster movie in the 1980’s.
All of this success came with the usual trappings, one of those being lawsuits. And one lawsuit was especially compelling – Huey Lewis filed a plagiarism suit, alleging that Parker had used the melody from the song I Want A New Drug, mostly involving the bass line. The lawsuit was settled out of court, with the terms being under lock and key. That would come back to haunt Lewis in the 2000’s, as he discussed the case on VH1. Parker filed suit over that and won, getting back at least a bit of the money he’d lost in the original suit.
And we’d learn that Lewis had one hell of a case – when the film was being put together, I Want A New Drug was used as a placeholder song in many scenes, as the film heads were still hoping to have Lewis do the theme. Parker was given footage to watch that had Lewis’ song in it.
Lawsuits aside, the song was a massive haul for Parker and anyone involved with the movie. Parker had no chance of recapturing that kind of success, but has gone on with a recording and performing career, as well as songwriting and studio ownership. And for us in 1984, the Ghostbusters theme was one hell of a time as we were going nuts in the summer. This was a mark on the culture like no other.
Gonna take the song machine back to 1984 this week and visit the first hit of an act who’d go on to score big in the US a few years later.
Dating this one to 1984 does come with a few caveats, though – the song was originally released in 1982 when the group were known as Huang Chung. That single failed to chart. The band renamed themselves to the much more familiar Wang Chung and redid Dance Hall Days, releasing it on their album Points On The Curve. That record did get released in some territories in 1983, the US and other areas would see it in early 1984. For the purposes of my mega 1984 40th anniversary celebration, it’s a 1984 song.
Dance Hall Days got a fair bit of traction on music charts across the globe, no matter the actual release date. The song hit number 16 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and also number 1 on the Dance chart. It was a number 21 hit in Wang Chung’s native UK. Oddly, that was the best chart placement ever for Wang Chung in their home territory, the band saw the bulk of their success career-wise in the US. The song was also a top 10 hit across many European countries, as well as Canada and Australia.
Today’s song fits straight into the new wave movement of the early 1980’s. The song is a nice, atmospheric mix of electronics and organic instruments and it sets a really chill vibe. It’s easy to hear how new wave became an important facet of music in the ’80’s. This is a beat that most anyone could get behind.
The song’s overall theme is a celebration of old-time dance halls that singer/guitarist Jack Hues remembers his dad playing in years gone by. Hues himself played in the band at times. This information comes from a podcast called Just My Show, which I have difficulty accessing but have transcribed the transcription of this site.
While the chorus is an innocent celebration of those dance halls, the verses do offer something a bit different. On the surface it’s just a collection of words that rhyme with body parts to move the song forward – “take your baby by the heel and do the next thing that you feel.” It’s not rocket science and I always took it as just words they put together to get the song done without any real deep meaning behind it.
But, just as I was doing some internet sleuthing for this post, I stumbled into a subset of people who think Dance Hall Days has sinister intentions behind the lyrics. There are people who interpret the passages more literally and believe there is some bent toward coercion or abuse in the various mingling of actions and body parts. I had a bit of a pause when I first saw it.
This 2013 article from Paste outlines the possible hidden creepiness of Dance Hall Days. Now this specific piece has a clear tongue-in-cheek air to it and is pretty amusing, but a lot of the other stuff I saw on reddit and in forums seemed to ascribe more ill intent to the lyrics. All I’ll say is I disagree that there is anything to these lyrics.
Dance Hall Days got two different music videos. The first, posted above and apparently age-restricted, was directed by the late Derek Jarman, and features his father’s home movies interspersed with the band goofing around. A second video was shot that did more to relate to a literal dance hall – that video is tougher to come across. I posted an unofficial upload down below, but we all know the video may not remain up long.
There are two other interesting pieces of trivia around the song. One is that Wang Chung almost didn’t release the song themselves, they instead offered it up for consideration to another artist. As multi-instrumentalist Nick Feldman recounts in this talk with Soundfacts, the song actually wound up in the hands of Quincy Jones, who was producing Michael Jackson and Thriller at the time. Jones and Jackson reportedly liked the song and considered recording it, but ultimately decided not to. That would have been quite a twist of fate for Wang Chung – the song got them on the map, but having a song on Thriller would have been its own world of success. I admit I can’t quite “hear” this song on that album, but I’m sure Jones and Jackson would have done a different arrangement for it.
The other factoid on offer is one I’ve shared about several songs – this was one of many tracks to feature in my favorite video game of all time, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. The song is a perfect fit for the vibe and setting of that game, these two fit together like a glove. It was a match made in heaven and the song goes great with committing digital felonies.
For Wang Chung, Dance Hall Days would be the first score of their career, setting them up for further success in 1986. For me it’s a fantastic reminder of my youth and the “golden era” of 1980’s music.
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.
I was just talking about Robert Palmer a bit yesterday so I might as well have at it and go over his best-known song. While this song is well known there is still a fair bit of interesting background to go through on it.
Addicted To Love was the second single from Palmer’s late 1985 album Riptide. The album sold well but that isn’t radically important in comparison to the massive success of this song, which was the driving force behind the album sales. This was a US number one hit and would be Palmer’s only actual chart topping single, though he got very close a few other times. It also hit number one in Australia and charted highly in several other countries.
If you think the band was Robert Palmer with a handful of extremely attractive women dressed as mannequins, well, you would be wrong. A bunch of people worked on the album with Palmer, but he would have some assistance from old bandmates in a group called Power Station. From there on this song are Tony Thompson, Bernard Edwards and Andy Taylor, yes that Andy Taylor from Duran Duran.
And this song was originally conceived as something extra – it was supposed to be a duet with Chaka Khan and was recorded as such. Khan’s management demanded that her parts be removed from the song because she had a few big hits around that time and they didn’t want her being overexposed.
It’s true that Khan had a lot going on at the time, she’d lit the charts up with her own songs as well as a guest shot on Steve Winwood’s hit single Higher Love. But I’d say her management dropped the ball here, as I don’t see the problem with having yet another number one hit to your name.
Addicted To Love is pretty simple to figure out, the song’s theme is spelled out in the title. Being hooked on love is a real thing and songs about love are what move a lot of people to listen to music so it all comes together pretty well. “Love as a drug” is something I guess is established by science but I don’t know much about science so I’ll leave it at that. Coupled with the smooth pop rock of the music, this is a winning formula right out of the gate.
The song did fantastically but many remember the music video. Palmer appeared on stage with a group of models who are acting as his backing band. This got everyone’s attention and Palmer would use the “girls in black” for his next few videos. Also, everyone and their mother either spoofed or copied the gimmick for their own videos over the course of the next several years. This remains one of the most iconic videos of the 1980’s and was nominated for the MTV Video of the Year, but it lost out – that was the same year Dire Straits did the Money For Nothing video and there’s no beating that.
This would be the peak of Robert Palmer’s success, though he’d still be lingering toward the top of the singles charts for awhile. His 1988 song Simply Irresistible was another massive tune but was kept out of the number one slot by some song called Sweet Child O’ Mine. Palmer would go on touring, recording and reuniting briefly with his Power Station bandmates until 2003 when he died of a heart attack at 54.
This song was everywhere just as I was growing up and really starting to pay attention to music. Though to be honest one didn’t have to venture far to find this on a radio or TV. This is truly one of the definitive cuts of the ’80’s and a magnificent time capsule of that period.
A bit of drama from last week came up, well, at least before Neil Young and Spotify wiped the floor with the news cycle.
The battle was this – Damon Albarn, of Blur and Gorillaz fame, said some stuff about Taylor Swift not writing her own songs. Taylor said stuff back, as did a lot of other people, and here we are days later.
Albarn was in Los Angeles to perform his only booked US concert of 2022 and did an interview with the L.A. Times while we was in town. In that interview, Albarn went into a conversation about songwriting and had this to say about Taylor Swift:
Not a very flattering portrait of Swift’s songwriting prowess, to be sure. This portion of the interview quickly took flight on social media and Taylor used Twitter to address Damon:
@DamonAlbarn I was such a big fan of yours until I saw this. I write ALL of my own songs. Your hot take is completely false and SO damaging. You don’t have to like my songs but it’s really fucked up to try and discredit my writing. WOW. https://t.co/t6GyXBU2Jd
Taylor got a lot of support from people who have worked with her as well as others in the general music community. It wasn’t a good look for Damon, who made a Twitter apology to Taylor then played his solo show in L.A. Damon did acknowledge the snafu by dedicating Blur’s Song 2 to the writer of the Times piece, stating that the writer requested it before casting Albarn in the the “social media abyss.”
The crux of the issue is songwriting. Is there some higher plane of existence for someone that writes their own songs as opposed to a performer who either doesn’t write or has help doing so?
It does depend on genre. In country and pop, two areas that Taylor Swift has operated in, it doesn’t matter. Both openly source songwriters for the process. In rock music it’s more muddled. It’s often a sign of authenticity and credibility to write one’s own songs. It can be looked down upon to use outside songwriting help, though many of rock’s bigger acts have done so and benefitted from it.
In this instance the songwriting argument really doesn’t matter. Taylor Swift is known for a lot of things, and one of those things is writing her own music. That’s been a known thing since Taylor came on the scene and detractors began pushing back against her. It dates back to before 2010, when she was a huge force in country music and traditionalists were upset with her. She’s been accused of a lot of things, fair or not, but not writing her own music hasn’t really been one.
I don’t know where Damon was going with his train of thought in that interview, and in reading the words I don’t see where he got “clickbaited.” Nothing was deceptive in the interview, and the interviewer even seemed to try and steer Damon away from what he was saying. And of course the piece ran with that portion of the interview – not really clickbait, but more so offering up the thing that more people are going to read.
Had Damon Albarn not said anything disparaging about Taylor Swift, this interview would have gone unnoticed by anyone who doesn’t follow Damon. The Britpop nostalgia audience and Gorillaz fans would have seen it and it would have then been lost to the ether. Instead, Damon’s name was all over socials for a few days. He might not have intended for that and I would give him the benefit of the doubt there, but he did dig his own hole.
On the topic of songwriting – I used to be one of those people who hemmed and hawed about musicians writing their own songs. I have been primarily a metal and rock fan, and that “authenticity” is held up as a debate point against the excesses of pop music. But over the years I’ve learned to quit caring. I’ve gotten into genres like country, where songwriting is as much a factory as an art. I’ve also quit caring about arguing such points at all. No one really cares on either side of the argument and it just pisses people off. I gain nothing from the argument and fans of musicians who hire outside writers aren’t going to alter their music tastes based on someone condescending toward them about it.
I do think this is a bit of an odd turn for Damon Albarn. He’s normally a pretty likable guy and isn’t one to often put his foot in his mouth. I don’t know what he gains from trying to throw Taylor under a bus. His stature in music is pretty well set – Blur’s legacy is almost 30 years old and the Gorillaz have been a thing for over 20 years. He isn’t going to score points with anyone, especially when what he said about Taylor doesn’t hold water.
This is the part right before the conclusion where I had space reserved in case one of the Gallagher brothers chimed in on the ordeal. Noel has been mum and Liam said little about his old adversary Albarn. Instead, Liam appears to be a Taylor Swift fan and offered nothing to fan the flames of this drama.
I don’t have much more to add to the discussion of Albarn versus Swift. Taylor clearly “won” the argument that she didn’t ask to be a part of in the first place. Damon Albarn pulled off his Los Angeles show with a bit of egg on his face and will probably be fine as time moves on. And while Swifties likely won’t be happy with him for a long time, Damon can thank Neil Young for knocking his name out of the trending topics list a few days later.
The Crooked Wanderer 