Song#: 0432
Date: 12/06/1980
Debut: 81
Peak: 77
Weeks: 6
Genre: Pop, Soft Rock
Pop Bits: This third single from their "Firin' Up" album couldn't gather much momentum and peaked in the lower quarter of the chart. But since they already scored a hit with the Vince Gill-lead "Let Me Love You Tonight" (#10), the album was already a success.
ReduxReview: This is a pleasant enough song, but it just sounds so familiar - like they formed it to be similar to other soft rock tunes at the time. The group is supposed to be more in the country-rock vein, but this is more like something the Doobies or maybe even Ambrosia would put out. It just doesn't fit and neither does Vince Gill's vocals. The tune is kind of nice, but I'd never associate this with Pure Prairie League.
ReduxRating: 5/10
Trivia: The group's self-titled 1972 debut album featured a Norman Rockwell painting on the cover. The character in the painting was a cowboy named Luke and he ended up appearing on every PPL album cover.
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Saturday, June 29, 2013
Friday, June 28, 2013
"Games People Play" by The Alan Parsons Project
Song#: 0431
Date: 12/06/1980
Debut: 83
Peak: 16
Weeks: 23
Genre: Rock, Prog Rock
Pop Bits: After four successful albums, this studio group mainly consisting of Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson ended up having some tense negotiations with their label Arista. But both parties came to an agreement and The Project released their next album "The Turn of a Friendly Card." Arista wisely made a good choice in retaining the group as this first single became their biggest hit at the time and the album became their second platinum success. Although Woolfson would eventually sing some songs on the group's albums, they typically had several singers provide the vocals on their tracks. This song features a lead vocal by Lenny Zakatek, who also sang on other Project songs like "Damned If I Do" (#27, 1979) and "I Wouldn't Wanna Be Like You" (#36, 1977). The album also received a Grammy nod for Best Engineered Recording.
ReduxReview: With that sequenced keyboard lick and the opening "where do we go from here" line, this song is instantly recognizable. This is one of their most solid rock songs and should have gone Top 10. This is the point where I started to become a huge APP fan and their work was influential in me wanting to go to college for music production (which I did).
ReduxRating: 9/10
Trivia: Before meeting Woolfson, Parsons was already a successful engineer. He was assistant engineer on The Beatles' "Abbey Road" and "Let It Be" albums and he was the engineer on one of the most famous rock albums of all time, Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon." Woolfson became Parsons' manager and Parsons went on to do work with groups like Pilot, The Hollies, and Ambrosia (for which he received a Grammy nod for his engineering work).
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Date: 12/06/1980
Debut: 83
Peak: 16
Weeks: 23
Genre: Rock, Prog Rock
Pop Bits: After four successful albums, this studio group mainly consisting of Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson ended up having some tense negotiations with their label Arista. But both parties came to an agreement and The Project released their next album "The Turn of a Friendly Card." Arista wisely made a good choice in retaining the group as this first single became their biggest hit at the time and the album became their second platinum success. Although Woolfson would eventually sing some songs on the group's albums, they typically had several singers provide the vocals on their tracks. This song features a lead vocal by Lenny Zakatek, who also sang on other Project songs like "Damned If I Do" (#27, 1979) and "I Wouldn't Wanna Be Like You" (#36, 1977). The album also received a Grammy nod for Best Engineered Recording.
ReduxReview: With that sequenced keyboard lick and the opening "where do we go from here" line, this song is instantly recognizable. This is one of their most solid rock songs and should have gone Top 10. This is the point where I started to become a huge APP fan and their work was influential in me wanting to go to college for music production (which I did).
ReduxRating: 9/10
Trivia: Before meeting Woolfson, Parsons was already a successful engineer. He was assistant engineer on The Beatles' "Abbey Road" and "Let It Be" albums and he was the engineer on one of the most famous rock albums of all time, Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon." Woolfson became Parsons' manager and Parsons went on to do work with groups like Pilot, The Hollies, and Ambrosia (for which he received a Grammy nod for his engineering work).
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Thursday, June 27, 2013
"Heartbreak Hotel" by The Jacksons
Song#: 0430
Date: 12/06/1980
Debut: 84
Peak: 22
Weeks: 16
Genre: R&B
Pop Bits: The first single from their second self-produced album "Triumph," just missed the Top 10 as "Lovely One" peaked at #12 (#2 R&B). This second single couldn't get inside the Top 20 but it matched the peak of the first single on the R&B chart. It was enough to give The Jacksons their second platinum album in a row.
ReduxReview: This is a far better single than their previous "Lovely One." It has shades of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" with it's theatrical approach, creepy lyrics, and sound effects. I think it is one of Michael's best songs that he contributed to a Jacksons album. His solo albums would still have better material, but this is a good tune. I'm not sure why it stalled out so low on the chart.
ReduxRating: 6/10
Trivia: This song was written by Michael Jackson and he supposedly titled it without knowing that Elvis Presley had a big hit with a song with the same title. When Jackson found this out, he changed the name of the song to "This Place Hotel" to avoid confusion with the Presley hit. Later pressings of the album reflected the title change, but when the song hit the pop chart it was listed as "Hearbreak Hotel."
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Date: 12/06/1980
Debut: 84
Peak: 22
Weeks: 16
Genre: R&B
Pop Bits: The first single from their second self-produced album "Triumph," just missed the Top 10 as "Lovely One" peaked at #12 (#2 R&B). This second single couldn't get inside the Top 20 but it matched the peak of the first single on the R&B chart. It was enough to give The Jacksons their second platinum album in a row.
ReduxReview: This is a far better single than their previous "Lovely One." It has shades of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" with it's theatrical approach, creepy lyrics, and sound effects. I think it is one of Michael's best songs that he contributed to a Jacksons album. His solo albums would still have better material, but this is a good tune. I'm not sure why it stalled out so low on the chart.
ReduxRating: 6/10
Trivia: This song was written by Michael Jackson and he supposedly titled it without knowing that Elvis Presley had a big hit with a song with the same title. When Jackson found this out, he changed the name of the song to "This Place Hotel" to avoid confusion with the Presley hit. Later pressings of the album reflected the title change, but when the song hit the pop chart it was listed as "Hearbreak Hotel."
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"Fashion" by David Bowie
Song#: 0429
Date: 12/06/1980
Debut: 87
Peak: 70
Weeks: 9
Genre: Rock
Pop Bits: Bowie was just coming off of what has been called the "Berlin Trilogy" of his albums, "Low, "Heroes," and "Lodger" (1977-1979). It was a period where Bowie lived in Berlin and with contributions from Brian Eno created music that experimented with minimalism and were much more ambient in tone that his previous albums. As the trilogy progressed, he would incorporate more rock elements but overall through this period his commercial appeal fell in the US. He returned to putting rock at the forefront with 1980's "Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)" and this single got him back on the pop chart for the first time in over three years. Although it wasn't a major pop hit, rock radio got on board and it became more popular than what the pop chart peak reflects. Many critics have stated that "Scary Monsters" was the last great Bowie album and that it basically closed his most potent musical period.
ReduxReview: Bowie is another artist that I liked throughout the years but didn't fully latch onto until much later. Nowadays he is one of my all-time favorites and I love all of his characters and music from his early vaudeville-type stuff through to his current resurgence with "The Next Day." I'd probably agree with critics that while he did do some excellent work in later years, "Scary Monsters" was probably the cut off point for pure classic Bowie. This track is representative of what he was doing and it is killer. I actually thought this was a Top 10 hit until I revisited this chart! But it doesn't matter. The song is brilliant.
ReduxRating: 9/10
Trivia: Although it didn't hit the chart in the US, the first single from the album was "Ashes to Ashes," which hit #1 in the UK. This song was a sequel of sorts to his 1973 hit "Space Oddity" (#15) as Bowie brings back the song's main character Major Tom.
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Date: 12/06/1980
Debut: 87
Peak: 70
Weeks: 9
Genre: Rock
Pop Bits: Bowie was just coming off of what has been called the "Berlin Trilogy" of his albums, "Low, "Heroes," and "Lodger" (1977-1979). It was a period where Bowie lived in Berlin and with contributions from Brian Eno created music that experimented with minimalism and were much more ambient in tone that his previous albums. As the trilogy progressed, he would incorporate more rock elements but overall through this period his commercial appeal fell in the US. He returned to putting rock at the forefront with 1980's "Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)" and this single got him back on the pop chart for the first time in over three years. Although it wasn't a major pop hit, rock radio got on board and it became more popular than what the pop chart peak reflects. Many critics have stated that "Scary Monsters" was the last great Bowie album and that it basically closed his most potent musical period.
ReduxReview: Bowie is another artist that I liked throughout the years but didn't fully latch onto until much later. Nowadays he is one of my all-time favorites and I love all of his characters and music from his early vaudeville-type stuff through to his current resurgence with "The Next Day." I'd probably agree with critics that while he did do some excellent work in later years, "Scary Monsters" was probably the cut off point for pure classic Bowie. This track is representative of what he was doing and it is killer. I actually thought this was a Top 10 hit until I revisited this chart! But it doesn't matter. The song is brilliant.
ReduxRating: 9/10
Trivia: Although it didn't hit the chart in the US, the first single from the album was "Ashes to Ashes," which hit #1 in the UK. This song was a sequel of sorts to his 1973 hit "Space Oddity" (#15) as Bowie brings back the song's main character Major Tom.
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Wednesday, June 26, 2013
"Giving It Up for Your Love" by Delbert McClinton
Top 10 Alert!
Song#: 0428 Date: 12/06/1980
Debut: 90
Peak: 8
Weeks: 19
Genre: Blues-Rock
Pop Bits: McClinton was involved in blues music early on when his band The Straitjackets would back prominent artist like Howlin' Wolf and Lightnin' Hopkins. He got his first taste of chart success playing harmonica on Bruce Channel's 1962 #1 hit "Hey! Baby." After a stint as a duo with Glen Clark that yielded the #90 song "I Received a Letter" (1972), McClinton went solo and released a string of albums that didn't amount to much on the charts. The one bright spot was this single from his 1980 album "The Jealous Kind." It would be his only Top 10 pop single.
ReduxReview: Here is another song I forgot about. As soon as it started the song came right back to me. I had thought this was a 70s song, but came out in 1980. This is some real tasty blues-rock and just a terrific song. I'm kind of surprised some artist hasn't latched onto this song and revived it. Someone should. I think it could hit again.
ReduxRating: 8/10
Trivia: In 1993, McClinton had a country hit in a duet with Tanya Tucker. "Tell Me About It" peaked at #4 on the country chart. Although he didn't write the song, another one that he did write hit #1 on the country chart. Emmylou Harris topped the country chart in 1978 with McClinton's "Two More Bottles of Wine."
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