Song#: 2207
Date: 02/02/1985
Debut: 53
Peak: 16
Weeks: 14
Genre: Pop, New Wave
Pop Bits: Duran Duran's live album Arena would be their best charting effort in the US. It reached #4 thanks to the inclusion of a new studio track, "The Wild Boys," which was issued as a single and peaked at #2. Although no other singles would be issued from the album, to help keep the band on the charts it was decided that a new remix of their 1982 song "Save a Prayer" would be issued as a single in the US. The b-side would contain a shortened edit of the live version of the song that appeared on Arena. The ballad did fine reaching the Pop Top 20, but it broke their string of five consecutive Top 10's.
ReduxReview: This ballad showed a different side of Duran Duran and probably should have been released earlier during the run of Rio. I think if it had been a third single from the album, it might have done better than this delayed remix. By this point, Rio had been done for quite a while and many folks were already quite familiar with the song due to its original video getting a lot of airplay back then even though a single was not going to be issued. That familiarity wasn't going to do this single any favors and indeed even at the height of Duran mania, the song failed to crack the Top 10.
ReduxRating: 7/10
Trivia: This song was originally a track on the band's 1982 album Rio. It was initially released as the album's third single in the UK and other countries, but it was not issued in the US. This was most likely because Duran Duran hit the US over six months after they became stars in the UK. With new product from the band arriving in short order, there was only time for two singles from Rio to be issued in the US. By late '83, the US was caught up and got product from the band in the same time frame as the UK and other countries. The initial UK release of "Save a Prayer" was a big hit reaching #2 on the chart. The US remix version was not released there.
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Sunday, October 29, 2017
Saturday, October 28, 2017
"Somebody" by Bryan Adams
Song#: 2206
Date: 02/02/1985
Debut: 59
Peak: 11
Weeks: 17
Genre: Rock
Pop Bits: Adams' first single from his fourth album Reckless, "Run to You," became his second Pop Top 10 hit and his first #1 at Rock. To follow it up, this rockin' track was chosen. It was a smart choice for Rock radio as the song took off and became his second #1 on that chart. The single also did well at Pop, but it stopped just shy of the Top 10 and peaked at the dreaded #11 spot. Adams may have been denied a third Top 10 hit, but his next two singles would certainly make up for it.
ReduxReview: This tune was totally arena ready with its sing-a-long chorus. It was a solid anthem, but for me it just wasn't as good as the dark, rockin' "Run to You." It didn't deter me from buying the album, but I thought there were tracks on the disc that would be better singles - and indeed there would be. However, this did it's job at Rock radio and kept Adams' star rising.
ReduxRating: 6/10
Trivia: This song later became part of a high-profile music industry lawsuit. As the internet became more accessible and file sharing came along, music labels were trying to fight against illegal download sites and the sharing of copyright protected material. By 2003, they were done messing around and decided to make an example of individuals who were apparently file sharing. In 2006, Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a mother of four from Minnesota who had apparently posted music files for free sharing via the site Kazaa, was one of those individuals. Although it was said that she had posted over 1,700 files, Capitol Records just focused on 24 of their catalog songs and sent a cease and desist notice. They also offered Thomas-Rasset a settlement of $5000 to resolve the issue. She said no to the settlement and Capitol proceeded to sue her in court. She ended up losing the case. From 2007-2013, the case was tried, appealed, and revisited several times. Each time, Thomas-Rasset failed to defend her position and the amount of settlement to Capitol varied at different points from a low of $54,000 to a high of $1.9 million. In the end after the Supreme Court refused to hear the case, the final payment to Capitol was set at the amount granted at the very first trial, which was $220,000. Thousands of other similar lawsuits would follow. Most people would simply settle, but Thomas-Rasset was one of two people who fought it in the courts. Joel Tenenbaum was the other in 2003. Both would be on the losing end. In Thomas-Rasset's case, this Bryan Adams song was one of the 24 that were part of Capitol's lawsuit.
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Date: 02/02/1985
Debut: 59
Peak: 11
Weeks: 17
Genre: Rock
Pop Bits: Adams' first single from his fourth album Reckless, "Run to You," became his second Pop Top 10 hit and his first #1 at Rock. To follow it up, this rockin' track was chosen. It was a smart choice for Rock radio as the song took off and became his second #1 on that chart. The single also did well at Pop, but it stopped just shy of the Top 10 and peaked at the dreaded #11 spot. Adams may have been denied a third Top 10 hit, but his next two singles would certainly make up for it.
ReduxReview: This tune was totally arena ready with its sing-a-long chorus. It was a solid anthem, but for me it just wasn't as good as the dark, rockin' "Run to You." It didn't deter me from buying the album, but I thought there were tracks on the disc that would be better singles - and indeed there would be. However, this did it's job at Rock radio and kept Adams' star rising.
ReduxRating: 6/10
Trivia: This song later became part of a high-profile music industry lawsuit. As the internet became more accessible and file sharing came along, music labels were trying to fight against illegal download sites and the sharing of copyright protected material. By 2003, they were done messing around and decided to make an example of individuals who were apparently file sharing. In 2006, Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a mother of four from Minnesota who had apparently posted music files for free sharing via the site Kazaa, was one of those individuals. Although it was said that she had posted over 1,700 files, Capitol Records just focused on 24 of their catalog songs and sent a cease and desist notice. They also offered Thomas-Rasset a settlement of $5000 to resolve the issue. She said no to the settlement and Capitol proceeded to sue her in court. She ended up losing the case. From 2007-2013, the case was tried, appealed, and revisited several times. Each time, Thomas-Rasset failed to defend her position and the amount of settlement to Capitol varied at different points from a low of $54,000 to a high of $1.9 million. In the end after the Supreme Court refused to hear the case, the final payment to Capitol was set at the amount granted at the very first trial, which was $220,000. Thousands of other similar lawsuits would follow. Most people would simply settle, but Thomas-Rasset was one of two people who fought it in the courts. Joel Tenenbaum was the other in 2003. Both would be on the losing end. In Thomas-Rasset's case, this Bryan Adams song was one of the 24 that were part of Capitol's lawsuit.
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Friday, October 27, 2017
"This Is Not America" by David Bowie/Pat Metheny Group
Song#: 2205
Date: 02/02/1985
Debut: 65
Peak: 32
Weeks: 12
Genre: Pop, Rock, Soundtrack
Pop Bits: Jazz musician Pat Metheny and his band, which featured his frequent collaborator pianist Lyle Mays, were already two-time Grammy winners when an offer came in for them to do the score for the upcoming film The Falcon and the Snowman. Metheny and Mays composed the score, but it seems that a more pop-oriented song was wanted to help promote the film and soundtrack. The pair had come up with a theme for one part of the film and decided to expand upon it to make the tune more mainstream. They needed a collaborator to help finish the song and somewhere along the way David Bowie was suggested, most likely due to the artists being on the same label. Bowie agreed to work with Metheny and wrote a set of lyrics. The pair then produced the final version with Bowie supplying the vocals. The single was issued ahead of the film and it did well at Rock getting to #7. It was also able to crack the Pop Top 40. It did better in the UK reaching #14. It would be Metheny's only song to hit the Pop chart. The movie, which starred Sean Penn and Timothy Hutton, was well-received critically and did respectable at the box office.
ReduxReview: This dark and atmospheric song was perfect for Bowie. Metheny and Mays reeled in their jazz/improv tendencies and created a solid structure that could hold Bowie's lyrics and voice. The resulting recording was terrific and better than most of the tracks on Bowie's recent album Tonight. Rock embraced the tune and it made the Top 10 there, but the song may have been a bit too dark and serious for Pop to really catch on. However, the Top 40 showing was positive and it has become an essential part of Bowie's 80s catalog.
ReduxRating: 8/10
Trivia: Pat Metheny began his recording career with a solo effort in 1976 titled Bright Size Life. He formed his group two years later and several popular jazz albums would follow. His brand of progressive jazz/jazz fusion mixed with ambient and new age sounds attracted a big audience and his albums would frequently do well on the Pop chart. The Grammy folks took notice and began rewarding Metheny in 1983 with the Group's first win in the Best Jazz Fusion Performance category for their album Offramp. Over the years, the Group would win 11 Grammys. Metheny himself would take home another 9. Metheny is the only artist to have won Grammys in 10 different categories. He has also won a Grammy in every decade since the 1980's. The height of his popularity came in the late 80s/early 90s when three of his albums would become gold records.
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Date: 02/02/1985
Debut: 65
Peak: 32
Weeks: 12
Genre: Pop, Rock, Soundtrack
Pop Bits: Jazz musician Pat Metheny and his band, which featured his frequent collaborator pianist Lyle Mays, were already two-time Grammy winners when an offer came in for them to do the score for the upcoming film The Falcon and the Snowman. Metheny and Mays composed the score, but it seems that a more pop-oriented song was wanted to help promote the film and soundtrack. The pair had come up with a theme for one part of the film and decided to expand upon it to make the tune more mainstream. They needed a collaborator to help finish the song and somewhere along the way David Bowie was suggested, most likely due to the artists being on the same label. Bowie agreed to work with Metheny and wrote a set of lyrics. The pair then produced the final version with Bowie supplying the vocals. The single was issued ahead of the film and it did well at Rock getting to #7. It was also able to crack the Pop Top 40. It did better in the UK reaching #14. It would be Metheny's only song to hit the Pop chart. The movie, which starred Sean Penn and Timothy Hutton, was well-received critically and did respectable at the box office.
ReduxReview: This dark and atmospheric song was perfect for Bowie. Metheny and Mays reeled in their jazz/improv tendencies and created a solid structure that could hold Bowie's lyrics and voice. The resulting recording was terrific and better than most of the tracks on Bowie's recent album Tonight. Rock embraced the tune and it made the Top 10 there, but the song may have been a bit too dark and serious for Pop to really catch on. However, the Top 40 showing was positive and it has become an essential part of Bowie's 80s catalog.
ReduxRating: 8/10
Trivia: Pat Metheny began his recording career with a solo effort in 1976 titled Bright Size Life. He formed his group two years later and several popular jazz albums would follow. His brand of progressive jazz/jazz fusion mixed with ambient and new age sounds attracted a big audience and his albums would frequently do well on the Pop chart. The Grammy folks took notice and began rewarding Metheny in 1983 with the Group's first win in the Best Jazz Fusion Performance category for their album Offramp. Over the years, the Group would win 11 Grammys. Metheny himself would take home another 9. Metheny is the only artist to have won Grammys in 10 different categories. He has also won a Grammy in every decade since the 1980's. The height of his popularity came in the late 80s/early 90s when three of his albums would become gold records.
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Thursday, October 26, 2017
"The Word Is Out" by Jermaine Stewart
Song#: 2204
Date: 02/02/1985
Debut: 82
Peak: 41
Weeks: 15
Genre: R&B, Dance
Pop Bits: When Stewart was performing as a dancer backing the R&B trio Shalamar, he had a chance meeting with Culture Club's bassist Mickey Craig after a London show. The meeting led to Stewart providing backing vocals on Culture Club's "Miss Me Blind" and Craig helping Stewart assemble a solo demo tape. The demo and connection to Culture Club helped Stewart get signed to Arista Records. Stewart then set out to record his debut LP, The Word Is Out. The title-track would be selected as the first single. Although it wasn't a major hit, it did well getting to #4 Dance, #17 R&B and peaking at the dreaded #41 at Pop. Follow-up singles failed to do anything, but the results seemed good enough for Arista to keep Stewart on the label for a second LP.
ReduxReview: This is a pretty good debut single and grooves along just fine. I'm just not sure the chorus part is quite as hooky as it should be. The title is mentioned, but then there are other vocals saying a bunch a words that are a bit difficult to hear/understand. It's a bit confusing. It needed to be a bit more forceful and apparent so that folks could sing along. Not bad for a first effort though.
ReduxRating: 5/10
Trivia: Double Shot! 1) Mickey Craig co-wrote this song with Stewart along with two other tracks for the album. 2) Stewart became a dancer on the local Chicago version of the show Soul Train in the early 70s. After that show closed up, he moved out to L.A. and ended up being a featured dancer on the national syndicated version of the show. That is where he met and became good friends with two other dancers, Jody Watley and Jeffrey Daniel. When Soul Train's Don Cornelius was assembling a new R&B trio act, all three tried out. In the end, Watley and Daniel made the cut, but Stewart just missed out on the third spot. However, his skills as a dancer and friendship with the other two artists helped to secure a backing position on their tours, which led to Stewart meeting Mickey Craig.
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Date: 02/02/1985
Debut: 82
Peak: 41
Weeks: 15
Genre: R&B, Dance
Pop Bits: When Stewart was performing as a dancer backing the R&B trio Shalamar, he had a chance meeting with Culture Club's bassist Mickey Craig after a London show. The meeting led to Stewart providing backing vocals on Culture Club's "Miss Me Blind" and Craig helping Stewart assemble a solo demo tape. The demo and connection to Culture Club helped Stewart get signed to Arista Records. Stewart then set out to record his debut LP, The Word Is Out. The title-track would be selected as the first single. Although it wasn't a major hit, it did well getting to #4 Dance, #17 R&B and peaking at the dreaded #41 at Pop. Follow-up singles failed to do anything, but the results seemed good enough for Arista to keep Stewart on the label for a second LP.
ReduxReview: This is a pretty good debut single and grooves along just fine. I'm just not sure the chorus part is quite as hooky as it should be. The title is mentioned, but then there are other vocals saying a bunch a words that are a bit difficult to hear/understand. It's a bit confusing. It needed to be a bit more forceful and apparent so that folks could sing along. Not bad for a first effort though.
ReduxRating: 5/10
Trivia: Double Shot! 1) Mickey Craig co-wrote this song with Stewart along with two other tracks for the album. 2) Stewart became a dancer on the local Chicago version of the show Soul Train in the early 70s. After that show closed up, he moved out to L.A. and ended up being a featured dancer on the national syndicated version of the show. That is where he met and became good friends with two other dancers, Jody Watley and Jeffrey Daniel. When Soul Train's Don Cornelius was assembling a new R&B trio act, all three tried out. In the end, Watley and Daniel made the cut, but Stewart just missed out on the third spot. However, his skills as a dancer and friendship with the other two artists helped to secure a backing position on their tours, which led to Stewart meeting Mickey Craig.
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Wednesday, October 25, 2017
"Baby Come Back to Me (The Morse Code of Love)" by The Manhattan Transfer
Song#: 2203
Date: 02/02/1985
Debut: 87
Peak: 83
Weeks: 3
Genre: Pop, Adult Contemporary, Doo Wop
Pop Bits: After a couple of albums that flirted with contemporary pop and R&B sounds, this vocal quartet decided to retreat back to their early pop/standards sound and culled an album of recent live performances with a few leftover studio tracks added in. They titled the collection Bop Doo-Wopp and this studio track was chosen to be the first single. The retro sounding song hit the right notes at AC and it got to #14 on that chart. However, Pop was less enthused and the single only managed a few short weeks on the chart. It would end up being the group's final Pop chart single. Although their Pop days would end, their next album would be one of the most successful of their career. Vocalese was a very well received project where lyrics (by Jon Hendricks) were specifically written for what was originally instrumental jazz songs. Both the lyrics and performances were meant to mimic the instruments that played the original melody and solo lines. The album was a big critical success that got to #2 on the Jazz chart and #74 Pop. The album received twelve Grammy nomination, which at the time was the second biggest total ever for an album behind Michael Jackson's Thriller. It would end up winning three awards including Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Duo or Group.
ReduxReview: I remember that the Bop Doo-Wopp album had a cool cover, but that was about the best part of it. The album was pretty lackluster and was really just a stop-gap product. This song was a minor highlight, but it couldn't compare with some of the top material from their previous albums. I'm not the biggest fan of doo wop, so I wasn't all that into it. I adored the Transfer at the time and this LP was a big disappointment. However, they definitely made up for it with Vocalese, which was just brilliant.
ReduxRating: 5/10
Trivia: The Transfer dedicated this song to the doo wop vocal group The Capris. Headed up by lead singer Nick Santamaria, the group recorded a single in 1959 that featured the song "There's a Moon Out Tonight." The single sank as did the hopes of The Carpis and they broke up. A year or so went by before a DJ found the record and began to spin it. The song started to catch on and before long it was shaping up to be a hit. The Capris got back together and by the spring of '61, the single had reached #3. With a hit to their name, the group began recording follow-up singles. Unfortunately, none of them could scale the chart as well and by 1965 they parted ways again. Santamaria became an NYPD officer, but along the way kept dabbling in music and writing songs. As the 80s began, Santamaria and a couple of members of the old Capris reformed the group. They recorded an album titled There's a Moon Out Tonight in 1982 and one of the tracks on the album was a song written by Santamaria called "The Morse Code of Love." It's genuine sound made people think it was a lost doo wop gem and it became popular with fans of the genre. Two years later, Manhattan Transfer picked up the tune, changed the title, and reached the Pop and AC charts with it.
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Date: 02/02/1985
Debut: 87
Peak: 83
Weeks: 3
Genre: Pop, Adult Contemporary, Doo Wop
Pop Bits: After a couple of albums that flirted with contemporary pop and R&B sounds, this vocal quartet decided to retreat back to their early pop/standards sound and culled an album of recent live performances with a few leftover studio tracks added in. They titled the collection Bop Doo-Wopp and this studio track was chosen to be the first single. The retro sounding song hit the right notes at AC and it got to #14 on that chart. However, Pop was less enthused and the single only managed a few short weeks on the chart. It would end up being the group's final Pop chart single. Although their Pop days would end, their next album would be one of the most successful of their career. Vocalese was a very well received project where lyrics (by Jon Hendricks) were specifically written for what was originally instrumental jazz songs. Both the lyrics and performances were meant to mimic the instruments that played the original melody and solo lines. The album was a big critical success that got to #2 on the Jazz chart and #74 Pop. The album received twelve Grammy nomination, which at the time was the second biggest total ever for an album behind Michael Jackson's Thriller. It would end up winning three awards including Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Duo or Group.
ReduxReview: I remember that the Bop Doo-Wopp album had a cool cover, but that was about the best part of it. The album was pretty lackluster and was really just a stop-gap product. This song was a minor highlight, but it couldn't compare with some of the top material from their previous albums. I'm not the biggest fan of doo wop, so I wasn't all that into it. I adored the Transfer at the time and this LP was a big disappointment. However, they definitely made up for it with Vocalese, which was just brilliant.
ReduxRating: 5/10
Trivia: The Transfer dedicated this song to the doo wop vocal group The Capris. Headed up by lead singer Nick Santamaria, the group recorded a single in 1959 that featured the song "There's a Moon Out Tonight." The single sank as did the hopes of The Carpis and they broke up. A year or so went by before a DJ found the record and began to spin it. The song started to catch on and before long it was shaping up to be a hit. The Capris got back together and by the spring of '61, the single had reached #3. With a hit to their name, the group began recording follow-up singles. Unfortunately, none of them could scale the chart as well and by 1965 they parted ways again. Santamaria became an NYPD officer, but along the way kept dabbling in music and writing songs. As the 80s began, Santamaria and a couple of members of the old Capris reformed the group. They recorded an album titled There's a Moon Out Tonight in 1982 and one of the tracks on the album was a song written by Santamaria called "The Morse Code of Love." It's genuine sound made people think it was a lost doo wop gem and it became popular with fans of the genre. Two years later, Manhattan Transfer picked up the tune, changed the title, and reached the Pop and AC charts with it.
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