Song#: 0061
Date: 02/23/1980
Debut: 89
Peak: 71
Weeks: 6
Genre: Pop, Easy Listening
Pop Bits: Famous (or infamous) for unleashing the wink-wink, deliciously cheesy #1 "Afternoon Delight," the Band suffered a massive flame-out and are considered by some to be a one-hit wonder. But actually they had three other chart songs though none would reach the upper half of the chart or were as memorable as their signature tune. "Afternoon Delight" got them two Grammy awards including (cursed!) Best New Artist - over Boston. Their fourth and last album, "4x4," allowed them to get this one last song on the chart before breaking up.
ReduxReview: Not as horrible as you might think, but not great either. It's just kind of a languid 70s ballad, but I will say that they do have nice vocals - well, they should if that is part of the band name...
ReduxRating: 4/10
Trivia: During the summer of '77, the Band headlined their own TV variety show on CBS. One of the writers (and sometimes performer) on the show had a pretty good career in later years...David Letterman.
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Monday, October 1, 2012
"Autograph" by John Denver
Song#: 0060
Date: 02/23/1980
Debut: 90
Peak: 52
Weeks: 10
Genre: Pop
Pop Bits: After being on a "Rocky Mountain High" for most of the 70s, the 80s found John Denver on the low side of the charts. Coming off of the box office hit movie "Oh, God!," he returned to the chart with the title song to his first album of the 80s. He got quite a chilly reception with this middling chart song and it was his first album not to reach gold status since 1970. He was one of the biggest stars of the 70s, but it was probably a combination of his hippy-dippy good guy persona, gentle songs, and changing musical landscape that made him more of a punchline than a continuing musical force into the 80s. Even today his name can elicit groans, but people forget he had a rich catalog of pop/folk/country songs and, if they were around during the 70s, were probably singing along to them.
ReduxReview: Well, he certainly was infatuated with mountains. The "Autograph" album had four songs with "mountain" in the title. By this time in his career he seemed to just be running out of gas in regards to good singles material while others like Dan Fogelberg were taking over with their strong brand of mountain pop. This is a nice enough song, but it is just too subtle to make a lasting radio impression.
ReduxRating: 5/10
Trivia: Denver was born Henry John Deutschendorf in (of all places) Roswell, New Mexico. He was in an Air Force family, which meant moving all around the country for most of his younger years. His favorite state was Colorado, so when it was suggested his last name would not fit on a marquee, he opted to change it to Denver.
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Date: 02/23/1980
Debut: 90
Peak: 52
Weeks: 10
Genre: Pop
Pop Bits: After being on a "Rocky Mountain High" for most of the 70s, the 80s found John Denver on the low side of the charts. Coming off of the box office hit movie "Oh, God!," he returned to the chart with the title song to his first album of the 80s. He got quite a chilly reception with this middling chart song and it was his first album not to reach gold status since 1970. He was one of the biggest stars of the 70s, but it was probably a combination of his hippy-dippy good guy persona, gentle songs, and changing musical landscape that made him more of a punchline than a continuing musical force into the 80s. Even today his name can elicit groans, but people forget he had a rich catalog of pop/folk/country songs and, if they were around during the 70s, were probably singing along to them.
ReduxReview: Well, he certainly was infatuated with mountains. The "Autograph" album had four songs with "mountain" in the title. By this time in his career he seemed to just be running out of gas in regards to good singles material while others like Dan Fogelberg were taking over with their strong brand of mountain pop. This is a nice enough song, but it is just too subtle to make a lasting radio impression.
ReduxRating: 5/10
Trivia: Denver was born Henry John Deutschendorf in (of all places) Roswell, New Mexico. He was in an Air Force family, which meant moving all around the country for most of his younger years. His favorite state was Colorado, so when it was suggested his last name would not fit on a marquee, he opted to change it to Denver.
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"Somewhere In America" by Survivor
Song#: 0059
Date: 02/23/1980
Debut: 95
Peak: 70
Weeks: 12
Genre: Rock, Arena Rock
Pop Bits: Survivor formed in 1978 but it took a few years and a couple albums before they hit it big - with the help of Sylvester Stallone. Their self-titled debut album didn't make much of an impact but thanks to some local Chicago support, this first single managed to get on the chart. What is interesting with the song is it stayed on the chart for 12 weeks but only peaked at 70. Typically these low-charting singles drop off after a few weeks.
ReduxReview: After a quiet opening the song goes into a straight-forward mid-tempo rock jam, then a dreamy mid-section, then crunchy guitar solo, then back to the beginning, then jamming again. Somehow it does all pull together, but it is a chaotic 5 minutes. Nice cowbell though.
ReduxRating: 5/10
Trivia: Lead singer Jim Peterik had chart success before Survivor. He was lead singer of The Ides of March who had a #2 hit in 1970 with "Vehicle."
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Date: 02/23/1980
Debut: 95
Peak: 70
Weeks: 12
Genre: Rock, Arena Rock
Pop Bits: Survivor formed in 1978 but it took a few years and a couple albums before they hit it big - with the help of Sylvester Stallone. Their self-titled debut album didn't make much of an impact but thanks to some local Chicago support, this first single managed to get on the chart. What is interesting with the song is it stayed on the chart for 12 weeks but only peaked at 70. Typically these low-charting singles drop off after a few weeks.
ReduxReview: After a quiet opening the song goes into a straight-forward mid-tempo rock jam, then a dreamy mid-section, then crunchy guitar solo, then back to the beginning, then jamming again. Somehow it does all pull together, but it is a chaotic 5 minutes. Nice cowbell though.
ReduxRating: 5/10
Trivia: Lead singer Jim Peterik had chart success before Survivor. He was lead singer of The Ides of March who had a #2 hit in 1970 with "Vehicle."
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Sunday, September 30, 2012
"Off the Wall" by Michael Jackson
Top 10 Alert!
Song#: 0058Date: 02/16/1980
Debut: 53
Peak: 10
Weeks: 17
Genre: Pop, R&B, Dance
Pop Bits: The title track from Jackson's album was its third single following the #1's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and "Rock With You." After working with Quincy Jones on the movie misstep The Wiz, Jackson got Jones to co-produce the album with him. This successful collaboration would last through his next two giant successes. Jackson wrote three songs on the album which featured songs written by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder. The album was considered a departure for Jackson and the direction he was going was well received. But Jackson thought it should have had more impact than it did (even though it was a major hit) and set out to improve and top it.
ReduxReview: I've always thought of this as "Thriller"-lite. It has a similar sound and groove and some crazy sounds (like the laugh at the beginning). Both songs were written by Rod Temperton, so it is not surprising. It is less memorable than the other singles from the album (or the ones yet to come) and in his catalog I think it is one of the songs that people have forgotten about, which is too bad. It's actually very good.
ReduxRating: 7/10
Trivia: Jackson won his first Grammy in 1980 for Best R&B Male Vocal Performace for "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough." But as successful as the album and songs were, none were nominated in the main categories.
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"Ride Like the Wind" by Christopher Cross
Top 10 Alert!
Song#: 0057Date: 02/16/1980
Debut: 61
Peak: 2
Weeks: 21
Genre: Pop, Soft Rock
Pop Bits: There is a running legend about the curse of the Grammys where winner of Best New Artist fails to fully follow-up their initial success. While some do go on to huge careers (The Beatles, Natalie Cole, Bette Midler, The Carpenters, Mariah Carey) others seems to flame out soon after (Starland Vocal Band, Arrested Development, Men at Work, Jody Watley). But out of any New Artist winner, none had a more spectacular decline than Christopher Cross. His self-title album was a big hit and spawned four Top 20 song and he cleaned up at the 1981 Grammys winning five. But whether it was the changing musical landscape of the 80s or just a lack of material that matched his debut, his next album briefly flickered and faded. After that, he was never able to put an album on the chart again. "Ride Like the Wind" was his debut single and it featured Michael McDonald on backing vocals.
ReduxReview: My main connection with this song is that in my senior year of high school our band was going to play this during our spring concert. Our director allowed me to rehearse the band and then I conducted the song during the concert. It was so cool to do and I've always appreciated that I had that opportunity. So I may be a little bias in my love of the song, but it really is a soft rock classic (although on most of his songs I can barely understand what Cross is singing...is it just me?).
ReduxRating: 8/10
Trivia: At the time, Cross was the only artist to win the four general categories of the Grammys in the same year - Album, Record, and Song of the Year plus Best New Artist. Decades later, an artist won all four, but not in the same year. Adele won Best New Artist in 2009 and then cleaned up with the other three awards in 2012. Then in 2020, Billie Eillish became the second artist to win all four awards in the same year.
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