Song#: 2233
Date: 03/02/1985
Debut: 89
Peak: 81
Weeks: 5
Genre: R&B
Pop Bits: Two years after their last album, Forever By Your Side, spawned the #4 R&B hit "Crazy," The Manhattans returned with their new album Too Hot to Stop It. This first single got things started. The cover tune (see below) just barely made the Top 20 at R&B (#20), but the high nostalgia factor got folks hooked at AC and the song peaked at #8 on that chart. The action at AC most likely helped the single get on the Pop chart for a few short weeks. It would be the group's final song to chart at Pop. They managed to get six more low-peaking singles on the R&B chart throughout the remainder of the decade, but their albums stopped charting after Too Hot to Stop It.
ReduxReview: If you are gonna revive a chestnut like this (especially in the 80s), you'd better add something new to it. Otherwise, why bother? The original is just fine and an unremarkable remake just ain't gonna do the song (or the covering artist) any favors. The Manhattans try to dress up the tune by adding a sax section along with some modern production touches, but it's really not enough to make it stand out. It's nothing that hadn't already been done by countless cover bands. Basically, they didn't make the song their own and it resulted in a forgettable single.
ReduxRating: 4/10
Trivia: Double Shot! 1) This is a remake of an original song written and recorded by R&B legend Sam Cooke. It would be Cooke's debut single and in 1957 the song would reach #1 at both R&B and Pop. It would be the first of nineteen R&B Top 10's for Cooke that including four #1's. The song would later be included on the list of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. It would also make Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (at #115). Cooke's life would be cut short when he was shot to death in December of 1964. 2) Manhattans member Gerald Alston left the group in 1987 for a solo career. From 1988 to 1995, Alston got ten singles on the R&B chart with three of them hitting the Top 10. Unfortunately, none of the songs could cross over to the Pop chart.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Saturday, November 25, 2017
Friday, November 24, 2017
"Scientific Love" by Midnight Star
Song#: 2232
Date: 03/02/1985
Debut: 93
Peak: 80
Weeks: 7
Genre: R&B, Dance
Pop Bits: Midnight Star grabbed their biggest overall hit with the #1 R&B/#18 Pop track "Operator." It was taken from their fifth album Planetary Invasion as was this follow-up single. Unfortunately, it didn't have the same appeal as the previous hit and it missed the Top 10 at R&B getting to #16 while hanging out near the bottom of the Pop chart for a few weeks. It also got to #19 on the Dance chart. A third single, "Body Snatchers," would later get to #31 at R&B. The album would be a gold seller, but it was quite a drop from their previous album, No Parking on the Dance Floor, which sold over two million copies.
ReduxReview: This is not a bad jam, but it lacks the hook quality of "Operator" and therefore couldn't attract the same audience. I expected something a bit quirkier due to the title, but that didn't happen. It's just a basic 80s R&B tune with some solid vocal work from singer Belinda Lipscomb. "Body Snatchers" was more fun, but I think it was a bit too similar to their previous hits like "Freak-a-Zoid" and they were trying not to rely on that sound for hits. Maybe they should have.
ReduxRating: 5/10
Trivia: Band member Reggie Calloway would go on to write and produce songs for other artists including Levert, Teddy Pendergrass, Natalie Cole and his own group Calloway. One of his compositions earned the song's performer a Grammy. In 1987, Gladys Knight & the Pips had a #1 R&B hit (#13 Pop) with the Calloway composition "Love Overboard." The song would earn Knight & the Pips a Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group. Around the same time, Calloway's song that he wrote and produced for the group Levert, "Casanova" (1987, #1 R&B/#5 Pop), would get Calloway a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Song.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Date: 03/02/1985
Debut: 93
Peak: 80
Weeks: 7
Genre: R&B, Dance
Pop Bits: Midnight Star grabbed their biggest overall hit with the #1 R&B/#18 Pop track "Operator." It was taken from their fifth album Planetary Invasion as was this follow-up single. Unfortunately, it didn't have the same appeal as the previous hit and it missed the Top 10 at R&B getting to #16 while hanging out near the bottom of the Pop chart for a few weeks. It also got to #19 on the Dance chart. A third single, "Body Snatchers," would later get to #31 at R&B. The album would be a gold seller, but it was quite a drop from their previous album, No Parking on the Dance Floor, which sold over two million copies.
ReduxReview: This is not a bad jam, but it lacks the hook quality of "Operator" and therefore couldn't attract the same audience. I expected something a bit quirkier due to the title, but that didn't happen. It's just a basic 80s R&B tune with some solid vocal work from singer Belinda Lipscomb. "Body Snatchers" was more fun, but I think it was a bit too similar to their previous hits like "Freak-a-Zoid" and they were trying not to rely on that sound for hits. Maybe they should have.
ReduxRating: 5/10
Trivia: Band member Reggie Calloway would go on to write and produce songs for other artists including Levert, Teddy Pendergrass, Natalie Cole and his own group Calloway. One of his compositions earned the song's performer a Grammy. In 1987, Gladys Knight & the Pips had a #1 R&B hit (#13 Pop) with the Calloway composition "Love Overboard." The song would earn Knight & the Pips a Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group. Around the same time, Calloway's song that he wrote and produced for the group Levert, "Casanova" (1987, #1 R&B/#5 Pop), would get Calloway a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Song.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Thursday, November 23, 2017
"Along Comes a Woman" by Chicago
Song#: 2231
Date: 02/23/1985
Debut: 60
Peak: 14
Weeks: 16
Genre: Soft Rock
Pop Bits: Chicago got two of their biggest hits when "Hard Habit to Break" and "You're the Inspiration" both reached #3. These were the second and third singles, respectively, from their album Chicago 17. With those results, it was decided that a fourth single might be prudent, so they decided to break out of the ballad mode and issued this upbeat tune. Rock radio was happy about the change and the song ended up at #10 on that chart. It played about the same at Pop stopping just short of the Top 10. AC preferred the ballads and left this one stalling at #25. It would be the last single released from the album and the last one co-written and sung by Peter Cetera. By the summer of '85, Cetera had decided to leave the band he had been with since 1967 in favor of a solo career. The band would go through a couple of other personnel changes and return to the charts later in '86.
ReduxReview: David Foster's production tries hard to make this thing rock out, but it doesn't really work. He even tries to incorporate the horn section, but their contributions are so clean and punchy that it nearly sounds like synth horns (I'm guessing a synth was used to boost the sound). For me it was all production and hardly any song. However, it had a decent hook and was a good choice for a single. I just wasn't diggin' it. Besides the two big ballads, there was nothing on Chicago 17 that kept my interest.
ReduxRating: 5/10
Trivia: The Indiana Jones-style video for this song was direct by Jay Durbin. Durbin had previously done videos for Hall & Oates and Billy Joel. In 1980, Durbin directed the pilot to a proposed new series based on The Wombles, characters from a popular British book series and TV show. The original British TV show The Wombles was done in stop-action form and sixty shows between 1973 and 1975 were created. Musician Mike Batt was hired to do the music and he along with a cast of session musicians (including well-known guitarist Chris Spedding) recorded songs for the show that would get released as by The Wombles. Four albums by The Wombles were released during the run of the show with four singles hitting the UK Top 10. The success of the singles make The Wombles the top charting singles artist in the UK for 1974. The Wombles didn't necessarily translate well to the US, but their second album, Remember You're a Womble, was issued in the States and it did result in one charting single, "Wombling Summer Party," which reached #55 in 1974. The Durbin-directed reboot apparently didn't get picked up and no further episodes besides the test pilot were done. The Wombles returned to TV in animated form in 1997 for a fifty-two episode run. Apparently, The Wombles will make another return in CGI form sometime in 2017.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Date: 02/23/1985
Debut: 60
Peak: 14
Weeks: 16
Genre: Soft Rock
Pop Bits: Chicago got two of their biggest hits when "Hard Habit to Break" and "You're the Inspiration" both reached #3. These were the second and third singles, respectively, from their album Chicago 17. With those results, it was decided that a fourth single might be prudent, so they decided to break out of the ballad mode and issued this upbeat tune. Rock radio was happy about the change and the song ended up at #10 on that chart. It played about the same at Pop stopping just short of the Top 10. AC preferred the ballads and left this one stalling at #25. It would be the last single released from the album and the last one co-written and sung by Peter Cetera. By the summer of '85, Cetera had decided to leave the band he had been with since 1967 in favor of a solo career. The band would go through a couple of other personnel changes and return to the charts later in '86.
ReduxReview: David Foster's production tries hard to make this thing rock out, but it doesn't really work. He even tries to incorporate the horn section, but their contributions are so clean and punchy that it nearly sounds like synth horns (I'm guessing a synth was used to boost the sound). For me it was all production and hardly any song. However, it had a decent hook and was a good choice for a single. I just wasn't diggin' it. Besides the two big ballads, there was nothing on Chicago 17 that kept my interest.
ReduxRating: 5/10
Trivia: The Indiana Jones-style video for this song was direct by Jay Durbin. Durbin had previously done videos for Hall & Oates and Billy Joel. In 1980, Durbin directed the pilot to a proposed new series based on The Wombles, characters from a popular British book series and TV show. The original British TV show The Wombles was done in stop-action form and sixty shows between 1973 and 1975 were created. Musician Mike Batt was hired to do the music and he along with a cast of session musicians (including well-known guitarist Chris Spedding) recorded songs for the show that would get released as by The Wombles. Four albums by The Wombles were released during the run of the show with four singles hitting the UK Top 10. The success of the singles make The Wombles the top charting singles artist in the UK for 1974. The Wombles didn't necessarily translate well to the US, but their second album, Remember You're a Womble, was issued in the States and it did result in one charting single, "Wombling Summer Party," which reached #55 in 1974. The Durbin-directed reboot apparently didn't get picked up and no further episodes besides the test pilot were done. The Wombles returned to TV in animated form in 1997 for a fifty-two episode run. Apparently, The Wombles will make another return in CGI form sometime in 2017.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Wednesday, November 22, 2017
"All She Wants to Do Is Dance" by Don Henley
Top 10 Alert!
Song#: 2230 Date: 02/23/1985
Debut: 65
Peak: 9
Weeks: 19
Genre: Rock
Pop Bits: Henley's second solo album, Building the Perfect Beast, got off to a solid start when its first single, "The Boys of Summer," became his third Top 10 hit (#5). A fourth Top 10 came his way when this second single made it to #9. The song also became his second in a row to reach #1 at Rock while getting to #10 dance and #34 R&B. Oddly, even with two significant hits coming from the LP, it got shut out of the Top 10 at #13. Yet despite the peak, the album stuck around for a long while and would eventually sell over three million copies.
ReduxReview: This is one of those songs that sounds so fun and happy, but the lyrics are actually quite political and dark. For the most part, this is pretty much all synthesizers here and they are cranked to 11. It's all rather brash, but also very memorable. It only takes about five seconds of the opening to recognize this song thanks to that synth bass line. It all sounded good on radio, but I often found the song annoying. It's quite repetitive, especially the use of the word "dance," which is said about 20+ times. Okay, we get it. She just wants to dance while the world is going to hell. Geez. Nothing like smacking you over the head with a point.
ReduxRating: 6/10
Trivia: For several tracks on the album, Henley enlisted some of his famous musician friends to lend a hand. For this track, backing vocals were provided by Patty Smyth from Scandal and Martha Davis from The Motels. Also making appearances on the album were Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham, The Go-Go's Belinda Carlisle, J.D. Souther, Randy Newman, and members of both Toto and Tom Petty's Heartbreakers band.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, November 21, 2017
"Say It Again" by Santana
Song#: 2229
Date: 02/23/1985
Debut: 70
Peak: 46
Weeks: 11
Genre: Rock
Pop Bits: The 80s started off well for Santana with their album Zebop! hitting #9 and going platinum. However, their next LP Shango didn't get much support and it could only manage gold sales. It was the start of a significant slide down for the band, which continued with their next album, Beyond Appearances. Featuring a new band lineup and new producer, Val Garay (Kim Carnes, The Motels), the album tried to get some sales going with this first single. The track did okay at Rock (#15) and Dance (#19), but it stalled short of the Pop Top 40. It was Santana's first album since 1976 to not get a song in the Top 40. A second single couldn't even reach the chart. With little to promote the album, it stalled at #50, which was Santana's worst chart showing to-date. To make things worse, it was also their first album to not achieve at least gold level sales. Things just spiraled after this. The band's next three albums fared even worse and spawned no Pop chart singles. Following 1992's Milagro, the band stopped recording and just toured. However, they would experience a major revival soon after being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.
ReduxReview: I remember buying this single not because I liked it (I hadn't heard it) or was even a fan of Santana's (I wasn't), it was due to producer Val Garay. I just loved his style at the time and what he did for Kim Carnes, The Motels, and even Dolly Parton. So I bought the single blindly thinking Santana might sound pretty cool with Garay at the controls. Well, I was sorely disappointed. There was no magic here and what made it even worse was that Garay co-wrote the tune. It just sounded like basic, bland pop. The tune wasn't very good to start with and the production was quite standard. After that, I stopped buying records based solely on the producer. Even now when there is a hot producer doing work with several high-profile artists, I take a listen first. When it comes down to it, no matter how good the production is you still have to have the songs behind it. Unfortunately, at this point in their career, Santana did not.
ReduxRating: 4/10
Trivia: Following their induction into the Hall of Fame, there was some renewed interest in the band. Clive Davis at Arista Records had an idea to get the band back on track. He wanted to pair them up with several modern, popular artists and create an album that would carry appeal for older fans while bringing new ones on board. The resulting album, Supernatural, would end up being a massive hit thanks to the #1 song "Smooth," which was co-written and sung by Rob Thomas (Matchbox Twenty). The album would spend twelve non-consecutive weeks at #1, go 15x platinum, and win eight Grammys including Album of the Year. It would be the biggest hit of Santana's career. Three more Top 10 hits would follow along with a second multi-platinum album, Shaman. Although things have cooled since their massive comeback, the four of the five albums they have recorded since Shaman hit the Top 10.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Date: 02/23/1985
Debut: 70
Peak: 46
Weeks: 11
Genre: Rock
Pop Bits: The 80s started off well for Santana with their album Zebop! hitting #9 and going platinum. However, their next LP Shango didn't get much support and it could only manage gold sales. It was the start of a significant slide down for the band, which continued with their next album, Beyond Appearances. Featuring a new band lineup and new producer, Val Garay (Kim Carnes, The Motels), the album tried to get some sales going with this first single. The track did okay at Rock (#15) and Dance (#19), but it stalled short of the Pop Top 40. It was Santana's first album since 1976 to not get a song in the Top 40. A second single couldn't even reach the chart. With little to promote the album, it stalled at #50, which was Santana's worst chart showing to-date. To make things worse, it was also their first album to not achieve at least gold level sales. Things just spiraled after this. The band's next three albums fared even worse and spawned no Pop chart singles. Following 1992's Milagro, the band stopped recording and just toured. However, they would experience a major revival soon after being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.
ReduxReview: I remember buying this single not because I liked it (I hadn't heard it) or was even a fan of Santana's (I wasn't), it was due to producer Val Garay. I just loved his style at the time and what he did for Kim Carnes, The Motels, and even Dolly Parton. So I bought the single blindly thinking Santana might sound pretty cool with Garay at the controls. Well, I was sorely disappointed. There was no magic here and what made it even worse was that Garay co-wrote the tune. It just sounded like basic, bland pop. The tune wasn't very good to start with and the production was quite standard. After that, I stopped buying records based solely on the producer. Even now when there is a hot producer doing work with several high-profile artists, I take a listen first. When it comes down to it, no matter how good the production is you still have to have the songs behind it. Unfortunately, at this point in their career, Santana did not.
ReduxRating: 4/10
Trivia: Following their induction into the Hall of Fame, there was some renewed interest in the band. Clive Davis at Arista Records had an idea to get the band back on track. He wanted to pair them up with several modern, popular artists and create an album that would carry appeal for older fans while bringing new ones on board. The resulting album, Supernatural, would end up being a massive hit thanks to the #1 song "Smooth," which was co-written and sung by Rob Thomas (Matchbox Twenty). The album would spend twelve non-consecutive weeks at #1, go 15x platinum, and win eight Grammys including Album of the Year. It would be the biggest hit of Santana's career. Three more Top 10 hits would follow along with a second multi-platinum album, Shaman. Although things have cooled since their massive comeback, the four of the five albums they have recorded since Shaman hit the Top 10.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)