Wednesday, February 22, 2006

# 55-51

and here we are at the last 5 in the first 50 (??) of our TOP 100 SINGLES OF THE 1980s, so let's jump right in with numbers 55-51!

55. VACATION – Go-Gos
(Valentine/Caffey/Weidlin)
IRS single #9907
Chart Debut: June 18, 1982 US
Chart Position: #8 US

For some reason, the Go Gos just never did it for the UK clan, this song; arguably one of their best never even cracked the top 100 in England. But for me, it cracked a lot – I love the Go Gos, and always did from that very first song I heard in the summer of 1981. Speaking of 1981, when I was a kid we were one of the first families to have cable and you can just imagine how I spent my time – watching old reruns of 70s sitcoms on the Superstation and staying up all night watching MTV. Back then, MTV was a music video channel that played videos by everyone – not just the scattered video here and there by the current pop idols. They also had one of the coolest things and one that sparked intrigue in all of the MTV youth – the “World Premiere Video”. They would count down and talk about it all week long until they had the big premiere of the new video. As was the case with the Go-Gos “Vacation” video in the summer of 1982. Completely full of summer feeling, I still remember seeing that video premiere and every time I hear this great, and I mean great little pop song, I reflect on how cool I thought the world was in 1982. Watch the video here!

54. BREAK MY STRIDE – Matthew Wilder
(Matthew Wilder/Gregory Prestopino)
Private I/ Epic single #38-04113
Chart Debut: November 26, 1983 (US)/ January 21, 1984 (UK)
Chart Position: #5 US / #4 UK

The upbeat pop fun just doesn’t stop it does it? Here we have another little gem that I almost completely forgot about until I was going through my 80s songs to make up this list. I almost peed my pants in excitement when I realized I had this song! “Break My Stride” and Matthew Wilder’s follow up “The Kid’s American” were two songs I played over and over as a kid. How I loved them, and now that I found this gem again, I won’t ever let it go. Let’s all take a little rowboat to China cause nothing is gonna break my stride; nobody’s going to hold me down. On a side note, Matthew Wilder ended up on the other side of the recording system by producing a slew of huge albums including No Doubt’s Tragic Kingdom. Watch a peformance from Solid Gold.

53. RUMORS – Timex Social Club
(Alex Hill/ Michael Marshall/ Marcus Thompson)
Jay/Cool Tempo single #1001
Chart Debut: July 12, 1986 (US)/ September 13, 1986 (UK)
Chart Position: #8 US / #13 UK

Are you all as surprised as I am about how high on the charts this song got? For some reason, I thought I was the only one who even knew it existed. I don’t know who or what the Timex Social Club was but they released this kick ass little song (fairly risqué for its time I would think) in 1986 just as I was going through the dramas, problems and rumors of the high school mill. “Did you hear that one about Tina? Some say she’s much too loose/ that comes straight from a guy who swears he’s tasted her juice…” or “Did you hear that one about Bradley, some say he must be gay, I try to argue but they said if he was straight he wouldn’t move that way…”

Okay, the song mentions Michael as being gay not Bradley, but you know what I am getting at. Every time I hear this song I think about the time I was walking home from school with my pal Keith Kennedy and some kid I had never met before. Soon the kid was going on and on about Bradley Jacobson and all the scandalous but fun things he had been up to.

I stopped Keith before saying anything and instead just asked the kid if he even knew who Brad Jacobson was. The kid, obviously fairly smart and honest admitted that he had no idea, so I introduced myself. Incidentally, all the things he was saying were true but that wasn’t the point now was it? Listen here.

52. MIDDLE OF THE ROAD – The Pretenders
(Chrissie Hynde)
Sire single #29444 (US)/ #ARE21 (UK)
Chart Debut: January 27, 1984 (US)
Chart Position: #19 US

I love me my pissy Chrissie Hynde and wish I could’ve included every single awesome Pretenders single that was released through the 80s. But as time would have it, and the list was so large already I had to settle for one, so I went with the biggie. This is not only one of my fav Pretenders songs ever, this is one great kick ass single. Taken from their biggest selling album Learning To Crawl, “Middle Of The Road” finds Chrissie more pissed off than usual as she sings about the injustices of the world. With its thumping beat, the boys backing “oh, oh, oh”s, Chrissie’s countdown at the bass break (1,2,3,4) and the mere mention of a cul-de-sac puts my little blonde head into a spin. See a live performance here.

51. THE WARRIOR – Scandal featuring Patty Smyth
(Holly Knight/Nick Gilder)
Columbia single #38-04424 (US) / CBS single #4367 (UK)
Chart Debut: July 21, 1984
Chart Position: #7 US

The other Patty Patty that ruled my world in the 80s, Patty Smyth and Zack Smith had led their band Scandal into fairly popular territory with their 1982 self titled EP, but it was this rock ditty co-written by my beloved Holly Knight, that secured the band their one and only top 40 hit. Set to the perfect 80s rock guitar riff and Patty’s salty slightly scratchy vocals we were all shooting out the walls of heartache in the summer of 1984. Admit it, who didn’t make the gun with your fingers whenever the lines “Bang, bang” came on? I still do and have almost caused numerous accidents while driving and listening to Scandal.

Incidentally, the guy who co-wrote this ditty with my Holly is none other than the Nick Gilder who scored huge in 1978 with his single “Hot Child In The City” and Mike Chapman, who produced a lot of my favorite female led bands including Blondie and our favorite Patty – Miss Benatar, produces the whole Warrior album including the next two singles “Beat Of A Heart” and “Hands Tied” which both strangely peaked at #41 on the top 100. Mike, like Holly Knight shows up a few more times on our list, so keep on the lookout. Watch the video!

We'll be shooting out the walls of the next 50 in our top 100 after I take a much needed rest...

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posted by swivek @ 4:00 PM

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