Bradley's Buzz

# 70-66

and our countdown continues with numbers 70-66!

70. BETTE DAVIS EYES – Kim Carnes
(DeShannon/Weiss)
EMI America single #8077
Chart Debut: May 16, 1981
Chart Position: #1 US / #10 UK

I love Kim Carnes and she had herself a few brilliant singles through out the 80s but “Bette Davis Eyes” stands out as her crowned achievement. I’m not the only one who feels that way, as this song is one of the biggest selling records of the entire decade. It spent countless weeks at #1 and shows up on almost every other 80s compilation. A cover of a Jackie DeShannon song, it was Kim’s keyboardist who came up with the idea of adding the synth line and made the song the classic it is. I still love the video from the opening scene of the wind blowing off the shroud covering Kim’s face to the new wave zombies dancing and slamming their fists on the floor to the drumbeat. Kim would release more new wavey rock songs through out the decade before going back to the country stylings she was doing prior to this single, but it’s the years of 81-86 that Kim really triumphed. Watch the video.

69. MAJOR TOM (COMING HOME) – Peter Schilling
(Lodge/Schilling)
Elektra single #69811 (US)/ WEA single #9655 (UK)
Chart Debut: November 11, 1983 (US)/ May 5, 1984 (UK)
Chart Position: #14 US / #42 UK

Obviously inspired by David Bowie, this little German boy named Peter Schilling decided to retell David Bowie’s story of Major Tom from “Space Oddity” in the 80s land of synth pop. For me, it totally worked, I just love this song and in all of its strange 80s darkness. Whether a huge David Bowie fan feels the same way, I’m not sure, but as a one off hit, this is what the 80s was really all about – 4, 3, 2, 1 Earth below us, drifting, falling…. Watch the rare video.

68. JUST LIKE HEAVEN – The Cure
(Gallup/Smith/Thompson/Tolhurst/ Williams)
Sire single #69443 (US)/ Friction single #FIC27 (UK)
Chart Debut: January 9, 1987 (US)/ October 7, 1987 (UK)
Chart Position: #40 US / #29 UK

A classic for the alterna set – this song is one of the cheerier in the Cure canon and Robert Smith probably cringes every time he thinks about all the college co-ed kids in pastels bopping along with “Just Like Heaven.” But regardless, he created a timeless tune that still has me bopping around no matter what pastels I’m wearing. Watch the video.

67. DESTINATION UNKNOWN – Missing Persons
(Bozzio/Bozzio/Cuccarello)
Capitol single #5161
Chart Debut: 1982
Chart Position: #42 US

“Life is so strange when you don’t know/how do you get to where you’re going to/you can’t be sure of any situation/something could change and then you don’t know…” and so begins the LA new wave stylings of sex pot Dale Bozzio and her band which included that well hung hunk Warren Cuccarello. Together for only a few short years, Missing Persons came up with some classic songs but no “Words” or “Mental Hopscotch” can replace the flamboyant fun appeal of not knowing where you’re going to. Watch the video.

66. STOP DRAGGIN’ MY HEART AROUND – Stevie Nicks with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
(Tom Petty/Mike Campbell)
Modern single #7336 (US)/ WEA single #79231 (UK)
Chart Debut: August 1, 1981 (US)/ August 15, 1981 (UK)
Chart Position: #3 US / #50 UK

Backing out of the uber cool new wave songs, we find ourselves in good old-fashioned rock and roll royalty with our first Stevie Nicks single in our countdown. I will never hide the fact that I love Stevie with extreme passion. I do believe she’s a tad eccentric, but I think she’s completely fine with that, and if ever there was a performer who knew exactly who she was it’s Miss Nicks in all of her witchy glory. I believe her to be a great poetess who can charm just about rock man in her presence. All you have to do is read the liner notes to her greatest hits package to know every song is somehow inspired by or written because of a man – a man who was somewhere on the rock charts between 1975 and 1990. One such man is Tom Petty, who went to work and wrote this little ditty as Stevie’s debut solo single. “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around”, although, written by others, Stevie completely makes it her own and it’s barely a duet with Tom singing one key line and melody for the chorus. In fact, you can tell it comes from Stevie’s gut when her deep vibrato chimes in, “There’s people running around loose in the world/ Ain’t got nothing better to do/ than make a meal of some bright eyed kid/ you need someone looking after you….” I was that bright-eyed kid and I had Stevie’s music to look after me. Watch the video and look for Stevie's bad lip synching - she says on the DVD for Crystal Visions she didn't know all the words so she would just turn and stare adoringly at Tom Petty. Who knew she was such a riot?

Come back next time as I continue to drag this countdown all around the musical map!

Labels: David Bowie, Kim Carnes, Missing Persons, Peter Schilling, Stevie Nicks, The Cure, Tom Petty, Top singles of the 1980s

posted by swivek @ 3:31 PM