Bradley's Buzz

A Few Of My Favorite Things

And here we are once again to talk about me, so here like a Julie Andrews song here are a few of my favorite things this week -

Frickin' Jose Ole Breakfast Burritos - The Leivas told me he bought some breakfast burritos and he knows how I love me a stuffed burrito in the morning, and unlike some other burritos I've bought in the past (back when I would buy my groceries at the 711) these are really good. Of course it's not making my waistline shrink but who gives a whoop - it's a fricking breakfast burrito.


ABC Family puts on some of the strangest shows known to my TV and this one rocks - The Middle Man has dialogue that comes at you fast and snarky, the lead character is a who gives a rip type of gal who ends up working with the Middle Man, at a company where they fight off evil, it's based on a comic book series and it is incredible. Wendy Watson and her home co-horts are just as funny as the main Middle Man (he was in Psycho Beach Party!) with her pal Noser always reciting lines from lyrics:
Noser: I'm thinking of a place
Wendy: Is it a place no one dares to go?
Noser: Yes it is
Wendy: Noser, is the place Xanadu?

And actually they had me hooked before that ever came on - watch it, it's pretty hilarious.

Donna Summer's masterpiece, if you will - Bad Girls, I've been waiting to get my mitts on this remastered double disc set and I'm so glad I did. First of all, I could look at the redone artwork for hours on end, and then there's the music - three huge hit singles "Hot Stuff", "Bad Girls" and "Dim All The Lights" plus all the album tracks which just keep piling up how great Donna S really is - the uber cool ballad "On My Honour" (simply stunning), the electro classics "Our Love" & "Sunset People", super cool disco/rock hybrids and a few more ballads. I love it.

Labels: Breakfast, Donna Summer, Favorite Things, Life In La La Land, The Middle Man

posted by swivek @ 4:31 PM 0 comments

Friday Fun - Random CDs

Looks like I'm on a roll this week and actually have some posts - you know things to talk about - and since most of what I do is listen to tunes and most of what I talk about is music - here is the return of the random CDs. A little post and semi-review of what I've been bee bop buzzing around to.

CYNDI LAUPER - BRING YA TO THE BRINK (2008) It's actally kind of a clash of divas this week as some big shots came out with some new albums recently including Miss C - the deadly Cyn and her dance album Bring Ya To The Brink. I'm not the hugest fan of dance music but there are times you just want to bop, plus most of today's new dance music is just a throw back to 80's pop it seems and plus it's frickin' Cyndi and she can sing the phone book over a couple drum machines and it would probably make me happy. I say probably because on first listen this album didn't jab me the way every previous album by Cyndi has done. Opening with some guitar loops and a little thump "High & Mighty" is just too repetive but then comes the new single "Into The Nightlife" and once she hits the chorus I'm back in love, "pitter patter doesn't matter" she tells me and she's so right. Plus the great thing about Cyndi is most of her lyrics are always pretty upbeat - she wants people to feel good, particurlarly good about themselves and it comes shining through one the whole second half of the album. Cyndi never fully flies onto the dance floor like say Vadge Ciccone but Cyndi has always had more soul and to me relevance and so this little dance album just ups the ante in my eyes. Best cuts: "Into The Nightlife", the fun and bitchy "Same Ol Story", "Lay Me Down", "Set Your Heart" and just about everything else has moments of her glory - her voice is awesome.

DONNA SUMMER - CRAYONS (2008)
Where Cyndi's dance album relies heavily on synth beats and more subtle tones, our next diva declares not only in song but on the promo sheets as well "THE QUEEN IS BACK" and she ain't messin' with you. Donna Summer returned last month with her first album of new material since 1993! Crayons and its black and colored (and very much airbrushed cover photo) completely stands out and deserves to have reached #17 the week it came it out - her biggest in a long long time. Donna has a ton of collaborators on this very High NRG piece and it opens on a strong beat, practically throwing you onto the floor with "Stamp Your Feet", also highly infectious and pushy is the aforementioned "The Queen Is Back" with such clever lyrics as "so many years ago/ on the radio/ she loved to love you..." Gee who could she be talking about? Donna's voice is superb (as always) and each song is catchy as hell - my ultimate two favs are actually where she takes a break from the dance mode for a few moments - the title track is a duet with Ziggy Marley so it of course has a reggae-ish beat and the subject matter is every getting along despite color lines which makes it all that more enjoyable to me. I love it. I also love her poppy ballad "The Sand On My Feet" which could totally me my wedding song and a hit on pop radio for sure. With Crayons I think Donna has made one of her best albums yet and I can't stop frickin' listening to it. So buy it! Best cuts: "Crayons", "Sand On My Feet", "The Queen Is Back", "Stamp Your Feet"

DONNA SUMMER - ONCE UPON A TIME (1977)
Listening to Crayons got me so excited I decided it was time to bring out other classic Donna and just a few weeks ago I was at Amoeba when I stumbled across her 1977 set Once Upon A Time and luckily I bought that sucker up. I don't think anyone has ever given her enough credit.
What a complex little world Miss S lived in – “once upon a time there was a girl..” a girl and two boys actually who knew how to throw down grooves – be it pop standards, disco or electronica. Released in 1977 this was the first of four double albums released by Donna – all of which were huge hits which in itself is terribly unheard of.

Anyhoos, the whole concept and yes there is a concept here is that of a fairytale love – opening with the disco swinging title track we follow our heroine through her journey to find love only to see her stumble through life (the excellent and some what rock ish “Faster and Faster To Nowhere”), having to work the midnight shift, finding a love, losing the love and in the end having it all come around again.

It’s completely brilliant and Donna’s voice is of course amazing but it’s the whole ‘fairy tale’ concept that keeps this thing going through all these songs. Plus Donna with Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte came up with everything – there’s voice overs, there’s strings, horns, super cool electronics.

For some reason the album didn’t lend itself to singles very well as the only two singles released were “I Love You” and “Rumour Has It” – both of which are at the tale end of the album (i.e. once true love has come) but that doesn’t make this a loss at all – in fact it just makes it a stronger album.

Between Crayons and Once Upon A Time I am on a Summer kick. I just went to Amazon and got A Love Trilogy and Four Seasons Of Love – two albums with I Remember Yesterday – were the albums that preceded Once Upon A Time… I’m going to have me a fairy tale life too.

OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN - Totally Hot (1978)
After seeing Miss ONJ live in the flesh singing her songs for the very first time I swear I was beyond ecstatic - I had forgotten that I didn't even pee in the last 15 minutes and almost wet myself a little in excitement. So the following day when I had to walk to work I decided I needed a litle OnJ to kickstart my day. Luckily being the fan I am, I have them on remastered CD - thank you the land down under for your faboo imports.

Totally Hot was the first post-Grease album our girl released and she didn't pull out any stops - lookin' sizzlin' and totally hot on the album sleeve she decided to amp up the pop/rock a little bit and came out with two of her best singles, "A Little More Love" and "Deeper Than The Night" but the brilliance of that which is Olivia is everywhere. Opening with a piano/bass/almost dance song "Please Don't Keep Me Waitin'" turns into Olivia as an instrument - she is shrieking and scatting at the end and you can't tell if it's a synthesizer or her voice - it's one of the oh so many reasons I love her.

As anyone who knows our girl knows - she loves her ballads and she loves her country music so we have both in "Dancin' Round And Round" which isn't nearly as stimulating as her other two ballads - "Boats Against The Current" and my ultimate fav "Borrowed Time" which has super trouper Olivia vocal overdubs. Plus she rocks out a little (in pop style) with a cover of "Gimme Some Lovin'" and the excellant title track. You must have this you simply must. Best Tracks: "A Little More Love", "Totally Hot", "Deeper Than The Night", "Borrowed Time" - oh who am I fooling they're all great!

Next week there’ll be more and more CDs to talk about as I’ve been on another buying spree – so stay tuned because you know my opinion is oh so important in these matters and besides I know you’re itching to find out what I’m listening to.

Labels: Cyndi Lauper, Donna Summer, Olivia Newton-John, Random CDs

posted by swivek @ 1:01 PM 0 comments

For your viewing pleasure

It's been a bit of stressful week for me so to numb the pain, yes I said the pain of my life, I am opting to head back to the 80's and a few of my favorite ladies... and why don't you join me...


Let's stop at 1980 and venture with Donna Summer as she becomes The Wanderer in all it's new wave glory, and if anyone can tell me what she's wearing on her head under those headphones I'd be much obliged....


then we travel to 1982 with Kim Wilde and her journey through her new wavey version of Cambodia....

Labels: 80s videos, Donna Summer, Kim Wilde, Lisa Hartman, Stevie Nicks, You Tube

posted by swivek @ 10:42 AM 0 comments

True Stories

Ever wonder how and why the great little 80's anthem "Johnny Are You Queer?" got made or how and why the singer that made it so famous fell off the national radar - or even how such a song got airplay and what those original ramifications may have been? Of course you have and after all these years Josie Cotton wrote an excellant article about the subject for a magazine. You can read the article on her My Space space - the article titled "The Queer Story Of Josie & Johnny" is excellant reading... so check it out here!

Labels: 80's music, Autobiography, Carlton Heights, Donna Summer, Johnny Are You Queer?, Josie Cotton, Nickel Dreams, Ordinary Girl, Tanya Tucker

posted by swivek @ 10:57 AM 1 comments

New Bubbatunes - Diva 2

bub72 Donna Summer – Sweet Summer Songs (February 20, 2007)
Where Tina Turner may have more soul than any of her contemporaries, her songs tend to be more of a hit and miss where Donna Summer seems to have come up with consistently great songs at least from 1975 through 1989 because as I was looking through her catalog I came up with way more songs I loved than what a one CD collection could handle. Perhaps that’s the reason there’s about 20 Donna Summer compilations out there. I own two of them, one is a double disc full of her singles from the beginning of her career to the middle 90’s and the other is her first official greatest hits collection 1979’s On The Radio; both of them are great of course but like most performers, I have personal favorites that never seem to make it onto compilations and so Donna gets the bubbatunes treatment with Sweet Summer Songs, a 19 track set that compiles some of her more famous singles through out the years and some of my favorite album tracks.

Again we skip the obvious chronological track list and instead go for a big beat fast paced opener with her brilliant 1979 single “Bad Girls”. We spend a lot of time with Donna through her 1970’s output but that’s really where she did do most of her gleaming. I mean Donna’s 1970’s output was nothing short of brilliant, mixing it up between dance styled ballads, full on disco and pushing electronic dance music into the mainstream, she was never boring. We’ve included most of her hits during the time, the sexy and dirty debut of 1975’s “Love To Love You Baby”, her duet with Brooklyn Dreams “Heaven Knows” (1978), the string driven disco ballad “On The Radio” (1979), the introduction of electronics on “I Feel Love” (1977), the so insane it’s genius “Macarthur Park” (1978) and one of the very first songs I ever heard by Donna, 1978’s brilliant though still slightly overplayed “Last Dance.” A Donna Summer mix wouldn’t be complete without the mandatory sheer brilliance of the rock/dance hybrid known as “Hot Stuff”, so of course that is also here.

Although all those songs are legendary and brilliant some of her more under appreciated songs came from that era as well including two songs from 1979’s Bad Girls album, the smooth and bouncy story of Hollywood found in “Sunset People” which has been referred to as “the best Donna Summer album cut of her career” though it was released as a single in the UK in the summer of 1980. “Our Love” is another electronic based song and one that doesn’t get as much press as her others. The simplistic lyrics about love lasting even when you can’t be together isn’t exactly poetry but it’s sweet and the bleeping pulsing electronic backbeat including the drum machine solos is pure brilliance. I’ve always felt that “I Feel Love” had really poor lyrics and they were put in essentially to put Donna’s voice above the real purpose of the song – to introduce an all electronic sound where with “Our Love” Donna was actually able to express some real emotion and real drive while doing it above an excellent back beat.

Because of Donna’s amazing talent as a singer and her ability to change musical styles effortlessly, when disco died Donna’s career didn’t. Instead she was the second person signed to David Geffen’s new label (right behind John Lennon) and made one of my favorite albums 1980’s The Wanderer. We’ve included the brilliant title track which tells the story of a woman who just likes to go, go, go and refuses to stand still for a 9 to 5 life. When the song was released as a single the powers that be put the song “Stop Me” as it’s B-side and as the years progressed that song eventually got more play than the single. One of my favorite songs by Donna, it’s a simple little pop song that changes from a slightly mid tempo to full fast rocker as Donna hiccups the verses trying to get her man to believe she isn’t as awful as he thinks she is, as the chorus progresses however she has to ask the man if all of her pleading is just old hat, “So if you’ve heard this all before/ don’t let me carry on no more/ stop me/ stop me if you think you’ve heard this one/ this one/ stop me/ stop me if you think you’ve heard this one/ stop me/ stop me/ stop me!” It’s incredible and I wonder if Morrissey used this as the basis for his Smiths number???

Because of her diversity, we get to ride with her into the rock arena with 1980’s “Cold Love” an awesome guitar synth driven track that was the second single from The Wanderer album. I read a book a few years ago that had the best rock singles ever and believe it or not this song was one of them. Donna’s voice is in super form as she struts around looking for love, “Hope in the dark/ love in the light/ I keep on looking for someone who’s right/ a face and a name/ it’s always the same/ so sick of playing love’s foolish games/ tell me why/ tell me whyyyyy… cold love/cold love/ another shot of rock and roll love/ cold love/ cold love/ whatever happened to that sweet old love/ tell me why/ tell me why/ tell me why…”

After The Wanderer, Donna went back to the studio with her long time collaborators Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte to create a two-disc album known as I’m A Rainbow. Geffen Records rejected the album and they set her up with Quincy Jones instead so for years the I’m A Rainbow album sat on the shelves until it was finally released on CD in 1996. But what happened between those 15 years of shelf life is a few songs ended up here and there - usually on a soundtrack. One of those songs is actually one of her best songs ever – the synthy pop fun of “Romeo”. As Geffen shelved the album, they let Giorgio Moroder use it for his mega hit soundtrack to the film Flashdance. The song is full of fast paced Donna cooing and announcing how great a man she has. The music is full on early 80’s synth pop and her vocals and sort of 60’s girl group delivery makes it one of my favorite songs by Summer ever.

With the I’m A Rainbow album shelved, Donna was hooked up with Quincy Jones for 1982’s Donna Summer album. Of the Quincy Jones productions came the top ten hit, “Love Is In Control (Finger On The Trigger)” which is a high hitting gem if ever there was one. Full of energy and personality, it’s one of those hits that you forget about it until you hear it and then you can’t get the damn thing out of your head. Also from the Donna Summer album came an interesting foray into new music territory with the slightly reggae religious themed “State Of Independence.” I’m not huge on songs about Jesus when I’m not in church and Donna seems to know this so instead of a full on gospel choir type of song like she had done before (1980’s “I Believe In Jesus”), she used contemporary beats, ethereal lyrics and one of her best vocal performances. It probably didn’t hurt any that her chorus of back up singers were actually Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, Dionne Warwick and Lionel Richie.

Sweet Summer Songs delves even further into Donna’s more unrecognized 80’s work with the 1987 single “Dinner With Gershwin” which is set to a kind of creepy little metallic synth track as she registers low trying to get close to her man, “I wanna have dinner with Gershwin/ I wanna watch Rembrandt sketch/ I wanna fly double with Earheart/ impossible I guess…” The clever lyrics by Brenda Russell (“Piano In The Dark”, “Get Here”) tell the story of a fantasy as the list of what Donna wants to do really consists of getting “next to you.”

Donna’s material through the early 80’s continued to keep her career in fairly high momentum, in 1983 a contractual obligation to old label Casablanca had her record an album for them, the result was one of her biggest hits ever with “She Works Hard For The Money.” If new wave and guitar rock were ushering in a new wind in the early 80’s pushing music like Donna’s crafted dance into the wings, this was Donna’s effort at pushing back. Using full on rock guitars but keeping some synthy and dancey bass lines, Donna’s song about the workingwoman hit a thread with the public and both the single and video were in constant play.

The 80’s ended with Donna working with yet another group of boys who were changing dance and pop music – those Brits known as Stock/Aitken/Waterman whose songs had been on rotation for most of the late 80’s with Banarama, Rick Astley and Kylie Minogue being just a few who had worked with the boys. The Donna Summer resulting album Another Place & Time may not have been quite up to par with other Donna albums but it was obvious by 1989 that both the boys of SAW and Donna were pretty good at creating brilliant singles and “This Time I Know It’s For Real” is no exception. It’s almost perfect in the delivery by the boys and with Donna writing the lyrics and singing in her Summer style, it’s one of the best singles the boys ever produced.

Donna Summer – Sweet Summer Songs (bub72)
Track List:
01. Bad Girls
02. Cold Love
03. Dinner With Gershwin
04. Love Is In Control (Finger On The Trigger)
05. Last Dance
06. The Wanderer
07. Our Love
08. Heaven Knows
09. On The Radio
10. Hot Stuff
11. Romeo
12. State Of Independence
13. I Feel Love
14. Stop Me
15. Sunset People
16. She Works Hard For The Money
17. Macarthur Park
18. Love To Love You Baby
19. This Time I Know It’s For Real

Come back to see our next new Bubbatune compilation with a diva who can certainly knows where broken hearts go even if she gets so emotional she has to exhale... any guesses? Until next time, beep beep aaah toot toot or just shoop shoop...

Labels: Bradley, bub72, Bubbatunes, diva, Donna Summer

posted by swivek @ 11:27 AM 2 comments

Top 100 Singles Of The 70's - 45-41

Top 100 Singles Of The 70's - According to Bradley
#45-41
Welcome back, I was just washing my hair with my fab new 'poo and gee does my hair smell terrific. With my new cords and earth shoes I'm good to boogie, and so will you be after viewing our next line up of hot sizzlin' singles of the 70's.


#45 – Mama Mia – ABBA
(Andersson/Ulvaeus)
Atlantic single #3315 US / Epic single #3790 UK
Chart Debut: US Pop 05/22/1976 #32 / UK 12/13/1975 #1
Our second and last ABBA addition, “Mama Mia” is to me the best ABBA song in a catalog filled with Best Of’s. Coming off as more of a pop confection piece than the disco tinged “Dancing Queen” or the theatrics of “Money Money Money”, this song has all the elements that make pop great - a simple little lyric about love, excellent instrumentation, perfect production and great vocals. The fact that the music melody changes with instruments all completely falling out to leave us with a keyboard and vocals for the chorus is actually really brilliant. I guess it’s a breakdown and you all know how much I love them. Of all the ABBA songs, I think “Mama Mia” probably holds up the strongest in our minds, of course it doesn’t hurt that it launched that silly little musical that refuses to go away.














#44 – Bad Girls – Donna Summer (Summer/Eposito/Hokenson/Sudano)
Casablanca single #988 US / #155 UK
Chart Debut: US Pop 05/26/1979 #1 / UK 07/07/1979 #14
The title track pulled from the best Donna Summer album ever made, “Bad Girls” took what was then the Queen Of Disco and turned her into a full-fledged superstar capable of singing and selling anything she put her mind to. The concept of hookers, their pimps and their clients is probably something the post 1980 Jesus reinvented Summer would not have done. In fact, the song is something she almost didn’t do at all. She had written it and sung it, recorded it and all in 1977 when Neil Bogart, head of Casablanca nixed the idea. Then while searching through tapes engineer Eposito came upon the song, and brought it back to everyone’s attention. Luckily he did or I wouldn’t be able to have “toot toot ha ha/beep beep” on my voice mail. The song is an ingenious fold of dance pop and rock with hooker back vocals and Donna’s steamy presence as the lead prostitute. A full song of seedy decadence that makes you feel like you’ve just wandered into the wrong side of Los Angeles, it’s that good. In fact, with the other singles launched, the album cuts and the great cover artwork Bad Girls is by far one of the best albums of the entire decade. Besides who can’t resist, “Bad girl/ sad girl/ you’re such a dirty bad girl/ beep beep”?


#43 – Jolene – Dolly Parton
(Dolly Parton)
RCA single #0145 US / #2675 UK
Chart Debut: US Pop 01/26/1974 #60 / UK 05/15/1976 #7
Country 12/08/1973 #1
Donna may have played streetwalker in “Bad Girls” but I think the real whore is the lead character in Dolly’s excellent “Jolene.” Sure, Dolly would never stoop to the level of calling the woman a whore so instead she makes a plea to the woman who could easily take her man. Personally I think it takes a strong person to appeal in such a way and it takes an equally strong performer to pull off this song. I mean to think that Dolly could lose a man at all is hard to believe but the way Dolly puts the song together, with its subdued instrumentation and Dolly’s sincere cries, you totally believe Dolly is in fear of losing the only man she loves. Incidentally, the story is apparently a true one, though told in Dolly’s penchant for humor she tells us Jolene was a bank teller that her husband was visiting, and he was visiting the bank a lot more often than their meager bank account would need.

#42 – Cars – Gary Numan
(Gary Numan)
Atco single #7211 US / Beggars Banquet single #23 UK
Chart Debut: US Pop 02/16/1980 #9 / UK 09/01/1979 #1
I’m not sure why this particular single took so long to debut on the US charts. Perhaps it was only released in the early months of 1980 as a single here, but it is most definitely a single of the 70’s reaching #1 in the UK months before the 70’s ended. The synth-laden electronics of Gary Numan are often underappreciated even by someone as “worldly” as myself but “Cars” is one of those songs that can’t be ignored. Nothing else on the charts at the time had that mechanical sound that came off as slightly withdrawn yet somehow warm. I remember the first time I ever heard the song, I was at Crystal Rock, a roller skating rink with my Aunt Sarah when the song came on the jukebox. I was stunned. I had to run over to the big box and see exactly what it was that was coming out of those speakers. An amazingly catchy yet hard to sing ditty that really started the new wave of electronic sounds that would capture the early 80’s.

#41 – Don’t Bring Me Down – ELO
(Jeff Lynne)
Jet single #5060 US / #153 UK
Chart Debut: US Pop 08/04/1979 #4 / UK 09/01/1979 #3
Jeff Lynne’s take on rock and roll was a whole lot different than a lot of his peers. There is an essential sound to anything Electric Light Orchestra releases and with the onset of new wave, Lynne took his original sound and sensibility and applied it in all the right places to create “Don’t Bring Me Down.” Irritatingly catchy, once the song starts it won’t leave your head for days. ELO would keep this type of sound going through the early 80’s with the Xanadu soundtrack and the cool 1981 single “Hold On Tight” but it’s this song that really captures the ELO sound.

Well I'm off to hit up a brand new website I just found Stuck In The 70's and see if perhaps they have any more little jaunts into the past I'm just itching to see - until next time when we play Casey Kasem and head into Bradley's Top 40 - don't worry I will take long distance dedications if you ask me politely.

Labels: 70s, ABBA, Bad Girls, Bradley, Dolly, Donna Summer, ELO, Gary Numan, Retro songs

posted by swivek @ 12:42 PM 0 comments

# 90 - 86

BRADLEY'S TOP 100 SINGLES OF THE 1980s continues with
numbers 90-86!



90.NEVER TEAR US APART - INXS
(Andy Farris/Michael Hutchence)
Atlantic Single #89038 (US)/ Mercury Single #INXS11 (UK)
Chart Debut: September 17, 1988 (US)/ June 25, 1988 (UK)
Chart Position: #7 US / #24 UK

Here is the first of my many man musician crushes I have had – how I loved and still love Michael Hutchence. He was to me the 80s version of Jim Morrisson. I don’t know if they happened to look alike, act alike or what, but I do know I got that same strange feeling when I looked at Michael that Jim also seems to conjur up. “Never Tear Us Apart” in all of its desperation and symphonic sound is one of the best all time singles ever – I know you’re thinking, “Then why is it #91?” that’s because this is the 100 best all time singles ever and there’s even better ones coming up… but as I digress, I have to say this song is pure perfection. In only 3 minutes Michael and his band mates of Farris brothers throw together enough despair and drama to last all fourteen seasons of Knots Landing. I love it, and can’t wait for the next karaoke night! Watch the video here.

89. VOICES CARRY – ‘Til Tuesday (Hausman/Holmes/Mann/Pesce)
Epic/CBS Single #38-04795
Chart Debut: May 18, 1985 (US)
Chart Position: #8 US / #- UK

“In the dark I like to read his mind/ but I’m frightened of the things I might find…” One more moody, chilling and threatening little ditty on our list. Aimee Mann has one of those indistinguishable voices that capture you the minute she utters a line. With her low register and offbeat dialect, I always thought the song said, “Keep it down now/oh so scary…” Then I saw the video and realized what a fool I was. Til Tuesday came out with one brilliant single after another, “Love In A Vacuum”, “What About Love?”, “Coming Up Close” – all of which were considered for this list, but “Voices Carry” is the quisessential ‘Til Tuesday song and I have to admit I thought the abusive boyfriend in the video was hot – I’m not sure what’s wrong with me. Watch the video and see the abusive hottie.

88. THE WANDERER – Donna Summer
(Donna Summer/Giorgio Moroder)
Geffen Single #496563
Chart Debut: September 27, 1980
Chart Position: #3 US / #48 UK

If anyone had any doubt that Donna Summer wasn’t merely The Disco Queen, 1979’s Bad Girls album proved to every one the woman could do just about anything. With the album’s mixture of rock and dance music she had the biggest hit on her hands, and she wanted to move away from Casablanca Records and the owner’s control over it. So David Geffen signed her as the second artist added to his new Geffen Records, and along came this little gem of a single, “The Wanderer.” Once again pushing forward with techno pop and rock, the imagery of the happy wanderer captured me, and the song was on constant rotation. With clever little lines about Alice In Wonderland (“She climbed right through the mirror oh that nearly blew my mind”) and Donna’s declaration that the 9 to 5 life’s a bore – my wandering little heart followed through with her rhythm and her rhyme. Watch the rather rare video here.

87. FAST CAR – Tracy Chapman
(Tracy Chapman)
Elektra Single #69412
Chart Debut: July 16, 1988 (US)/
June 11, 1988 (UK)
Chart Position: #6 US / #5 UK

“Fast Car” was the very last brand new 7” I ever purchased before the record stores stopped selling them and we were all forced to get the smaller “cassingles” of the late 80s/early 90s. I am so glad I bought it and to this day constantly play it, and I may add - I do a kick ass karaoke version of it.

“Fast Car” has so many little connotations for me. First and foremost I once again love the idea presented of speeding away from the oh so tiresome small town and running off to the exciting city. Of course this is Tracy Chapman’s world of folk, so the city holds just as much horror as the small town did. When this song came out I happened to be a bit of a teenaged runaway living in an apartment with a bunch of guys in Wausau, Wisconsin. As it turned out this rooming situation led to my first summer fling with one of the guys. We spent the entire summer camping out and basically living out of his fast car – a 1964 Camaro Z with Rally Sport Options (for the car buffs it’s a pretty rare model.) I learned how to drive a stick shift (as you can imagine…) I was so sure that his fast car was going to take us away and his arms always felt great wrapped around my shoulders. Incidentally, I always thought Tracy said, “your arms and legs wrapped around my shoulder” which is perfectly plausible as I found out – not to mention a hell of an image. But of course I also couldn’t figure out Tracy’s gender at that point and still have a few questions should I ever meet her/him. Incidentally, the fast car that was actually fast enough so I could fly away ended up being my VW dubbed Farfie - the Wonder Fox but that’s another story. Watch the video.

86. WE LIVE FOR LOVE – Pat Benatar
(Neil Geraldo)
Chrysalis Single #2419 (US)/ #2403 (UK)
Chart Debut: May 17, 1980 (US)
Chart Position: #27 US

You had to know this was coming – the first of my Pat Benatar singles. “We Live For Love” was Pat’s second big single from her 1979 debut album In The Heat Of The Night, but it was actually the fourth though final single released. The first two didn’t do anything chart wise (“I Need A Lover”/ “If You Think You Know How To Love Me”) while the third is her now signature classic “Heartbreaker” which debuted on the top 100 in late 1979 and climbed up to #23 in early 1980 (because of it’s release/chart debut it’s exempt from this list - though you will find it on the top 100 Singles of the 70's). Following shortly after "Heartbreaker" was this little new wave ditty written by boyfriend and guitarist Neil Geraldo which hit #27 in the summer of 1980.

Produced by Blondie engineer Peter Coleman, the song (as well as a lot of In The Heat Of The Night) has a more new wave feel than what you would later hear when picking up a 7” with Pat's lovely face pouting from its sleeve. Which is perhaps why a lot of people who are into new wave or aren’t real fans of the Benatar school of rock tend to like this song over all of all of her other gems.

The breathy aahs and Pat’s high octave vocals on the chorus proved that my girl could do just about anything when you stuck her in front of a microphone and the song is still enjoyable all these years later. You can hear the single version and stare at a picture of the album cover here, or you can watch Pat singing it live circa 2006.

Just as your love is contagious, and one kiss is most definitely dangerous, as is our fun little countdown so stop back tomorrow as we head into numbers 85-81!

Labels: Donna Summer, INXS, Music Life Pat Benatar, Til Tuesday, Top singles of the 1980s, Tracy Chapman

posted by swivek @ 3:07 PM 0 comments