(Pictured: Tom Petty on stage in 1980.)
In memory, the winter of 1980 is weird. At the time, it seemed like one of the greatest seasons of my life. I had a hot girlfriend, I was the boy genius program director of the campus radio station, and I had a paying radio gig that showed the world my superior talent. But as I relive that season via the American Top 40 show from the weekend of February 9, 1980, I can’t say that I’m exactly enjoying it. The 2021 me, conscious of how the plans and dreams of 1980 worked out, wants his egotistical, headstrong, and exuberant young self to pump the brakes a little bit.
39. “99”/Toto
32. “Another Brick in the Wall”/Pink Floyd
26. “Why Me”/Styx
24. “Third Time Lucky”/Foghat
22. “Fool in the Rain”/Led Zeppelin
8. “The Long Run”/Eagles
5. “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”/Queen
Lots of rock superstars were selling 45s in this week, and we’ll get to Tom Petty and Fleetwood Mac in a bit.
38. “Send One Your Love”/Stevie Wonder
29. “Wonderland”/Commodores
4. “Cruisin'”/Smokey Robinson
Motown superstars too.
37. “Ladies Night”/Kool and the Gang
36. “Him”/Rupert Holmes
31. “Refugee”/Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
27. “Too Hot”/Kool and the Gang
12. “Escape”/Rupert Holmes
10. “Don’t Do Me Like That”/Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Somebody with a more searchable database or a better work ethic might be able to say if having three acts on the chart each with two separate, non-double-A-sided singles is some kind of record.
Casey answers a letter about whether any song has ever topped the pop, soul, and country charts. The answer is yes: Elvis in 1957 with “Hound Dog” and “Don’t Be Cruel” and the Everly Brothers in 1958 with “All I Have to Do Is Dream.” Before you go thinking this could never happen again, remember “Old Town Road,” which topped the Hot 100 (for 19 weeks, the longest run in chart history) and the R&B/Hip Hop chart in 2019. Had it not been disqualified from the Billboard country chart after it reached #19, it might have done the deed too.
Digression: I did not write about “Old Town Road” at this website, although I tried. It was a little absurd for Billboard to say it wasn’t country enough, given the proliferation of trap beats and faux R&B in the genre over in the last decade. Nevertheless, I remain unwilling to draw a straight line from country’s black pioneers, your DeFord Baileys and Charley Prides, to Lil Nas X, although other writers I respect are not.
LDD: “Rise”/Herb Alpert. In which Georgina tells about meeting Bill, a shy young rock musician. She wanted a relationship with him but it didn’t work out because (loose translation) he just wanted to bone. Bill ended up on drugs and she hasn’t seen him for 11 years and even though she’s married to someone else now, she still loves him and thinks about him, and “Rise” is the right song to get her feelings across. (Seems to me that Bill’s interest in rising was the problem, though.)
34. “Lost Her in the Sun”/John Stewart
17. “Daydream Believer”/Anne Murray
This week represents peak John Stewart, with his most beautiful single and his most famous song both in the Top 40.
20. “I Wanna Be Your Lover”/Prince. Casey tells the story of how “Roger Nelson” turned down four record labels before signing with Warner Brothers. That’s OK. Casey will have the next decade to get Prince Rogers Nelson’s name right.
16. “Romeo’s Tune”/Steve Forbert
7. “Sara”/Fleetwood Mac
One of these is my favorite song on the show, unless it’s “Don’t Do Me Like That.”
LDD: “Daniel”/Elton John. In which a girl, forbidden to see her older brother, a blind and legless veteran who hasn’t spoken a word in the six months since he was injured, bursts into his hospital room screaming his name. As the doctors and nurses drag her out, the brother speaks her name. The brother’s name is in fact Daniel, and Bernie Taupin has said the song is about a wounded veteran, but that doesn’t make the LDD any less horrific and tasteless.
3. “Coward of the County”/Kenny Rogers
2. “Do That to Me One More Time”/Captain and Tennille
1. “Rock With You”/Michael Jackson
There’s not much action at the top of the chart; the top five and eight of the top 10 are in the same positions as last week. Michael and the Captain and Tennille hold for a fourth straight week, and Kenny is at #3 for a third week. In 1975, the Dragons did four weeks at #1 with “Love Will Keep Us Together.” “Do That To Me One More Time” would be #1 for only a week, but its eventual two months in the top three makes it hard to argue that it wasn’t the bigger hit.
The Hits Just Keep On Comin' 
seeing Tom Petty on there made think of him doing duet with Stevie Nicks…and then ,an idea for a column,if you have not done this before..Who has the most duets on the charts?.highest charted position?..David Bowie has done a couple also..anyway..
I had exited AT40 by the time of this show– “You can’t quit, I fire you!” Yes, someone actually said that. But the whole staff I’d started with had preceded me, and it was tough to stick around in a markedly less-collegial environment. And frankly, having bumped up to a four-hour running time, and with the proliferation of those damn Long Distance Dedications, it felt like the show was in decline.
The two examples of LDD’s you cited here, JB, only confirm that for me. Both of these are dreadful. I believe the “Rise” story may have been legit, but if so, the writer is pathetic. And her poor, clueless husband, married to a woman who still longs for a loser. The “Daniel” story cries “bullshit,” sounding like the many fabricated entries we received in an attempt for a moment of AT40 fame.
The sensibilities of the returned-to-the-helm former producer often overrode Casey’s better instincts, and the balance of the staff learned to roll over rather than to engage in fruitless argument.
Why Me is one of those Styx songs that virtually disappeared from the airwaves after its chart run.
I don’t even think it ever made any of their Greatest Hits compilations, only appearing on Cornerstone. Guessing a #26 peak on the Billboard chart didn’t help although it did get to #19 on Cashbox.
Probably because “Why Me” wasn’t supposed to be the second single off “Cornerstone”, the mellow ballad “First Time” was. The harder rocking side of Styx refused to put out back to back ballads as 45s, and the infighting nearly broke the band up.
Interesting how despite the many big acts on here, I’m drawing a blank of several of their records listed, which surprised me since I was a top 40 addict during January 1980. “99” has always been a record I wish would’ve been bigger for Toto than some of their other hits, “Lost Her in the Sun” also should’ve been a bigger hit. But for pure singalong joy, “Romeo’s Tune” wins hands down in this field of pretty good contenders. Glad Forbert is still around with us as well.
This was the era where I seriously began thinking about moving from music to news. By the end of the year, I had.
Don’t know if it’s a record for 1970-88 era AT40, but the May 7, 1983 edition contained seven acts with two records each: Michael Jackson, Styx, Duran Duran, Lionel Richie, Culture Club, Journey, and Daryl Hall & John Oates.
The “Rise” kerfuffle raises the question: how often were instrumentals used as LDDs? I want to say I’ve heard “Chariots of Fire” dedicated to a local or school athletic team, maybe “Give It All You Got” in a similar context.
I don’t have an immediate favorite on the countdown but “Him” would hit the spot at the moment.
A station here in Erie, PA, who I would work for in 1983 after spending 1981 and 1982 at sister station of theirs in West Virginia, actually ranked “First Time” by Styx at #3 on their Top 104 Of 1980!
I don’t recall the song still being in the library in late 1983 but it may have.
And, “Why Me” ended up at #17.
There’s actually a lot on that K104 list that I’m scratching my head over. Numbers 3, 6,7,9,15, 17,19,20 and 21 would surprise me in those positions on a weekly chart—but on a year-ender?
The same remark applies for me regarding number 11. “Sometimes a Fantasy” only made #36 on the Hot 100. Was it really that big on Erie radio? Also a head scratcher to me is Number 18 for similar reasons.
With Canada being across the lake and K104 (Star 104 for the last 27 years and now iHeart, formerly Connoisseur and Rambaldo Media (local owner)), it wasn’t surprising April Wine and Red Rider did well. K104 did local call out and I very often questioned many of the songs we played, but I was just a jock.
I would put my reverence for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers up against anybody’s, but, for me, “Don’t Do Me Like That” is only the second-best Tom Petty song in this countdown.
So the best song in the countdown is between “Refugee” and “Sara” (a trainwreck if ever there was one). I might have to go with “Sara” here: It’s absolutely mesmerizing, and I think the high point of Stevie Nicks’ entire career.
Am I the only one who hears a resemblance to “Eve Of Destruction” in the melody of the first verse of “Lost Her in the Sun”?
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