Category: American Bottom 60

I Hear the Sound I Have to Follow

On By jbIn American Bottom 60, Record Charts7 Comments
Embed from Getty Images

(Pictured: participants in Hands Across America try to span the Arizona desert on May 25, 1986.)

After listening to the American Top 40 show from April 26, 1986, earlier this week, here’s the usual look into the Bottom 60 of the same week to see what’s interesting.

44. “Crush on You”/The Jets. “Crush on You” takes four minutes to do not very much, but it was the first of five Top-10 hits the Jets would score in the next two years.

48. “Nothin’ at All”/Heart. Heart’s mid-80s comeback had so far consisted entirely of bombast: “What About Love,” “Never,” and “These Dreams.” “Nothin’ at All” was more like the rockin’ Heart of old. It would make the Top 10 like the others, but it didn’t get much radio play after it dropped off the charts. The video looks great, although much of the budget seems to have gone for hair styling, flowing scarves, and animal wrangling.

49. “Right Between the Eyes”/Wax. In 1981, singer, songwriter, and session man Andrew Gold (best known for the singles “Lonely Boy” and “Thank You for Being a Friend”) was invited to record with 10cc as the group worked to finish an album. Later, he was extended a formal invitation to join the band. He didn’t, but a couple of years later, he and Graham Gouldman, longtime 10cc member and a prolific songwriter, formed Wax, which recorded three studio albums in the late 80s and a fourth a decade later. “Right Between the Eyes” sounds great, and the video is directly in the mid-80s pocket, with Gold and Gouldman performing in front of random whimsical images, intercut with a pretty dancing girl and clips from silent movies and old TV shows.

57. “A Different Corner”/George Michael. This was the highest-debuting record on the Hot 100 in this week, and was the first single George Michael released under his own name, although two records credited to Wham would hit the American charts later in 1986. Your average adult-contemporary or oldies radio station is gonna play “Faith” 100 times before they play “A Different Corner” once, which don’t seem right.

69. “Hands Across America”/Voices of America. In retrospect, this seems like an incredibly strange thing: an attempt to create a human chain stretching  through 16 states from coast to coast to raise money to fight hunger in the United States. But at the time, a year after Live Aid and “We Are the World,” it had great appeal, and USA for Africa was instrumental in organizing it. It was announced with a Super Bowl TV ad in January, and on May 25, 1986, nearly five million people were said to have participated, including President and Mrs. Reagan. About $15 million supposedly went to charity, a lot of it from corporate sponsors, but it could have been more if people had actually paid the participation fee USA for Africa sought.

My radio station was involved in our local event, although I can’t recall many specifics. We were on the national route, but we couldn’t form hands across our own town, let alone join up with anyone else. Playing “Hands Across America” on our air was easier. It’s a power ballad featuring a couple of anonymous singers doing the leads backed by the New Jersey Mass Choir, with several members of Toto handling the instruments. It got a celebrity-studded video but didn’t have much radio appeal, topping out at #65 during the week of May 17.

There’s going to be an attempt to make a virtual human chain on social media for the 35th anniversary of Hands Across America on Tuesday, May 25 of this year, as a benefit to help the homeless. It will not have a song.

77. “Tuff Enuff”/Fabulous Thunderbirds
79. “Bop”/Dan Seals
Amidst all the English haircuts, proto-hip-hop records, and gated reverb came a blues-rock band from Texas with a highly unlikely hit, which would eventually make #10, and a #1 country hit by the erstwhile England Dan, which had stalled just outside the Top 40.

81. “Your Wildest Dreams”/Moody Blues. The Moodys had charted singles right along during the first half of the 80s and would continue to do so after 1986, but “Your Wildest Dreams” became the third and last Top 10 hit of their career, joining “Go Now” and “Nights in White Satin.” The video is one of my two or three favorites of all time, about the hold that love, memory, and music have on us, a subject that always has been directly in my wheelhouse: “When the music plays / I hear the sound / I have to follow.”

Don’t Run

On By jbIn American Bottom 604 Comments
Embed from Getty Images

(Pictured: Men at Work celebrate their Grammy.)

After recapping an American Top 40 show, it’s our practice to look at the Bottom 60 from the same week, so here are a few tunes also popular in some place or another during the week of April 9, 1983.

41. “Take the Short Way Home”/Dionne Warwick. Dionne was incredibly prolific, with 55 Hot 100 hits between 1962 and 1987. The back-to-back singles she made with Barry Gibb, “Heartbreaker” and “Take the Short Way Home” (at its Hot 100 peak in this week), are very good.

42. “The Fanatic”/Felony. Based on their Wikipedia article, Felony is one of the pioneers of modern rock. What they actually appear to have been is a hard-working and photogenic Los Angeles band that got a break by appearing in the 1981 slasher movie Graduation Day, and that came along at the right time to capitalize on music video. “The Fanatic” was popular enough on the radio, especially in Los Angeles, to peak at #42 on the Hot 100 and get Felony a two-song spot on American Bandstand at the end of April 1983.

48. “So Wrong”/Patrick Simmons. Both of the Doobie Brothers’ lead singers from the pre-Michael McDonald era scored solo hits that won’t remind you much of the Doobies, and which both have a disco/dance vibe: Tom Johnston’s “Savannah Nights” in 1980 and “So Wrong,” which would eventually make #30.

50. “Stranger in My House”/Ronnie Milsap. In the spring of 1983, I was music director at KDTH in Dubuque, which was mostly a country station, although country hits and stars that crossed over to pop were our bread ‘n’ butter. In the early 80s, Ronnie Milsap was one of them: since 1974, he had hit the Billboard country chart 27 times, and 22 of those had gone to #1, including his last 10 singles in a row. Four of those last 10 had been pop Top 40 hits: “Smoky Mountain Rain,” “No Getting Over Me,” “I Wouldn’t Have Missed It for the World,” and “Any Day Now.” “Stranger in My House,” which would peak at #5 country and #23 on the Hot 100, was quite unlike anything that had ever hit on country radio up til then. I described it then as “Ronnie Milsap meets Foreigner, and Foreigner wins,” and that’s still accurate.

53. “Baby Come to Me”/Patti Austin and James Ingram
60. “Never Give Up”/Sammy Hagar
70. “Every Home Should Have One”/Patti Austin
93. “Your Love Is Driving Me Crazy”/Sammy Hagar
Next month, I’m going to write about the May 1983 AT40 chart on which seven acts had two different singles in the Top 40. On this chart, Michael Jackson, Duran Duran, Bob Seger, Lionel Richie, Billy Joel, and Men at Work each have two in the Hot 100, as do Patti Austin and Sammy Hagar, which I did not see coming.

54. “Down Under”/Men at Work. In my earlier post about the AT40 show from this week, we saw Men at Work’s “Overkill” make the highest Hot 100 debut since 1971, which indicates how popular that band was after two #1 hits, “Who Can It Be Now” and “Down Under,” plus the 1982 Best New Artist Grammy. But it was heat they couldn’t sustain. “Overkill” would make #3 and “It’s a Mistake” #6 later in the summer, but neither remained on radio playlists for very long afterward. “Dr. Heckyll and Mr. Jive” would peak at #28 in the fall, and they’d never return to the Top 40 again.

67. “Smiling Islands”/Robbie Patton. I have mentioned before how D93, the FM sister station of KDTH, invested a lot of time and effort trying to break hits. It meant that the station gave a lot of airtime to records the program director believed in, regardless of whether anybody was buying them, or even wanted to hear them. One of them was “Smiling Islands.” Robbie Patton, a collaborator with Fleetwood Mac, whose “Don’t Give It Up” had gone to #26 in the summer of 1981, welcomed Stevie Nicks to sing a verse. “Smiling Islands” is a perfectly pleasant pop song directly in the pocket for 1983 that peaked at #16 on the Billboard AC chart and #52 on the Hot 100. D93 played it like it was a #1 hit.

103. “Don’t Run”/KC and the Sunshine Band with Teri DeSario. “Yes I’m Ready” had been #2 hit for KC and Teri in 1980, but “Don’t Run” wouldn’t make the Hot 100 at all. This is its peak, although it went to #12 on the Billboard adult-contemporary chart. It’s the sort of pop cheese I am helpless to resist, and never mind that I’m a KC fanboy. Now that I’ve listened to it while writing this post, it’s gonna be playing in my head for the next several hours.

Talking Loud and Saying Nothing

On By jbIn American Bottom 60, Record Charts13 Comments
Embed from Getty Images

(Pictured: James Brown on stage, 1972.)

OK, let’s do that thing where after we listen to an American Top 40 show, we look at the Bottom 60 of the same week’s chart to see and hear what there. This is from March 25, 1972.

42. “Talking Loud and Saying Nothing (Part 1)”/James Brown
44. “King Heroin”/James Brown
James Brown put 15 singles on American Top 40 between 1970 and 1974, but it was his enormous popularity in the R&B market that got him there. The people buying “King Heroin” weren’t the same ones buying “Puppy Love” and “Horse With No Name,” but they were buying it in numbers sufficient to make it competitive.

45. “I Can’t Help Myself”/Donnie Elbert. Elbert hit the Hot 100 four times in two years, but “Where Did Our Love Go” and “I Can’t Help Myself” made #15 and #22 respectively. Each one takes the Motown groove of the 60s and updates it in a uniquely 70s way. They don’t improve on the originals because how could they, but they’re pretty good on their own.

47. “Tiny Dancer”/Elton John. Surely “Tiny Dancer” was a big hit, as it is one of Elton’s more familiar songs. But it was not, peaking at #29 in Cash Box and #41 in Billboard. It made local Top 10s in Honolulu, Miami/Fort Lauderdale, and some smaller markets. There are no ARSA listings for it from any station in New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles.

49. “Suavecito”/Malo. There is nothing about “Suavecito” that isn’t great, although I think it’s one of those cases where the single edit is superior to the long version. In either version, however, it sounds like the first bright, warm days of spring.

55. “Son of My Father”/Giorgio
91. “Son of My Father”/Chicory
That’s Giorgio Moroder, future pioneer of electronic and dance music, most famously with Donna Summer. His “Son of My Father” sounded unlike anything that had been on stateside Top 40 radio before. The Chicory version had been to #1 in the UK in February, about the time both versions first charted in the United States. Giorgio would get to #46 here, but Chicory (known as Chicory Tip in the UK before the tip was snipped for the American market) was done at #91.

58. “Iron Man”/Black Sabbath. What’s this doing here? It’s doing pretty well, actually. Down from a peak of #52 and in its ninth week on the Hot 100, “Iron Man” would go all the way to #1 at Seattle’s KSEA in San Diego in May, in a Top 10 that also featured “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” “Rockin’ Robin,” and Don McLean’s “Vincent.” It was #2 in San Diego, #4 in Louisville, and #8 in Minneapolis/St. Paul. But again, there’s no record of New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles Top 40 airplay at ARSA.

63. “Rock and Roll”/Led Zeppelin. “Black Dog” had been a #15 hit earlier in the year, and “Rock and Roll” seems more commercial, but it would stall out at #47. Its highest position at ARSA is #9 at WFRS, an AM station in Big Rapids, Michigan, which is up in the middle of nowhere but is also the home of Ferris State University, which might account for its wildly eclectic playlist.

78. “Baby Blue”/Badfinger
79. “The Family of Man”/Three Dog Night
Badfinger and Three Dog Night are debuts in this week, both great AM radio records that come out of the gate at full force and never let up. “Baby Blue” was remixed from the Straight Up album for American single release, and that’s the version you want. It punches you in the face, but in a good way.

82. “Nice to Be With You”/Gallery. This record will require 10 weeks just to crack the Top 40 but only four more to make the Top 10, finally peaking at #4 at the end of June. It’s one of the records that takes me most vividly back to the first days of that summer: school’s out and the swimming pool is in the dooryard, but for the first time, I am also expected to drive a tractor on the farm whether I want to or not. It’s my first experience with the world of work as it would be forever after.

A lot of books have been written about individual years in music, mainly from the 60s, and there’s a new one about 1984. But surely there’s material enough for a book about 1972: the ongoing crossfade between 60s and 70s styles, the rise of soft rock and prog rock, the underrated soul music of the time, and the historical forces that would, by 1974, transform the pop-music landscape into something entirely different. I’m not the person to write it, but I’d read it.

Come on Over

On By jbIn American Bottom 60, The 1976 Project2 Comments
Embed from Getty Images

(Pictured: Olivia Newton-John, in a promotional shot for her November 1976 TV special.)

I have written so much about 1976 over the years that I couldn’t possibly say anything new in the customary Bottom 60 companion piece to my earlier post about the American Top 40 show from March 13, 1976. There’s only one thing to do when you’re in a corner like that: try to write your way out of it.

47. “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”/Creedence Clearwater Revival. This is a shortened version of the classic track from Cosmo’s Factory, released as a single to promote the two-disc Chronicle compilation that had come out in January. It would peak at #43 on the Hot 100 and #47 in Cash Box. At the ARSA database, fewer stations charted “Grapevine” as a single in 1976 than had done so as an album cut in 1970. Its highest position was #6 at WDNG in Anniston, Alabama.

57. “Sara Smile”/Hall and Oates
78. “Rhiannon”/Fleetwood Mac
Pick any random week of the 70s or 80s and you’ll find new records that haven’t been off the radio in all the years since.

59. “Without Your Love (Mr. Jordan)”/Charlie Ross. I have previously mentioned “Without Your Love,” a fabulously cheesy cheatin’ song with a twist. What I didn’t mention, I don’t think, is that in the early days of the pandemic last year, I got an e-mail from Charlie Ross himself, who had come across my post about it, and who sent thanks and greetings. He said he’s back in Mississippi, working in radio, and still playing music.

70. “Highfly”/John Miles. On March 15, 1976, WCFL in Chicago made what is probably the best-remembered format change in history, from Top 40 to elevator music. The station published its last survey sometime in February, if I’m recalling correctly, but I remember hearing new songs on the station right up until the end. “Highfly” was one of them.

71. “Strange Magic”/Electric Light Orchestra. Make me choose one favorite ELO song and it will be the woozy, dreamy “Strange Magic.” Jeff Lynne is not the most expressive vocalist, but I’m not sure he ever sang anything better than “Oh I’m never gonna be the same again / I’ve seen the way it’s got to end / Sweet dreams, sweet dreams.”

74. “Mozambique”/Bob Dylan. I have read that “Mozambique” came about after Dylan and a collaborator wondered how many words ended with “ique.” “Mozambique” is a more conventional single than “Hurricane,” its predecessor from the Desire album, but no less a product of Dylan’s unique (yeah, I said it) vision.

76. “Mighty High”/Mighty Clouds of Joy. How the magnificent “Mighty High” stalled out at #69 on the Hot 100 and #77 in Cash Box I do not know. It wasn’t even especially big on the soul charts, #15 in Cash Box and #22 in Billboard. It was probably too pop for their gospel fans, and maybe too gospel for pop fans, but it’s Philly-soul fire, and we play it loud every time.

79. “The Game Is Over (What’s the Matter With You)”/Brown Sugar. “The Game Is Over” is more excellent Philadelphia soul, produced by Vince Montana, former member of MSFB, who was at #26 in this week with the Salsoul Orchestra on “Tangerine.” Brown Sugar was a trio fronted by Clydie King, whose name will be familiar to liner-note readers. She started as one of Ray Charles’ Raelettes, and backed artists ranging from Elton John and Barbra Streisand to the Rolling Stones and Steely Dan. Dylan called her his ultimate singing partner; it was rumored that they were secretly married for a time, although none of the obituaries I read after her death in 2019 had anything to say about that.

83. “Come on Over”/Olivia Newton-John. “Come on Over” was written by Barry and Robin Gibb and was on the Bee Gees’ 1975 album Main Course. It continued ONJ’s dominant run on the adult-contemporary chart as her sixth straight #1 hit. It got to #23 on the Hot 100 and #5 on Billboard‘s country chart.

89. “Eh! Cumpari”/Gaylord and Holiday. “Eh! Cumpari” was most famously recorded by Julius LaRosa in 1953, and was recut by Gaylord and Holiday for an Alitalia Airlines commercial in 1975, and eventually as a novelty song. It contains a long Italian-dialect bit in the middle, to which I stopped paying attention long before the punchline. Gaylord and Holiday (neither of whom was actually named either Gaylord or Holiday) had scored some extremely minor hits in the 50s under the name of the Gaylords.

Someday we might run out of stuff to say about 1976. Not today and maybe not tomorrow, but someday. Maybe.

Joyride

On By jbIn American Bottom 60, Record Charts8 Comments
Embed from Getty Images

(Pictured: Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson of Roxette, 1991.)

After listening to the American Top 40 show from the weekend of March 9, 1991, here’s the usual look at what else was on that week’s Hot 100.

41. “Joyride”/Roxette. I was working at an adult-contemporary station as 1990 turned to 1991, and we played “Listen to Your Heart” and “It Must Have Been Love” past the point of all human endurance. We didn’t play “Joyride” at all, but now I think it’s the best thing Roxette ever did, by a lot.

46. “Play That Funky Music”/Vanilla Ice
69. “I’m Not in Love”/Will to Power
76. “Unchained Melody 1990″/Righteous Brothers
91. “The Shoop-Shoop Song (It’s in His Kiss)”/Cher
Lots of remakes are in the Hot 100 this week in addition to Tesla’s “Signs” at #16 and Robert Palmer’s “Mercy Mercy Me”/”I Want You” medley at #30. The original 1965 “Unchained Melody” became a hit again thanks to its inclusion in the movie Ghost, but the Righteous Brothers and their current label had no legal rights to that recording, so they recut it. The original 1965 “Melody” peaked at #13 in October 1990; the recut version peaked at #19 a month later.

(“It Never Rains in Southern California” by Tony! Toni! Tone! is at #66 in this week but it’s a different song, and not a remake of the 1972 Albert Hammond hit, although that might have been better.)

48. “Ride the Wind”/Poison
51. “Easy Come, Easy Go”/Winger
74. “Spend My Life”/Slaughter
79. “Call It Rock and Roll”/Great White
86. “Don’t Treat Me Bad”/Firehouse
96. “Miles Away”/Winger
The early 90s were the golden age of hair metal and bands that were hair-metal-adjacent. Besides these, Tesla and Warrant (“I Saw Red” at #27) are in the Top 40 this week.

54. “Give Peace a Chance”/Peace Choir. “Give Peace a Chance” is another artifact of the Gulf War era, a reboot of the the Plastic Ono Band chant from 1969, spearheaded by Lenny Kravitz and Sean Lennon, then 15 years old. Members of the Peace Choir included Tom Petty, Al Jarreau, Bruce Hornsby, Bonnie Raitt, MC Hammer, Cyndi Lauper, LL Cool J, Little Richard, Michael McDonald, Randy Newman, Peter Gabriel, and Yoko Ono, among others. It got more mileage on MTV than it did on the radio; #54 was its debut position on the Hot 100, and its peak. It spent the next three weeks slipping down and out.

59. “Moneytalks”/AC-DC
94. “Highwire”/Rolling Stones
99. “Give It Up”/ZZ Top
All of these records make history of a sort. “Moneytalks” is AC/DC’s most successful Hot 100 hit, having peaked earlier in 1991 at #23. They would make the Hot 100 only one more time to date. “Highwire” would get to #57. Although the Stones put many other singles onto Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock chart in the 90s, they have not gotten any higher on the Hot 100 since “Highwire.” “Give It Up” is the last Hot 100 single to date for ZZ Top.

71. “From a Distance”/Bette Midler
82. “Night and Day”/Bette Midler
In addition to the Peace Choir and Top 40 hits “The Star-Spangled Banner” (#32 in this week) and “Show Me the Way” (#5), “From a Distance” was also very much a Gulf War hit, about the hope for peace in a world at war. It spent nine weeks in the Top 10 from November 1990 into January 1991 and peaked at #2. Its extended popularity probably tamped down “Night and Day” (which is not the Cole Porter song). It had made #62 in February.

79. “I Touch Myself”/Divinyls. Your mileage may vary and I could be totally wrong, but it seems to me there are only a couple of records on this Hot 100 for which the word “iconic” fits, in the sense that everybody knew them then and they are still fondly remembered now. “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)” by C + C Music Factory (#7) is one of them, and “I Touch Myself” is the other. This is its debut week; it would eventually get to #4.

80. “Don’t Hold Back Your Love”/Hall and Oates. H&O’s historic hot streak largely ended after 1986, apart from “Everything Your Heart Desires” (1988) and “So Close” (1990). “Don’t Hold Back Your Love” peaked at #41 despite being insanely great.

The musical 90s is not my decade; I didn’t experience it the way I did the 70s and 80s, and I can’t talk about it in the same way. All I can say for sure is that 1991 sounds a hell of a lot better to me than 1990 did.

Note to Patrons: I wrote a thing about the first anniversary of the pandemic for the Sidepiece and then decided not to send it because we’ve all had enough of the pandemic. May we always remember those who got sick and died, and those who got sick and didn’t. And never forget those working to make things better, or forgive those who made things worse. 

I Like to Rock

On By jbIn American Bottom 60, Record Charts11 Comments
Embed from Getty Images

(Pictured: Bo Derek in the movie 10.)

Here we go with the customary dive into the Bottom 60 of the Top 40 featured in a post last week, from February 9, 1980.

41. “Looks Like Love Again”/Dann Rogers
56. “Better Love Next Time”/Dr. Hook
62. “Three Times in Love”/Tommy James
65. “I Wish I Was Eighteen Again”/George Burns
85. “Where Does the Lovin’ Go”/David Gates
87. “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys”/Willie Nelson
91. “Holdin’ on for Dear Love”/Lobo
Many of the songs popular during the winter of 1980 put me back into the studio at KDTH in Dubuque, Iowa, where I worked my first paying radio job. It was a fabulous place for a young broadcaster to start, with a lot of talented veterans to learn from. At the time, however, I am pretty sure I neither appreciated it enough nor learned all that I could have. (The latter is kind of disturbing, because as it was, the young idiot I was learned a lot.) The station’s music format was mostly country most of the time, although it played a lot of pop records too (Dann Rogers, Dr. Hook, Tommy James, David Gates, and Lobo among them, as well as Dionne Warwick, Barry Manilow, Dan Fogelberg, and Neil Diamond from the week’s Top 40). “I Wish I Was Eighteen Again,” which made the KDTH phones blow up, went to #15 on Billboard‘s country chart, and “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys” would hit #1.

48. “Flirtin’ With Disaster”/Molly Hatchet
50. “When a Man Loves a Woman”/Bette Midler
51. “I Thank You”/ZZ Top
54. “Back on My Feet Again”/Babys
57. “Cool Change”/Little River Band
58. “Voices”/Cheap Trick
59. “You Know That I Love You”/Santana
61. “Can We Still Be Friends”/Robert Palmer
67. “Remember (Walking in the Sand)”/Aerosmith
70. “Rockin’ Into the Night”/.38 Special
71. “Come Back”/J. Geils Band
73. “Baby Talks Dirty”/The Knack
78. “Jane”/Jefferson Starship
80. “I Don’t Like Mondays”/Boomtown Rats
82. “Even It Up”/Heart
90. “I Like to Rock”/April Wine
96. “Babe”/Styx
97. “Dirty Water”/Inmates
99. “Head Games”/Foreigner
107. “You Won’t Be There”/Alan Parsons Project
But my weekend job was a sideshow to the one I cared about the most: being program director of the campus radio station. It had been a Top-40 station when I started on it a year earlier before an uncomfortable semester as an album rock/R&B/funk/jazz hybrid. It had gone to a full-blown album-rock format in the fall of 1979. When I took over, we expanded the library to something like 2,000 songs, going deep and wide on what we considered to be the best AOR artists, but at the same time making sure we frequently played the strongest AOR cuts: your Free Birds, Laylas, and Stairways to Heaven.

I was not especially interested in new music discovery, and I wasn’t alone. Most of us wanted to play the hits. I left the programming of current music to the station’s music director, at least at the beginning. We would eventually have our disagreements, as his taste was vastly different from mine. What I perceived as input he perceived as meddling—and vice versa. It occurs to me now that, like the KDTHers, he was somebody from whom I could have learned a great deal. But while I recognized that people at KDTH had a lot to teach me, I walked around the campus station as if I already knew it all.

As I have said before, it’s a wonder I have any friends left from that time.

(“I Like to Rock” borrows riffs from the Beatles’ “Day Tripper” and the Stones’ “Satisfaction” just before the fade. I’m not sure I noticed that 41 years ago, but I did while writing this post.)

49. “Give It All You Got”/Chuck Mangione. When “Give It All You Got” hit the chart in January, we already knew that it would be ABC’s theme music for coverage of the 1980 Winter Olympics, which opened during the week of this chart.

81. “Lost in Love”/Air Supply. Someday I will assemble the entire list of songs I have claimed to be completely irrational about.

86. “Peanut Butter”/Twennynine Featuring Lenny White. After leaving the fusion band Return to Forever, White formed Twennynine to play R&B and funk music. “Peanut Butter” was a big R&B hit but would stall at #83 on the Hot 100.

101. “Ravel’s Bolero”/Henry Mancini. “Ravel’s Bolero” was famously used in the movie 10, which had been released the previous fall. I didn’t see it until I moved off campus and my TV-engineer roommates pirated an HBO subscription. I don’t recall that it left much of an impression on me. It would have taken more than Bo Derek to get me to stop thinking about radio.