Audio Samples of "Billboard's" #1 Pop Singles

[Im-n-a-whirl]

Oh mercy!

We've already discussed Abracadabra so I won't elaborate on it's awfulness any more than I have to, LOL. This song's only redeeming quality was the trademark Pegasus shot in the equally awful video.

Eye of the Tiger really does make you feel like you can kick someone's ass, cheesy as it is. As a former artistic skater, I can tell you that when this song came out, everyone and their kid sister had a program using this song.

Don't You Want Me is a great song. Despite the synth overload, there was something really sexy about it.

And so the downfall of Chicago begins. But Hard For Me to Say I'm Sorry is not bad, in fact it's pretty good. Cetera does a nice vocal.

I loathe Jack and Diane. I never want to hear it again. My favorite song by him is the powerful Rain On the Scarecrow.

I was surprised at how well the terrible voices of Jennifer Warner and Joe Cocker put together actually worked on Up Where We Belong!

Men at Work's best song was Overkill. Down Under was completely silly but Who Can It Be Now was interesting.

Mickey was created because former cheerleader Toni Basil loved the way the cheers and the stomping of feet echoed through the gym while she was in school and wanted to incorporate that sound into a record. What's funny about Mickey is that the lyrics are just a little bit naughty but of course, no one noticed. And yes she is a one hit wonder but she is also one of the best choreographers in the industry.

Maneater.... Blech!

Truly is a pretty song if you haven't heard it 28 gazillion times. GL wore this song out to underscore the romance of Phillip and Beth while they were in high school.

James Ingram is outrageously talented. Along with this song (yes, it too was revived by airplay on GH) he also recorded the wonderful One Hundred Ways and collaborated on Ya Mo Be There with Michael McDonald. He has a hell of a voice.

Africa more than made up for that cloying Rosanna!

The next segment begins with a song that had a very innovative video and shot Michael Jackson into the stratosphere: Billie Jean.

[Max]

Im-n-a-whirl, I had no idea that you were a former skater. That's extremely impressive!

1983 (Part 2 of 3):

569. Billie Jean--Michael Jackson (7 weeks, March 5)

570. Come on Eileen--Dexys Midnight Runners (1 week, April 23)

571. Beat It--Michael Jackson (3 weeks, April 30)

572. Let's Dance--David Bowie (1 week, May 21)

573. Flashdance...What a Feeling--Irene Cara (6 weeks, May 28)

574. Every Breath You Take--The Police (8 weeks, July 9)

575. Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)--The Eurythmics (1 week, September 3)

576. Maniac--Michael Sembello (2 weeks, September 10)

577. Tell Her About It--Billy Joel (1 week, September 24)

578. Total Eclipse of the Heart--Bonnie Tyler (4 weeks, October 1)

Comments:

*In virtually every segment of number one hits (that I posted previously), there has been at least one or two songs that were completely undeserving of reaching the top of the chart. This is not the case this time: each song in this installment is a winner and a true 80's classic. In particular, I feel that "Flashdance...What a Feeling," "Every Breath You Take," and "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" represent the absolute cream of the crop when it comes to 80's music.

*Although it was originally released in 1982, Michael Jackson's "Thriller"--which remains the best selling album of all time--reached the peak of its popularity the following year. The album consisted of nine songs, and two of them--"Billie Jean" and "Beat It"--peaked at #1 on the singles chart. Im-n-a-whirl was absoultely correct when she stated that the video to "Billie Jean" was very innovative. The video was also groundbreaking in the sense that it gave black artists heavy exposure on MTV for the first time.

*Although Dexys Midnight Runners were a one-hit wonder in the United States, the group had quite a few hits in Britain aside from "Come on Eileen."

*Irene Cara is an amazing talent with an incredibly powerful voice. In 1980, Cara scored a #4 hit with the dance classic "Fame." Three years later, she reached #1 by performing the title song from the movie "Flashdance." In my opinion, "Flashdance...What a Feeling" is one of the most energetic and inspiring dance songs ever recorded. I love how the song starts off slowly, but then becomes really fast paced.

*The Police's only #1 hit--"Every Breath You Take"--is considered by many to be one of the most romantic songs of the 1980's. Ironically, when Sting wrote the song, his intention was to portray a jealous man who obsessively watches over his lover.

*The Eurythmics are the duo of Annie Lennox and David Stewart. Their first and biggest hit, "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)," made innovative use of both the synthesizer and Lennox's striking vocals. After breaking up in 1990, the Eurythmics reunited in 1999 and have been together ever since.

*Like "Flashdance...What a Feeling" by Irene Cara, Michael Sembello's "Maniac" was featured in the film "Flashdance." Although most believe that Sembello is a one-hit wonder, he actually did have a #34 hit titled "Automatic Man." Additionally, Sembello sang the theme song to the 1988 TV movie, "Dance 'Til Dawn."

*Billy Joel's second #1 hit, "Tell Her About It," comes from my favorite album of his: "An Innocent Man." Although "Tell Her About It" was a good song, there were two other songs from the album that I liked much better: (1) "The Longest Time," which was one of the very few doo-wop songs that became popular after the early-60's, and (2) "Uptown Girl," which paid tribute to the sound of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. (It should be noted that "The Longest Time" peaked at #14, while "Uptown Girl" reached #3.)

*As Im-n-a-whirl previously noted, Bonnie Tyler (along with Kim Carnes) sounded very much like a female version of Rod Stewart. Her biggest hit, "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (which would have a second chart life in 1995 when Nicki French took the song to #2), had an incredibly dramatic feeling to it. I must say, however, that the bizarre video for this song (which at times almost feels like a "Harry Potter" movie) makes no sense to me.

[Im-n-a-whirl]

Okay, let's see here....

Come On Eileen can go right in the trash pile.

Beat It and Billie Jean were great songs and really showed off MJ's talent. In fact, when Thriller was finished at first, it didn't actually include those two songs. The producer wanted to add to the album to make it stronger so MJ wrote Billie Jean and Beat It.

Let's Dance wasn't even a dance song until Nile Rogers got a hold of it. He's the one that turned it into the faster-paced song you hear now. Bowie's original version of the song wasn't even close.

By this time, I'd just about had it with Flashdance and any song that came from that film.

Sweet Dreams is a hypnotic song and very unusual. It still stands the test of time.

Total Ecplipse was just too over the top for me. The gawd-awful video did not help it's case at all.

Every Breath You Take is a good song but they have a lot of songs that I liked far more than this one.

The next segment starts with the Kenny Rogers/Dolly Parton duet, Islands in the Stream.

[Max]

As always, Im-n-a-whirl, I enjoy reading your insightful comments. It was especially interesting to learn that "Billie Jean" and "Beat It" were not originally intended to be part of the "Thriller" album. Had those two songs actually been left out, I would venture to say that "Thriller" would have probably sold less than half of the copies that it did.

1983 (Part 3 of 3):

579. Islands in the Stream--Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton (2 weeks, October 29)

580. All Night Long (All Night)--Lionel Richie (4 weeks, November 12)

581. Say, Say, Say--Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson (6 weeks, December 10)

1984 (Part 1 of 2):

582. Owner of a Lonely Heart--Yes (2 weeks, January 21)

583. Karma Chameleon--Culture Club (3 weeks, February 4)

584. Jump--Van Halen (5 weeks, February 25)

585. Footloose--Kenny Loggins (3 weeks, March 31)

586. Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)--Phil Collins (3 weeks, April 21)

587. Hello--Lionel Richie (2 weeks, May 12)

588. Let's Hear It for the Boy--Deniece Williams (2 weeks, May 26)

589. Time After Time--Cyndi Lauper (2 weeks, June 9)

Comments:

*Since the beginning of the rock era, it has been farily common for country songs to reach #1 on the pop charts. However, after "Islands in the Stream" (a song that was written by the Bee Gees) fell from the top of the chart, a country crossover would not reach number one on the "Hot 100" until the year 2000, when "Amazed" by Lonestar accomplished this feat.

*This installment of chart toppers includes two songs by Lionel Richie. The first single, "All Night Long (All Night)," was performed by Richie at the closing ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles. Then came "Hello," which had a memorable music video in which he sings to a blind woman who, in turn, makes a sculpture of Richie's face.

*Paul McCartney scored nine number one hits follwing his stint with the Beatles, making his career by far the most commercially successful of any of the Fab Four. This installment features his final post-Beatles #1 hit, "Say, Say, Say." Interestingly, none of these nine #1 songs was a purely solo effort on his part: six of these tunes were recorded with his group Wings, while the other three were duets. (It should be noted that one of these chart toppers, "Coming Up (Live at Glasgow)," was incorrectly credited as a solo effort when, it fact, it was performed by Wings.)

*Despite being a farily well known band, the second biggest hit by Yes was 1972's "Roundabout," which peaked at #13. There is one line from "Owner of a Lonely Heart" that I feel is 100% true: "The owner of a lonely heart is much better than the owner of a broken heart." (It should be noted that the line I just quoted may not be verbatim.)

*Culture Club got its name because one of its members (its leader, Boy George) was Irish, while the remaining three members were each Jewish, British, and Jamaican. In 1983, the group scored two #2 hits with "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?" and "Time (Clock of the Heart)." The following year, Culture Club reached #1 with the song I consider to be the band's masterpiece, "Karma Chameleon." Sadly, the group would break up just a few short years later, and--even worse--Boy George would suffer from a serious drug addiction.

*The instrumental portion of "Jump" (which I was familiar with long before I heard the rest of the song) is one of those melodies that one simply cannot get out of his or her head.

*The movie "Footloose" produced two upbeat number one hits: the title track performed by Kenny Loggins, and "Let's Hear It for the Boy" by Deniece Williams. Loggins' second biggest hit would also come from a motion picture: "Danger Zone" peaked at #2 in 1986 after being featured in "Top Gun."

*In 1983, the multi-talented Phil Collins scored his first top 10 hit with a remake of the Supremes' "You Can't Hurry Love." One year later, he appeared at the top of the chart (for the first time) with "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)."

*In early 1984, Cyndi Lauper made her chart debut with "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," which peaked at #2. Very shortly afterward, Lauper would score her first #1 hit with "Time After Time." While both songs are excellent, I personally prefer "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," which also happens to be one of my favorite songs of the decade.

[Im-n-a-whirl]

I'm reliving my high school years here!

When Richie did All Night Long, his detractors said, "Calypso? Is he kidding?" But it worked.

McCartney and Jackson's Say Say Say had a cute video....It's funny that they were such good friends until Jackson outbid McCartney for the publishing rights to the Beatles catalogue.

Owner of a Lonely Heart got skewered by VH1 because of the lyrics, which I thought were pretty good. "You're every move you make" made perfect sense to me. This is a good song but compared to their earlier work, it's not spectacular.

The Footloose soundtack songs were pretty energetic and pretty good, as was Against All Odds.

Seeing Boy George on MTV was one of only two times I said, "What the hell is that?!" The other time was seeing Dee Snider in Twisted Sister's first video. I am not denying that Boy George has a lovely voice because he does, but Karma Chameleon was nowhere near as good as some of their other songs.

Cyndi Lauper had good songs too (like She Bop) but Time After Time was not one of them.

I've already mentioned what happened when I heard Jump and most Van Halen fans agreed with me: "Keyboards?! Where's the guitars??" Van Halen has always been a group I've never really cared for anyway so it's just as well.

[EricMontreal22]

Oh I'm so behind... So did Stars on 45 just remix old songs with a beat--how awful lol...

Twirl I agreed iwht many of your comments but "I was surprised at how well the terrible voices of Jennifer Warner and Joe Cocker put together actually worked on Up Where We Belong!" Jennifer Warnes did an absolutely stunning 80s album of Leonard Cohen songs--I actually think she has a stunning voice despite the cheese she's best known for

More recently, I really like Yes' Owner of a Lonely Heart--it was much more the work of megaproducer Trevor Horn (who was at a winning streak at that era) than the traditional Yes lineup which I think was part of the reason for some critical backlash

[Sylph]

Eric, where is my Anne Dudley interview? On Trevor Horn's site?

[Max]

I'd like to apologize for not updating this thread in a while. The reason for this is quite unfortunate: some of Keonepax's videos--including the next installment of number one hits--have been pulled from YouTube. Apparently, Universal Music Group pulled some of these videos because they are refusing to allow Keonepax to broadcast even the small samples of certain songs.

Because several installments of number one hits are no longer available, I'd rather just end this thread as opposed to continuing on with it with some gaps in between. However, there is a possiblity that Keonepax will be able to again post these missing videos in the future (minus the couple of songs that are objectionable to the Universal Music Group). If this occurrs, then I will resume posting on this thread (so I can complete this time sweep of number one hits).

Before I conclude, I'd like to especially thank Im-n-a-whirl and EricMontreal22 for their many insightful comments on this thread. It was such a pleasure conversing with both of you.

[Im-n-a-whirl]

Aww, man!

Thank you Max for giving us such a great topic of conversation!