Monkey by George Michael

2016 has not been a good year, if you judge years based on how many pop superstars died.  The last week of December brought the news that George Michael died on Christmas Day.  Though it has been a while since Mr. Michael hit the charts, his music still gets a fair amount of airplay, continuing to introduce him to a whole new generation and thereby making it that much more of a shock for so many when they heard of his death.

Born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou in 1963, George Michael  met a schoolmate named Andrew Ridgeley and discovered that they were both interested in music, which eventually led to the formation of Wham! and, after that, to worldwide success.  However, it wasn't long before it was clear that Mr. Michael was destined for a solo career.  The smash hit "Careless Whisper", though credited to Wham! in the United States, was actually a solo hit for George Michael, and less than two years later, Wham! was officially no more.

George Michael's first album, Faith, was phenominally successful, eventually becoming the biggest selling album of 1988 (even though it was released in 1987).  The controversy involving some radio stations refusing to play the album's leadoff single, "I Want Your Sex"*, only generated more publicity and once again proved that any press is good press.  The title track did even better, becoming the number one single for all of 1988.

(Faith spent 12 weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 Top Albums chart. Album ℗1987 Columbia Records.  Photo courtesy Amazon.com.)

Among the many topics and musical styles present on Faith was what Mr. Michael's official website** calls a "clattering drug abuse saga" with "funk" called "Monkey".

The fifth single from Faith, actually, is fairly different from the album version.  Instead, "Monkey" got a 7" version which was remixed by the very successful production team of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.  (Songfacts reports that Mr. Michael brought Jam and Lewis in after hearing their work on Janet Jackson's "Nasty".)

Almost certainly bolstered by the performance of Faith's previous singles, "Monkey" entered Billboard's Hot 100 all the way up at #42 the week ending July 9, 1988 (less than a week after its release date) and peaked at #1, where it spent two weeks, in its seventh week on the chart.  In all, it spent 16 weeks on the Hot 100 and sold well enough to be listed at #45 in Billboard's Year End Hot 100 of 1988.

As stated at the top, some of George Michael's music (especially "Careless Whisper", "Faith", and "Father Figure") still gets a good deal of airplay on classic hits stations (and, yes, "I Want Your Sex" also still gets the occasional spin).  "Monkey", however, appears to have disappeared from the radio landscape entirely.  You would think that a "Jack FM" or similar format could fit it in.

* The author can attest to this, as his hometown top 40 station temporarily considered not playing the track before letting their listeners vote on it.  The listeners voted to play it, and play it the station did.
** As of this writing (31 December 2016), Mr, Michael's website has a lot of detail about his music but has yet to acknowledge his death.

Money Don't Matter 2 Night by Prince and the New Power Generation

This post has moved.  Find it here at the new Unfairly Forgotten Songs site.

The One You Love by Glenn Frey

Let's face it: 2016 has been a lousy year for classic hits.  First we lost David Bowie, and then soon afterward, we lost Glenn Frey.

Of course, just as with Mr. Bowie, Glenn Frey had too long and successful of a career for me to try to do it justice in one paragraph, so I won't.  The levels of success he enjoyed are obvious based on the number of Eagles songs still receiving airplay on both classic hits and classic rock stations, and a few classic hits stations still play one or two of his solo hits (mostly #2 hits "The Heat Is On" and "You Belong to the City", I would imagine).

But before those two songs shot up the charts, Mr. Frey had to start a solo career after having left the Eagles in 1980 and firing his manager, Irving Azoff (who had been the Eagles' manager).  However, one thing had changed when he transitioned from a member of a group to a solo artist.  As fan site Glenn Frey Online states:  "it was evident that the joy in his work had returned."

Along with that newly found joy came Mr. Frey's first album, No Fun Aloud, released in May 1982.  While it wasn't nearly as successful as the last several Eagles albums before Mr. Frey left the group, the album did sell fairly well, earning a gold certification.

(No Fun Aloud peaked at #32 on Billboard's Top LPs and Tape chart. Album ℗1982 Asylum Records.  Photo courtesy Amazon.com.)

The first single from the album, "I Found Somebody", peaked at #31, but the second single released, "The One You Love", a song about a woman torn between two lovers*, performed better.  The video for the song appears to put Mr. Frey into the role of the one who loves her, rather than that of the one she loves, and it seems to show that his character ended the song as the odd man out.

"The One You Love" entered the charts at #87 for the week ending August 21, 1982 (chart), just as "I Found Somebody" was falling out of the top 40.  It peaked at #15 the week ending November 6 (chart).  Its 17th and final week on the Hot 100 was the week ending December 11 (chart).  It performed even better on the Adult Contemporary chart, peaking at #2.

I am glad that radio stations still play Eagles songs quite a bit, but it would be nice to see a few more songs from Glenn Frey getting spins as well.  This one definitely deserves some.

* Whether or not she was feeling like a fool is left to be determined by the listener.

Blue Jean by David Bowie

Like many of my readers, I am guessing, I was shocked to hear of the passing of David Bowie earlier this month.  I had had no idea he was even battling cancer.

I'm not going to attempt to write up his long and successful career in this space.  There are lots of other places on the net which have done so, and almost certainly better than I could have done it.   Instead, let's pick up in 1984.  Mr. Bowie was flying high, helped by the success of the platinum Let's Dance the year before.  And then, according to Ultimate Classic Rock:

Concerned that he’d lose his expanded pop audience if he didn’t return with a new album quickly, he rushed out Tonight in the fall of ’84. Bowie later admitted that he hadn't had enough time to get an LP’s worth of material together.

Still, fans were happy with a new Bowie album, and sales earned it a platinum certification, so perhaps it wasn't quite as bad as its reputation now appears to be.

(Tonight peaked at #11 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart. Album ℗1984 Virgin Records.  Photo courtesy Amazon.com.)

While the album was apparently a disappointment to some, including Mr. Bowie himself, the first single from Tonight, "Blue Jean", performed rather well on the charts for a song that Mr. Bowie once described as follows (from a 1987 interview as quoted by--sorry--Wikipedia):

"'Blue Jean' is a piece of sexist rock 'n roll. [laughs] It's about picking up birds. It's not very cerebral, that piece."

Not cerebral, but it had a good beat, and you could dance to it.  And in 1984, perhaps that was just what the listening public wanted.

"Blue Jean" entered Billboard's Hot 100 the week ending September 15, 1984* and peaked at #8 seven weeks later.  It had a good run on the charts, lasting 18 weeks on the Hot 100.  It apparently just missed Billboard's Hot 100 of 1984, though, interestingly, it charted at #88 on American Top 40's top 100 of that year.**

Personally, I have not heard "Blue Jean" on the radio probably since it fell off the charts in early 1985.  I've heard a number of other David Bowie songs on the radio more recently, which is a good thing, but it would be nice for "Blue Jean" to join that number.

* Google's archive of old Billboard magazines does not include this issue at present.

** While American Top 40 used the Billboard Hot 100 as its exclusive source until November 1991, it did not always use Billboard's Hot 100 for its year-end countdowns for some reason. 

Find Another Fool by Quarterflash

It seems like an unlikely start for a band, but Quarterflash got its start when a couple of teaching students met and fell in love.  Marv and Rindy Ross were a good foundation for the bands in which they played; Marv played guitar, and Rindy sang and, for good measure, also played saxophone.  And so they formed a band and gave it a name few people would forget:  Seafood Mama.

Thankfully, the name "Seafood Mama" didn't last once that band and another band merged, and instead they settled on "Quarterflash".  Quarterflash's own bio page doesn't explain the origin of the name, but this archived page at Classic Rock Revisited explains it:

The group’s producer had just returned from Australia and pulled out a book he brought back that listed Australian and New Zealand phrases. When the group came across the phrase Quarterflash, which Australians used to describe newcomers to their land as one-quarter flash and three-parts foolish, the search was over.

After getting a record deal, Quarterflash didn't have to wait too long for its first taste of success, as its first single, a re-recorded version of a Seafood Mama song, "Harden My Heart", shot right up to #3 on Billboard's Hot 100.  The group's eponymous debut album rode the success of "Harden My Heart".

(Quarterflash peaked at #8 on Billboard's Hot LPs and Tape chart. Album ℗1981 Geffen Records.  Photo courtesy Amazon.com.)

Ask most people about Quarterflash now, and they would probably tell you that the band's story began and ended with "Harden My Heart".  Except, of course, that it didn't happen that way.

As might be expected, the success of the first single meant that there would have to be a second single.  "Find Another Fool" was released in early 1982 and had a very similar subject matter to that of  "Harden My Heart"--that of a failed relationship--though "Find Another Fool" was a little harder-rocking.  And it, too, made a good showing on the charts, though not quite as good as its predecessor.  "Find Another Fool" entered the Hot 100 at #87 for the week ending February 13, 1982 (the same week that "Harden My Heart" hit its peak); it peaked at #16 for the week ending April 17 before exiting the Hot 100 a month later, after 13 weeks on the chart.

Quarterflash continued to record for a few more years, even hitting the Top 20 one more time.  However, tastes were changing, and Quarterflash found diminishing returns on their albums.  The group broke up in 1985 after Geffen dropped them, though Marv and Rindy Ross, still married over 30 years later, have released new material in the 21st century under the Quarterflash name.  The Rosses can still be found playing the occasional venue, mostly in Oregon.

Of course, "Harden My Heart" still gets a good amount of airplay on radio today.  Unfortunately, radio has forgotten "Find Another Fool" completely.

On The Loose by Saga

Those of my readers who have a good memory of the early 80s may remember a group called Saga.  Originally called Pockets, this Canadian progressive rock band had several charting songs in their native country.  The song for which they are probably most remembered, though, never charted in Canada.

Like The Kings, another Canadian one-hit wonder spotlighted on this blog somewhat recently, Saga has a quite functional website.  Unlike The Kings, however, Saga's website does not include its own biography section, instead linking directly to the band's page on the oft-maligned and not always accurate Wikipedia.

For the band's fourth album, Worlds Apart, Saga chose British producer Rupert Hine, and together Mr. Hine and Saga put together the band's most successful album.  "On the Loose", the band's most successful single, was probably helped a good deal by extensive airplay on the fairly new (at the time) MTV.

(Worlds Apart peaked at #29 on Billboard's Hot LPs and Tape chart. Album ℗1981 Portrait Records.  Photo courtesy Amazon.com.)

Though Worlds Apart was released in early 1981, "On the Loose" did not enter Billboard's Hot 100 until it debuted at #86 for the week ending December 4, 1982.  Its climb up the charts was relatively slow next to a lot of the chart-toppers of the time; it finally peaked at #26 for the week ending February 26, 1983.  Its descent was much quicker, as it dropped off the Hot 100 in early April after a total of 18 weeks.  The band hit the charts twice more in 1983 before disappearing from the Hot 100 entirely.

Over 30 years later, Saga is still releasing albums, which continue to chart well not in Saga's native Canada but in Germany, and they are still touring in Germany, Canada, and other places (and per the band's website, selling out most of their venues), but they have become largely forgotten in American classic rock radio, though very occasionally "On the Loose" will get airplay to remind people of their desires to escape and break free.

Turn It On Again by Genesis

In the late 80s and early 90s, it could be argued that Genesis was one of the most popular bands around.  (Obviously, others--U2, for example--could make similar claims.)  I could list multiple hits from Genesis that still get lots of radio airplay even today.  (I could also list several songs from that period that could qualify for this blog, but those would require me to update this blog a lot more often than I currently do.*)

In the late 70s and early 80s, though, Genesis was still an up-and-coming band, at least as far as Billboard's Hot 100 chart was concerned.  After over ten years' worth of recordings, the band finally cracked the top 40 with "Follow You Follow Me", which made it to #23 in 1978.  Two years later, "Misunderstanding" climbed even higher, hitting #14.  Both of those two songs still get airplay.  The next single from their album Duke, however, "Turn It On Again", hasn't fared as well on radio.

Now, admittedly, "Turn It On Again", a song about someone whose life revolves around his TV, is not a normal song, as pop radio goes.  A good portion of the song is in the very uncommon 13/8 time signature.  This, however, didn't stop it from cracking the Hot 100.

(Duke peaked at #11 on Billboard's Hot LPs and Tape chart. Album ℗1980 Atlantic Records.  Photo courtesy Amazon.com.)

"Turn In On Again" entered Billboard's Hot 100 at #84 for the week ending September 6, 1980.  One month later (the week ending October 4), it peaked at #58, and one month after that, it had dropped back off the chart, having spent a total of eight weeks on.

Now, while I haven't heard this song on the radio in a long time, it is true that it was fairly popular on classic rock stations for many years after its release.  And, it is also true that the song is popular enough with Genesis fans that it was played on many of the group's tours; in fact, one of the band's greatest hits compilations took the name of the song for itself.  However, with all that said, I would love to hear an actual radio station playing it again.

* I will point out that I did post on this blog's Facebook page (on which you should click "like" right now) that my computer was having technical difficulties, which, as it turned out, amounted to a rogue program that wouldn't let Blogger load.  It has since been removed.

Bed Intruder Song by the Gregory Brothers and Antoine Dodson featuring Kelly Dodson

Let's be honest here:  I don't listen to a lot of modern top 40, and I haven't since the late 1990s.  But when I think of classic songs from since then, one of the most prominent would have to be "Bed Intruder Song".  Created by the Gregory Brothers, creators of "Auto-Tune the News" (now known as Songify the News) and using a news interview featuring Antoine and Kelly Dodson after a not-so-great experience that Kelly had, "Bed Intruder Song" was a true internet phenomenon.

The song, as most of the Gregory Brothers videos do, features a whole lot of autotuning, which was necessary given that the Dodsons were obviously not singing in their interview.  The song, as of this writing, has gotten over 126 million views on YouTube, so obviously it was a rather popular little ditty.

Riding the wave of popularity the YouTube video had at the time, the Gregory Brothers remixed the song into an "iTunes Version", which, solely on the strength of its sales on iTunes, entered the Billboard Hot 100 at #89 for the week ending August 28, 2010.  Unfortunately, that was its only week on the chart.

Amazingly enough, this song really didn't get much radio airplay in its heyday, and it certainly doesn't get any now.  As to whether I think that is something to be remedied...well...check the post date.

Angel by Madonna

It could be argued by some in the music world (or at least by me) that 1985 was the year of Madonna. While her first, self-titled, album was a solid debut in late 1983/early 1984, it was the follow-up, Like a Virgin, released in November of 1984, that truly made her a superstar.  She was constantly getting airplay on CHR stations across the country, as well as on MTV.  Her singles were consistently hitting the Top 5.

Honestly, it is a testament to just how popular Madonna really was at that time to realize just how many songs from her first two albums still, thirty years later, receive regular airplay on some stations, particularly those of the Adult Hits variety.  (The Classic Hits stations are starting to work her into their playlists, from what I can tell.)  Even her very first single, "Holiday", which managed a relatively tame peak position of #16, still gets played.  All in all, things were going rather well for a young woman who was just Madonna Louise Ciccone a few years earlier.

With all that said, there is one glaring exception to that list of songs still getting played, that being the third single from Like a Virgin.  The title track had, of course, gone straight to #1 (for six weeks), and the follow-up, "Material Girl", hit #2.  And then, before the next single was released, Madonna's song "Crazy For You", from the Vision Quest soundtrack, had also hit #1 (knocking the ubiquitous (at the time) song "We Are the World" out of the top spot).  And then, finally, came "Angel".  ("Dress You Up", the fourth single, also still gets airplay, as does the radio-only "Into the Groove".)*

(Like a Virgin spent three weeks at #1 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart. Album ℗1984 Sire Records. Photo courtesy Amazon.com.)

"Angel" rocketed onto Billboard's Hot 100 the week ending April 27, 1985 all the way up at #48.  Two months later (the week ending June 29), it peaked at #5.  Per Billboard.com, it spent 17 weeks on the Hot 100.  The 1985 year-end issue shows that "Angel" was #81 for the year,

In more recent years, "Angel" has all bit disappeared from commercial radio.  But the real tragedy is that Madonna herself appears to be neglecting it.  She only performed it during one tour, the Like a Virgin tour in 1985.  All of Madonna's greatest hits compilations have omitted the track for some reason, a move that, with regard to the latest compilation, Celebration, was referred to as "crazypants".

But regardless of Madonna's feelings about "Angel", it is certainly deserving of more airplay.  Any amount of airplay would be an improvement.

* The only other forgotten song of Madonna's from that era was "Gambler", which was supposedly never released in the US for sales or airplay.  A second song from the Vision Quest soundtrack, it did sneak onto at least one top 40 station in the US.

This Beat Goes On/Switchin' to Glide by The Kings

If someone were to mention The Kings to most Americans, my guess is that the most common response (other than "Who?") would be something along the lines of "Hey, aren't they that group that sang 'Lola'?"  No, The Kings were a Canadian rock group that formed in the late 70s and, per the group's official website, refer to themselves as a one-hit wonder...which they basically were.

The group's website has a fairly good biography section that tells the story of The Kings.  Originally known as WhistleKing, the group mostly did club gigs at first before recording their first album.  In the process of doing that, they ran into a well-known producer named Bob Ezrin*, who was all set to mix the tracks when he discovered that everything had to be redone.  Mr. Ezrin talked to Elektra Records and got the group signed to a deal, where they recorded everything again in an album which was released as The Kings Are Here in 1980.

(The Kings Are Here peaked at #74 on Billboard's Hot LPs and Tape chart. Album ℗1980 Elektra Records. Photo courtesy Amazon.com.)

When the single was originally released, only "Switchin' to Glide", a song that appears to be about relaxing and gliding through life rather than stressing about it, was included.  It did fairly well with just the second song, entering Billboard's Hot 100 the week ending August 23, 1980 (for whatever reason, Billboard's issue of that date is not available online, though the issue for the week ending August 30 is available; it shows "Switchin' to Glide" in its second week on the chart).  It reached a peak at #56 the week ending October 4 and began to make its way back down the charts.

Strangely, though, the single got new life after that.  The Kings, who had always felt that "This Beat Goes On" (a song that appears to be basically about partying) and "Switchin' to Glide" were "really two songs in one" (per their bio) insisted on including both songs on the single until Elektra Records finally gave in and released them together.  And then, as their bio continues, "radio really picked up on it".  Radio stations in some areas gave the song heavy airplay (even though the two songs together are almost six minutes in length), and the single began to move back up the Hot 100, so that the single reached its ultimate peak at #43 in its 17th week on the charts, the week ending December 13.  According to billboard.com, the single managed to remain on the charts for 23 weeks in total (though the group's bio says it was on the charts "for over six months").

Afterward, The Kings were never able to duplicate their early success.  A second album, Amazon Beach (presently available on Amazon only as a combination CD with The Kings Are Here) only hit #170 on the album chart, and The Kings were dropped by Elektra.  (The Kings themselves call Amazon Beach "really not that great an effort".)  They have continued to record since then (though for smaller record labels), and they are still, as far as I know, continuing to play live shows as well.

The Kings, as I wrote earlier, realize that most of their fame comes from one single in 1980.  Deciding to capitalize on this, they have released on their site a DVD entitled "Anatomy of a One-Hit Wonder".  (To those familiar with my blog: yes, Amazon has this, but for a much higher price than on The Kings' webpage, so I could not in all good faith link to it.)  "This Beat Goes On/Switchin' to Glide" apaprently (from what various people online have written) still receives airplay in some places, though I've never heard it apart from the long-running radio show Crap From the Past.  I'd love to hear more stations adding it to their playlists.

*Yes, I'm violating my own policy of avoiding Wikipedia links.  Sorry to anyone who, for whatever reason, might be offended by this.

The Super Bowl Shuffle by the Chicago Bears Shufflin' Crew

In late 1985, the Chicago Bears were dominating the NFL, cruising to a 15-1 record.  It was widely expected that they would continue to win easily all the way through the Super Bowl.

What was not widely expected is that they would release a hit song along the way.

The idea of a sports team recording a song wasn't new--for example, the San Francisco 49ers had, on their way to winning Super Bowl XIX a year earlier, recorded a song called, so originally, "We're the 49ers".  That song did not make a dent on the charts, however.

But regardless of whether the Bears were aware of the 49ers' effort a year earlier, they were convinced to release a rap song and video entitled "The Super Bowl Shuffle" during the regular season.  While Wikipedia (and multiple other sites which borrowed extensively from Wikipedia) state that the idea came from a "die-hard Bears fan" named Randy Weigand, this site featuring an oral history of the song seems to point more toward Richard "Dick" Meyer, who produced the song and owned Red Label Records, which released the single.  Most histories of the song agree that the idea for the title and lyrics came from the "Kingfish Shuffle", which had its origins on "Amos & Andy" many years earlier.  These histories also seem to agree that the idea was first pitched to Bears receiver Willie Gault, who managed to get most of the rest of the team onboard.  (Bears defensive end Dan Hampton thought the song was a little arrogant and opted out.)

(This is about the only thing related to this song that I can upload without exposing myself to liability.  Free clip art courtesy clker.com.)

The Bears shot a video for the song, ironically, the day after their only loss of the 1985 season.  If you've seen the video, you know Jim McMahon and Walter Payton were unavailable that morning and were added in via the most up-to-date special effects available in 1985 (namely, a green screen). Steve Fuller, the backup QB that season, can be seen in the video with a broken foot, which typically is not good for dance moves (or for running like lightning, as Mr. Fuller purported to do in the song's lyrics).

A week after that, "The Super Bowl Shuffle" was released.  It debuted on Billboard's Hot 100 at #92 for the week ending January 11, 1986.  Four weeks later (after Chicago had already won Super Bowl XX), the song peaked at #41.  In total, the song spent nine weeks on the Hot 100.  Per Rick Geiser of sportssongs.com (as quoted on grantland.com's oral history of the song), the song should have charted much higher than its peak of #41:

“The Super Bowl Shuffle” record should have been number one, or a Top 10 song. Based on sales, it did go gold extremely quickly. But because most radio stations didn’t officially add it to the playlists they reported to Billboard, it only got to number 41. It’s probably one of the only songs to go gold but never make it into the Top 10.

As stated in the first verse of the song by Walter Payton, the aim in recording "The Super Bowl Shuffle" was to "feed the needy".  Specifically, this was done via a six-figure donation to the Chicago Community Trust.

Since then, there has been some outcry from the players about whether enough of the proceeds were donated to CCT, as well as whether they themselves were compensated fairly for participating.  Just last year, six former Bears filed a lawsuit against Julia Meyer (Dick Meyer's widow--she also portrayed the referee in the video), who currently holds the rights to the song, and Renaissance Marketing Corporation, her agent for licensing the song.  The aim in the suit was to prevent non-charitable uses of the song and video.  At the time this blog entry was written, the suit was still pending.

Many football fans might remember more recently an ad for Boost Mobile featuring many of the same players who appeared in the original video.  However, as Willie Gault says here, he "was a little disappointed with the experience":

I think they had an opportunity to make that really great and I tried to come up with some ideas for them. I thought we could redo “The Super Bowl Shuffle” in a great way and I gave them ideas and they thought they were OK, but wanted to go another way. It became a comedy about McMahon and Ditka as opposed to being about the team. 

It should be noted that Julia Meyer is very diligent in tracking down people who use images, audio, or video of "The Super Bowl Shuffle" without permission, and since this blog is more of a labor of love than anything else, I don't really have any desire to deal with litigation.  Thus, unfortunately, I am unable to bring you a clip of the song.  However, Amazon (via a third-party seller) is selling new copies of the video, which I assume to be licensed, and so you can purchase the song here:

Time by the Alan Parsons Project

In the late 70s and early 80s, the Alan Parsons Project had several hits, a few of which still receive the occasional spin.  (And then there's "Sirius", which will be forever associated with NBA team introductions in my mind, and possibly for many others as well.)  They were known for a few concept albums that had a little bit of a storyline.

This was certainly the case in the group's 1980 album The Turn of a Friendly Card, which tells the tale of an addiction to gambling.  This album was one of several successes for the group, spawning two Top 20 singles.  The first, "Games People Play", hit #16 on Billboard's Hot 100 in early 1981.

(The Turn of a Friendly Card peaked at #13 on Billboard's Hot LPs and Tape chart. Album ℗1980 Arista Records. Photo courtesy Amazon.com.)

The second single, "Time", is somewhat of a departure from the gambling theme of the rest of the album.  Instead, it is more of a wistful ballad, with the protagonist saying goodbye to several people.

The song entered the Hot 100 the week ending April 18, 1981* and peaked at #15 the week ending August 1.  It remained at that same position for two more weeks before beginning a somewhat slow decline.  "Time" finally fell out of the Hot 100 the week ending September 26 after a fairly impressive 23 weeks on the chart.  That performance was enough to make it #48 on Billboard's year-end chart for 1981.  It was the best-selling single for the Alan Parsons Project until the release of "Eye in the Sky" the next year.

It should be noted that "Time" was the first Alan Parsons Project single for which lead vocals were sung by Eric Woolfson, the co-creator of the group.  (Also, Alan Parsons, about whom the album notes on his album Try Anything Once said "he almost never sings", is credited for background vocals.)  Mr. Woolfson would go on to sing lead vocals for "Eye in the Sky" in 1982 and "Don't Answer Me", the final Top 20 single for the group, in 1984.

I suppose it is always difficult for ballads to gain recurrent status on many stations, including the Classic Hits stations now present in many cities.  And that's too bad, as "Time" is widely regarded as a very beautiful song.  That's not a description you would find attached to too many Top 40 songs now...and that's to the detriment of current Top 40 radio.  Take a listen to this track and see for yourself.

* Google's archive of Billboard is still incomplete; this issue is not available online at present.

In America by The Charlie Daniels Band

Most people who have heard of Charlie Daniels probably remember him mostly for The Charlie Daniels Band's platinum-certified #3 smash "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", which still gets a fair amount of airplay even today, and rightly so.  Some may also remember his #9 song from a few years before, "Uneasy Rider", or they might even remember this ad from 2010:

Most people, though, probably don't remember that The Charlie Daniels Band very nearly returned to the Top 10 just a year after "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" had its run and helped the album on which it appeared, Million Mile Reflections, go platinum as well.  The band's follow-up album was entitled Full Moon and was released in the summer of 1980.

.

(Full Moon peaked at #11 on Billboard's Hot LPs and Tape chart. Album ℗1980 Epic/Nashville Records. Photo courtesy Amazon.com.)

A few weeks before Full Moon dropped, the debut single, "In America", was released.  The song was about restoring patriotism in the United States after a rather lousy decade (with an economy to match) and while the Iran hostage crisis was still ongoing.  It spoke of Americans becoming united, and after all this, "God bless America again".  The hope, optimism, and patriotism of the song resonated with many people.  It debuted in Billboard's Hot 100 in its May 31, 1980 issue* and peaked at #11 the week ending August 2; it remained at that position for two weeks and then went into a freefall, falling out of the Top 40 within three weeks of peaking (by which time the second single from Full Moon, "The Legend of Wooley Swamp" had already begun its chart run) and out of the Hot 100 completely just two weeks later.  "In America" spent a respectable 15 weeks on the Hot 100, and it did well enough to land at #96 in the year-end chart for 1980.

According to Wikipedia**, "In America" experienced a short revival in 2001 after the events of September 11; however, since that time I know of no station that has played the song except WCBS-FM, in a 2008 Sunday night broadcast of their Top 20 from August 3, 1980.

* Google's archive of Billboard is still incomplete; this issue is not available online at present.
**Standard Disclaimer:  some information on this blog comes from the always-reliable Wikipedia; as such, its veracity may be questionable.

Love Sneakin' Up On You by Bonnie Raitt

Bonnie Raitt is one of those rockers who was around for years before ever having a top 40 hit.  She started recording in the early 1970s and even got a shoutout from Dr. Johnny Fever on WKRP in Cincinnati when he played her late 70s remake of "Runaway", which got up to #57.  But it wasn't until the early 90s that she ever hit the top 40 charts.  She hit first with "Have a Heart", but she is probably best known for "Something to Talk About", which hit #5 on Billboard's Hot 100 in 1991.  "Something to Talk About" still gets some airplay on radio these days, and deservedly so, usually on adult contemporary stations.

But who remembers the first single from her follow-up album in 1994?  Maybe some of my readers, whom I assume are quite enlightened, will remember "Love Sneakin' Up On You", the first single from Longing in Their Hearts, but I don't think radio remembers it at all.

(Longing in Their Hearts, as might be expected, peaked at #1 on the Billboard 200. Album ℗1994 Capitol Records. Photo courtesy Amazon.com.)

"Love Sneakin' Up On You" debuted on Billboard's Hot 100 the week ending March 12, 1994 at #90 (Google's Billboard archive is missing that week's issue), and I personally heard the song for the first time that same week on a Spring Break quasi-roadtrip.  It slowly made its way up the charts, peaking at #19 almost two months later, as seen in the issue for the week ending May 7.  The song had fairly good staying power, staying on the Hot 100 for 20 weeks and ending up at #94 for the year.  It did even better on the Canadian charts, where it was a #1 song.

After its run, there was one more single to be released from Longing in Their Hearts.  Unfortunately, "You" was not nearly as successful, peaking at #92.  After that, Ms. Raitt hit the Hot 100 a couple more times before basically moving solely to the adult contemporary chart, which she last hit in 2006.

"Love Sneakin' Up On You", though, has seemingly disappeared.  (In researching this song, I discovered that YouTube does not even presently have the album version of this song on its site.)  It would be nice to see it reappear on the airwaves sometime.

Room to Move by Animotion

This post has moved.  Find it here at the new Unfairly Forgotten Songs site.

How Much Love by Leo Sayer

When asked about Leo Sayer, I would guess that most people would either respond with "Who?" or possibly remember one or two songs of his...or the fact that he once appeared on the Muppet Show.  I personally remember him for three songs.  Two of them, "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing" and "When I Need You", were mainstays on middle-of-the-road radio in my hometown for years.  The third, Mr. Sayer's 1980 remake of "More Than I Can Say", was popular after I was old enough to pay attention to what songs were popular at the time.

But I never remember hearing "How Much Love" even once.  It's quite possible that I heard it when it made its appearance on the charts, but I was too young to notice, and for some reason, it never survived as a recurrent the way other songs from Mr. Sayer did.

"How Much Love" was the third single from Mr. Sayer's 1976 album Endless Flight.  The first two singles were the two mainstays I remembered from my youth; both songs hit #1 on Billboard's Hot 100.

(This picture deserves a better caption than I can come up with at this hour.  Submissions are welcome.)
(Endless Flight peaked at #10 on Billboard's Top LPs and Tape Chart. Album ℗1976 Warner Bros. Records. Photo courtesy Amazon.com.)

While Google's Billboard archives, on which I have become rather dependent for specific information for these posts, is incomplete for 1977, it appears that "How Much Love" debuted on the Hot 100 the week ending July 9, 1977.  It peaked at #17 the week ending August 27 and stayed there for two weeks before rather quickly descending the charts, appearing at #70 during its 15th and final week on the charts, the week ending October 15.  Billboard ranked it the #98 song for the year 1977.

Following "How Much Love", which turned out to be the final single from Endless Flight, Mr. Sayer hit the bottom of the top 40 twice before hitting #2 with "More Than I Can Say" three years later.  His songs continued to chart in the U.K. into the 1980s, but after 1981, he never again appeared on the Hot 100.

As for "How Much Love" itself, I heard this song for the first time during a local radio station's daily nine-songs-from-one-year feature (mentioned on this blog before...here, for example), when they happened to be featuring 1977.  I heard it a second time...another time that same station used 1977 for that same feature.  And I've heard it on the radio no other time before or since.

You Don't Want Me Anymore by Steel Breeze

1982 was a year of flux for top 40 music.  A lot of different types of music hit the charts that year, and many acts came and left that year.  One act that appeared for the first time was Steel Breeze, a pop-rock band out of California.  Like Magazine 60, Steel Breeze incorporated synthesizers into its sound, but while Magazine 60 had an obvious Eurodisco sound, Steel Breeze was much more an album-oriented rock group.

At first, Steel Breeze seemed destined for quick success.  Their first and eponymous album was selling well, and the video for their first single, "You Don't Want Me Anymore" was getting heavy airplay on MTV.

(Steel Breeze peaked at #50 on Billboard's Top LPs and Tape Chart. Album ℗1982 RCA Records. Photo courtesy Amazon.com.)

"You Don't Want Me Anymore" started very strongly, debuting on Billboard's Hot 100 at #67, making it the highest debuting song for the week ending August 28, 1982.  Rather surprisingly, given the amount of airplay it received, it only peaked at #16 the week of November 13 and stayed there for two weeks before falling from there.  (It did better in what Billboard then called their Rock Top Tracks chart, peaking at #9.)  All in all, the song was on the Hot 100 for a respectable 20 weeks, though that was not quite enough to make it one of Billboard's hot 100 songs for the year.  (Interestingly enough, it did rank #100 on American Top 40's year-end countdown.*)

Steel Breeze followed "You Don't Want Me Anymore" up with one more top 40 song (which peaked at #30) before disappearing from view altogether.  No further albums or singles from Steel Breeze ever charted after early 1983, and the group has largely disappeared from radio since then.  (I personally have actually heard "You Don't Want Me Anymore" on the radio once or twice, though it was during a local station's spotlight of 1982 ("Nine great songs from one year!"); they certainly don't have this song in their regular rotation.)  In my opinion, this song deserved better.

* While American Top 40 used the Billboard Hot 100 as its exclusive source until November 1991, it did not always use Billboard's Hot 100 for its year-end countdowns for some reason. 

Don Quichotte (No Estan Aqui) by Magazine 60

During the post-disco years, a lot of synthpop bands popped up, many Europe-based.  One such band was Magazine 60, a French band which is known in America--if it is known here at all--for exactly one song, "Don Quichotte (No Estan Aqui)".

"Don Quichotte", you might have noticed, is the French name of Don Quixote, the literary hero brought to life by Miguel de Cervantes.  Why someone would try to call Don Quixote, or Don Quichotte, on the phone (which is exactly what happens in this song), is not explained, but that seems to be almost the entirety of the English portion of the song (the remainder is in Spanish).  And yet, the tune itself is quite catchy, which is probably why the song got airplay in the mid-80s.

"Don Quichotte (No Estan Aqui)", a 1984 single, appeared on Magazine 60's 1985 album Costa del Sol, which was, for whatever reason, not released in the US until 1987, which was well after the song had come and gone.  The album itself is apparently so forgotten that not only does Amazon not stock it, but no one is even selling a used copy on Amazon as of this writing.

(Costa del Sol never charted in the US.  Album ℗1985 CBS Records.)

"Don Quichotte (No Estan Aqui)" got its start in the US, as one might expect, on the Dance charts in 1985 before finally entering Billboard's Hot 100 the week ending May 10, 1986.  It peaked at #56 the week ending June 21.  Surprisingly, for its rather low peak position, it lasted 11 weeks on the Hot 100 before falling off.

Since its original chart run, the song has appeared on a few internet disco streams and has gotten, from what I can tell, a grand total of two spins on the 20 years of my favorite celebration of the obscure, "Crap From the Past", but for the most part, "Don Quichotte" is long forgotten. 

The Way I Want To Touch You by Captain & Tennille

I don't know about anyone else, but I was disappointed to hear that Toni Tennille filed for divorce from Daryl "Captain" Dragon a couple of weeks ago.  (And then I was further disappointed to see that most of the responses to this news was "they're still alive???")  As a child of the 70s, and specifically, a child whose mother listened to a radio station whose format was called "middle of the road" back then (but would have been called adult contemporary now), I heard quite a bit of music from Captain & Tennille.

Or, to be more precise, I heard two songs by Captain & Tennille a lot.  And so, I'm sure, did a lot of you, and they were the same two songs:  "Love Will Keep Us Together" (a title which lent itself to, well, one joke repeated 1000x last week after the divorce announcement came out) and "Do That To Me One More Time" (which lent itself to a joke which was slightly more clever, only used by one person), but I never heard any of their other hits, or at least I never heard them played as recurrents for years after their original release, and I was young enough not to remember their original chart runs.

I don't even remember "Muskrat Love" when it hit the charts.

And no, I am not putting it on this blog.  You want it, click the link and buy it yourself.  That might qualify as a song that was quite fairly forgotten.

But I digress.

A few years ago, I was able to purchase Captain & Tennille's debut album, also called Love Will Keep Us Together, on vinyl for a couple of dollars.  I didn't buy it for the title track; I bought it for the song that is thought of as the second hit from the album (though it was actually released first), "The Way I Want To Touch You".

(Love Will Keep Us Together peaked at #2 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart.  Album ℗1974 A&M Records.  Photo courtesy Amazon.com.)

As related in the August 16, 1975 issue of Billboard, "The Way I Want To Touch You" was originally just a regional hit on the west coast (not hitting the Hot 100, from what I can tell) after Mr. Dragon and Ms. Tennille spent $250 to have 500 records pressed of the song; they sent them to radio stations themselves.  The modest success the song had got them their contract with A&M Records, and after "Love Will Keep Us Together" hit #1 (eventually becoming the #1 song of 1975), A&M re-released "The Way I Want To Touch You".

The song entered the Hot 100 (finally) the week ending September 27, 1975.  It eventually topped the Adult Contemporary chart (called the "Top 50 Easy Listening" chart at the time) in November (right around the time Mr. Dragon and Ms. Tennille were getting married) and made it to #4 on the Hot 100, peaking the week of November 29.  According to the always-flaky Billboard.com, it spent 17 weeks on the Hot 100, which seems rather short for such a successful song.  Also, due to the timing of its peak sales, the song missed the year-end charts for both 1975 and 1976.

And so, after its run, the song was basically never heard again, at least by me, until I spent time in Dallas listening to a non-commercial station that was, at the time, running an all-70s format.  And then, I heard it a lot, which speaks to the music library available to a radio station run by a high school, I suppose.  Other than that station, though, no other "classic hits" station I know of has played it, well, ever.

As for the Captain & Tennille, they remained mainstays on the pop charts until a sudden disappearance in 1980 (just after "Do That To Me One More Time" became their second #1 hit) when their record company at the time, Casablanca Records, collapsed.  Of course, they continued to perform with success well after that, but their hit record career was done.

It's sad that their divorce is what inspired me to post this song, but it's a good reminder of the many good songs they released in their heyday.  Perhaps it might even inspire some classic hits station somewhere to add this one to its rotation.

Remembering George Duke

During the long, unplanned hiatus this blog took, George Duke passed away.  As I understand it, George Duke was primarily a jazz musician, though he occasionally branched over to pop music and R&B.  Most online bios of him will point to his work with Jean-Luc Ponty and Frank Zappa as helping to establish his name in the industry, so that gives you an idea of the diversity of his musical styles. 

George Duke had a very long discography spanning several decades; he also appeared on many other artists's albums (such as, for example, Michael Jackson's Off the Wall) and produced records for even more artists (including, for example, Deniece Williams's hit "Let's Hear It For the Boy", as well as the previously-mentioned-on-this-blog "I Can't Wait").  And yet, after all that, I would imagine most people do not remember him (or never heard of him in the first place).  Surprisingly, in such a long and successful career, Mr. Duke only reached Billboard's Hot 100 three times.

The first of the three songs to hit the Hot 100 was the title track of his 1977 album Reach For It, an album that would have been classified at the time as funk.

(Reach For It peaked at #25 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart.  Album ©1977 Epic/CBS Records.  Photo courtesy Amazon.com.)

"Reach For It" entered the Hot 100 the week ending December 31, 1977 (which means its first week on the chart was not covered by Billboard, which had published a year-end double issue the week before, and instead, "Reach For It" first appeared in the issue dated January 7, 1978).  It peaked at #54 the week ending February 4 before falling off the charts completely just two weeks later.  It stayed on the Hot 100 for seven weeks.

In 1981, George Duke collaborated with another well-known jazz musician, Stanley Clarke, to release a mostly jazz album entitled, appropriately enough, The Clarke/Duke Project.  It was successful enough to top the Billboard's Jazz LPs chart in August of that year.

(The Clarke/Duke Project peaked at #33 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart.  Album ©1981 Epic/CBS Records.  Photo courtesy Amazon.com.)

The first single from the album, entitled "Sweet Baby", didn't really match the jazz feel of the rest of the album; in fact, it was a slower, ballad-type piece that, apparently, was what people in 1981 wanted while they waited for the post-disco identity crisis in top 40 radio to abate.  "Sweet Baby" entered the Hot 100 the week of May 2, 1981 and peaked at #19 the week of August 1, 1981.  It spent 19 weeks overall on the chart.

George Duke's final Hot 100 entry came not too long afterward from his next album, Dream On.

(Dream On peaked at #48 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart.  Album ©1982 Epic/CBS Records.  Photo courtesy Amazon.com.)

That album's first single, "Shine On", was certainly funkier than "Sweet Baby", so it fit well with some of Mr. Duke's contemporaries (Multiple Amazon reviewers compared the sound of Dream On to Earth, Wind & Fire's sound.)  "Shine On" debuted on the Hot 100 at #85 the week ending February 20, 1982 and peaked at #41 the week ending April 10 before, again, falling off the chart entirely just two weeks after peaking.  During its short nine-week run, though, it got fairly good airplay, if the airchecks from 1982 that I have are any indication.

After that, George Duke never again hit the Hot 100, and those songs that did hit the chart have fallen by the wayside, never to be played on oldies, classic hits, or retro radio stations.  (Meanwhile, there's undoubtedly a station somewhere in the US playing "Tainted Love" at this exact moment.)

George Duke passed away on August 5, 2013 from chronic lymphocytic leukemia.  His official webpage lists several places where contributions can be made in his honor.