Next week I'll be running some more Marbro Drive-In movie ads, but today it's Monday Music for all of you that visit this fine blog. This time it's a theme: my favorite songs that did not make the Billboard Top 100 charts from 1979 until 1988. I have been into music since I can remember, but 1979 was a key year. I began junior high/middle school that fall and music became an identifier. "It all breaks down into cliques" as the Square Pegs television show would later say. I started digging deeper than the Top 40 and started buying music magazines like Circus and Creem. I didn't buy Rolling Stone until I was a senior in high school as I thought only burned out hippies bought that one. I was paid less and less attention to those pop charts until by 1988 I barely noticed the regular radio stations as mine was tuned to 91.1 WRVU exclusively. My criteria is the song had to be released as a single and not be on the final Top 100 Billboard list in that year and I had to have heard the song that year. This means there are great songs that I heard later not considered for this list and, most likely, the song could be a hit like the first one representing 1979.
Nick Lowe's "Cruel To Be Kind" hit a peak of number 12 on the Billboard Top 100 chart during its release, but would not place on the year end one. It would be Nick's only tune to hit the US Top 40. I probably heard it on local radio, but I definitely saw the video on Nickelodeon's PopClips show.
Pete Townshend released "Rough Boys" as a single in November of 1980 in the US. I think I heard it at the roller skating rink. "Let My Love Open The Door" had been a big hit so it's only natural this tune would get an airing.
This song came out later in 1981 as a 45 and it was mind blowing to me. Randy Rhoads's guitar playing mixed with together with Bob Daisley, the late Lee Kerslake, and Ozzy Osbourne on "Flying High Again" was the anthem a defiant heavy metal mad high school freshman needed. I could not find a YouTube clip of the 45 which had several seconds chopped off it so enjoy the album cut instead.
I wasn't a huge fan of "New World Man" but the second single released by Rush for their Signals album was an instant smash for me. "Subdivisions" captured the boredom of being a goofy maladjusted teenager perfectly and sometimes it's nice to revisit those days when...Tempest was the one video game I was decent at playing.
I purchased Pyromania by Def Leppard when it came out in January 1983 and it was fun to see it catch fire (pun intended) that year. "Foolin'" was my favorite song on the album and it wasn't a surprise to see it hit the charts later that year when it was released as a single. It peaked at 28 which was not good enough to land it in the Top 100 for the year ("Photograph" ended up at 90 on the final chart) which is okay for me because it means I can include it here.
I was still living out in the country with no cable television for most of 1984 so my music video consumption was limited to what I could see on network television and local stations. Murfreesboro had channel 39 which broadcast music videos in the afternoon and also had an hour long show called Saturday Night At The Video which featured local bands like Jason and the Scorchers and the White Animals. One of my favorites was the video by The Style Council for "My Ever Changing Moods" even though it was far removed from heavy metal and punk sounds I usually went for then.
1985 was one of the best years for pop music, but I'm not going with a song that charted and then just didn't make the final Top 100. I'm going with a band that I became obsessed with in the fall of 1984. I purchased Zen Arcade by Hüsker Dü after reading a complimentary review in Creem. I was blown away by the record and would buy their next releases as they hit the shelves at my local Cat's Records. I still have those records including the 45 release of "Makes No Sense At All" which is my pick for the single of 1985.
I really thought Ozzy Osbourne's "Shot In The Dark" would take the 1986 spot in this little survey of tunes as it did hit the charts, but just didn't make the final Top 100. I loved The Ultimate Sin album and still do, plus I really enjoyed the video which features Dweezil Zappa. However, there were three bad brothers we know so well from NYC with a little story about "Paul Revere" which takes the honor. If you were a friend of mine in 1986 you were going to be hearing some Beastie Boys. A few years later I was working at the local McDonalds and found out the Too Short loving Paul C. dug Licensed To Ill too so we would rap "Paul Revere" and "Posse In Effect" while we cooked burgers. I believe Paul C. is a karate instructor these days.
No comments:
Post a Comment