Hot 100 Debuts - August 1982

Seven months into 1982 and an average of nine singles have debuted each week with an average of thirty-eight debuts each month.  (The seeming discrepancy in numbers owing to the fact that two months thus far in 1982 have had five weeks instead of four.)  With thirty-five singles in its four weeks, August 1982 does little to change the average.

After making it's Hot 100 debut on June 5th, Survivor's "Eye Of The Tiger" rose to Number One on July 24th and stayed there for the next five weeks, lording over all of August. In the process, the song kept both Toto's "Rosanna" and John Cougar's "Hurts So Good" from rising above number 2.  From January through July 1982, eight debuting singles had climbed to the top.  How many would rise to the top from the August crop?

Hot 100 debut	debut pos		title	artist
8/7/1982	69	*	I Keep Forgettin’ (Every Time You're Near)	Michael McDonald	202
8/7/1982	78		Make Believe	Toto	148
8/7/1982	81	*	Still In The Game	Steve Winwood	112
8/7/1982	82		I Only Want To Be With You	Nicolette Larson	99
8/7/1982	83	*	Emotions In Motion	Billy Squier	70
8/7/1982	87	*	Let It Be Me	Willie Nelson	128
8/7/1982	89		How Can I Live Without Her	Christopher Atkins	64
8/7/1982	90		Your Daddy Don’t Know	Toronto	50
					109
8/14/1982	72	*	Hold On	Santana	176
8/14/1982	73	*	Workin’ For A Livin’	Huey Lewis and the News	124
8/14/1982	83		Night Shift	Quarterflash	87
8/14/1982	85	*	You Dropped A Bomb On Me	The Gap Band	147
8/14/1982	88	*	Don’t Run My Life	Spys	41
8/14/1982	89		Holdin’ On	Tane Cain	134
8/14/1982	90		In The Drivers Seat	John Schneider	61
					110
8/21/1982	69		You Keep Runnin’ Away	38 Special	131
8/21/1982	71		Voyeur	Kim Carnes	151
8/21/1982	74	*	Break It To Me Gently	Juice Newton	188
8/21/1982	80		Johnny Can’t Read	Don Henley	123
8/21/1982	83		Jump To It	Aretha Franklin	159
8/21/1982	84		He Got You	Ronnie Milsap	88
8/21/1982	85		Right Away	Kansas	60
8/21/1982	87		The One You Love	Glenn Frey	179
8/21/1982	88	*	Steppin’ Out	Joe Jackson	201
8/21/1982	89	*	Up Where We Belong	Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes	212
8/21/1982	90		He Could Be The One	Josie Cotton	59
					141
8/28/1982	67	*	You Don’t Want Me Anymore	Steel Breeze	179
8/28/1982	73		Big Fun	Kool & The Gang	164
8/28/1982	74	*	Don’t Fight It	Kenny Loggins with Steve Perry	172
8/28/1982	76		Sweet Time	REO Speedwagon	156
8/28/1982	85	*	Love Come Down	Evelyn King	174
8/28/1982	86	*	She Looks A Lot Like You	Clocks	70
8/28/1982	88		Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing/You’re All I Need To Get By	Chris Christian	29
8/28/1982	89	*	Nobody	Sylvia	179
8/28/1982	90		Sad Hearts	Four Tops	36
					129

The third week scored highest for the month of August with a per song average of 141 points. The higher number is no surprise when you look at the average peak (34), average weeks on chart (14) and average number of weeks from debut to peak (7) - those three factors alone were higher than those of other weeks. It also helped that the week produced two of the three eventual Top 10 songs from the month, including the month's only Number One when "Up Where We Belong" peaked in November. Also worth noting: "Up Where We Belong" currently holds the record for lowest debut position of Number One songs from 1982, rising from number 89 to number 1 over eleven weeks.

The previous record holder was Human League's "Don't You Want Me" which debuted at number 86 in March and then peaked at number 1 in July, seventeen weeks later.  Though both the Clocks and Spys songs could have been HERC's picks for underdogs of the month, he's going with the monumental pairing of Kenny Loggins and Steve Perry on their song "Don't Fight It" - how was this song not a Number One smash?

The song peaked at number 17 in a three month chart run on the Hot 100 and only eked out a number 4 spot on The Top Tracks chart after debuting at number 17 the week of September 4th, when the single-sided 12" promo was also listed as seventh Most Added record amongst AOR stations. (The week before, the 45 of "Don't Fight It" debuted on the Rock Albums chart at number 37.)  The following week, "Don't Fight It" ascended to number 13 on the Top Tracks chart with parent album High Adventure making its debut on the Most Added list at number 2.  The curious double life of the song's 45 continued on the Rock Albums chart as well, even after High Adventure - an actual album - entered the same chart.

Don't Fight It	8/28	9/4	9/11	9/18	9/25	10/2	10/9	10/16	10/23	10/30	11/6	11/13	11/20	11/27	12/4	12/11	12/18
Hot 100	74	66	51	43	34	26	23	20	17	17	76	97
Rock Albums	37	21	27	38	48	46
Top Tracks		17	13	15	10	4	10	5	7	18	26	34	48	49	54	46	59
High Adventure	9/11	9/18	9/25	10/2	10/9	10/16	10/23	10/30	11/6	11/13	11/20	11/27	12/4	12/11	12/18	12/25	1/1
Rock Albums	43	19	16	15	16	7	17	17	23	33	43
Top 200			31	22	17	15	13	13	13	30	39	44	42	42	42	42	42

K-Log's brief flirtation with rock radio ended Christmas week 1982 when "Don't Fight It" fell off the Top Tracks chart. But check out that free fall from his second week at number 17, the single's pinnacle on the Hot 100, all the way down to number 76 on the Hot 100 the following week.  Loggins and or Perry must have angered Billboard's chartographers somehow.  The song would last one more week, at number 97, before it was off that chart as well.  The High Adventure album was kept afloat on the Top 200 chart, where it enjoyed another twenty-nine weeks not charted above, by a pair of Loggins soft pop classics: "Heart To Heart" and "Heartlight", both of which peaked higher on the Adult Contemporary chart than on the Hot 100, proving once and for all that Loggins was more popular with his soft rock.  HERC has given the subject way too much thought and has determined the following factors worked against "Don't Fight It", keeping it from ruling the charts:

• Despite the rock cred Steve Perry (Journey) and guitarist Neil Giraldo (Pat Benatar, John Waite) brought to the project, it just could not overcome the soft rock résumé Kenny Loggins had compiled;
• No video was apparently made for the song featuring the two distinctive voices trading their lines probably because neither Loggins or Perry had come across as particularly rockin' dudes in their previous videos;
• On the consecutive weeks of October 23rd and October 30th, 1982, there may or may not have been sixteen songs more worthy of the higher chart positions.  HERC presents those charts below for you to decide:

cover art from HERC's fellow Discogs users

Billboard Hot 100 scans from Record Research/Billboard