2/4/15

Hot 100 Debuts - April 1982

While thumbing through his well-worn copy of Billboard Hot 100 Charts - The Eighties, HERC's wandering attention began to focus on the weekly debuts of 1982, and as he looked at the new songs that appeared each week, he began rating each week as if it were a college sport recruiting class with its future performance already recorded.  If you know HERC, you know he loves deriving new numbers out of other numbers. (Top 40 Index? K-Tel Scale?)  Soon the abacus and the slide rule were out as a mathematical formula was hammered into shape that would actually assign a number to each song based on six variables involving chart positions and weeks charted.  Here's how April 1982's Hot 100 Debuts broke down:

Hot 100 debut
debut pos
titleartist
4/3/198265Run For The RosesDan Fogelberg172
4/3/198266*It's Gonna Take A MiracleDeniece Williams189
4/3/198267Wake Up Little SusieSimon & Garfunkel151
4/3/198269*Man On Your MindLittle River Band182
4/3/198275When He ShinesSheena Easton148
4/3/198280Baby Step BackGordon Lightfoot105
4/3/198282You Got The PowerWar74
4/3/198283*If It Ain't One Thing... It's AnotherRichard "Dimples" Fields112
4/3/198285Just To Satisfy YouWaylon & Willie101
4/3/198286FinallyT.G. Sheppard89
4/3/198287*Right The First TimeGamma50
4/3/198289*Without You (Not Another Lonely Night)Franke & the Knockouts159
4/3/198290Teach Me TonightAl Jarreau66
123
4/10/198229Ebony & IvoryPaul McCartney & Stevie Wonder214
4/10/198273Work That BodyDiana Ross117
4/10/198279*When It's OverLoverboy156
4/10/198282A Night To RememberShalamar117
4/10/198287*Secret JourneyThe Police113
4/10/198288Loving YouChris Rea29
4/10/198289I Don't Know Where To StartEddie Rabbitt136
4/10/198290*Murphy's LawCheri128
126
4/17/198268*Heat Of The MomentAsia202
4/17/198281*RosannaToto210
4/17/198283Cat People (Putting Out Fire)David Bowie75
4/17/198285Turn on Your RadarPrism78
4/17/198286Friends In LoveDionne Warwick & Johnny Mathis132
4/17/198290Old Fashioned LoveSmokey Robinson85
4/17/198292Sing A Simple SongWest Street Mob26
4/17/198295*The VisitorsABBA79
111
4/24/198281*Baby Come To MePatti Austin58
4/24/198282*Hurts So GoodJohn Cougar211
4/24/198283Beechwood 4-5789Carpenters56
4/24/198284*How LongRod Stewart109
4/24/198285*Stone ColdRainbow126
4/24/198288*Let It WhipDazz Band203
4/24/198290*Only The LonelyThe Motels195
137

The asterisks next to the titles indicate the song will be appearing on HERC's Favorite Songs Of 1982 List.  One of those songs is HERC's underdog pick of the month: the low charting (and low scoring) "Right The First Time" by Gamma. The song debuted on the Top Tracks chart a full month prior and eventually spent 14 weeks, peaking at #10.  Crossing over to the Hot 100, "Right The First Time" peaked at #77 in a brief five week run.  HERC loved it back then and he still loves it today.
Now that we're a third of the way through the greatest year in music history, HERC (like some of you viewers who have emailed) was curious what the Top 3 Weeks and Top 10 Songs were so far.  Turns out the Top 3 Weeks all occurred within the first six weeks of the year: 
  1. January 16    162
  2. January  9     156
  3. February 13  143
The Top 10 Songs are fairly well spaced out amongst the weeks and months yet only nine points separates the highest scoring song from the tenth highest scoring song.  And there are four different ties between songs in the Top 10 which necessitated the creation of a tie-breaker protocol.  HERC came up with four levels of tie-breaking but only needed the first level - lowest debut position - to break each of the four ties.  It is also interesting to note that all ten songs peaked in the Top 3 on Billboard's Hot 100.

Hot 100 debut
debut pos
titleartist
12/6/198263*I Love Rock N RollJoan Jett & the Blackhearts214
24/10/198229Ebony & IvoryPaul McCartney & Stevie Wonder214
33/6/198286*Don't You Want MeHuman League211
44/24/198282*Hurts So GoodJohn Cougar211
54/17/198281*RosannaToto210
61/16/198257*Open ArmsJourney210
73/6/198257*Don't Talk to StrangersRick Springfield208
81/30/198279*We Got The BeatThe Go-Go's207
91/16/198272*That GirlStevie Wonder207
103/6/198284I've Never Been To MeCharlene205

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