Featuring just thirty debut songs, September 1982 was the second least prolific month of that year - thus far - behind June, when only twenty-nine songs premiered but there are still three more months to get through in the next three weeks so things could change. September was also the second month in a row to have a song debut at number 90 each week. The sole member of the Class Of September 1982 Debuts to eventually reach the top of the chart was cheerleader turned choreographer turned singer Toni Basil's cover of Racey's "Kitty" from 1979. Basil changed the name of song's object of affection to "Mickey", flipped the gender of the lyrics, added a clap-along cheerleader chant at the top of the song and then filmed a video in which the then thirty-eight year old Basil danced along with real life high school cheerleaders that she rode all the way to the top of the chart two weeks before Christmas. The song was down to number 2 the following week, displaced by a song that debuted on the Hot 100 in October 1982.
As for the songs topping the Hot 100 in September 1982, there were two: "Abracadabra" by the Steve Miller Band (debuted on Hot 100 week of May 29th) held the spot for one week before being deposed by Chicago's "Hard To Say I'm Sorry" (debuted on Hot 100 week of June 5th) which held the spot for two consecutive weeks before giving way to "Abracadabra" once again in the fourth week of the month. The Chicago single did not get much play on the local stations HERC was listening to at the time because they opted to play the album track of "Hard To Say I'm Sorry" which seamlessly segued into the way more upbeat "Get Away" and that is the only way HERC listens to the song to this day. He also prefers the longer, album version of the Steve Miller Band track, too.
Let's have a look at the thirty September 1982 debut songs and then see which one HERC is featuring this week.
Hot 100 debut | debut pos | title | artist | ||
9/4/1982 | 67 | * | Heart Attack | Olivia Newton-John | 208 |
9/4/1982 | 69 | * | Gypsy | Fleetwood Mac | 185 |
9/4/1982 | 77 | Athena | The Who | 152 | |
9/4/1982 | 79 | Machinery | Sheena Easton | 92 | |
9/4/1982 | 83 | * | Mickey | Toni Basil | 213 |
9/4/1982 | 85 | * | Take The L. | The Motels | 103 |
9/4/1982 | 89 | * | Close Enough To Perfect | Alabama | 81 |
9/4/1982 | 90 | * | I Need You | Paul Carrack | 133 |
146 | |||||
9/11/1982 | 69 | Heartlight | Neil Diamond | 202 | |
9/11/1982 | 75 | * | I Get Excited | Rick Springfield | 143 |
9/11/1982 | 77 | * | The Look Of Love (Part One) | ABC | 174 |
9/11/1982 | 81 | Burning Down One Side | Robert Plant | 77 | |
9/11/1982 | 89 | All Of My Love | Bobby Caldwell | 52 | |
9/11/1982 | 90 | When I’m Holding You Tight | Michael Stanley Band | 48 | |
116 | |||||
9/18/1982 | 69 | * | Southern Cross | Crosby, Stills & Nash | 174 |
9/18/1982 | 72 | * | New World Man | Rush | 166 |
9/18/1982 | 75 | * | What About Me | Moving Pictures | 149 |
9/18/1982 | 76 | Young Love | Air Supply | 130 | |
9/18/1982 | 78 | A Penny For Your Thoughts | Tavares | 143 | |
9/18/1982 | 79 | * | I’m So Excited | Pointer Sisters | 148 |
9/18/1982 | 80 | * | Rock This Town | Stray Cats | 193 |
9/18/1982 | 90 | * | Situation | Yaz | 60 |
145 | |||||
9/25/1982 | 72 | * | Pressure | Billy Joel | 171 |
9/25/1982 | 74 | Love Me Tomorrow | Chicago | 163 | |
9/25/1982 | 76 | Ribbon In The Sky | Stevie Wonder | 98 | |
9/25/1982 | 79 | American Heartbeat | Survivor | 176 | |
9/25/1982 | 82 | Get Up And Go | Go-Go’s | 106 | |
9/25/1982 | 83 | * | On The Wings Of Love | Jeffrey Osborne | 150 |
9/25/1982 | 85 | Please Be The One | Karla Bonoff | 80 | |
9/25/1982 | 90 | I’m Never Gonna Say Goodbye | Billy Preston | 28 | |
122 |
In another tight race, week one beats week three in September 1982 to be the highest average scorer of the month, 146-145. All those blue asterisks mark HERC's favorite songs and some of them are among his super duper all-time favorite pry the headphones off his cold dead ears favorites so it was rather difficult to pick an underdog for the month. Until he looked at the cold hard numbers.
Two of his favorites (above) debuted at number 90: the one on the left rose to number 37 while the one on the right stalled at number 73. And so it was decided - HERC's underdog of the month would be Yaz's "Situation". By the time the song debuted on the Hot 100 for the week of September 18th, it had already been on the Dance/Disco Top 80 chart for fourteen weeks including a four week stay at Number One. "Situation" had also crossed over to the Black Singles chart before hitting the mainstream Hot 100. In the October 2, 1982 issue of Billboard, the brief profile below of Yaz appeared just beneath that issue's Black Singles chart, where the song was number 38 that week.
6/12 | 6/19 | 6/26 | 7/3 | 7/10 | 7/17 | 7/24 | 7/31 | 8/7 | 8/14 | 8/21 | |||
Dance/Disco Top 80 | 50 | 41 | 37 | 32 | 28 | 25 | 18 | 13 | 7 | 3 | 1 | ||
8/28 | 9/4 | 9/11 | 9/18 | 9/25 | 10/2 | 10/9 | 10/16 | 10/23 | 10/30 | 11/6 | 11/13 | ||
Dance/Disco Top 80 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 | 33 | 70 | 76 | ||
Black Singles | 87 | 77 | 57 | 49 | 42 | 38 | 34 | 31 | 31 | 31 | 64 | 100 | |
Hot 100 | 90 | 84 | 76 | 76 | 73 | 73 | 85 | 96 |
Despite getting virtually no love on the Hot 100, "Situation" has since been named to several best of the Eighties lists and albums as well as 100 Greatest Dance Songs (number 64) and 1001 Singles You Must Hear Before You Die (number 592 on chronological list). HERC loves the song and the parent album (Upstairs At Eric's) to no end and was thrilled when the album was featured as a minor plot point and two songs ("Don't Go" and "Only You") were heard on the espionage drama The Americans recently.
Thanks for another fantastic look at the new releases of 1982. So many favorite songs in there for me too.
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