Hot 100 Debuts - September 1982

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.