Hot 100 Debuts - December 1982

Thirty debuting singles closed out the chart year that was 1982, bringing the grand total of unique singles to make their first appearance on the Hot 100 in 1982 to 429, including unheralded singles by the long broken-up Beatles and the "reclusive" Elvis Presley, who had rarely been seen in public since 1977 though he was putting out more albums than ever before.  Only two of December's debuts peaked before 1983: Lee Ritenour's "Cross My Heart" and Rodway's "Don't Stop Trying", pictured below in their 12" promo glory:  

Both singles reached their respective peak chart positions the week of December 18th yet hung around the Hot 100 until the end of January 1983.  Here's the weekly breakdown of those final thirty singles, only twelve of which eventually found their way onto American Top 40 with half of those eventually appearing on America's Top 10 though none ever made it to Number One.

Hot 100 debut	debut pos		title	artist
12/4/1982	70		Bad Boy	Ray Parker Jr.	136
12/4/1982	80	*	Do You Really Want To Hurt Me	Culture Club	207
12/4/1982	82		Cross My Heart	Lee Ritenour	69
12/4/1982	84		After I Cry Tonight	Lanier and Co.	111
12/4/1982	85		Painted Picture	Commodores	63
12/4/1982	86	*	On The Loose	Saga	156
					124
12/11/1982	70	*	Your Love Is Driving Me Crazy	Sammy Hagar	184
12/11/1982	73		All Those Lies	Glenn Frey	127
12/11/1982	77		I Knew You When	Linda Ronstadt	131
12/11/1982	80		Pass The Dutchie	Musical Youth	189
12/11/1982	82		Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone	Wolf	96
12/11/1982	83		Give It Up	Steve Miller Band	86
12/11/1982	84		Don’t Stop Trying	Rodway	40
12/11/1982	86		Funny How Time Slips Away	The Spinners	70
12/11/1982	88	*	Back On The Chain Gang	Pretenders	202
12/11/1982	90		The Clapping Song	Pia Zadora	135
					120
12/18/1982	40	*	Shame On The Moon	Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band	209
12/18/1982	78		The Woman In Me	Donna Summer	142
12/18/1982	79		Young Love	Janet Jackson	77
12/18/1982	81	*	All Touch	Rough Trade	88
12/18/1982	85		Are You Getting Enough Happiness	Hot Chocolate	75
12/18/1982	89		Shoot For The Moon	Poco	106
12/18/1982	90		Beg, Borrow Or Steal	Hughes/Thrall	45
					111
12/25/1982	43	*	Stray Cat Strut	Stray Cats	206
12/25/1982	77	*	Hungry Like The Wolf	Duran Duran	206
12/25/1982	80	*	Eminence Front	The Who	69
12/25/1982	81	*	Forever	Little Steven and the Disciples Of Soul	81
12/25/1982	88		Are You Serious	Tyrone Davis	90
12/25/1982	89		Take The Time	Michael Stanley Band	43
12/25/1982	90		What If (I Said I Love You)	Unipop	64
					102

Not a lot of eventual hits from this bunch but Week One netted the highest average score (124) among its six singles, with an average chart peak of 42 and an average chart life of 14 weeks between them.  Within the next couple of weeks, HERC will have the year-end summary of 1982 debuts including the top scoring weeks and songs of the year posted.  So be sure to check back.  But back to December 1982... check out the first four tracks there under Week Four. All four of them are HERC All-Time Favorites:

The fourth one is HERC's Underperforming Pick of The Week.  The Who's "Eminence Front" debuted on the Rock Tracks chart at number 28 the week of September 18th, two weeks after parent album It's Hard hit the Rock Albums chart at number 16 as the Most Added record at reporting stations and three weeks after the album's first single "Athena" first appeared on the Hot 100 at number 77 and on the Rock Tracks chart at number 36.  (In a quirk of the chart's reporting and tracking, the 12 inch promo single of "Athena" hit the Rock Albums chart that same week at number 15 as the Most Added record at the AOR stations reporting in.)  The track is a decidedly devisive one, one that people love or hate, with no middle ground or shades of gray.

"Eminence Front" eventually peaked at number 5 on the Rock Tracks chart the week of November 6th during a nineteen week chart campaign.  Where was the logic in adding the single to the Hot 100 on the last week of the year as it slid down the Rock Tracks chart?  Debuting down at number 80 on the Hot 100 during Christmas Week and within three weeks had stalled at number 68 before begnning a three week freefall off the chart, hitting number 97 on the way down.  Like the four other Who tracks used as theme songs in the CSI franchise, "Eminence Front" was rumored to be under consideration as the theme song for a London spin-off that never materialized.