WLS Music Survey September 25, 1982

The first time I featured a WLS survey from my collection, I had high hopes of acquiring many more of them and doing a long-running series. Then life happened. Most recently, all the America's Top 10 episodes from YouTube user burtiscurtis09 that I've featured in 50 posts (usually including WLS charts for fun) over the past four years were unceremoniously yanked. So here we are, five months after that first WLS survey post... here's a second one all the way from September 25, 1982.

Since we had moved exactly 1744 miles away from WLS back in August 1981, this particular survey is "new" to me, though, like I've always said, 1982 was the single greatest year in music history so there's always that. (There is, however, one song from one album by one artist on the survey I have never heard of but we'll get to that in a bit.) WLS was never accused of being ahead of or even in tune with the national charts, preferring to wait and see which songs became hits elsewhere before adding them to the station playlist weeks or months after the songs have otherwise peaked. WLS also made their own unique hits: from 1960-1982, nearly 150 records made it to Number One on WLS's weekly survey without reaching the same peak on Billboard's Hot 100, including songs by The Beatles, Queen, Captain & Tennille, Elton John, Michael Jackson, Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Monkees. Let's see how the 1982 playlist compared that week to the Billboard and Cashbox charts:

WLS	title	artist	Billboard	Cashbox
1	Jack & Diane	John Cougar	2	2
2	Hard To Say I'm Sorry/Getaway	Chicago	3	3
3	Abracadabra	Steve Miller Band	1	1
4	You Should Hear How She Talks About You	Melissa Manchester	5	4
5	Eye Of The Tiger	Survivor	4	5
6	Hurts So Good	John Cougar	9	14
7	Somebody's Baby	Jackson Browne	8	9
8	Who Can It Be Now?	Men At Work	7	11
9	I Keep Forgettin'	Michael McDonald	15	8
10	Vacation	The Go-Go's	58	7
11	Only Time Will Tell	Asia	17	16
12	Don't Fight It	Kenny Loggins with Steve Perry	34	21
13	Love Is In Control	Donna Summer	10	24
14	Hold Me	Fleetwood Mac	32	12
15	Think I'm In Love	Eddie Money	16	54
16	Loved By You	The Kind
17	Up Where We Belong	Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes	46	45
18	Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)	Joan Jett	20	35
19	Even The Nights Are Better	Air Supply	42	41
20	Let It Whip	Dazz Band	99	98
21	Athena	The Who	50	49
22	Love Will Turn You Around	Kenny Rogers	13	26
23	Take It Away	Paul McCartney	11	15
24	Out Of Work	Gary U.S. Bonds	97	89
25	Wasted On The Way	Crosby, Stills & Nash	73	40
26	Eye In The Sky	Alan Parsons Project	6	6
27	You Can Do Magic	America	12	13
28	Don't You Want Me	Human League		94
29	Make Believe	Toto	30	19
30	American Music	Pointer Sisters	93	73
31	Only The Lonely	The Motels	100	63
32	I Ran	A Flock Of Seagulls	21	25
33	Keep The Fire Burnin'	REO Speedwagon	94
34	Always On My Mind	Willie Nelson
35	No One Like You	Scorpions
36	Rosanna	Toto		95
37	Love's Been A Little Bit Hard On Me	Juice Newton
38	Workin' For A Livin'	Huey Lewis and the News	41	53
39	Heat Of The Moment	Asia
40	Going To A Go-Go	Rolling Stones
41	What Kind Of Fool Am I	Rick Springfield
42	Personally	Karla Bonoff
43	Caught Up In You	38 Special
44	Burning Down One Side	Robert Plant	66	79
45	Tainted Love	Soft Cell	98	83
EXTRA	New World Man	Rush	63	66
EXTRA	You Keep Runnin' Away	38 Special	44	37

There does seem to be some agreement within the Top 5 on all three charts but beyond those songs, there is little if any consensus.  The most obvious example is the song at number 10, "Vacation" by The Go-Go's: over on the Billboard chart that week, it was number 58 yet it was way up at number 7 on the Cashbox chart. I count nine songs, a full 20% of the songs listed, on the WLS survey that had already fallen off the other charts - or not charted at all. Also, this is the first time I remember seeing EXTRA songs at the bottom of a WLS survey. Still, it's a great mix of rock, pop, country, new wave and R&B. The two stations I was listening to in 1982 were rock-oriented but all these years later, this playlist is the kind of genre-blind mix I most appreciate listening to most days. It takes me back and puts a smile on my face, like meeting an old friend and picking right up where you left off as if no time had passed.

Eddie Money, who would appear in concert at the Aragon the following week, snagged the coveted backside of the survey Etcetera, Etc. and Bio spots, sponsored by custom jewelry designers Feinstein & Son, Inc. And I can't say I remember ever hearing Jock of the Week Jeff Davis during my six years of listening to WLS from 1975-1981. Maybe he was hired after I left the area?

The Spotify playlist above has 43 of the Forty-fives listed, not counting those two EXTRAs. Missing: number 18 is Joan Jett, whose first four albums have yet to appear on Spotify, and number 16 is "Loved By You" by The Kind, a local Chicago area band who also had the number 19 Thirty-three with their self-titled debut.

The Kind released Pain and Pleasure, a follow-up album, in 1983 and saw a single, "I've Got You", make the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart in early 1984. I found no further releases from the band after that.