(Ed. note - this post was originally scheduled to be published on Friday, Feb. 22. A variety of things including rare snowfall here in the desert and the subsequent roundabout trip to Vegas led me to somehow miss hitting the Publish button that week. I've gone back, rewritten a few parts and am publishing it now. Sorry to keep you waiting.)
By February 1982, WLS was broadcasting on both AM and FM and had circled back around to using their The Rock Of Chicago™ tagline from the early Seventies. Having left Illinois in late July 1981, I never got to hear the station on FM or that tagline but even down here in Arizona, they were playing most — if not all — of the Forty-fives listed this week on the stations I was listening to. Here are a dozen of my favorite singles from the Forty-fives list dated February 6, 1982:
By February 1982, WLS was broadcasting on both AM and FM and had circled back around to using their The Rock Of Chicago™ tagline from the early Seventies. Having left Illinois in late July 1981, I never got to hear the station on FM or that tagline but even down here in Arizona, they were playing most — if not all — of the Forty-fives listed this week on the stations I was listening to. Here are a dozen of my favorite singles from the Forty-fives list dated February 6, 1982:
"I've Done Everything For You" - Rick Springfield
I've made no bones about my affection for Springfield's energetic power pop and "I've Done Everything For You" is a perfect example of how he does it. With a pedigree of songwriter Sammy Hagar, who released a live version of it in 1978 and a studio version as a non-album B-side in 1979, and arranged by Neil Geraldo along with producer Keith Olsen, Rick takes a good song and makes it great by revving up the tempo, injecting it with a infectious energy that transforms the song's protagonist from Hagar's spiteful, vindictive tough guy delivery to Springfield's tender, more sympathetic broken-hearted Romeo reading. On WLS, the single drops two this week to #40 after peaking at #7 back in November 1981.
"Take My Heart (You Can Have It If You Want It)"- Kool & The Gang
Another in a series of laid-back grooves courtesy of James "J.T." Taylor, Ronald "Kool" Bell, and the rest of The Gang, "Take My Heart" features Taylor moaning, growling, and scatting to good effect in front of a rock-solid backing track. This one peaked at #31 a few weeks back and slips one spot to #36 this week.
"My Kinda Lover" - Billy Squier
Squier got mine and everybody else's attention with "The Stroke" but after recording his album Don't Say No off the radio on the Sunday Six Pack, I became a big fan. From the album-opening "In The Dark" through the second track "The Stroke", we get to track three, "My Kinda Lover". The song has all the things that make Squier's so appealing to me: distinctive almost conversational vocals, guitars, and synths in all the right places and, above all else, that backbeat. It's almost enough to make you think the man writes his songs while sitting behind a drum kit. "My Kinda Lover" peaked just inside the Top 20 back in December 1981 while sliding down four places to number #31 this week.
"Oh No" - Commodores
Do me a favor and think about all the songs you liked that were later included on soundtrack albums. Got it. Now, think about all the scenes those songs were used in and whether they increased or decreased your enjoyment of the song. The Last American Virgin all but ruined two songs for me by using them in multiple scenes, including the movie's emotionally devastating unhappy ending. The first song was James Ingram's "Just Once" and the second song is "Oh No". Lionel Richie's country-tinged tale of an arms-length heartbreak (later rewritten by Jackson Browne for Fast Times At Ridgemont High as the slightly more upbeat "Somebody's Baby") moves up one position to #30 this week despite peaking at #21 in January.
"Let's Get It Up" - AC/DC
My first introduction to AC/DC's swaggering music was during a listen to his older brother's copy of Back In Black at Robbie Rottet's house just after the start of freshman year. I bought the album a bit later, shortly after I arrived in Arizona where seemingly all the songs from the album were getting airplay. While at the checkout counter, there was a cardboard cutout of the group's forthcoming album For Those About To Rock on the counter. I bought that album on the day of release at the BX, recorded it onto both sides of a TDK SA90 and that tape kept me company on the long bus rides to a from my downtown high school until the end of my sophomore year in June 1982. I know the album inside and out, backward and forwards and love every minute of it. While the building, anthemic title track will always be most favorite cut on the copper-covered album, the first single "Let's Get It Up" will never be far behind. The single gets up six to #27 this week and will peek in two weeks at #16.
"Waiting On A Friend" - The Rolling Stones
"Start Me Up" was positively huge at the end of Summer and the beginning of Fall 1981 along with the attendant album Tattoo You. Then, as Fall faded into Winter, "Waiting On A Friend" appeared on the radio, a rare ballad from Mick, Keef, and them other fellas. It was pretty, fragile even. I've always liked it and this week it's waiting at #18 after stumbling down three places two weeks after hitting a high at #13.
"Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" - The Police
I never liked a lot of my high school classmates. Our school's swim team wasn't very good but the kids on it were snobby as hell. They were Preppies. But they listened to Ghost In The Machine before anyone else I knew. It was through them, gathered outside the Band Room on a pair of benches and a table they dragged all the way over from the cafeteria, that I heard the album. Before school, at lunch, and after school, that is where they congregated and passing by there several times a day (we had four buildings on campus so it wasn't out of the ordinary to have to walk back and forth between them for class) I heard the album in bits and pieces through a steady parade of boomboxes. Pretty sure my friend Mike (the lone non-Preppie outsider on the swim team, he was also in Band) lent me the album shortly thereafter as we bonded over music while in Drafting class. The album is still a great listen and remains my favorite Police album to this day with "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" standing out as my favorite track. This week on the Forty-fives list, it is at #16 down three from the previous week and ten from a peak at #6 in December 1981.
"Turn Your Love Around" - George Benson
Benson's Grammy-winning "Turn Your Love Around" scored a 94.25 on the Yachtski Scale and can be found on at least a dozen of my Spotify playlists not just because it is a great tune but also because it soothes and relaxes me. It's just so dang smooth. I was a huge fan of his "Give Me The Night" single (83.75 on YS) and played it dozens of times on the cafeteria jukebox at lunch during my freshman year in Rantoul, Illinois so "Turn Your Love Around" was an easy add and fortunately for my limited funds at the time I didn't have to buy it as Dad already owned The George Benson Collection double album thanks to Columbia House. "Turn Your Love Around" is up seven whole spots this week at #12. It would move up one the following week to peak at #11.
"Under Pressure" - Queen & David Bowie
The simple bass line, finger snaps and handclaps were all it took to hook me in to "Under Pressure" the first time I heard it on WLS. The soaring, show-stopping vocals Mercury and Bowie were sprinkles on the sundae and still send chills after all these years. "Under Pressure" stands apart from Queen's catalog of songs while adding another unique chapter to Bowie's illustrious library. The song was a great last-minute addition to the tracklisting of Queen's Greatest Hits album here in the States for Christmas 1981. "Under Pressure" had peaked at #7 a couple weeks back, held the position for two weeks then fell to #8 this week.
I had stuck with Rod's music after first hearing repeated playings of Dad's Every Picture Tells A Story 8-track and was a (the?) huge fan of his "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" and "Passion" singles but it wasn't until 1981's Tonight I'm Yours that I purchased my first Stewart LP. The first single "Tonight I'm Yours" knocked me out and second single "Young Turks" appealed to me even more. The song is at #6 this week, having fallen from #5 the previous week and a peak of #3 a couple weeks before that.
"Our Lips Are Sealed" - Go-Go's
On a recent visit to Las Vegas, I picked up nearly one hundred 45s from the Seventies and Eighties in really good to great condition at two local vinyl shops. While I already own two different 45 label variations of "Our Lips Are Sealed" neither one came with a picture sleeve. My Vegas trip yielded one two three four five Go-Go's pic-sleeved singles, including the one pictured above for "Our Lips Are Sealed". It's one of those songs that hasn't lost any of its appeal over the years; while I may have gotten older the song has stayed the same age - frozen in time - in the best possible way. So even though the guy didn't mark any prices on his records, I didn't ask either and when he told me at checkout after counting and sorting my stack that the pic sleeves would be $3 each I could have said no but I did not. Though if you were there beside me and listening closely, you would have heard an audible GULP! sound deep within my throat. "Our Lips Are Sealed" moves up to #4 this week from #6 last week on its way up to #2.
"Harden My Heart" - Quarterflash
I know a few musicians and while some of them really don't listen or hear music as I do (through an untrained ear), I always delight when we can agree on something we like. On the other hand, it's off-putting when they tell me something I like and really enjoy is off-key, out of tune or otherwise technically inferior to accepted musical standards. Such is the case with Rindy Ross's saxophone which is front and center in her group Quarterflash's "Harden My Heart". It's a great song and I love the sound of the sax throughout but I've been told by more than one musician that said sax is not up to par. Don't care, still like it. "Harden My Heart" moves up one to its peak of #3 this week.
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