WLS Music Survey - November 27, 1982 (Part One - The Thirty-threes)

Hello and welcome to our review of the WLS survey from November 27, 1982. We moved out of the station's broadcast range in August 1981 and therefore were not listening in 1982, but we enjoy seeing what our former favorite station was playing during our favorite year in music.

Never heard of Chris until today. He has his own website and was featured in a 2024 New York Times article about a unique station in Palm Springs, where he was serving as both program director and afternoon jock. Good for him.

According to setlist.fm, Canadian prog band Saga was Benatar's opening act on her Get Nervous Tour, making for a great show. Saga was out supporting their Worlds Apart album with favorites "Wind Him Up" and "On The Loose". Benatar's Get Nervous album is also a personal favorite of ours, featuring more keyboards but no less guitar in the mix. The album jumped up WLS's albums list twenty-two spots this week as it sits at number 5, while "Shadows of The Night" is at number 7 on the Forty-fives chart.

The Electric Guitars opened for Peter Gabriel on his Security Tour. The Stiff-signed group later broke up in 1983. If you check your collection, you may have a copy of their single "Language Problems" on a compilation. Gabriel notoriously self-titled his first four solo albums, though his label Geffen re-titled the fourth album Security, to which Gabriel reluctantly agreed. He performed seven of the album's eight songs nightly during the tour, with "Wallflower" being the lone exception. "Shock The Monkey" is at number 26 on the singles list after an eighteen-spot leap.

The Charlie Daniels Band was touring behind their Windows album and the single "Still In Saigon". The single had peaked at number 16 during an eleven-week run on the Forty-fives chart back in May 1982.

Supporting his self-titled debut album, Marshall Crenshaw opened for the Stray Cats on this stop in another great pairing. The Cats had made a huge impression on me with their October 1981 appearance on Fridays!. But, at the time, their music was only available as expensive UK imports. This week, more than a year later, the built-for-U.S. audiences compilation Built For Speed is at number 6 on the list of Thirty-threes, while their single "Rock This Town" is at number 6 on its way to peaking at number 4. The second single, "Stray Cat Strut", will also peak at number 4 a couple of months later in 1983.

I latched onto the two local rock stations (one was doing the Rock Of The 80s format and the other was album-oriented rock) in our new location, and my musical tastes evolved away from Top 40 towards rock and new wave. WLS had also apparently evolved away from Top 40 towards a more rock/AOR format, with Lionel Richie, Willie Nelson, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra being the exceptions this week.  Specifically, I was really into the following four albums around this time that also happened to be on WLS's list of Thirty-threes.

Get Lucky was released in October 1981 and is the only album from 1981 on this week's chart, where it falls two positions to number 32. Next week will be the album's last week on the chart, after forty-one weeks and a peak at number 4. As a huge fan of Loverboy's eponymous debut album, I flipped when I heard "Working For The Weekend" just after arriving here in Tucson back in early September 1981. I picked up the Get Lucky album after it was released that October, probably closer to Christmas, and have felt, then and now, that it is a superior album to their first one. "Turn Me Loose" is still my favorite song by the group, but song-for-song, Get Lucky is our preferred album by a thin margin.

Released in March 1982, Blackout is at number 20 on the WLS list of albums this week after peaking at number 7 for five non-consecutive weeks back in March and April of 1982. The album spent nearly a year (forty-five weeks) moving up and down the Thirty-threes chart. Lead single "No One Like You" peaked at number 26 on the Forty-fives chart back in July, ultimately spending just under half a year on that list. Loved the song from the first time I heard it – still do! – but didn't pick up the album until my local station played "Arizona" off it.

Screaming For Vengeance was released in July 1982. During its 40-week stay on the Thirty-threes chart, it debuted at number 33, spent another three non-consecutive weeks at number 33 before ending its run at number 33. The album peaked at number 8 in late October, while the single "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" had peaked the week before this at number 20 on the Forty-fives. That single was the first song I had ever heard by Judas Priest, and it made me want to hear more; I bought Screaming For Vengeance and British Steel soon after. My very first concert was Judas Priest on the Screaming For Vengeance Tour in November 1982. It was magnificent.

Released in September 1982, It's Hard moves down six spots this week to number 10 on WLS's list of albums. It had peaked at Number One the first week of November 1982 and would spend just 28 weeks on the Thirty-threes chart. The initial single "Athena" drops down four positions to number 34 this week after topping out at number 11 in October 1982. Never have cared for "Athena", but when I heard the second single "Eminence Front", I had to buy the album. That song remains a Top 5 Who song for this listener, while It's Hard never gets any plays these days.