WLS Music Survey – April 24, 1982 (Part One - The Thirty-threes)

I know, I know. I wasn't listening to WLS in 1982 – it wasn't even an option then. But 1982 is my favorite year in music, and I still collected nearly every one of the WLS music surveys from that year with the help of other collectors and a former record store owner. Over the next few days, we'll review the survey from April 24, 1982.

I never heard Rich McMillan and never listened to WLS on the FM side of the dial. According to an undated Where Are They Now? page on the WLS History site, McMillan later became a program director at a Miami station.

Gordon Lightfoot was touring behind his recently released album, Shadows. Mill Run Playhouse was located in Niles, IL, on the northwest side of Chicago. The 1600-seat theater in the round, featuring a slowly rotating stage, would close in 1984 after a twenty-year run and hundreds of big-name performances.

Huey Lewis and the News were on the road, doing mostly club shows, promoting their nearly four-month-old Picture This album. I had picked up my copy early in 1982 after hearing two songs on the radio: "Workin' For A Livin'" and "Do You Believe In Love?" The latter track was up two spots this week to number 14 on the WLS Forty-fives list. Park West, a 750-seat venue, is where the Chicago Bears would later film their "Super Bowl Shuffle" music video in 1985.

After their self-titled album in Autumn 1981, Quarterflash was doing solo club gigs between major shows with Sammy Hagar and Elton John. The band has two singles on this week's list of Forty-fives: "Harden My Heart" falls nine to number 35 and "Find Another Fool" moves up four to number 17. The album Quarterflash bumps up two spots to number 13 on the Thirty-threes tally. I had recorded the album off the radio when a local station played it as part of a Sunday Six-Pack.

Roosevelt University's Auditorium Theatre, which can seat nearly 4,000 concert-goers, hosted Weather Report, Luther Vandross, Cheryl Lynn, Phil Collins, and multiple nights of Prince with opening acts Vanity 6 and The Time in 1982 after Asia's May appearance at the venue. Supporting their self-titled album, currently sitting at number 4 on the list of Thirty-threes, Asia would not debut on the Forty-fives until May.

The Greg Kihn Band opened for Journey during their four-night stand at the Rosemont Horizon. Kihn had a new album out weeks before their Chicago shows with their fellow Bay Area band, Journey, who were touring behind the number 11 album, Escape, on the Thirty-threes chart. Journey's third single from the album, "Open Arms", was down to number 12 on the Forty-fives.

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Over on the Thirty-threes chart, two albums were making their debuts: The Human League's Dare! came in at number 33 on its way to a peak of number 4 for three weeks in June, and Sammy Hagar's Standing Hampton at number 31 before peaking at number 10 in May.

There is a trio of comedy albums on the list of Thirty-threes this week, including one by two of WLS's jocks. Animal Stories Volume II was the second collection of on-air segments from Uncle Lar and Lil' Tommy (Larry Lujack and Tommy Edwards). Their album drops a spot to number 30 this week after debuting at its peak of number 11 back in January 1982. Twenty years after The First Family album parodied The Kennedys, The First Family Rides Again similarly parodied The Regans. The latter album held steady for a second week at number 23 on WLS's list of albums after peaking at number 9 in March 1982. Up at number 16 on the Thirty-threes was the comedy duo of Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas, aka Bob and Doug McKenzie from the show SCTV, with their Great White North album. Led by the single "Take Off", number 22 on this week's Forty-fives, Great White North had peaked at number 5 for the entire month of March before beginning its slide.

Just as they had throughout the Sixties and Seventies, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles continued their chart rivalry into the Eighties, even though The Beatles had ceased recording in 1970. This week, the Stones' 1981 release, Tattoo You, slips two positions to number 24 after peaking at Number One for a few weeks back in October 1981. The Reel Music compilation featured The Beatles' music from the five films they appeared in together. The album had debuted on the station's albums list just a week earlier at number 33 and rose to number 18 this week. Reel Music would peak at number 12 on the Thirty-threes in May 1982. Some of the album's success can be attributed to "The Beatles Movie Medley", a single featuring a medley of songs from Reel Music, though it was not included on the album.

Barbra Streisand's Memories album from 1981 is basically a hits compilation with a few newly recorded tracks tacked on to entice fans to buy the older songs again. Memories sits at number 28 for a second week after peaking at number 6 back in January 1982. Another odd compilation of sorts on this week's Thirty-threes is Simon & Garfunkel's The Concert In Central Park. The live double-album, featuring many of the duo's chart hits as well as some of their respective solo songs, sits at its peak of number 12 for a third non-consecutive week on the WLS album charts. The third odd compilation of older music from the Thirty-threes list this week is Hooked On Classics from The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Louis Clark. The album's lead single, also titled "Hooked On Classics", is down three spots to number 41 this week after peaking at number 12 back in February. Hooked On Classics drops four steps to number 9 this week.

Lastly, there are three albums from Canadian rock groups on the Thirty-threes list we'd like to spotlight. Falling two spots to number 29 is Triumph's Allied Forces. The 1981 album features "Fight The Good Fight" and "Magic Power", two of the greatest, most inspirational songs of all time, both of which were shamelessly used to soundtrack a video we were shown in high school by armed forces recruiters. Allied Forces had peaked on the WLS albums list at number 6 back in November 1981. Another 1981 album by a Canadian band is Prism's Small Change. It's down four positions from its peak of number 20 just a few weeks prior, while their single "Don't Let Him Know", a Bryan Adams/Jim Vallance co-write, falls four to number 38 just ahead of Adams' own single "Lonely Nights" at number 42. Up at number 8 and rising on the Thirty-threes chart is Loverboy's sophomore album, Get Lucky, also released in 1981. Listening to the album today, I'm reminded how much I enjoyed and continue to enjoy hearing Loverboy's first two albums. They are a nice mix of rock, new wave, and a little disco.

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Many of the albums listed on this week's Thirty-threes chart remain favorites to this day, with a lot of my original vinyl purchases superseded by digital discs and downloads. Blackout by Scorpions is one of my favorites; I ranked the album number 10 on the 1982 Hideaway 100: The Albums countdown back in 2014. The album debuted on WLS's Thirty-threes in the last week of March 1982 at number 28. Now, just four weeks later, Blackout peaks at number 7 for the first of five non-consecutive weeks at the position. I first heard the song "No One Like You" come roaring out of the speakers, tuned to one of the local rock radio stations, in the early Spring of 1982. Within days, I was rocking out to Blackout, from the opening title track to the album closing cool-down that is "When The Smoke Is Going Down", and everything in between. I saw the band in concert a few times in their early to mid-eighties prime, and it was always fun when they performed "Arizona". Another favorite deep cut from Blackout is "Can't Live Without You".