Admittedly, I've done a poor job of scanning some of my WLS Radio Surveys, failing to align them properly on the scanner bed or carelessly editing the scans. Today's scan is entirely the original printer's fault, though I am responsible for not correcting the obvious alignment error. The survey is crooked on both sides, with the error more pronounced on the back, as we will see in Part Two of today's post. But first, we present Part One of the WLS Music Survey dated July 18, 1981. This was likely the last week I was listening to the station before we moved to Arizona.
Brant Miller has been featured here on The Hideaway once before. He joined the WLS airstaff late in 1977. He's still the meteorologist on a Chicago television station with his son, Joey, as his producer. They have been affectionately referred to as Chicago's First Family of Weather.
After the tragic death of bassist Tommy Caldwell in 1980, The Marshall Tucker Band re-grouped around leader (and Tommy's older brother) Toy Caldwell to record their eleventh album, Dedicated. Touring behind the album with Firefall, the two groups offered a country-tinged southern rock sound complete with flute solos. Firefall was a group in decline due to internal and external strains, touring in support of Clouds Across The Sun. The band would shed members throughout 1981 and not survive to promote The Best Of Firefall at year's end before reforming in the spring of 1982.
Mac Davis released three Casablanca albums in 1980 and had a starring role in Cheaper To Keep Her. His appearance at Poplar Creek doesn't look like part of any tour, and it occurred about three months before the release of Midnight Crazy. Davis shared the bill with Alabama – he may have been the opening act for them – touring behind their second major label album, Feels So Right, a Hideaway favorite.
The two dates at Poplar Creek marked the end of one leg of the Moody Blues Long Distance Voyager Tour. The album is a huge favorite here at The Hideaway; we can only imagine what great shows those would have been with the Moodies' back catalog. The interwebs say someone named Jimmie Spheeris opened for The Moody Blues on this tour, but I found no corroborating info. The mighty Moodies returned to Chicago in October 1981 for a show at Chicago Stadium. Long Distance Voyager moves up eight spots to number 4 this week on the Thirty-threes.
According to the two reports I read, Judy Collins was working non-stop on her next album (1982's Times Of Our Lives) throughout 1981. As part of that work, she performed a series of shows known as "art-song recitals," in which Collins seamlessly blended classical arrangements, Broadway, and literary pop with the acoustic storytelling she was known for. Her show was at The Pavilion at Ravinia Park, a 3,500-seat venue in Highland Park that she would return to throughout the years.
The fourth and final Poplar Creek show listed on this week's survey is Jimmy Buffett and The Coral Reefer Band, out behind Coconut Telegraph. They played six of the album's nine tracks in their 25-song setlist, according to a setlist.fm contributor. Buffett first performed at Poplar Creek in July 1980 on his Hot Dog and Roadmap Tour. He returned to the venue with every tour from 1982 to 1989, then doubled down with two-night stands each year from 1991 to 1994 before moving his annual Chicago-area concerts to the New World Music Theatre in Tinley Park.
Two albums appear on the Thirty-threes for a final week. After 34 weeks, including peaking at number 6 in January, The Police's Zenyatta Mondatta comes in at number 33 this week. Eric Clapton's Another Ticket had spent 15 weeks on the chart, peaking at number 8 in April. For its final week, it lands at number 32.
The list of albums on the Thirty-threes this week is heavy with rock titles, though there is a bit of variety with a few soft rock and jazz-ish albums as well. There are two artists, each with a pair of albums on the list (AC/DC and Sweet Kenny Rogers), an album each from two members of The Beatles, and an album featuring a Dutch group faithfully recreating medleys of songs from The Beatles and other artists.
AC/DC has two albums on the Thirty-threes this week. After debuting in August 1980 at number 26, Back In Black rose to a peak of number 3 in October 1980, and is at number 19 on the chart this week. 1976's Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap was finally released in North America after the phenomenal success of Back In Black – currently the fourth best-selling album in America and the second best-selling album worldwide. After twelve weeks on the station's albums list, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap is down three this week to number 7 after peaking at Number One back in May.
Kenny Rogers debuts at number 23 on the Thirty-threes this week with Sharing Your Love. The album would go on to peak at number 5 in two weeks. Kenny's second album on this week's chart moves up one spot to number 17. Kenny Rogers' Greatest Hits had peaked at Number One in December 1980 and would go on to spend 51 weeks on the list of Thirty-threes.
Medley: Intro • Venus • Sugar, Sugar • No Reply • I'll Be Back • Drive My Car • Do You Want to Know a Secret • We Can Work It Out • I Should Have Known Better • Nowhere Man • You're Going to Lose That Girl • Stars on 45
The album peaked at number 11 last week and fell to number 13 this week.
In addition to this week's Number One album (below), there are seven previous Number Ones and two future Number Ones (The Moody Blues and Billy Squier) on this week's chart.
This week's Number One moves up from number 3 last week and would go on to spend an additional half a year on the list of Thirty-threes. Black t-shirts featuring Ozzy Osbourne were, hands down, the most popular shirts among guys and girls at my high school from the time I arrived in August 1981 until graduation in June 1984. Ozzy performed in both Phoenix and Tucson three times each during that span, with the day-after appearance of concert tees, authentic and bootleg, in the halls making you think they were giving them away at the shows because just about everybody was wearing one. Iron Maiden shirts were a distant second in those hallways.
🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧
Here are my six favorite albums on the list of Thirty-threes this week in countdown order, ranked by their placement on the chart, beginning with number 06:
06
Pat Benatar's follow-up to In The Heat of the Night, debuted at number 33 on the WLS Music Survey dated October 4, 1980. Crimes of Passion peaked at number 5 in January 1981 during its 50-week stay on the Thirty-threes. This week, the album moves up one to number 31. The album would go on to win a Grammy Award and is Benatar's best-selling disc. Two of the album's three singles would spend time on the Forty-fives. Despite the lyrical subject matter, my favorite track from the album is the ferocious rocker, "Hell Is For Children".
05
Quincy Jones' The Dude debuted on WLS's Thirty-threes at number 33 in June 1981, peaking just a few weeks later at number 21. Coincidentally, the very last spot The Dude would occupy before dropping off the Thirty-threes in August 1981 is also number 33. This week, the album falls five spots to number 26. WLS never played any of the singles from Grammy Award-winning The Dude, but I was fortunate enough to hear "Ai No Corrida" one beautiful weekend on WLRW in May 1981 as it debuted on American Top 40. (If I recall, it was the same week that "Jessie's Girl" debuted.) I made do with my "Ai No Corrida" 45 until the summer of 1982, when I saw The Last American Virgin and heard "Just Once" more than once on the film's soundtrack. A couple of shopping trips later, I was enjoying my own copy of The Dude.
04
Back In Black holds for a second week at number 19 after peaking at number 2 in October 1980. The album had debuted on the Thirty-threes in August 1980, which was around the time I first heard of AC/DC, when my friend Robbie Rottet showed up at the bus stop with his guitar case emblazoned with two large, hand-drawn band logos: AC/DC and Def Leppard. All through that fall, I became acquainted with the harder-rocking music Robbie was being exposed to through his older brother, including Judas Priest, Van Halen, and Ozzy Osbourne.
03
Billy Squier's Don't Say No is up five to number 8 this week, on its way to a number-one peak come August. The album is on its third week in the Thirty-threes after debuting at number 29 earlier in July. Lead single "The Stroke" sounded good on WLS, but it sounded great on WLRW, with the FM stereo signal adding dimension to the drum hits and a nice weight to the guitar riffs. Don't Say No was one of the first albums I recorded off KLPX's Sunday Six Pack and definitely ranks among my favorite albums ever.
02
REO Speedwagon's Hi Infidelity debuted at number 11 in December 1980 before peaking at number 1 in January 1981. This week, the album moves up one to number 6 on the WLS albums list. Pretty sure Hi Infidelity was under the tree for Christmas 1980. Dad later confessed he had no idea which album to get me that year, so he asked the guy at the mall record store (Musicland?) what the "hottest" records were and came home with Hi Infidelity and Double Fantasy, although he ended up keeping the latter album for himself. The album soundtracked the end of my freshman year in May 1981, with the album opener "Don't Let Him Go" still my favorite song on the album.
01
Moving up eight spots to number 4 this week is Long Distance Voyager. The Moody Blues' album had debuted at number 30 in June 1981 and would peak at Number One in August. I don't recall hearing either "Gemini Dream" or "The Voice" on WLS, but I'm fairly certain "Gemini Dream" made it onto American Top 40 in June, with "The Voice" following in August. I would have heard the former song on WLRW and the latter on a since-forgotten Tucson station after we moved. Long Distance Voyager is my favorite Moody Blues album and gets played frequently.
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