CHART ATTACK! #39: 7/6/85
Howdy, everybody! We’re back for yet another week of this crazy lil’ thing called CHART ATTACK! Hope you’re ready to help me tear apart the Top 10 from July 6, 1985!
10. Angel – Madonna Amazon iTunes
9. Voices Carry – ‘Til Tuesday Amazon iTunes
8. Everytime You Go Away – Paul Young Amazon iTunes
7. You Give Good Love – Whitney Houston Amazon iTunes
6. Would I Lie To You? – Eurythmics Amazon iTunes
5. The Search Is Over – Survivor Amazon iTunes
4. Heaven – Bryan Adams Amazon iTunes
3. Raspberry Beret – Prince & The Revolution Amazon iTunes
2. A View To A Kill – Duran Duran Amazon iTunes
1. Sussudio – Phil Collins Amazon iTunes
10. Angel – Madonna
While Madonna has certainly had a number of fantastic dance singles, she’s also had her share of cookie-cutter songs that fail to bring anything interesting to the table. "Angel" is one of them, with the exact same chord progression through 99% of the song. I also throw "Dress You Up," "Burning Up" and "Causing A Commotion" into the same category. Maybe I’m the only one who felt this way, though, because "Angel" performed quite admirably on the charts, peaking at #5 and becoming her third Top 10 of the year. Interestingly enough, the B-side to "Angel" was "Into The Groove," which, despite its popularity from Desperately Seeking Susan, wasn’t released as a single in the U.S. Madonna’s record company didn’t want the song to compete with "Angel." Ultimately, the B-side wound up being the more memorable of the two.
9. Voices Carry – ‘Til Tuesday
I hear this song all the time, way more than I ever really want to hear it. ‘Til Tuesday is the first artist listed alphabetically on my iPod, so if I ever accidentally hit the "play" button while it’s not on shuffle mode, "Voices Carry" comes on. Other songs that have held this top spot: "Dancing Queen" by ABBA, "How Long" by Ace, and "P.I.M.P." by 50 Cent. All but one of these is okay to accidentally play at work. (I learned this the hard way: I was lying under my desk, testing the line-in jack of the computer, and had the speakers turned up way louder than appropriate. I’ve never moved so quickly.)
What more can I talk about, other than the video? Who doesn’t love the shit out of this video? You go with your rat-tailed self, Aimee Mann! Do yourself a favor and check it out; YouTube won’t let me embed the clip here. I’ll wait.
Pretty good, huh? I especially love "by the way…what’s with the hair?" It’s more than a little heavy-handed, but at least they got somebody who was suitably dickish. And while I do love this guy (apparently he’s an actor of very little renown named Cully Holland), why didn’t they get Billy Zabka? I mean, it was 1985 and all. (By the way, awesome Zabka story here.)
I’ll come clean: I don’t know anything else by ‘Til Tuesday. Not only that, but as a kid, I thought she was singing "oh so scary."
8. Everytime You Go Away – Paul Young
Longtime readers might remember that I have a beef with Paul Young. (Read the comments section, which goes from an argument about what defines a "cover song" and rapidly devolves into Jeff calling me "asscheeks.") My beef, which you can read about above, is essentially that Paul Young has never had a successful hit that hasn’t been a cover. "Everytime You Go Away" was clearly his biggest hit, a great cover of the Hall & Oates tune from Voices, reaching the #1 spot for a week in July. (I like it better than the H&O version, okay? This is not about Paul Young.) He’s only had one other hit in the Top 10 (also a cover, obviously). In fact, I’m pretty sure that the biggest non-cover hit he’s had was when he sang the opening line to "Do They Know It’s Christmas."
7. You Give Good Love – Whitney Houston
Behold: the song that essentially introduced Whitney Houston to the world. Clive Davis had signed Houston to Arista in 1983, and confident she’d be a star, began soliciting songs from a number of songwriters and producers. Originally intended for Roberta Flack (her assistant turned it down), this song was presented to Houston by a songwriter named LaLa. It was the second single released from her self-titled debut and reached #3, which must have been quite the relief for Houston and Davis – her album was slow to sell and the first single, "Someone For Me," didn’t chart at all. "You Give Good Love" set off a stream of Houston hits which were unstoppable on their rise to the top. In the ’80s, she released two albums and 11 singles from those albums – 7 of which hit #1.
It’s hard to look past all the crazy shit that’s landed Houston where she is today, but I really enjoyed re-listening to this song and remembering what a powerhouse she was – and, presumably, still is. Here’s a clip of her debut on The Tonight Show singing "You Give Good Love." (Hard to say what I love more, the hair or the sweater. Still, she’s adorable.)
[youtube]KI3YrAv0C-I[/youtube]
6. Would I Lie To You? – Eurythmics (download)
"Would I Lie To You?" very deliberately sounds to me like a cover, but a cover that can’t decide whether it owes more to early ’60s Motown or The Kinks. This is not a criticism; "Would I Lie To You" is an awesome song, and a distinct change from previous singles by the group – the synths have been punished, sent to the back of the room in favor of those excellent horns. And you can almost never go wrong when Annie Lennox opens her mouth to sing. And hey, it’s our second video featuring a dickhead!
[youtube]P6uJwfix3fU[/youtube]
In this case, the dick is played by Steven Bauer, also an actor of little renown (he’s best known for marrying Melanie Griffith and a role in Scarface).
5. The Search Is Over – Survivor (download)
All skate! Now reverse! Yet another roller-rink song for me. "The Search Is Over" is just the perfect rock ballad. I’m not going to say anything more about Survivor because anything interesting I could possibly say has already been mentioned over at Ye Olde Jefitoblog. In fact, Jeff’s site is kind of a Survivor repository: there’s The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Survivor, the review of 2006’s Reach, and even a CAPTAIN VIDEO! post. Somebody’s got a crush!
I’m offering "The Search Is Over" for download only because I want Survivor’s management to threaten me with legal action, like they threatened Jeff over the downloads in his Reach review. Come get me, Groves!
4. Heaven – Bryan Adams
You know plenty about "Heaven." For example, you know it sucks. You also know that you secretly kind of liked it back then, too. I know I did. I played my Reckless cassette endlessly. I mainly listened to "It’s Only Love" and that one part of "Run To You" where everything cuts out but the electric guitar. I’d rewind that section repeatedly. (Oh, what a lonely boy.) You also know that you were relatively annoyed when the song resurfaced on hit radio stations across the country earlier this decade, remade in both ballad and dance versions. (Less annoyed, I imagine? Bryan Adams.)
But here’s what you may not know about "Heaven:" although not a #1 hit until June of 1985, the song was actually recorded and released in 1983, on the soundtrack to a movie called A Night In Heaven.
I admit that I haven’t seen it, but I’m guessing that it’s every bit as bad as it looks. And by "bad," I mean "AWESOME." We’re going so far off-topic here, but I don’t care. Here’s just a bit of the plot summary from the Wikipedia entry:
Christopher Atkins plays Rick Monroe, a jock and a popular guy in college in Orlando, Florida; he is outspoken and overconfident. Lesley Ann Warren plays Faye Hanlon, Rick’s speech professor; she is prim and proper. At the end of his final report for his class, Rick cracks a joke and Faye is not amused. She decides to fail him and make him take the course over again.
Faye is going through a slump in her marriage to Whitney (Robert Logan), a rocket scientist who has just lost his job. Faye’s free-spirited sister Patsy, visiting from out of town, takes her to a strip club to cheer her up. The show features a performer called "Ricky the Rocket," who is none other than Faye’s student Rick. When he notices Faye in the crowd, he gives her a very special lap dance.
Go read the rest of it. It gets even better – like when Atkins found out his penis accidentally made it into the movie! And can you believe that Bryan Adams – who had already made a dent in the U.S. charts with Cuts Like A Knife and a few of its singles – got roped into supplying "Heaven" and one other song for this movie? Maybe because it was directed by John L. Avildsen of Rocky, but still, that seems like no excuse. Read more about this movie here and here. Bravo, Bryan Adams! Thankfully, you never made the mistake of writing a theme song to a terrible movie ever again.
3. Raspberry Beret – Prince & The Revolution
Prince confused me a lot when I was a kid. (As opposed to now, when he makes perfect sense.) I wasn’t sure if he was really a man, and all his music sounded dark and mysterious to me…and then I heard "Raspberry Beret." I couldn’t understand why Prince sounded so…happy. And the video – I’d love to show it to you, but it doesn’t seem to be on YouTube. I remember it being all colorful, and joyous, and with Wendy on guitar. No doves, no Prince coming out of a steamy bathtub naked…I can’t believe they allowed me to watch MTV as a child.
2. A View To A Kill – Duran Duran
So here’s what’s interesting about "A View To A Kill:"
– It’s the only James Bond theme song to reach #1 on the U.S. charts, unless Chris Cornell’s "You Know My Name" is about to do something really surprising;
– It’s the last song that the original members of Duran Duran recorded together until 2002;
– It was performed at Live Aid during this month in ’85, quite famously, in fact: for starters, it was the original band’s last live performance for almost 20 years. Secondly, Pat Boone publicly criticized the song lyrics of some artists at Live Aid, calling attention to the lyric "dance into the fire," as if anybody gave a shit what Pat Boone thought. Thirdly, Simon LeBon completely boned one of the high notes. It was terrible! Here, watch it! It’s in the last minute of the clip.
[youtube]mINh8ZOWSLw[/youtube]
Hahahahah! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched this. Maybe a little less concentration on prancing and shoulder pads would have resulted in a more favorable outcome.
1. Sussudio – Phil Collins
You all are free to disagree with me, but I honestly think that people hate "Sussudio" because they think they’re supposed to hate "Sussudio." There’s no reason to hate it. Yes, it’s a stupid word. So what? I don’t care what it means, whether it was the name of his daughter’s horse or dog or giraffe or whether it’s a girl’s name or his uncle’s name or whatever. So it rips off Prince’s "1999" – I believe, when confronted with this information, Collins admitted he was a huge Prince fan. (And, besides, "1999" rips off Prince’s own "Manic Monday." I don’t think this is really helping the argument, I just wanted to re-state that fact.)
Plus, the video. I’ve always liked the fact that Collins clearly has a sense of humor about himself, and as Mike mentioned, it’s chock-full of Lee Sklar! A skinny Lee Sklar! (Not that Lee Sklar is fat now, but you know, skinnier.) And he’s playing a headless bass! I’m not sure if this is more Sklar Per Second (SPS) than other Collins videos (I feel like he’s more present in "Something Happened On The Way To Heaven" but that video’s no longer available.) Anyway, this is even more impressive because Collins truly realized the Power Of SklarTM: he doesn’t even play bass on the recording!
[youtube]yA48-DatUHI[/youtube]
I also don’t really agree with its location at #24 on VH1’s "50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs Ever." "Sussudio" was a damn catchy song in 1985 and while nobody will admit to liking it now, I guarantee you that once an indie band covers it, Stereogum will lose their shit.
Are there more songs that I should be more ashamed of loving? You bet, and we’ll tackle ’em next Friday on another edition of CHART ATTACK!
July 6th, 2007 at 10:57 am
OH Top 40, where have ye gone…
10. All the Madonna songs you mention are the ones I actually like– she goes awry when she tries to do ambitious music because–and by this vantage point, we can all admit it now–she’s not nearly as talented as she thought she was/is.
9. ‘Til Tuesday are first on my iPod too–curse you, apostrophe! Their second record, Welcome Home, is due for a re-evaluation (Pocket guide, jefito?)–the first album’s a bit too new-wave slick (not a bad thing in my book, but I’m in the minority), the second tempers the slick just enough to feature Aimee’s songwriting, which, as always, is brilliant. They’re a band that deserves to be known for more than the one hit.
8. Isn’t “Come Back and Stay” a Paul Young original? I think it was US Top 40 as well (allmusic’s loading too slowly for me to check)
4. I knew the Brian Adams/Night In Heaven thing because Casey Kasem mentioned it every week this was on the charts. I used to wonder if he was one of the producers or something. Wasn’t this the 4th single from Restless? I miss the days when you could pull 5-6 singles off an album.
2. Duran Duran pretty much ends here–a lot of their later singles are excellent, and I think The Wedding Album is their best record, but the bad idea/good idea ratio becomes badly misaligned. They sounded great at the Diana concert last weekend.
1. “Sussudio” is a dumb song that tries to utilize the Duran Duran Lyric Gambit (idiotic lyrics that sound superficially clever) but fails because the dumbest lyric is the title. Still, I’ll admit the funky snyth-bass is catchy, and I’d bet a remixer would work miracles on the track.
July 6th, 2007 at 11:16 am
Wow. For the longest time I thought Aimee was singing "This Is Scary."
"Would I Lie to You?" was playing on the stereo when I was packing up to leave my ex-gf’s house. There is no better break-up music. In fact this song could put you in the mood to break up just for the hell of it.
I have seen A Night in Heaven, and thank you for cramming that image back into my brain.
A friend of mine always thought of that as Prince’s "Raspberry Yoplait" song.
July 6th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
Into to the groove is one on my top ten, love that four-note synth bit in the chorus. Also I’m a sucker for songs about music.Voices Carry was a new aquintance, and a good one at that. Ol’ Dirty Bastard (RIP) covered Sussudio on the Urban Renewal cd. I don’t know why I’ve never listened to that. Must find it now methinks
July 6th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
Maybe a little less concentration on prancing and shoulder pads would have resulted in a more favorable outcome
Now now, Baron Von Snarkypants, avowed Wham fans don’t get to diss on prancing and shoulder pads.
With that said, that was a horiffic boning of a high note. I’m glad you have immortalized it forever, or until Simon LeBon’s people find it and have you eliminated.
July 6th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
The only good thing about "Heaven" was the video with the audience of televisions. "Voices Carry" was the last creepy-cool new wave tune to really catch top 40 radio, which means, I suppose, ‘Til Tuesday killed it (and Gary Numan’s hiding in a dark corner, crying about it to this day). And what about "Would I Lie To You"? This was when Eurythmics kicked everybody’s ass because we all thought it was this weird synth pop thing. Then they hit us with the 1-2 punch of this song and "Missionary Man". Finally, I liked "Sussudio" better when it was called "No Reply At All".
July 6th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
Duran Duran’s performance on that song just reinforces the fact that they were a video band. Talk about boring! ‘Til Tuesday was a brilliant band — well, their last two albums. "Voices Carry" is the one song that keeps getting airplay, but "Coming Up Close" and "(Believed You Were) Lucky" were wonderfully sad songs that didn’t chart very high, but we much better than "He said Shut up! Shut up! Oh God, Can’t You Keep It Down!" I’ll have to check with my brother, but I think he still has the soundtrack to "A Night in Heaven. " Why? It was the only place you could get the song "Heaven"when it first came out. And since he had a mobile DJ company that did a lot of high school dances, he had to get the song since there were so many requests for it.
July 6th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
"I’ll have to check with my brother, but I think he still has the soundtrack to "A Night in Heaven. " Why? It was the only place you could get the song "Heaven"when it first came out. And since he had a mobile DJ company that did a lot of high school dances, he had to get the song since there were so many requests for it." I guess that makes sense. All those poor bastards in the 1980s thought they were getting laid on prom night. Instead, their date had this…
July 6th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
Coming Up Close was a great song. So good that the other ballads on this chart are steaming bowls of elephant piss by comparison.
The best thing about Raspberry Beret is the cover by Hindu Love Gods. That’s R.E.M. minus Michael Stipe, plus Warren Zevon.
July 6th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
"Now now, Baron Von Snarkypants, avowed Wham fans don’t get to diss on prancing and shoulder pads."
1) That’s "Wham!", dammit.
2) Find me a clip of George Michael singing a note like LeBon and you’ll have a point!
July 6th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
‘"Sussudio" was a damn catchy song in 1985 and while nobody will admit to liking it now, I guarantee you that once an indie band covers it, Stereogum will lose their shit.’ Thanks for making me laugh so hard I spewed Diet Coke all over my monitor, Jason.
July 6th, 2007 at 11:50 pm
See, Jason fails to remember a solitary fact that keeps "Sussudio", even if covered by a reformed Pavement, out of Stereogum: there’s no room for it among all the Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse posts.
July 7th, 2007 at 9:41 am
Spader<Zabka
July 8th, 2007 at 8:54 am
I remember loving the video to Would I Lie To You? and thinking I HAD to have that dress Annie Lennox was wearing. I still have the Be Yourself Tonight album, because I kinda dug There Must Be An Angel, too.Now, try not to laugh yourself silly but as to Raspberry Beret…it makes me think of umm….men’s privates. I was 16 when this came out and naive, I had never see a real ‘one.’ So another 16 year old friend of mine who had seen ‘one’ proceeded to give me a description, and she uttered, "It’s just like the Prince song…the top looks like a raspberry beret!"Ahh the good old days.
July 9th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
If this is the only Til Tuesday song you know, I’ll email you their other hit "Coming Up Close" which is, in my ear, as good as "Voices Carry". Stay tuned.
July 10th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
Til Tuesday is just a Missing Persons rip off and Aimee Mann couldnt be any more unnattractive. Im sick of seeing them in any format.
July 10th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
Used to see Mr. Sklar out and about in Pasadena when I lived down there. Always funny to see him running around town with his ZZ Top issue beard!
‘Til Tuesday’s first album is ok, though obviously over-engineered by record label management. Mann really blossoms as a songwriter on the next two. The last ‘Til Tuesday album and her first solo album, Whatever, are excellent.
To me, the Missing Persons rip off tag only fits if you see nothing more than two bands fronted by blonde women in the 80s. Obviously, your mileage or attractiveness may vary.
July 10th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
I think Annie Lennox just made my top 5 laminated list for the day after I turn gay.
July 10th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
Are you saying Annie’s no longer the Adam’s Apple of your eye?
July 18th, 2007 at 8:59 am
[…] going backwards), Todd goes for some falsetto riffing and fails so miserably that he makes LeBon’s Live Aid fuckup look like a Pavarotti […]
July 22nd, 2007 at 10:16 am
My computer’s been repaired! Let my rambling comments begin again!
“Into the Groove” wasn’t a single? I had no idea. It was on MTV all the time in ’85, but I just looked in my Top 40 book and it’s not listed. You don’t complete me, Jason, but you do teach me. I don’t remember “Angel” at all.
When I accidentally turn on my little boombox at work but haven’t yet plugged in the headphones, I subject my coworkers to a semi-guilty pleasure like Vertical Horizon, never anything certifiably cool. ‘Til Tuesday used to be first on my iPod as well, but then my first iPod broke in January of ’06, and I didn’t restore “Voices Carry.” The first song then became “Belleville Rendez-Vous” by -M- (as opposed to “Pop Muzik” by M), but it looks like Apple has improved its iPod alphabetization system since last year, because now a-ha’s “Take on Me” is first.
I still like “Voices Carry,” but I don’t see the Missing Persons connection either, Jeremy. And how attractive are YOU, sir? I went through an Aimee Mann phase seven years ago when I was in a post-college depression that lasted almost four years. Once I came out of that funk, I bought Mann’s 2002 album “Lost in Space,” which was new at the time, and didn’t like it. I still think “Bachelor No. 2” and “I’m With Stupid” and her songs on the “Magnolia” soundtrack are great, but they also take me back to a time in my life I don’t care to revisit. Sorry, Aimee. But she really is a great songwriter and vocalist. I just wish I’d discovered her at a happier time in my life.
Paul Young’s version of “Everytime You Go Away” is definitely better than Hall & Oates’s. I think it has something to do with those synthesizer sounds and the slightly faster tempo. It’s one of my favorite songs from that time period.
Ahh, Whitney. She really was a great singer (and pretty damn sexy) back in the ’80s and ’90s, even if some of her singles don’t hold up so well anymore. But there is good stuff on that first album, including a number with Jermaine Jackson called “Take Good Care of My Heart.”
Did you know that Steven Bauer’s real name is Rocky Echevarria? Did you care? No. But so what? Of all the actors with major parts in “Scarface,” he was the only Cuban-American, I believe. Pacino, Robert Loggia, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio — the Italian-American interpretation of the Cuban-American dream comes alive!
“A Night in Heaven” sounds great. John G. (not L., sir!) Avildsen seems to have had a “wilderness period” between “Rocky” in ’76” and “The Karate Kid” in ’84. He directed the John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd comedy “Neighbors” in 1981, and those two reportedly hated Avildsen so much that they discussed hiring a hit man to kill him. Some of their friends weren’t sure how serious they were. Do I see Jan Hammer and Deney Terrio’s names on the poster? Woo-hoo! And it’s nice to see that Joan Tewkesbury, who wrote “Nashville” and directed Belushi in a movie called “Old Boyfriends,” is the writer of “A Night in Heaven.” Do you think the final film strayed from her original script just a tad?
“Raspberry Beret” did indeed have a colorful, joyous video. I remember MTV playing it on the hour, every hour, the day it premiered. It’s one of my favorite Prince songs. Too bad “Around the World in a Day,” the album it came from, wasn’t all that interesting. But you can’t beat lines like “She wasn’t too bright / But I could tell when she kissed me / She knew how to give a kiss.”
Pat Boone had a problem with “dance into the fire”? Because of the satanic connotations or because he thought kids might try to dance in their own fires? A decade later Pat would be covering heavy metal songs as a joke, only to be smacked down himself by ultra-conservative Christian organizations.
Jason, I like “Sussudio” too. It’s fun, so let it go, cool kids! But I never noticed the “1999” connection until you mentioned it. Now I’ll never hear “Sussudio” the same way again.
“Now now, Baron Von Snarkypants, avowed Wham fans don’t get to diss on prancing and shoulder pads.” BURN! “That’s ‘Wham!’, dammit.” PROOFREADING BURN!
July 22nd, 2007 at 10:22 am
One more thing — I had no idea that “Sussudio” and “Voices Carry” peaked during the summer of ’85 instead of the spring, thanks to my memories of when I saw their videos over and over again on MTV, and I didn’t think the world knew who Whitney Houston was until the fall of ’85. It’s interesting what each of us remembers and how we remember it.
July 22nd, 2007 at 11:21 am
I can’t believe I’ve been corrected on Avildsen’s middle initial.
sigh
July 22nd, 2007 at 12:05 pm
Hurts, don’t it?