Come see, come see, remember me: The Top 40 of January 28, 1984

"...but I can't trace time" is roiling in my mind because of the tardiness of this post. I'm getting behind--but isn't that always the way it is three or so weeks after you've looked at the fresh slate and snow of the new year, thinking you have plenty of time to grow, build, create, bake, or organize every idea and morsel. 

I don't have any memories of the start of the new year before age 20 or 21, when the party was the thing. I was plodding through the remainder of 8th grade and not really possessing the agency to take any big steps. Life was structured, slow, same--and wearing the same uniform five days each week. Maybe that's why what was the radio at this time is the most tangible essence of this time for me. Colorful, bold, weird, unreal and real.

35. The Sign Of Fire - The Fixx. This ominous last single from The Fixx's breakthrough lp Reach the Beach didn't go very far, only to 32, but I always enjoyed how it sounded like what's playing behind a witch as she stirs her murky cauldron. And the preceding singles--wow. What else sounded like them?

28. "Time Will Reveal" - DeBarge. When the "Dean of American Rock Critics" marks this one in his personal top ten of the 80s, nestled between X and Public Enemy, you know it's something special. I think we took DeBarge for granted in the 80s--it wasn't Jacksons- or Prince-level spectacular, but it also wasn't a lightweight front for some older dude songwriters like The Jets or New Edition. The DeBarge family wrote the songs. Giving the whole album a listen now, it does what it says--holds up to time.

21. "Middle Of The Road" - Pretenders. I distinctly remember continuing the count during the bridge while sitting in the backseat of the car in Gatlinburg, TN, waiting in the parking lot of Chalet Village cabin rentals (again, but different trip!). Also, I loved Chrissie's cat purr and growl before the harmonica solo.

5. "Break My Stride" - Matthew Wilder. An unlikely-looking pop star for the time who looked like he migrated from earlier 80s yacht rock, Wilder became an industry pro, producing things like No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom. Even then I knew this would be a one-hitting anthem, which got as high as the fifth spot. Nevertheless, you can't not stride when you hear the awesome loping, circusy melody. I miss earnest positive pop like this song, a sort of precursor to the Howard Jones positive zen hits to come in the next couple of years.

Come see, come see, remember me: The Top 40 of January 14, 1984

This week was about more of the same on the charts, and amid the bare pin oaks all over Lexington, but January like that--on the surface. The temps were all over that week, crashing from 59 to 0. I might have been plodding through more Language Arts nitpickiness, but the radio was as erratic as the weather, a fine, late-stage example of early 80s pop music' zany breadth 

40. "Send Me an Angel" - Real Life. Oh, it's drama, honey. A haunting synth hit for no one-knew-they-were-Australian Real Life, and a hit again five years later after it showed up in movies like Teen Wolf Too (lookit key-oot Jason Bateman!). You can be depressed--and dance to it.

36 "Baby I Lied" - Deborah Allen. Jump down four into a country ballad by not-that-Debbie-Allen. Is the the last time a soft-pop country tune hit the early 80s top 40? Or 80s at all until Garth?

33. "Cum On Feel the Noize" - Quiet Riot. "So you think my singing's out of time? It makes me money!" It's a clapback--but Slade's, not QR's. They essentially disappeared after their second single "Metal Health (Bang Your Head)."

26. Let the Music Play - Shannon. It sounded like nothing else before it, and for a reason. "Let the Music Play"shot to number 8 eventually, but more significantly, beget a genre that I never heard of until now, freestyle, but that I can absolutely recognize in the sounds of music after it. This one reminds me of a multi-family trip to Gatlinburg that winter, one (maybe the last one) of several my parents and their friends and friends' kids gathered for in a mountain chalet rented from Chalet Village (the logo is the same!). But, oh no, that chalet is probably long gone, perhaps the victim of 2016 wildfires. Back in early '84, though, the kids--we were all of 14 down to 4--were shooting pool in the lower level of the A-frame while this was playing on the--radio? Maybe MTV, since we also watched "The Jerk" on a TV down there, which was the first time I saw a rated-R movie all the way through without having to madly push buttons on the cable box. It probably was the video, a basic affair that makes me sad that Atlantic decided to staff Shannon's first outing with dancing cater waiters.

25. "Holiday" - Madonna. I thought she was another Shannon. Wouldn't you? Number 16 is as high as this charted. What? It's hard to believe M's earliest hit was kind of a blip.

18. "Read 'Em and Weep" - Barry Manilow. Although Barry "wrote the songs," it was pop-opera, ratchet-up-to-the-chorus composer Jim Steinman who created this last top-20 hit for BM, slipping some 70s piano banging' into the one last time in the early 80s. But the video's of the moment, with Bob Giraldi directing this backstage mini-drama after "Beat It" and "Love Is a Battlefield."

17. "That's All" - Genesis. The second single off of their officially self-titled but loved-by-fans-as the "shapes" album. Last year, I purchased the "shapes" two times, the transactions within weeks of each other, which says more about how last year was than how much I like the album (which I do).

13. "Joanna" - Kool & the Gang. How can you not smile when hearing this song? Pure R&B/pop with a sweet video. K & the Gang's ode will go to number 2, their first hit since "Get Down On It" in 1981.

5. "Twist of Fate" - Olivia Newton John. The 70s comes calling again with ONJ's final top ten hit ever. But what in the heck is this movie? Strange that I never caught it on cable in the years that followed, but my bad movie viewing slowed once I was sprung from grade school later in '84.

1. "Say, Say, Say" - Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson. The fellas are back. Having just heard "The Girl Is Mine" involuntarily a few hours ago, I must reiterate that this far better song is a relief. And that "Girl" was the first single off of Thriller? As good as "Beat It," "Billie Jean" et al were, I guess we all wanted to forget that duet.