Well and truly into September. Days are getting shorter but not yet shorter than the nights. The last few weeks of summer weather tempered by cooler nights which means sleeping is more comfortable but waking times are earlier because of SCHOOL.

1977: Ronnie McDowell, “The King is Gone”

First week of September 1977 I would just have been starting third grade in Parma. This would also have been the beginning of the last school year there, as we moved to the farm in Springport in summer 1979. I have no memory of this song. Then again McDowell sounds so much like Elvis (or would have, to eight-year-old me) that I likely wouldn’t have known the difference. I imagine this was a popular song for its time, but having heard it now, I don’t like it.

1982: Juice Newton, “Break It To Me Gently”

As a kid I had a serious crush on Juice Newton, thanks to “Angel of the Morning” and “Queen of Hearts.” This week in 1982 I was just starting eighth grade, and probably overwhelmed with being 13 years old. So the merest hint of Newton’s voice would have put me in a hormonal fugue state of dissociation from the mundane realm. We’ve all been there at some point.

1987: Bryan Adams, “Victim of Love”

Bryan Adams was HUGE in the late eighties, so I night have heard “Victim of Love” at some point, though I have no specific memory of it. The video is familiar, though, so it was probably playing on a TV somewhere on Grand Valley’s campus.

1992: Mary J. Blige, “You Remind Me”

I think this is a first listen for me. Neither the song nor the video strike any nostalgic chords, though the style is familiar, in the manner of early 1990s videos. I would have been at the beginning of my last year of college when this song charted.

1997: Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, “Look Into My Eyes”

Another first-listen for me here. The harmony on the chorus feels familiar but reminds me of another song which I can’t place right now.

Welcome to the last few days of August. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

1977: Dorothy Moore, “I Believe You”

“I Believe You” puts me in mind of wood paneling, shag carpet, the smell of pipe smoke and one of those custom logs in the fireplace which turns the flames different colors, which suggests that there may have been some substances in use among the adults at that time. This is a very seventies song, in the best way. This song is beautiful, but while it sounds familiar, I have no specific memory of having heard it before.

1982: Paul Davis, “Love or Let Me Be Lonely”

This is a repeat from last week, but it’s a good song, so please enjoy it again!

1987: Alexander O’Neal, “Fake”

Like “I Believe You” above, “Fake” sounds familiar but I have no specific memory of having heard it before. I really like it, though; in the parlance of our time, “Fake” slaps. At the end of August 1987 if I heard it at all, it would have been while watching MTV in the lounge on third-floor Copeland at GVSC. There was a lot going on at the time; full sensory overload and a combination of relief and anxiety at no longer living on the farm.

1992: Mariah Carey, “I’ll Be There”

My memory of Mariah Carey’s cover of “I’ll Be There” is so mixed up with the original The Jackson 5 version that I don’t remember when or if I heard this version. That being said, this is a beautiful cover, which is to be expected with Carey, and Trey Lorenz just kills it!

1997: Allure Featuring 112, “All Cried Out”

That opening keyboard is so familiar! O is the lyric “Apology not accepted.” Definitely heard “All Cried Out” before, I just don’t remember when or where. Almost certainly on MTV, and yet another sign that I really need to expand my knowledge of R&B groups, because this song is gorgeous!

Over the past week I went through the lists on top40weekly.com and made a spreadsheet of all the songs which will populate the Bottom of the Top posts for the rest of the year. In doing so I discovered that I had miscounted in the 1977 list, and therefore 1977 was a week off from the other four years. I am not sure where this happened, but the issue has now been corrected thanks to the judicious application of SCIENCE!

Anyway, here are the songs for the 33rd week of the years 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992, and 1997.

1977: Heatwave, “Boogie Nights”

I love this one! I don’t have any specific memory of having heard it before now, and the ghost of a fragment of a memory of something like this is probably associated with a movie about the 1970s which included this song, or one very much like it, in the soundtrack. “Boogie Nights” is so very, very ’70s, and it is totally groovy.

1982: Ray Parker, Jr., “Let Me Go”

The summer between 7th and 8th grades is mostly lost to the mists of time, and any Ray Parker, Jr. songs I would have heard around that time were likely completely overwritten by “Ghostbusters,” which was released in 1984. But Mr. Parker has some serious chops and I do like this song.

1987: Natalie Cole, “Jump Start (My Heart)”

I was in the last week of my first summer at the Eaton Rapids pickle factory when “Jump Start” charted. Two weeks later I was at GVSC, enjoying nearly unlimited access to MTV, which is certainly where I would have heard this one, since I definitely didn’t hear it back on the farm. It’s catchy. I dig it.

1992: Rozilla, “Everybody’s Free (to Feel Good)”

This is a repeat from an earlier post, which demonstrates an odd inertia for songs which chart. They can linger.

1997: Rome, “Do You Like This”

This was the first time I heard “Do You Like This.” It’s good, but not particularly memorable. It did much better on the R&B charts than on the Hot 100, where it peaked at #31.