Category: Music

The Bottom of the Top #20

John Winkelman

As I progress through the years listening to all of these songs from the late 1970s through the late 1990s, I realize that, for the songs I have heard, some of the nostalgia and deja vu is offset, as for a lot of these entries I didn’t hear them until years (or decades) after they charted. But since each song is also a product of its time, there are multiple levels of temporal disconnect here. The songs are of one era, but I might have heard them decades later, and I am reviewing them now. So the various timelines of my memory and limbic system have become…entangled. So it goes in the age of instant everything, when the time is always “now.”

1977: Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr., “Your Love”

I don’t think I had heard this one before researching the songs for this week. I had heard of McCoo before, both in her capacity as the host of Solid Gold back in the 1980s, and of a member of The Fifth Dimension, which is, I think, the only place I had heard of Davis before now.

1982: Eddie Rabbitt, “I Don’t Know Where to Start”

This is a beautiful song in the vein of 1970s folk ballads, with maybe a little country mixed in. I have not heard this one before. But in style and tone it triggers a nostalgic shadow of pre-high school times, which is appropriate.

1987: Donna Allen, “Serious”

This is a very 80s song and associated video. As with the previous two on this list, I *might* have heard it, assuming we turned on the radio in the milking parlor in time to catch the first few songs in the countdown. It’s decent enough, but doesn’t really stand out from other songs like it, though the mid-song rap break is well done.

1992: Shanice featuring Johnny Gill, “Silent Prayer”

I *might* have heard “Silent Prayer” back in the day. Shanice and Gill have beautiful voices, and they work well together, but I didn’t feel much of a sense of recognition.

1997: Montel Jordan, “What’s On Tonight”

This is a beautiful slow-jam, but while I have heard of Montel Jordan (of course!) I can’t say for certain that I have heard “What’s On Tonight.”

The Bottom of the Top #19

John Winkelman

As we move into the middle of May the songs are freighted with the nostalgic sense that, now that the world has awakened, it’s time to get busy. Not that the songs are specifically about that, but these are what the world was listening to, more or less.

This project has prompted me to put together a timeline of where I have lived, gone to school, worked, and the people and events associated with each. Nostalgia mining, as Proust demonstrated, can be a great source of creative inspiration. And also ennui and existential dread.

1977: John Miles, “Slowdown”

This is another of those songs which, even if you have never heard it, you have heard it in some form or another. I can’t say if I heard it when it was first on the radio, but I know I heard it at some point in the years before I graduated from high school. And it kind of slaps.

Mr. Miles passed away this past December, at the age of 72.

1982: Genesis, “Man on the Corner”

Phil Collins and this era of Genesis were huge in my life back in the 1980s. I first heard of them at about the same time that music videos took over the pop world thanks to the original iteration of MTV. Abacab is an amazing album and “Man on the Corner” is a very specific vibe (in the parlance of our times) for a skinny, mouthy, geeky bookworm recently moved to an isolated farm in a small, insulated and insular farming community. Self-pity is not a great place to wallow, but it can bring its own form of empowerment.

1987: Peter Wolf, “Come as you Are”

I remember listening to this song on the bus into school at the end of my senior year at Springport, but I don’t think I had ever seen the video until now. Peter Wolf, formerly of the J. Geils Band, puts together a fantastic song, and a super-fun video. I imagine he had to sit down for a few days once the video was complete.

1992: Cause & Effect, “You Think You Know Her”

I don’t specifically remember hearing this song before, but it is familiar enough that I must have, though it does have that particular Synthpop sound which can cause some confusion when trying to sort out memories from (o god…) thirty years ago. This week in 1992 I would have been moving from a tiny apartment at Campus West to a HUGE apartment at Ramblewood, anticipating and dreading my last (and sixth) year of university studies, and I think just starting my brief career as a line cook and prep cook at Jose Babushka’s Polish/Mexican restaurant in Kentwood. Such were the early nineties.

1997: Kenny Lattimore, “For You”

This is a repeat from last week. Lattimore has a beautiful voice, and this is a beautiful song.

 

The Bottom of the Top #18

John Winkelman

The core sample of stacked years which aligns with the 18th week of top-40 hits brings an interesting mix of hits.

1977: Alan O’Day, “Undercover Angel”

I have heard this song before, many times, though I don’t know if I was aware of it in early May 1977. I would have been seven, living in Jackson, and just finishing up second grade at Parnell Elementary school. Do I remember anything of Parnell Elementary? Faint shadows of learning left from right, and playing on huge piles of snow. King of the hill. The playground equipment of the 70s which would possibly be a violation of the Geneva Convention were it in use today. So though Undercover Angel is one of those songs that everyone of a Certain Age has heard, I couldn’t say that I heard it when it was on the charts.

1982: Genesis, “Man on the Corner”

In 1982 I was just finishing up seventh grade at Springport Junior High and hating every second of it. That doesn’t make 1982 special in any way; I hated all nine years I spent in the Springport school system, and though there were several bright spots, making the best of a bad situation is not at all the same as being in a good situation. So “Man on the Corner” is a good pick for a theme song for my adolescent years.

1987: Smokey Robinson, “Just to See Her”

Ahh, Smokey Robinson. I do remember this song, though I have not heard it in a long, long time. This would have been a month before I graduated from high school, and I was seventeen and carrying at least two torches for unwise and unrequited loves. I spent most of my junior and senior years listening to oldies, which in 1985 – 1987 meant songs from the fifties and sixties. So I may not have heard this song until after I left for college.

1992: Ozzy Ozbourne, “Mamma I’m Coming Home”

Ozzy again, with a repeat from earlier in the year. This is a really good ballad. I would have been listening to it as I drove to work at the terrible moving company where I worked for a few months, or possibly as I was walking the mile from the off-campus apartments to the student cafeteria where I worked a few hours a week for minimum wage and a free meal per shift which, considering minimum wage was around $3.50/hour, was a good deal.

1997: Kenny Lattimore, “For You”

I don’t remember hearing this song before putting this list together, but I have certainly heard of Lattimore in years past. I would have been working at the bookstore, special-ordering books by the truckload to make up for the gaps in the store inventory, and dating co-workers, as one does when working retail. I would have been growing restless with my living situation and looking for a new apartment, I believe. This is a beautiful song, and definitely would not have been my style back in my mid-twenties.

The Bottom of the Top #17

John Winkelman

This week brings a fun mix of 40s, four of which I have heard before, and the last, “Gangstas Make the World Go Round”, was on here last week. I like the odd synchronicities which occur over decades, which could be catnip for statisticians of a particular mindset. For instance, Simon and Garfunkel’s “Wake Up, Little Suzie” was at #40 five years (or more specifically 4 years and 51 months) before Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al” which was on the list at the 1987 spot last week.

Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam made a splash my senior year of high school, and though I have not heard “Head to Toe” in, well, decades, it immediately brought back that slight despair of being a senior in high school and still riding the bus, but fortunately the bus drivers knew what to play to keep the inmates calm.

I do not recall having ever heard of M.C. Brains, but “Oochie Coochie” was familiar, so I probably saw it on MTV at some point.

And Westside Connection was on here last week.

I suppose an interesting narrative could be pieced together from which songs were in which place on which week, looked at not as a progression through the years, but as 52 core samples which, in a given location in consensus space is a stack of snapshots of what was going on “right now, only in 1987.” And once you have data, you can twist and squeeze it to form a narrative, and tell stories vertically rather than horizontally.

1977: Wings, “Maybe I’m Amazed”

1982: Simon and Garfunkel, “Wake Up, Little Suzie”

1987: Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, “Head to Toe”

1992: M.C. Brains, “Oochie Coochie”

1997: Westside Connection, “Gangstas Make the World Go Round”

The Bottom of the Top #16

John Winkelman

This week we have an interesting mix of songs. The only one I remember is “You Can Call Me Al,” which everyone on the entire planet over the age of 40 has heard.

I don’t think I ever heard of Joe Tex, and considering that he died in 1982, that is not a surprise. “Ain’t Gonna Bump No More” is a catchy song, but lyrically it has, to be delicate, not aged well.

David Lasley I have certainly heard in his capacity as a background singer for more well-known artists like Jim Croce, but I don’t think I have ever heard Lasley qua Lasley, which is unfortunate, as he has a gorgeous singing voice.

Paul Simon I have of course heard of, and “You Can Call Me Al” was a huge hit.

I have of course heard of Boyz II Men, and “Uhh Ahh” sounded familiar, so I quite likely heard it either at the tail end of college or at some point soon thereafter, likely on MTV. Boys II Men still hold up musically, 25 years on. Whole lotta talent in that group.

Of the members of Westside Connection, I have only heard of Ice Cube, and it is unlikely that “Gangstas Make the World Go Round” got much of any airtime here in West Michigan. This is another really good song, and once again, some serious talent in the group.

1977: Joe Tex, “Ain’t Gonna Bump No More”

1982: David Lasley, “If I Had My Wish Tonight”

1987: Paul Simon, “You Can Call Me Al”

1992: Boyz II Men, “Uhh Ahh”

1997: Westside Connection, “Gangstas Make the World Go Round”

The Bottom of the Top #15

John Winkelman

I started these posts because I thought that the 40th spot in the top 40 would show much more variety and frequent change than would the top spot. So imagine my surprise when last week’s #40 for 1977 was also this weeks #40 for 1977. Congratulations, Mr. Silvetti, for your consistency in the face up the constant upward pressure from the music marketing machine.

This was another week where I had not heard any of these songs before (other than Mr. Silvetti, whose “Spring Rain” is one of those which, even if you have never heard it, you have heard it). Two of the names are familiar – Roberta Flack and Simply Red, but to the best of my knowledge i have not heard those songs before. The other two, Lidell Townsell and Allure, I have neither heard of nor heard those songs, though “Head Over Heels” caused a faint frisson of nostalgia. So maybe there is something there.

1977: Bebu Silvetti, “Spring Rain”

1982: Roberta Flack, “Making Love”

1987: Simply Red, “The Right Thing”

1992: Lidell Townsell, “Nu Nu”

1997: Allure Featuring NAS, “Head Over Heels”

The Bottom of the Top #14

John Winkelman

Before anything else, I want to give props to Top 40 Weekly, where I have been getting the info necessary to make these posts.

I have standardized the naming convention for these posts around the relevant week of the year, as determined by the order in the listing at Top 40 Weekly.

This week’s Bottom of the Top came with a couple of familiar names – Ray Parker, Jr. of “Ghostbusters” fame and Huey Lewis, who needs neither introduction nor explanation.

Of these songs, I have hear the first three. “Spring Rain,” certainly, because, apparently, how could I have not heard it? “The Other Woman” vaguely rings a bell. I would have been in seventh grade, I think, and slowly discovering music which was not country. And of course “I Know What I Like” was all over the place in 1987, which bridged my last year of high school and my first year of college, when I would have (finally!) had regular access to MTV (insert joke about the relevance of the “M” therein).

The latter two, by RTZ and Crystal Waters…maybe? Time and the entropy of memory have blurred a lot of details of the nineties.

1977. Bebu Silvetti, “Spring Rain”

1982. Ray Parker, Jr., “The Other Woman”

1987. Huey Lewis and the News, “I Know What I Like”

1992. RTZ, “Until Your Love Comes Back Around”

1997. Crystal Waters, “Say If You Feel Alright”

A Music Experiment, Of Sorts

John Winkelman

So I had this idea a while back, that every now and then I would do a survey of the #1 songs in the weekly top 40 of bygone years. I thought it would be fun to make weekly posts, tracing the ebb and flow of music styles and tastes.

But when looking through lists of past hits, I noticed that songs which hit #1 tend to stay there for a while. They are well known, and while interesting as a source of nostalgia, such posts could quickly become repetitive, as the same songs stay in the #1 position for weeks at a time.

So rather than picking the top of the top, I decided to go with the bottom of the top. The songs at #40 on the weekly top 40 change wildly from week to week, and many were mere blips in pop culture, surfacing for a week then disappearing, never to be heard again.

These were the songs I often heard while milking cows on Sunday mornings for most of the 1980s. Casey Kasem or Rick Dees usually hit the top 10 well after morning milking was done, and I would be back at the house taking care of things which kept me out of range of a radio.

Now I am going to go back in time, and select song #40 of the weekly top 40, for the historical week which corresponds to the present week in the year 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992, and 1997. Five years, five years apart, from 45 years ago to 25 years ago. That means I will be able to make 259 weekly posts like this before I repeat a week. And at that point, assuming the continued existence of me, the internet, blogging, etc., I will look at shifting things around. It will be a good problem to have.

This post series will mostly simply be links to music videos, but if a song comes up which brings a sense of nostalgia or deja vu, I might write something about that.

And with that, here are the songs, ordered by year, with links to artist information.

1977: The Andrea True Connection, “N.Y., You Got Me Dancing”

1982: Charlene, “I’ve Never Been to Me”

1987: Glass Tiger, “I Will Be There”

1992: Ozzy Ozbourne, “Mama, I’m Coming Home”

1997: No Mercy, “Where Do You Go”

Monday Morning Music: Walking In Your Footsteps

John Winkelman

This album was released the summer before my freshman year of high school, and the music herein accompanied me for the next four years. I owned Synchronicity on cassette, and played it on my boom box until the tape was almost transparent. Such were the Eighties.

In my freshman year at GVSU (GVSC at the time) in one of my writing classes, where we were tasked to find and read a poem, one of my classmates chose this song and did a dramatic reading. He must have done it well, because I still remember it.