Ecce Signum

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.

August kept up the momentum of July and we are fast approaching the end of summer, in intent if not in fact.

1977: Glen Campbell, “Sunflower”

“Sunflower” is a joyful, fun, catchy tune which I have no memory of having heard before. It is also the kind of song which an adult would have ill-advisedly sung to a tired or sulky child in order to break a bad mood, but which would instead have only made things worse.

1982: Marshall Crenshaw, “Someday, Someway”

I have heard this one before, but the muscle-memory of my mind is feeling more nineties than eighties, so I probably heard it on a TV show or as part of a movie soundtrack. “Someday, Someway” is fun and bouncy and feels like a throwback to the sixties. Which, considering that it was recorded as a take on Gene Vincent‘s “Lotta Lovin’” which was released in 1957, I guess that makes sense.

1987: Smokey Robinson, “One Heartbeat”

That combination of keyboard and saxophone is unmistakable. I would have been winding down my first summer at the godawful pickle factory and looking forward to my first break in seven years from milking cows on Sunday mornings. So I would have been emotionally receptive to the beautiful grooves of Smokey Robinson.

1992: U2, “Even Better Than the Real Thing”

This whole album was so damn big that I don’t remember when I first heard any one of the songs therefrom. Probably on MTV, considering MTV was still playing music videos back in 1992. Or while cleaning up the kitchen at Jose Babushka’s at the end of a shift.

1997: Mr. President, “Coco Jamboo”

Lessee…1997 I was still working at the bookstore, playing a lot of Vampire: The Masquerade and Dungeons and Dragons, and practicing martial arts for about 15 hours a week. So where would I have heard this song? Probably in my car, on the way to a Renaissance Faire. Or maybe on MTV, if I was lucky enough to be watching TV during one of the increasingly rare blocks in 1997 which had music videos. It’s a catchy tune and Judith “T-Seven” Hinkelmann has a helluva voice.

And suddenly, August arrives.

1977: The Isley Brothers, “Livin’ in the Life”

“Livin’ in the Life” is funky and groovy and fun, but this is the first time I have heard it.

1982: The Gap Band, “Early in the Morning”

Dang! This is an odd one. I distinctly remember the video, but have no memory at all of the song. Given its popularity I don’t see how I could not have heard it at some point. So along with all of the other odd coincidences and discoveries that this project has brought about, it has reacquainted me with the most excellent Gap Band.

1987: Whitney Houston, “Didn’t We Almost Have It All”

Ah, Whitney. You left us far too soon. In the summer of 1987 Whitney was huge and this song was everywhere. I have no specific temporal associations with “Didn’t We Almost Have it All,” because the song has received steady play for over thirty years. So it’s more a case of dividing my life into “pre-Whitney” and “mid-Whitney.” I say that because, even though Ms Houston died over a decade ago, her songs are still on heavy rotation so we are not yet close to “post-Whitney.” And that is a very good thing.

1992: Shabba Ranks, “Mr. Loverman”

“Mr. Loverman” is smooth and oh! so sexy, but I don’t think I heard it before now. Obviously, this means I wasn’t going to the right parties back in 1992.

1997: 98 Degrees, “Invisible Man”

98° was inescapable for much of the late 1990s and early 2000s, but I was listening to Tom Waits and various mixes of punk, folk,and world beat at the time, so I might have heard this, but it was not something I would have sought out. It is a decent enough song but nothing about it really stands out, beyond it being a decently good example of this style of music,.