80: Smokey Robinson, "Cruisin'"

Wm.

Jan 21

Here's the mirror image of last month's look at the final Top 40 songs to top out at each position in the 1970s. What delights and oddities await us in seeking out the first songs to peak #1-#40 in the 80s?

Again, it's an interesting mixture of artists, maybe less obscure in the aggregate than last time. Three covers of previous hits are present, along with a landmark rap piece. As for additional notes and observations:
--There are six acts on both the "last peakers of the 70s" and "first peakers of the 80s" lists. For five of them, it was a matter of a little fortune combined with great timing of the first and second singles from their latest albums: Rupert Holmes, Little River Band, Dionne Warwick, Barry Manilow, and Cheap Trick. The sixth is Donna Summer, whose release of Greatest Hits Volumes I and II dovetailed nicely with the tail end of 45s being issued from Bad Girls.
--What I had hoped might happen for the 70s did occur as the 80s opened: we see not one, not two, but three names appear twice. Harry Casey gets down with both the Sunshine Band and Teri DeSario early in the year, while Smokey and ELO were lucky with the right vacancies being around in mid-May and mid-July, respectively. What's interesting to me is that in every case, the two songs came from different albums.
--Billboard was coming off its annual 'frozen chart' on 1/5/80, but still I'm surprised that "Please Don't Go" was the only song to ascend to its peak that week.
--It took almost ten full months for the list to fill out; an Al Stewart sighting is always welcome in these parts, of course.

I was certainly aware of Smokey Robinson's success as leader of the Miracles though at the end of the 70s I probably hadn't heard much beyond "I Second That Emotion" or "Tears of a Clown." When "Cruisin'" climbed aboard the Top 40 on 11/17/79, it was my first time experiencing one of his solo songs (the three previous hits, none of them major, pre-dated my AT40 listening days). It's easily my favorite of his 80s hits, the smoothest of grooves joined together with a fantastic vocal performance. On 1/26/80, it was one spot shy of the peak you see above.

Many thanks to Victorvector who answered the question I posed in last month's post. There are indeed years from the classic Casey era in which at least one position had no song peak at it: no #31, #39 or #40 song in 1986, and no #37 in 1988.