Give Your Free Will A Chance

By Wm. on October 24, 2024

This is approaching the point on my list of fave 1984 singles where I'm still pretty pumped if/when these songs come on the radio. What delights await?

50. Tommy Shaw, "Girls with Guns" (#33, November)
49. Nik Kershaw, "Wouldn't It Be Good" (#46, May)
48. Berlin, "No More Words" (#23, May)
47. .38 Special, "If I'd Been the One" (#19, January)
46. The Cars, "Drive" (#3, September)

I hope your hopes aren't too high for seeing Dennis DeYoung later on--only one former member of Styx makes an appearance here. Among the songs I ranked that did not cross over into the Top 40, Kershaw's feels like the one most unjustly denied.

Maybe it's an upset that the song whose video features Springsteen's first wife Julianne Phillips rates higher than anything from Bruce himself?

45. Dwight Twilley, "Girls" (#16, April)
44. Lionel Richie, "Hello" (#1, May)
43. Manfred Mann's Earth Band, "Runner" (#22, March)
42. Rickie Lee Jones, "The Real End" (#83, October)
41. Real Life, "Send Me an Angel" (#29, February)

Twilley reached the Top 40 only twice, both times peaking at #16--that's another combination trivia nugget/research question (how many times did something like that happen?). "Runner," like the following year's "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)," honors a Canadian athlete overcoming physical hardship to raise money for medical research.

Rickie Lee gives us the fourth and final song on the list not to climb out of the 80s.

40. Tina Turner, "What's Love Got to Do with It" (#1, September)
39. Elton John, "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues" (#4, January)
38. Wham!, "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" (#1, November)
37. Cyndi Lauper, "She Bop" (#3, September)
36. John Waite, "Missing You" (#1, September)

Easily the biggest set of hits on the list, breaking them down into fives as I have been. I bet you were wondering when Ms. Lauper would make an appearance... By the way, I think that's Elton's best 80s song.

I've been watching most of the videos as I prepare these posts. A couple of days ago I saw something in the one for "Missing You" I've been overlooking all these years: at the 1:18 mark, Waite's walking in the city when he passes a group of people pointing upward, a nod to the vid for his 1982 single, "Change."

35. The Go-Go's, "Head Over Heels" (#11, May)
34. Thompson Twins, "Hold Me Now" (#3, May)
33. Yes, "Owner of a Lonely Heart" (#1, January)
32. Olivia Newton-John, "Twist of Fate" (#5, January)
31. The Cars, "You Might Think" (#7, April)

Another set of pretty popular tunes, all from the first half of the year, including Liv's last Top 10 and the Twins' biggest hit. Of course, there's also the song that would soon lead James to seek out the entire back catalog of a certain ever-evolving quintet from England.