Throw Off Your Mental Chains

By Wm. on October 28, 2024

Apparently, this is the sweet spot in my list for women's voices, as eleven of the next twenty songs feature female singers. Let's cue them up.

30. REO Speedwagon, "I Do' Wanna Know" (#29, December)
29. Christine McVie, "Got a Hold on Me" (#10, March)
28. Scandal featuring Patty Smyth, "The Warrior" (#7, September)
27. Yes, "It Can Happen" (#51, July)
26. Tina Turner, "Better Be Good to Me" (#5, November)

The Speedwagon and Scandal tunes fall into the "you like what you like" category that has cropped up time and again in this series. I know some of my picks have made readers roll their eyes--that's just the nature of beasts like this. On the other hand, Tina is on fire with that Chinnichap/Holly Knight song, and Christine gives us one of most tastefully done pieces of the year.

25. Dan Hartman, "I Can Dream About You" (#5, August)
24. Chaka Khan, "I Feel for You" (#3, November)
23. Daryl Hall & John Oates, "Out of Touch" (#1, December)
22. The Cars, "Magic" (#12, July)
21. Bananarama, "Cruel Summer" (#9, September)

The Cars lap the field as the only act with four songs in my Top 100 of '84. Just two others have three: Yes and the woman with two contributions yet to come below.

It's more than possible I should be placing "I Feel for You" higher. Hall & Oates were soon to close out a remarkable four-plus year run--this is likely my favorite 80s tune of theirs. 1984 was the year I began buying albums in earnest though I was still dabbling in 45s to a decent degree--I count at least 7 singles I purchased in this post alone, including Dan Hartman's hit from the Streets of Fire soundtrack.

20. Tracey Ullman, "They Don't Know" (#8, April)
19. Cyndi Lauper, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" (#2, March)
18. Madonna, "Borderline" (#10, June)
17. Face to Face, "10-9-8" (#38, July)
16. Icicle Works, "Whisper to a Scream (Birds Fly)" (#37, June)

Three tunes still pretty well known today (that's easily a top five fave from Madonna's catalog for me) along with two one-hit wonders--one from Boston, one from Britain--that scraped the bottom of AT40 for three weeks apiece. We have definitely reached the all-killer portion of the survey.

I was surprised to have a bit of an emotional reaction in watching the video for Lauper's breakthrough hit the other day. I have friends who scoffed (and no doubt still scoff) at the song's conceit, but some combination of longing for younger days and Cyndi's seemingly joyful innocence caught me just a bit off guard.

15. Night Ranger, "Sister Christian" (#5, June)
14. Nena, "99 Luftballons" (#2, March)
13. Van Halen, "Jump" (#1, February)
12. Cyndi Lauper, "All Through the Night" (#5, December)
11. Howard Jones, "New Song" (#27, March)

The first couple of months of the year were not overly good ones for me, dealing (poorly) with the end of a long-term relationship. There are songs from that period--Ray Parker, Jr.'s "I Still Can't Get Over Loving You" and "Wrapped Around Your Finger," from the Police primary among them--that I just don't need to ever hear again. But some heavy hitters that I first encountered then, including "Jump," "99 Luftballons"--bitte nur in der deutschen Version-- and even "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," apparently don't bear that weight of negative association. While "Sister Christian" gets filed with more positive and interesting moments from the spring, the uplifting "New Song" takes me to the weeks of flagging funk and beginning to move onward.

The final installment will post later this week, and we'll see that I was not overly in synch with the tastes of the U.S. public at large. Only two of the remaining songs made the Billboard Top 10, while two others peaked in the teens, two in the 20's, three in the 30's, and one in the 60's. In addition, nine of the songs are by acts that haven't appeared yet.