I had four weeks left as an undergraduate. Ready to move on to the next phase I was, even if it turned out I still had a whole lot of growing up to do. Casey was spinning Prince, the Bangles, Pet Shop Boys, and Whitney Houston--what wasn't he sending our way?
95. E.G. Daily, "Say It, Say It"
Starting with a couple of tracks new to me. I'm learning now that Daily is best known for her voice work in animation, most notably as Tommy Pickles in Rugrats. Her supporting role in the '83 movie Valley Girl reminds me that I really do need to watch that flick someday.
As for this song, it's definitely danceable and I like the raspiness of Daily's vocals well enough. You can also hear the efforts to glom on to the Madonna wave--in fact, the Breakfast Club's Stephen Bray has a co-write credit and it was produced by Jellybean Benitez. It rode the charts for 10 weeks but never climbed higher than #70.
94. Graham Nash, "Innocent Eyes"
I don't know what to think here. This is a nice poppy tune, but it sure doesn't sound like anything Nash would have recorded in one of his earlier incarnations (granted, he didn't write it). John Ritter does a few John Ritter things in the video, but maybe not enough to make his presence worthwhile? Like Daily, Nash is debuting this week, and he would climb just ten more spots.
76. Fine Young Cannibals, "Johnny Come Home"
I think I heard their cover of "Suspicious Minds" later in the year, after I'd moved to Illinois. That one didn't chart in the U.S. and Roland and the boys from the Beat had to make do stateside for the time being with this minor success, peaking here. Much greater things awaited three years later with The Raw and the Cooked.
68. Ozzy Osbourne, "Shot in the Dark"
At what point did Ozzy morph into a caricature of himself? I'm not knowledgeable enough to venture an answer but it surely had happened by this point. I saw this vid on MTV at the time; the promotion there wasn't enough to push the song any higher on the Hot 100, though.
60. David Bowie, "Absolute Beginners"
Bowie is in good form here; I should make a point to circle back to this every once in a while. His peak U.S. charting days were over, though, with the final two Top 40 hits, from Never Let Me Down, coming one year after this movie song topped out at #53.
49. Wax, "Right Between the Eyes"
Even if it'd been the better part of a decade since Andrew Gold and 10cc had Top 40 hits, pairing Gold up with Graham Gouldman surely had to be a promising venture, right? "Right Between the Eyes" is indeed catchy enough, so why didn't it make it past #43? My theory: the delivery of the title phrase in the chorus just isn't punchy enough. Andrew--you needed to bring some fire!
