All Alone In A World That's Changed

By Wm. on October 18, 2025

Around this time last year I looked back forty years to put together my top 100 pop hits of 1984; while I can't imagine making such a list too many years beyond that one, I do have sufficient interest in attempting the same thing for tunes from 1985, bridging my junior and senior years of college. The rules, borrowed from friend Mark Seaman, remain the same: must have hit the Hot 100, must have ascended to its peak position during the calendar year. Let's not waste any more time on preliminaries and tackle the first of five installments...

100. Julian Lennon, "Too Late for Goodbyes" (#5, March)
99. Pat Benatar, "We Belong" (#5, January)
98. Paul Hardcastle, "19" (#15, July)
97. Night Ranger, "Sentimental Street" (#8, July)
96. Scandal featuring Patty Smyth, "Beat of a Heart" (#41, March)

Kickin' things off with two acts we'll see again later, a memorable one-hit wonder, and a couple of groups who made my top 30 the previous year but were already starting to fade from view. It's no secret that I was a really big fan of Benatar back in the day, particularly up through "Shadows of the Night;" she would enjoy motherhood for the first time soon after"We Belong" rode the charts. And pity poor Scandal, stranded one spot shy of getting spun by Casey for the second time in a row with a song from their Warrior album--"Hands Tied" had pulled the same trick three months earlier.

95. Eddie Murphy, "Party All the Time" (#2, December)
94. Glenn Frey, "Smuggler's Blues" (#12, June)
93. David Bowie & Mick Jagger, "Dancing in the Street" (#7, October)
92. Aretha Franklin, "Freeway of Love" (#3, August)
91. Prince, "Raspberry Beret" (#2, July)

A star-studded set of performers, even if Murphy is very much not like the others. Frey's Miami Vice storyline contribution is the first of six songs on my list that had appeared on the two mix tapes I'd recorded in the WTLX studios in late May (another is at #81, while the rest all reside in the top 25). The clip for the Bowie/Jagger joint is amateurish and full of shameless mugging, but I'm in the mood to let it roll today.

90. Jules Shear, "Steady" (#57, May)
89. David Lee Roth, "Just a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody" (#12, June)
88. Michael McDonald, "No Lookin' Back" (#34, September)
87. Belouis Some, "Some People" (#88, May)
86. Dire Straits, "Money for Nothing" (#1, September)

I count a full twenty tunes in my 1985 list that didn't make the Top 40, five more than that of 1984. "Some People" is the only one of those I didn't know of in real time, coming to it through EMI's Living in Oblivion series of 80s new-wavy songs. For the second year in a row I find myself a touch surprised to see a piece with Mikey Mac vocals sitting here in the 80s, given my overall meh-ness toward him--I guess I dig the beat.

85. Madonna, "Crazy for You" (#1, May)
84. Dead or Alive, "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" (#11, August)
83. 'Til Tuesday, "Looking Over My Shoulder" (#61, September)
82. The Motels, "Shame" (#21, September)
81. Phil Collins, "Sussudio" (#1, July)

Madonna's going to make another appearance later; she would have scored a third had "Into the Groove" been released as a single. If I were feeling sufficiently silly I might point out how we've got Aimee Mann here looking over her shoulder at future steady boyfriend Jules Shear seven spots behind, with MacDonald in between trying to give her advice...

As for "Shame," for whatever reason I have a distinct memory of cuing the 45 up at WTLX on one of my shows that fall, slowly spinning it backward through the synth intro and then letting things rip over the air in what had to be an awesome segue.

80. Los Lobos, "Will the Wolf Survive" (#78, April)
79. John Parr, "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)" (#1, September)
78. Artists United Against Apartheid, "Sun City" (#38, December)
77. John Fogerty, "The Old Man Down the Road" (#10, March)
76. Bruce Springsteen, "Glory Days" (#5, August)

I'm pretty sure I don't ever need to see St. Elmo's Fire again--the only scene I remember from it is the one where Rob Lowe comes to the aid of a distraught Demi Moore. The focus of pop music on Africa in 1985 continued throughout the year, shifting from hunger to repressive policies in the far south of the continent on "Sun City."

Last year I looked back at the April 1985 issue of Stereo Review, which included Los Lobos's debut album as one of its Best of the Month. I recall the buzz they were receiving at the time and saw this video for the title track on MTV a time or two. I own a couple of LL's early 90s albums on CD, and they're both excellent; it's long past time to seek out How Will the Wolf Survive?