Friday Five: June 1981

It’s a quick one this week, while I’m away from the interwebs.

5. “Double Dutch Bus” by Frankie Smith
It ended the month of June at #2 before beginning it’s four-week stay at the top of the R&B charts. It was funk, rap, and the kind of thing that (we) kids (of color, at least) loved to dance and skate to. It felt modern and hip to me.

4. “Take It on the Run” by REO Speedwagon
The song peaked at #5 on the Hot 100 in June, the follow up to the much larger hit “Keep on Loving You.” They combined to make the album Hi Infidelity</em) the biggest selling rock album of 1981, and the band's biggest selling album in their long history (it was their ninth album overall and they had seven more in them to come). I joined my first record club in 1981. I didn't get this album but I did eventually buy the follow-up Good Trouble. I don’t remember being a big fan; it was just what one was supposed to buy.

3. “Bette Davis Eyes” by Kim Carnes
This could easily be #1 on my list but Kim Carnes doesn’t need my help. It was the #1 song in the country for nine non-consecutive weeks, from May to July 1981. After its fifth week, its reign at the top was interrupted by the odd mishmash of musical samples called “Medley,” by a Dutch group called Stars on 45. It then returned to the top spot for another four weeks. The smash hit was written by Donna Weiss and the maker of more than a few hits, Jackie DeShannon. I don’t remember being crazy about the song but neither did I dislike it. It was one of those cultural phenoms that everybody knew.

2. “Give It to Me Baby” by Rick James
While Kim Carnes was burning up the pop charts, Rick James was doing the same on the R&B charts, where he sat at #1 for five weeks (from June to July) with this hit. A funky bass line gives way to a killer dance song that makes it hard not to move. It was a favorite at the roller skating rink.

1. “All Those Years Ago” by George Harrison
Peaked at #5 at the end of the month, one of the pleasing tunes by George before he hit his renaissance in the later decade. Lyrically it captures his age and position as a former Beatle, so it’s nostalgic. Musically he’s making a current pop hit with lots of overtures to the past as well. I don’t remember it at all at the time, but I like it a lot now, as I do most of George’s stuff. He’s the fav of the fab four for me and my boy.

Friday Five: June 1980

I was 7 years old when 1980 began. It must have been a big deal——the end of such a distinctive decade and the start of a new one——but I don’t remember it. A few years into the decade, I do remember thinking of myself as a chid of it. It felt like our (my?) decade. And of course, a big part of that was the distinctive sound of pop and rock and dance music.

I’m not sure you would see much of what was to come later in the decade in the top hits of June 1980. But maybe if you listen hard…

5. “Let’s Get Serious” by Jermaine Jackson
Michael Jackson began 1980 at the top of the R&B charts for a six-week stretch with his hit “Rock With You.” He would not be the only Jackson brother to achieve that success. Jermaine did the same for six weeks, from May to June. Whereas brother Michael reached the top spot on the Hot 100 too, Jermaine only made the top 10. Brother Michael would soon rise to be the biggest recording star in history; this was Jermaine’s biggest hit. Everything I’ve just written——talking about Jermaine Jackson entirely in comparison to his brother Michael——is completely unfair to Jermaine Jackson as an artist. It’s also reflective of his entire career. The song was written by Stevie Wonder, who also offers some vocal support.

4. “Take Your Time (Do It Right)” by The S.O.S. Band
Let me apologize now for what I’m sure is going to be a frequently written statement for the next few weeks, as I write about early 80s music. This song was a big hit, one we loved to hear played at the roller skating venue we frequented. And that’s saying a lot for a kid like me back then. You see, “the disco” was a big part of the 70s. And, for all intents and purposes, roller skating joints were the discos for kids who could not yet go to a proper disco. They were windowless warehouses lit with bright color lights flashing on and off——with a big disco ball hanging in the middle of the rink——where kids went to meet other kids and have a good time dancing/skating together. We even had drinks——sodas and cherry or blue raspberry Slush Puppies (kind of like Icees). To say this about this song, then, is a form of high praise.

3. “Funkytown” by Lipps, Inc.
It spent four weeks at the top of the Hot 100, from the last week of May into June. Sometime in summer 1980 my mom took me and my sister to the local record store, a chain called Licorice Pizza (do you get it kids?). She let each of us buy a 45 record (a single for you youngins), which was the first for each of us. My sister bought this. We listened to it a lot. A LOT.

2. “It’s Still Rock And Roll To Me” by Billy Joel
This was the 45 record I bought. It made it to #4 in June 1980, before climbing to the top of the charts for two weeks the following month. “New Wave” was big stuff and this song——seemingly a reaction to the changing trends——ironically blends some of them in to what is a punchy, swinging rock tune. We played this a little less that “Funkytown,” but not by much.

1. “Call Me” by Blondie
Debbie Harry was asked to write a song for a movie about a male prostitute. This is what she created. The new wave hit was the band’s second #1 single (after 1979’s “Heart of Glass”) and it helped make the movie American Giglo into some kind of hit (one that my 7-year-old eyes would not see for another decade. The song was in the top spot for six weeks from April into May, remaining at the #5 position until the first week of June. It came in at number one for the year end charts, too. Along with Devo’s “Whip It” and the B-52’s “Rock Lobster” this song heralded a new kind of musical sound to my young ears, accentuated by the fact that groups of teenagers I saw (usually at roller skating rinks or water slide parks or other kinds of public places all seemed to like them at almost religious levels.

Friday Five: June 1979

1979 is the high point of disco. There were 26 #1 songs on the Hot 100 that year and only about 10 of those (maybe) were not disco related. The crop of songs that made the year-end charts were heavily disco, too, although rock groups like The Knack (whose “My Sharona” ranked #1 for the year) were also represented.

While I like a lot of disco, especially the funk/soul stuff, it’s not my favorite work for the time.  I’m much more partial to the classic rock of the era—Van Halen, AC/DC,  Foreigner—or the non-disco pop stuff (like the B-52’s, whose debut album dropped in 1979).

That said, the tunes that made the top five in June of that year were some solid examples of the genre.

5. “Hot Stuff” by Donna Summer
Her album Bad Girls was her biggest selling work, made so by hit singles like the title track (a #1 song in July) and this #1 hit of June 1979. The album——like the song——is filled with things a seven year-old kid and his sister shouldn’t have been singing and dancing to, but what ‘cha gonna do? It was one of our most often played albums of the year, due in no small part to this song, a dance classic with a strong guitar lick that kicks off the entire album. It hit the top spot on the Hot 100 for three non-consecutive weeks in June.

4. “We Are Family” by Sister Sledge
It’s an iconic song, one whose message of female solidarity and love allows it to transcend the limits of the genre and the era. Written by Niles Rogers, it’s a party song with an uplifting melody and lyrics with malleable meanings, a combo that carried it to #1 on the R&B charts. Rogers wrote it to describe the group itself (as they describe themselves to him) but it had powerful meanings for gay liberation movements and others as well. One of my favorite songs to hear anytime.

3. “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now” by McFadden & Whitehead
Gene McFadden and John Whitehead were song writers who wrote hits for the O’Jays, The Jacksons, and others. When they finally released their own album in 1979, this was their biggest hit, topping the R&B charts for the first week of June. A song of optimism and celebration meant to communicate the status of Black America in the post-Civil Rights era, it’s an indelible anthem and a likable dance tune. Here’s the duo lip syncing the hit on Soul Train.

2. “Chuck E.’s in Love” by Ricki Lee Jones
Ricki Lee Jones released her debut album in 1979 and this song——about fellow songwriter and musician Chuck E. Weiss——was her biggest single, topping out at #4 on the Hot 100. Jones’s talent had gained her a set of allies and advocates in the industry. Dr. John, Michael McDonald, and Randy Newman all made guest appearances on her first album. She was also part of a unique, late-70s music scene in LA. She was dating Tom Waits at the time, and they lived in now legendary dump of a place called the Tropicana Motel, along with fellow residents Weiss, as well as members of Black Flag, The Stray Cats, and The Runaways. It’s a unique sounding song, with a catchy riff, and an example of the non-disco stuff that had success at the time.

1. “Boogie Wonderland” by Earth, Wind, & Fire
Anita Ward’s “Ring My Bell” was the biggest disco hit of the month. It spent two weeks atop the Hot 100 and five weeks at #1 on the R&B charts. Her success on the R&B charts kept Earth, Wind & Fire out of the top spot with this song. From the album I Am, “Boogie Wonderland” is a disco classic but also a less of a “timeless” song than their bigger hits of the era (or even “After the Love Has Gone,” from the same album). Still, it holds a special place in my upbringing. I have memories of my folks getting ready to go out on a date night (maybe even to a local disco) and me and my sister would be playing this album (and this song) making our own fun for the night by jumping around the house of pretending to be professional dancers. As impactful as the music to me was the Afro-centric art that graced the cover and inner fold of the album.