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Song of the Day #6,625: ‘Take My Breath Away’ – Berlin

Berlin’s ‘Take My Breath Away’ topped the Billboard Hot 100 the week of September 13, 1986, reaching #1 for the first and only time in the new wave band’s career. It spent one week atop the chart.

‘Take My Breath Away’ was written by Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock for the Top Gun soundtrack. It was the second single released from that juggernaut of a collection, following Kenny Loggins’ ‘Danger Zone‘ (also written by Moroder and Whitlock). Director Tony Scott and producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson liked the song so much they added additional love scenes to the film in order to feature it.

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Song of the Day #6,624: ‘Play That Funky Music’ – Wild Cherry

Throwing back to the week of September 12, 1976, we find one hit wonder Wild Cherry atop the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Play That Funky Music.’ The song spent three weeks at #1, giving the funk rock band their only Top 40 hit.

Wild Cherry, founded by 20-year-old Rob Parissi, started as a rock band in the early 70s but didn’t find much success. Parissi split up the band in 1974 and reformed it with a new lineup a year later.

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Song of the Day #6,623: ‘Choosin’ Texas’ – Ella Langley

Wrapping up this week’s tour of some of the site’s new features, today I’ll highlight an assortment of new landing pages I’ve created.

Frequent readers might have already noticed teases to the Throwback Weekends page, where I’m gathering all of my weekend posts that highlight top-charting songs from decades past. Craving some 60s pop? 70s rock? From that page, you can choose a decade and dive into the songs that fit your mood.

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Song of the Day #6,622: ‘Sheila Take a Bow’ – The Smiths

Like the Decades series, my posts on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame classes have allowed me to look back through time to celebrate artists I love and discover ones I don’t know very well.

The Rock Hall is certainly a flawed institution weighed down by biases and inconsistencies, but if nothing else, it’s an excuse to recognize the contributions of a wide range of talented musicians.

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Song of the Day #6,621: ‘Come Running’ – Van Morrison

One of the ongoing projects I’m proudest of is the Decades series, in which I count down my favorite albums from a given year and then explore 10 (or more) albums from the year with which I’m unfamiliar.

I started with my birth year, 1972, then jumped ahead through the decades to 1982, 1992, and 2002. At the time (11 years ago) I didn’t know how far I’d take it. Now, I think it’s become one of the defining features of Meet Me in Montauk.

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