I intended to pick up my Decades series this week by moving on to 1987, as I dug into the excellent 1977 lineup a few months ago. Then I realized I somehow skipped the final year of the 6’s. So I’m correcting that oversight over the next several weeks and exploring the albums of 2006.
As usual, I will count down my personal favorite albums from the year before exploring critically-acclaimed and/or commercially successful albums with which I’m less familiar.
The week of August 2, 1986, was a battle of the Peters, with Peter Cetera’s ‘Glory of Love’ overtaking Peter Gabriel’s ‘Sledgehammer’ to claim the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100.
‘Glory of Love’ would spend another week atop the chart before ceding #1 to the world’s hottest star at the time, Madonna. More on that in a couple of weeks.
Throwing back to the week of August 1, 1976, we find Elton John and Kiki Dee atop the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,’ the official Song of the Summer for 1976.
At #2 that week, and for the second straight week, was Gary Wright’s ‘Love is Alive.’ The song peaked in this position during its 27-week run on the chart. That’s nearly two months longer than Wright’s other #2 hit, ‘Dream Weaver.’
My final Phoebe Bridgers selection is her cover of one of the most insightful and poignant works of art to come out of the pandemic: Bo Burnham’s ‘That Funny Feeling.’
Burnham is the talented multi-hyphenate who wrote and directed the film Eighth Grade. He got his start posting comedic songs on YouTube and eventually released several albums of his material. In 2021, he dropped the comedy special Inside, which he conceived and produced without a cast or crew during the Covid pandemic.
Phoebe Bridgers’ annual Christmas release started with traditional fare. She kicked things off in 2017 with a lovely version of ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,’ then released a duet of ‘Christmas Song’ with Jackson Browne, and a cover of the Simon & Garfunkel track ‘7 O’Clock News / Silent Night’ with Fiona Apple.
Her next three were solemn tales that happened to be set around the holiday: Merle Haggard’s ‘If We Make it Through December,’ The Handsome Family’s ‘So Much Wine‘ (which I posted on Tuesday), and today’s track, Tom Waits’ ‘Day After Tomorrow.’
Meet Me In Montauk 