Category Archives: throwback weekends

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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 #6,618: ‘Yellow Submarine’ – The Beatles

During the week of September 6, 1966, The Supremes held the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘You Can’t Hurry Love,’ covered on the blog a full 17 years ago. At #2 was Donovan’s ‘Sunshine Superman,’ which appeared just last year.

At #3 that week was The Beatles’ ‘Yellow Submarine,’ the lone single released by the band from that year’s Revolver. Normally, The Beatles would release a non-album song as a promotional single accompanying a new release, but in 1966 they were burned out enough to just go with an album track.

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Song of the Day #6,617a: ‘Don’t Be Cruel’ – Elvis Presley

Throwing back to the week of September 5, 1956, we find Elvis Presley atop the Billboard Top 100 with ‘Don’t Be Cruel.’ This was the first of seven straight weeks at #1 for the song.

This was Presley’s top-performing song of 1956, a year that saw the release of ‘Hound Dog,’ ‘Heartbreak Hotel,’ ‘I Want You, I Need You, I Love You,’ ‘Blue Suede Shoes,’ ‘Love Me Tender,’ and many more.

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Song of the Day #6,614a: ‘Higher Love’ – Steve Winwood

Steve Winwood owned the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of August 30, 1986, with ‘Higher Love,’ the lead single of his fourth solo album, Back in the High Life.

Surprisingly, this is the first Steve Winwood song featured on the blog (though I did use a Traffic song in a post about Avengers: Endgame in 2019). Winwood has had a very successful career, as a member of three popular bands as well as a solo artist. I just haven’t found the right time to write about him.

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