Category Archives: throwback weekends

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Song of the Day #6,293: ‘Money For Nothing’ – Dire Straits

Topping the charts the week of September 28, 1985, was the Dire Straits classic ‘Money For Nothing,’ the second single from their album Brothers in Arms.

The song spent three weeks at #1 and gave the band their only chart-topping hit in either the U.S. or their native UK (where it peaked at #4).

Mark Knopfler got the idea for the song while shopping at a New York City appliance store. He overheard one of the workers commenting on televisions tuned to MTV. Several of the song’s lyrics are the man’s direct quotes.

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Song of the Day #6,292: ‘I’m Sorry’ – John Denver

Throwing back to the week of September 27, 1975, we find John Denver atop the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘I’m Sorry.’

This is one of the six songs I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that topped both the Country chart and the Hot 100 that year. ‘I’m Sorry’ was the last of four chart-topping singles for Denver, all released between 1973 and 1975.

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Song of the Day #6,286: ‘Hang On Sloopy’ – The McCoys

Barry McGuire’s ‘Eve of Destruction‘ returned to the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of September 21, 1965. At #2 was The McCoys’ recording of ‘Hang On Sloopy,’ a song that would reach the top spot the following week.

This song was originally released a year earlier as ‘My Girl Sloopy’ by the R&B group The Vibrations. It was written by Bert Berns and Wes Farrell. Berns is also a co-writer of ‘Twist and Shout,’ and you can hear echoes of that song in this one.

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Song of the Day #6,285: ‘Autumn Leaves’ – Roger Williams

Throwing back to the week of September 20, 1955, we find a trio of usual suspects atop the singles chart: Mitch Miller’s ‘The Yellow Rose of Texas,’ The Four Aces’ ‘Love is a Many Splendored Thing,’ and Pat Boone’s ‘Ain’t That a Shame.’

In the fourth spot that week was ‘Autumn Leaves,’ an instrumental track by pianist Roger Williams. The song was composed a decade earlier by Joseph Kosma, a Hungarian who immigrated to France, with lyrics penned by Jacques Prévert. Johnny Mercer adapted the song to English.

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Song of the Day #6,279: ‘We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)’ – Tina Turner

The week of September 14, 1985, found John Parr hanging on to the top spot of the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion).’

Just behind it was another soundtrack song, Tina Turner’s ‘We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)’ from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Parr may have won the Billboard battle, but he didn’t play a post-apocalyptic warlord in his movie, as Turner did in hers.

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