In 1974, it was possible for a song as earnestly romantic as ‘I Honestly Love You’ to reach the #1 spot on Billboard’s Hot 100. The most recent similar hit I can find is John Legend’s ‘All of Me,’ which spent some time at #1 in May of 2014.
In ’74, other love songs to reach #1 included ‘The Way We Were,’ ‘Annie’s Song’ and ‘Time in a Bottle.’ This year, Drake has occupied the top spot for 29 of 48 weeks. A different musical world, for better and worse.
‘Finest Worksong’ is the lead-off track on R.E.M.’s fifth studio album, 1987’s Document. It was the third single released, following the hits ‘The One I Love’ and ‘It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine).’
The band released an album per year from 1983 through 1988, including the holy trinity of Reckoning, Fables of the Reconstruction and Life’s Rich Pageant. This record followed those career-defining releases and was a bit of a departure both sonically and thematically.
I like listening to the album that came right before an artist’s landmark work. Like The Police’s Ghost in the Machine, covered earlier this week, which preceded Synchronicity. Or Fleetwood Mac, a smash in its own right, but one that lives in the shadow of its follow-up, Rumours.
Everybody knows Def Leppard’s 1983 megahit Pyromania, and 1987’s Hysteria, which pretty much matched it in sales, but you don’t hear much about 1981’s High ‘N’ Dry. At least I haven’t.
[First things first… Happy Birthday to my niece Madison! Loyal readers will remember Madison for her week of guest blogging about the use of songs on TV series.]
The top four best-selling albums of 1981 were released in late 1980 or earlier, so I can’t include them here. The best-selling album of 1981 actually released in 1981 was Styx’s Paradise Theater.
My exposure to Styx pretty much begins and ends with ‘Mr. Roboto,’ the 1983 hit from their rock opera Kilroy Was Here. Also ‘Come Sail Away,’ which I probably first heard on South Park. I’m familiar with other songs as I hear them, but I wouldn’t be able to name any off the top of my head.
Miles Copeland, brother of Police drummer Stewart Copeland, co-founded the indie rock label I.R.S. and in early 1981 signed a Los Angeles-based, all-female New Wave quintet called The Go-Go’s.
The band landed a gig opening for The Police thanks to that connection and within a year their debut album, Beauty and the Beat, topped Billboard’s albums chart, spending a month and a half at #1. It was the first time in the chart’s history that an all-female group who wrote their own music hit the top spot.
Meet Me In Montauk 