Tag Archives: tb80s

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Song of the Day #5,495: ‘Electric Avenue’ – Eddy Grant

Throwing back to the week of July 16, 1983, we find The Police’s ‘Every Breath You Take’ in the #1 spot for the second straight week. As I featured that classic 14 years ago, I’m skipping it today to focus on that week’s #2 song.

In the second spot is the lone U.S. top ten hit by Guyanese-British artist Eddy Grant: ‘Electric Avenue.’ The reggae-tinged rock song spent five weeks at #2, held off from the top spot first by Irene Cara’s ‘Flashdance… What a Feeling‘ and then by the aforementioned ‘Every Breath You Take.’

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Song of the Day #5,474: ‘Time (Clock of the Heart)’ – Culture Club

Throwing back to the week of June 25, 1983, gives us a repeat at the top spot of Billboard’s Hot 100 as Irene Cara’s ‘Flashdance… What a Feeling’ continued its six-week run at #1.

That brings us to the week’s #2 song, ‘Time (Clock of the Heart)’ by Culture Club. This single, the second from the band’s debut album Kissing to Be Clever, spent two weeks at #2 but couldn’t crack the top spot (thanks, Irene Cara!). It matched the performance of previous single ‘Do You Really Want to Hurt Me,’ which also fell one slot short of #1.

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Song of the Day #5,453: ‘Flashdance… What a Feeling’ – Irene Cara

Throwing back to the week of June 4, 1983, we find Irene Cara on top of the Billboard Hot 100 with her soundtrack smash ‘Flashdance… What a Feeling.’

Watching clips from Adrian Lyne’s Flashdance, I’m reminded of the crush I had on lead actress Jennifer Beals at the time. I assume I caught up with the film on video, because I don’t think I saw the R-rated film in theaters as an 11-year-old.

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Song of the Day #5,432: ‘Beat It’ – Michael Jackson

Today we throw back 40 years to the week of May 14, 1983, when a song called ‘Beat It’ by little-known pop singer Michael Jackson topped the Billboard Hot 100.

I was surprised to see I hadn’t featured ‘Beat It’ on the blog through 5,432 Songs of the Day. The closest I’ve come is a Random Weekend feature of ‘Beat It 2008,’ a bonus track on the 25th anniversary re-release of Thriller that remixed the song and added vocals by Fergie. Exhibit A of why Throwback Weekends are already better than Random Weekends.

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Song of the Day #5,412: ‘Come On Eileen’ – Dexys Midnight Runners

It’s week two of Throwback Weekends, and rather than go into all the parameters again I’ll just dive in to the music (you can read the guidelines for these weekends on last week’s post if you’d like).

Today we’re throwing back to the week of April 23, 1983, when English pop band Dexys Midnight Runners topped the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Come On Eileen.’ This is a classic one-hit wonder in the States, though the band had a decent number of hits in their home country.

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