Tag Archives: tb80s

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Song of the Day #6,377: ‘Say You, Say Me’ – Lionel Richie

Like yesterday’s Throwback Weekend song, the #1 hit the week of December 21, 1985, was written for a movie. In this case, the film was White Nights, a Cold War drama starring Gregory Hines and Mikhail Baryshnikov about a pair of dancers trapped in the Soviet Union.

I vaguely remember the film as a solid piece of mid-80s adult entertainment. I imagine the studio was chasing the success of another music-based drama, 1983’s Flashdance. The film had a decent pedigree, with Taylor Hackford directing and Helen Mirren and Isabella Rossellini in supporting roles.

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Song of the Day #6,363: ‘Broken Wings’ – Mr. Mister

The week of December 7, 1985, found Phoenix-based band Mr. Mister having a moment. ‘Broken Wings,’ the first single from their sophomore album Welcome to the Real World, reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks.

The album’s next single, ‘Kyrie,’ would have its own two-week stint atop the chart the following March. And third single ‘Is It Love’ would reach the top ten in the summer of 1986. That trio of songs is pretty much the extent of most people’s knowledge of the quartet.

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Song of the Day #6,349: ‘We Built This City’ – Starship

It’s hard to believe that 17 years and 6,348 songs into my daily blogging enterprise I had yet to feature the recording often called the worst song of all time.

Well, that oversight is remedied today, as Starship’s ‘We Built This City’ was the #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of December 23, 1985. Yes, today we’re throwing back to a time when ‘We Built This City’ was an unironic hit.

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Song of the Day #6,335: ‘Part-Time Lover’ – Stevie Wonder

Jan Hammer owned the #1 spot of the Billboard Hot 100 on the week of December 9, 1985, with the theme to Miami Vice. I covered that track during a week on TV theme songs that topped the chart.

At #2 that week, following a single week at the top spot, was Stevie Wonder’s ‘Part-Time Lover.’ This was the last of eight #1 hits for Wonder, and it is notable for being the first track to reach #1 on four different Billboard charts: Hot 100, dance, R&B, and adult contemporary.

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Song of the Day #6,321: ‘Saving All My Love For You’ – Whitney Houston

Before getting to this week’s featured Throwback Weekend selection, I have to note that I missed by one week my chance to highlight what is perhaps my all-time favorite song: A-Ha’s ‘Take On Me.’ That track enjoyed its one and only week atop the Billboard Hot 100 on the week ending October 19, 1985.

Of course, ‘Take On Me’ has already shown up on the blog in many different forms, so I would have ended up writing about the #2 song anyway. And that happens to be the song that replaced ‘Take On Me’ at #1 the following week — Whitney Houston’s ‘Saving All My Love For You.’

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