Tag Archives: tb80s

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Song of the Day #6,405: ‘That’s What Friends Are For’ – Dionne Warwick & Friends

It’s a real cheesefest this weekend. Just when you thought it was safe to come back to the blog after yesterday’s Barry Manilow offering, I’m serving up a little ‘That’s What Friends Are For.’

The week of January 18, 1986, was the first of a four-week stint at #1 for this collaboration between Dionne Warwick, Elton John, Gladys Knight, and Stevie Wonder. Written by Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager, the song was originally recorded by Rod Stewart for the soundtrack of the 1982 film Night Shift.

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Song of the Day #6,391: ‘Party All the Time’ – Eddie Murphy

Between 1976 and 1991, Billboard froze their final Hot 100 chart of the year to focus on a year-end wrap-up issue. So the #1 song the week of January 4, 1986, was the same as the prior week. That was Lionel Richie’s ‘Say Say Say,’ enjoying its second week atop the chart.

In the #2 spot that New Years week was the appropriately titled ‘Party All the Time,’ the first single from Eddie Murphy’s debut music album How Could It Be. This was the kickoff to an ill-fated music career that spanned three albums, poor reviews, and this one hit.

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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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