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.
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.’
Today’s SOTD is the second straight Throwback Weekend selection that is entirely new to me. I have never heard ‘Oh Sheila’ and I have never heard of Ready for the World, the R&B band behind it.
This was the third single and biggest hit by the Michigan-based group, though they reached the top ten again the following year with ‘Love You Down.’
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.
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.
Meet Me In Montauk 