On the week of August 17, 1985, Tears for Fears held the top spot with ‘Shout,’ which spent three weeks at #1.
Right behind it, on its way to its own #1 berth, was Huey Lewis and the News’ ‘The Power of Love,’ lead single of the soundtrack of blockbuster hit Back to the Future. The song plays early in the film as Marty McFly skateboards to school, followed shortly by Lewis himself in a cameo as an uptight school employee.
Tears for Fears held the top spot of the Billboard Hot 100 the week of August 3, 1985, with ‘Shout,’ one of three hit singles from the smash album Songs from the Big Chair. ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World‘ also reached #1, while ‘Head Over Heels‘ made it to #3.
At #2 that week, a week after claiming the top spot, was Paul Young’s ‘Everytime You Go Away,’ a cover of a little-known track by Daryl Hall & John Oates.
Duran Duran held on to the top spot of the Hot 100 the week of July 20, 1985, with ‘A View to a Kill,’ but hot on their heels was Prince with ‘Raspberry Beret.’ The song peaked there, one of three Prince songs to stall out one slot short of #1 (‘Purple Rain‘ and ‘U Got the Look’ are the other two).
This is one of 18 top ten songs for Prince, and one of 13 in his signature decade. The 80s also accounted for four of his five #1 hits.
During the week of July 5, 1985, Phil Collins’ ‘Sussudio’ held on to the top spot of the Hot 100.
At #2 that week, on its way to a two-week stint atop the chart, was Duran Duran’s ‘A View to a Kill,’ theme song to the James Bond movie of the same name. The band got the gig after bassist John Taylor approached the movie’s producer at a party and drunkenly asked for the job. It probably helped that the band was coming off of a three-year span that included a handful of songs in the top five.
The week of June 22, 1985, found Bryan Adams topping the Hot 100 with ‘Heaven.’ It was Adams’ first #1 hit, one of four in his career. Interestingly, the other three were all movie themes: ‘(Everything I Do) I Do It For You’ from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, ‘All for Love‘ from The Three Musketeers, and ‘Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?’ from Don Juan DeMarco.
Alas, I featured ‘Heaven’ ten years ago during a week of songs by Canadians tied to a family vacation, so you don’t get to hear that banger of a power ballad today.
