Tuesday, December 31, 1985

Dave’s Faves: My Album Collection in 1985

Dave’s Faves:

My Album Collection in 1985

By year’s end, this was what my collection looked like. Albums acquired in 1985 are marked with an asterisk.

  1. Air Supply Lost in Love (1980)
  2. Air Supply The One That You Love (1981)
  3. Asia Asia (1982)
  4. Asia Alpha (1983)
  5. Asia Astra (1985) *

  6. The Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
  7. The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour (1967)
  8. The Beatles Hey Jude (1968)
  9. The Beatles 1962-1966 (compilation: 1962-66, released 1973)
  10. The Beatles 1967-1970 (compilation: 1967-70, released 1973)
  11. Pat Benatar Crimes of Passion (1980)
  12. Pat Benatar Get Nervous (1982)
  13. Pat Benatar Live from Earth (live, 1983)
  14. Pat Benatar Tropico (1984)
  15. Pat Benatar Seven the Hard Way (1985) *
  16. Blondie Parallel Lines (1978)
  17. Blondie Eat to the Beat (1979)

  18. Chicago Chicago 16 (1982)
  19. Chicago Chicago 17 (1984)
  20. Phil Collins No Jacket Required (1985) *

  21. Def Leppard Pyromania (1983)
  22. John Denver Greatest Hits (compilation: 1969-72, released 1973)
  23. Dennis DeYoung Desert Moon (1984)
  24. Dire Straits Brothers in Arms (1985) *
  25. Neil Diamond The Jazz Singer (soundtrack, 1980)

  26. Eagles Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 (compilation: 1971-75, released 1976) *
  27. Eagles Greatest Hits Volume 2 (released 1982) *
  28. Eurythmics In the Garden (1981)
  29. Eurythmics Sweet Dreams Are Made of This (1983)
  30. Eurythmics Touch (1983)
  31. Eurythmics 1984 (For the Love of Big Brother) (1984) *
  32. Eurythmics Be Yourself Tonight (1985) *

  33. Dan Fogelberg Greatest Hits (compilation: 1972-82, released 1982)
  34. Foreigner 4 (1981)
  35. Foreigner Records (compilation: 1976-82, released 1982)
  36. Foreigner Agent Provocateur (1984)

  37. J. Geils Band Freeze Frame (1981)
  38. Genesis Genesis (1983)

  39. Daryl Hall & John Oates H2O (1982)
  40. Daryl Hall & John Oates Rock ‘N’ Soul Part I (compilation: (1973-83, released 1983)
  41. Don Henley Building the Perfect Beast (1984)
  42. Hooters Nervous Night (1985) *

  43. Michael Jackson Off the Wall (1979)
  44. Michael Jackson Thriller (1982)
  45. Billy Joel The Stranger (1977)
  46. Billy Joel The Nylon Curtain (1982)
  47. Billy Joel An Innocent Man (1983)
  48. Billy Joel Greatest Hits Volume I & II (compilation: 1973-85, released 1985) *
  49. Journey Escape (1981)
  50. Journey Frontiers (1983)

  51. Cyndi Lauper She’s So Unusual (1983)
  52. Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin IV (1971) *
  53. Huey Lewis & the News Sports (1983)

  54. Barry Manilow Greatest Hits (compilation, released 1978)
  55. John Cougar (Mellencamp) American Fool (1982)
  56. John Cougar Mellencamp Uh-Huh (1983)
  57. John Cougar Mellencamp Scarecrow (1985) *
  58. Men at Work Business As Usual (1981)
  59. Men at Work Cargo (1983)
  60. Men at Work Two Hearts (1985) *

  61. Olivia Newton-John Greatest Hits (compilation: 1971-76, released 1977)
  62. Olivia Newton-John Totally Hot (1978)
  63. Olivia Newton-John/Electric Light Orchestra Xanadu (soundtrack, 1980)
  64. Olivia Newton-John Physical (1981)
  65. Olivia Newton-John Olivia’s Greatest Hits Vol. 2 (compilation: 1978-82, released 1982)
  66. Olivia Newton-John Soul Kiss (1985) *
  67. Stevie Nicks The Wild Heart (1983)

  68. Alan Parsons Project The Best of (compilation: 1977-83, released 1983)
  69. Alan Parsons Project Ammonia Avenue (1984)
  70. Alan Parsons Project Vulture Culture (1985) *
  71. Steve Perry Street Talk (1984)
  72. Pink Floyd The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) *
  73. Pink Floyd The Wall (1979) *
  74. The Police Outlandos D’Amour (1978) *
  75. The Police Reggatta De Blanc (1979) *
  76. The Police Zenyatta Mondatta (1980) *
  77. The Police Ghost in the Machine (1981)
  78. The Police Synchronicity (1983)
  79. Prince 1999 (1982) *
  80. Prince & the Revolution Purple Rain (1984)
  81. Prince & the Revolution Around the World in a Day (1985) *

  82. Queen Greatest Hits (compilation: 1973-81, released 1981)

  83. REO Speedwagon Hi Infidelity (1980) *
  84. REO Speedwagon Wheels Are Turnin’ (1984)
  85. Kenny Rogers Greatest Hits (compilation: 1977-80, released 1980)
  86. Lionel Richie Can’t Slow Down (1983)

  87. Bruce Springsteen Born in the U.S.A. (1984)
  88. Sting The Dream of the Blue Turtles (1985) *
  89. Styx Styx I (1972) *
  90. Styx Styx II (1973)
  91. Styx Best of Styx (compilation: 1972-74) *
  92. Styx Equinox (1975)
  93. Styx Crystal Ball (1976) *
  94. Styx The Grand Illusion (1977)
  95. Styx Pieces of Eight (1978)
  96. Styx Cornerstone (1979)
  97. Styx Paradise Theater (1981)
  98. Styx Kilroy Was Here (1983)
  99. Styx Caught in the Act (live, 1984)
  100. Supertramp Famous Last Words (1982) *
  101. Supertramp Brother Where You Bound (1985) *

  102. Tears for Fears The Hurting (1983) *
  103. Tears for Fears Songs from the Big Chair (1985) *
  104. Toto Toto IV (1982)

  105. John Williams (composer) Star Wars IV: A New Hope (soundtrack, 1977)

  106. Yes The Yes Album (1971)
  107. Yes Fragile (1971)
  108. Yes Classic Yes (compilation: 1971-77, released 1981)
  109. Yes 90125 (1983)

  110. ZZ Top Afterburner (1985)

    Various Artists:

  111. Brimstone and Treacle (soundtrack, 1982) *
  112. Flashdance (soundtrack, 1983)
  113. Footloose (soundtrack, 1984)
  114. K-Tel: High Energy (1979)
  115. K-Tel: Starflight (1979)
  116. K-Tel: Wings of Sound (1979)
  117. Two of a Kind (soundtrack, 1983)
  118. Vision Quest (soundtrack, 1985) *
  119. We Are the World (1985) *


Resources and Related Links:


First posted 8/31/2021.

Saturday, December 21, 1985

Lionel Richie hit #1 with “Say You Say Me”

Say You Say Me

Lionel Richie

Writer(s): Lionel Richie (see lyrics here)


Released: October 1985


First Charted: November 1, 1985


Peak: 15 US, 15 CB, 16 GR, 14 RR, 15 AC, 12 RB, 8 UK, 14 CN, 3 AU, 3 DF (Click for codes to charts.)


Sales (in millions): 1.0 US


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 33.6 video, 182.82 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

At the end of November 1985, Phil Collins climbed to the pole position on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Separate Lives,” a duet with Marilyn Martin. Three weeks later, Lionel Richie’s “Say You, Say Me” ascended to the throne. Both songs were featured in Taylor Hackford’s film White Nights, making it only the sixth movie of the rock era to generate more than one #1 song. FB The others were Saturday Night Fever, Grease, Flashdance, Footloose, and Purple Rain.

Interestingly, though, the song was not on the soundtrack. Richie was supposed to deliver a new solo album to Motown and they wouldn’t allow the song on the soundtrack. They did, however, agree to have the song released as a single in time to promote the movie. Richie’s new album (Dancing on the Ceiling) wouldn’t surface until August 1986.

Hackford had a good track record with #1 songs from his movies. An Officer and a Gentleman produced Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes’ “Up Where We Belong” and Against All Odds generated the title song from Phil Collins. He wanted Richie for this movie, asking if he’d write the title song. Richie’s manager, Ken Kragen, reached out a couple of weeks later to say that Richie couldn’t come up with a song called “White Nights,” but had written another song called “Say You Say Me” which he tought would work. Hackford thought it was perfect. FB

The song, which uses many of the same session players as Michael Jackson’s Thriller, SG is “a soft R&B ballad, with an upbeat dance bridge, about the pain of loneliness and the power of friendship.” SF It fit well with the movie’s story about an unlikely friendship which formed between a Russian ballet dancer (Mikhail Baryshnikov) who defects from the Soviet Union, and a tap dancer (Gregory Hines) who defects from America. “Say You Say Me” won an Oscar for the Best Original Song- beating out “Separate Lives.”


Resources:

  • DMDB encyclopedia entry for Lionel Richie
  • FB Fred Bronson (2007). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (4th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 626.
  • SF Songfacts
  • SG Stereogum (11/16/20). “The Number Ones” by Tom Breihan
  • WK Wikipedia


First posted 5/22/2022; last updated 12/26/2022.

Saturday, December 7, 1985

Mr. Mister “Broken Wings” hit #1

Broken Wings

Mr. Mister

Writer(s): Richard Page, Steve George, John Lang (see lyrics here)


Released: June 1985


First Charted: August 24, 1985


Peak: 12 US, 12 CB, 2 GR, 11 RR, 3 AC, 4 AR, 1 CO, 4 UK, 11 CN, 4 AU, 2 DF (Click for codes to charts.)


Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.2 UK


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 176.0 video, 227.34 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

“If you’re looking for reasons to make fun of ’80s pop music – the fashion, the keyboards, the blaring guitar leads, the almost disarmingly terrible band names – then [Richard] Page’s band Mr. Mister makes for a great target. Mr. Mister didn’t rock. They made ultra-produced, vaguely worded expensive-digital-studio music, and they embodied a moment when that was what pop radio wanted.” SG

The group emerged after Richard Page and high school friend Steve George worked together in Andy Gibb’s backing band. They formed the band Pages, releasing three albums and charting with the the song “I Do Believe in You,” (#84, 1979). After they split, Page did backing vocals with DeBarge, Neil Diamond, Amy Grant, Al Jarreau, Mötley Crüe, John Parr, REO Speedwagon, and Twisted Sister. He said he was even asked to replace Bobby Kimball in Toto and Peter Cetera in Chicago. Instead, he and George reunited to form Mr. Mister. Their 1984 album I Wear the Face gave them a #57 hit with “Hunters of the Night.”

Their sophomore album, Welcome to the Real World, was a much bigger success. Page, George, and their old Pages bandmate John Lang wrote “Broken Wings” for that album in about 20 minutes. As Page says, “The drum machine was going. I started with the bass line. Before I knew it, the song was done.” FB Lang wrote the lyrics, basing them on the 1912 philosophical novel Broken Wings by Lebanese poet Khalil Gibran. SG

The record company balked at releasing “Broken Wings” as the third single, favoring something more upbeat. The band, however, thought it was the strongest track and fought for it. Initially it looked like they were going to be proven wrong. It was several months after the song’s release before it charted, which is usually a death knell for a song. Then it started to catch on in Minneapolis and Denver and the record company jumped on it. FB

“The song’s level of drama is absurd, almost fantastical, and it pulls it off.” SG It is about trying to “keep a relationship together through the magic of flowery language.” SG The song “captures a state of sustained anticipation. The synths drone and sigh. The guitars whine and howl. The bassline mutters dejectedly to itself. Little funk-guitar ripples glide across the surface…It’s like the whole song is holding its breath, waiting to see if the whole “take these broken wings” line is going to save this relationship.” SG


Resources:

  • DMDB encyclopedia entry for Mr. Mister
  • FB Fred Bronson (2007). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (4th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 625.
  • SG Stereogum (11/13/2020). “The Number Ones” by Tom Breihan


First posted 12/29/2022; last updated 1/15/2023.

Asia's third album, Astra, hit the charts

Astra

Asia


Buy Here:


Charted: December 7, 1985


Peak: 67 US, 68 UK, -- CN, -- AU


Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US and UK)


Genre: classic rock


Tracks: (Click for codes to singles charts.)

  1. Go (11/9/85, #46 US, #7 AR)
  2. Voice of America
  3. Hard on Me
  4. Wishing
  5. Rock and Roll Dream
  6. Countdown to Zero
  7. Love Now Till Eternity
  8. Too Late (1/11/86, #30 AR)
  9. Suspicion
  10. After the War


Total Running Time: 45:06


The Players:

  • Geoff Downes (keyboards)
  • Mandy Meyer (guitar)
  • Carl Palmer (drums)
  • John Wetton (vocals/ bass)

Rating:

3.104 out of 5.00 (average of 14 ratings)


Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album:

When Asia’s “debut album came out in 1982…they seemed like a repudiation of the new wave movement, the pop music equivalent of the Reagan revolution in politics. Like Ronnie, however, Asia ran out of gas around mid-decade.” WR

After two albums with the supergroup lineup of John Wetton, Steve Howe, Carl Palmer, and Geoff Downes the group showed signs of wear. Howe left the group because of tension with Wetton. WK Howe said the record company asked him to play on the album, but he declined after hearing the material. WK The group brought in Mandy Meyer who’d previously wielded his axe for hard rock band Krokus. It wasn’t quite the same as having a future Rock and Roll Hall of Famer on guitar.

“With less lyrics about love, Astra was a bit different from its predecessors,” WK but the band was “still constructing keyboard-dominated, heroic-voiced arena pop.” WR Unfortunately, “nobody cared anymore, or at least not enough customers to vault them into the Top Ten, and for this kind of band, it’s platinum or don’t bother.” WR

The band did still land a top-ten album rock track with Go and songs like Voice of America, Rock and Roll Dream, and Countdown to Zero all felt like they should have been similarly embraced by radio stations focused on album rock, even if they didn’t quite feel right for pop radio.

However, the ho-hum reception to the album signaled the end of the band as fans had known them. Wetton left the band soon after the release of the album and a tour was cancelled. They resurfaced in 1990 for a tour and a greatest-hits collection, but subsequent studio albums were really Asia in name only as Geoff Downes was the only consistent member. The credential-free singer John Payne stepped in for Wetton and Howe and Palmer made only occasional appearances. The four original members wouldn’t work together again until they reunited for a tour in 2006 and three subsequent studio albums.

Resources and Related Links:


Other Related DMDB Pages:


First posted 4/19/2008; updated 8/6/2021.

Friday, November 15, 1985

Double “The Captain of Her Heart” released

The Captain of Her Heart

Double

Writer(s): Kurt Maloo, Felix Haug (see lyrics here)


Released: November 15, 1985


Peak: 16 US, 20 CB, 18 RR, 4 AC, 8 UK, 17 CN, 64 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.)


Sales (in millions): --


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 28.9 video, 20.19 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

Singer and guitarist Kurt Maloo formed the pop-rock duo Double (pronounced doo-BLAY) with keyboardist and drummer Felix Haug in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1983. They only released two albums, 1985’s Blue and 1987’s Dou3le. The former gave them their only real chart success with the single “The Captain of Her Heart,” which went top-10 in the UK and several other European countries.

The song hit #16 in the United States, making Double the first Swiss act to crack the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. It was their only chart entry in America. Stewart Mason of All Music Guide called it “one of the great lost one-hit wonders of the mid-1980s,” AMG citing the song for its “casual sophistication and melodic grace.” AMG

The song came about when Haug recorded a demo on his synthesizer. He said he got the notes from a blackbird singing outside his window. SF Maloo wrote lyrics to it in the studio “about a woman who’s tired of waiting for the man she loves to return.” SF He said, “They were just there out of the blue. It was almost spooky. I never thought the lyrics would touch so many hearts around the world and I’m still overwhelmed from the positive feedback I get.” WK

Mason said, “Maloo’s detached, diffident vocals…manage to out cool Bryan Ferry at his own game” AMG while the “waterpiano riff that drives the song…[sounds] like a cross between Floyd Cramer and early Elton John.” AMG It is also features “one of the best alto sax solos this side of Gerry Rafferty’s ‘Baker Street.’” AMG


Resources:


First posted 10/8/2022.

Tuesday, November 12, 1985

Bruce Springsteen “My Hometown” released

My Hometown

Bruce Springsteen

Writer(s): Bruce Springsteen (see lyrics here)


Released: November 21, 1985


First Charted: December 6, 1985


Peak: 6 US, 7 CB, 6 GR, 7 RR, 11 AC, 6 AR, 9 UK, 16 CN, 47 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.)


Sales (in millions): 1.0 US


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 68.3 video, -- streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

Bruce Springsteen’s “My Hometown” was the seventh single released from his 1984 Born in the U.S.A. album. More importantly, it was the seventh top-10 hit from the album, matching the record established by Michael Jackson’s Thriller. The song was also the seventh from the album to reach the top 10 on the album rock chart. It is also the only Springsteen song to date to top the adult contemporary chart.

Billboard called it a “contemplative, insightful single.” WK The lyrics focus on the protaganist’s memories of the pride his father instilled in him regarding the family’s hometown. By song’s end, the narrator is planning to move, but takes his son driving to experience the same community pride his father had demonstrated.

“My Hometown” starts out feeling like it will be a nostalgic look at childhood, but delves into the racial violence and economic depression which the narrator saw in his adolescence and young adulthood. WK Springsteen drew on the racial strife and economic tension he saw in his own hometown of Freehold, New Jersey, offering what Cash Box called a “tender and somber look at the real American hometown.” WK

The song’s bleak portrait of the life of the working class extended his audience with the common man, especially during the Reagan era as many small towns were falling apart. SF In a case of life mirroring art, the 3M company closed its factory in Freehold, echoing the line in the song about “they’re closing down the textile mill.” SF


Resources:


Related Links:


First posted 8/7/2022; last updated 2/21/2023.