Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Billboard Top 5 of 1982

Billboard

What a big year for me 1982 was. I had finished my college studies, and in the fall, did a 4 month internship at the Actor's Theater of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky. After spending a couple of years as the Technical Director of the college theater, I was the intern in the shop to build sets for a renown regional theater, and I loved it. The down side, however, was that I had to pack light for the trip, and not bring my music with me. Instead, I had an alarm clock/radio unit that was my only source of tunes, so I heard plenty of the Billboard top 5, starting with Open Arms by Journey. I was a huge fan of Journey, and thought that Steve Perry had one of the most amazing voices from the period. It was so clean, strong and brilliant, you just had to listen to him. Here they are singing the fifth most popular song of the year.



In late 1981, the Australian band Men At Work released their debut album, Business As Usual. It took a few months to really catch on, but with the help of the first single, Who Can It Be Now?, the quirky New Wave music was soon a steady part of the pop music diet, starting with the fourth most popular song of 1982.



Coming in as the third most popular song of the year is Up Where We Belong, sung by Jennifer Warnes & Joe Cocker from the soundtrack of the movie An Officer And A Gentleman. It was written by the greatly talented Jack Nitzsche, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Will Jennings. Warnes became known for have a deft touch with movie theme songs, but her best was this, dueting with the amazing Cocker.



Daryl Hall & John Oates were on quite a roll in the 80s, and had the number 2 song of 1982 with a catchy song Maneater. It was their first single from the album H2O, and while certainly classic pop, it might be one of my least favorite of their songs. But, with the #2 song of the year, here are Hall & Oates.



J. Geils Band was built around guitarist John Geils, who preferred to have his music served with a steady helping of rock and blues. While having been met with critical success, big-time commercial success alluded them until they took a more pop sound, including the mega-hit Centerfold.

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