If I’d thoroughly thought through this series, I’d have planned it better. I don’t merely mean that I could’ve written all the posts in advance, but rarely did, I also could’ve planned its end better. If I’d thought about it, I would’ve made this past Sunday’s Part 20 the final in this series, rather than choosing the following Tuesday (for a “Weekend” Diversion post…). And yet, here we are.
The weekend-on-Tuesday thing aside, the real issue is that my original vague idea turned out to be unworkable, and that would’ve been obvious if I’d written posts in advance. I’d originally intended to list the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1984 without ever realising that listing 100 songs is, well, a bit much—especially when I had so many blogging loose ends I wanted to tie up before midnight.
My original idea was to include the entire list, with links to my posts for the songs that were Number One, and then—well, it turns out I never thought past that point. So, instead I suggest following the link and looking at the list yourself. The links to all my posts on Number One songs of 1984 are at the bottom of this post, and the Wikipedia article has links to the songs that weren’t Number One. That’s the thing that I thought was interesting, and why I was originally going to talk about it: There are songs that did well enough to end up on the Year-End Hot 100 even though they never reached Number One during the year. Obviously, this happens all the time.
So, instead of what I’d “planned” to do with this post, I thought I’d talk about the series overall, and what’s coming in the 1985 series next year. Blogger’s prerogative or something.
What I enjoy about these series is revisiting songs that were a part of a very important time in my life—the early to mid-1980s. However, it’s also true that any given year can also be an important time in our lives too, so I suppose we have our own “Hot 100” chart of our months and years. In any case, revisiting those songs means revisiting memories, and that’s both interesting and fun for me. It’s possible others may think so, too—or not—but I wouldn’t do the series if I didn’t enjoy doing it. Besides, it gives me something to talk about other than mowing my lawns and not clearing/organising my house or garage.
In 1985, twenty-seven songs hit Number One, though one of those was also the last Number One of 1984, and I already talked about that in Part 19—one less post to write! Still, 26 posts is a lot to research and write, but the multi-week runs of some songs will give me a chance to write in advance (and no, I’m not secretly laughing at myself…).
What all of this teaches me is that, first, planning is good, and second, actually thinking before planning is even better. For example, the final Number One of 1985 reached the position on the penultimate Sunday of the year, and that, like this year, leaves the final Sunday open for me to add something else, like a final post in the series. I didn’t realise that until today.
Next year’s series, then, ought to be better planned than this year’s was, which has got to be a good thing, I think. And the fact that I didn’t truly think about this post until today? It’s not all bad. This post gave me the chance to use three different “ough” words in a row in my opening sentence. I got something new from this post after all.
The first post in next year’s 1985 series will be on February 2, 2025.
Previously in the “Weekend Diversion – 1984” series:
Weekend Diversion: 1984, Part 1 – January 21, 2024
Weekend Diversion: 1984, Part 2 – February 4, 2024
Weekend Diversion: 1984, Part 3 – February 25, 2024
Weekend Diversion: 1984, Part 4 – March 31, 2024
Weekend Diversion: 1984, Part 5 – April 21, 2024
Weekend Diversion: 1984, Part 6 – May 12, 2024
Weekend Diversion: 1984, Part 7 – May 26, 2024
Weekend Diversion: 1984, Part 8 – June 9, 2024
Weekend Diversion: 1984, Part 9 – June 23, 2024
Weekend Diversion: 1984, Part 10 – July 7, 2024
Weekend Diversion: 1984, Part 11 – August 11, 2024
Weekend Diversion: 1984, Part 12 – September 1, 2024
Weekend Diversion: 1984, Part 13 – September 22, 2024
Weekend Diversion: 1984, Part 14 – September 29, 2024
Weekend Diversion: 1984, Part 15 – October 13, 2024
Weekend Diversion: 1984, Part 16 – November 3, 2024
Weekend Diversion: 1984, Part 17 – November 17, 2024
Weekend Diversion: 1984, Part 18 – December 8, 2024
Weekend Diversion: 1984, Part 19 – December 22, 2024
Weekend Diversion: 1984, Part 20: Seasonal songs – December 29, 2024
1 comment:
"thoroughly thought through" - I approve! But you knew that, didn't you?
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