Weekend Diversion: 1985, Part 1

Well, well, well: Here we are in a new year and today we begin a new series about pop songs that reached Number One on the USA’s Billboard “Hot 100” 40 years ago this week. It turns out that 1985 had quite a lot of Number One songs that I liked, and this week’s is one of them.

On February 2, 1985, ”I Want to Know What Love Is” (video up top) by British-American rock band Foreigner became the first new Number One song of 1985. It followed ”Like a Virgin” by American singer Madonna, which was Number One from December 22, 1984 until February 2, 1985—a pretty good run, that.

Originally released in November 1984, “I Want to Know What Love Is” was Foreigner’s first Number One in the USA, though before that—dating back to1977—they’d had ten Top 20 hits, including five in the Top Ten. The song was the lead single from their fifth studio album, Agent Provocateur.

Like a lot of folks I grew up with, I knew and liked Foreigner from the beginning, and I bought their first four albums, though I never bought Agent Provocateur—or any later album, either. While I really liked their songs dating back to 1977, by the 1980s—mid-1980s in particular—my tastes had changed, and I was more into electronic pop music, European in particular.

I was aware of this particular song, though, and I liked it. A guy I quite fancied at the time listed the song on a list of his favourite songs, and that probably made me like it a bit more. I lost contact with him many decades ago, but I still like the song and I still remember him.

My music tastes in the early 1970s had been mostly “Easy Listening” and “Adult Contemporary", but by my high school years (1973-77), I started liking more rock. After 1977, I began to like “alternative music”, New Wave, and their descendants. Today, I like all of that and more—plus some contemporary pop songs. Put another way, my tastes didn’t change as much as they evoloved to include all sorts of music. And that’s both my connection to this week’s song, and it’s place in my personal pop music universe.

“I Want to Know What Love Is” reached Number One in Australia, 9 in Canada, Number One in New Zealand and in the UK (2x Platinum). It was also Number One on the USA’s Billboard “Hot 100” and on the Billboard “Mainstream Rock” charts, as well as Number One on the Cash Box “Top 100”. The song was also Platinum in the USA.

The album Agent Provocateur reached Number 2 in Australia, 3 in Canada, 4 in New Zealand (Gold), Number One in the UK (Platinum), and 4 on the USA’s “Billboard 200” chart (3x Platinum).

This series will return February 16 with another new Number One from 1985.