Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 14

This week in 1983, a new song went to Number One, becoming the last Number One of the year. On December 10, 1983, "Say Say Say" (above), by Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson reached Number One, and spent the last four weeks of the year there. There were three 1983 songs that spent four weeks at Number one within 1983, but only one of them limited to that year alone—but more about that later.

“Say Say Say” was the first single from McCartney's fourth solo studio album, Pipes of Peace, and was released in October 1983. The album was Top Twenty in all the countries I mention in these posts, except for New Zealand, where it only reached 38.

The song was the seventh Top 10 hit for Jackson in one year's time, a feat that only Elvis Presley and—ironically perhaps—The Beatles had achieved at that point. It was also the third Number One song that year with Michael Jackson. To date, this song was McCartney’s last Number One single in the USA.

The music video was directed by Bob Giraldi, who had directed Jackson’s “Beat It” video (that song was in Part 4 of this series). During the filming of the video, the McCartneys stayed at Sycamore Valley Ranch, and Jackson visited them there. He told them he’d like to buy it some day, and in 1988 he did, renaming it “Neverland Ranch”.

I wasn’t particularly fond of this song or its video, but I didn’t hate them, either. Mainly, I was kind of indifferent to them. Nothing about that has changed for me in the 40 years since—not the first time that’s been the case, of course. Still, it’s a pleasant enough song, I suppose, and there were certainly other 1983 songs that I had an actually negative reaction to, so that’s—something?

"Say Say Say" reached Number 4 in Australia, Number One in Canada (Platinum), 10 in New Zealand, 2 in the UK (Silver), and Number One on the USA’s “Billboard Hot 100”, as well as Number One on Cash Box; it was certified Platinum in the USA.

That’s the end of this year’s look at the Number One songs of 1983, a year that was very important for me. As I said way back in Part One of this series:

The thing about 1983 isn’t (merely) that it was 40 years ago, it’s that it was my first full year living in Chicago, and it’s when I established what my life would be up until 1995 when I met Nigel and moved to New Zealand. 1983 was a very significant year for me.

1983, then, was a starting point of sorts, and the songs I’ve talked about in this series were all part of my life’s soundtrack that year—some perhaps more welcome that others, and some certainly more significant that others. It’s logical, then, that I’ll continue the story next year with a new series about the Number One songs of 1984. The significance of the songs of that year were, for me, every bit as mixed as the songs of 1983—and that’s part of what I find makes it so interesting.

In a sense, though, the series about 1984 Number Ones has already begun: “Say Say Say” was Number One for the first two weeks of 1984, too (for a total of six weeks at Number One). In fact, the first Number One song of 1983, "Maneater", by Daryl Hall and John Oates, first hit Number One on December 18, 1982, and remained there for the first two weeks of 1983—four weeks in total. So… should the 1984 series just be a repeat of this post? I'm joking, obviously. The 1983 series began with three songs (because I forgot to start it on time…), so the first part for 1984’s series will talk about the second Number One song of that year (that’ll be clearer when that post appears).

In the meantime, it’s at least possible that before this year ends, I might tack a post or two onto this series (time permitting) to talk about more of the “also-rans” of 1983, songs that didn’t make it to Number One but that were important to me personally for one reason or another. This IS a personal blog, after all.

However, speaking only about the Number One songs of 1983, that’s a wrap for this series. To end it, I’d like to say say say something interesting, witty, or profound, but that’s not going to happen—and it doesn’t need to. I think the songs speak for themselves.

Thanks for joining me at the turntable for this series! See you for the new series beginning January 21, 1984—which is also a rather significant day for me personally. Nice.

Previously in the “Weekend Diversion – 1983” series:

Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 1
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 2
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 3
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 4
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 5
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 6
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 7
Weekend Diversion: 1983 – And also
Weekend Diversion: 1983 – And also more
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 8
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 9
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 10
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 11
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 12
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 13

Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 13

This week in 1983, another new song went to Number One, and it began another four-week run at the top of the charts. It was also the penultimate Number One song of 1983, which means this series is winding down, too. On November 12, 1983, "All Night Long (All Night)" (above), by American singer and songwriter Lionel Richie. It was the second of three songs to spend four weeks at Number One in 1983. The song was written by Richie and was on his second solo album, Can't Slow Down.

The official music video was produced by Mike Nesmith (formerly of The Monkees and an extensive solo career. It was directed by American film director Bob Rafelson who was also a creator of The Monkees TV series.

I was never exactly a fan of Richie’s nor of The Commodores, which Richie left in 1982, but neither was I—what’s the word? An “unfan”? Like a lot of other performers of that era, his songs were ones I sort of liked, or, at least, didn’t dislike. When I moved to New Zealand, I entered a family that liked him quite a bit more than I did, one of several performers for which that was was true. Karaoke nights are more entertaining, I think, when we feel like joining in, and, well, Richie’s song weren’t usually among that sort for me.

However, I liked this song well enough, and more than some of his other songs. Not that it matters, of course.

"All Night Long (All Night)" reached Number One in Australia, Number One in Canada (Platinum), 4 in New Zealand, 2 in the UK (Platinum), and Number One on the USA’s “Billboard Hot 100”, “Hot Black Singles” and “Adult Contemporary” charts, as well as Number One on Cash Box “Top 100”; it was certified Gold in the USA.

This series will be back in four weeks, on December 10, with another new Number One from 1983, the last Number One song for that year. It, too, had a four-week run at Number One.

Previously in the “Weekend Diversion – 1983” series:

Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 1
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 2
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 3
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 4
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 5
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 6
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 7
Weekend Diversion: 1983 – And also
Weekend Diversion: 1983 – And also more
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 8
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 9
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 10
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 11
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 12

Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 12

There was another two-week Number One this week in 1983, the fourth and final time that happened that year. On October 29, 1983, "Islands in the Stream" (above—about which more in a minute), a duet by US artists Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton became the new Number One. The song, written by the BeeGees, was the first single from Rogers' fifteenth studio album, Eyes That See in the Dark.

What makes this song unusual for this series of posts is that there doesn’t appear to have ever been an official music video. The video above is a 2005 reunion for Rogers and Parton, part of a special broadcast by CMT as part of a special because its viewers had voted "Islands in the Stream" as the best country duet of all time. It was the first time they’d performed together in 15 years, apparently, and both had definitely aged since the song was released in 1983. Rogers died on March 20, 2020, aged 81, after years of declining health. Dolly Parton continues to be an American national treasure.

This song, like most of Kenny Rogers' songs, sits uneasily for me. At the time, I wasn’t exactly a fan of Rogers, even if I didn’t mind most of his songs—but I absolutely loathed his 1979 hit, ”Coward of the County”, mainly because I felt it glorified men “proving” they’re men through violence, as summed up in the line, "sometimes you gotta fight when you're a man." I mention that because it underscores that I wasn’t a fan (I was more of a fan of Dolly).

As it happens, I liked this song well enough—not enough to buy it, but I also didn’t change the radio when it came on, which for that era is pretty good. However, that song, and others by Kenny Rogers, are now unalterably tied to my memories of Nigel singing karaoke. He did this song sometimes in duet with someone, and often sang Rogers’ 1978 hit, ”The Gambler”. I don’t mind hearing Rogers’ versions, but hearing others sing them at karaoke has been a challenge for me in the past. Songs can easily carry strong emotional associations that have nothing much to do with the song itself, and, for me, that includes at least some of Rogers’ songs.

"Islands in the Stream" reached Number One in Australia (Platinum), Number One in Canada (3x Platinum), 2 in New Zealand, 7 in the UK (2x Platinum), and Number One on the USA’s “Billboard Hot 100” and “Hot Country Songs” charts, as well as Number One on Cash Box; it was certified 3x Platinum in the USA.

Back in two weeks, on November 12, with another new Number One from 1983, the penultimate Number One song for the year.

Previously in the “Weekend Diversion – 1983” series:

Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 1
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 2
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 3
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 4
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 5
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 6
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 7
Weekend Diversion: 1983 – And also
Weekend Diversion: 1983 – And also more
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 8
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 9
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 10
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 11

Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 11

Another week, another new Number One! On October 1, 1983, "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (above) by Welsh singer Bonny Tyler became Number One for four weeks, only missing out being Number One for the entire month of October by one week. The song, Tyler’s most successful single, was the first single from her fifth studio album, Faster Than the Speed of Night. The album was produced by Jim Steinman, who also wrote "Total Eclipse of the Heart", something I didn’t know at the time, but that was really obvious once I found it out. Steinman is often associated with Meat Loaf (especially his ”Bat Out Of Hell” album), though he wrote or produced a lot more.

The music video for "Total Eclipse of the Heart" was directed by Australian film director Russell Mulcahy, and I remember I thought it was, um, interesting. Set in a boys’ boarding school, and with supernatural overtones, helped by the gothic building it was set in, it was visually interesting, but I also thought it was a little creepy because there seemed to be a sexual undercurrent to Tyler’s performance. The video was nominated for two Billboard Video Music Awards in 1983, including for “Most Effective Use of Symbolism”. So… maybe I just didn’t get it?

The video was filmed at Holloway Sanitarium, a Victorian former private mental hospital near Virginia Water in Surrey, England. The hospital was closed in 1980, and pretty much left abandoned, before a private developer turned the facility, including the heritage-listed main building used in the video, into a private residential development known as Virginia Park. I liked the song at the time (and still do), though many of the song’s Jim Steinman wrote can be exhausting to listen to—which could actually be why I liked this and other songs by Steinman. At any rate, I never bought this album, and, in fact, the only album of Tyler’s I ever bought was her second studio album, called It's a Heartache in the USA (the 1978 album’s original name was Natural Force), and I bought it because of the 1977 hit single ”It's a Heartache”.

"Total Eclipse of the Heart" reached Number 1 in all the countries I write about: Australia (4x Platinum), Canada (Platinum), New Zealand, the UK (Platinum), and on both the USA’s “Billboard Hot 100” and Cash Box “Top 100”. The song was Platinum in the USA.

The album, Faster Than the Speed of Night debuted at Number One on the UK album chart, the first by a British female artist to do so. Since I mentioned that, I may as well include the album's chart performance in other countries, too: It reached Number 3 in Australia, 6 in Canada (2x Platinum), Number One in New Zealand (Gold), Number One in the UK (Silver), and 4 on the USA’s “Billboard 200” and 3 on Cash Box. The album was certified Platinum in the USA.

The next Number One Song in 1983 reached that mark on October 29, 1983, but I may have another post about “also released” songs of 1983 before that date this year.

Previously in the “Weekend Diversion – 1983” series:

Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 1
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 2
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 3
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 4
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 5
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 6
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 7
Weekend Diversion: 1983 – And also
Weekend Diversion: 1983 – And also more
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 8
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 9
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 10

Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 10

There was another one-week Number One this week in 1983, the sixth for the year. On September 24, 1983, "Tell Her About It" (above) by US artist Billy Joel became Number One for one week. The song was the first single from Joel’s ninth studio album, An Innocent Man. The album also produced two other top 10 hits in the USA, ”Uptown Girl” (Number 3) and ”An Innocent Man” (Number 10).

The music video for "Tell Her About It" was an imaginary appearance by “BJ and The Affordables” on The Ed Sullivan Show on “Sunday, July 31, 1963, 8:34pm”. The real July 31, 1963 was a Wednesday—which goes to show there’s no research too difficult to prevent me checking tiny details in these posts—probably? Possibly. In any case, the date wasn’t the point, obviously, it was a fantasy presentation using American character actor and stand-up comedian Will Jordan portraying Ed Sullivan (Jordan was known for doing that impression). Jordan died at 91 on September 6, 2018. The end of the video features a cameo by Rodney Dangerfield, who was a popular comedic star at the time.

Unlike a lot of pop songs, the lyrics of this song make it pretty clear what it’s about: A guy is supposed to tell the girl he loves how he feels while he has the chance—it’s not any more complicated than that. When the song first came out, I thought it was catchy, but I didn’t connect with it. I didn’t dislike the song, I just simply didn’t like it, something that’s often been the case for me. It’s actually pretty rare for me to actively dislike a song, which is—something, I guess? In any case, I probably liked the music video more than the song itself.

"Tell Her About It" reached Number 9 in Australia, 4 in Canada (Gold), 12 in New Zealand, 4 in the UK (Silver), as wells as Number One on the USA’s “Billboard Hot 100” and Number 3 on Cash Box and was certified Gold.

Back next week with the song that hit Number One on October 1, 1983. Also, the next post in this series will be in October! Where has this year gone?!!!

Previously in the “Weekend Diversion – 1983” series:

Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 1
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 2
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 3
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 4
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 5
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 6
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 7
Weekend Diversion: 1983 – And also
Weekend Diversion: 1983 – And also more
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 8
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 9

Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 9

Feels weird to be back with another post in this series only one week after the most recent one. But, 1983 had big hits, littler ones, and others, like this week’s: On September 10, 1983, "Maniac" (above) by US artist Michael Sembello became Number One for two weeks, the third of four songs to have a two-week run at Number one. The song was also the second Number One song from the movie Flashdance (I talked about Irene Cara’s “Flashdance... What a Feeling” in Part 6 of this series, and that song was Number One for six weeks from late May to early July).

The was apparently originally inspired by news reports of a serial killer, but was changed to suit the movie. The two tones at the beginning were inspired by the two-toned sirens used in the UK, as interpreted in the opening of the song by US rock band Bloodrock in their 1971 song, ”D.O.A.” (an audio version is on YouTube).

The music video for “Maniac” was, just like the video for “Flashdance... What a Feeling” just a commercial for the movie, also using scenes from the film edited to go with the music. Both of the music videos were made specifically with MTV in mind.

As I remember it, I liked “Maniac” the best of the two Flashdance songs. One thing that struck me at the time was because of the last lines of the first verse: “She has danced into the danger zone, when the dancer becomes the dance,” which—intentionally or not—references a line from William Butler Yeats's poem "Among School Children", which ends with “How can we know the dancer from the dance?" However, for me that line actually made me think of the 1978 novel Dancer from the Dance, the first novel by Andrew Holleran. I had a copy of the novel, but hesitated to read it because the focus on hedonism among gay men in 1970s New York didn’t sit well in the early 1980s—although it was also that same honesty that led to it being highly regarded among the gay male literature that rose after the Stonewall Rebellion. Maybe some day I should read it.

More importantly, perhaps, at the time the song became a hit, I was often going out to the bars and clubs with friends, and high energy music was more my thing that “Flashdance... What a Feeling” was. I associate the song with a now-defunct bar called The Loading Dock that was on North Halsted in Chicago, not far from where the city’s LGBT+ focused Center on Halsted is now—and its existence was pretty much unimaginable in 1983, whenever I walked to or from the bar, walking past the site where the Center would be nearly a quarter century later.

At any rate, “Maniac” reached Number 2 in Australia, Number One in Canada (Platinum), Number 7 in New Zealand, Number 43 in the UK (Gold), as wells as Number One on the USA’s “Billboard Hot 100” and Number 3 on Cash Box
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And now this series takes another brief break: It’ll be back in two weeks, on September 24, with the new Number One hit from that week in 1983. I wonder what I thought about that song…

Previously in the “Weekend Diversion – 1983” series:

Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 1
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 2
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 3
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 4
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 5
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 6
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 7
Weekend Diversion: 1983 – And also
Weekend Diversion: 1983 – And also more
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 8

Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 8

And my series of posts about the Number One hits of 1983 is back! 40 years ago today, on September 3, 1983, a new song, "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" (above) by UK duo Eurythmics became Number One for one week, ending the eight week reign of “Every Breath You Take”. I said at the end of Part 7 in this series that “Sweet Dreams” was “one of my favourite pop songs of all time”, so that must mean I remember where and when I first hears it, right? Of course not—but I DO remember where I first saw the music video above.

Eurythmics was formed in 1980 by singer Annie Lenox and Dave Stewart, after their previous band, The Tourists, broke up. The first Eurythmics album, In the Garden, was released in October 1981, but had little success. Their second album, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), was released in January 1983 and changed everything for them. The album went to Number 5 in Australia, 6 in Canada (2x Platinum), 2 in New Zealand, 3 in the United Kingdom (Platinum), and in the USA, 15 on the Billboard 200 album chart (Gold).

According to Lennox, the song is about the unhappy time the duo were in after the break-up of The Tourists, when they thought their dreams might never be realised. The song also came together after Lennox and Stweart had broken up as a couple.

While the song immediately caught my attention because its sound was so very unique (those opening synths!), it was the music video that sealed the deal: It was unlike anything I’d ever seen—though, to be fair, music videos were still a pretty new art-form at the time. The cows and Lennox’s look were so captivating that every time I heard the first beats of the song, I’d turn and watch the video.

Lennox said that she chose her look because she “was trying to be the opposite of the cliché of the female singer”, and that she “wanted to be as strong as a man, equal to Dave and perceived that way.” According to Stewart, he wanted the make the video “a commentary on the music business but also make something a bit performance art – weird and dreamlike.” The cow in the boardroom was apparently signifying reality.

When I first moved to Chicago, it was becoming increasingly popular for LGBT bars to play music videos, and at one time there were two big bars that specifically played videos (and I first saw so many great 1980s videos in them). There were also several other bars that had more traditional set-ups, but they nevertheless played videos, and among them was one that wasn’t far from the apartment I moved into in October 1982. That bar, The Closet, opened in 1978 and is still there today. When I first moved into the neighbourhood, I wasn’t sure if I’d be welcome, since it was as the women-owners still describe it, a “women-dominated bar”, however, I quickly learned that gay men were welcome there, too, and I stopped in there many times. That was most likely the first place I saw the video for “Sweet Dreams”.

One thing I find interesting about the song is that it was actually the fourth single from the album, and after its success, they re-released what was the third single from the album, “Love Is a Stranger”. The song wasn’t a success in its first release, but was fairly successful in its second release.

At any rate, the “Sweet Dreams” single was certainly a success: It was Number 6 in Australia, Number One in Canada (Gold), Number 2 in New Zealand, Number 2 in the UK (2x Platinum, and, of course, Number One on the USA (Gold) on both the “Billboard Hot 100” and on the ”Cash Box Top 100”.

This song was and is still one of my favourite pop songs because of the driving synths at the opening, the unique look of the video, and—well, all the other stuff that makes us connect with a song, and, in this case, that includes that I first heard it at the time I was just beginning to live my life as an out gay man. It was an exciting, thrilling, energising time in my life, and those synths are absolutely part of my life’s soundtrack from that era. More importantly, maybe, I never got sick of it as I did of other songs (including the one that preceded this song at Number One). That’s no small thing.

This series will be back next week with the new Number One hit from that week in 1983. It’s another song I liked in that era, though certainly not as much as "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)".

Previously in the “Weekend Diversion – 1983” series:

Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 1
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 2
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 3
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 4
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 5
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 6
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 7
Weekend Diversion: 1983 – And also
Weekend Diversion: 1983 – And also more

Weekend Diversion: 1983 – And also more

Last week, I published a post about three songs that, while hits in 1983, never made it to Number One. I said in that post, “and of course, there are many more in that same category, as there are every year." Roger Green left a comment on that post, and so, this post is the “Roger Green Edition”, in which I give my own reaction to three more songs that never reached Number One in 1983.

The first song this week, this time in chronological order, is “Dirty Laundry” by American musician Don Henley—however, there doesn’t appear to be a version of the music video on YouTube, which is a shame, but the audio is available there [LISTEN].

The song was released October 18, 1982, and reached its peak of Number 3 on the Billboard “Hot 100” the week ending January 8, 1983. The Wikipedia article linked to above sums up the song very well: “The song is about the callousness of TV news reporting as well as the tabloidization of all news”. I liked the song at the time, and liked both Henley’s solo work and the band he co-founded, the Eagles. I also liked the video (and, while that video isn’t on YouTube, the video for his single released in 1984, "The Boys of Summer"remains one of my all-time favourite music videos). The truth is, “Dirty Laundry” pretty accurately encapsulates my current cynical and often exasperated opinion of contemporary journalism, TV journalism in particular. Wouldn’t have expected that from a song that was a hit more than 40 years ago.

The song only reached Number 59 in Australia, but was Number One in Canada, Number 7 in New Zealand (Platinum), Number 3 on the USA’s “Hot 100” (Gold), and Number 59 in the UK. It was also Number One on the Billboard “Top Rock Tracks”, and Number 5 on the CashBox “Top 100”.

Next up, “Jeopardy” by the The Greg Kihn Band:

The song was the band’s highest-charting single, reaching Number 2 the week of May 7, 1983. It reached that number in the middle of the three weeks at Number One for Michael Jackson’s “Beat it”, dropped to 3 the following week, when David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” was at Number 2, and then to Number 8 the week after that when “Let’s Dance” went to Number One. I mention all that because it’s a good example of a song that was a hit, but that never made it to Number One because other songs got there instead.

To be honest, it’s a song I only remember when it’s played on the radio—although, I have it on a series of 1980s music compilation CDs from Time-Life, which I ordered because of a TV commercial. That particular CD was for 1983, but a sort of “compilation compilation disc” from the series included their second-highest charting song (it reached Number 15), 1981’s “The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em)”. Quite frankly, I preferred that 1981 song, but if I’d been on the Jeopardy! TV game show, I might have liked the Greg Kihn song more—in fact, I may have made it my theme song, had I been on the TV show. Sadly, I’ve never run across a song that would fill that role for me (and, no, the 1981 movie song “Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)”, was never a possibility…).

At any rate, the song “Jeopardy” reached Number 11 in Australia, Number 4 in Canada, Number 17 in New Zealand, Number 63 (ouch!) in the UK, and, in addition to Number 2 on the “Hot 100”, it also reached Number 1 on BillBoard’s “Hot Dance Club Play” chart (which seems… surprising?), and Number 5 on Cashbox.

Finally today, a song that epitomises this phemomenon of a hit song being blocked from Number One by two stronger hits. That song is “Electric Avenue” by Guyanese-British singer Eddy Grant:

“Electric Avenue” was released on April 18, 1983, and reached Number 2 the week of July 2, 1983, after 12 weeks in the charts. That week, Irene Cara’s "Flashdance... What a Feeling" was spending its final week at Number One, and The Police were at Number 3 with "Every Breath You Take". The following week, those two songs would swap positions, and “Electric Avenue” remained at Number 2. That 1-2-3 alignment held until August 6, when Electric Avenue dropped to Number 6. That means that the song was Number 2 for five consecutive weeks. The Police would remain at Number One until the week of September 3.

The title of the song refers to the street of the same name in the Brixton area of London, and it’s inspired by the infamous Brixton Riot of 1981 which was sparked by heavy-handed and racist tactics used by police. Margaret Thatcher, unfortunately UK Prime Minister at the time, acted true to form and denied that racism and unemployment had any role and attacked anyone who dared suggest that that they did. She was an utterly awful excuse for a human being, really. Because few of the recommendations of the post-riot Scarman Report were implemented, riots broke out again in 1985 and 1995.

While I was aware of the 1981 Brixton Riot, I wasn’t all that aware of the whole story: By that time, I was more focused on fighting the Reagan regime. Even so, I probably heard about the song’s connection to the riots somewhere along the way, if only because most of my friends were also Left-of-Centre, and many were activists, too.

One of the reasons the song became such a big hit may well be because Michael Jackson broke the colour barrier on MTV. He became the first Black artist to be played heavily on the network, and by the time “Electric Avenue” was released, they were actively looking for more music videos by Black artists. And that, to me, is highly ironic: A song that was at its core a reaction to racism and about ignoring the issues faced by Black people was promoted by a cable network as part of its response to its own racism and refusal to acknowledge Black artists.

I liked the song back in the day—it was hard not to—but Roger had a more personal connection to the song. I have it on a compilation disc that Nigel bought at some stage, but I read that it’s not available on any streaming service because Grant didn’t like the (terrible) compensation they pay to artists. So, I checked Spotify and all I could find were covers, often using Grant’s name, however, I found other songs by him were available, so I’m not sure what’s going on.

With five weeks at Number 2 in the USA, the song was definitely a hit, blocked from Number One by two very big hits. It reached Number 2 in Australia, Number One in Canada, Number 32 in New Zealand, Number 2 in the UK, and, in addition to Number 2 on the “Hot 100”, it also reached Number 6 on BillBoard’s “Hot Dance Club Play” chart, Number 18 on BillBoard’s “Hot Black Singles” chart, and Number One on Cashbox.

• • • • •

These three 1983 songs singled out by Roger are all examples of hit songs that never made it to Number One against strong competition from other, bigger hits. There are plenty of others that met a similar fate, of course. But that’s enough for now.

Thanks for sparking this week’s post, Roger!

Previously in the “Weekend Diversion – 1983” series:

Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 1
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 2
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 3
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 4
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 5
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 6
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 7
Weekend Diversion: 1983 – And also

Weekend Diversion: 1983 – And also

When I posted my most recent Weekend Diversion post in the 1983 Series on July 9, it was for a song that would be Number One for eight weeks, replacing one that had been at the top of the charts for six weeks. In fact, for the first 35 weeks of 1983 that I’ve talked about so far, 31 one of them were occupied by just seven songs, meaning that only four songs were Number One for only one week.

This got me to wondering: What about the songs that never made it to Number One? 1983 was a pretty good year for pop music generally—well, my sort of pop music, anyway—so what songs missed out? I decided to look at some of the “and also” hits during the part of 1983 I’ve talked about so far.

This search began because a friend posted to the Facebook group for his podcast that the song ”Gold” by the UK new wave band Spandau Ballet was released on August 5, 1983. The thing is, while the song was Top 10 in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK (and 12 in Canada), it barely reached the Top 30 in the USA (Number 29). On the other hand, the band’s bigger hit “True” was released on April 15, 1983:

The song has one of the most memorable openings of any pop song, and hearing that distinctive "Ah ha-hah hahh-hi…” coming from the radio can only be from that song, and it’s nearly impossible to avoid joining in, at least it is for me—I know this much is true. Gary Kemp, co-founder of Spandau Ballet and the writer of the song, said in 2017: "With the royalties from 'True', I was finally able to move out of my parents' house."

Despite never reaching Number One on the Billboard “Hot 100”, the song still did quite well. It reached Number 4 In Australia (Gold), Number One in Canada (Gold), Number 4 in New Zealand (Platinum), Number 4 on the USA’s “Hot 100”, and Number One in the UK (Platinum). The song entered the US chart on August 6, 1983—which is another reason I’m talking about it first—and it peaked the week of October 8, 1983 It was also Number 89 on the Billboard “Year-End Hot 100 singles” of 1983.

Speaking of songs with a distinctive opening, next up is “The Safety Dance” by Canadian new wave and synth-pop band, Men Without Hats:



The song was, it’s fair to say, one of my favourites from that era. I particularly loved these lyrics:

We can go when we want to
Night is young and so am I
And we can dress real neat
From our hats to our feet
And surprise 'em with the victory cry

At the time, I was 23-24, still learning what it meant to be a young gay man in times that were becoming increasingly troubled for people like me, something that led to me becoming a grassroots LGBT+ political activist in that same timeframe—but I was also one that loved absurdity and what to me were unexpected song lyrics. According to songwriter and lead vocalist Ivan Doroschuk, the song is actually a protest song about club bouncers after he’d been kicked out of a club for “pogoing”. Turning that into a successful pop song is a pretty good bit of revenge. I bought the album the song was from, Rhythm of Youth, and later bought remixes.

The song was released in the USA on March 16, eventually peaking at Number 3 the week of September 10, 1983. The song reached Number 5 in Australia, Number 11 in Canada (Gold), Number 2 in New Zealand, Number 6 in the UK, and, in addition to Number 3 on the “Hot 100”, it was also Number One on BillBoard’s “Hot Dance Club Play” chart and also on Cashbox.

Finally for today, “She Blinded Me With Science” by English musician Thomas Dolby:



I suppose the intro for this song is pretty distinctive, too, but for me it’s more about the distinctive early 1980s electronic/synth pop sound of the song. The lyrics, once again, caught my attention, too. It peaked at Number 5 on the USA’s “Hot 100” the week of May 14, 1983.

The song is somewhat unusual in that Dolby conceived of the music video first, and wrote the title and lyrics to fit the video he planned (and that he directed). The character of “The Doctor” was played in the video by real-life English nutritional scientist and TV presenter Magnus Pyke, who provided the spoken word portions of the song—the interjections “Science!”, and the line, "Good heavens, Miss Sakamoto, you’re beautiful", which Dolby wrote because he wanted a Japanese woman in the video. "I was boldly ahead of the times in fetishising Asian women," he said of it.

The song reached Number 19 in Australia, Number One in Canada, 7 in New Zealand, 56 in the UK, and 5 in the USA.

• • • • •

These three songs were hits in 1983, but for whatever reason never made it to Number One. Even so, each one of them is part of the soundtrack of my life from that era, sometimes more so than songs that reached the top of the charts. For me, that’s reason enough to pause at (roughly) the mid-point between Part 7 and the still-to-come Part 8 in the 1983 Weekend Diversion series. And to think, it all started because of a friend’s Facebook post that was relevant to today. Still, inspiration for blog posts can come from anywhere. Clearly.

Previously in the “Weekend Diversion – 1983” series:

Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 1
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 2
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 3
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 4
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 5
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 6
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 7

Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 7

On July 9 1983, a new song, "Every Breath You Take" (above), became Number One, ending the six week reign of “Flashdance... What a Feeling”. The song, by British rock band The Police, and written by its lead singer, Sting, would spend eight weeks at Number One, and ended up as the Number One song for all of 1983. The song was the only one of the band’s singles to hit Number One on the Billboard “Hot 100” singles chart.

"Every Breath You Take" was the first single from the fifth and final studio album by The Police, Synchronicity, which, not surprisingly, was itself quite popular. The album went to Number One in Australia, Canada (Platinum), New Zealand (Platinum), the United Kingdom (Platinum), and also on the Billboard 200 album chart (8x Platinum). Even so, I don’t think I ever bought the album, even though I bought their previous two albums. I don’t remember any reason for that, though maybe I became sick of the hit single?

The song is about an obsessive ex-lover who engages in “Big Brother” sort of surveillance. This is something that was obvious to me at the time—and I thought it was kind of creepy, a feeling that was underscored by the film noir-ish music video. Even so, there were apparently many people who thought it was a love song, a fact that makes me wonder how their own romantic relationships were constructed.

In researching this song, I found out that by this time the band members weren’t getting along, and, in fact, Sting and drummer Stewart Copeland reportedly hated each other and would get into verbal and physical fights in the studio. Maybe that’s the real reason Sting looks angry in the music video. All three of the final members of The Police are still working today.

The song was certainly a success—obviously, if it became the biggest hit of the entire year—and it later was recognised as the most-played song in radio history. Even so, chart performance in the countries I write about was mixed: It was Number 2 in Australia, Number One in Canada, Number 6 in New Zealand, Number One in the UK (2x Platinum, and, of course, Number One on the USA’s “Billboard Hot 100” for eight weeks, and was certified as Gold. This was clearly a case where radio airplay was important in the song’s year-end chart performance.

And finally, a backstory for this post. On Sunday night last week, I’d just crawled into bed and was trying to relax for sleep when I realised I’d completely forgotten to write this post. I decided to leave it until the next day because it’d be still July 2 in the USA. I’d sincerely thought this song hit Number One on July 2, but that was actually the last week before this song hit Number One. So, in the end, I got this post finished and queued to publish right on time, using the Roger Green Method for blogging. This tale also shows that I wasn’t observing things as closely as the song's narrator in "Every Breath You Take". I think I’ll take that as a win.

This series will return on September 3 with the new song that hit Number One from that week in 1983. I’m unlikely to forget that week (or confuse the date): It’s one of my favourite pop songs of all time.

Previously in the “Weekend Diversion – 1983” series:

Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 1
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 2
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 3
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 4
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 5
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 6

Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 6

This week in 1983, a new song that hit Number One, and it would remain there for a month and a half: “Flashdance... What a Feeling” from the movie Flashdance, and performed by Irene Cara. While the movie wasn’t well received, this song won numerous awards: The Academy Award and Golden Globe for best song in a movie, and it was nominated for a BAFTA, too. The soundtrack album won the Grammy it in its category, too.

The music for the song was written by Giorgio Moroder, and the lyrics were written by Keith Forsey and Cara.

I very well remember that this song seemed to be everywhere when it was Number One. I liked it well enough—or, at least, I certainly didn’t dislike it. It's hard to work out which it was I thought before all the media saturation of that time. Mainly, thought, I was glad to hear Cara again after her performance on the title track to “Fame” only a few years earlier.

The video above is the “Official Video”, which is based on the opening credits of the movie. To me, it seems more like an ad for the movie than an actual music video, as is common enough for songs from movies (especially in that era). Sometimes that’s fine, but other times? Well, in this case, the song was clearly Cara’s, but she wasn’t in the film (unlike the 1980 film “Fame”, and she also had a hit with that film's title song), so obviously she wasn't in the "What A Feeling" video. To giver her due credit, I decided to include a video of her performing the song on the 1983 Labor Day MDA Telethon:



Cara was involved in a dispute over royalties, including from the song, because she felt she wasn’t being paid what she was entitled to, both for the song and for her first two solo albums. The dispute turned nasty, with Cara convinced that her record label and others in the industry were working to vilify and smear her, and she claimed to have been “virtually blacklisted”. After years of wrangling, in 1993 a jury awarded her $1.5 million for “misaccounted funds”, essentially, accounting mistakes that prevented her from getting the royalties she was entitled to. However, she’d sued corporations, not individuals, and the companies merely declared bankruptcy, claiming they’d spent all their funds on legal fees. It’s not clear if she ever received any of the award, but she did finally start receiving royalties for her work. She never again experienced the level of success she had before the lawsuit.

Irene Cara died in November of last year from arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease. She was 63. Until I researched this post, I had no idea that Cara was around two months younger than me. Cara’s co-writer of the lyrics for the song, Keith Forsey, is now 75, and Giorgio Moroder is now 83.

The song was certainly a success: It was Number One in on the “Billboard Hot 100” for six weeks, something that propelled it to Number 3 on Billboard’s 1983 year-end chart. In addition to being Number One, it was also certified Gold in the USA. It also hit Number One in Australia, Number One in Canada (2x Platinum), Number One in New Zealand, and Number 2 in the UK (Silver).

This series now takes another extended break, returning July 9 with the new song that hit Number One that week in 1983. In the meantime, feel free to “dance right through your life”.

Previously in the “Weekend Diversion – 1983” series:

Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 1
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 2
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 3
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 4
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 5

Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 5

This week we resume the Weekend Diversion: 1983 series with the song that hit Number One this week in 1983, “Let’s Dance” by David Bowie, which was Number One in the USA for one week on May 21, 1983. The song was released March 14, 1983, and was the first single from Bowie’s fifteenth studio album, also called Let’s Dance. It became the biggest-selling single of Bowie’s career.

Bowie wrote the song after switching from RCA Records to EMI, but it took on its final form only after working with Nile Rodgers, who’s probably nest known as co-founder of American group Chic.

The music video for “Let’s Dance” (above), was filmed in Australia and was praised as a commentary on the treatment of Aboriginal people. To me, it’s also a commentary on the moral bankruptcy of modern corporate capitalism. Portions of the video were shot in the outback Carinda Hotel, and the locals weren’t told a music video was being shot, so their reactions—including disapproving looks—were all genuine. Carinda is a town in the far north of the state of New South Wales in a mostly sheep-rearing area.

While in Australia, Bowie also filmed the video for “China Girl”, the second single from the Let’s Dance album, and its theme was also criticism of racism. The “China Girl” in the video is New Zealand model, actress, and restaurateur Geeling Ng. While “China Girl” was a Top Ten single in the USA, it was less successful than “Let’s Dance” (It reached Number 3 in New Zealand, though). Bowie originally co-wrote the song in Berlin with Iggy Pop.

I remember being uncomfortable about the video for “Let’s Dance” (and more so about the video for “China Girl”) because it seemed exploitative—something Bowie apparently thought about, too, because he gave himself a cameo in the “Let’s Dance” video as a factory manager—something I never noticed at the time or since, only finding it out when I was researching this post. Be that as it may, I bought the Let’s Dance album (on vinyl) when it was released, and I loved it.

In 1983, Bowie launched a world tour to support the Let’s Dance album. Dubbed “The Serious Moonlight Tour”, taking its name from a lyric in the “Let’s Dance” song, the tour included eight concerts in Australia and two in New Zealand during November 1983. The Auckland show, with 80-90,000 people at Western Springs, was one of the largest concerts ever held there. I’m pretty sure Nigel told me about going to the concert, though I’m not certain and don’t remember him saying which city or country. I do know, however, that the concert held in Vancouver on September 12, 1983 was filmed and released on video in 1984. Possibly as part of the promotion of the release, my partner at the time and I got tickets to a screening at a Chicago venue. I don’t remember much about that screening, except that it was a bar-like setting, not seated, making it kind of like a video bar.

I mention all this extra stuff about the Let’s Dance album because “Let’s Dance” was the only Number One single from that album, so I won’t get the chance to talk about any of this in a future post in this series. Oh, well.

On to chart performance: In the USA, “Let’s Dance” hit Number One in the USA (Gold), Number 2 in Australia, Number One in Canada (Platinum), Number One in New Zealand, and Number One in the UK (Platinum.

This series is back again next week with another Number One hit.

Previously in the “Weekend Diversion – 1983” series:

Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 1
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 2
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 3
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 4

Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 4

The video up top is the song that hit Number One this week in 1983, “Beat It” by Michael Jackson, which was Number One in the USA for three weeks from April 30 to May 14, 1983. The song was released February 14, 1983, the third single from Jackson’s sixth studio album Thriller.

Jackson wrote the song after Quincy Jones urged him to include a rock song on the album, and Jackson said that he wrote “Beat It” as the sort of rock song he’d buy. It features a guitar solo by Eddie Van Halen, who was guitarist and co-founder of rock band Van Halen. Eddie Van Halen died on October 6, 2020 of a stroke, after dealing with numerous health conditions over many years.

The music video for “Beat It” was financed by Jackson himself because CBS Records refused to pay for it. It was filmed in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles, and Jackson decided to include actual members of rival Los Angeles street gangs as a peace gesture. The video opened up opportunities for young black dancers, and it’s often credited with leading to a boom in work for dancers in music videos. The video was directed by American film and television director Bob Giraldi, who had been personally chosen by Jackson after the original theme by Steve Barron, who had directed the video for “Billie Jean” had been rejected. Apparently, the original concept for Barron version of the “Beat It” video was for it to be set on a slave ship with Jackson as the slave master. Somehow, that doesn’t sound like a very good video, certainly not compared to what was actually made: The video that was actually made is perfect for the song.

It’s kind of hard to remember precisely what I was thinking and feeling about this song 40 years ago, especially because I’ve heard it for 40 years, however, I’m pretty sure that back in 1983, I liked “Beat It” more than “Billie Jean”. I know that these days I definitely do, so there’s that.

When I talked about “Billie Jean” in Part 2 of this series two weeks ago, I also talked about about Michael Jackson himself, and how complicated it later became to like his work. I won’t repeat any of that, however, I’ll add what I didn’t say clearly enough in that post, namely, that 40 years ago there weren’t yet any of those complications, and it was easy to like (or not) Jackson’s songs. It’s kind of hard to remember what that was like.

At any rate, every “Weekend Diversion” post about pop music has to have a look at chart performance: In the USA, “Beat It” hit Number One (8x Platinum), Number 2 in Australia (Platinum), Number One in Canada (Platinum), Number One in New Zealand (Gold), and 3 in the UK (2x Platinum.

This series will be taking the next three weeks off, and will return May 21 with a new 1983 Number One hit. Until then, however, it’s worth nothing that last week’s Number One, “Come On Eileen”, has a distinction I didn’t mention in last week's post: When it became Number One, it prevented Jackson from having back-to-back Number One hits. Whether he might have otherwise had them or not is just speculation, but it was certainly possible. As it is, we get to have one little bit of pop culture trivia to add to our 1983 list.

This series is back in three weeks!

Previously in the “Weekend Diversion – 1983” series:
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 1
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 2
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 3

Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 3

This week in 1983, a new song hit Number One: “Come On Eileen” (video above). The song is by Dexys Midnight Runners, a UK pop rock band from Birmingham. It was number one for just the one week.

Dexys Midnight Runners—now called merely “Dexys” (and still, annoyingly, without the apostrophe…) had numerous personnel changes over the years—so much so that this one of the bands for whom Wikipedia published a chart showing the various members at different times. Still, lead singer Kevin Rowland (now 69) has been, and still is, a fixture.

“Come On Eileen” was released in the UK on 25 June 1982, and became the band’s second Number One hit in there, after their 1980 UK Number One, “Geno”, which was also the band’s second single to be released.

The music video was directed by Julien Temple, who also directed a lot of music videos, including The Sex Pistols and Neil Young in the 1970s, and continuing on with Judas Priest, Gary Numan, Stray Cats, ABC, Culture Club, Depeche Mode—far too many to list here, but there are many of my favourite videos on that list.

This song is one of many over the years that I liked because I liked the sound—but I had little if any idea what was being sung. I didn’t know who Johnnie Ray was, or why, as the song put it, “Our mothers cried, sang along”. Those parts of the lyrics may have been a reference to Ray’s 1951 hit, “Cry”, but in finding that out, I also learned that Ray died of liver failure from alcoholism, and that he was, at least, bisexual, perhaps leaning more toward homosexual (he had been arrested twice for soliciting male undercover officers). All of which could be why he “sounded sad upon the radio”. It clearly would’ve been helpful, back in the day, to be able to read the lyrics, though even if I had I’m not sure I would’ve grasped it was “to make a point about Catholic repression”. Still the lyrics were right about one thing: “you'll hum this tune forever”. Yep.

In addition to hitting Number One the USA, “Come On Eileen” hit Number One in Australia (Gold), 2 in Canada (Gold), Number One in New Zealand, and Number One in the UK (2x Platinum).

Next week, another multi-week 1983 hit.

Previously in the “Weekend Diversion – 1983” series:
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 1
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 2

Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 2

Back again with the second installment in a series of “Weekend Diversion” posts highlighting the Billboard “Hot 100” Number One pop songs of 1983. This week this series catches up: April 16, 1983 was the last week at Number One for today’s second video.

The video up top is today’s first song, “Baby, Come to Me” by Patti Austin and James Ingram, which was Number One in the USA February 19 and 26, 1983. The song was originally released in April 1982, and was on the “Hot 100” for only four weeks, peaking at Number 73 on May 8. The song was re-released in October 16, 1982 after it featured on US TV soap opera, General Hospital, and then hit Number One on February 19, 1983. All up, it spent seven months on the charts.

The song was on Patti Austin’s fourth studio album, Every Home Should Have One, which was released on September 8, 1981. Today, Austin is 72 years old. James Ingram had 40 Top 40 hits on the “Hot 100” between the early 1980s and early 1990s. Ingram died of brain cancer on January 29, 2019.

In addition to it being Number One in the USA for two weeks in 1983, “Baby, Come to Me” hit Number 38 in Australia, 3 in Canada, 9 in New Zealand, and 11 in the UK. No information on certifications was readily available.

Next up, it’s a song that, as the saying goes, needs no introduction: "Billie Jean" by superstar (or, maybe, super-superstar…) Michael Jackson, which was Number One for seven consecutive weeks from March 5 to April 16, 1983:



Where to even begin with this one?! Well, how about game-changing? Or, maybe revolutionary? The song was the second single from his sixth studio album, Thriller, which itself is the best-selling album of all time. The seven singles from that album—out of the nine tracks in total—were all Top 10 hits, with “Billie Jean” and “Beat It” both going to Number One, which helped the album become a mega best seller—in fact, in 2021, RIAA certified Thriller as being 34x Platinum.

The music video, too, was revolutionary, for a lot of reasons, not the least because it was originally rejected by MTV because they felt that black music didn’t fit in with their programming. Walter Yetnikoff, then president of Jackson's record company, CBS Records, threatened to pull all CBS music from MTV and go public “and fucking tell them about the fact you [MTV] don't want to play music by a black guy.” MTV caved and the music video debuted on MTV on March 10, 1983. It went on to become one of the most lauded and popular music videos of all time, and was, among other things, the first 1980s music video to achieve one billion views on YouTube (it’s currently at around 1.3 billion).

The director of the music video was Irish-British filmmaker, Steve Barron, who made many hit videos, including Toto’s “Africa”, which featured in last week’s “Weekend Diversion”. He also made the famous video for the 1985 hit by Norwegian band a-ha, “Take On Me”. The video for that song is currently sitting at 1.6 billion views. It turns out that he made a lot of music videos I liked.

I bought Thriller soon after it was released, and I saw videos of the album’s hits in gay bars in Chicago that featured music videos (at one point there were three such bars that specialised in music videos, and a couple others that played music videos at least sometimes). However, I wasn’t exactly a huge fan of “Bille Jean”. That was mostly because of the saturation airplay all the singles got on radio (which I listened to in those days), but I was also more into electronic 80s music, especially the sort usually called “alternative”, and, for me, “Bille Jean” seemed “too mainstream”, something that’s funny to me now.

In the years that followed, the media circus around Jackson moved from bizarre to serious, and he was sued over allegations of sexual abuse. For many people, including me, it started to feel a bit weird to play his music, not the first or last time that’s happened as an artist publicly faced some negative issue or other. However, for me, it wasn’t about controversies I didn’t know how to evaluate fairly, it was that he seemed so sad, and because of that, playing his music made me feel uncomfortable. Besides, by the 1990s, I’d moved on from Thriller, and never really got into his later music. By the time he died from “acute propofol intoxication” on June 25, 2009, I hadn’t listened to his music in quite some time (maybe many years?), unless I happened to have the radio on and one of his songs was broadcast, though by 2009 it was already quite rare for me to listen to the radio. Even so, Michael always seemed to be around somewhere—until he wasn’t.

I sometimes wonder what he would’ve created if he’d been happy his whole life, but maybe his greatest work was only possible because of his pain? In any case, I very well remember the energy and excitement associated with the release of Thriller and its many hits, including “Billie Jean”. I can remember those days when it was nearly impossible to go out in public without hearing one of his songs somewhere, and I’ve never really experienced anything quite like that again. There just aren’t any other artists or pop records that have been as large a part of the background music in my life.

No “Weekend Diversion” post about pop music would be complete without a mention of chart performance: In the USA, “Billie Jean” hit Number One and is certified as Diamond (10 million, including both sales and streaming). It was Number 4 in Australia (9x Platinum, both sales and streaming), 9 in Canada (2x Platinum, based on shipping only), 9 in New Zealand (Gold, sales only), and 8 in the UK (3x Platinum, both sales and streaming). Side note: This is the first time I’ve seen Wikipedia list certifications that specifically state it includes combined sales and streaming, though it’s probably been the case for a very long time—maybe I just never noticed?

In their own way, both of these songs were ubiquitous in my early 1983 life, though obviously “Billie Jean” was far more so. Be that as it may, I seldom think of either song (or the ones in last week’s post, either, for that matter). That’s not true, though, about other songs yet to come in this series.

Next week, even more of 1983.

Previously in the “Weekend Diversion – 1983” series:
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 1

Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 1

As last year was winding down, I wanted to come up with some blog posts I could easily prepare in advance, hopefully increasing my overall output. The first thing I thought of was reviving “Weekend Diversion” posts, but how?

I stopped doing regular “Weekend Diversion” posts when NZ's free-to-air video music TV channels ended, because when they did, I no longer had much connection to new music. Still, I’ve done posts about older music many times, and I suddenly realised that this year I could focus on the Number One pop songs of 1983.

The thing about 1983 isn’t (merely) that it was 40 years ago, it’s that it was my first full year living in Chicago, and it’s when I established what my life would be up until 1995 when I met Nigel and moved to New Zealand. 1983 was a very significant year for me.

The idea for these posts is loosely based on a series of posts Roger Green did as artists turned 70. Like his posts, these wouldn’t necessarily be every week because pop songs are often Number One for weeks in a row. Even so, the specific dates are fixed, so I could do the posts well in advance. As a bonus, the Number One dates for 1983 are all Sundays this year—almost like it was planned.

That’s when it all fell apart: I completely forgot all about it. In fact, I only remembered it because I ran across some links I saved at the end of last year, but that means I’m already behind schedule.

So, this week I’ll include three songs, which will mean I’ll be able to get back on track next week. Let’s get started.

The first song to hit Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1983 was “Maneater” by Daryl Hall and John Oates, which was Number One in the USA January 1 and 8, 1983:



This was a song I liked back in the day, though not for any particular reason: It had a good beat, and all that. I don’t actually have anything to say about it other than that. I’ve always mentioned chart performance, and in addition to it being Number One in the USA for the first two weeks of 1983 (and being certified Gold), it hit Number 4 in Australia and Canada (it was Platinum in Canada), also 4 in New Zealand, and Number 6 in the UK.

Next up, it’s "Down Under" by Australian band Men At Work, which was Number One from January 15-29, 1983:



Back in the day, more than a dozen years before I met Nigel, I liked this song. In June 2009, the band was sued for copyright infringement, the allegation being that the flute part was lifted from a 1932 Australian song called "Kookaburra", despite a perception in the public that it was in the public domain. The band lost the suit in 2010, and was ordered to pay 5% of its royalties from 2002. My personal opinion was, as it so often is in copyright “infringement” cases, that it was all nonsense, but the Australian courts have ruled on the matter, and our opinions don’t matter at all. The larger issue is that copyright law needs a massive overall everywhere, especially in the USA, which is crazy drunk with fealty to mega corporations and their claim to “copyright” in defiance of the framers of the US Constitution.

All that aside, in addition to hitting Number One in the USA (Platinum), it hit (surprisingly) Number 24 in Australia (Gold), Number One in Canada (Gold), Number One in New Zealand, and Number One in the UK (Platinum).

Finally for this week, it’s “Africa” by Toto, which was Number One on February 5, 1983:



I was never a fan of this song—but I can confidently sing along with it due to how much the song was played back in the day. I quite literally hated the line about Kilimanjaro rising above the Serengeti, which, at the time, struck me as the most insipid and banal song lyric ever, until other lyrics said, “hold me beer!”.

Having said all that, I actually liked Toto, and I bought their 1978 debut album “Hold the Line”. It was this particular song I disliked.

Despite my, um, indifference, the song still reached Number One in the USA (8x Platinum), 5 in Australia (12x Platinum), Number One in Canada (Gold), and Number 5 in New Zealand (Gold), and Number 3 in the UK (3x Platinum). So, what do I know, right? Yeah, well, I still skip it when it comes up in random play on my devices.

That’s technically it for this outing, however, “Down Under” was Number One on the “Hot 100” again on February 12. Next week, more of 1983.