It’s funny when you talk about a radio station and note that they’re still doing what they were 40 years ago, but that’s the case with WEZB In New Orleans. They switched from disco to top 40 in 1980, and though they did try "hot talk" from 1994 to 1996 and "hot adult contemporary" from 1996 to 1998, they’ve stayed with the Top 40 format to this day. Here’s their Top 10 from 37 years ago today.
| # | Song/Artist | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | New Moon On Monday Duran Duran |
Their second single from the 1983 album *Seven and The Naked Tiger” and tenth single overall, this song entered the Hot 100 in January 1984 at #56 and peaked at #10 on St. Patrick’s Day. It also reached #9 in the UK. |
| 9 | I Want A New Drug Huey Lewis & The News |
Their second single from their 1983 album Sports, it reached #6 on the Hot 100 and topped the Dance chart. It’s now one of the band’s signature songs. |
| 8 | Footloose Kenny Loggins |
From the soundtrack album for the 1984 film Footloose starring Kevin Bacon and John Lithgow, from the guy who worked on more movie soundtracks than anyone in the ’80’s. It spent two weeks at #1 on the Hot 100 and ended up at #4 on the year-end chart. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1985, but lost out to Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called To Say I Loved You.” |
| 7 | Hello Lionel Richie |
“Hello” was the third single from Lionel’s 1983 solo album Can’t Slow Down. It was a #1 hit in most of the world and finished 1984 as the #7 song on the year-end Hot 100. |
| 6 | Miss Me Blind Culture Club |
The third single from 1983’s Colour By Numbers, it reached #5 on the Hot 100, becoming the band’s sixth consecutive (and last) Top ten hit. It also reached #6 in Canada. |
| 5 | Let The Music Play Shannon |
Title track from Shannon’s 1984 debut album. It was the first of four #1 hits on the Dance Club chart, and crossed over to be the #2 hit on the R&B chart (behind Patti Labelle’s “If You Only Knew”) and #8 on the Hot 100, her only Top 40 hit on that chart. Many mark it as the beginning of the Dance-Pop Era. |
| 4 | Got A Hold On Me Christine McVie |
The first single released from Christine’s eponymous second solo album, it reached #10 on the Hot 100 and topped the Adult Contemporary and Rock charts. It was her only Top 10 hit in the US as a solo performer. |
| 3 | Jump Van Halen |
The first single rom their 1983 album 1984, it was their most-successful single, reaching #1 on the Hot 100. The guitar solo is a composite of several takes and is the first by Van Halen that features a keyboard riff as the basis for the song. |
| 2 | Girls Just Want To Have Fun Cyndi Lauper |
A cover of a song done by Robert Hazard in 1979, Cyndi’s version was released in 1983 from her début album She’s So Unusual. The video won a Grammy Award and reached #2 on the Hot 100. Wikipedia tells us “The “Rolling Stone & MTV: ‘100 Greatest Pop Songs’: 1-50″, “Rolling Stone: “The 100 Top Music Videos”” and the “VH1: 100 Greatest Videos” lists ranked the song at No. 22, No. 39 and No. 45, respectively.” It won the 1983 American Video Award for Best Female Performance and the 1984 MTV Video Award for Best Female Video. |
| 1 | Somebody’s Watching Me Rockwell |
Title track from Rockwell’s 1984 Motown album, it was his début single and featured Michael Jackson singing the chorus and Jermaine Jackson providing backup vocals. It reached #2 on the Hot 100 and in Canada, #1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, and #3 on the Dance/Disco Top 80. |
And that’s Top Ten Tuesday for March 2, 2021.
Though I was only 5 in 1984, my parents exposed me to radio and Mtv a lot so I knew all these songs. Good list!
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MTV was a real game-changer when it first came out. Now it’s pretty much crap, but in the mid-’80’s, it was revolutionary with the videos. I really got into it, so I love the music from that era. Glad you enjoyed it!
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I don’t know that Duran Duran song but I know all the rest and how I jumped to the music in the discos
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I didn’t remember the Duran Duran tune until I heard it. There were a couple I didn’t know (mostly the ones by the artists with one name), but otherwise it was familiar.
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Know all of these well. That was in my heyday of keeping up with current music.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
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Same here. I was traveling a lot and listening to a lot of different radio stations.
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This time in 1984, I was on the road way too much to be listening to music. I remember some of these, but not all.
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Interesting. When I started traveling is when I started listening more music. It was around the time MTV was starting to get popular.
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I was doing a lot of driving around New England. In the morning I would go from PBS station to PBS station listening to Morning Pro Musica and in the afternoon, All Things Considered. Between Springfield, Providence and Boston, one was always in reach, and just a notch up the dial.
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Wow! I enjoyed all of these songs!
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Likewise!
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Wow, great o=playlist. 1984 was a great year for music.
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Yes it was. Glad you enjoyed it!
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