Don’s Top 10 From July 20, 1980

(#9 last week) For a song that charted so highly, Elton's rarely performed this live. I wonder why. No Bernie Taupin, BTW. Elton co-wrote this with Gary Osborne.

(#8 last week) The second consecutive hit "duet-in-one" by the Spinners, both combining one familiar oldie with one new song. John Edwards was lead singer on both (Philippe Wynne had left the group in 1977; he had been lead since since 1972), & these would turn out to be the last hits for them.

(#7 last week) A surprise comeback for these Jersey City natives four years after their #1 smash, "Kiss & Say Goodbye". Won the Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo Or Group.

(#11 last week)  The son of the died-too-young early 60s crooner Johnny Burnette hits big with this retro-tinged rocker, which could have been a hit in that same era. Given the mass-appeal sound here, it's been a very underplayed "classic hit". Peaked at #2 locally!

(#6 last week) Interesting real last name: Dupuis. Wouldn't even try to pronounce that! Robbie's a Brooklyn native, which you can't really tell by his sound, which is very Doobies-ish heartland. I shouldn't like this corporate popper, but I do!

(#3 last week) It may say 1980 on the calendar, but it's 1976 all over again with this disco classic! Lipps Inc. was a studio band conceived by Minneapolis native Steven Greenburg. For a one-hit wonder that came after the end of the "disco era", this song's had an amazing shelf life, one of the most enduring songs from the era.

(#4 last week) Stunningly, this song (written by Amanda McBroom), which won the Golden Globe for Best Song, wasn't even NOMINATED for an Academy Award in the same category! Huh? Was Better Midler too "out there" in 1980 for the old-fogy Academy members?

(#5 last week) A certified platinum single, when that meant sales of two million copies! For a genre that was supposed to be "dead", disco was doing fine in 1980. Only it's now being called "dance music". Whatever. This Atlanta-based group had only one other hit, the local smash "Just Be Good To Me" in 1983.

(#2 last week) If you flipped over this 45, you had the studio version, "Coming Up", by "Paul McCartney" (no Wings). This studio version is the one most of the world knows, but here in the states, most stations preferred the live version, all except WABC & "American Bandstand", the only two major exceptions who played that weirder studio version. And check the video from the studio version out! Very inventive. McCartney was way ahead on these little art forms. I love how he dressed as his own 1964 self. 16 years later, he hadn't aged a bit.

(#1 last week; 2nd week at #1) Billy's biggest hit single! It was so ubiquitous that Weird Al did a parody, "It's Still Billy Joel To Me". From one of my all-time favorite albums, "Glass Houses". This is actually my least-favorite song on the album, maybe because it gets played so much to this day.