Don’s Top 10 From May 18, 1982

(#10 last week) While Davis was always a soft rocker, this big hit took him from the "kinda-hip singer-songwriter" category to a corny adult contemporary (AC) type, which kinda ruined his career. Yet, everyone remembers this song, & most kinda like it!

(#6 last week) A song about 1965 at #10, & a remake of a 1965 song at #9! Nice update of a soul standard by the Royalettes. Niecy sang backup for Stevie Wonder in the mid 70s.

(#5 last week) And at #8, a song invoking 40s nostalgia! "Sailing away to Key Largo"? Um....in the film "Key Largo" (1948), Bogart and Bacall do not sail to Key Largo; Bogart arrives on a bus, and Bacall is already living there.

(#8 last week) One of the best-remembered, & most polarizing, hits of the decade! It first charted (barely) in 1977, but a radio guy with "golden ears", the legendary Scott Shannon, revived it while working for a Tampa station, & soon it spread nationwide. Charlene, discouraged by her career stalling in the late 70s, had quit the music biz, married an Englishman, & was working at a candy store in the U.K. when she got the surprising news her 5 year old song was a smash. Unusually direct lyrics, which caused most of the groaning (or cheering).

(#11 last week) Tommy Tutone is one of the many groups that sound like they're one person. I know more than one girl named Jenny or Jen who did not appreciate the teasing that came with this song. And, yes, there were more than a dozen people who had this number who were forced to change it.

(#4 last week) Sometimes, the simplest songs are the biggest. In my personal opinion, he anthem of a generation! 7 weeks at #1. Originally written by & sung by British group The Arrows in 1977, it was meant as an answer record to the Stones "It's Only Rock 'N Roll (But I Like It)". Joan Jett first heard it while with her first band, the Runaways, but couldn't convince the other girls to record it. Glad she remembered it years later.

(#7 last week) Rick's real last name? Springthorpe. How Australian! Almost no one remembers Rick's first American success, 1972's "Speak To The Sky". It's poppier than his 80s hits, but very catchy. Personal remembrance: It was around this time in 1982 that I saw Rick live in Kingston, PA, at the Armory. Stood next to one of the speakers & almost lost my hearing!

(#2 last week) Poor Go-Gos, having to follow Rex Smith's lame-O intro on "Solid Gold". For me, personally, these ladies gave me hope that catchy guitar pop-rock was on its way back to the charts. Loved 'em!

(#3 last week) Headed for the top (nationally). There have been a lot of #1 movie themes, & a lot of #1 instrumentals, but this is the only #1 record by an artist from Greece that I can think of. Vangelis' real name? Evangelos Papathanassiou.

(#1 last week; 2nd week at #1) HUGE hit, pilloried at the time for being somehow "too earnest" or corny, but the masses loved it. However, it doesn't get a lot of airplay now. Even though Paul & Stevie recorded this together, the music video, although it looks like they're together, was recorded at different times (they most recently performed this live at the White House in 2010). This song was the first by any Beatle to make the R&B chart, surprisingly.