Don’s Top Ten for May 5, 1983

(#13 last week) A very nice lady who passed on way too young. I was lucky enough to meet Laura at a radio station event at the Hyatt Regency Princeton. She was very, very sweet & humble. Always liked this song, the followup to the momnumental smash “Gloria”. The song kicked off the career of one of the world's top songwriters, Diane Warren

(#7 last week) The followup to the #1 “Maneater”, this single from “H2O” was used in commercials for the NBA. Nice midtempo change-of-pace for the duo.

(#14 last week) A forgotten favorite! Great to hear this one again, but sad to play it in memory of MAW's Greg Ham, who passed away on April 19, 2012. Amazingly, this did better chartwise in the U.S. (national peak #3) than in Australia (#5).

(#6 last week) Wow, did this not sound like Styx's previous hits. Instead, it had a definite Queen vibe. I got news for ya: someday, we will all be Mr. Roboto….

(#20 last week) Hottest song on the survey, the Thin White Duke decided he needed a hit & put his dancing shoes back on, a smart move, because it won him back R&B radio airplay & helped push this single to million-seller status.

(#2 last week) Almost 68 million people can't be wrong. That's how many times this video has been viewed on youtube in the last 5 years or so.

(#5 last week) One-hit wonder. First written & performed by Falco (“Rock Me Amadeus”). The station I worked at in Wilkes-Barre in 1983 split airplay between the two versions. Ironically, Laura Branigan also recorded a version. Weird.

(#3 last week) No, this had nothing to do with the game show. In fact, it was another year-and-a-half before Alex Trebek's version of that show would debut. Kihn was known for his pun-ny album titles. Six of his eight charted efforts were plays on his last name: “Next Of Kihn”, “Rockihnroll”, “Kihntinued”, “Kihnspiracy”, “Kihntagious” & “Citizen Kihn”.

(#9 last week) Eddie Van Halen was the guitarist on this song, but his record label prevented him from appearing in the video. He did join the Jacksons onstage during part of the “Victory” tour. #337 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest rock songs of all time.

(#1 last week; 2nd week at #1) One of the very best singles of the 80s; always glad to see quality rewarded with a big hit. The “Johnnie Ray” referred to in the lyrics was a very popular crooner of the early & mid 50s, a sad guy who sang sad songs.