Don’s Top 10 From April 13, 1985

(#7 last week) I'm not real sure why youtube doesn't have the original video for this, but if you google it, you can see it on other services. Seems silly. So does the song, which has come to represent the "greed is good" ethos of the 80s. Hey, it's just a catchy, escapist fantasy. A girl can dream, can't she? Madonna's dreams certainly came true in 1985, her biggest year.

(#12 last week) Killer all-star jam! Still gets people up & dancing. I don't remember this as a movie hit, but it was: "National Lampoon's European Vacation". RIP Robert Palmer, who passed on way too young, in 2003 at age 54.

(#16 last week) Yet another soundtrack hit, but not this version: the original, by songwriters Holly Knight & Michael Des Barres, was in the schlocky "A Night In Heaven" with Christopher Atkins & the lovely Lesley Ann Warren.

(#6 last week) It took REO 10 years to get their first big hits, then 4 more years for their next. Yet after 14 years, they had the same lineup, a rarity.

(#9 last week) The OTHER Jim Kerr & company, from the soundtrack to "The Breakfast Club". Simple Minds were the fourth recording act to be offered the song (the others were Cy Curnin of The Fixx, Bryan Ferry & Billy Idol), & even they initially turned down producer Keith Forsey. Good thing they changed their minds.

(#2 last week) Grammy winner, Best R&B Vocal by a Duo Or Group. A surprise Lionel Richie-less comeback for the Alabama soulsters, 3 years after their last hit with Richie, "Oh No". It's basically a soul version of "Rock & Roll Heaven".

(#3 last week) At the same time this was a hit, a previous hit of his was up for an Oscar: "Against All Odds". But Collins wasn't asked to sing his own hit song by the old-fogie academy, instead recruiting stage veteran Ann Reinking to perform it! Collins is a nice guy. He gave one of my contest winners & I some time before a show at the Spectrum in '85.

(#4 last week) Yet ANOTHER soundtrack song, this one from "Vision Quest" starring Matthew Modine. A very important hit for Madonna: it was her first ballad, which meant it was her first biggie on Adult Contemporary radio. Interestingly, she was hired to perform this before she had had any hits on the radio.

(#5 last week) Yet ANOTHER movie song ("The Last Dragon")--5 this week. Where have all the soundtrack hits gone in the 2010s? BTW, the family DeBarge has had a lot of bad luck since their heyday in the 80s. Here's wishing nothing but the best for them.

(#1 last week; 4th week at #1) I'm a little stunned at how much I've missed hearing this song, considering how sick I was of it so quickly in 1985. And watching the video is very emotional (loved hearing Stevie & Bruce trade verses); seeing all those great artists together in one room, some no longer with us. A magnificent moment in pop music history. I don't think we'll ever be able to repeat it: there aren't enough mass-appeal artists anymore.