This is from Nov. 15. I didn't listen to any station last evening. Driving to a volleyball match in Richardson, I was charging the phone. Driving home, I was tired and it was a short drive anyway.
This morning when I got in the car, the radio was on Sirius XM Channel 9, and I heard Extreme, "More Than Words", 1991. I might have written about this one before, and if so, I probably said it was about 1,500.
Then I switched over to Channel 8 and heard "Pressure" by Billy Joel in '82. 4,250, not one of Billy's best.
Rush, "New World Man". This is a 1982 countdown, so most of these will be from '82. This one was number 21during this week that year. I'm giving it 4,300.
Number 20 was Crosby, Stills & Nash, "Southern Cross". 3,000.
Number 19: Sylvia, "Nobody", 4,100. I just happened to think as I was typing this that Sylvia's style is similar to Suzanne Vega's.
Number 18: Survivor, "American Heartbeat", '82. 4,750, might be generous. A side note: doesn't it seem that Nina Blackwood today sounds a lot like Marge Simpson?
Number 17: Evelyn King, formerly known as Evelyn "Champagne" King, "Love Come Down", 4,850. Listening to these last two makes me think that the lousy music of the '80s started earlier than I remembered. This one doesn't have a disco beat, doesn't have anything that would indicate it would become rap or hip hop at any time, doesn't have a dance beat. I just really don't know what it's all about. I'm thinking these last two, if I get through more than 5,000 songs in this project, might have a good chance to get dumped off the list.
Number 16: Steel Breeze, "You Don't Want Me Anymore". It's pretty repetitive, but it does have a little bit of rock going for it. 4,600.
Number 15: Glenn Frey, but I don't have the name. I'm going to give this one 4,700 on the belief that he meant it as a lullaby, because it could be effective there. When the horns come in, they make me think of how I would perceive a 1950s second-rate jazz club.
Number 14: Joe Jackson, "Steppin' Out". 4,400.
Number 13 is Toni Basil, "Mickey". 2,050. I can't quite get it over 2,000. Most of Toni's 15 minutes of fame -- I'd say 14 minutes and 45 seconds -- is from this song, which was voted as high as No. 5 in lists of the best one-hit wonders. Her other 15 seconds were her turn in "Easy Rider," because that's about how long she was in it. I don't know who Mickey was, but I'll look that up. Which I just did. The song originally was recorded by British group Racey in 1979. The name was changed to Mickey so Toni would be singing about a man. She denied rumors that she chose that name because she was infatuated by the Monkees' Mickey Dolenz, whom she met while working as choreographer in the movie "Head". The 1981 video for "Mickey" is considered the first choreographed music video. It's catchy, with a beat, Toni running around in a cheerleader uniform, organ music, some change of tempo. It has some good qualities. Mickey is so fine, he blows her mind. Toni was pretty fine, too.
One of the things that I use to judge how much I like songs is when they come on the radio, do I change the station hoping to see if there's something I like better. If I do change the station, do I go through a few and then come back to the original song? The best ones are the ones that when they come on, I just listen to them. The next group would be OK, it will win out over a bunch of pretty good songs if I've changed the channel. The third group is where it's a good song, but it's beaten out by even better songs. The next level would be, well, there's really not much good here, so I'll have to settle for this song. Then down at the bottom there are just the ones that I would never come back to.
Number 12: Daryl Hall and John Oates, "Maneater". I'll say 4,000. It's the same beat throughout. There are some horns in it. Sometimes this duo was called just Hall and Oates. Oates said in an interview that they preferred being known by both their first and last names.
Number 11: The Alan Parsons Project, "The Eye in the Sky". This is one where I will use the "just compare it to what we just heard." Is it as good as "Maneater"?I don't think so. Another criterion is whether there's something special about this music either within its own time or against songs from other eras. I don't think so. It's a nice enough song, but there's nothing that stands out about it. I'm not sure what the project was, and I'm not sure how successful Alan Parsons was.
Number 10: Diana Ross, "Muscles". I vaguely remember this one. 4,500. The Sirius DJ, maybe it was Mark Goodman, was saying how this was nominated for, or maybe won, an R&B Grammy for Diana Ross. That tells me a few things. One is that there are too many Grammy awards. Number 2 is that it doesn't take much to win one, and No. 3 is it takes even less to get nominated.
Continue with sound recording #090.
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