My friend Dan Van Riper sent me this list of all the #1 songs since August 4, 1958.
I have links only to the middle tune, the song of my birthday. You can go to the website and hear the other contenders. If I’ve heard it before, I won’t play it again. If I’ve never heard of it, I’ll play it once. But I won’t listen to the adjacent tunes. My goal: am I happy with THAT choice to celebrate my birthday? Or (as will be the case in the latter stages of the game), I have no idea?
2/4/84 Culture Club – Karma Chameleon
2/25/84 Van Halen – Jump
3/31/84 Kenny Loggins – Footloose
I own all three of these; this may be the last time that’s true. Footloose is fun, and I like the Boy George song, but this is probably my favorite Van Halen tune, certainly my favorite of their hits.
2/2/85 Foreigner – I Want To Know What Love Is
2/16/85 Wham! feat. George Michael – Careless Whisper
3/9/85 REO Speedwagon Can’t Fight This Feeling
Odd, but while I’m familiar with the Wham! song, I don’t know that I ever LISTENED to it. I know it’s on some people’s Hate It list, probably from overplay, but I didn’t think it was such a bad song. Still, I’m a sucker for the choir in the Foreigner anthem.
2/15/86 Whitney Houston – How Will I Know
2/29/86 Mr. Mister -Kyrie
3/15/86 Starship – Sara
Starship bugs me, a Xerox of a Xerox of Jefferson Airplane. I had to play the Mr. Mister tune to say, “Oh, I HAVE heard it.” But I’ll opt for early Whitney.
2/7/87 Madonna – Open Your Heart
2/14/87 Bon Jovi – Livin’ On A Prayer
3/14/87 Huey Lewis & The News – Jacob’s Ladder
I have a News album but this song is not on it. Never really got into Bon Jovi, which seemed like a lesser version of Springsteen mixed with Van Halen. That leaves a Madonna song that I actually own.
2/20/88 Exposé – Seasons Change
2/27/88 George Michael – Father Figure
3/12/88 Rick Astley – Never Gonna Give You Up
Never gravitated to either of the guys’ songs, so I’ll opt for what is only a vague recollection of the Exposé song.
2/11/89 Paula Abdul – Straight Up
3/4/89 Debbie Gibson – Lost In Your Eyes
3/25/89 Mike + The Mechanics – The Living Years
I do like the Mike + The Mechanics song. But I remember talking with my friend Fred Hembeck and we agreed that Straight Up, the one Paula Abdul song he ever put on a mixed CD, was probably her only good one. The Debbie Gibson song was rather meh, but I don’t remember it from its heyday.
2/10/90 Paula Abdul & The Wild Pair – Opposites Attract
3/3/90 Janet Jackson -Escapade
3/24/90 Alannah Myles – Black Velvet
Whereas I HATE this Abdul song; the message irritates. Don’t remember the Myles song, so I’m left with not my favorite Janet tune.
2/9/91 C & C Music Factory feat. Freedom Williams – Gonna Make You Sweat
2/23/91 Whitney Houston – All The Man That I Need
3/9/91 Mariah Carey – Someday
I actually have a Mariah Carey best of CD, and I still can’t distinguish all of her songs. I don’t hate the Whitney, as it has interesting note progression on the verse, but I pick “Sweat”.
2/8/92 Right Said Fred – I’m Too Sexy
2/29/92 Mr. Big – To Be With You
3/21/92 Vanessa Williams – Save The Best For Last
The Mr. Big chorus is vaguely familiar. “I’m Too Sexy” is too clownish, so I’ll opt for Vanessa, which I own.
11/28/92 Whitney Houston – I Will Always Love You
3/6/93 Peabo Bryson & Regina Bell – A Whole New World
3/13/93 Snow – Informer
Don’t know the Snow song. I DO know the Whitney tune from the movie The Bodyguard (which I never saw), and it may even have been enjoyable the first few times, but heavens, 10 weeks at #1! I AM happy Dolly Parton got a lot of money for the cover. That leaves another recording associated with a film, Aladdin. This is not my favorite song, but I always liked the singers’ voices.
Straight Up by Paula Abdul has the distinction of being the only song in my radio career that I said “This is going to be huge,” and I turned out to be right. It really was a paradigm shift in terms of production, musicality, and even female empowerment.
My wife and I just had a tiny little row the other day over “I Want to Know What Love Is.” It was a “How can you not like this song?” kind of thing. I’ve just heard too many drunks wail along with it to really appreciate it anymore.
The chorus to that Mr. Big song might sound familiar because it was on a Wendy’s commercial all summer.
‘Father Figure’ by George Michael was…is..a tremendous recording.