Pause & Play Goes Back to ... 1983
Revisiting a Billboard Hot 100 chart from March that year
If someone (maybe me) asked you “what is your favorite three-year period of music,” what would it be?
For me, it’s 1982 to 1984.
We had MTV, “Friday Night Videos,” new wave, a new British invasion, “Thriller,” Prince and the Revolution, David Bowie, the glorious comeback of Tina Turner, the birth of the CD, record stores and cut-out bins, Cyndi Lauper, U2, Bruce Springsteen, The Police.
Heck, even Rolling Stone declared 1984 “pop’s greatest year.”
So it tickles my fancy to tune in to the Mixcloud channel Museum van de Hits’ countdown of the Billboard Hot 100 from March 5, 1983.
At the time, I was living in a stinky Ohio burg called Chillicothe – stinky because it’s home to a Mead Paper plant that spews a foul smell. It’s not a bad town, I just didn’t care for that sauerkraut fragrance from the plant in the morning.
I was the sports editor of the Gannett-owned Gazette newspaper, my first job out of college. Long hours, low pay.
“Hey, Siri. I was making $12,000 a year as a small-town newspaper sports editor in 1983. What would that salary be in 2025?”
“OK. After doing some calculations using online inflation calculators, a rough estimate of $12,000 in 1983 would be approximately between $38,000 and $40,000 in 2025.”
Not much to live on back then and certainly not now.
As sports editor, I found myself covering high school events in a four-county area. I spent a lot of time in my AMC Eagle tooling from town to town on country back roads, and therefore listened to tons of music along the way. I had my cassette tapes and a FM radio and was ready to roll. Music kept me sane.
Here are my random thoughts on some of the songs on this March ’83 chart, without Googling. Unlike my first look back at 1972, I didn’t have as many NHBs (never heard before) this time around.
At the end, I will give an overall grade for the show.
(You can listen to the program here or you can take a look at the actual Billboard chart from that week.)
Again, I listened to all these songs so you don’t have to. :-)
100. to 85. Nearly all the songs at the bottom of the chart had reached their peak in the waning months of 1982. We have the likes of Dionne Warwick’s “Heartbreaker,” Laura Branigan’s “Gloria,” Toni Basil’s “Mickey” and Michael Jackson & Paul McCartney’s “The Girl Is Mine.” At No. 91 was Don Henley’s “Dirty Laundry,” also falling down the chart. That song always reminds me of a British DJ friend of ours named Russell Carey who did a Sunday morning oldies program on WNCI-FM in Columbus, Ohio, called “Psychedelic Sunday.” Occasionally, he would let us into the studio to watch him do his three-hour program. But for an hour before his show began, he had to spin the hits of the day – his least favorite thing to do. Anytime listeners would call in to the request line, invariably someone would ask him, “Can you play ‘Kick 'Em When They're Up Kick 'em When They're Down?” Russell would bark at them in biting Brit fashion, “It’s called ‘Dirty Laundry,’ and since you didn’t get the title right, I won’t play it. Good day, sir.” Russell, wherever you are, thank you for helping to expand my musical tastes. He got me DJ promos of albums by The Jam, The Clash, Squeeze, The English Beat, et al.
Now, on with the countdown …
90. “You Are In My System,” The System – It didn’t get played much in our neck of the woods, but it’s a decent song. It didn’t chart very high, that much I know. Robert Palmer also did a version that year, but it didn’t fare well either. The System would have their revenge a few years later, scoring a big hit with “Don’t Disturb This Groove.”
84. “Keep It Tight,” Single Bullet Theory – It’s borderline NHB. I may have heard it years later. If I could Rate-a-Record it on “American Bandstand,” I’d say “It has a nice beat and you can dance to it.”
83. “Escalator of Life,” Robert Hazard – This was his one and only chart hit (a minor one at that). Little did he know that later in the year, the royalty checks would start pouring in … for a song he wrote in 1979, something called “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” You may have heard it.
82. “Please Mr. Postman,” Gentle Persuasion – NHB. If you’re going to do a cover, find something that hasn’t already been redone successfully.
81. “Minimum Love,” Mac McAnally – NHB. Pleasant tune; his voice made me think it was James Taylor at first. Mac would go on to be a longtime member of Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band.
80. “Only You,” Yaz – The first time we would hear Alison Moyet’s incredible voice.
79. “Sex (I’m A),” Berlin – Those racy lyrics scared off some radio stations. Oh, well. Side note: I interviewed Terri Nunn many moons later; she has a wicked sense of humor. Her claim to fame before Berlin was that she auditioned for the role of Princess Leia in “Star Wars” and got edged out by Carrie Fisher. “You can see the screen test online,” she told me. “Harrison Ford looks like he’s 15, I look like I’m 12. We read these lines and we didn’t know what the heck an R2D2 or a Chewbacca was … we had nothing to look at, so it’s hilarious to watch, at least for me it is.”
77. “Shoppin’ From A to Z,” Toni Basil – This is just plain silly. NHB, but I swear it has the same melody as No. 55, Pia Zadora’s cover of “The Clapping Song.” See if you can spot the similarity —>
76. “Rock the Casbah,” The Clash – moving down the chart + No. 57, “Should I Stay or Should I Go,” moving up. You know it’s a rad chart when there are two Clash songs.
73. “Love My Way,” Psychedelic Furs – Produced by Todd Rundgren, so it had to be good. It had already been out for a year and went nowhere in the States, until it appeared in the 1983 film “Valley Girl.” Side note: Flo & Eddie (The Turtles) sang backup.
72. “The Blues,” Randy Newman and Paul Simon – NHB. But I found out it was on the same album as “I Love L.A.” Newman and Simon are American treasures.
71. “Maneater,” Daryl Hall & John Oates – falling + No. 18, “One On One,” rising. Ever since these two got divorced, I can’t bear to listen to them anymore (well, except for “She’s Gone”).
70. “Sexual Healing,” Marvin Gaye – Oh, Marvin. He was killed by his father a year later.
65. “Beat It,” Michael Jackson – Its second week on the chart, and at No. 1 was “Billie Jean,” beginning its seven-week run at the top. I was too young to remember Beatlemania, so the biggest pop phenomenon in my lifetime was actually Jackson’s chart, radio, MTV and cultural dominance with “Thriller.”
62. “Little Red Corvette,” Prince – What a ride he had in 1982-84, with “1999,” recording the “Purple Rain” album and starring in his own “Purple Rain” movie.
60. “The Fanatic,” Felony – Saw them first on MTV and their appearance on “American Bandstand.” Dick Clark and Don Cornelius’ “Soul Train” were my go-to’s every Saturday. File this under One-Hit Wonder, along with No. 54. “Whirly Girl,” Oxo; No. 46, “It’s Raining Men,” Weather Girls; No. 31, “Der Kommissar,” After the Fire.
59. “Always,” Firefall – NHB. I honestly thought this was Franke & The Knockouts. LOL.
58. “Come Give Your Love to Me,” Janet Jackson – She was only 16 when she recorded her debut album. Gotta say, this track stands up pretty well today. It should have gone into the Top 40. Here she is before she reached superstardom —>
56. “She Blinded Me With Science,” Thomas Dolby – This synth-pop wizard came out of nowhere, sounding like no one else. I was instantly hooked. Science!
53. “I Don’t Care Anymore,” Phil Collins – How many drumsticks did he break recording this? Also see No. 29, a descending “You Can’t Hurry Love” + No. 22, Frida’s “I Know There’s Something Going On,” which he produced and played drums and likely broke more sticks.
45. “Change of Heart,” Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – There are legends all over this chart, like these guys, plus Diana Ross (42. “So Close”), Jefferson Starship (41. “Winds of Change”), Neil Diamond (35. “I’m Alive”), Donna Summer (33. “The Woman In Me”), Eric Clapton (28. “I Got a Rock ‘n’ Roll Heart”), Earth, Wind & Fire (21. “Fall in Love With Me”), Billy Joel (17. “Allentown”).
36. “Poison Arrow,” ABC – Around this time, I was buying British music magazines, like NME, Melody Maker, Smash Hits, etc. I wanted to know what was trending overseas. I figured the Brits had better tastes than the bloody Yanks. I knew about Martin Fry and Co. back in mid-1982 and got their debut album “The Lexicon of Love” on import. It wasn’t considered a concept album, but it sure had the feel of one. Almost cinematic.
34. “Jeopardy,” Greg Kihn Band – Am I the only one who sings it as “I Lost on Jeopardy”? That’s how good “Weird Al” Yankovic is at what he does.
26. “On the Loose,” Saga – It’s not a guilty pleasure. That synthesizer solo in the middle of the song is awesome. Go, Canada! 🇨🇦
25. “Come On Eileen,” Dexy’s Midnight Runners – I was supposed to do a phone interview with Kevin Rowland sometime in the late 1990s; the publicist advised me to not ask him about “Eileen” because it triggers him and that he would abruptly end the interview. I can see why; this song triggers me too. Side note: The interview never happened. Just as well. I didn’t have anything to ask him but “Eileen.”
20. “Mr. Roboto,” Styx – Some songs scream, “This should be a movie.” This is one of them. My friends and I at the time thought this was cheesy as hell, but it has grown on me over the years.
19. “Breaking Us in Two,” Joe Jackson – I distinctly remember Casey Kasem telling us “American Top 40” listeners that there was not a single guitar played on Jackson’s “Night and Day” album. That was a bold move, and clearly it worked.
16. “Twilight Zone,” Golden Earring – It was nice to have them back, nine years after “Radar Love.”
15. “Separate Ways,” Journey – Should we talk about that music video? Naw, let’s move on.
10. “Pass the Dutchie,” Musical Youth – It was so refreshing to finally hear some reggae again on the American charts. Of course, it had to come from the U.K.
9. “Back on the Chain Gang,” The Pretenders – Again, Casey Kasem told us that Chrissie Hynde was inspired by Sam Cooke's "Chain Gang" to add hammering sounds and the chain-gang chants. It was extra nice to see her and Martin Chambers continuing on after losing James Honeyman-Scott to a drug overdose and firing Pete Farndon for drug use.
7. “You and I,” Eddie Rabbitt & Crystal Gayle – I’m looking at my Billboard chart book right now, and it shows that this peaked at No. 7 in its 22nd week on the chart. It took five and a half months to get there? It proves that it was an enduring duet.
5. “Hungry Like the Wolf,” Duran Duran – “Rio” was a great album, period.
4. “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me,” Culture Club – Boy George kicked the door open and let everyone know, “It’s OK to be different and to look different.”
3. “Stray Cat Strut,” Stray Cats – They brought rockabilly back but had to go to England first to do it. Naturally.
2. “Shame on the Moon,” Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band – Rodney Crowell wrote it, and Seger delivered the goods.
1. “Billie Jean,” Michael Jackson – It bumped the Patti Austin/James Ingram ballad “Baby, Come to Me” from No. 1 and stayed for seven weeks. He and Quincy Jones were on top of the world.
Overall Grade: B+ … To me, it was the glory year of the 1980s. After 1983-84, music got progressively more overproduced, manufactured and overcommercialized. I guess it’s one of those things I'm curmudgeonly about.