What do the following musicians have in common? Rod Stewart, Hall and Oates, Prince, Michael Jackson, April Wine, Crystal Gayle, Charlie Dore, Gary Numan, Dr. Hook, Blondie, Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand, Chuck Mangione, Isaac Hayes and ZZ Top? What could all of these musicians have in common? First off they've all been around for awhile, in fact a few of these people have died. R.I.P Prince, Michael Jackson and any others that might have died.
What don't they have in common, some of these musicians are legendary and some of them are forgotten one hit wonders, see Charlie Dore. There's Kenny Nolan on this chart and I've never heard of him, which for the amount of music I listen to means he's pretty obscure. His song "Us And Love (We Go Together)" is so obscure it doesn't even have a Wikipedia page. I wasn't aware that there are things that don't have their own Wikipedia pages. However he wasn't a no hit wonder, he had "I Like Dreamin'" go to #3 in 1976.
The common link among all of these songs is that they were all on Billboard's Hot 100 List on February 23, 1980. Truly the music 40 years ago was much better than it is now, I love all the diversity on this chart. And many of these songs were played on the same radio station, ah those were the days.
Although this is a perfectly good song, it only peaked at #46. It didn't even make the Top 40?
100) Rod Stewart featuring Amy Belle. And I don't know the name of the person that did that sax solo, but she's amazing. "I Don't Wanna Talk About It":
This song only reached #18, that's a tragedy. 99) Hall and Oates "Wait For Me":
This song only peaked at #86, however this was pretty typical for that times. Harder edge rock songs didn't really break into the top part of the charts until Quiet Riot's "Cum on Feel The Noize" went all the way to #5 in 1983. Now unless you're related to a member of April Wine or are an old fart like myself you probably haven't ever heard of April Wine. But they had at least three other very good songs which didn't receive the love they should have from the Billboard charts.
97) April Wine "I Like To Rock":
April Wine's biggest hit reached only #21, that song was the rock ballad "Just Between You and Me". It seems nearly every rock band had a ballad and there were some pretty amazing rock ballads, in fact that gives me a blog idea. Another great April Wine song, "Sign of The Gypsy Queen", reached 57. It's not on this specific Hot 100 but "Roller" soared all the way to #34 in 1979:
This song soared to #4 and was on the charts for 17 weeks. However I didn't know this song until I actually listened to it. Then I remembered it and this is one of the many great songs of Stevie Wonder. I love Stevie Wonder, one of the best vocalists and lyricists ever.
93) Stevie Wonder "Send One Your Love":
So-called New Wave didn't get much respect either, about the same as harder edge rock. Although this song was able to make it to #14. That peak position is not worthy of this amazing song.
91) The Pretenders "Brass In Pocket (Special)":
This song only reached #51, how is that even possible. This is one of the best songs about radio ever and has some of the greatest lyrics. I give you 11:36 of this deserved classic.
88) Rush "Spirit of Radio":
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