Music's Special Place

[John FL]

Part 2:

I Get Weak	Belinda Carlisle	'88
I Guess That's That's Why They Call It The Blues	Elton John	'83
I Heard A Rumour	Bananarama	'87
I Just Called To Say I Love You	Stevie Wonder	'84
I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)	Aretha Franklin & George Michael	'87
I Melt With You	Modern English	'83
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For	U2	'87
I Think We're Alone Now	Tiffany	'87
I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)	Whitney Houston	'87
I Want A New Drug	Huey Lewis And The News	'84
I Want To Know What Love Is	Foreigner	'85
I Won't Back Down	Tom Petty	'89
If I Could Turn Back Time	Cher	'89
If You Don't Know Me By Now	Simply Red	'89
If You Leave	Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark	'86
I'll Be There For You	Bon Jovi	'89
I'll Tumble 4 Ya	Culture Club	'83
I'm So Excited	Pointer Sisters	'84
I'm Still Standing	Elton John	'83
I'm Your Man	Wham!	'86
In A Big Country	Big Country	'83
In My House	Mary Jane Girls	'85
In Your Eyes	Peter Gabriel	'86
Into The Groove	Madonna	'87
Invisible Touch	Genesis	'86
Is This Love	Whitesnake	'87
Islands In The Stream	Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton	'83
It's My Life	Talk Talk	'84
Joanna	Kool & The Gang	'84
Jump	Van Halen	'84
Karma Chameleon	Culture Club	'83
Keep Your Hands To Yourself	Georgia Satellites	'86
Keeping The Faith	Billy Joel	'85
Kiss	Prince And The Revolution	'86
Kokomo	The Beach Boys	'88
Kyrie	Mr. Mister	'86
La Bamba	Los Lobos	'87
La Isla Bonita	Madonna	'87
Lady In Red	Chris de Burgh	'87
Lean On Me	Club Nouveau	'87
Legs	ZZ Top	'84
Let The Music Play	Shannon	'84
Let's Dance	David Bowie	'83
Let's Go Crazy	Prince And The Revolution	'84
Let's Hear It For The Boy	Deniece Williams	'84
Like A Prayer	Madonna	'89
Like A Virgin	Madonna	'84
Listen To Your Heart	Roxette	'89
Little Lies	Fleetwood Mac	'87
Little Red Corvette	Prince	'83
Livin' On A Prayer	Bon Jovi	'87
Looking For a New Love	Jody Watley	'87
Lost In Emotion	Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam	'87
Love Is A Battlefield	Pat Benatar	'83
Love Shack	B-52's	'89
Love Song	The Cure	'89
Lovergirl	Tina Marie	'85
Lucky Star	Madonna	'84
Mad About You	Belinda Carlisle	'86
Making Love Out Of Nothing At All	Air Supply	'83
Man In The Mirror	Michael Jackson	'88
Maniac	Michael Sambello	'83
Manic Monday	The Bangles	'86
Material Girl	Madonna	'85
Modern Love	David Bowie	'83
Money For Nothing	Dire Straits	'85
Mony Mony	Billy Idol	'87
My Prerogative	Bobby Brown	'89
Need You Tonight	INXS	'87
Neutron Dance	Pointer Sisters	'85
Never Gonna Give You Up	Rick Astley	'88
Never Gonna Let You Go	Sergio Mendes	'83
Never Tear Us Apart	INXS	'88
Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now	Starship	'87
Obsession	Animotion	'85
Oh Sheila	Ready For The World	'85
Oh Sherrie	Steve Perry	'84
One More Night	Phil Collins	'85
One More Try	George Michael	'88
One Night In Bangkok	Murray Head	'85
One On One	Daryl Hall & John Oates	'83
One Thing Leads To Another	The Fixx	'89
Open Your Heart	Madonna	'87
Our House	Madness	'83
Out Of Touch	Daryl Hall & John Oates	'84
Owner of a Lonely Heart	Yes	'84
P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)	Michael Jackson	'83
Papa Don't Preach	Madonna	'86
Part-Time Lover	Stevie Wonder	'85
People Are People	Depeche Mode	'85
Photograph	Def Leppard	'83
Point Of No Return	Exposé	'87
Pour Some Sugar On Me	Def Leppard	'88
Power Of Love	Huey Lewis And The News	'85
Pride (In The Name Of Love)	U2	'84
Promises, Promises	Naked Eyes	'83
Purple Rain	Prince And The Revolution	'84
Push It	Salt-N-Pepa	'88
Raspberry Beret	Prince And The Revolution	'85
Rebel Yell	Billy Idol	'83
Red Red Wine	UB40	'88
Relax	Frankie Goes To Hollywood	'85
Rhythm Is Gonna Get You	Gloria Estefan & The Miami Sound Machine	'87
Rhythm Of The Night	DeBarge	'85
Right Here Waiting	Richard Marx	'89
Rio	Duran Duran	'83
Roam	B-52's	'89
Rock Me Amadeus	Falco	'86
Rock Steady	The Whispers	'87
Rock The Casbah	The Clash	'83
Rock You Like A Hurricane	The Scorpions	'84
Run To You	Bryan Adams	'85
Runnin' Down A Dream	Tom Petty	'89
Running With The Night	Lionel Ritchie	'84
Sad Songs (Say So Much)	Elton John	'84
Safety Dance	Men Without Hats	'83
Sara	Starship	'86
Saving All My Love For You	Whitney Houston	'85
Say It Isn't So	Daryl Hall & John Oates	'83
Say You, Say Me	Lionel Ritchie	'85
Say, Say, Say	Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson	'83
Sea Of Love	Honeydrippers	'85
Self Control	Laura Branigan	'84
Send Me An Angel	Real Life	'89
Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)	Journey	'83

 

[John FL]

Final - Part 3

Sexual Healing	Marvin Gaye	'83
Shake You Down	Gregory Abbott	'87
Shattered Dreams	Johnny Hates Jazz	'88
She Blinded Me With Science	Thomas Dolby	'83
She Drives Me Crazy	Fine Young Cannibals	'89
She Works Hard For The Money	Donna Summer	'83
She's A Beauty	The Tubes	'83
Shock The Monkey	Peter Gabriel	'83
Shout	Tears For Fears	'85
Sister Christian	Night Ranger	'84
Sledgehammer	Peter Gabriel	'86
Small Town	John Cougar Mellencamp	'85
Smooth Criminal	Michael Jackson	'88
Smooth Operator	Sade	'85
So Emotional	Whitney Houston	'88
Solid	Ashford & Simpson	'85
Somebody's Watching Me	Rockwell	'84
Something About You	Level 42	'86
Sowing The Seeds Of Love	Tears For Fears	'89
St. Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion)	John Parr	'85
Stand Back	Stevie Nicks	'83
Straight Up	Paula Abdul	'89
Stuck On You	Lionel Ritchie	'84
Stuck With You	Huey Lewis And The News	'86
Summer of '69	Bryan Adams	'85
Sunglasses At Night	Corey Hart	'84
Sussudio	Phil Collins	'85
Sweet Child O' Mine	Guns N' Roses	'88
Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)	Eurythmics	'83
Sweet Freedom	Michael McDonald	'86
Sweet Love	Anita Baker	'86
Take Me Home	Phil Collins	'86
Take Me Home Tonight	Eddie Money	'86
Take My Breath Away	Berlin	'86
Take On Me	A Ha	'85
Talking In Your Sleep	The Romantics	'84
Tarzan Boy	Baltimora	'86
Tell Her About It	Billy Joel	'83
Tell It To My Heart	Taylor Dayne	'88
That's All	Genesis	'84
That's What Friends Are For	Dionne Warwick & Friends	'86
The Flame	Cheap Trick	'88
The Girl Is Mine	Michael Jackson & Paul McCartney	'83
The Glamorous Life	Sheila E.	'84
The Heat Is On	Glenn Frey	'85
The Living Years	Mike + The Mechanics	'89
The Longest Time	Billy Joel	'84
The Look	Roxette	'89
The One I Love	R.E.M.	'87
The Promise	When In Rome	'88
The Reflex	Duran Duran	'84
The Search Is Over	Survivor	'85
The Warrior	Scandal f. Patti Smith	'84
The Way It Is	Bruce Hornsby & The Range	'86
The Way You Make Me Feel	Michael Jackson	'88
These Dreams	Heart	'86
Things Can Only Get Better	Howard Jones	'85
This Time I Know It's For Real	Donna Summer	'89
Thriller	Michael Jackson	'84
Through The Fire	Chaka Khan	'84
Time (Clock Of The Heart)	Culture Club	'83
Time After Time	Cyndi Lauper	'84
Together Forever	Rick Astley	'88
Too Shy	Kajagoogoo	'83
Total Eclipse Of The Heart	Bonnie Tyler	'83
True	Spandau Ballet	'83
True Blue	Madonna	'86
True Colors	Cyndi Lauper	'86
Twilight Zone	Golden Earring	'83
Two Hearts	Phil Collins	'89
Two Of Hearts	Stacey Q	'86
Uptown Girl	Billy Joel	'83
Valerie	Steve Winwood	'87
Venus	Bananarama	'86
Voices Carry	'Til Tuesday	'85
Waiting For A Star To Fall	Boy Meets Girls	'88
Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go	Wham!	'84
Walk Like An Egyptian	The Bangles	'86
Walk Of Life	Dire Straits	'86
Walking On Sunshine	Katrina & The Waves	'85
Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'	Michael Jackson	'83
Wanted Dead Or Alive	Bon Jovi	'87
We Are The World	U.S.A. For Africa	'85
We Belong	Pat Benatar	'85
We Built This City	Starship	'85
We Didn't Start The Fire	Billy Joel	'89
We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)	Tina Turner	'85
We’re Not Gonna Take It	Twisted Sister	'84
West End Girls	Pet Shop Boys	'86
What About Love	Heart	'85
What Have I Done To Deserve This	Pet Shop Boys & Dusty Springfield	'88
What Have You Done For Me Lately	Janet Jackson	'86
What's Love Got To Do With It	Tina Turner	'84
What's On Your Mind (Pure Energy)	Information Society	'88
When Doves Cry	Prince And The Revolution	'84
White Wedding	Billy Idol	'83
Who's Holding Donna Now	DeBarge	'85
Why Can't This Be Love	Van Halen	'86
Wild, Wild, Wild West	Escape Club	'88
Will You Still Love Me	Chicago	'87
Will You Still Love Me?	Chicago	'87
With Or Without You	U2	'87
Word Up	Cameo	'86
Wrapped Around Your Finger	The Police	'84
You Are	Lionel Ritchie	'83
You Belong To The City	Glenn Frey	'85
You Can Call Me Al	Paul Simon	'87
You Can't Hurry Love	Phil Collins	'83
You Give Love A Bad Name	Bon Jovi	'86
You Got It	Roy Orbison	'89
You Keep Me Hangin' On	Kim Wilde	'87
You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)	Dead Or Alive	'85
Your Love	Outfield	'86
You're The Inspiration	Chicago	'85
You've Got It All	The Jets	'87

 

[John FL]

The 1980s proved to be an interesting decade musically. The previous posts contained many of the songs that found themselves on the radio at one time or another. How many of these songs have survived in today's classic hits format? It's hard to say but for the rock-oriented ones, perhaps 70% of the listed songs wouldn't make the cut.

It was in 1997 that my job relocated me to Jacksonville. My education in music appreciation took a different turn for sure. Despite my belief that I was a music expert of sorts, I not only never heard of Lynyrd Skynyrd or the band's music but I spelled the name wrong for probably a couple years. Yes, I thought it was Leonard Skinner.

The truth is in all the radio markets I lived in and the stations I listened to in my work and pleasure travels, I never heard the song. When the internet took off and research was at our fingertips, I couldn't find that 1974 song that reached #8 nationally in the various radio stations I had listened to over the years.

What I suspect is rock formats played the song and that was a format I didn't listen to at all. People I came in contact with in Jacksonville, co-workers, for example, who lived in Jax all their lives told me the old WAPE-AM did play the song. Well, no doubt they would. I also wouldn't be surprised that many Florida AMers of the day, outside of Miami, played the song in a heavier rotation.

It's not a song I like personally. But, I think it ties a lot to what I said about FM hit music playlists. They had differences from their AM counterparts and one of them was chart position and certain song inclusion. Many years ago, with my Billboard Top 40 handbook at my side, I discovered a good percentage of songs Classic Hits formats embraced that never even reached the top 20!

As many of the radio pros have said on these boards for years, original popularity of a song doesn't mean anything. It's all about how it tests today. And perhaps with the copycat nature of radio, when leading stations play the songs , others follow. "Sweet Home Alabama" is one of many examples. When Miami's Magic 102.7 evolved into Classic Hits, they eventually added Skynyrd's song to the playlist, but it was much later than WCBS-FM. The bottom line is what the experts have said has proven to be true.

I listened almost always to just oldies formats from the mid 80s to 1997. I was especially interested in listening to The Big Ape because I had heard much about the station and it's history. I had heard airchecks and WAPE almost had a WABC sound. For a market the size of Jacksonville, WAPE with it's great daytime AM coverage was a legend of sorts. So I gave a listen.

I actually took a liking to the music. And in a twist from all the previous decades, I've grown to appreciate the music of the late 90s more than any other part of the decade. I'll be putting my thinking cap on to recall the 90s songs I enjoyed and perhaps to include some of 90s titles I first heard when some classic hits stations began offering 90s music. The 90s will be our last musical stop on this incredible journey of 6 decades of music.

 

[John FL]

It was in 1991 that I heard "Unforgettable" playing in the background and radio station WHYI (Y-100) was airing it. It seems the appropriate final comment bringing this string full circle. With the wonders of technology, it was just like Nat "King" Cole was in the recording studio with his daughter Natalie.

We started all of this with a look at music from way back in the 40s, Nat "King" Cole was popular then and all those decades later, a younger generation was hearing music that was a throwback to a totally different time.The song never cracked the Billboard Top 10 but it was a gold record nonetheless.

As I think back, I can see how history certainly repeats itself. In 1991, Y-100 wasn't the dominant station it once was. Just ten years earlier, Y-100 was kicking some serious butt. What a powerhouse and money-maker!

Twenty years earlier in 1970, WABC was "the most listened to station in the nation. There were at least two ratings reports that year that showed the station was #1 in every demo under the sun. In 1972, PM drive host, Dan Ingram, ran up a 22 share, the highest it would ever be. In just a matter of a few years, all that changed, along with mass-appeal programing.

It probably explains my fascination for the past as it applies to radio. You certainly can't rest on your laurels. Things can change very quickly in radio. The music itself is the same. Change is what can best explain music as it moves through time.

Anyway, I hope you got a kick out of this expansive look back. If I motivate even a few people to check out music from different eras, perhaps long before you were born, then this was all worth it.

Have a happy and safe holiday season and thanks for "listening." What follows is an A-Z type list, not too long, of 90s songs I've heard over the years, and songs I mostly like. 1999 is my fav year from that decade and a stark contrast to all the other decades where I preferred the earlier years more. It's easy to put down the music of any decade if you don't really know it. But, there's a chance you'll probably enjoy more than you think. You just have to put your biases aside.

(Everything I Do) I Do It For You	Bryan Adams	1991
3 AM	Matchbox Twenty	1998
All Star	Smash Mouth	1999
Baby One More Time	Brittney Spears	1999
Baby, Baby	Amy Grant	1991
Because of You	98°	1998
Because The Night	10,000 Maniacs	1994
Believe	Cher	1999
Black or White	Michael Jackson	1991
Black Velvet	Alannah Miles	1990
Breakfast at Tiffany's	Deep Blue Something	1995
Can't Help Falling in Love	UB40	1993
Crush	Jennifer Paige	1998
Enjoy The Silence	Depche Mode	1990
Fantasy	Mariah Carey	1995
Finally	Ce Ce Peniston	1992
Fly Away	Lenny Kravitz	1999
Genie in a Bottle	Christina Aguilera	1999
Have I Told You Lately	Rod Stewart (Live)	1993
I Don't Wanna Fight	Tina Turner	1993
I Don't Want To Miss a Thing	Aerosmith	1998
I Need To Know	Marc Anthony	1999
I Swear	All-4-One	1994
I Want It That Way	Backstreet Boys	1999
I'm Every Woman	Whitney Houston	1993
Iris	Goo Goo Dolls	1998
It Must Have Been Love	Roxette	1990
I've Been Thinking of You	Londonbeat	1991
Just Another Day	Jon Secada	1992
King of Wishful Thinking	Go West	1990
Kiss Me	Sixpense None The Richer	1999
Life Is a Highway	Tom Cochrane	1992
Linger	The Cranberries	1994
Livin' La Vida Loca	Ricky Martin	1999
Losing My Religion	R.E.M.	1991
Love Will Lead You Back	Taylor Dayne	1990
More Than Words	Extreme	1991
Music of My Heart	*NSYNC and Gloria Estefan	1999
No Scrubs	TLC	1999
Ordinary World	Duran Duran	1993
River of Dreams	Billy Joel	1993
Smooth	Santana with Rob Thomas	1999
Someday	Sugar Ray	1999
Tears in Heaven	Eric Clapton	1992
The Sign	Ace of Base	1994
Touch Me (All Night Long)	Cathy Dennis	1991
Unbelievable	EMF	1991
Under The Bridge	Red Hot Chili Peppers	1991
Unforgetable	Natalie Cole with Nat "King" Cole	1991
Vogue	Madonna	1990
Waterfalls	TLC	1995
You're Still The One	Shania Twain	1998

 

[John FL]

I've got some more "closing" comments.

Recently, I met someone who specializes in oldies presentations. He's got 3 ladies who do the signing and the dancing. He handles the Karaoke machine and does some comedy and singing as well. His van advertises 50s, 60s, and 70s music. Our church hired them for one of their entertainment venues. As I mentioned earlier, some of these "entertainers" are hired by the many senior facilities in the area. No surprise, it can be quite lucrative depending on the senior home.

This guy, as I've known others, had a career as a radio broadcaster in the past. It takes someone with an outgoing personality to get those with memory issues to have a good time. Speak to any director of activities and they will tell you it's through the music that brings many out of their shell. As this subject title says, music does have a special place in virtually all of us.

Christmas/holiday music is especially popular in these venues. It goes to show that if there is one genre that reaches a broad spectrum of people, it's all those seasonal tunes. While there's some planning, a lot of what the senior audience enjoys the most are songs they request. I've heard this many times from others in this line of work.

While it's not specific titles that's not requested, it's the artists themselves that are shouted out. Frank Sinatra is one such artist. Among the most popular songs in the repertoire are "New York, New York" and "My Way." With all the former New Yorkers/North-easterners who have made Florida home, the NY song is understandable.

Finally, I'm not afraid of taking on ambitious subjects on this board. While I think a discussion of music from the 40s through the 90s looked very promising on paper, I certainly needed a lot more lead time. I came up with this topic shortly after hearing from someone I knew from my late mom's senior home.

While I can understand very old music (40s and 50s) has limited appeal, I still think there's sufficient interest in music from the 60s. Because of time restraints given all on our plates during the holidays, I should have developed a much longer "countdown" from that decade. It wasn't very representative as many really great songs were left behind. The 80s, on the hand, featured hundreds of songs. Truth is, most of that was a copy and paste of what I already had. Taking the easy way out is never a good option, especially for a aggressive subject like this one.

Not all info on the internet is accurate. While that shouldn't be surprising, I simply forgot that certain webpages are frozen in time in not being updated. That can give the false impression that an artist is still alive. I can still find my dad's name on the internet. In some sites, he's alive and well with an age of 90s and even 100s. I pride myself on being accurate and being credible. Hopefully, I didn't ruin my reputation too much.

Anyway, my closing thoughts. Music is an interesting subject and there's lots of ways we can discuss it.