Flashback: Top 10 singles this week 30 Years Ago
The Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week 30 years ago featured a classic mix of R&B, pop and new wave hits. From the chart published April 21, 1984:
10. Tracey Ullman – “They Don’t Know”
Written and originally recorded by British singer/songwriter Kirsty MacColl, Tracey Ullman’s cover of “They Don’t Know” would become her only Top 40 hit in America. It reached #8. The song is featured on Ullman’s album You Broke My Heart in 17 Places.
9. Eurythmics – “Here Comes the Rain Again”
The first American single from their third album Touch, Eurythmics’ “Here Comes the Rain Again” was the band’s third Top 40 hit in the U.S. It would go on to reach #4 and would be followed by two additional Top 40 hits from the Touch album: “Who’s that Girl” (#21) and “Right By Your Side” (#29).
8. Rick Springfield – “Love Somebody”
From the soundtrack to the film Hard to Hold, which stars Springfield as a rocker embroiled in a love triangle, “Love Somebody” would go on to reach #5. It was Springfield’s fifth Top 10 hit, following “Jessie’s Girl” (#1 in 1981), “I’ve Done Everything for You” (#8), “Don’t Talk to Strangers” (#2), and “Affair of the Heart” (#9).
7. Rockwell – “Somebody’s Watching Me”
The son of Motown founder Barry Gordy, Rockwell’s hit featuring Michael Jackson on guest vocal, reached #2. He’d follow it up with one more Top 40 hit: “Obscene Phone Caller” reached #35 later in the year.
6. Pointer Sisters – “Automatic”
The second single from the trio’s album Break Out, (“I Need Love” reached #48), “Automatic” reached #5 and marked a major come-back for the group. It was their first Top 10 since “Slow Hand” in 1981, and led to three more Top 10 hits from Break Out: “Jump (For My Love)” (#3), “Neutron Dance” (#6) and a re-release of “I’m So Excited” (#9).
5. Culture Club – “Miss Me Blind”
The third Top 10 hit from the iconic band’s second album Colour By Numbers (following “Church of the Poison Mind (#10) and the #1 smash “Karma Chameleon”), “Miss Me Blind” peaked at #5. It was not released as a single in the band’s native U.K., who got the ballad “Victims” instead.
4. Thompson Twins – “Hold Me Now”
The first of three Top 10 hits for the British trio in America (in 1985 they’d hit #6 with “Lay Your Hands on Me” and #8 with “King for a Day”), “Hold Me Now” reached #3. It was featured on their album Into the Gap.
3. Lionel Richie – “Hello”
The ballad “Hello” became one of five Top 10 hits from his smash album Can’t Slow Down, and one of two to reach the top (along with first single “All Night Long”).
2. Kenny Loggins – “Footloose”
The title-song for one of the most successful soundtracks of the ‘80s, Kenny Loggins’ “Footloose” was one of six Top 40 hits from the soundtrack, which also included another chart-topper (“Let’s Hear it for the Boy” by Deniece Williams) and another single by Loggins (“I’m Free” reached #22). Other hits were “Holding Out for a Hero” by Bonnie Tyler (#34), “Dancing in the Sheets” by Shalamar (#17) and the power-ballad duet “Almost Paradise” by Mike Reno of Loverboy and Ann Wilson of Heart (#7).
1. Phil Collins – “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)”
Another soundtrack hit topped the charts this week 30 years ago. “Against All Odds” was originally intended for his 1982 album Hello, I Must Be Going! but was ultimately shelved until it was resurrected for the film Against All Odds. The ballad was Collins’ fifth Top 40 hit as a solo artist, and the first of seven solo #1 hits: “One More Night,” “Sussuido,” “Separate Lives” (with Marilyn Martin), “A Groovy Kind of Love,” “Two Hearts” and “Another Day in Paradise.”
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