Love Me All Up by Stacy Earl

There were a couple of years when the tide of pop music turned so completely that a lot of songs, and even a lot of artists, were eventually forgotten by both American radio and a good portion of the listening public.  A lot of talented artists, with a fair number of big hits, were swept away by the tides of history.  1979 was one year, when the anti-disco backlash finally boiled over, and a lot of the big artists of the day disappeared quickly.  The other year I can think of in which such a dramatic change came was 1991, and one of the artists left behind in that transition was Stacy Earl.

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Here We Go by Minnie Riperton

Minnie Riperton is pretty much universally known for her #1 hit “Lovin’ You”, but quite honestly, I prefer some of her other, lesser-known songs. Sadly, Ms. Riperton died, way too soon, in 1979. A final album, Love Lives Forever, came out in 1980, featuring some tracks Ms. Riperton had recorded in a 1978 session, combined with vocals contributed by several other artists as a tribute to her.


(Love Lives Forever hit #35 on the Billboard 200 in 1980.)

“Here We Go” was the first single released from Love Lives Forever, and it apparently hit #14 of what was then called the Hot Soul Singles chart. In this song, you can hear that Ms. Riperton is able to enunciate “here we go” quite clearly in the “whistle register”.

And as usual in this feature, no station in town has ever played this as long as I’ve been here, to the best of my knowledge.

Rush Hour by Jane Wiedlin

I still don’t understand why some one-hit wonders get continual airplay
(“Tainted Love”, anyone?), while others are never heard again. Former Go-Go Jane Wiedlin falls into the latter category with her summer 1988 hit, “Rush Hour”.  “Rush Hour” debuted on the top 40 at #33 in the countdown of June 11, 1988, and peaked at #9 seven weeks later.  Three weeks after that, it had already fallen out of the top 40, though some top 40 stations were still playing it at least into September (as evidenced by the September 1988 aircheck I have from “KJ-103″ in Oklahoma City).  All in all,”Rush Hour” spent 19 weeks on the Hot 100, and, as far as I know, it hasn’t been heard since.

(Fur, Jane Wiedlin’s second solo album, spent 20 weeks on Billboard 200, peaking at #105.  It was her last album to chart.)

I wonder if the song’s lack of staying power had anything to do with its strange dolphin-heavy video.  In any case, I’ve certainly never heard the song on any mainstream station since then.

I Can’t Wait by Deniece Williams

In 1988, Deniece Williams, who had had a pretty good run of success on the pop charts with hits such as “Too Much, Too Little, Too Late”, “It’s Gonna Take a Miracle”, and the love-it-or-hate-it “Let’s Hear It For the Boy”, made a final trip to the Hot 100, where it spent eight weeks and peaked at #66, and the R&B top 10 (#8) with “I Can’t Wait”.

(As Good As It Gets was the last charting album for Deniece Williams for 19 years.  It hit #48 on the Top R&B Albums chart.)

 

I truly don’t know why this song wasn’t a bigger hit. I know there were stations playing this at the time because I have a vintage November 1988 aircheck of Power 106 in LA playing it. Of course, you’d never, ever hear this on your current variety hits station (my local station’s slogan: “we play anything”). I suppose a classic R&B station (my local one is named “Jammin”) might be the likeliest candidate to play it, but since most of these stations have a very tight playlist, I guess that ship’s sailed as well.

Get Used To It by Roger Voudouris

Top 40 music in 1979 is probably remembered most for the beginning of the end of the disco era. The end of the year saw a big shift in the direction of pop music, exemplified best by The Knack’s “My Sharona”. However, to think of 1979 that way is way too simplistic. That year was also full of sugary ballads, the perennial hard rock, and, of course, yacht rock. This year featured the one and only chart appearance for one yacht rock artist, Roger Voudouris.

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An introduction

Hi.  I have set this blog aside to spotlight songs that were once popular, but now, at least in my opinion, they are not getting the attention that they deserve.  This blog is intended to present an alternative to the same 100 songs that every mainstream classic hits radio station seems to love.  Seriously, what classic hits station (or adult contemporary station, for that matter) doesn’t have “Take On Me” or “Come On Eileen” in its library?  And are those songs any more worthy of being remembered than other songs?  Not to me, they aren’t.

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