List-a-Beefy

#64

64. You're The Inspiration – Chicago

 Stats:

• #3 for 2 Weeks in 1985 (January - February)
• Best higher charting song: Like a Virgin - Madonna 
• Worst higher charting song: All I Need - Jack Wagner 
• Top 100 #3 Hits 1955-2002 Rank: #56

This song is not for me, but John really likes it. Indeed, it made the finals for his first dance with his wife.  So, what can I say about it.  Most 80s Chicago is in the AC love song category and really they owned that for the whole decade.  It was a long way from their jazz-pop roots, but it also reflected a maturity of thought as well.  Regardless, teenagers need songs to make-out to and pledge their undying love to each.  This works for that.

Coming up: #63 - "My thoughts all seem to stray to places far away"

#64

64. You're The Inspiration – Chicago

 Stats:

• #3 for 2 Weeks in 1985 (January - February)
• Best higher charting song: Like a Virgin - Madonna 
• Worst higher charting song: All I Need - Jack Wagner 
• Top 100 #3 Hits 1955-2002 Rank: #56

This song is not for me, but John really likes it. Indeed, it made the finals for his first dance with his wife.  So, what can I say about it.  Most 80s Chicago is in the AC love song category and really they owned that for the whole decade.  It was a long way from their jazz-pop roots, but it also reflected a maturity of thought as well.  Regardless, teenagers need songs to make-out to and pledge their undying love to each.  This works for that.

Coming up: #63 - "My thoughts all seem to stray to places far away"

Year Spotlight: 1997

I like this song, but it didn't make:

1. Say You'll Be There - Spice Girls

Such is life.

Year Spotlight: 1995

My high school graduation year totally blanked on the #3s list. Here's what we left off:

1. Run Away - Real McCoy
2. I'll Be There for You/You're All I Need to Get By - Method Man & Mary J. Blige
3. Boombastic - Shaggy
4. Runaway - Janet Jackson
5. Hey Lover - LL Cool J

I like a couple of these songs but I can also see them missing this list as well.  Do you think so too?

Artist Spotlight: Jennifer Lopez

J-Lo had three #3 hits all of which gave this top 100 a miss.  They were:

1. Love Don't Cost a Thing (2001)
2. Jenny From the Block (2002)
3. On The Floor (2011)

Some of those those are catchy but none really belongs on the top 100.  Your thoughts?

#65

65. Eye in the Sky – The Alan Parsons Project

 Stats:

• #3 for 3 Weeks in 1982 (October - November)
• Best higher charting song: Who Can It Be Now - Men at Work 
• Worst higher charting song: Jack and Diane - John Cougar 
• Top 100 #3 Hits 1955-2002 Rank: #34

The Alan Parsons Project always seemed creepy to me even before the needle touched the record.  Their album imagery stark and always without a face.  Eye in the Sky, their biggest hit by a mile, was right in line with this image.  Its lineage, which it shares with the superior Every Breath You Take, stems from the desire to control another through observation and overproduction of the vocal gives that threat some real punch.  I have always tended to think of the 80s as a time of happier music, but some of its best stuff is the darkly washed synth pop like this.  Also:

Coming up: #64 - "From tonight until the end of time"

#66

66. Da Doo Ron Ron – The Crystals

Stats:

• #3 for 1 Week in 1963 (June)
• Best higher charting song: It's My Party - Lesley Gore
• Worst higher charting song: Sukiyaki - Kyu Sakamoto 
• Top 100 #3 Hits 1955-2002 Rank: #48

Thinking of the greatest Spector hits (Lovin' Feelin', Unchained Melody and Be My Baby leap to mind) it is easy to think of him providing the huge backdrops for emotional songs and not really ever doing dance music, but Da Doo Ron Ron is a dance song from start to finish... practically challenging Marth and The Vandellas and the Marvelettes to take their games up a notch.  Relentless and wonderfully nonsensical, the Spector production adds a real punch to the traditional first date kiss scenario.  Indeed, is da doo ron ron something maybe untoward that they just didn't want to say in words.  The Crystals sound like they could handle it regardless. (for comparison, check out Shaun Cassidy scrubbed cleaner than an Osmond cover.) This song gives girl group tunes a good good name. Da Doo Ron Ron Da Doo Ron Ron.

Coming up: #65 - "Don't let the fire rush to your head"

 

#67

67. Secret Agent Man – Johnny Rivers

Stats:

• #3 for 1 Week in 1966 (April)
• Best higher charting song: (You're My) Soul and Inspiration - The Righteous Brothers
• Worst higher charting song: Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) - Cher 
• Top 100 #3 Hits 1955-2002 Rank: #22

Even before it was a theme, it sounded like a theme.  Rivers easy but precise guitar work emphasized the transient nature while the lyrics expressed both the up and downside to spycraft.  In fact, it's almost too easy write this song off as a Bond soundalike, but the ethos is much more ambivalent to Bond's raw cool.  Even the beat seems to be sneeaking around a corner rather than a full on frontal assault. One of Rivers' best tunes.

Coming up: #66 - "Someday soon I'm gonna make him mine"

#68

68. Thong Song – Sisqo

 Stats:

• #3 for 3 Weeks in 2000 (May-June)
• Best higher charting song: Breathe - Faith Hill 
• Worst higher charting song: You Sang to Me - Marc Anthony
• Top 100 #3 Hits 1955-2002 Rank: #27

An homage to women's underwear. This song works primarily because its objectification never rises to the level of actual demeaning.  It also helps that the song is mostly about repeating a small number of ideas rather than trying to say anything more specific (for example judging women who wear them) or anything more general (like how society should shame or honor these women).  Instead it stays pretty much in Sisqo's mind, where his invitation to see her thong feels more like a hope and a prayer than an earnest request. Of course with beats as hot as this, it certainly give him cover to actually ask and certainly receive such displays.  Plus, he dumped a bunch of slang onto the market which was useful for my 2000 self.

Coming up: #67 - "A pretty face can hide an evil mind"

Year Spotlight: 1990

Another year without a hit was 1990.  Was there too much new jack swing? Or not enough? Let's go to the tape:

1. Downtown Train - Rod Stewart
2. Roam - The B-52's
3. I Wish It Would Rain Down - Phil Collins
4. All Around the World - Lisa Stansfield
5. How Can We Be Lovers - Michael Bolton
6. Poison - Bell Biv Devoe
7. Rub You The Right Way - Johnny Gill
8. Unskinny Bop - Poison
9. Do Me! - Bell Biv Devoe

#8 has made it before and could well make it again someday.  #2 and #4 really call to mind that era while #6 and #9 are very dated.  I don't know that I'm missing any of them.  Your thoughts?