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Chart Flashback


How do 24-year-old songs by Fleetwood Mac, Human League, and Chicago hold up today? Whitney Pastorek gives 'em another listen






Billboard's top 10 singles for the week ending Aug. 7, 1982:

10. ''Don't You Want Me,'' Human League
To quote my MySpace buddy Becca Kelly, ''I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar. That much is true. Wait. That wasn't me.'' One of the most eminently recitable songs of the last 20 years kicks off this week's countdown, and despite its total absurdity — honestly, we're talking like one step away from ''My name is Luka, I live on the second floor'' here — I kinda love it. Doesn't it just seem so sophisticated and urbane? Doesn't it encapsulate exactly how you thought a grown-up relationship would go down when you were 10? B+

9. ''Only the Lonely,'' The Motels
Another very mysterious and mature song! I will forever associate this with lying on my bed and dreaming of kissing Allen Marshall. Of course, that didn't work out — the only physical contact I'd ever have with Allen Marshall was in first grade, when I tripped over him in a kickball game and broke my arm — but isn't this just a wonderfully mournful track? Martha Davis has such a strong-yet-wounded voice, and then there's that splendid sax solo. Nothing like a good sax solo to make you feel like everything would be okay if only you could hit fast forward on your life and turn 21 and spend your nights coyly toying with the swizzle stick in your tequila sunrise as you sat at a pink neon-lit bar and waited for Mr. Right. A-

8. ''Keep the Fire Burnin','' REO Speedwagon
Um, not REO Speedwagon's best. This song actually hurts my ears. First of all, it sounds like they took the melody from a really bad Mannheim Steamroller Christmas carol and changed the words to be about love or something and then hired a monkey to whack a crash cymbal for three minutes and 58 seconds. If you value your sanity, shut it off before the guitar solo hits high C and stays there. Now I think I know why I spent most of 1982 hiding under playground equipment, sobbing. F

7. ''Even the Nights are Better,'' Air Supply
What better way to soothe one's savaged eardrums than with a nice Air Supply song? I've often wondered how a band so very sappy could survive in the spiky, punky, frankly-kinda-obnoxious '80s, but now it occurs to me that they were what everyone needed now and again to take the edge off. I think if this song had been on last week's countdown (where I proudly declared that all songs from the '70s sound alike and we'd be better off just playing ELO's ''Livin' Thing'' on repeat), I might be less inclined to rave about it, but today it's doing me right. The way the chorus starts with a minor chord, slightly unsure, but grows, builds, soars into the harmonic, triumphant chorus — can't you just see two lovers riding a unicorn on a beach under a rainbow? B-

6. ''Rosanna,'' Toto
I can tell you right now that the secret to this song's success is in the quiet, almost a cappella build to the chorus: ''Not quite a year since she went away / Rosanna, yeah / Now she's gone and I have to say�'' And cue the horn section! It's that two-octave coverage with the snapping in the background that does it for me. (I'd love to know who's responsible for the deep bass vocal line, but my Googling yielded no results. Toto scholars! Drop me a line!) It's also possible that America responded to the spacey sound effects behind the instrumental break. Are they trumpets? No! They are comets! They are whole solar systems of love! Overall, this track — famously written for Rosanna Arquette — combines just about everything we love in a song: repetitive lyrics, horn section, kerrang-ing guitars, piano intro, and doo-wop. Also, I have no idea what ''Meet you all the way'' means. Right on! A

5. ''Hard to Say I'm Sorry,'' Chicago
Cards on the table: I freaking love Chicago. Every single Chicago song either makes me cry or think seriously about crying. I'm sure you are all starting to wonder about my childhood, but really, ''Everybody needs a little time away''?? God, it's like they know me! Actually, this song rocks one of the cheesiest lines of all time: ''Couldn't stand to be kept away / just for a day / from your bo-dy.'' But we'll let it slide, because all the rest of it is so awesome. No one said personal prejudices weren't going to be a part of this column, so let's look back and see what I gave ''Glory of Love''... A? Wow. And that was just Peter Cetera on his own. Combine the full force of Chicago with the kick-ass ''When we get there gonna jump in the air'' coda at the end of this ditty and what do you get? A+!

4. ''Hold Me,'' Fleetwood Mac
Shhhh. Do you hear it? Way off in the distance? That quiet piano tinkling is letting you know that Christine McVie is in the house! Love the smack of Mick's snare to kick off this terrific, rolling tribute to being together because there's nothing (or no one) better to do. Ah, so sweet, so sweet the sounds of cocaine-riddled ex-lovers playing music together. B+

3. ''Abracadabra,'' Steve Miller Band
Hi! I'm Steve Miller! You might remember me from such times as ''The Sixties!'' Or ''The Seventies!'' This is me managing to turn out a big hit song here, in ''The Eighties!'' Which frankly suits me fine, because I can use my inimitable lyrical stylings — ''Abra-abra-cadabra / I wanna reach out and grab ya'' isn't quite as good as ''Some people call me Maurice / 'Cause I speak of the pompitous of love,'' but it's close — to mystify and befuddle a whole new generation of kids who think magic should be a happy thing with bunnies and top hats... Now it seems slightly foreboding, as does love, and what's with this heating up/not cooling down business? Do I have a fever? Can I stay home from school? Oh, how I do so enjoy my life that I am living! I am Steve Miller! B

2. ''Hurts So Good,'' John Cougar
Before tacking his slave name back onto the official moniker, Johnny Cougs tossed out this party-time track, the first single from his American Fool album. Even though everyone probably likes ''Jack & Diane'' better, I think I like them both equally: What this song lacks in storyline it makes up for in handclaps. Or is it just that I will forever be grateful to ''Hurts So Good'' for saving my ass that one time I promised to perform the entire Footloose soundtrack on the acoustic guitar and couldn't figure out ''Dancin' in the Sheets'' for the life of me, so I tossed this onto the set list as a desperation move, figuring that even though it wasn't on the original LP, it was on the reissue because it was in the movie during that scene in the honky-tonk where Chris Penn has to punch out that big dude who's trying to kidnap Sarah Jessica Parker? Either way: A-

1. ''Eye of the Tiger,'' Survivor
I am basically spending my entire life working toward the sort of fame that would allow me to dictate that before I enter a room, someone must play this song on a boombox. I believe it to be the most triumphant, the most pumped-up, the most inspirational song of all time, and I don't think I should have to explain why, because if you're reading this column there is a very good chance you are already with me here. So instead of yammering on and on about the musicianship of Survivor (snort), I will use the rest of this space to tell another story: My biggest memory of this song comes from the late summer of '82, when I spent an entire Saturday lying on my back on the floor of my parents' bedroom with my transistor radio in one hand and the other grazing the touchpad of the only push-button phone in the house, just waiting for 93Q to play ''Eye of the Tiger'' so I could be the 93rd caller and win a thousand dollars with the phrase that pays. 93Q means more money and more music, people. Never forget it. A