The AT40 Blog/August 31, 1985: A shout out for the Jersey Shore

The Top 40 for August 31, 1985 was best known for all the international artists in the countdown. There were 17 songs by international artists ... that is, 17 different artists.

From England, there was 13 acts in the Top 40 alone: Dire Straits, John Parr, John Waite, Wham!, Howard Jones, Eurythmics, Billy Ocean, Phil Collins, Sting, Paul Young, Godley & Creme, Tears For Fears and Dead Or Alive. There were two Canadians in the countdown: Corey Hart and Bryan Adams. One act came from Australia ... Rick Springfield. The other foreigner in the countdown: newcomers a-ha from Norway.

While the foreign invasion of the charts that started in 1983 with the second British Invasion was still going strong, there were three songs in the countdown to come from one of the smallest states in the U.S.

Yes, New Jersey, aka the Garden State, was being repped in this countdown. In the Top 10 up four places from No. 12 to No. 8 was the third Top 10 hit from the album "Emergency" for Kool & The Gang out of Jersey City. The ballad "Cherish" would ultimately get to No. 2.

And then the other two Garden Staters could be found  near the end of the first hour of American Top 40. Of course, Casey Kasem himself teased that segment in the previous segment by telling everyone, "Up next, the man who makes the Garden State rock."

Then after the break, Casey goes into his spiel when it comes to all the radio stations all over the world. In this case, he pointed out WQLT in Florence, Ala. He gave a shout-out to 2XL in Cooma, New South Wales, Australia. And then ...

"And Jersey Shore hit radio WJRZ, Manahawkin and Toms River, New Jersey."

That was special. When Casey points out your home base, there's a big piece of pride involved. Growing up in Toms River, WJRZ was the Top 40 station of choice there at 100.1 on the dial in the early-to-mid 1980s along with another radio station that would broadcast AT40 a few years later, WPST in Trenton.

Then he continued from there ...

"And from the Garden State, here's New Jersey's favorite rock and roller, Bruce Springsteen, with his recent Top 5 smash now at No. 32, "Glory Days."

Swelled pride, no doubt, especially since Bruce is the iconic Jersey Shore rocker, straight from the hard-scrabbled streets of Freehold, a town I used to drive through a lot in a younger day for one reason or another. Perfect segue way. And that would be followed up at No. 31 by a song moving up eight notches in its second week in the countdown. From East Orange, N.J., it was the second Top 40 hit for 22-year-old Whitney Houston, "Saving All My Love For You," the song that would end up being her first No. 1 hit.

Yes, the moment lasted a second or two, but you can't help but remember it. It's in the final segment before the end of the first hour.

Meanwhile, three of the Top 4 songs in America came from movies: "We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)" by Tina Turner from the movie she was a star in, "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome," was at No. 4, "St. Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion)" by John Parr was waiting to get to No. 1 at the No. 2 spot, and holding the fort down was the hit from the Michael J. Fox movie "Back To The Future," "Power Of Love," by Huey Lewis & The News, holding at the top for a second straight week.