The AT40 Blog/December 21, 1985: Hard lessons of a 7th Top 40 hit

Everyone remembers who did what first. No one remembers who did anything second.

Usually, that is.

When Michael Jackson hit the Top 40 with seven hit singles from "Thriller" between 1982-84, many music fans figured this was never going to happen again and that what the Prince Of Pop did was just an anomaly where everything just came together at the right time.

But while "Thriller," the seventh Top 40 (and Top 10) hit from the album was fading into the musical sunset, a new album by a New Jersey-born and raised rocker was about to be released in the early summer of 1984 with the first single flying up the Top 40 en route to its peak position of No. 2.

The song was "Dancing In The Dark," and the album -- "Born In The U.S.A." by Bruce Springsteen. It easily became the biggest hit in the then-34-year-old rocker's career, passing up the No. 5 peak of "Hungry Heart" in early 1981. The best, though, was yet to come.

"Cover Me" went to No. 7. "Born In The U.S.A.," the powerful third single and title track that caused a bit of political controversy back in that Summer of '84, went to No. 9. "I'm On Fire" went to No. 6, followed by the fifth Top 10 hit, the nostalgic "Glory Days." Then there was the sixth Top 10 hit from the mega-selling album, the No. 9 "I'm Goin' Down."

Maybe Columbia Records, Springsteen's record label, was thinking of stopping at six Top 10 smashes from the album. But it was now November 1985 and the hit well seemingly had run dry. But the label had one more trick up its sleeve ... and it was going to market a seventh single rather sharply.

They made the decision to release "My Hometown." Unlike the other six releases from the album, "My Hometown" was darker and far more moody. Springsteen wrote the song about his recollections of growing up in his native Freehold, N.J., and the racial tension that took place in his town as well as other cities in the Garden State during the 1960s, a trying time for most everyone growing up in that time period.

He brings up the line "They're closing down the textile mills across the railroad tracks. Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they ain't coming back to your hometown." What Springsteen was referring to was the 1964 closing down of the A&M Karagheusian rug manufacturing plant in Freehold on Center and Jackson streets after being open for 60 years.

At the end of the song, Springsteen sings about being married and having a family of his own and talks about heading south. Then he sings, "I'm 35, we got a boy on our own. Last night I sat him up behind the wheel and said, 'Son take a good look around. This is your hometown.'" All the while, he never really gives you an idea that he actually moved saying he and (wife) Kate "packing up their bags maybe heading south."

It hit a nerve for the 30- and 40-somethings who grew up in the 1960s and remembered that time period all too well, especially in the Garden State. Springsteen made it his business to play that song during the 1984-85 Born In The U.S.A. Tour every night, so it was ripe to be released.

But Columbia Records went one step further. For the late November release of the song as the seventh Top 40 release, they paired it up with a Springsteen classic that radio stations had played for years since they got their hands on the recording. It was Springsteen's famous 1975 live performance at C.W. Post College in Long Island, N.Y., of the Christmas classic, "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town," a version in which he's joking around, having a good time talking to the band ("Hey Clarence, you been good this year!? Is Santa getting you a new saxophone?" he yells to longtime E Street member Clarence Clemons).

On the American Top 40 for December 21, 1985, "My Hometown" debuted at No. 32, the highest debuting song of the week and the record-tying seventh Top 40 hit from "Born In The U.S.A.," tying Springsteen with Jackson for most Top 40 hits from one artist's album. The song would race up the Top 40 and hit the Top 10 six weeks later, peaking at No. 6. But more amazingly, "My Hometown" was also racing up the Adult Contemporary chart ... all the way to No. 1, Springsteen's one and only No. 1 song on that chart.

It was the perfect song and the perfect end to a perfect run on the singles chart for The Boss. By 1986, Bruce Springsteen was a mega-superstar and wasn't afraid to sing about any subject.

Even the dinginess of his hometown.

Not a bad way to be remembered as "the second" to do something.

The AT40 Blog/December 12, 1987: Having 'Faith' pays off

By 1986, George Michael believed that Wham! had run its course. Partner Andrew Ridgeley and he had started small, but by 1984, the success the duo had with Wham! had exploded into No. 1 hits on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

And so by the spring of 1986, Michael, whose solo career had already taken off with the No. 1 British hit and Top 10 U.S. hit, "A Different Corner," made the announcement that he and Ridgeley were playing their 'farewell" concert. That was on a Saturday afternoon at London's Wembley Stadium on June 28, 1986.

When it was over, it was over.

Michael was suddenly on his own and ready to prove he could branch out. So from there, he went on to help a pair of artists with March 25th birthdays. First, he helped out Elton John on his tour after he had recorded "Wrap Her Up" and "Nikita" for John's 1985 album "Ice On Fire." Then he went into a studio in late 1986 to work on a duet with the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, on a track from her album, "Aretha," called "I Knew You Were Waiting For Me," a future No. 1 duet on both sides of the Atlantic.

By early 1987, Michael was in a London studio to write, produce and record the songs that would make up the album "Faith." And one of the tracks would turn out to be the title cut, a composition that starts with an "ode" to a former Wham! hit. The organ that begins the song, played by Chris Cameron, is the chorus line for "Freedom," a Top 5 hit from the 1984 album "Make It Big."

But after a few seconds, the organ suddenly turns into a familiar piece of music that has been used over the years on such tracks as The Who's "Magic Bus," the Strangeloves' "I Want Candy" and Shirley & Co.'s disco classic "Shame Shame Shame." It's the 1955 blues-rock classic "Bo Diddley," named after and performed by the late great Bo Diddley (born Ellas Otha Bates).

From that point until the end of the record, "Faith" is a rockabilly piece that no fan of Wham!'s or Michael's ever saw coming. But it was pure guilty pleasure pop. And on October 31, 1987, the song, the follow-up to Michael's No. 2 hit from the Beverly Hills Cop II soundtrack and movie, "I Want Your Sex," debuted on American Top 40 at No. 37. By December 5, the song bounced up to No. 3, just behind Belinda Carlisle's "Heaven Is A Place On Earth" and Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes' Dirty Dancing anthem, "(I've Had) The Time Of My Life" at spots Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, the latter dropping from the No. 1 spot the week before.

One week later, "Faith" ascended to the top spot on AT40 from No. 3 to No. 1 and began a four-week stay at the top to close out 1987. It would be the first of four No. 1 hits from Michael's wildly diverse album called "Faith," and in Billboard's year-end chart for 1988, the song "Faith" would finish as the No. 1 song of the year.

While Michael's song continues to be played on adult pop and 1980s radio, it's the music video that still is remembered about "Faith." Michael reportedly purchased the "BS Artist" leather jacket for the video at a Melrose, Calif. shop called Leathers and Treasures. Wearing a pair of tight jeans, boots, sunglasses and sporting what would be his trademark Five O'Clock shadow stubble, Michael oozed sexuality in the video, leaning up against the famed Wurlitzer jukebox, playing a guitar (that actually is played on the song by musician Hugh Burns).

Michael later said he despised the whole "bad boy image" that the video "Faith" brought him. And in 1990, he "straightened" that whole thing out when he burned the jacket and blew up both the guitar and jukebox in the "Freedom '90" video from his "Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1" CD/album. And, no, "Freedom '90" had nothing to do with the Wham! song "Freedom."

However as hard as Michael would have liked to distance himself from that image portrayed in late 1987 by the music video, it is that image we most think about when we think of the song "Faith."

Yep, it was a time and a place. And we were all witnesses.

Michael would score five solo No. 1 hits between 1987-90, starting with "Faith," the song that gave him faith in his solo career.

The AT40 Blog/December 5, 1981: Rock-edged country or Country-edged rock

When they mention the greatest country acts in history, the names of Hank Williams Jr., Conway Twitty, Charley Pride, Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton, George Strait and band Alabama are normally mentioned.

And rightfully so. Those acts are among the pillars of the genre.

Rarely, though, is the name of Eddie Rabbitt brought up. And that's a shame. In his all-too-brief career, Rabbitt scored 39 Top 40 country hits between 1974-90 with 34 of those being Top 10 hits and 17 of those -- exactly half -- being No. 1s.

Not bad for a man who was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. Yes, Broooook-lyyyyn! Home of great pizza and Junior's Cheesecake Factory.

Yeah, not exactly the best marriage -- country and Brooklyn. But Rabbitt (born November 27, 1941), who would spend his youth living in nearby East Orange, N.J., made it work when he took a chance in 1964 to make it in Nashville, scoring his first break when country star Roy Drusky recorded Rabbitt's composition, "Working My Way Up To The Bottom," in 1968. After working as a soda jerk, truck driver and a fruit picker just to stay in Nashville and keep his music career alive, Rabbitt's foot was in the door at long last.

And not too long after that, he wrote "Kentucky Rain," a song that appealed to music's biggest star -- not just country, but overall.

Elvis Presley made it a Top 20 pop hit and Rabbitt, who co-wrote the song with a man named Dick Heard, was off and running at 28 years old. He continued to make a name for himself as a songwriter, writing "Pure Love" in 1974, which turned into a No. 1 country hit for another rising star and friend of Presley's, Ronnie Milsap.

With his name established in songwriting, Rabbitt set out to become a star singer. That came in 1974 when "You Got To Me" peaked at No. 34. Two years later, his fourth Top 40 country song, "Drinkin' My Baby (Off My Mind)," became his first No. 1 hit.

With his singing career established, next up was pop crossover status. Touring with Kenny Rogers, then Dolly Parton certainly got his name out there and in 1979, it was the theme song from a Clint Eastwood movie called "Every Which Way But Loose" that did the trick. Not only was that his fourth No. 1 country hit, but it became his first American Top 40 hit, peaking at No. 30. That was followed by his first Top 20 hit in the summer of '79, "Suspicions," which went to No. 13 pop and became another No. 1 country hit.

In 1980, Rabbitt finally cracked the Top 10 pop with "Drivin' My Life Away" from the movie Roadie. Then his follow-up did the amazing -- "I Love A Rainy Night" became his first and only No. 1 pop hit in February 1981, spending two weeks at No. 1 after hitting No. 1 country.

By now, that gave Rabbitt the chance to do what he wanted to do in the studio. He cranked out another country crossover hit in the fall of 1981 with "Step By Step," a No. 1 country and No. 5 pop hit. But on his next single, he dared to be different.

The song was "Someone Could Lose A Heart Tonight." Rabbitt and his studio band decided to go away from the traditional country sound and bring more mainstream guitar than steel guitar to the track. Opening with a closed, muffled riff, the song travels into a soft-pounding backbeat and ringing guitars before Rabbitt sings his first note.

This downright serious tune made its debut on AT40 on December 5, 1981 at No. 32, the highest debut of the week of any of the debuts. And while it may have fallen short of its Top 10 expectations, peaking at No. 15 in late January 1982, the song still succeeded in luring more country music fans -- it hit No. 1 on February 13, 1982, spending one week at the top.

Interestingly, though, Rabbitt would never have another Top 20 pop hit as a solo performer. A year later, though, he hit No. 1 country (again) and the Top 10 pop for the final time when his duet with country star Crystal Gayle, "You & I," peaked at No. 7.

His pop career may have dried up, but Rabbitt continued to have hits on the country chart, including his 1986 No. 1 duet with Juice Newton "Both to Each Other," which was the country version of the No. 2 pop hit by Gloria Loring and Carl Anderson titled "Friends And Lovers."

In 1989, Rabbitt had his final No. 1 country hit, "On Second Thought." His last Top 10 hit was "Runnin' With The Wind" in 1990 and soon after that, his last Top 40 country hit came out, "American Boy," a song that Bob Dole used as his introduction while on the road promoting his bid for president in 1996.

Rabbitt continued to tour through the 1990s, but in 1997, he was diagnosed with lung cancer even though he wasn't a smoker. Years and years of playing honky tonks and bars finally caught up to him. Still, Rabbitt continued on to record new music and tour, never telling his own agent of his diagnosis. When Rabbitt passed away from the disease on May 7, 1998, at the age of 56, even his agent had no idea. In 1998, Rabbitt was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

He may not get the notoriety as a Conway Twitty or a George Strait or a Hank Williams Jr., but Eddie Rabbitt was very much a country star in his own right.