The AT40 Blog/July 26, 1986: Pounding the way to the top

The love of such songs as "Who's Makin' Love" by Johnnie Taylor, "Hold On I'm Coming" and "Soul Man" by Sam & Dave, "(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay" and "Try A Little Tenderness" by Otis Redding and "B-A-B-Y" by Carla Thomas was what drove Peter Gabriel to what would be his first and only chart-topping song.

Not any love for pounding things.

Those aforementioned songs were the basis of the sound of the mega-successful Stax Records of Memphis, Tenn., during the mid-to-late 1960s. And like a lot of young Brits at that time, Gabriel was inspired by the American soul music scene. In his case, it was the sound of the soaring vocals, the booming bass and the pageantry of the horns that were played from the Stax Records collection.

When Gabriel set out to make his fifrth solo album in late 1985 called "So," which by the way was the first Gabriel album not named "Peter Gabriel," that sound of '60s Stax soul was in his mind as he sat down to compose "Sledgehammer." After composing it, he took the song to his producer, Daniel Lanois, to see how he wanted to proceed with it.

By the end of the recording session, it came out to be a very complex record: The song starts with the sound of a flute. It's very distinctive, but in reality, it isn't an ordinary flute. It's actually a synthesized shakuhachi, a Japanese-made open-end flute with four holes on the top and a fifth on the bottom, a flute which first came into existence in the 6th century as a counterpart to the Chinese flute the Japanese first laid eyes on. This shakuhachi, though, was put through an E-mu Emulator -- first manufactured in 1981. After the shakuhachi has its moment, the sound of powerful horns come next. Those were horns that Gabriel envisioned on the song, the same ones he heard on those old Stax Records recordings. So who came in to provide the horns? The trombone was provided by Don Mikkelsen. The tenor saxophone came from Mark Rivera, better known for his work with Billy Joel on a number songs, most notably the No. 1 song "Tell Her About It." And the trumpet? Well that was none other than Wayne Jackson, one of the members of the renowned Memphis Horns of -- you guessed it! -- Stax Records.

If Gabriel was going for authenticity, he sure was getting it. All the keyboards on this song were provided by Gabriel himself, whose all-too-familiar vocals going back to the days as the lead singer of Genesis put the exclamation mark on this masterpiece.

Well, not exactly. The coup d'état turned out to be the music video for the song, arguably the greatest piece of film any song ever received to promote it. The work on the music video seemed to be more painful than the composition and recording of the song -- Gabriel spent 16 straight hours lying on the floor with a heavy sheet of glass on top of him as director Stephen Johnson and producer Adam Whittaker filmed him one exhausting frame at a time. Meanwhile, the pair continued to experiment with their work as they made two cooked chicken roasters "dance" and made magic with the stop-frame film throughout the music video. They also called on Aardman Animations and the Brothers Quay to provide the claymation, pixilation and stop motion animation that also made the video famous.

The song itself was filled with enough sexual innuendo to burst out at the seems: "Show me 'round your fruit cage, 'cause I will be your honey bee. Open up your fruit cage, where the fruit is as sweet as can be" and "You can have a big dipper, going up and down, all around the bends. You can have a bumper car buuuuump-ing. This amusement never ends."   

Known for his theatrical-powered, art-rock songs over the years such as Genesis' "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" and his own "Games Without Frontiers," "Solsbury Hill" and "Biko," "Sledgehammer" was a very different record for Gabriel. Downright irresistible, actually, though some were thinking that Gabriel was "selling out" from what made him famous. But it really wasn't the case -- great artists have the ability to leave what they're used to doing regularly and experiment.

Gabriel debuted on the Top 40 chart on May 31, 1986, at No. 39, with "Sledgehammer," his second Top 40 hit after 1983's "Shock The Monkey" and the debut hit from his "So" album. By the next week, all five original members of Genesis were in the Top 40 as "Sledgehammer" moved up from No. 39 to No. 32, Steve Hackett played guitar in the band GTR on "When The Heart Rules The Mind," which jumped from No. 40 to No. 35, current Genesis lead singer Phil Collins dropped from No. 18 to No. 26 with "Take Me Home" and Collins, keyboardist Tony Banks and guitarist Mike Rutherford were debuting the new Genesis single, the title track from the new album "Invisible Touch," at at No. 37.

Two weeks later on June 21, 1986, "Sledgehammer" was up to No. 15. A week later, "Sledgehammer" moved into the Top 10 at No. 10. But the push to No. 1 was about to get challenged when "Invisible Touch" by his old band zoomed up nine places from No. 17 to No. 8. Uh-oooooh!

"Sledgehammer" continued to move forward. It moved up to No. 9 the next week, then to No. 6 on July 12. On July 19, "Sledgehammer" made a pounding jump from No. 6 to No. 2 as "Invisible Touch" hit the top. Would Phil, Tony and Mike keep their former mate from also visiting the summit of the Hot 100?

The answer was a resounding "nooooooooo." On the week of July 26, 1986, "Sledgehammer" finished its assault up the chart, moving into the top spot as Genesis dropped to No. 3 and Kenny Loggins slid into No. 2 with "Danger Zone" from the movie Top Gun. And the stay at the top would also be seven days for Gabriel, but it was another movie song that knocked him out of the top spot -- "Glory Of Love" by Peter Cetera of Chicago fame from the film Karate Kid II.

"Sledgehammer" would be the first of three Top 40 hits from the album "So," which by now was being sold as a compact disc as was the single. "In Your Eyes" would peak at No. 26 and in early 1987, "Big Time" would also find the Top 10, peaking at No. 8.

In 1989, thanks to the movie Say Anything, "In Your Eyes" got a second life on the chart, but peaked at No. 41, just missing out on the Top 40 again. Gabriel would have one more Top 40 hit in the 1990s as "Steam" would peak at No. 32 in late 1992.

In 2010, Gabriel was inducted into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis, the band he played with until leaving in 1975 (though he had one brief reunion with his mates for a song in the late '90s). Then four years later, Gabriel was inducted again, this time as a solo artist.

Gabriel never has been known as a "singles" artist and his humanitarian work, including in the 1980s for Amnesty International, defines the man more than the artist. And he is a huge believer in bringing world music to the masses. In other words, Peter Gabriel isn't afraid to try things and bring attention to things that incite his passions.

That was obvious on the only No. 1 hit of his career when he brought back that good ol' Stax soul music of the '60s for that hit.

The AT40 Blog/July 15, 1978: Like it was half a new show

For a two-week period, Casey Kasem stopped counting down the hits.

That is, the every week hits on the Top 40 countdown. For the week of July 1, 1978, AT40 did a special countdown of the Top 40 movie songs of the rock era, inspired by the big hits that were out in the previous couple of years. And one week after that countdown, Casey decided to take the next week off, leaving the regular show hosting duties to Mark Elliot, a disc jockey at KHJ-AM in Los Angeles who these days is a voice-over artist for Walt Disney Entertainment.

So it was not until the countdown of July 15, 1978 that Casey made his return to do his regular countdown duties. And when he came back, he found the countdown to be quite a bit different from the one he did three weeks earlier.

During the week the countdown of the Top 40 movie songs was done, eight songs debuted in the regular Top 40, a very unusual number of debut songs. Then the week Elliott counted down the hits and Casey was on vacation, eight more songs made Top 40 debuts. That's 16 songs that came in and 16 that exited during the two weeks Casey didn't count down the regular hits.

By the time he came back on July 15, there were the pedestrian three debut hits. Still, that meant 19 new songs that Casey needed to acclimate himself to thanks to the staff writers who had the job of putting the facts of those songs down for Casey to speak on his show.

The 19 songs that left the countdown? Well to mention each one of them would take a minute and a half alone or a whole paragraph ... so here it goes:

"With A Little Luck" by Wings, "Dance Across The Floor" by Jimmy "Bo" Horne, "Almost Summer" by Celebration, "On Broadway" by George Benson, "Deacon Blues" by Steely Dan, "Heartless" by Heart, "Oh What A Night For Dancing" by Barry White, "Warm Ride" by Rare Earth, "Every Kinda People" by Robert Palmer, "Even Now" by Barry Manilow, "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" by Johnny Mathis & Deniece Williams, "I Was Only Joking" by Rod Stewart, "Follow You, Follow Me" by Genesis, "Feels So Good" by Chuck Mangione, "Stone Blue" by Foghat, "It's The Same Old Song" by K.C. & The Sunshine Band, "Because The Night" by Patti Smith, "Chattanooga Choo Choo" by Tuxedo Junction and "You're The Love" by Seals & Crofts.

Of those 19 songs that exited the Top 40 in that three-week period, the only one that Casey never announced himself on the show was "Chattanooga Choo Choo," the disco remake of the old 1940s standard which debuted at No. 32 on the week of the movie countdown and held there the next week before falling out the week he returned.

So with "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" gone after two weeks in the Top 40, that left 18 songs for Casey to be introduced to. In case you may not have known them, here's the short version of each of those 18 songs within the countdown of July 15, 1978:


I've Had Enough--Wings (No. 40, debut): The follow-up to the No. 1 smash "With A Little Luck," the song was the second hit from the band's last studio album on Capitol Records, "London Town." It would peak at No. 25 for Paul and Linda McCartney and Denny Laine.

Will You Love Me Tomorrow--Dave Mason (No. 39, No. 39 the week before when it debuted): The man behind the Top 15 hit "We Just Disagree," remade the old Shirelles No. 1 classic of 1961 "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow." It would drop out of the countdown the next week.

Love Or Something Like It--Kenny Rogers (No. 38, debut): The man who once fronted The First Edition and had broken through with his country crossover "Lucille" in 1977 debuted in the countdown with a song he actually co-wrote with Steve Glassmeyer. It would only climb to No. 32 two weeks later.

Can We Still Be Friends--Todd Rundgren (No. 36, No. 37 the week before when it debuted): The Philadelphia-based star wrote, produced and sang this one that Robert Palmer would chart with two years later. The emotional "Can  We Still Be Friends" would get as high as No. 29.

Prove It All Night--Bruce Springsteen (No. 35, debut): The highest debut for this particular week was the Jersey Shore's rocker first Top 40 hit since the iconic debut of "Born To Run" in late 1975. Legal hassles involving his management slowed up making his album "Darkness On The Edge Of Town," but The Boss was back in the countdown, albeit a short run as the song peaked at No. 33 the next week before dropping out.

Stay/The Load Out--Jackson Browne (No. 32, No. 38 the week before when it debuted): The second hit from his memorable "Running On Empty" album, Browne's two-song medley (with the shorter "Stay" being played on the countdown) about life on the road and going on one tour bus trip after another would peak at No. 20 a month later.

Hot Love, Cold World--Bob Welch (No. 31, No. 33 the week before, third week): After hitting the chart with the Top 10 "Sentimental Lady" and the Top 15 "Ebony Eyes," former Fleetwood Mac member Bob Welch was in with the third song from his "French Kiss" album. The song would peak at No. 31 this week before dropping out the next week.

King Tut--Steve Martin (No. 30, No. 35 the week before when it debuted): Funny man Steve Martin debuted the week before with the track honoring the Egyptian boy king during the year his remains went on display in the United States. It would be Martin's only Top 40 hit and would peak at No. 17.

Songbird--Barbra Streisand (No. 29, No. 34 the week before, third week): The latest single for Barbra Streisand was the title song from her newest album (the album with Streisand holding her little pet dog on the cover and featured her "solo" version of "You Don't Bring Me Flowers"). Written by Dave Wolfert and Stephen Nelson, "Songbird" would peak at No. 25 by the next week, spending two weeks in that position.

I'm Not Gonna Let It Bother Me Tonight--Atlanta Rhythm Section (No. 28, No. 36 the week before when it debuted): Following up the Top 10 hit "Imaginary Lover" and the second hit from the album "Champagne Jam," ARS was back with a song about all the turmoil in the world, but for one night, it wasn't going to let the narrator get in his mind. This hit would peak at No. 14 a month later.

Magnet And Steel--Walter Egan (No. 26, No. 31 the week before, third week): From his "Not Shy" album, singer-songwriter Walter Egan's song about his infatuation for the one he loves and the strong attraction he sings about, had debuted at No. 38 two weeks earlier. By late August, the New Yorker's one and only hit, co-produced by Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckngham, would peak at No. 8.

FM--Steely Dan (No. 23, No. 28 the week before, third week): In what was the best year in Steely Dan's career, the duo of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen scored this time around with the title track from the movie about everyday life at a radio station starring Michael Brandon, Eileen Brennan and Martin Mull. "FM" didn't get much radio mileage, though, as it peaked at No. 22 two weeks later.

My Angel Baby--Toby Beau (No. 22, No. 29 the week before, third week): Named for a shrimp boat based in their native Texas, these one-hit wonders benefited from being the opening act for such artists as Bob Seger, The Doobie Brothers and Steve Miller Band. "My Angel Baby" was easy on the ears and featured the guitar licks of leader Danny McKenna. It would peak at No. 13.

Three Times A Lady--The Commodores (No. 21, No. 26 the week before when it debuted): A song that leader and keyboardist-singer Lionel Richie wrote first in tribute to his parents' 37th wedding anniversary and then to the union with his own wife at the time, Brenda, "Three Times A Lady" became the Commodores' biggest hit ever, spending two weeks at No. 1 in mid-August as it skyrocketed to the top.

Hot Blooded--Foreigner (No. 20, No. 30 the week before when it debuted): The first single from the band's newest album, "Double Vision," the half-American, half-British group came smokin' out of the gate with a rocker to remember featuring the work of lead singer Lou Gramm and lead guitarist Mick Jones, the co-writers of the song. "Hot Blooded" would become the band's biggest hit at that point, peaking at No. 3 in early September.

Life's Been Good--Joe Walsh (No. 19, No. 23 the week before, third week): The Eagles' guitarist has never taken himself too seriously, so his self-penned satirical ode to the excesses of life hit a nerve with listeners and record buyers. From the album, "But Seriously, Folks ... " "Life's Been Good" would peak at No. 12 in August.

Copacabana--Barry Manilow (No. 17, No. 22 the week before when it debuted): The story of a "love triangle" at the famous night club in New York City (Casey tells the story of "Copacabana" on this particular show) as co-written and sung by Barry Manilow, the third single from the "Even Now" album would get as high as No. 8 a month later.

Love Will Find A Way--Pablo Cruise (No. 14, No. 21 the week before, third week): One year after hitting the Top 10 with "Whatcha Gonna Do?" the San Francisco-based band known for their instrumental music used on network television was off and flying with their latest single, leaping from No. 30 on July 1 to No. 21 to No. 14. It would ultimately peak at No. 6 seven weeks later, just like their debut hit did.

That's a lot of traffic and new songs to become acclimated to in three weeks, but as the professionals they were, the AT40 staff had it all under control. Still, it had to be strange for three weeks worth of songs to debut and all the songs you were so used to instantly gone. It doesn't happen quite like that anymore and it hasn't happened like this since that three-week period in July 1978.

Most of those aforementioned 18 songs became a part of the scrapbook that was the summer music of that year.

The only two songs, though, that held its exact place on the chart were the ones that held the top two spots on the chart for a fifth straight week as Andy Gibb's "Shadow Dancing" remained No. 1 and Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" stayed at No. 2.

The AT40 Blog/July 9, 1988: A scorching No. 1 hit from the outside

Eight years had gone by for Cheap Trick having a Top 40 hit. As a matter of fact, casual music fans were wondering if they were still together by 1988.

Truth was, they were. But the bigger truth was that nothing seemed to hit for the band from Rockford, Ill. Every album the band released between in the 1980s had limited success, none climbing any higher than No. 24 on the chart. And after "Voices" hit No. 32 in early 1980, the band released 16 singles in the next seven years with only five of them charting in the Hot 100 and a frustrating four of them getting to the Top 50, but never breaking the Top 40 -- "Everything Works If You Let It" peaking at No. 44, "Stop This Game" going to No. 48, "If You Want My Love" peaking at No. 45 and "Tonight It's You" stopping at No. 44.

Still, Epic Records kept them on the payroll in late 1987, but there was much strife between the band and the record label. They knew the group had not had a winning formula for years. So Epic put the rules down on the band -- they were going to bring in outside help for the band. Rick Nielsen, the band's flamboyant lead guitarist, had written all but one of the songs for the band's previous 1986 album, "The Doctor." For this album, which would be called "Lap Of Luxury," Nielsen only co-wrote four of the 10 tracks. You could almost hear the grumbling over that.

Nielsen co-wrote "Let Go" and "Wrong Side Of Love" with an up-and-coming songwriter-guitarist named Todd Cerney. Greg Giuffria, the leader of the band Giuffria who had the one-hit wonder "Call To The Heart" in 1985, co-wrote "All We Need To Do Is Dream" with Nielsen and lead singer Robin Zander. And "Ghost Town," which would be a future Top 40 hit for the band in early 1989, was co-written by Nielsen with one of the hottest songwriters in the business at the time, Diane Warren. Janna Allen, who was a co-writer of "Kiss On My List" and "Private Eyes" for Daryl Hall & John Oates, co-wrote "All Wound Up" with Zander and Tom Petersson, Cheap Trick's bass player who had just returned to the band after a long hiatus. And the veteran writing duo of Mike Chapman and Holly Knight co-wrote "Space." Then there was "No Mercy," co-written by a pair of newcomers, Jon Lind and Jim Scott.

Record producer Richie Zito was firmly behind what the record company wanted -- even if the band wasn't. And he had a song that was in his hand via a cassette called "The Flame," written by a pair of Brits, Bob Mitchell and Nick Graham, the latter a member of such groups as Atomic Rooster, Skin Alley and Alibi. So Zito played the cassette for the band members in the room together.

The reaction? It was mixed at best. Reportedly, Nielsen took the tape, dropped it on the ground and buried it under his boot -- that's how bad he thought of the song. But according to drummer Bun E. Carlos, the vice-president of Epic Records had come to the band with two songs for the album, claiming he thought the songs were so good that they were "both No. 1 singles." One of the songs was going to be recorded by the band, the other by the band Chicago. Cheap Trick heard this song and chose it over the other one which had a female's voice on the vocal -- that song was called "Look Away," which would be Chicago's third and last No. 1 hit in December 1988, written by Warren.

Begrudgingly, the band recorded "The Flame." Zito highlighted on two parts of the song that made it hit-worthy. The first was Zander's haunting vocals, describing the sadness and frustration of a jilted lover who will always have his ex in his thoughts, partially in the same vain as The Police's "Every Breath You Take" five years earlier. The second was Nielsen's guitar work on the song, including his solo in the middle.

The song, clocking in at 5:37 for the album and 4:44 for the single release, was the first release from "Lap Of Luxury" when the album was released in April 1988. The single entered the Billboard Hot 100 on April 9, 1988, at an unimpressive No. 92, their first chart single since "Tonight It's You."

The very next week, "The Flame" began to ignite on the chart, leaping 19 places to No. 73. Two weeks later, it was at No. 59. The next week, it became "the next Top 50 song" for the band when it leaped to No. 50.

There was no stopping in between spots 41 and 50 on the chart, though. Two weeks later and in its seventh week on the Hot 100, "The Flame" made its Top 40 debut at No. 33, the band's first Top 40 hit in over eight years since "Voices." Two weeks later, it got to No. 19. Two more weeks later, it moved up from No. 13 to No. 9 to become the band's second Top 10 hit and first since "I Want You To Want Me," their breakthrough hit from their "Live At Budokan" album, hit No. 7 in 1979. The next week, June 25, "The Flame" gave Cheap Trick their first Top 5 hit when it leaped from No. 9 to No. 5. One week later, it was No. 3 and then on July 9, 1988, exactly three months after starting its climb on the chart, "The Flame" was right where that Epic Records vice-president predicted where the song would be ... No. 1, where it would spend two weeks.

The power ballad had succeeded for the band whose controls were all but stripped from them by their record label who felt the need to start calling the shots. Their follow-up hit, a rockin' remake of Elvis Presley's 1956 classic, "Don't Be Cruel," would also be a smash in the fall of '88, peaking at No. 4. "Ghost Town" would peak at No. 33. And the album it came from, "Lap Of Luxury," would peak at No. 16 on the Top 200 chart, the first Top 20 album for the band since "Dream Police" nine years earlier.

But it wasn't just that Epic Records vice-president who felt "The Flame" was a No. 1 hit. According to Zander, he said he saw the light when a fan thought the song had huge potential. He said, "The band was very skeptical about performing this song live, because we only liked to perform songs written by us. However, a young man from, oh, I don't know, somewhere, confirmed to us after a show in Florida about a week after the song was released that the song was great and -- get this -- would be a No. 1 single. As we joked about the guy's prediction, we later realized, 'Whoa! This guy was right.' I thank him for that."

The band continues to rock out with Zander, Nielsen and Petersson continuing along with Nielsen's son, Daxx, playing the drums now that Carlos, still a member of the band, does not record or tour with the group anymore. The band's last CD/album, "The Latest," got to No. 78 on the Top 200 album chart in 2009. And the band continues to tour endlessly, doing so again in 2015.

And yes, "The Flame" is a part of the set list every night as Zander pours his heart out on stage singing that song and Nielsen commands the guitar solo the same way he did in 1988 when he and the band recorded that song.

The same song they didn't like, but really had no choice but to record.

The one that became their only No. 1 hit in their career.

The AT40 Blog/July 4, 1987: Domestic violence finds its way to the front burner

The decade of the 1980s was an amalgam of music. It was happy. It was in a party mood. It had its excesses. It had love. It had heartbreak.

Kinda like the '80s decade itself.

But until the summer of 1987, there was one thing missing: The topic of domestic violence and child abuse. Then came a simple pop song with a very complex and strong message from a New Yorker named Suzanne Vega that changed the whole ball game.

"Luka" was written from the point of view of a child who was living on the second floor of an apartment. Vega herself said in a 2008 New York Times op-ed piece that when she wrote the song, she knew a 9-year-old kid who lived on the second floor of her apartment, but the name Luka was not the child's name ... just a name she liked. And that child was not abused like the character in her song.

When she performed the song early on in her career, where she made a name for herself in the Greenwich Village music scene, she noticed the glazed, stunned and sometimes horrified looks on people's faces, as if they were telling her, "Nooooo. Stop doing that song," for which after she completed her piece, they'd be asking for her to do some more popular songs that she had written and performed like "Gypsy" or "The Queen And The Soldier."

It was 1985. Vega was in the middle of making her self-titled debut album for A&M Records with Steve Addabbo, Lenny Kaye and Steven Miller (not the legendary singer-guitarist) producing and she writing all the songs. One of the songs that did resonate enough to gain her critical attention for the debut album was a track called "Marlene On The Wall" which spawned a video that made the rotations of both MTV and VH-1.

While recording the album, her manager, Ron Fierstein, came across the sheet music Vega was working on for the song "Luka." Fierstein figured out immediately what the song was about for which Vega confirmed his assumption. Vega explained she had written the lyrics after listening to an all-acoustic Lou Reed album called "Berlin," which Reed touches on abuse at all levels, including child abuse.

Fierstein was insistent that Vega record this song, but Vega was resistant. She didn't want to put the song on tape at all, claiming she didn't like recording the song if it meant it was solely about "a social issue," adding that when she wrote the song, she wrote it as a "little portrait" and she hated "social issue songs."

But Fierstein kept up the argument and pointed to the previous decade and the songs that were recorded that were very much against the U.S. involvement in Vietnam that eventually got us out of that conflict. Fierstein and Vega argued for a good half an hour over the song with Vega taking the cynical turn and saying to Fierstein that if this were the case, then Bob Dylan and Joan Baez may have "been able to end all wars." Though Fierstein kept finding the positive angle to why she should record "Luka," Vega dug in deep that she didn't believe a social issue song was a hit. Eventually, though, her manager broke her down and she helped to set up pre-production of a song that would eventually end up on Vega's second album, "Solitude Standing."

After recording the song that everyone agreed to delay putting on the first album, Addabbo played the then-finished product to keyboardist Peter Wood, a good friend of his. Wood made a couple of suggestions that would play better for the song. The first was to place a guitar solo in between the second and third verses to give it some breathing room in between instrumentally. The second was to put the emphasis on one word to finish out a line near the end of the song.

The word was "why" and it was suggested that when she sings "After that, you don't ask why," Vega climbs the range to finish the line out, to make the point that Luka himself is in desperate need of help, but making the point that as serious as the situation is, there's a sadness to the fact it may never come fast enough.

"Solitude Standing" was finished in 1987 with Addabbo and Kaye co-producing and Vega once again having a hand in writing all the songs. Released on April Fool's Day 1987, the album came out to wildly critical acclaim, even more so than her self-titled debut. And A&M Records believed highly in "Luka" the same way as Fierstein did.

"Luka," which featured an unknown rising singer named Shawn Colvin on backing vocals, debuted at a low No. 93 on the Billboard Hot 100 on June 6, 1987, but climbed quickly to No. 76 the very next week. From there, the song moved up to No. 59, then No. 47 before making its Top 40 debut on the week of July 4, 1987, at No. 37. Two weeks later, the song had climbed to No. 22. Then two steady climbs of seven notches each week had "Luka" in the Top 10 on August 1, 1987 at No. 8. Vega's song was flying, but eventually slowed down to finally peak at the bronze-medal spot on the chart, No. 3, on August 22, before dropping back to No. 4 on August 29.

The music video for the hit song, directed by Michael Patterson and Candice Reckinge, was shot entirely in black and white and featured child actor Jason Cerbone in the role of "Luka" with Vega singing her song throughout.

And as the song was being bought and was also being played all over the country and eventually all over the world, that "social issue" that Vega felt uncomfortable about singing was thrown to the forefront. For the first time, child abuse and domestic violence had a pop music forum, whether anyone liked it or not.

It also opened the door for one of the saddest, most gut-wrenching songs ever recorded just two years earlier and which got a second shot of airplay -- "Dear Mr. Jesus" by a Christian-based group called PowerSource. Written by Richard Klender, the song piggy-backed off the success of "Luka" and also had an avenue to succeed through a horrific moment at the end of 1987 -- the beating death of 6-year-old New Yorker Lisa Steinberg by her adoptive father, Joel Steinberg, who was sentenced to 8 1/3-to-25 years in prison for her murder and served in prison until June 30, 2004.

But "Dear Mr. Jesus," featuring 6-year-old Sharon Batts' heartbreaking vocals, did not have the same success as "Luka," peaking only at No. 61 on the Hot 100 in January 1988.

Over three years later, another track from "Solitude Standing," an a cappella piece called "Tom's Diner," got a remixing and reworking by a British production team called DNA, putting a Soul II Soul beat and synthesizers to the vocal and making it into to a No. 5 hit in the winter of 1991.

It saved Vega from one-hit wonder status. And to this day, Vega still gets letters from those who were abused as a child, telling her their stories and how much "Luka" spoke to them about the experiences. As she would say about the decision to record the song when she didn't think anything of it, "Ron was right. It was a huge social issue."

A social issue that had its say on the chart squarely in the Summer of '87.