The AT40 Blog/February 25, 1978: How good it was to be a Bee Gee

For the first five months of 1978, there was one dominant act on the music chart -- the Bee Gees.

And in those first five months, no one dominated as songwriters quite the way Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb did, especially oldest brother Barry. And on the week of February 25, 1978, the trio hit a new zenith not seen as recently as 1964 when a couple of guys named John Lennon and Paul McCartney were writing almost every big hit their band, The Beatles, had at the time.

The draw? It was disco's rising star at the time. Oh, it was also this movie out called Saturday Night Fever, starring a 24-year-old New Jersey native named John Travolta as Tony Manero, the star of the disco scene at the 2001 Odyssey club in New York every Saturday night. And with Travolta showing off his moves, those at the movies watching it were taken in by the songs playing. It was what propelled the soundtrack to jump to No. 1 the week of January 21, 1978 from No. 10 the week before. That would start a 24-week run at the top of the album chart.

Already out as a single, "How Deep Is Your Love" had hit No. 1 Christmas weekend 1977 and spent three straight weeks at the top. But while "How Deep Is Your Love" was getting to the top, the follow-up single was getting into the Top 40 as "Stayin' Alive" debuted at No. 39 that same weekend. Six weeks later, "Stayin' Alive" began a four-week run in the top spot, just three weeks after "How Deep Is Your Love" finished its stay at the top.

In the meantime, little brother Andy Gibb had released the follow-up to his No. 1 hit "I Just Want To Be Your Everything." And "Love Is Thicker Than Water" debuted at No. 39 two weeks before "Stayin' Alive" debuted and began a slow and arduous climb up the chart.

While that was all happening, a 25-year-old woman from Australia came visiting the brothers as they were putting together the songs that would make up the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack in France. Her name was Samantha Sang and after they chatted, she flew back to Miami because she was about to record her debut album for Private Stock Records at the famed Criteria Studios with the Gibbs writing and helping in the production. She thought she was going to be offered a tune the trio wrote called "Don't Throw It All Away," which would eventually be recorded a year later by younger brother Andy Gibb for his "Shadow Dancing" album. Instead, Barry Gibb pulled out a composition he and brother Robin wrote titled "Emotion." She loved it and recorded the song in April 1977 with Barry Gibb doing backing vocals and co-producing alongside his normal partners Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson.

From the album of the same name, "Emotion" would start getting airplay in late 1977 and on January 7, 1978, it debuted in the Top 40 at No. 37 and began its climb up the chart.

By early February 1978, Saturday Night Fever was the biggest movie in the land and the soundtrack was holding for the third straight week at No. 1 when "Night Fever," the third Bee Gees release from the soundtrack, was released. It debuted on the Hot 100 at No. 76, then vaulted 44 unbelievable and seemingly inevitable notches to debut in the countdown at No. 32.

The Bee Gees were a scorching, white hot at this point. And it made for the perfect storm two weeks later on February 25, 1978. "Stayin' Alive" was holding for the fourth straight week at the top, while little brother Andy Gibb held at No. 2. "Emotion" by Sang inched up from No. 6 to No. 5, making it three Top 5 hits that had the Gibb fingerprints all over it. Meanwhile, "How Deep Is Your Love" was holding steady at No. 10, the song's amazing 16th week in the Top 10, which tied Andy Gibb's "I Just Want To Be Your Everything" for the longest run in the Top 10 since 1960.

Four Top 10 hits by the Brothers Gibb was pretty darn amazing. But two weeks after it debuted at No. 32, the Bee Gees vaulted to No. 17 and then to No. 8 on that very week with "Night Fever," giving them five of the Top 10 songs that week as songwriters. Well ... at least Barry Gibb had five songs in the Top 10 as a songwriter. He wrote his own group's hits with his two brothers, co-wrote "Emotion" with Robin and co-wrote "Love Is Thicker Than Water" with little brother Andy.

And that made it the most dominating moment on the chart by one act since the Beatles held down the Top 5 songs on the Hot 100 the week of April 4, 1964. But unlike the Beatles, the Bee Gees were relatively known throughout the world, first known for their ballad hits like "I Started A Joke," "Holiday," "Lonely Days" and their first No. 1 hit "How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?"

In an interview done in 1979, Barry Gibb admitted they were not fans of disco music, yet they made their ultra-known fame through the disco scene. Being involved with disco music became a bad thing when the 1970s ended, the disco era waned and acts who were huge stars were stereotyped because of it.

But that's later. Let's go back to the present for 1978.

A week after having five songs in the Top 10 at the same time, the same five songs held in the Top 10 with "How Deep Is Your Love" spending a then-record 17th week in the Top 10. It would drop out of the Top 10 the following week of March 11, 1978, leaving only four Barry Gibb/Bee Gees songs.

In the meantime, all four of those songs were hanging out in the Top 5 on March 4: "Love Is Thicker Than Water" at No. 1, "Stayin' Alive" at No. 2, "Emotion" at No. 4 and "Night Fever" at No. 5. "Stayin' Alive" would drop to No. 6 the next week as "Night Fever vaulted to No. 2.

But as if magic dust continued to fall upon the Brothers Gibb, "Night Fever" not only claimed the No. 1 spot on March 18, 1978, but "Stayin' Alive" jumped back up the countdown from No. 6 to No. 2 again! That started a five-week run in which the two Bee Gees records were No. 1 and No. 2.

Still, that was not all: On March 25, 1978, another Barry Gibb composition, this time written with Bee Gee mates Robin and Maurice, entered the Top 10 at No. 9. This one was Yvonne Elliman's latest song, "If I Can't Have You," also from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. That song had debuted in the Top 40 on February 25, 1978 and swiftly climbed from No. 40 to No. 29 to No. 21 to No. 14 to No. 9. It would eventually knock "Night Fever" out of the No. 1 spot on May 13, 1978, and spend one week at the top.

But once again for three straight weeks on March 25, April 1 and April 8, 1978, Barry Gibb and his brothers ruled the Top 10 with five songs co-written and produced by the Bee Gees.

By May, the heat of the Bee Gees success had finally cooled down.

But whoa, was it ever hot during the snow-driven, cold winter days of 1978.

The AT40 Blog/February 23, 1985: A great week to be a Lover

Before 1984, neither a song with "Loverboy" or "Lovergirl" had ever hit the Top 40.

Then for seven weeks in early 1985, a song with those two titles were in the Top 40 at the same time. And on the week of February 23, 1985, they were both having great runs in the countdown. "Lovergirl" by Teena Marie was one of the bigger movers in the countdown, moving from No. 24 to No. 16, while "Loverboy" by Billy Ocean moved from No. 4 to No. 2 and threatened to get to No. 1, which would make it the second straight No. 1 hit for Ocean after "Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run)."

Ocean's hit was first to hit the Top 40, debuting at No. 40 the week of December 8, 1984. Ocean, born Leslie Sebastian Charles in Fyzabad, Trinidad & Tobago on January 21, 1950, had gone eight years without a Top 40 hit until "Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run)" landed him back in it and got him all the way to No. 1. From the album, "Suddenly," "Loverboy" proved to be the same uptempo song as "Caribbean Queen" was, but with a harder edge, thanks to the guitar work of Geoff Whitehorn. The song also featured a music video that seemed to come out of the cantina scene from "Star Wars" -- futuristic and freaky.

"Loverboy" romped up the Top 40 landscape into the Top 10. And about the same time as that was happening, the "Loverboy" got joined on the countdown by a "Lovergirl." She was provided by singer-songwriter-producer Teena Marie, born Mary Christine Brockert in Santa Monica, Calif., on March 5, 1956.

Immediately, young Mary Christine was getting offers, from acting at 8 years old on The Beverly Hillbillies to singing as a 10-year-old at the wedding for the son of actor-comedian Jerry Lewis. In the early 1970s, the family moved to Venice, Calif., and young Mary, who had now formed an R&B group with her younger brother and cousin, began hanging out in an African-American section of the town called Oakwood, nicknamed "Venice Harlem." While cutting her teeth on the R&B music of the day in Venice Harlem, she was earning the lead in the play The Music Man at Venice High School. After graduating from high school, Mary Christine led a band called Truvair, which consisted of some of her high school classmates, and they performed locally between 1974-75.

While studying English literature at Santa Monica College, Mary Christine was auditioning for a record label, using the English lit influence to write lyrics for her songs. And one of those auditions landed her a record label -- it was for producer-songwriter Hal Davis at Motown Records. He had plans for both she and her band to perform songs for an upcoming Motown-produced movie, but the project got shelved. Still, Motown's leader, Berry Gordy Jr., liked what he heard from Mary Christine and the band, but he had no room in his company at the time for a band. So he signed her to a solo deal.

However, none of her recording sessions were working out, as if there was no magic between the artist and producers sent her way. But one fellow Motown artist was interested in working with her. His name was Rick James. On his way to taking off as a singer himself on the 1978 smash "You & I," James took Mary Christine under his wing and worked on what would be her first solo album titled "Wild And Peaceful." James wrote most of the songs on the album, bringing out his protege's talents and her soulful vocals.

Released in March 1979, "Wild And Peaceful" was released with the cover picture of swirling dark clouds. No picture of the artist was on the cover and there was a reason for that: James wanted the record buyers to hear the voice and not really picture what the white singer looked like ... not yet, at least. It worked as the album got to the Top 20 on the R&B album chart and peaked at No. 94 on the Top 200 album chart.

By now, she had changed her name to Teena Marie. She went on to make the scenes with other R&B singers as well. Then in 1980, Marie went back into the studio to make what would be her breakthrough album, "Lady T." This time around, James, with his career in full bloom, turned the producing honors over to veteran Richard Rudolph, the widow of the great Minnie Riperton. They connected, too, and on one track, "Too Many Colors," Rudolph had backing vocals done by his 7-year-old daughter, Maya, who would eventually become Marie's goddaughter.

The work with Rudolph and continuing prodding and positive reinforcement from James allowed 24-year-old Teena Marie to go out and do her third album, "Irons In The Fire," on her own in late 1980. And in 1981 with Marie doing the producing and songwriting, she scored her first Top 10 R&B hit, "I Need Your Lovin'," which would cross over and be Marie's first-ever Top 40 pop hit, peaking at No. 37 in the spring of 1981.

Marie's star was rising, following that album up in late 1981 with "It Must Be Magic," that led to her first Top 5 R&B hit, "Square Biz," which would later become the theme song re-done in 2002 for the early 21st century version of the game show The Hollywood Squares, hosted by Tom Bergeron.

But after that album peaked at No. 2 on the R&B chart, Marie suffered a setback with her Epic Records debut, the 1983 album, "Robbery," which missed the Top 10 on the R&B album chart and only got as high as No. 119 on the album chart. The white girl with the R&B chops was suffering a bit of a slump and took a year off to regroup.

When she came back, it was with the album "Starchild," which featured her not only on the production and writing of all the songs again, but it featured her on lead vocal, drum machine, guitar, synthesizer, percussion, piano and on backing vocals as well as all the programming.

That's her playing all those instruments and producing her own track, "Lovergirl," a song very much sounding like James himself had a hand in it, but in this case, he didn't. This was Teena Marie learning from her musical master.

The debut single from the new album would saunter into the Top 40 at No. 39 on February 2, 1985, in its eighth week on the Hot 100. But not missing a beat, it jumped up to No. 32, then No. 24, then to No. 16 on February 23, 1985.

Ocean, meanwhile, was now a challenger to the song at the top for the second straight week, "Careless Whisper" by Wham! featuring George Michael.

It was uncertain if the "Loverboy" and "Lovergirl" would meet up with one another, but they were both flying high on the chart. However, after getting to No. 2 for one week, Ocean got the tide turned on him and "Loverboy" began to sink, dropping to No. 5. Meanwhile, "Lovergirl" was poised to go into the Top 10 after a two-notch climb to No. 14.

And then on March 9, 1985, an unprecedented Top 40 moment took place -- "Loverboy," co-written by Ocean, his songwriting partner, the late Keith Diamond, and Robert John "Mutt" Lange, dropped from No. 5 down to No. 11 and out of the Top 10. And one notch below that song at No. 12 was ... you guessed it! ... "Lovergirl," moving up two notches from No. 14 to No. 12.

The "Loverboy" and the "Lovergirl" had found each other! It would only be a seven-day romance, though as "Loverboy" dropped to No. 20 and "Lovergirl," more importantly, became Marie's first Top 10 pop hit at No. 8 the next week. Two weeks later on the week of March 30, 1985, "Lovergirl" would peak at No. 4, five notches higher than its peak position on the R&B chart.

Once "Loverboy" left the Top 40, Ocean was already on to the next Top 40 hit, the title track from "Suddenly," which would peak at No. 4. Once "Lovergirl" left the Top 40 the week of May 4, 1985, that unfortunately was it for Marie on that chart. She was still an R&B chart star and on April 9, 1988, she scored her only No. 1 hit on that chart when "Ooo La La La" reached the top. "Work It" and "If I Were A Bell" would give her two more Top 10 R&B hits in the next two years and she would continue to perform and put out records for the next decade and a half.

In 2004, she was back on the R&B Top 5 and Top 10 on the respective album charts with "La Dona" at 48 years old. But 2004 turned out to be a bad year for Marie -- her teacher and close friend, Rick James, died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 56 as he was getting his life back together after fighting the demons of drug abuse. And while sleeping in a hotel room one night that year, a picture hanging over the bed she was in fell of its foundation and knocked her unconscious. It led to a serious concussion she suffered. From that time on, she would suffer from momentary seizures because of the trauma she suffered.

On December 26, 2010, Marie was found unresponsive in her home by her daughter, Alia, in Pasadena, Calif. She was taken to a nearby hospital where she was pronounced dead at the age of 54. An autopsy performed four days later found she had died from natural causes, though it came one month after she had suffered a tonic-clonic seizure, which affects the brain.

In 2016, Ocean, who would score three No. 1 hits during the 1980s in the U.S., was about to release his 11th studio CD/album and first since 2013's "Here You Are," and did a medley of "Suddenly" and "Caribbean Queen" on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon.

He's gray now, but at 66 years old, Ocean can still bring it on vocally. And if and when he goes out on tour, he'll be doing his old songs without doubt. That would include "Loverboy," which really didn't ever think it would meet its "Lovergirl," but sure did during the winter of 1985.

Oh, what an experience!

The AT40 Blog/February 12, 1977: A legendary Welsh star goes ... country?

There's not much convincing here -- you can ask the great Welsh-born singer Tom Jones to sing the phone book and he could succeed at doing so.

That's how legendary an artist Tom Jones -- born Thomas Jones Woodward on June 7, 1940 -- was when he was at the top of his game in the late 1960s and through the early 1970s.

And that legend got put to the test in early 1977 when, without a Top 40 hit for six years, Jones came back in a big way with a song far from familiar to his audience of devoted fans.

In 1965, Jones first hit the Top 40 with his iconic smash "It's Not Unusual," a No. 10 hit here, then followed it up with a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David called "What's New Pussycat?" the theme from the Peter Sellers movie. That got to No. 3 in the summer of '65.

There was a whole slew of hits that followed that up -- classics such as "Delilah," "I'll Never Fall In Love Again," "Without Love (There Is Nothing)," "Green Green Grass Of Home," "Thunderball" and in 1971, his last Top 10 hit and biggest hit ever, the Paul Anka-penned "She's A Lady," which peaked at No. 2 in March of that year.

While his hit-making status was hot, television executives thought he was something as well with his handsome face and steel blue eyes. So in 1969, ITV in England gave him a variety show that would be taped in London and shipped over to the United States where ABC would broadcast it. The show was This Is Tom Jones. And Jones landed quite a bit of variety over the three seasons and 57 shows he did, having everyone on from Sellers to Nancy Sinatra to Chet Atkins to Cass Elliott to Stevie Wonder to Janis Joplin to Sammy Davis Jr. to George Burns to Pat Paulsen to Liza Minnelli to Glen Campbell to Anka and to Dusty Springfield. And with the singers on the show, Jones was more than happy to showcase his powerful pipes in duets with the stars.

But the follow-up to "She's A Lady" was the double-sided "Puppet Man" and "Resurrection Man." It only got to No. 26 and No. 38, respectively, in the Top 40. There was no other Top 40 hits for years. Jones kept touring with different female backing acts behind him, but no set of panties thrown at him or girls throwing themselves on him could muster any Top 40 magic.

At 36 years old, there may have been a thought that Tom Jones was a "has-been."

And just when that happened to be the issue, along came songwriters Roger Greenaway and Barry Mason. Greenaway, a British songwriter, wrote "You've Got Your Troubles" for the Fortunes, a Top 10 hit in 1965, as well as Gary Lewis & The Playboys' "Green Grass" and the English Congregation's Top 40 smash from 1972, "Softly Whispering I Love You." Mason, another Brit, wrote "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" for Edison Lighthouse, as well as Englebert Humperdinck's "The Last Waltz" and Jones' smash, "Delilah." Together, the pair wrote a new composition titled "Say You'll Stay Until Tomorrow." But their song was more country-leaning than pop-privy.

If it were any other pop act than Tom Jones, they may have balked at recording the single. But Jones was looking for a hit -- and so was his long-time producer, Gordon Mills. Plus Jones was one of the very few acts who never shied away from trying something different.

So into the studio in the late summer of 1976 Jones went with Mills producing this song, giving it the country twang the record deserved. Released on the country chart first, the song climbed into the country Top 40 chart in December 1976 and slowly it moved up the chart. Then it made its Hot 100 debut on January 8, 1977, at No. 90. It leaped up to No. 80 the next week, and the trek was on throughout January, going to No. 70, then No. 58, then to No. 48.

Then on the week it was No. 3 on the Billboard country music chart, "Say You'll Stay Until Tomorrow" landed on the Top 40 at No. 40. That was February 12, 1977, giving Jones his long-awaited Top 40 comeback.

Two weeks later after the song had jumped from No. 40 to No. 36, then to No. 28, "Say You'll Stay Until Tomorrow" moved from No. 3 to No. 2 on the country chart and finally, on February 26, 1977, to No. 1 -- his first No. 1 country hit. Jones had hit the jackpot and found an entirely different audience with his first country chart-topper.

But believe it or not, it wasn't Jones' first traipse with a country song. In 1966, he recorded Curly Putman's "Green Green Grass Of Home," which Porter Waggoner made into a country music classic first before Jones took his hand and made it a dramatic pop hit, peaking at No. 11 on the chart. Eventually, Jones continued to rise on the pop chart with his comeback single and peaked at No. 15 for two straight weeks starting March 26, 1977 before falling back.

And that would be it for Jones as a pop star for a while. But thanks to that song, Jones became a revived artist as a country music star, starting in 1980 with a remake of a hit called "Darlin'," which peaked at No. 16. Jones would score nine Top 40 country hits between 1980-86, his biggest hit in that time period being the 1983 No. 4 hit "Touch Me (I'll Be Your Fool Once More)."

Once that phase ended at the time Mills passed away from cancer and his son, Mark, took over as his manager, Jones went back to being a pop star and hit No. 2 in the UK in 1987 with "A Boy From Nowhere." And one year later in late 1988, 48-year-old Jones hit the Top 5 in the UK, teamed with The Art Of Noise on a remake of Prince's 1986 chart-topper "Kiss," which his version would land him back in the U.S. Top 40 here for the first time since "Say You'll Stay Until Tomorrow," peaking at No. 31 in early January 1989.

Now in his mid-70s, Jones continues to work hard, touring, making new CDs and starring on TV where he was a coach on the UK's version of The Voice. And to this day, he's still not afraid to put down a good vocal for someone when asked.

Because that's what Tom Jones does -- taking any song and making it his by the end.

Even a country music song that he wasn't afraid to help resuscitate his career in 1977 and show him a door to another career path.

That's what legends do.

The AT40 Blog/February 8, 1986: Stallone's persuasiveness nabs him the Godfather of Soul

Jim Peterik, one of the leaders of the band Survivor, which put out not one, but two theme songs from the Rocky movies in the 1980s, said the movie's longtime star, Sylvester Stallone, had a way of reinventing himself for not only the roles he starred in, but getting musical acts to buy into his way of thinking to do songs for the movies he starred in or directed.

But maybe Stallone's biggest challenge was to convince the greatest soul music star of all-time to take a shot at something he wasn't all that comfortable with doing: Recording someone else's songs.

For the better part of his superstar career, James Brown wrote and mostly produced his own songs. And those songs with such a vibe to them -- from the wicked bass played behind them to the roar of the mighty horns played by the backing band, the JBs -- were classics, such as "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag," "I Got You (I Feel Good)," "Cold Sweat" and "I Got The Feelin'." Brown was his own man, so Stallone had to convince the Godfather of Soul that he had a song that he was wanting him to do for a movie Stallone starred in and that he fit the bill to do it.

No one was really sure in the end how Stallone got Brown to record "Living In America," but he did. And in the end, that song became the second-biggest chart hit in Brown's amazing career.

Brown built an amazing career off being "the hardest-working man in show business" in the 1960s and 1970s, racking up 16 No. 1 hits between 1965-74 and putting on a stage show that became the envy of others with the capper of the shows being an exhausted Brown having to be wrapped up in his cape and helped off stage, only to get another burst of energy to continue performing. Fans ate it up and Brown was untouchable.

The songs that became classics were his and his alone. But after 1974, the hits dried up. His last Top 40 pop hit was "Papa Don't Take No Mess--Part 1," which peaked at No. 31. His last Top 10 R&B hit was "Get Up Offa That Thing," which got to No. 4 in 1976. Though he continued to be a top-notch performer and brought the house down wherever he played, he simply couldn't buy a hit and as he went from his 40s to his 50s, the shots at stardom were going to dry up even more.

Stallone, though, was convinced that he had a hit with "Living In America." It was just persuading Brown that he could be back in the spotlight using someone else's song. In this case, the song was co-written by Charlie Midnight and Dan Hartman. Hartman had hit the scene in 1978 with his disco anthem Top 40 debut "Instant Replay" and then came back in 1984 with a No. 6 hit "I Can Dream About You" from the movie Streets Of Fire. Hartman was also a lead vocalist in the 1970s in the Edgar Winter Group, singing the band's Top 15 pop hit, "Free Ride," in 1973.

Midnight, meanwhile, was a producer-songwriter who had worked with Chaka Khan and Sheena Easton and had hooked up with Hartman in 1984 to help Hartman on his "I Can Dream About You" album, including his first Top 40 songwriting credit "We Are The Young," Hartman's follow-up to "I Can Dream About You."

In 1985, they submitted a song with a patriotic feel to it to Stallone for his new Rocky movie and there was no question in Stallone's mind who he wanted to be the vocalist on the song. While older African-American fans knew who Brown was, younger fans, especially white audiences, had no clue about Brown and what his music represented. And by having Brown record the song, he could tap into that audience.

With Stallone's persuasiveness, he was able to get Brown on the phone and get him to come out to Los Angeles and record "Living In America." He also told Brown that he was to have a cameo in the movie and that may have also sweetened the pot for Brown to put "Living In America" down with producer Terry Jackson at the controls. Jackson, Midnight and Hartman were three people that Brown was working with for the first time ... along with Stallone.

Filming began on Rocky IV and when the time came, Brown was ready to do his part of the movie. In that part, he sings "Living In America" as Apollo Creed (played by Carl Weathers) comes out of "retirement" to have an exhibition match with an up-and-coming star in the heavyweight division from the Soviet Union, Ivan Drago, played by Dolph Lundgren. Creed prances around the boxing square, clad in an American-flag style cape and an American-flag style hat on his head, while moving around Drago shadow-boxing with his gloves.

The scene continues with Creed and Drago listening to directions from the referee and when it comes to touch gloves and the cocky Creed goes to slap Drago, he finds Drago's arms won't bend. Though he has the best of Drago at the beginning of the first round with sharp jabs, a simple whistle from Drago's trainer sets Drago on his way to a flurry of shots to the face that stun and dizzy Creed. The bell sounds and though hurt and battered from the beating, Creed asks Rocky Balboa no matter what happens to not throw the white towel in for surrender. Creed continues to take a beating from Drago and in spite of Creed's older trainer, Duke, insisting that Rocky throw the towel, Balboa won't do it. Finally, Drago delivers one final blow that not only floors Creed, but kills the former heavyweight champion in the ring. Looking up at the 6-foot-5 Drago from his prone position, Rocky hears Drago say, "If he dies ... he dies." 

Infuriated at the Soviet boxer and upset at himself because he didn't throw the towel to save his friend and former rival, Balboa takes it on his ownto plan an unsanctioned match with Drago on Drago's home turf in Moscow on Christmas Day, having everyone tell him he's nuts for doing so. He trains furiously in the mountains and snow of the eastern part of the country and on the night of his big bout, he gets pummeled, too, but his iron-clad will won't let him go down for good. He comes back to beat the hell out of Drago and win via knockout in the final round.

The movie, though attaining mixed reviews, was still a smash and pushed three songs into the Top 40: "No Easy Way Out" by one-hit wonder Robert Tepper would peak at No. 22 in the spring of 1986, and the main theme, "Burning Heart" by Peterik's band, Survivor, would climb to No. 2 as the first release from the movie.

"Living In America" was next to be released. It debuted at No. 91 on the Hot 100 the week of December 7, 1985. Though the slow start, the song would rise quickly, going from No. 91 to No. 64 the next week, then to No. 54 and No. 44 before taking the holiday week off.

On the first full countdown of the new year, January 11, 1986, "Living In America" brought Brown his first Top 40 hit in over 11 years when it came into the countdown at No. 36. A modest four-point leap was followed the next week when it jumped nine places to No. 23. A week later on February 1, 1986, "Living In America" vaulted eight more places to No. 15, then on February 8, 1986, it leaped from No. 15 to No. 9.

With that jump into the Top 10, a grateful Brown celebrated a Top 10 pop hit, his first since the anthem, "Say It Loud -- I'm Black And I'm Proud," hit No. 10 in October 1968. And while "Living In America" was landing in the Top 10 for Brown, "Burning Heart" was climbing to No. 2 that week for Survivor, prone to be No. 1, but never landing there, missing out on a second No. 1 hit for the band after "Eye Of The Tiger" from Rocky III in 1982.

From the point Brown got into the Top 10, the song hustled further up the countdown, leaping from No. 9 to No. 7 to No. 5 and then to its peak position of No. 4 the week of March 1, 1986 before beginning its descent down the chart.

Sure, "Living In America" also spoke of a patriotic jingoism that took place in this country and how proud one would be to have a part of what this country is all about, especially in President Ronald Reagan's America at the time. But for the most part, people thought of the hit as "that song that James Brown sang in Rocky IV that brought Apollo Creed back into the ring." In the long version of the song, Brown ad-libs lines, but one that mainly is remembered is when a trombone from the famed Uptown Horns plays and Brown utters, "Eddie Murphy, eat your heart out." Brown never gave an answer on why he called out the acting star, but it may have done with the fact that Murphy perfectly played Brown in a mock scene called "James Brown's Celebrity Hot Tub Party" when he was a star on NBC's Saturday Night Live in which he did a song pertaining to getting into the hot tub in Brown's unintelligible, hard-to-understand vocals, while copying Brown's theatrics in the routine. Maybe the 52-year-old Brown was telling Murphy that his career wasn't finished yet either.

And after the song had gotten to No. 4, a pleased Hartman and Midnight asked Brown if he would like to do an album with them writing and producing. Brown agreed and later in 1986, "Gravity" was released. It featured the Top 40 R&B title cut, but only hit No. 93 on the Hot 100.

Brown would never have another Top 40 pop hit -- "Living In America" was Brown's 44th and last Top 40 hit -- but would continue to perform and record albums and CDs from time to time -- as well as escape from trouble with the law as well. Sadly, on Christmas Day, 2006, Brown passed away from congestive heart failure resulting from complications from pneumonia at the age of 73.

Hartman and Midnight continued to work together until Hartman got sick and passed away on March 22, 1994, from an AIDS-related brain tumor at 43 years old, an illness he kept quiet to those on the outside. Midnight went on without Hartman and would continue to write and produce for other artists and would win a 1990 Grammy Award for Best Album for Children for the motion picture "Oliver & Company."

And the man who brought everyone together, Sylvester Stallone, is still a superstar in Hollywood, earning himself an Oscar nomination in 2015 for Best Supporting Actor for his famous Rocky Balboa character in the seventh movie in the Rocky series, Creed.

Stallone is still working it today, making sure people come together and make great things happen.

The same way he did in 1985 when making the movie Rocky IV. He knew a winning one-two-combination when he saw it, especially in the Godfather of Soul.