Each week, I am releasing a list of my 15 favorite songs from the first 15 summers I lived in my beloved hometown of Toms River, N.J. between 1974-88. That takes me from the summer I was 7 until the summer I was 21. Each song from each summer has a special meaning and I will try to convey them as best as I possibly can. So I will rank each summer's hit song memory from Nos. 15 through No. 1. Each song was a hit that peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 between Memorial Day Weekend and Labor Day Weekend. An interesting final note here: "Let's Dance" by David Bowie is NOT in this countdown because it was a hit in the Spring of 1983, hitting No. 1 then, so I did not include it among the summertime memories.
This week, it's the Sounds of the Summer of '83:
15. Wishing—A Flock Of Seagulls (#26, July)
Still get chills when I hear that opening and then the end when that sound effect clicks itself to an end. It's my favorite Flock song and the song progression is just so cool and easy to follow thanks to the synthesizers used to accompany lead singer/leader Mike Score's emotional plea of being with a woman that turns his world upside down. It's a record that the music drives the record, not the vocals. And it's awesome!
14. 1999—Prince (#12, July)
If not for the fact my radio stations played this song to death in the Summer of '83, I'd probably rank this Prince classic much higher. Another great song where the music drives the song, though the narrative about end days doesn't hurt either. If we all were going to die, "1999" was a great way to do it as we wanted to all "party like it's 1999."
13. Don't Pay The Ferryman—Chris DeBurgh (#34, July)
Most people think Chris DeBurgh is a one-hit wonder because of "The Lady In Red" in 1987, but that's far from the truth. DeBurgh puts the dramatics into a great song called "Don't Pay The Ferryman." From the start, this feels like a chase to "get to the other side." The object is not to pay the ferryman and have that leverage in that chase. This song should have served as every movie's theme song that involves a chase to the finish. Dramatic, yes. Should've been a bigger hit than No. 34.
12. Is There Something I Should Know—Duran Duran (#4, August)
I first came across this song the previous spring when it debuted at No. 1 on the UK chart. The pounding opening with Simon Le Bon exclaiming, "Please, please tell me now!" gets this song going and it's some super guitar work by Andy Taylor and the usual synthesizer sound of Nick Rhodes that ties this one up with Le Bon's vocals. Great bridge musically and even greater line by Le Bon, "Don't say you're easy on me, 'cause you're about as easy as a nuclear war." Interesting times in our world between our country and the mighty Soviet Union in 1983 to even bring that subject up. Still great Duran Duran from their early days without question.
11. Puttin' On The Ritz—Taco (#4, September)
Every so often, you get a song that just stands out and you never allow yourself to let it go from your childhood. Indonesian-born and Dutch-raised Taco's interpretation of the 1930 composition "Puttin' On The Ritz" turned out to be as interesting as Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle's interpretation of it from "Young Frankenstein" in 1974. It's a techno-wizard's dream to put an Irving Berlin song to a synthesizer sound and let it sound hypnotic with Taco sounding all Rudy Vallee-like. Interestingly, Berlin was 95 years old and able to enjoy its success, while Vallee was 82 and could enjoy the flattery of Taco sounding like him. I always loved the longer version in which Taco improvises near the end and does the "Gotta dance!" fading into a mono-sounding vocal where he sings, "If you're blue and you don't know where to turn to, why don't you go where fashion fits … puttin' on the ritz."
10. China Girl—David Bowie (#10, August)
It would not be for a long time until I found out that Iggy Pop, who co-wrote this song with David Bowie, did the original back in 1977. Great sound effects to give it that Far East feel to start the song and a great pumping bass guitar by Carmine Rojas gets this song going and Bowie's vocals are forever haunting. Always loved the hush part when Bowie sings, "And when I get excited, my little China girl says, 'Oh baby, just you shut your mouth.'" The legendary Stevie Ray Vaughn's guitar plays this song out to its outro. Another great memory from my all-time favorite summer of music.
9. Too Shy—Kajagoogoo (#5, July)
The first time I heard this song was in the previous winter when it was a No. 1 hit in the UK from some band with the baby-sounding name of Kajagoogoo. The song was infectious and was able to wash over me from the start, from the opening fade-in to Limahl demanding, "Hey girl … move a little closer! 'Cause you're too shy-shy, hush-hush, eye to eye." Great musicianship among Limahl, bass player Nick Beggs, keyboardist Stuart Neale all wrapped up in the production of Duran Duran's Nick Rhodes and Colin Thurston. A great song from the early part of the Summer of '83.
8. Rock Of Ages—Def Leppard (#16, August)
"Oonta gleeben glouten globen." If you don't take anything else out of this amazing record, you surely can take that opening up, followed by the percussive drumming of Rick Allen, the vocals of Joel Elliott and the crashing guitars of Phil Collen and Steve Clark. Nobody knew that a generation later, this song would be the title of an '80s-style classic rock Broadway play and then movie starring Tom Cruise, but in 1983, it was just a record that permeated the rock clubs and radios all over that summer. And that sound of the match striking up a fire at the end … evil! Very evil! Man did I love that sound at the end of "Rock Of Ages."
7. (Keep Feeling) Fascination—Human League (#8, August)
Loved this song so much, I went out and bought the cassette tape it came from. It also had "Mirror Man" on it and I loved that song, too. I always was "fascinated" by the number of singers on this record -- four, exactly. But it's that party-sounding synthesizer that steals the show throughout and Oakey narrating this interesting meeting going on. "And so the conversation turned until the sun went down. And many fantasies were learned … on that day!" Ian Burden's bass comes through in the bass guitar and you can't help but hand-clap at points of the song. Human League were part of the second British Invasion of 1982-84.
6. Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)—Eurythmics (#1, September)
Another great act to come from that second British Invasion was David Stewart and Annie Lennox, who formed the hit-making duo Eurythmics and stormed the charts for the first time with the No. 2 British hit "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)," a haunting-sounding record given an evil-sounding backdrop from the synthesizers Stewart set up behind it. Lennox's lead vocals match the evilness of "Sweet Dreams" and part of the reason why this record became the fabric of the musical backdrop of the Summer of '83 … as was that amusing and interesting music video in which I would never see cows chewing ever again.
5. Flashdance … What A Feeling—Irene Cara (#1, May)
Maybe the production of this record was a tad bit over the top, but it never fails to put a smile on my face to hear about the struggles of the narrator, in this case Cara, who co-wrote this Academy Award-winning record, and hear what started as a dream and then becomes exultation as the music pulsates faster and becomes more a celebration … a wonderful "feeling," one where she says, "Keep believing." The record is really a party and one to celebrate the joy of doing something special. We should all celebrate and sing and dance to songs like this.
4. It's A Mistake—Men At Work (#6, August)
Imagine a world in which the button is pressed and it was done wrongly and we can kiss our collective asses goodbye? Yeah, this was done in a very anti-war way by the Australian band Men At Work, who could not go wrong on the charts with song after song between the Summer of 1982 through the Fall of 1983. The anti-war record hit a chord during the struggles of what was the frayed relationship between Ronald Reagan's America and Yuri Andropov's Soviet Union. It was a tense time for our nation and for the world. The music video at least put some humor into the song, but the message was "war is never the best answer." Colin Hay, who wrote the song, narrates as lead vocalist. And it's Ron Strykert with a very heavy guitar solo near the song. Heard this song plenty of times on the beach that summer.
3. Electric Avenue—Eddy Grant (#2, July)
Speaking of topical records -- Eddy Grant sang about the street where the 1981 Brixton riots took place. And he has some heavy thoughts on his mind: "Who is to blame in what country? Never can get to the one. Dealing in multiplication, and they still can't feed everyone." Also there's "Now in the street there is violence, and a lots of work to be done. No place to hang out our washing, and I can't blame it all on the sun, oh no!" The sounds of motorcycles revved up are memorable and Grant's vocals paint a dark tale of what was happening when Brixton's riots divided a country. If not for a song a little higher in this countdown hogging up No. 1 that entire summer, this should have easily been a No. 1 hit here.
2. It's Inevitable—Charlie (#38, August)
Radio stations WPST-FM in Trenton and WJRZ-FM in Manahawkin, New Jersey, would play this song periodically and I would turn the radio up anytime. The record had a feel of what the Jefferson Starship was doing at the time, most notably the songs "Be My Lady" and "Winds Of Change," especially the backing vocals -- very similar. Terry Thomas delivers a terrific lead vocal about getting a girl who is doing all she can to avoid him, but the pull is irresistible. Fantastic guitar solo in the middle by Thomas and always loved Thomas' intensity on vocals from start to finish. Equally as much I loved the music video that turns from the flirtation of a pair of wannabe chefs in a cooking school into a pie-throwing episode. Too bad it only got to No. 38 on the chart because it was a better song than that.
1. Every Breath You Take—The Police (#1, July)
Simply put, you couldn't go ANYWHERE in the Summer of 1983 without hearing this song, whether on the radio or on the beach or on the Boardwalk or to a game. It was everywhere! Sting's tale of obsession for a woman became as irresistible on the charts and radio. It's dark and brooding in its narration and its presentation, but there are shiny parts of this record. There's the strings that make this song really cool. There's that part Sting changes the mood of the song for that one moment when he sings, "Since you've gone, I've been lost without a trace. I dream at night, I can only see your face. I look around, but it's you I can't replace. I feel so cold and I long for your embrace. I keep crying, 'Baby, baby, pleeeeeeeeeeeease.'" Andy Summers' piano is polarizing in the bridge before Sting comes back. And how can you can not think of this song without Sting continually promising, "I'll be watching you." Possession never sounded quite so good on the radio or during any summer quite like the greatest musical summer of my life..
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