Day: July 27, 2018

Categories
1980s Career Military Music Radio

The Major’s Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1985

Every Friday night I post the Top 5 of one of my classic hit music charts based on personal preference from either 10, 20, or 30 years ago (rotating each week).

But this week it’s a special. I’m going back 33 years to 1985. My chart didn’t exist yet, so here’s the Top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100 – for the week ending Sunday July 28TH 1985:

  1. “Everytime You Go Away” – Paul Young
  2. “Shout” – Tears For Fears
  3. “You Give Good Love” – Whitney Houston
  4. “A View To A Kill” – Duran Duran
  5. “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free” – Sting

33 years ago this weekend was my final weekend of Basic Military Training (BMT) at Lackland AFB (San Antonio) Texas. Back then Air Force Basic Training was 30 weekdays (not including Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays). On the 31ST weekday you were shipped out to either technical school at another base (unless your school was at Lackland), or to your first permanent duty station. My technical school was located at Chanute AFB (Rantoul) Illinois.

The 30TH and final weekday of Basic Training for me and my flightmates was on Friday July 26TH 1985. On Saturday and Sunday we were basically on hold for the weekend with not much to do (“liberty in place”) awaiting the 31ST weekday on Monday July 29TH 1985. Our Training Instructor (T.I.) came in on that Saturday morning and surprisingly started talking nice to us like regular people – unlike the previous 30 weekdays in which he yelled and screamed at us. He told us to enjoy the weekend, listen to the radio, and stay out of trouble until Monday morning. He then left us alone for the rest of the weekend.

So we listened to the T.I.’s radio all weekend – a Top 40 radio station in San Antonio, and we heard all of the greatest hits of the day. We even listened to “American Top 40 With Casey Kasem” on Sunday morning. Further down on the Billboard Hot 100 that weekend were these hits that we heard over and over again in heavy rotation:  “Raspberry Beret” – Prince And The Revolution (# 7), “Sussudio” – Phil Collins (# 13), “Freeway Of Love” – Aretha Franklin (# 19), and “Like A Surgeon” – “Weird Al” Yankovic (# 68).

Early on Monday morning we left the pop music behind, boarded busses, saw Lackland AFB behind us, and proceeded to the next chapter of our new military career.

It’s halftime. I’ll be back on Sunday and Monday with my remaining two blogs for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Make memories of a lifetime !