Category: 1980s

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).

This week I’m going back a little further, as I continue my multiple anniversary weekend. It was exactly 33 years ago (to the date) that I wrote down (via loose-leaf paper, pen and pencil) my very first personal hit music chart in my military dorm room at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire England.

Here’s what the first page of it looked like – chart songs # 20 to # 6:

Nice variety there, and so here it is – the Top 5 – for the week ending Saturday November 30TH 1985:

1. “We Built This City” – Starship
2. “Separate Lives” – Phil Collins & Marilyn Martin
3. “Part Time Lover” – Stevie Wonder
4. “Say You, Say Me” – Lionel Richie
5. “Never” – Heart

I was 18½ years old and a brand new resident in a foreign country when I penned that chart above. It was really the next step in a hobby that began about a dozen years earlier during the mid-1970s when I first discovered and fell in love with Top 40 radio and especially “American Top 40” on Sundays with my idol (at the time) Casey Kasem. I wanted to grow up and be just like him. The Billboard Hot 100 was my bible back then. I began reading and studying it at my local public library.

This paper edition of my personal hit music chart lasted nearly 7 years. Starship’s “We Built This City” was the first of 174 # 1 hits during that time-span. After a 3-year hiatus I began a second edition of this hobby, and it was all-electronic (via Excel spreadsheet) and eventually online and worldwide. That edition lasted for over 14 years. During the Summer of 2006 my chart flipped from Secular pop music to Christian pop music to coincide with the start of my salvation.

So Happy 33RD Anniversary to my very first personal hit music chart. What a hobby of a lifetime !

It’s halftime. I’ll be back on Sunday and Monday with my remaining two blog posts for this weekend. I’ll be celebrating another anniversary come Sunday. Enjoy your Saturday. Thank You for your time.

All rights reserved (c) 2018 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries.

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). Here it is – for the week ending Sunday October 30TH 1988:

1. “The Loco-Motion” – Kylie Minogue
2. “Je Ne Sais Pais Pourquoi” – Kylie Minogue
3. “It’s No Secret” – Kylie Minogue
4. “Go To Be Certain” – Kylie Minogue
5. “Simply Irresistible” – Robert Palmer

Kylie had a huge week 30 years ago !

Further down my chart Bon Jovi debuted at # 6 with the hard-rockin’ “Bad Medicine”. The Escape Club moved up 18 notches to # 7 with “Wild Wild West”. U2’s “Desire” was the week’s fastest climber – up 21 to # 11.

Phil Collins topped the Billboard Hot 100 with “A Groovy Kind Of Love”. The Beach Boys were at # 2 with “Kokomo”. (It hit # 1 the following week.)

Whitney Houston topped the BBC-Gallup British Top 40 with “One Moment In Time”. Enya’s “Orinoco Flow” was the week’s fastest climber – up 24 to # 5. (It hit # 1 the following week.)

Aside from the British pop music scene while I was living and working in England from November 1985 to November 1987 I was not a big fan of Top 40 music during the 1980s. But in late-1988 the music scene began to shift. It began to change for the better. I’ve always considered 1989 as the first official year of 1990s music. For me the 1990s were the greatest decade of music of my life.

It’s halftime. I’ll be back on Sunday and Monday with two more blogs for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Make memories of a lifetime that will have you looking back at them fondly some 30 years from now !

All rights reserved (c) 2018 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries.

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). Here it is – for the week ending Sunday October 09TH 1988:

1. “Somewhere In My Heart” – Aztec Camera
2. “Kokomo” – The Beach Boys
3. “With A Little Help From My Friends” – Wet Wet Wet
4. “Sign Your Name” – Terence Trent D’arby
5. “Don’t Be Cruel” – Cheap Trick

I’m coming up on the 31ST anniversary of when I left the United Kingdom behind and returned stateside. I lived over there for exactly 2 years and 1 week, and it was the ultimate experience of a lifetime living as a young American in a foreign country. My favorite part of living there was the British pop music scene. I attended the first 17 music concerts of my life during my time in England. I often state that my best 2 years as a teenager – was when I was 19 and 20 over there.

The British pop music scene followed me across the sea and invaded America in 1988 (see any Billboard chart from that year). This song didn’t quite make it over here, but it was my # 1 smash 30 years ago this weekend:

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 that will have you looking back at them fondly some 30 years from now !

All rights reserved (c) 2018 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries.

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). Here it is – for the week ending Sunday September 11TH 1988:

1. “Baby I Love Your Way / Freebird” – Will To Power
2. “When It’s Love” – Van Halen
3. “Perfect World” – Huey Lewis And The News
4. “The Locomotion” – Kylie Minogue
5. “Got To Be Certain” – Kylie Minogue

It’s fun to look back at my weekly hit music charts from all of those years ago. Back before personal computers, smart phones, and social media we had paper, pen, and pencil. That’s how I used to create, compile, and record my charts. I managed to preserve those paper charts pretty nicely over the past 30 years via durable 3-ring notebooks.

Check this out:

There it is – the original Top 10 of my Top 40 via paper, pen, and pencil. Menudo. LOL. You like my sense of humor up there ?  “NOW AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK VERSION”. Incidentally my handwriting has deteriorated over the past 30 years. I wish I wrote that nicely today. At least I can type from 75 to 100 WPM.

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, and protect them so that you can reflect back on them 30 years from now !