Category: Career

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1991

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date February 19, 2021

Every Friday I post the Top 5 of one of my classic hit music charts based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from either 15, 25, 30, or 35 years ago this weekend (rotating each week).

It’s the 3RD Friday of the month, so I go back 30 years ago. That would be for the week ending Sunday February 17TH 1991, but I didn’t do a chart that week – or for any week in 1991 yet. I finally found some downtime in the desert, and my very first chart of the year was for the week ending Sunday February 24TH 1991. I compiled it and wrote it down on loose-leaf paper from my tent in the middle of “Tent City” at Al Kharj Air Base Saudi Arabia. I actually did a Top 40 that week (and every week thereafter). Here’s my Top 5:

“High Enough” – Damn Yankees
“Without You” – Mötley Crüe
“Ice Ice Baby” – Vanilla Ice
“It Must Have Been Love” – Roxette
“The Heart Of The Matter” – Don Henley

As I wrote last month on the January 1991 edition of RETRO during Operations Desert Shield & Storm we had limited access to hit music on the radio. We only had a few stations to listen to via AFRTS (American Forces Radio & Television Service). “Eagle Radio 103 / 105 / 107” was picked-up out of Riyadh – about 65 miles away. My Top 40 chart was based on that limited radio. It was heavily based on private airplay from cassettes (mostly bootleg) that were sold on base. Also my tentmates played their favorite music – some of which I liked.

Next Friday on RETRO I’ll go back 35 years ago to February 1986.

It’s halftime my friends. I’ll be back on Sunday and Monday with 2 more blog posts for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Thanks for going RETRO with me !

Tags 1991, Music, Radio

1980s Blogging Career Driving Health History Military News Television Travel Weather Wrestling

Weekend Kickoff Mini-Thoughts

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date January 28, 2021

It’s Thursday, and it’s the start of a fresh new weekend of blogging. Longtime readers of my blog will know that this was once a Thursday night tradition. I only do this every once in a while these days. It’s my ‘Mini-Thoughts’ – a rapid-fire session of random thoughts on my mind right this minute:

I got my first dose of the Moderna COVID vaccine a couple of days ago.
Right now only Seniors are getting in Florida.
I work for the military, so I was lucky to get it early.
My second dose will be in 4 weeks.
I got the COVID vaccine 18 days after getting the Shingles vaccine.
That was my second of two doses of the Shingles vaccine.
I am not an “anti-vaxxer”.
I didn’t know there was such a thing as an “anti-vaxxer” until recently.
Some don’t get vaccines because they believe they do more harm than good.
Some don’t get vaccines because it’s against their religious beliefs.
Getting vaccines are a personal choice for each individual.
I neither promote nor denounce vaccinations to anyone.
I recently signed-up for the Discovery Plus streaming service.
If I’m not careful I can easily binge-watch shows on it for many hours.
Looks like I’ll soon sign-up for Peacock as it absorbs WWE Network.
I also like to “Hulu & Hibernate”.
I don’t “Netflix & Chill”.
I’m looking forward to my upcoming Florida road-trip.
Looks like I’ll cover about 575 miles in 5 days.
I’ll blog all about it after I return home.
Looks like I’ll drive more miles this month than 7 months last year.
Next month I’ll drive more than twice as many miles as this month.
It’s been a chilly winter here in South Florida.
I was shivering in December and the first-half of January.
I think it’s our coldest winter since 2010-2011.
Recently we’ve enjoyed a few days in the 80s for the first time in 2021.
But it’s gonna get chilly again starting today.
50s in the morning is chilly for us.
We’ve had 7 mornings in the 40s since the start of December !
Exactly 35 years ago today the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated.
It occurred right after I got home from work (in England).
I think I watched BBC coverage of it for the rest of the night.
Exactly 2 years ago today I was in the middle of the Caribbean on a cruise.
We were supposed to spend the day on Grand Cayman Island.
But we couldn’t reach the island due to ferocious northerly winds.
A strong cold front had made it deep into the Caribbean.
It was an unusually chilly day on the islands and at sea.
So we had an “extra fun day at sea”.
I can’t wait to get back on a cruise next year.
Here’s my towel animal from exactly 2 years ago:

Towel Animal

1990s Blogging Career Military Music Radio Travel

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1991

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date January 15, 2021

It’s the 3RD Friday of the month, so I go back 30 years ago. That would be for the week ending Sunday January 13TH 1991, but on that week I was serving my country in Saudi Arabia in support of Operations Desert Shield & Storm. It was the start of my 2ND week in the desert.

Life was very different in “Tent City” in the middle of the desert. We had limited access to hit music on the radio. We only had a few stations to listen to via AFRTS (American Forces Radio & Television Service). “Eagle Radio 103 / 105 / 107” was picked-up out of Riyadh – about 65 miles away.

At our BX (Base Exchange) – think small military department store – they sold cassettes. Most of them could be considered as “bootleg” off the local economy, but I bought a bunch of them for a couple of dollars each despite diminished quality. I also bought myself a Walkman (or equivalent) so that I could listen to them in my tent and not disturb anyone.

Don Henley’s “The End Of The Innocence” was one of those cassettes – the album not the title-track alone. Songs like the title-track, “The Heart Of The Matter”, “How Bad Do You Want It ?”, “The Last Worthless Evening”, and “New York Minute” represent the soundtrack of my war experience. I wore-out that cassette over there.

One of my tentmates loved “Hard To Handle” from The Black Crowes. I mean he really loved it, and he loved to play it often – many times per day – loud and proud. I ended-up liking the song as well (since I heard it so many times).

Next Friday on RETRO I’ll go back 35 years ago to January 1986.

It’s halftime my friends. I’ll be back on Sunday and Monday with 2 more blog posts for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Thanks for going RETRO with me !

Tags 1991, Music, Radio

1980s Blogging Career Driving Military Music Radio Travel

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1985

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date November 27, 2020

It’s the 4TH Friday of the month, so I go back 35 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday December 01ST 1985:

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

It all started right here with this chart. What was a hobby for almost a decade prior became official, as I sat down with paper, pen, and pencil, and I wrote down my Top 20 favourite songs of the week. (And since I was living in the south of England at the time I had to learn to adapt to their proper spelling and pronunciation of certain words, so it was “favourite” – not “favorite”.)

During the peak of this hobby in the United Kingdom I was producing on paper a Top 50 hit music chart twice per week ! YES – I really got into it. I eventually scaled back to a standard Top 40 chart once per week, and that continued for almost 7 years until I took a 3-year hiatus from 1992 to 1995.

Starship’s “We Built This City” was my favorite song at the time. It was actually spending its 3RD week at # 1 when my very first chart was written down. It was also my favorite song as I drove 700 miles from Chanute AFB Illinois to McLean Virginia at the end of October 1985. It was the perfect driving song for what was my longest road-trip (with me driving) of my life at the time. After I flew to my new home in England it reminded me of America as I discovered a brand new country for the first time in my life.

During those early days in England I listened to the hottest hits in my military dormitory room on GWR (97.2 FM out of Swindon Wiltshire) and BBC Radio 1 (1053 & 1089 AM).

Every 4TH Friday of the month for the next 2 years I’ll share my life and music with you, as I look back at those fun times across the sea as a late-teenager.

Next Friday on RETRO I’ll go back 15 years ago to December 2005.

It’s halftime my friends. I’ll be back on Sunday and Monday with 2 more blog posts for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Thanks for going RETRO with me !