Category: Career

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1985

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

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 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 !

Tags 1985, England, Music, Radio

1990s Blogging Career Military Music Radio Travel

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1990

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date November 20, 2020

It’s the 3RD Friday of the month, so I go back 30 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday November 18TH 1990:

“Praying For Time” – George Michael
“So Hard” – Pet Shop Boys
“Something Happened On The Way To Heaven” – Phil Collins
“Something To Believe In” – Poison
“Impulsive” – Wilson Phillips

It was a very British Top 3 on my chart 30 years ago this weekend. That Pet Shop Boys track was brilliant – and very underrated. I loved its breezy orchestral “underground” feel. It was a British and European pop smash, but here in the U.S. (and Canada) it was mostly a hit in the dance clubs. It was a bit too extreme for its time for Top 40 radio which was skewing more towards the safer Hot Adult Contemporary format at the time.

And speaking of Hot A.C. Phil Collins had the perfect track for the format. It’s one of my favorite songs from him. Deborah Cox scored with a HI-NRG dance cover of the track 13 years later in 2003 that peaked at # 4 and spent 32 weeks on my chart !

RAF Fairford

This past week marks 33 years since I’ve been back home stateside following a 2-year military stint working and living in the south of England (RAF Fairford). I vowed to return to the U.K. for a visit back then. It hasn’t happened yet, but it’s not over yet. Next Friday on RETRO I’ll go back to the very beginning of this weekly hit music chart hobby – 35 years ago to November 1985.

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 1990, Music, Radio

Blogging Career Holidays Military Travel

Honoring My Fellow Veterans

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date November 11, 2020

It’s Veterans Day here in the U.S.A.

This past weekend marked the 35TH anniversary that the United States Air Force shipped me off to a foreign country solo for the first time in my life. As an 18½-year-old I flew from Washington Dulles Airport nonstop to London Heathrow Airport. It was an overnight flight from November 09TH into November 10TH of 1985. From there I took British Rail westward to Swindon in Wiltshire, and then from there I hired a cab to take me up to RAF Fairford in the Cotswolds of Gloucestershire – my home for the next 2 years. (It was my first permanent duty station.)

I’ve been a member of the United States Air Force for the past 36 years now – going back to when I first signed on the dotted line of the delayed enlistment program near the start of my senior year in high school. I was hesitant in joining the military way back then, but it all turned out just right, and it’s become my career. I’d do it all over again.

To my fellow Veterans – this is our day. From one Veteran to all of you – I thank you for serving your nation so that we may be free indeed.

Veterans Day 2020

Tags Military, Veterans

1980s Blogging Career Military Music Radio Travel

My Least-Favorite Music Decade

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date November 5, 2020

Last Thursday I blogged about “My Favorite Music Decade” – the 1970s. This week I’m blogging about “My Least-Favorite Music Decade” – the 1980s.

I was not a fan of early-1980s music at all – not back then – not now. It reminds me of my high school years – which were not fun at all. MTV was huge back then, and they redefined how we not only heard – but also saw the hottest hits in the land. I didn’t watch much of it.

For a couple of years (1983 and 1984) I completely abandoned Top 40 music in favor of an all-comedy AM radio station in the Greater Washington D.C. area – WJOK. I was actually a “regular” on “The Funny Button”, as I called all of my favorite deejays on there on a fairly regular basis requesting comedy bits, telling jokes, and contributing comedic material.

At the end of 1985 I discovered the British pop scene – and I thorough immersed myself in it for the next 2 years – attending the first 17 concerts of my life. That was the peak of that music decade – those 2 years when I was working and living and having fun as an 18, 19, and 20-year-old in the south of England.

When I returned home stateside it was like a year of reruns. All of the great music that I enjoyed over in the United Kingdom in 1987 was just starting to make it big here in 1988.

1989 was a great year for pop music, but I’ve always considered it to be the start of 1990s music – which was a great decade overall.

So to recap there were only 2 good years of pop music from 1980 to 1988, and I had to go overseas to find it !