Category: Movies

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1978

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date March 31, 2023
No Comments on My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1978

Hello again retro music fans. 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, 20, 25, or 35 years ago this weekend (rotating each week).

It’s the 5TH Friday of the month, so it’s a special, as I go back 45 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday April 02ND 1978:

“Night Fever” – Bee Gees
“Stayin’ Alive” – Bee Gees
“Lay Down Sally” – Eric Clapton
“Can’t Smile Without You” – Barry Manilow
“Emotion” – Samantha Sang

America was dancin’ the night away 45 years ago when I was not quite 11 years old as a 5TH grader in Lanham Maryland. My chart wasn’t born yet, but my hobby of following the Billboard Hot 100 at the New Carrollton Public Library and then counting down the Top 40 with Casey Kasem every Sunday was in full swing. (The Top 5 above is from that Hot 100.)

“Saturday Night Fever” was a runaway smash at the box office, and its Soundtrack album was MASSIVE – the biggest in history at the time. Samantha Sang’s “Emotion” is often mistaken as a “Saturday Night Fever” track, but it was not in the movie. It’s also mistaken as featuring Bee Gees in the background, but it’s just Barry Gibb. He wrote the song with his brother Robin.

Next #RetroFriday I’ll go back 15 years ago to the start of April 2008. It’s when #FF5 were #FD.

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 1978, Bee Gees, Disco, Music, Radio

1970s 1980s Blogging Driving Movies Radio Travel

Kings Dominion

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date May 26, 2022

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Kings Dominion is a fun seasonal amusement park located between Washington D.C. and Richmond Virginia (much closer to Richmond) right along I-95. The 280-acre park opened on May 03RD 1975 – the same exact date that my little brother was born. Starting in the late-1970s and continuing into the mid-1980s me and my family would visit the park every few summers. We would actually alternate between Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens near Williamsburg Virginia (opened 13 days after Kings Dominion), and Hershey Park in Pennsylvania (opened 116 years ago this weekend).

Kings Dominion is generally open starting in mid-March – weekends only at first, and then daily from Memorial Day Weekend to Labor Day Weekend. The park returns to weekends only during the Autumn months. It’s also open during Christmas and New Year’s Week for festive displays and events known as #WinterFest.

Me and my brother always had a lot of fun roaming around the park and riding all of the rides. My parents were there for the shows, shops, and restaurants.

There are still some original rides from the 1975 opening including what used to be the “Rebel Yell” rollercoaster – now known as the “Racer 75”. It rises to a height of 85 feet, and it drops 81 of those 85 feet at a top speed of 56 MPH. That was perhaps the first rollercoaster I ever rode on. It was scary back then, and I wouldn’t ride it today because – well – it’s still scary. (And nowadays I get motion sickness very easily on those types of rides.)

That’s me as a teenager in the early-1980s atop the Eiffel Tower – a one-third replica of the real thing – standing tall at 314 feet. (The observation decks are 40 feet below the top.)

So 26 years ago this week (leading-up to Memorial Day Weekend) was my final visit with my brother to Kings Dominion. My brother won a radio contest on Washington rock station #DC101 – two free tickets to Kings Dominion – where you got to go there as VIPs before the park opened to participate in a “Mission: Impossible” scavenger hunt all throughout the park. (The Tom Cruise movie premiered at the box office that week.) Me and my brother drove down to the park on an unseasonably chilly and drizzly day, and we had lots of fun with the scavenger hunt and the rides on that day.

A lot of fun family memories at Kings Dominion. It’s good to see it still thriving with new generations of families 47 years later.

Next #TravelThursday we’ll visit Chicopee Massachusetts. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Kings Dominion, Virginia

1990s Blogging Movies Music Radio

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1997

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date May 13, 2022

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 2ND Friday of the month, so I go back 25 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday May 18TH 1997:

“MMMBop” – Hanson
“ESPN Presents The Jock Jam” – Various Artists
“One More Time” – Real McCoy
“Call Me” – Le Click
“I Like It Like That” – The Blackout Allstars

Hanson and #Eurodance topped my hit music chart 25 years ago this week. The ESPN sports anthem mash-up was quite the strange one on the radio. It was like a modern techno counterpart to “Stars On 45” from 16 years earlier which itself was a medley of hit songs set to a disco beat. “The Jock Jam” was one of the most-played songs at Top 40 radio in 1997, as it received heavy airplay from May to November. It spent 31 weeks on my chart, and it was my # 7 hit of the entire year.

At the movie theatre I saw “Breakdown” 25 years ago. Now if memory serves me correct (and it may not) – I believe that Kurt Russell is in it, and it’s a road-trip thriller, and he and his wife are being chased and stalked by a sadistic truck driver. One of my favorite movies of all-time is Steven Spielberg’s “Duel” from 1971. I think “Breakdown” reminded me very much of “Duel” (same premise). I actually want to see both movies again. I thought about going to Wikipedia to see if my memory has indeed served me correctly, but I don’t want to read the plot and be spoiled by it. I’d rather watch “Breakdown” again to see if it’s what I remember.

Next #RetroFriday I’ll go back 30 years ago to May 1992. It’s when the 7″ Good For You Mix of Amy Grant’s “Good For Me” was in my Top 3.

It’s halftime my friends. I’ll be back on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday with 3 more blog posts for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Thanks for going retro with me !

Tags 1997, Breakdown, Music, Radio

Blogging Christian God Ministry Movies Music Radio Television

My Top 10 Hits – Week 271

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date April 25, 2022

Every Monday I post my all-new Top 10 Christian hit music chart based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from the previous week. It’s the continuation of a weekly hobby that goes back 40+ years. Here’s this week’s chart:

#TOP10MONDAY	WEEK ENDING – SUNDAY APRIL 24TH 2022	WEEK 271

TW	LW	WKS	SONG TITLE	ARTIST / SITE
1	1	13	See Me Through It [2ND week @ # 1]	Brandon Heath
2	3	5	Wonder Working	All Creatures
3	4	5	Fill My Cup	Andrew Ripp
4	2	13	Brighter Days	Blessing Offor
5	6	11	Sunday Sermons	Anne Wilson
6	7	7	Egypt	Cory Asbury
7	8	3	Desesperado	Evan Craft
8	9	6	Fake It	Tauren Wells
9	–	3	The Commission	Cain
10	10	2	The Healing	Blanca Ft. Dante Bowe

# 1 This Week In:
2021 – “Fires” – Jordan St. Cyr
2020 – “Almost Home” – MercyMe
2019 – “Greatness Of Our God” – Newsboys
2018 – “Freedom Hymn” – Austin French
2017 – “Even If” – MercyMe

ALL CREATURES – Chris Cron (lead-singer) and Ben Thompson (producer) are the duo known as All Creatures. They’ve got my # 2 hit of the week for the 2ND week in a row with the lively “[wonder working]” that they wrote together. It was actually released as a digital single last July, and it received substantial airplay at U.S. Christian radio last September, October, and November. K-LOVE picked-up on it a couple of months ago, but airplay has been rather light thus far. I love the edgy sound of it.

♫ Oh I belong
To a wonder-working God
Making a way like only He could
And all I can say is God is good
Oh I belong
To a wonder-working God
Trading my chains for victory
My God is working a wonder in me ♫

This concludes another weekend of blog posts. I’ll do it again this upcoming weekend – with 4 new entries – known as #TravelThursday, #RetroFriday, #SundayScripture, and #Top10Monday.

Your likes, follows, and comments are always appreciated. Thank You for being part of my online ministry to share God’s Good News and win souls for Christ through His music. I’m also on Twitter and Flickr.

Be blessed my friends ! May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.