Category: Radio

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1986

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date November 26, 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 4TH Friday of the month, so I go back 35 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday November 30TH 1986:

“Waiting For The Ghost Train” – Madness
“French Kissin’ In The U.S.A.” – Debbie Harry
“Sometimes” – Erasure
“Everybody Have Fun Tonight” – Wang Chung
“Hip To Be Square” – Huey Lewis And The News

What great music. What fond memories of that wonderful time of my life – enjoying the company of my friends and the fun times that we shared together in the south of England. This was the 2ND (U.S.) Thanksgiving of my life away from my family back home stateside. (The 1ST was the year before in 1985. I had just arrived in England 2½ weeks earlier.)

Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away” was the # 1 smash all across the United Kingdom, and back home stateside Bon Jovi scored their very first # 1 smash with the hard-rockin’ “You Give Love A Bad Name” from their multi-platinum album “Slippery When Wet”.

Next Friday on RETRO I’ll go back 15 years ago to December 2006. Thanks for going RETRO with me !

This is the end of an abbreviated blog weekend, as #SundayScripture and #Top10Monday are on hiatus for the rest of this month of November. They will both return during the 1ST weekend of December. In fact a full weekend of blogging returns next weekend – with 5 new entries on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday, and Monday. I don’t blog on Saturdays. That’s my day of rest.

Tags 1986, BBC, British, England, Music, Radio

1990s Blogging Music Radio

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1991

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

It’s the 3RD Friday of the month, so I go back 30 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday November 17TH 1991:

“The One And Only” – Chesney Hawkes
“All 4 Love” – Color Me Badd
“Romantic” – Karyn White
“Emotions” – Mariah Carey
“Can’t Stop This Thing We Started” – Bryan Adams

After New Kids On The Block (late-1980s) and before Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync (late-1990s) there was Color Me Badd. They formed in 1985 in high school in Oklahoma City, but they didn’t hit it big until 1991 (after the New Kids success had begun to wane). They were pretty much the only “boy band” to enjoy success on the radio during the early-to-mid-1990s. They scored with 9 Top 40 hits here in the U.S. including their first 3 at # 1 or # 2.

“All 4 Love” was the 3RD of those 3 big early hits. It actually replaced Michael Jackson’s “Black Or White” at # 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1992. (I loved both of those songs.) I loved the breezy – simple – poppy feel of “All 4 Love”. It really felt like a Springtime song, but it was a hit in the Autumn and Winter instead. I think (to this day) it’s my 2ND-favorite Color Me Badd song – 2ND to “Choose” in 1994. Still can’t get enough of both “All 4 Love” and “Choose” some 3 decades later.

Here’s the official music video for “All 4 Love”. It’s SO 1991 !

Fun Fact: I saw Color Me Badd LIVE in concert in Cincinnati Ohio – exactly 5 years ago tonight on November 19TH 2016. (They were part of the “I Love The 90s Tour”.)

Next Friday on RETRO I’ll go back 35 years ago to November 1986. Thanks for going RETRO with me !

Tags 1991, Music, Radio

1990s Blogging Music Radio

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1996

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date November 12, 2021

It’s the 2ND Friday of the month, so I go back 25 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday November 10TH 1996:

“Head Over Feet” – Alanis Morissette
“One And One” – Robert Miles
“Do You Miss Me ?” – Jocelyn Enriquez
“Let’s Make A Night To Remember” – Bryan Adams
“If It Makes You Happy” – Sheryl Crow

I’m gonna do this “Mini-Thoughts” style. Longtime readers of my blog know what that means:

Alanis was HUGE back in the mid-to-late-1990s.
She scored with 9 hits on my chart through 1999.
“Head Over Feet” was her 3RD (and final) # 1 smash (for me).
Everyone remembers “Children” from Robert Miles.
It was a European dance smash that broke-through the U.S. market.
But “One And One” was less successful.
It did break-through here in Miami; hence, it’s # 2 peak on my chart.
British Trance singer Maria Nayler performed the vocals on “One And One”.
“Children” could be considered as one of the first trance hits on my chart.
“One And One” – the 2ND trance hit.
Trance music would later explode and take over my chart in 2002. #EDM
“Do You Miss Me” was a regional hit in dance-favored U.S. radio markets.
It was a long-lasting smash here in dance-friendly Miami.
I think Y-100 played it 10 times a day for more than half-a-year.
It spent 21 weeks on my chart – including its first 19 in my Top 10.
Like myself – Jocelyn Enriquez is part Filipino.
She was only 21 when “Do You Miss Me ?” was a hit on the radio.
Nowadays Jocelyn is a born-again Christian !
In fact she’s a Worship Pastor alongside her husband of 22 years.
They serve at Calvary Chapel Of San Antonio (Texas).
It’s awesome to discover that a mainstream pop artist follows Christ now.

Next Friday on RETRO I’ll go back 30 years ago to November 1991. “I’m so glad you’re my girl. I’ll do anything for you. Call you every night, and give you flowers too. I thank the Lord for you, and think about you all the time. I ask Him everyday that you’ll forever be mine.” That Top 5 hit will be featured next week. Thanks for going RETRO with me !

Tags 1996, Music, Radio

1980s Blogging Career Holidays Military Music Radio Travel

Honoring My Fellow Veterans

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date November 11, 2021

It’s Veterans Day here in the U.S.A.

This week marks the 36TH 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 remember “Road To Nowhere” from The Talking Heads playing on my cab driver’s radio, and I certainly felt like I was on a road to nowhere, but I was really on a road to somewhere – the official start of my lifelong career.

I’ve been a member of the United States Air Force for the past 37 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.