Category: Travel

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1990

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

1990s Blogging Music Radio Travel

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1995

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date November 13, 2020

It’s the 2ND Friday of the month, so I go back 25 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday November 12TH 1995:

“Til I Hear It From You” – Gin Blossoms
“Get Together” – Big Mountain
“Come And Get Your Love” – Real McCoy
“Back For Good” – Take That
“Forever Tonight” – Peter Cetera & Crystal Bernard

A new season of my weekly RETRO feature continues, and this week I debut a brand new look back at 25 years ago. After a 3-year hiatus my weekly hit music chart came back to life in a big way at the end of October of 1995. It would be the start of a run that would last over 14 years. It would also mark the start of the online era of my chart where I got to share it with the whole world via my web site.

Gin Blossoms were one of my favorite pop-rock bands of the mid-1990s. “Hey Jealousy” and “Found Out About You” were fun songs to jam to in my cozy efficiency apartment in Melbourne Florida in 1993 into 1994. They were both big hits on 107.1-A1A – the Top 40 radio station back then (and now) along Florida’s Space Coast.

Back in Homestead (where I live today) “Til I Hear It From You” was the perfect pop song for late-1995 that was my first # 1 smash of the new post-grunge pop era.

And what can I say about Real McCoy. They were a hit-making machine back in the mid-1990s with no less than 7 big pop hits in a row on Top 40 radio in South Florida. They defined the Eurodance phenomenon during the 1990s !

Next Friday on RETRO I’ll go back 30 years ago to November 1990.

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 !