Tag: 1985

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1980s Career Life Military Music Radio Travel

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1985

Every 2ND, 3RD, and 4TH Friday of the month 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, or 30 years ago this weekend (rotating each week).

It’s the 1ST Friday of the month, so it’s a special. Back in 1985 I was an 18-year-old USAF Airman Basic living in a dorm at Chanute AFB near Rantoul Illinois. I was in my first week of technical school after 6½ weeks of Basic Training at Lackland AFB near San Antonio Texas. It was my first week ever in Illinois. I lived (and trained) there for about 3 months, and I haven’t been back since. I’m actually having a lot of fun over on Facebook reminiscing with my fellow Chanute AFB colleagues about my short time there.

These were the hottest hits in the land exactly 35 years ago this weekend – for the week ending Sunday August 11TH 1985:

  1. “Shout” – Tears For Fears
  2. “Everytime You Go Away” – Paul Young
  3. “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free” – Sting
  4. “Never Surrender” – Corey Hart
  5. “The Power Of Love” – Huey Lewis And The News

Good solid pop / light-rock music back then. It was the soundtrack of my 3RD month in the Air Force. I remember listening to a local Hot Adult Contemporary radio station at the time out of Champaign Illinois. Once I got my car (which only had AM radio) I listened to MusicRadio WLS – the “blowtorch” out of Chicago. (They made “Chi-CA-go” sound so nice during their top-of-the-hour station identification jingles.)

Next week on RETRO it’s back to my regularly-scheduled program. I’ll go back 15 years to the 2ND week of August of 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 !

All rights reserved (c) 2020 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

Categories
1980s Music Radio

The Major’s Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1985

Every Friday night I post the Top 5 of one of my classic hit music charts based on personal preference from either 10, 20, or 30 years ago (rotating each week).

This week I’m going back a little further, as I continue my multiple anniversary weekend. It was exactly 33 years ago (to the date) that I wrote down (via loose-leaf paper, pen and pencil) my very first personal hit music chart in my military dorm room at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire England.

Here’s what the first page of it looked like – chart songs # 20 to # 6:

IMG_3369

Nice variety there, and so here it is – the Top 5 – for the week ending Saturday November 30TH 1985:

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

I was 18½ years old and a brand new resident in a foreign country when I penned that chart above. It was really the next step in a hobby that began about a dozen years earlier during the mid-1970s when I first discovered and fell in love with Top 40 radio and especially “American Top 40” on Sundays with my idol (at the time) Casey Kasem. I wanted to grow up and be just like him. The Billboard Hot 100 was my bible back then. I began reading and studying it at my local public library.

This paper edition of my personal hit music chart lasted nearly 7 years. Starship’s “We Built This City” was the first of 174 # 1 hits during that time-span. After a 3-year hiatus I began a second edition of this hobby, and it was all-electronic (via Excel spreadsheet) and eventually online and worldwide. That edition lasted for over 14 years. During the Summer of 2006 my chart flipped from Secular pop music to Christian pop music to coincide with the start of my salvation.

So Happy 33RD Anniversary to my very first personal hit music chart. What a hobby of a lifetime !

It’s halftime. I’ll be back on Sunday and Monday with my remaining two blog posts for this weekend. I’ll be celebrating another anniversary come Sunday. Enjoy your Saturday. Thank You for your time.

All rights reserved (c) 2018 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries.

Categories
1980s Career Military Music Radio

The Major’s Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1985

Every Friday night I post the Top 5 of one of my classic hit music charts based on personal preference from either 10, 20, or 30 years ago (rotating each week).

But this week it’s a special. I’m going back 33 years to 1985. My chart didn’t exist yet, so here’s the Top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100 – for the week ending Sunday July 28TH 1985:

  1. “Everytime You Go Away” – Paul Young
  2. “Shout” – Tears For Fears
  3. “You Give Good Love” – Whitney Houston
  4. “A View To A Kill” – Duran Duran
  5. “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free” – Sting

33 years ago this weekend was my final weekend of Basic Military Training (BMT) at Lackland AFB (San Antonio) Texas. Back then Air Force Basic Training was 30 weekdays (not including Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays). On the 31ST weekday you were shipped out to either technical school at another base (unless your school was at Lackland), or to your first permanent duty station. My technical school was located at Chanute AFB (Rantoul) Illinois.

The 30TH and final weekday of Basic Training for me and my flightmates was on Friday July 26TH 1985. On Saturday and Sunday we were basically on hold for the weekend with not much to do (“liberty in place”) awaiting the 31ST weekday on Monday July 29TH 1985. Our Training Instructor (T.I.) came in on that Saturday morning and surprisingly started talking nice to us like regular people – unlike the previous 30 weekdays in which he yelled and screamed at us. He told us to enjoy the weekend, listen to the radio, and stay out of trouble until Monday morning. He then left us alone for the rest of the weekend.

So we listened to the T.I.’s radio all weekend – a Top 40 radio station in San Antonio, and we heard all of the greatest hits of the day. We even listened to “American Top 40 With Casey Kasem” on Sunday morning. Further down on the Billboard Hot 100 that weekend were these hits that we heard over and over again in heavy rotation:  “Raspberry Beret” – Prince And The Revolution (# 7), “Sussudio” – Phil Collins (# 13), “Freeway Of Love” – Aretha Franklin (# 19), and “Like A Surgeon” – “Weird Al” Yankovic (# 68).

Early on Monday morning we left the pop music behind, boarded busses, saw Lackland AFB behind us, and proceeded to the next chapter of our new military career.

It’s halftime. I’ll be back on Sunday and Monday with my remaining two blogs for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Make memories of a lifetime !

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Career Driving History Holidays Home Life Music People Radio Television Travel Weather

Saturday Night Retro

Saturday November 06TH 2010
Volume 3 / Number 9 / Edition 106

25 years ago this weekend I flew on an overnight flight from Northern Virginia to London England to arrive at my new home for the next two years – my first permanent duty assignment as a young 18-year-old USAF Airman. I took British Rail from London Heathrow Airport to Reading – and then from Reading to Swindon further west. From Swindon I hired a cab to take me to my new home and workplace at RAF Fairford. During that cab ride on that sunny and cold morning of Sunday November 10TH 1985 I heard the chilling song “Road To Nowhere” by The Talking Heads on the radio. How appropriate.

My first couple of months at RAF Fairford were mostly spent on base either working at the office (as an aircraft maintenance systems analyst / statistician), or living in the dormitory. I lived in the old-style dorm buildings on base – small ones strategically built in a series of rows shortly after World War II. There were no bathrooms in any of the dorm rooms. They were down the hallway – community-style. Our ‘Day Room’ was where we hung out after work to socialize and watch TV and play card games – mostly Uno. There were some fun all-night sessions in that room. Good times and good memories with good buddies at the time. I can still see us all sitting around that big round table in the corner laughing and carrying on at 3 AM in the dead of the British winter. It made it easier for me during that first Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s holiday season away from home in a foreign land.

Shortly after 1986 arrived I got to upgrade to my own 2ND floor room in ‘the new dorm’ – with shared bathrooms in-between each dorm room. I also made my way out of the dorm and began exploring the vast U.K. countryside and historic European continent.

But my U.K. experience all began during those first two memorable months of November and December of 1985. One of the top pop / rock hits on both sides of the Atlantic during those early days and weeks at my new home was this comeback smash from Starship. Here’s “We Built This City” – the # 1 smash on the Billboard Hot 100 exactly 25 years ago this month – and one of my favourite songs of all-time !