Well well well, we are there already, half way folks, half-bloody-way! At #50 of the Top 100 80's Dance Hits Countdown we have....Your Love by British power-pop-rock band The Outfield.The Outfield originated out of London, England back in 1984, and they currently consist of members Tony Lewis, John Spinks, and Alan Jackman. The Outfield are one of the English rock bands from the 80's that never really gained much acclaim in their home country, but did achieve some moderate success in the US music market. Your Love was released on their first studio album titled Play Deep in 1985, and the song peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at #7 on the US Mainstream Rock Chart. In fact, Your Love would later prove to become the band's signature song (or one-hit-wonder), and according to Wikipedia this song been covered or remixed over 1,000 times by other artists over the years. As for their 1985 album Play Deep, it would reach #9 on the US Album Chart that year. Well that is it for trivia, and now we are over the hill, we hath finally reached the final 49 songs of the Countdown, or should I add a track "0" or "0.5???"
Aloha all, we are now presenting #57 of VJ Samsonite's Top 100 80's Dance Hits, and #57 is.....Summer of '69, by Canadian singer/songwriter Bryan Adams. Bryan Adams was born on November 5th, 1959 in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, and has become the bestselling Canadian male recording artist of all time! Over the years he has won 15 Grammy Awards, 18 Juno Awards, as well as MTV Awards, ASCAP Awards, and American Music Awards. I would also mention that his music done for films have been nominated for Golden Globes and Academy Awards as well. Quite the talent, and I would guess that most Americans don't realize that he is actually a Canadian, in fact I have discovered that many actors, musicians, bands, and performers that people think are home-grown Americans are often from Canada, Britain, or Australia, which is quite interesting and not to mention a tangent, so allow me to digress. In April 2006 Adams was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, and in 2008 he was ranked #38 on the list of All-Time top artists by the Billboard Hot 100 50th Anniversary Charts. He is no doubt a big player in the music biz, and he got his start there in 1977. Adams has sold somewhere around the vicinity of 100 million records worldwide. Summer of '69 came off of his 4th studio album titled Reckless, which was released in June 1985. According to wikipedia, the reference to '69 in the song is actually a sexual reference as opposed to the common perception that he is singing about 1969, which actually surprises me a little bit, as I was one of those people up til now that thought he was referring to the year. Later on down the same wikipedia page it states that Adams revealed in an interview with In the Studio that the song indeed is a reference to the year 1969 and the cultural revolutions and social movements that were taking place at that time, so pick your own interpretation or even both. Upon its release in 1985, Summer of '69 peaked at #5 on the US Billboard Top 100 chart, and it remains an 80's staple for pub cover-bands the world round. So, there is #57, and off we go to discover #56 and onwards....
Welcome back once again and here we are at #60! The countdown has been slow, but there is a method to the madness, so keep checking back for updates, we will be done with the Top 100 at some point, and then I will begin to create some other more focused 80's posts, but for #60 the song is....And We Danced, by American rock band The Hooters. The Hooters come out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, they formed back in 1980, and consist of members Eric Bazilian (1980–1995, 2001–present), Rob Hyman (1980–1995, 2001–present), David Uosikkinen (1980–1995, 2001–present) John Lilley (1983–1995, 2001–present), Fran Smith Jr. (1987–1995, 2001–present), and they have a few past members not mentioned here. According to wikipedia the band took its name from a nickname for a German keyboard made by the Hohner brand. This song came off of their 1985 Columbia records release album titled Nervous Night, which would later achieve platinum status around the world selling around 2 million copies and contained 3 Billboard Top 40 hits (including this song naturally). Like so many other 80's era bands, they broke up the band at some point in the 1990's and then reunited at some point in the 2000's, which seems to be a very common occurence, maybe they start to run out of money, or they miss being on stage in front of crowds, or the 80's fashion and music revival that sort of happened in the 2000's sparks it but the Hooters are certainly not alone in this phenomenon. Well, that's it for the 60's of the top 100, but now we are entering the 50's, so as always, stay tuned my 80's fans!
Here we are, another 10 hits down, and its #70! And the song is....I'm Goin' Down by the all-American rock-singer-songwriter Bruce (The Boss) Springsteen! I'm Goin' Down was the 6th song to be released off of his #1 hit Born in the U.S.A. album, originally released back in 1984. As it was the 6th single release from that album it resulted that it would reach #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart in fall of 1985. There was no music video ever made for this song (bit of a bummer as its my personal Springsteen favorite), and it was one of those forgotten great songs as it was released amongst so many other giant single released from that album. According to wikipedia: "There was some controversy surrounding the release of yet another single from the album, which had been out for well over a year at that point. Cliff Bernstein, manager of Def Leppard and Dokken, said "I think a sixth single is a little bit of overkill." Now, youtube doesn't have the recorded version of this song, only the disappointing live versions, which are not even worthy of posting here in place of the recorded version in my opinion. So, go to Itunes or Amazon or whatever you use and check out what #70 really sounds like, and I am talking about the the studio recorded version of the song. And so there it is, #70 in all its glory, now here's to the Boss!
