Rock Talk

It’s Rock’n’Roll trivia time again and this week, we’re looking back at number one songs from the 1980’s. Remember the 80’s? It was the decade of Live Aid, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”, John Lennon was tragically murdered, the TV series “Mash” set a new viewership record with its final episode, the space shuttle Challenger exploded and the Berlin Wall came tumbling down. If you think you know ‘80’s rock’n’roll, then most of these should be easy peasy pardner. As usual, there are 10 questions, so score yourself 10 points for each correct answer – see how close you can come to 100%. There are no prizes, just the inner satisfaction of knowing that you know your stuff. Answers are below the questions, so let’s have a go, shall we?

1. This song wasn’t the first TV show theme to make it to number one and it
wouldn’t be the last. It was an uptempo instrumental created for an ‘80’s
weekly TV series about cops. Can you name this famous theme?

2. This female singer became the first artist born during the 1970’s to have a
number one hit. She went by her first name, like Cher, but this isn’t Cher. Who
is she and what was the name of her first number one? (HINT: It was a remake
of a Top Ten hit from 1967)

3. This group started in San Francisco during the ‘flower power’ days of the
1960’s. They were contemporaries of and played many gigs with The Grateful
Dead. Their original female lead singer left the band early on and she was
replaced by a ‘slick’ performer with an incredible vocal range. Over the years,
they changed their name several times until finally sticking with the name they
used when this song reached number one in 1984. Can you guess the group as
well as their hit song?

4. This group had a lead singer named Frederick Bulsara who was born in
Zanzibar, South Africa. He joined up with two former members of a British
group called Smile, added a bass player and in 1971, started the new band. In
1974, they became rock ‘royalty’ when a poll in the British music magazine
Melody Maker named them ‘Band of The year’. Although they had many hits
from 1974, this song was their very first number one. Can you name this group
and their 1980 chart topping hit?

5. There have been hundreds, if not thousands, of songs written and sung about
love. In 1981, when this particular song went to number one, there were 4
songs that reached the top spot that had the world ‘Love’, or a variation, in the
title. This hit went on to become Motown’s most successful single of all
time. It was also the most successful soundtrack single of all time as well as
the most successful duet of all time. The two performers were huge Motown
stars, although the ‘lady’ singer had left the label by this time. Can you name
the song and both of the artists?

6. This Queens, New York born female singer/songriter recently appeared on
Donald Trumps’ TV series, “Celebrity Apprentice”. When she was 17, she quit
school and hitchhiked through Canada with her dog. After returning to the
States, she studied art, sold karate lessons, worked as a secretary and walked
horses at Belmont Park. She won the Grammy Award for ‘Best New Artist of
1984’ (no fair looking it up). She had a lot of ‘fun’ in the recording studio but
this was the first ‘time’ she had a number one hit. What’s the name of this song
and who’s the singer?

7. Tommy James of Tommy James & The Shondells had many hits during his
career, including “Hanky Panky”, “Crystal Blue Persuasion”, “Mirage”,
“Crimson and Clover” and “Draggin’ The Line” to name a few. Several of his
songs went on to become huge hits for other artists. This particular Tommy
James co-written song, leaped to number one in 1987 for a British pop
‘idol’. I think I just gave it away just now, but can you name the singer and the
song?

8. This singers’ first charted hit, back in 1960, had the word ‘Love’ in the title. In
1984, she had her first number one single which also had the word “Love” in its
title. She first became famous as part of a performing duo, but later went on to
solo success. In the movies and on records, she was a ‘Queen’. Can you name
this leggy singer as well as her only number one hit (although she’s come close
a couple of other times)?

9. It’s the only number one hit (so far) sung by more than 40 performers. Even
though some of the artists didn’t think it was rock’n’roll enough, it went on to
sell over seven million copies around the ‘world’. What’s the name of this 1985
number one smash?

10. This British female trio had a rather ‘fruity’ sounding name. One of them
worked for the BBC, while the other two were students at the London School of
Fashion. Their first single was sung in Swahili, but this hit, sung in English,
went to number one in the fall of 1986. It had already been at the top of the
charts once before in 1970. Can you name the song and the group?

ANSWERS

1. Composer Jan Hammer wrote and performed the “Miami Vice Theme” that
went to number one for one week in November 1985. Hammer, who was born in
Czechoslovakia, came to America just before the Russians invaded his
homeland in 1968. Prior to writing original music for every episode of “Miami
Vice”, Jan had composed the soundtrack for the film “A Night In Heaven” in
1983. The next year, Hammer met with producer/director Michael Mann to
discuss Mann’s new TV project about two Miami/Dade cops. The“Miami Vice”
soundtrack album/CD from the NBC series also went to number one on
Billboards’ Album chart where it remained for 11 weeks, making it the most
successful TV soundtrack of all time.

2. That would be Tiffany, who in November of 1987, took the Tommy James and
The Shondells 1967 hit, “I Think We’re Alone Now” to number one I n
November of 1987. Tiffany Darwisch began performing at 9 years of age. She
was 12 when she met producer George Tobin who suggested she record “I Think
We’re Alone Now”. Tiffany didn't really know the original version, but at 13,
she walked into a studio with Tobin and recorded the song. When Tiffany
signed with MCA Records, the label came up with a unique way of promoting
her by having er perform in shopping malls in 14 different cities across the
U.S. to sing for free. In 1988, Tiffany again went to number one with another
George Tobin produced single, “Could’ve Been”.

3. Starship’s “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” was the group and the song we were
looking for. The band began in the 1960’s as Jefferson Airplane. By the mid
‘70’s, they’d become Jefferson Starship and in 1985, due to legal problems, they
dropped Jefferson and became Starship. Signe Anderson had been Jefferson
Airplane’s original lead singer. She was replaced by Grace Slick, who was the
only ‘original’ member left by the time the band became Starship. Mickey
Thomas, the other lead singer on this hit had formerly been a member of the
Elvin Biship Band and had sung their only Top Ten hit, “Fooled Around And
Fell In Love” in 1976.

4. Remember “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” by Queen? Queen’s lead singer,
Freddie Mercury (the former Frederick Bulsara) had written the song while
soaking in his bathtub. Previous hits such as “Killer Queen”, Bohemian
Rhapsody”, “Somebody To Love”, “We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions”,
“You’re My Best Friends” were all Top Twenty hits, but “Crazy Little Thing
Called Love” was Queen’s first number one. Later that same year (1980), Queen
did it again, topping the singles chart a second time with “Another One Bites
The Dust”. Sadly, Freddie Mercury died of complications from AIDS in
November 1991. The Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame inducted Queen in 2001.

5. Diana Ross and Lionel Richie are the two performers and “Endless Love” is the
song. Richie wrote it for the movie, which starred a young Brooke Shields.
Lionel, who, at the time, was still a member of The Commodores, was
recording an album with the group in Los Angeles. Diana Ross was performing
at a casino in Lake Tahoe, Nevada and didn’t have time to fly to LA to record
the duet, so Lionel found a studio in Reno, Nevada (about an hours by car from
Lake Tahoe). Richie flew into Reno from LA; Diana drove there from Tahoe
after her concert and they met in the studio at 3AM. They began recording by
3:30 in the morning and had ‘the final take’ by 5AM. “Endless Love” stayed
number one for 9 weeks in the summer of 1981.

6. She’s Cyndi Lauper and her number one hit was “Time After Time”, a song
Cyndi co-wrote while in the recording studio with keyboard player Rob
Hyman. Before her success as a solo performer, Cyndi had been singing with
the group Blue Angel, who’d had an album released on the Polydor label in
1980. Her debut album, on Portrait Records, “She’s So Unusual”, and the
singles from it set new records on the music charts. Up to that time, ‘60’s
singer Petula Clark (“Downtown”, “Don’t Sleep In The Subway”, “Colour My
World”, “I Know A Place”, “My Love” etc.) was the only female artist of the
rock/pop era to have her first two chart entries make top three on the singles
chart. Cyndi beat that by one with “Girls Just Want To have Fun” going to
number two, “Time After Time” at number one and the follow up hit, “She Bop”
going to number three. When her next single, “All Through The Night” went
top five, Cyndi Lauper became the first artist in the rock/pop era to have four
Top Ten singles from a debut album. And by the way, she didn’t win
“Celebrity Appentice”, Brett Michaels did.

7. He was born William Broad, but it was as Billy Idol that the world first noticed
this British born singer. “Mony Mony” had been a number three hit for Tommy
James in 1968. Billy had been in the band Generation X which didn’t have any
North American hits, although “Dancing With Myself” was highly popular in
dance clubs. In the ‘80’s as a solo artist, Billy hit the Billboard singles chart
with “Hot In The City”, “White Wedding”, “Rebel Yell” and “Eyes Without A
Face”, which went to number 4 in July of 1984. On November 21st, 1987,
“Mony Mony” became Billy Idol’s only number one hit (although 1990’s “Cradle
Of Love” came close at number two).

8. Tina Turner, the former Anna Mae Bullock from Nutbush, Tennessee was the
performer. 1986’s “What’s Love Got To Do With It” was the hit. Tina’s
manager Roger Davies disliked the song, but Terry Britten, the co-writer and
producer, convinced Davies to let Tina record it. And wow, what a hit it
became. Not only was it number one for three weeks, it also won Grammy
Awards for ‘Record of The Year’, ‘Song of the Year’, ‘Pop Vocal Performance –
Female’ and ‘Rock Vocal Performance – Female’.

9. That would be “We Are The World” by USA For Africa, recorded at the A&M
Records studios in Los Angeles on January 29th, 1985 immediately following
the American Music Awards. Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie had written
the song and Quincy Jones had produced it. Gathered around the various
microphones in the studio was a literal who's who of the music biz, from all
genres of music – Harry Belafonte, Kenny Rogers, Diana Ross, Lindsay
Buckingham, Ray Charles, Bob Geldof, most of the Jackson clan – LaToya,
Marlon, Jackie, Randy and Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan,
Willie Nelson, Huey Lewis, Cyndi Lauper, Waylon Jennings, Smokey Robinson,
Billy Joel, Bette Midler, The Pointer Sisters, Paul Simon, Kenny Loggins,
Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner, Daryl Hall & John Oates and Dionne Warwick,
just to name 28. The song was number one for four weeks beginning on the
chart of April 13, 1985. It went on to sell over seven million singles and over 4
million albums. Total sales of various “We Are The World” merchandise had
sold over 40 million dollars. Later that summer, the Live Aid concert from
London and Philadelphia would bring in millions more for African Famine
Relief.

10. Siobahn Fahey, Sarah Dallin and Keren Wood formed the group Bananarama
in 1979 and had early hits in England such as “Shy Boy” and “Robert DeNiro’s
Waiting”, but it wasn’t until their song, “Cruel Summer” was featured on the
soundtrack of the movie “The Karate Kid” (the original movie, by the way, not
the recent re-make) that Bananaram had their first North American Top Ten
hit in the fall of 1984. They followed that success with “Venus” which went to
number one on September 6, 1986. It only lasted one week at the top.
“Venus” had been at number one once before, back in 1970 for the Dutch group
Shocking Blue.