Raconteur Report

JD Souther was a prolific songwriter, sharing or collaborating with Glenn Frey and Don Henley of the Eagles often enough they called him a friend of the band, and he regularly farmed songs out to other singers and other bands' frontmen. His few well-known appearances were things like a duet with James Taylor on Her Town Too, or a movie cameo as a singer covering a Platters' standard in Always. But once in awhile, like in 1979, he saved a little gem like today's track, and everyone realized what we'd all been missing. It peaked at #7, and featured backing harmony by music legends Phil Everly, Jackson Brown, and Eagles members Frey, Henley, and Don Felder. It's always nice when you can get a few friends to help you crank out a little tune.

Having heard tracks from the Judds' Wynonna and Naomi EP, when their Why Not Me album came out later in 1984, I grabbed it, and recorded it onto a cassette tape, which helped get me through the most monotonous Caribbean amphibious cruise since Colombus' men almost mutinied in the fifteenth century looking for the Spice Islands. I played it until I wore the sound off it. The title track, also the first album single released, went all the way to #1 on the country chart, with the album staying on the charts for nearly four years, and making their debut full studio album double platinum. The Judd's country superstar mother/daughter combo with phenomenal vocal harmony was cemented almost instantly, and at only 7 years and as many albums - voted the top country duo every single year - their performance and recording career was tragically cut far too short, far too soon. But this track will always be 24 karat solid gold.

{Sorry for the tardiness. This was teed up Saturday night, but I had urgent business until well after midnight Sunday. It's still Sunday in Hawaii...}

Post-Beatles hit for Paul McCartney & Wings from 1976, and McCartney's direct rebuttal to those (including John Lennon) who complained he only wrote sappy love songs. So it only zoomed to #1 on the charts, promptly becoming McCartney's record-setting 27th #1 hit.

McCartney's response, just like in the lyrics: "What's wrong with that?" 

#1 hit for The Association in 1967, since used in about a million places, from commercials to elevator muzak. It sat there on top of the charts for the entire month of July, the peak of "The Summer Of Love", and the Beatles were nowhere to be seen until the end of the month, when "All You Need Is Love" finally showed up at #71.

Beautiful and whimsical anything-but-new-wave retro-pop confection from 1979 by way of the 1960s, courtesy of Blondie, released as follow-up to their Heart Of Glass #1 single. This one hit #1 in several countries, but didn't chart in the U.S. But should have.

Softest ballad from a hard-rocking band, melancholy wrapped in beautiful simplicity, and as sweet as a drop of condensed honey, this one being Kansas' biggest hit ever (#6 in the U.S. on Billboard) from 1977. Also, truth be told, the entire Solomonic Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes condensed down to absolute truth in about 8 lines of lyrics.

Second single released from the Police's Synchronicity album, making a Top Ten hit (peaked at #8 in the US), helped by this video lip-synched and played at double speed, then slowed down to normal speed, making all the musicians appear to be moving in slow-mo.

Harry Chapin's Top 40 single from 1972, debuted on The Johnny Carson Show, which garnered such an overwhelming response Carson had Chapin back for an unprecedented second night.

First track on Bowie's "Let's Dance" album in 1983, released as a single in early fall, and peaking at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 that year.

Just a song from a 1981 Psychedelic Furs album which didn't even chart in the States, but somehow spawned the title (and became the title track) of a 1986 John Hughes '80s cult classic, and suddenly it became an Almost Top 40 hit, and gave the band a career-boosting second wind.

Orleans' 1976 Top 5 follow up hit to 1975's "Dance With Me", used by TV networks and presidential campaigns. 

Madonna didn't get to the top of the charts by doing trash, and this was her 37th Top 40 hit, and her career highest-debuting single, opening at #5 on the Hot 100, and hitting #1 on the Dance chart, as the title track of her 7th studio album, from 1998. 

Apropos of the days...

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