Tag Archives: 80’s Flashback

80’s Flashback

Julie Brown, The Homecoming Queen’s Got A Gun, 1984. This classic novelty record was actually the B-side to Brown’s minor hit I Like ‘Em Big And Stupid, but became a bigger hit on its own after heavy play from Dr. Demento’s nationally syndicated radio show. Best line: “So I ran down and I said, in her good ear…” After the …

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80’s Flashback

Interboro Rhythm Team, Watch The Closing Doors, 1983. IRT’s novelty rap/dance hit today provides an amusing look at the state of Manhattan in the early 80’s as the vocalist counts off every stop on the 1 train from South Ferry to 137th Street. When Christopher Street/Sheridan Square comes up, he affects a fey accent: “Where all the boys go.” Moments …

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80’s Flashback

Miquel Brown, So Many Men, So Little Time, 1983. As what some say was the first breakout hit of the post-disco Hi-NRG genre, So Many Men, So Little Time is considered to this day to be a gay dance classic. This, despite the fact that gay DJs nationwide ceased playing it upon the onset of the AIDS epidemic, as its …

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80’s Flashback

808 State, Pacific State, 1989. Some point to this now-classic track as ushering in the era of “chillout house” and predicting the advent of Chicane, my favorite 90’s act. Pacific State reached #10 on the UK singles chart, a position 808 State would hit three more times with The Only Rhyme That Bites, In Yer Face, and the acid house …

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80’s Flashback

Thomas Dolby, Hyperactive, 1984. My favorite Dolby track, he originally wrote this for Michael Jackson, but recorded it himself when Jackson was unresponsive to the demo tape. Thanks perhaps to its very trippy video, Hyperactive was Dolby’s biggest hit in the UK, topping out at #17, at #62 here. Interestingly, that’s a reverse of what happened with She Blinded Me …

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80’s Flashback

Patrick Cowley, Megatron Man, 1982. I don’t even know how to begin a post about Patrick Cowley, the openly gay and still influential electronic music pioneer who so dominated the soundtrack of my early club life. Everything he released, from his collaborations with Sylvester (Do You Wanna Funk), Paul Parker (Right On Target), and Loverde (Die Hard Lover) to his …

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80’s Flashback

Cabaret Voltaire, Sensoria, 1984. My roommate and I discovered this track because at the time we were buying just about any band that came out of Sheffield, England: Human League/Heaven 17, ABC, Pulp, etc – they just all seemed to be perfect to us. As I recall, there were two or three quite different versions of Sensoria – it took …

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80’s Flashback

Luther Vandross, Never Too Much, 1981. Vandross wrote and produced this first single from his debut solo album of the same name, after spending much of the 70’s as a backup vocalist for the likes of Roberta Flack, Diana Ross, David Bowie, Chaka Khan, Donna Summer, and many others. Never Too Much reached #1 on the R&B chart and #33 …

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80’s Flashback

ABBA, The Visitors, 1981. The final single from their eighth and final studio album of the same name, ABBA’s The Visitors has become one of the most beloved and enduring dance classics of gay clubs worldwide. A radical departure from their trademarked style, The Visitors did not chart in the UK, but reached #62 on the U.S. pop chart and …

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80’s Flashback

The Weather Girls, It’s Raining Men, 1982. On Tuesday, David Letterman’s band leader Paul Shaffer took an unusual turn as Dave’s guest to promote his new book, recounting an amusing chapter which highlights his co-writing of the gay disco anthem It’s Raining Men with the late (and brilliant) Paul Jabara, who died of AIDS in 1992. Jabara had won an …

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80’s Flashback

Pat Benatar, Love Is A Battlefield, 1983. Written by Holly Knight and producer Mike Chapman (both of whom also co-wrote Tina Turner’s Better Be Good To Me), this was Benatar’s biggest and most enduring hit, reaching #5 on the pop chart, a height she later tied with the less memorable We Belong. The track earned Benatar a Grammy for Best …

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80’s Flashback

David Bowie, Loving The Alien, 1985. A vivid depiction of Bowie’s famous dislike for organized religion, Loving The Alien was the second single off 1984’s Tonight. Unlike the first single, Blue Jean, it was not a hit, failing to chart everywhere but the UK, where it reached #19. Bowie’s label had resisted it releasing as a single at all, probably …

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80’s Flashback

Limahl, NeverEnding Story, 1984. The theme song to the movie of the same name, this one-off collaboration between openly gay former Kajagoogoo frontman Limahl and my all-time favorite producer Giorgio Moroder resulted in one of the most lovely dance tracks of its day. Moroder wrote the music and his frequent partner Keith Forsey wrote the lyrics. (Forsey won an Oscar …

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80’s Flashback

Nik Kershaw, Wouldn’t It Be Good, 1984. Quite innovative for its day, the chroma key-laden video for this track helped propel it to the top ten in most of Europe, #4 in the UK, but only #46 in the U.S. The success of Woudn’t It Be Good prompted Kershaw’s label to re-release his first single, I Won’t Let The Sun …

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80’s Flashback

Tanita Tikaram, Twist In My Sobriety, 1988. This spooky number from Tikaram’s debut album Ancient Heart was a top ten hit in most of Europe, but went largely unnoticed in the U.S. Except, of course, in the gay clubs where it became an immediate morning music favorite. In ’96 came a fleet of remixes, but for me they mostly lost …

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80’s Flashback

Stevie Wonder, Do I Do, 1982. My favorite Stevie Wonder track (and that’s saying something), Do I Do was the summer song of that year, delivering ten minutes of beautiful, breezy jazz disco, ably assisted by the legendary Dizzy Gillespie. I have a vivid memory of dancing to this – in the sun, on an ocean pier, during t-dance in …

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80’s Flashback

Psychedelic Furs, Love My Way, 1982. In 1980 I returned the P-Furs’ self-titled debut album to the friend who’d lent it, dismissing it as pretentious and unlistenable. He was very disappointed in me. The following year’s Dumb Waiters and Pretty In Pink singles from Talk, Talk, Talk made me reconsider, but it was 1982’s Love My Way that completed my …

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80’s Flashback

Kraftwerk, Numbers, 1981. Arguably the most influential electronic act in history, it was 1981’s Numbers that brought Germany’s Kraftwerk to mass notice in the U.S. after several critically raved (but low selling) albums in the 70s. The track was an immediate smash with break dancers and has been sampled uncountable times. You can finder snippets of Numbers in Soulsonic Force’s …

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80’s Flashback

Hugh Masekela, Don’t Go Lose It, Baby, 1984. Yesterday’s post about Mory Kante reminded me of this huge hit from South Africa’s Hugh Masekela, who first charted in 1968 with his Grammy-winning #1 pop instrumental smash Grazing In The Grass, one of my favorite tracks from that era. Cowbells! The next year Friends Of Distinction covered Grazing and their almost-as-good …

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80’s Flashback

Mory Kante, Yeke Yeke, 1988. With this global #1 hit, Guinean Mory Kante became the first African to score a million-selling single. The remix was a monster smash in gay clubs; my late pal Daniel literally broke his foot dancing to it at Miami’s Cheers, where DJ Danny Tenaglia often made it a cornerstone of his sets. In 1994 the …

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