Matt OsbornEvery week, we’ll take a step back to this week 33 years ago to remember just how great it was as we review the top music and movie charts, as well as anything else that happened in TV, sports, the news, you name it.
To Week4 we go. If you’ve missed the first three weeks, be sure to get caught up first – links are below!
On to the charts and other news around the world . . . 33 years ago.
Music
Singles Chart – Top 10
Another week, another new #1. We say goodbye to the Bangles, Duran Duran, and Wang Chung and welcome three new singles to the Top 10.
- At This Moment – Billy Vera and the Beaters – ⬆ 4
- Up four spots, Billy Vera’s re-release of his 1981 song “At This Moment” hits #1. As we talked about last week, Billy’s favorite show better be Family Ties and his favorite person better be the person who decided to make “At This Moment” the overture to Alex P. Keaton’s romance in 1985.
- C’est La Vie – Robbie Nevil
- Shake You Down – Gregory Abbott – ⬇ 2
- Open Your Heart – Madonna – ⬆ 3
- Up three more spots from last week, “Open Your Heart” is the 4th single from Madonna’s 3rd album, True Blue. Madonna right now is in the middle of her prime – from ’83 through ’85, Madonna ruled the pop charts with her staple hits “Holiday,” “Lucky Star,” “Borderline,” “Like a Virgin,” “Crazy for You,” “Material Girl,” “Into the Groove,” “Angel,” and “Dress You Up,” most of which came off her 2nd album Like a Virgin. Not a bad few years. Then in ’86, she released True Blue and has already had two more #1’s, “Papa Don’t Preach” and “Live to Tell,” and another Top 5 hit, “True Blue.” Madonna will have one more hit off of True Blue before releasing the soundtrack to Who’s That Girl later on this year.
- Control – Janet Jackson – ⬆ 1
- Land of Confusion – Genesis – ⬆ 2
- Up two more from last week, “Land of Confusion” was just the coolest video ever. It’s one of those, like many Michael Jackson songs, that you can listen to on the radio but it’s just missing something without the video. Go ahead and watch it real quick and then come back. “Land of Confusion” was the 4th of 5 singles from Genesis’ Invisible Touch album. And I remember being very confused as to why Phil Collins was now in a group – not realizing it was really the other way around. Kind of like when I realized all these solo acts that used to be in groups like the Beatles and the Eagles. Anyway, the first 3 cuts from Invisible Touch were all Top 5 hits – “Invisible Touch” (#1), “Throwing It All Away” (#4), and “In Too Deep” (#3). It will have one more later this year.
- Some Day – Glass Tiger – ⬆ 5
- Most folks know Glass Tiger for one song – “Don’t Forget Me (When I’m Gone),” which peaked last year at #2. They do not remember the follow-up single “Some Day.” I didn’t for sure. “Some Day” will peak here at #7.
- Change of Heart – Cyndi Lauper – ⬆ 5
- Like Madonna, Lauper had a crazy string of hits from ’83 through ’86 – “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” (#2), “Time After Time” (#1), “She Bop” (#3), “All Through the Night” (#5), “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough” (#10), and her latest #1, “True Colors.” But where Madonna continued her string of new hits and movies into the ’90s and beyond, “Change of Heart” would be Lauper’s last Top 5 hit (spoiler: it’ll peak at #3).
- It This Love – Survivor
- Victory – Kool & the Gang – ⬆ 1
- Rounding out the Top 10 this week is an old favorite – Kool & the Gang. Charting their first Top 10 hit 14 years earlier in 1973 (“Jungle Boogie”), Kool was still churning out Top 10 hits in ’87, though this and one more later this year would finish it out for them. But the work they put out in between would fuel its own dance party in any club still today. Here’s the playlist: “Jungle Boogie,” “Ladies’ Night,” “Too Hot,” “Celebration” (or as I called it growing up, the “Ya Hoo” song), “Get Down on It,” “Tonight,” “Fresh,” “Misled” (an underrated banger) and then the slow jams “Joanna” and “Cherish.” Man, I love those guys.
Albums Chart – Top 5
Not much change in the Top 5 albums this week – no new entrants and a flip of #4 and #5 – but there was a new release that warrants discussion.
- Slippery When Wet – Bon Jovi
- Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band Live 1975-1985 – Bruce Springsteen
- Third Stage – Boston
- Different Light – The Bangles – ⬆ 1
- The Way It Is – Bruce Hornsby & The Range – ⬇ 1
In the new release category, however, we have Bruce Willis. Yes, that Bruce Willis. Now, here at the Door, Mr. Willis is on the proverbial Mount Rushmore of all-time favorite stars of any genre (music, movies, sports, whatever). In fact, one of these days we’ll write about Bruce in-depth. But for now, in 1987, Bruce is tipping the edge of his massive superstardom. Since 1985, he’s starred as David Addison in Moonlighting, a highly underrated mid-to-late ’80’s TV detective comedy that will also likely get discussed here as well. And later this year, he’ll make his big-screen starring debut in Blind Date, before things really get going next year with that almost-didn’t-get-made action flick Die Hard.
So in the middle of all that, he releases an album. He’s just the greatest. Released by Motown and eventually peaking at #14 on the charts, The Return of Bruno will have three singles, “Respect Yourself,” “Young Blood,” and his cover of “Under the Boardwalk.” We’ll discuss “Respect Yourself” later this year when it hits the Top 10 singles chart up top. But for now, have a young Bruce singing “Under the Boardwalk” with the damn Temptations.
Movies
So all kinds of movement on the movie charts this week with a new release shooting to #1, two other new releases breaking into the Top 10, and two more that had been released in weeks past fighting there way onto the charts. We also say goodbye to The Morning After, The Mission, Assassination, Heartbreak Ridge, and, sadly, the Three Amigos.
Box Office Top 10
- Critical Condition – New Release
- Continuing his string of zany ’80s comedies, Richard Pryor plays a criminal angling for an insanity defense who goes to a hospital for evaluation, gets mistaken for a doctor, and insanity ensues. The Toy and Brewster’s Millions this is not. I’m not even sure I ever saw it.
- Platoon – ⬆ 8
- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home – ⬇ 1
- The Golden Child – ⬇ 3
- Crocodile Dundee – ⬇ 2
- Little Shop of Horrors – ⬇ 2
- The Bedroom Window – New Release
- I have no idea. It’s a psychological thriller with Steve Guttenberg. So there’s that.
- Wanted; Dead or Alive – New Release
- If you were looking for a video documentary of Bon Jovi, well, sorry. It was this – I remember this box art at the video store, but that’s about it.
- The Mosquito Coast – ⬆ 6
- In one of his few box office disappointments in the ’80s, Harrison Ford stars as a father who moves his family to Central America. Here’s the poster:
- Brighton Beach Memoirs – ⬆ 3
Sports
In Super Bowl XXI, Phil Simms and the New York Giants beat John Elway and the Denver Broncos 39-20. Probably most noteworthy, however, it’s the first widely televised Gatorade cooler dump on a coach. And Gatorade didn’t even have to buy an ad.
And that’s a wrap for Week 4. Stay tuned for next week where we continue our look at music, movies, and more during This Week . . . 33 Years Ago.
Past This Week . . . 30 Years Ago Reviews:
1987: Week One | Week Two | Week Three
Duck Newton
