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MUSIC FROM "MIAMI VICE" Various artist Released: September 1985 11 weeks at Number One 22 weeks in Top Forty Hit singles: "Miami Vice" by Jan Hammer (#1) "You Belong to the City" by Glenn Frey (#2) "Better Be Good To Me" by Tina Turner (#5) "Smugglers Blues" by Glenn Frey (#12) "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins (#19)
#12 
4
Foreigner
Released:
July 1981
10
weeks at Number One
52
weeks in Top Forty
Hit
singles:
"Waiting
For a Girl
Like
You" (#2)
"Urgent"
(#4)
"Juke
Box Hero" (#26)
"Break
it Up" (#26)
Foreigner sold at least 3 million copies of each of its first three albums, but the band never hit the top of the charts until its fourth album, simply titled 4. Foreigner, a combo of Englishmen and Americans that came together in 1976, played chugging hard rock lit up with some surprisingly Beatlesesque pop hooks. Foreigner's founder and guitarist, Mick Jones, had an extensive background on the British and French rock scenes of the mid-Sixties and even brushed up against the Fab Four while playing with Frech pop idol Johnny Halliday in Paris. Over the years, Foreigner's songs proved melodic enough for the Top Forty . The album 4 won Foreigner some critical accalim for its catchy leadoff single "Urgent", which boasted a blistering sax solo from Motown legend Jr. Walker. The next single, "Waiting for a Girl Like You", hung tough at Number Two for ten weeks (a Billboard record) before being nudged out by Olivia Newton-John's "Physical". The group wouldn't get its first Number One single until "I Want to Know What Love Is" from its next album of new material, Agent Provocateur. #13 
FOOTLOSE ORIGINAL MOTION-PICTURE SOUNDTRACK Various Artists Released: April 1984 10 weeks at Number One 27 weeks in Top Forty Hit singles: "Footloose" by Kenny Loggins (#1) "Let's Hear It for the Boy" by Deniece Williams (#1) "Almost Paradise" by Mike Reno & Ann Wilson (#7) "Dancing in the Sheets" by Shalamar (#17) "Holding Out for a Hero" by Bonnie Tyler (#34) Footloose followed in Flasdance's footsteps, portraying a high-steppin' good time in the Midwest. Instead of Jennifer Beals's Pittsburgh welder it was Kevin Bacon's high-school rebel who got happy feat in Footloose - much to the consternation of the Moral Majority types in the small town where he lived. Musically, Mike Reno of Loverboy and Ann Wilson of Heart teamed upon the ballad "Almost Paradise...Love Theme From Footloose". The soundtrack also included snappy songs from Kenny Loggins, Deniece Williams and Shalamar, all set to a trhobbing electronic beat. Rock and disco forgot their differences and came together on the album, and the results, though calculated, weren't that bad. "There's something endearing about artificial pop that knows its place," said Critic Don Shewey in his faintly positive Rolling Stone review of the soundtrack. The album yielded the first Number One solo singles for Kenny Loggins ("Footloose") and Deniece Williams ("Let's Hear It for the Boy"). Saturday Night Fever is the only soundtrack album with more Top FOrty singles. #14 
THE
JOSHUA TREE
U2
Released:
March 1987
9
weeks at Number One
58
weeks in Top Forty
Hit
singles:
"I
Still Haven't Found
What
I'm Looking For" (#1)
"With
or Without You" (#1)
"Where
the Streets Have No Name" (#13)
The success of U2's album The Joshua Tree was one of the heartening musical events of the decade. The Dublin quartet's finest album proved, among other things, that the marketplace was still capable of accommodating music axhibiting deep feeling and great passion. Its dozen songs made U2 more accessible without compromising the bands high ideals. In fact, it may be said that unblemished idealism is what led many people to seek the band out. The Joshua Tree was U2's seventh album and the band's second collaboration with producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. Unlike its predecessor, The Unforgettable Fire, it reflected differing opininons within the band as to direction. Singer Bono, fascinated with American blues, wanted a harder, more immediate approach, while the Edge, the groups guitarist, wished to delve further into a more ambient sound. "Two ideas were followed simultaneously," said the Edge. "They collided, and this record was born." On The Joshua Tree, song of spiritual yearning contrasts with songs of anger and despair. According to Bono "dismantling the mythology of America" was one of his objectives. Twelve million album buyers got the message. #15 
BROTHERS IN ARMS Dire Straits Released: May 1985 9 weeks at Number One 55 weeks in Top Forty Hit singles: "Money for Nothing" (#1) "Walk of Life" (#7) "So Far Away" (#19) Mark Knopfler made an unlikely rock star. The Frontman of Dire Straits was lowkey and diffident, while his guitar playing was closer to jazz and country than to rock power chording. That made the triumph of Brothers in Arms and "Money for Nothing", Dire Straits' first Number One album and single, all the more sweet. The single is a spiteful put-down of rock stars and MTV from the viewpoint of a boor wisecracking in front of a wall of TV sets in an appliance store. Knopfler actually overheard such a monologue in a Manhattan store. Hidden nearby, he took notes- and a hit song was born. THe rest of the album is dominated by slower tracks, in which Knopfler stretches out on guitar. The all-digital recording was among the first to be marketed as a "must own" on CD. Sources: Billlboard OnLine, various issues of Rolling Stone, Q, Vox, Mojo, NME, LIFE and TIME, the Rolling Stone Record Guide, Verdensrock. Images used for promotional use on this site only. Not for copying, modification or reuse |
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