Musical Monday - Freedom by Wham!

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Never.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Never.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: October 20, 1984 to November 3, 1984.

Wham! had a few top hits in the United States in the 1980s. The duo had a few more top hits in the U.K. This song reached number one in the U.K., and was only slightly less successful across the Atlantic. The thing about Wham! is that even though they are one of the iconic bands of the 1980s, they only released a total of two studio albums, and their heyday only lasted for about two years. Michael and Ridgeley somehow managed to help set the tone for the entire decade with a handful of songs and some fairly suspect dancing.

The weird thing about this song is that even though it is super-peppy and upbeat, the lyrics tell the story of a one-sided, almost abusive relationship. It seems odd to have a toe-tapping dance song that features lyrics about a narrator whose significant other apparently routinely cheats on them, but the narrator is so smitten that they always forgive their wayward partner. This is a strangely happy sounding tune with a dark core behind it. I suspect that few people who put this on for a turn at cutting the rug spent much time thinking about the words being sung at them. I kind of wonder if it would have mattered if they had.

Previous Musical Monday: Let's Go Crazy by Prince

Subsequent Musical Monday: Caribbean Queen (No More Love On the Run) by Billy Ocean

Previous #1 on the U.K. Chart: I Just Called to Say I Love You by Stevie Wonder

Subsequent #1 on the U.K. Chart: I Feel for You by Chaka Khan

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

Wham!     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

Musical Monday - Let's Go Crazy by Prince

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: September 29, 1984 through October 6, 1984.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: September 29, 1984 through October 6, 1984.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: Never.

Let's Go Crazy was the third big hit from Prince's Purple Rain album, which he made to accompany the movie of the same name that he starred in. All of the footage from this video is drawn from that movie, including the somehwat hilarious attempts to make Prince's puppet-band Morris Day and the Time into credible rivals for Prince in the fictional dance club that made up the heart of the movie. The footage also features a lot of Apollonia, who played Prince's girlfriend playing a character that shared her name so Prince could manufacture another band to promote: Apollonia 6 (which had previously been named Vanity 6 before the singer Vanity left that group).

Even though this song was pretty much the third-most popular song from this album, falling behind When Doves Cry and Purple Rain, it is my personal favorite. In large part, my affection for the song stems from the fact that Prince flashes his guitar skills in the closing segment of the song - I don't know if the quote is accurate, but supposedly when someone asked Eric Clapton how it felt to be the best guitarist in the world he responded with "I don't know, you'll have to ask Prince". I can't really claim to be qualified to make an assessment as to who the top dog in the axe-wielding department is, but Prince is definitely up there and shows it off here.

Previous Musical Monday: Missing You by John Waite

Subsequent Musical Monday: Freedom by Wham!

Previous #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Missing You by John Waite

Subsequent #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: I Just Called to Say I Love You by Stevie Wonder

Previous #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Missing You by John Waite

Subsequent #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: I Just Called to Say I Love You by Stevie Wonder

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

Prince     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

Musical Monday - Missing You by John Waite

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: The week of September 22, 1984.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: September 15, 1984 through September 22, 1984.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: Never.

My most dominant memory of this song is the fact that my mother quoted it's chorus in some of her letters to me while I was away at school. At the time, I was at a boarding school in Virginia, while my parents lived in Lagos, Nigeria at the time. My mother was not happy about this arrangement, and I probably didn't make it any easier by being really terrible at writing letters in return. needless to say, she sent me many more letters than I sent her.

The thing about the song is that it is actually a break-up song about missing a lover who has left you while you pine for them to return to your side and desperately try to erase their memory, which makes my mother's use of it to express missing her son kind of weird. That said, as break-up songs go, this is one of the best ones ever made. Waite's lyrics express the combination of longing and self-deception that perfectly encapsulates the emotions of a bad break-up.

Previous Musical Monday: I Just Called to Say I Love You by Stevie Wonder

Subsequent Musical Monday: Let's Go Crazy by Prince

Previous #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: What's Love Got to Do With It by Tina Turner

Subsequent #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Let's Go Crazy by Prince

Previous #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: What's Love Got to Do With It by Tina Turner

Subsequent #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Let's Go Crazy by Prince

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

John Waite     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

Musical Monday - I Just Called to Say I Love You by Stevie Wonder

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: October 20, 1984 through October 27, 1984.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: October 13, 1984 through November 3, 1984.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: September 8, 1984 through October 13, 1984.

If there is anything that demonstrates that success on the pop charts is mostly determined by the preferences of suburban moms, it is the fact that this song is Stevie Wonder's best-selling single. Wonder has had a long and prolific career, churning out musical masterpiece after musical masterpiece - Fingertips, Part II, Uptight (Everything's Alright), Superstition, Master Blaster (Jammin'), Sir Duke, and so many more. And yet, this milquetoast love ballad is the most successful song he ever wrote or recorded. To be clear, this isn't a bad song, it is just that compared to his greatest works, I Just Called to Say I Love You is just ordinary at best. It is, to be blunt, the epitome of Mom-pop.

This song was also on the soundtrack to The Woman in Red, which, once again, highlights the connection between pop music success and the movie industry. This song won an Academy Award as a result, although the movie - a mostly unfunny Gene Wilder vehicle featuring Kelly LeBrock and Gilda Radner - was simply not very good.

Previous Musical Monday: What's Love Got to Do With It by Tina Turner

Subsequent Musical Monday: Missing You by John Waite

Previous #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Let's Go Crazy by Prince

Subsequent #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Caribbean Queen (No More Love On the Run) by Billy Ocean

Previous #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Let's Go Crazy by Prince

Subsequent #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Purple Rain by Prince

Previous #1 on the U.K. Chart: Careless Whisper by George Michael

Subsequent #1 on the U.K. Chart: Freedom by Wham!

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

Stevie Wonder     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home