CoronaVinyl Day 144 ('80s Soul): Busy Body by Luther Vandross

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

Today's CoronaVinyl category is '80s soul, and I'm going with Luther Vandross's third studio album, 1983's Busy Body. 

Vandross was one of the biggest names in both '80s and '90s soul.  Between 1981 and 2003, he released 13 studio albums.  All but one went platinum in the U.S.  Seven of them went Top 10 on the Billboard album chart, including one #1.  On the Billboard R&B album chart, all 13 albums reached the Top 10, and eight hit #1.  He had 12 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including five Top 10 songs.  On the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip Hop singles chart, he had 27 Top 10 singles, including 7 #1s.  Rolling Stone ranked Vandross #54 on its 2008 list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.

Admittedly, I've never listened to Busy Body before, but I was expecting it to feature more slower soulful ballads, as that's kind of what I associate with Vandross, so I was pleasantly surprised when the album turned out to be a nice mix of soul, R&B, pop, and funk.  It produced Vandross's second Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, and his highest-charting single to that point, "How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye," a duet with Dionne Warwick that reached #27.  There's also a cover of The Carpenters' "Superstar," which is one of my favorite guilty pleasure songs.

Interesting tidbit that I didn't know before today:  Vandross provided backing vocals on David Bowie's 1975 album Young Americans and co-wrote the song "Fascination" for the album.  He also provided ad libs and backing vocals on Stevie Wonder's 1985 hit "Part-Time Lover."

Favorite song from Side 1:  "I'll Let You Slide"

This is a funky song about a guy who invites his lady to go out dancing.  She says no.  He goes anyway.  He comes home, and surprise surprise, she's banging another dude.  But for some reason he'll let it slide if she promises to come back to him.  Horrible game plan, but good song.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "For the Sweetness of Your Love"
I first read this as "For the Love of Sweetness," so I thought it was an ode to Walter Payton.  Even though it's not, I dig it anyway, as it's another one of the funkier songs on the album.

CoronaVinyl Day 143 (Military Theme): Ballads of the Green Berets by Barry Sadler

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

Apologies for the CoronaVinyl hiatus.  I had to take last week off, as it was the first week of e-learning for my kids, so the house was in a general status of chaos as all three of my kids settled into their routines.  I was also displaced for a few days from my normal work spot, which is in the living room, where the record player is, so I couldn't listen to vinyl while working, as I otherwise would have been doing.  Anywho, I'm back in my spot, even if Son's e-learning workspace is only a few feet from me.  Regardless, it's time to restart CoronaVinyl.

Today's CoronaVinyl category is "military theme," and I'm going with what I assume is one of the best-selling albums sung by currently enlisted military man, Ballads of the Green Berets by Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler, released in 1966.  Sadler was a combat medic for the U.S. Army's Special Forces (aka, the Green Berets) in the Vietnam War.  The songs on the album were written during his training and tour of duty in Vietnam, and 

During a combat patrol in May 1965, Sadler was severely injured when he fell into a mantrap and was struck in the leg by a pungi stake -- a poisoned spear made of sharpened bamboo that was covered with feces to boot!  He treated the wound, finished his patrol, and then eventually had to be evacuated to a U.S. air base hospital in the Philippines because the would had become infected.  He had surgery, resulting in a 12-inch scar on his knee, and returned to the U.S. to Fort Bragg, where he completed his recovery and then continued his duties as a Medical NCO for the Green Berets until his honorable discharge in 1967.

He is best known for the title track -- "The Ballad of the Green Berets" -- which he started writing when he was in training.  The song was co-written by Robin Moore, who wrote the book, The Green Berets.  Released in January 1966, "The Ballad of the Green Berets" spent five weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was later named the #1 song on the Billboard Year End chart for 1966.

The album itself also reached #1 on both the Billboard album chart and the Billboard country album chart.  The songs are kind of a mix of folk, country, and patriotic music.  All of the songs relate to being a soldier in Vietnam.

Given how much of a lightning rod for protest the Vietnam War became, it's kind of hard to imagine that this song and album were such huge hits.  That said, public opinion didn't really start to turn against the war until 1967, so Sadler came along at the right time.

After his discharge from the Army, Sadler had some minor acting roles and then became a pulp fiction writer, starting the Casca novel series in 1979.  He also killed a guy in 1978 in a love triangle spat, but only served a short sentence as part of a plea bargain because he thought the guy had a gun.  In 1984, he moved to Guatemala, where, in 1988, he himself was shot in the head while in a taxi in Guatemala City.  He was airlifted back to the States, was in a coma for six weeks, and never fully recovered.  The injury left him a quadriplegic with significant brain damage, and he spent most of the rest of life in VA hospitals before dying in November 1989 at the age of 49.

The Spotify version of the album contains a bonus track, Sadler's only other hit, 1966's "The 'A' Team," which reached #28 on the Billboard Hot 100, presumably written about a crack commando unit that was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit, but who promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground and are still wanted by the government, surviving as soldiers of fortune.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Salute to the Nurses"

While this one is an ode to military nurses in Vietnam, it applies equally today, as our trusty nurses are on the front lines of COVID.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Bamiba"
This song has a Latin feel, and it's about a soldier who gets drunk and ends up in Vietnam jail.

Hair Band Friday - 9/11/20

1.  "Screaming in the Night" by Krokus


2.  "Comin' Under Fire" by Def Leppard


3.  "Unskinny Bop" by Poison


4.  "On and On" by Trixter


5.  "She Goes Down" by Mötley Crüe


6.  "Way Cool, Jr." by Ratt


7.  "One Way to Rock" (live) by Van Halen


8.  "Hell Child" by Lynch Mob


9.  "Your Love Is In Vain" by Vandenberg


10.  "Never Say Goodbye" by Bon Jovi

Tuesday Top Ten: One-Hit Wonders By Year - 1980s

Previous one-hit wonders by year lists:
-1960s
-1970s

We have reached the midway point in our trek through my favorite one-hit wonders from each year between 1960 and 2009, which means we have reached the 1970s.  If there was ever a decade for one-hit wonders, it was the decade of decadence.  Every genre had one-hit wonders, and it some of the most beloved songs of the decade were artists' only big hits.  I could honestly do a top ten one-hit wonders from each of the years between 1980 and 1989.  Perhaps another time.  

As a reminder, here are my rules:

• The song must have been in the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100.  There might be a couple songs that are #21 or #22, as not every year had a ton of one-hit wonders with Top 20 songs to choose from (or one-hit wonders with Top 20 songs that I like).  Also, I'm focusing on the American charts, since that's where I've lived my whole life.  Plus, a look at one-hit wonders on the Dutch charts would require a lot more work.  There are certainly songs and artists who may be one-hit wonders here who have been successful in other countries, and vice versa.
• The band or artist cannot have any other song that broke into the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100.  And just so you know I'm trying to keep everything on the level, I am truly focused on artists who didn't have a bunch of Top 40 hits.  For instance, if an artist had one Top 10 song and then five or six other Top 40 songs, I don't necessarily consider that a one-hit wonder.  On the other hand, if there is an artist who had one big hit and then another song that isn't as well know that happened to go to #21, I'm considering that artist.
• The band or artist cannot be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or have a band member who is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  For instance, technically, The Clash fit within my one-hit wonder rules, as 1982's "Rock the Casbah" was the band's only Top 20 hit, reaching #8, but obviously, they are Rock and Roll Hall of Famers and one of the most influential punk bands ever.  Also, artists who may have had one Top 20 song as a solo artists, but then another Top 20 song as a duet are excluded, so for instances, Lita Ford's "Kiss Me Deadly" reached #12 in 1988 and was her only solo Top 20 hit, but the next year, her duet with Ozzy Osbourne, "Close My Eyes Forever," hit #8.  Neither counts.
• For the year, I am counting the year a song was released, regardless of when it charted.  This avoids having to deal with a situation where a song may have been high on the charts at the end of one year and the beginning of another.  Unfortunately, this also hurts songs that didn't become hits until a few years after their release, as I'm not going to choose a song as my favorite one-hit wonder from a particular year if the song didn't really become big until years later.  One that comes to mind is Billy Vera & The Beaters' "At This Moment," which was originally released in 1981, but reissued in 1986 and became a #1 song in early 1987 after it was featured prominently in several poignant episodes of Family Ties.  Same goes for Sheriff's #1 song "When I'm With You," which topped the charts in 1989, six years after it was released.

So those are the rules.  With those in mind, here are my favorite one-hit wonders from each year in the 1980s, chronologically by year of release, with the peak chart position on the Billboard Hot 100 noted.

1.  1980:  "Whip It" by Devo (#14)
Devo was so weird, with their flower-pot helmets and catchy, synthy new wave art pop songs.  "Whip It" is an iconic song (and video) with nonsensical lyrics that have often been assumed to be about sexual bondage, but really, it's about overcoming your problems.


2.  1981:  "Key Largo" by Bertie Higgins (#8)
A yacht rock classic, Bertie Higgins's "Key Largo" is a tribute to the 1948 Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall film of the same name, which Higgins apparently believes is the epitome of a romantic relationship, as the chorus indicates "We had it all / Just like Bogey and Bacall."  The video showcases Higgins's lack of chest hair despite having a full beard and cig smoking prowess.


3.  1982:  "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell (#8)
This is another iconic one-hit wonder, and one of the most recognizable new wave songs, originally sung in 1965 by R&B artist Gloria Jones.  The extended version also goes into a cover of The Supremes' "Where Did Our Love Go?"


4.  1983:  "99 Luftballons" by Nena (#2)
German band Nena's German-language song about the release of 99 balloons causing a massive war became such a massive international hit that she re-released an English-language version the next year, which went to #1 in the UK and Canada.


5.  1984:  "Round and Round" by Ratt (#12)
Sunset Strip hair band rockers Ratt are beloved by many hard rockers and even had their own turn on VH1's Behind the Music, but despite having four platinum albums in the '80s, they only had one Top 20 song, 1984's "Round and Round."  The video features Hollywood legend (and notoriously well-hung) Milton Berle, whose nephew was the band's manager at the time.


6.  1985:  "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)" by John Parr (#1)
John Parr's theme song for the Brat Pack film St. Elmo's Fire was a chart topper, and it's one of the feel-good songs of the '80s.  It always puts me in a good mood, and I always picture it being the backdrop for a movie montage scene of a group of friends working hard together to get something done.


7.  1986:  "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades" by Timbuk 3 (#19)
I was about to go with Cameo's "Word Up," but then apparently they had a collaboration with Mariah Carey 15 years later that hit #2.  Cameo's loss (i.e., commercial success) is Timbuk 3's gain.  The band was comprise of the husband-and-wife team of Pat and Barbara MacDonald, and 1986's "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades" was their biggest hit.  Though it has a catchy, uptempo feel, it's actually about a nuclear science student foretelling a "bright" future because of the likelihood of a nuclear war.


8.  1987:  "Pump Up the Volume" by M/A/R/R/S (#13)
M/A/R/R/S was a collaboration between electronic group Colourbox and alternative rock band A.R. Kane, and they only made two songs together, one of which was a classic hip hop and British acid house track, "Pump Up the Volume."  This is one of those songs that immediately takes me back to listening to Z-95 in my room on my boombox while I was doing my homework at night.


9.  1988:  "Don't Worry, Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin (#1)
The '80s were such a weird, diverse time for music that an a cappella song by jazz vocalist Bobby McFerrin could top the charts and win multiple Grammy Awards without anyone batting an eye.  It was the first a cappella song to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, with its positive theme about letting shit roll off your shoulders.


10.  1989 (tie):  "The Humpty Dance" by Digital Underground (#11), "So Alive" by Love and Rockets (#3), and "Just a Friend" by Biz Markie (#9)
I really struggled with 1989 because I love all three of these songs, so rather than try to choose just one, I'm giving you all three.  "The Humpty Dance" is a parade of fantastic one-liners.  "So Alive" is a sneaky good alternative post-new wave pop song.  "Just a Friend" is a DIY hip hop classic that served as a warning to anyone in a long-distance relationship with someone named Blah Blah.

Hair Band Friday - 9/4/20

1.  "You're in Love" by Ratt


2.  "Hell or High Water" by Y&T


3.  "Breakdown" by Whitesnake


4.  "Dance All Over Your Face" by KISS


5.  "Stained Class" by Judas Priest


6.  "Eruption" by Van Halen


7.  "In the Fire" by Hurricane


8.  "Stick to Your Guns" by Mötley Crüe


9.  "I'm the King" by Black 'N Blue


10.  "Dynamite" (live) by Scorpions

Retro Video of the Week: "Breathless" by The Corrs

This week's COVID-themed Retro Video of the Week comes courtesy of Irish pop rock siblings The Corrs and their 2000 hit "Breathless."  Co-written by the Corrs and legendary producer Mutt Lange, "Breathless" was an international hit.  While the song only went to #34 on the Billboard Hot 100, it made it into the Top 10 on the pop charts in 14 other countries, going #1 in the UK, Czech Republic, Poland, and Scotland.

I've always thought The Corrs and Coors should have entered into some sort of sponsorship relationship.  
The Corrs walk into a bar.
Andrea Corr:  "How about Coors?"
Stupid American bartender:  "Are you saying Corrs or Coors?"  
Caroline Corr:  "Sometimes with an Irish brogue it may be difficult to tell the difference."
Sharon Corr:  "But rest assured, The Corrs love Coors."
Jim Corr:  "Of course we do." (with the "course" drawn out to sound like Coors)
Everyone laughs, they cheers their frosty mugs of draft Coors Light, and the bartender just shakes his head with a big shit-eating grin.

For COVID purposes, one of the tell-tale signs of the coronavirus is that it leaves you breathless.  If you don't want to get COVID, wear a mask, socially distance, and steer clear of universities, fraternity parties, and southern states.

CoronaVinyl Day 142 (Longest Album Title): The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser by Rob Zombie

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

Today's CoronaVinyl category is "longest album title," and that distinction goes to Rob Zombie's 2016 album The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser.  I don't remember exactly what prompted me to get this album, but I do know that it came with a cool 3-D album cover -- autographed by Rob Zombie himself -- that was on top of the actual album cover.  I have the autographed 3-D cover framed and hanging in my Rock and Roll Staircase.

The album was Zombie's sixth solo studio album, and it went to #6 on the Billboard album chart, meaning that all of his solo albums have been in the Top 10.  The album is kind of a concept album about monsters and aliens, and musically, it's the exact kind of industrial and groove metal with B-horror movie quotes mixed in that you would expect out of Rob Zombie.  In addition to the album having a ridiculously long title, many of the songs do too.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Well, Everybody's Fucking in a U.F.O."

This sounds like something someone would say as truth when they're really stoned.  Regardless, it's a funny, catchy metal song that kind of reminds me of Primus.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "In the Age of the Consecrated Vampire We All Get High"
This just sounds like a classic Rob Zombie or White Zombie song.  Plus, it's got a great title, even if I'm not sure how a vampire becomes consecrated or why that means we all get high.

CoronaVinyl Day 141 (Hawaii): Waikiki by Ed Kamanaloha Kenney

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

Today's CoronaVinyl category is Hawaii, and I actually have a couple albums with Hawaiian music.  Granted, I have no idea how or when I obtained them, but I assure you, it was all legal.

My choice for today is Ed Kamanaloha Kenny's 1965 album Waikiki, named, of course, after the famous neighborhood in Honolulu.  Kenney was a native Hawaiian, born to a Hawaii-Chinese mother and a Swedish-Irish father.  He released seven albums of Hawaiian music between 1960 and 1977, and prior to that, he had success on Broadway, particularly as the romantic lead in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song.  His second wife was a hula dancer named Beverly Noa.  How Hawaiian is that?  He and Beverly headlined shows at the legendary Royal Hawaiian Hotel and the Halekulani Hotel for many years, and he was also the headliner at a popular Waikiki nightclub called Don the Beachcomber's.

Recorded in Hawaii, the album is exactly what you'd expect and want from Hawaiian music.  Kenney's soft baritone lays the aural scene for easy listening songs about the islands, some in English and some in Hawaiian.  These are the types of songs that you would want to be listening to as you're lounging on a beach with a tropical drink in your hand.

The album isn't on Spotify, but I found YouTube videos foe each side, so I embedded those below.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Waikiki"

The title track is a dreamy ode to Waikiki, as the title implies.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Kalalea"
Kalalea is a famous mountain in Kauai that has appeared in many films, including Raiders of the Lost Ark, Six Days, Seven Nights, and Tropic Thunder.  The song is sung in Hawaiian, so I have no idea if it's full of expletives.

Tuesday Top Ten: One-Hit Wonders By Year - 1970s

Previous one-hit wonders by year lists:
-1960s

Continuing the journey through my favorite one-hit wonders from each year between 1960 and 2009, our second stop takes us to the 1970s.  I feel like this is the decade when the one-hit wonder really began to take off.  From rock to disco to soft rock to country rock to soul to punk to pop to funk, there were plenty of great one-hit wonders to choose from.

As a reminder, here are my rules:

• The song must have been in the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100.  There might be a couple songs that are #21 or #22, as not every year had a ton of one-hit wonders with Top 20 songs to choose from (or one-hit wonders with Top 20 songs that I like).  Also, I'm focusing on the American charts, since that's where I've lived my whole life.  Plus, a look at one-hit wonders on the Dutch charts would require a lot more work.  There are certainly songs and artists who may be one-hit wonders here who have been successful in other countries, and vice versa.
• The band or artist cannot have any song that broke into the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100.  And just so you know I'm trying to keep everything on the level, I am truly focused on artists who didn't have a bunch of Top 40 hits.  For instance, if an artist had one Top 10 song and then five or six other Top 40 songs, I don't necessarily consider that a one-hit wonder.  On the other hand, if there is an artist who had one big hit and then another song that isn't as well know that happened to go to #21, I'm considering that artist.
• The band or artist cannot be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or have a band member who is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  For instance, "Layla" by Derek & The Dominos, which hit #10 in 1972, doesn't count because the group featured three-time Rock Hall inductee Eric Clapton (as a solo artist and member of Cream and The Yardbirds) and Duane Allman (who was inducted as a member of The Allman Brothers Band).  Likewise, while T. Rex only had one Top 20 song in the U.S. -- "Get It On," which reached #10 in 1971 -- they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year.
• For the year, I am counting the year a song was released, regardless of when it charted.  This avoids having to deal with a situation where a song may have been high on the charts at the end of one year and the beginning of another.  Unfortunately, this also hurts songs that didn't become hits until a few years after their release, as I'm not going to choose a song as my favorite one-hit wonder from a particular year if the song didn't really become big until years later.  For instance, "Disco Inferno" by The Trammps was originally released in 1976, but didn't become a Top 20 hit until it was re-released in 1978 after the success of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.

So those are the rules.  With those in mind, here are my favorite one-hit wonders from each year in the 1970s, chronologically by year of release, with the peak chart position on the Billboard Hot 100 noted.

1.  1970:  "O-o-h Child" by The Five Stairsteps (#8)
In 1970, Chicago's own Five Stairsteps -- comprised of five siblings -- put out one of my favorite soul songs ever, "O-o-h Child," and the song rose to #8 on the Billboard Hot 100.  While the group had 15 songs that charted on the Billboard Hot 100, this would be the only one that even sniffed the Top 40.  The song always puts me in a happy mood, and I beg you not to overlook drummer Bernard Purdie's delicious fills. Also of note is that, until I saw the video below today, I had always assumed the person singing the first verse was a male.


2.  1971:  "Signs" by Five Man Electrical Band (#3)
A warning against social and economic barriers, "Signs" was Canada's Five Man Electrical Band's only Top 20 song in the U.S., though they had greater success in the Great White North.  It's a classic song, and was famously covered in 1990 by Tesla (whose version went to #8) as part of their live acoustic album, which itself was an homage to Five Man Electrical Band, as it was called Five Man Acoustical Jam.


3.  1972:  "Brandy" by Looking Glass (#1)
What a great song.  It tells the tale of a port town bar maid named Brandy who gets hit on constantly by sailors, but all she really wants is the mariner who left her behind because he loved the sea more than anything else.  That's probably a sign that he wasn't the right guy, but hey, let Brandy live her life.  The song was so popular that the baby name Brandy surged in popularity after this song was released. Now riddle me this: does the lead singer not look like the love child of Alice Cooper and Janice from Friends?



4.  1973:  "Hocus Pocus" by Focus (#9)
You may have heard this song before and had no idea what it was called or who recorded it.  Dutch rockers Focus's "Hocus Pocus" is a blistering hard rock instrumental interspersed with weird yodeling, effing, whistling, and scatting.  So of course it captured the hearts and ears of listeners in 1973, rising to #9 on the Billboard Hot 100.


5.  1974:  "Kung Fu Fighting" by Carl Douglas (#1)
In 1974, kung fu movies and culture was at its height, and so Jamaican singer cashed in big time with his now-well-known hit "Kung Fu Fighting," which not only topped the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in late 1974, but also topped the pop charts in eleven other countries and helped popularize disco music.  It's the kind of cultural appropriation that probably wouldn't fly today, but was widely embraced in the '70s. Like Chubby Checker did with songs about the Twist, Douglas tried to follow up with another kung fu song later the same year, "Dance the Kung Fu," but that topped out at #48 on the Billboard Hot 100 and would be his only other charting song.


6.  1975:  "Love Hurts" by Nazareth (#8)
Scottish hard rockers Nazareth are known within hard rock and metal circles for songs like "Hair of the Dog" (and it's awesome chorus "Now you're messin' with / A son of a bitch"), but their only song that cracked the Top 40 in the U.S. (or the Top 85, for that matter) was their 1975 cover of a relatively unknown song from the early '60s that had been recorded by both The Everly Brothers and Roy Orbison (and also earlier in 1975 by Jim Capaldi).  Nazareth turned it into a power ballad, and it went to #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 -- and nearly two decades later was featured on the Dazed and Confused soundtrack. It's a perfect post-breakup song.


7.  1976:  "The Boys Are Back in Town" by Thin Lizzy (#12)
Thin Lizzy is one of my favorite bands, so it pains me that they were technically a one-hit wonder in the U.S. -- and they're not (yet) in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, so I couldn't exclude them.  Their classic "The Boys Are Back in Town" went to #12 on the Billboard Hot 100, and it remains the song that most people associate with the band. It's a great song, showcasing both Phil Lynott's blue collar-themed songwriting skills and the twin lead guitar attack of Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson.


8.  1977:  "Thunder Island" by Jay Ferguson (#9)
While another one-hit wonder, Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life," dominated the charts in 1977, spending ten weeks at #1, I don't really like that song, so I'm going with Jay Ferguson's yacht rock hit "Thunder Island," which hit #9.  What I didn't know until today is that Ferguson had been a member of psychedelic rock band Spirit in the late '60s and early '70s, and then in the early '80s, he decided to focus on soundtrack work.  Perhaps most famously, he wrote the theme song to the American version of The Office -- and, in the show, he was the guitarist for Kevin's Police cover band Scrantonicity. Also, Ferguson's lion's mane of hair and come-hither pose on the Thunder Island album cover should not go unrecognized.


9.  1978:  "Werewolves of London" by Warren Zevon (#21)
This is one of those songs that just missed by technical requirements, as it peaked at #21, but I had to include it because it's such a great song, and it has become a classic rock staple.  Warren Zevon was critically acclaimed, but his chart success didn't seem to match the fervor of the critics, for whatever reason.  "Werewolves of London" is a catchy and funny song about, well, a werewolf in London.  "I saw him drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's / And his hair was perfect / Dip!"


10.  1979:  "Cruel to Be Kind" by Nick Lowe (#12)
For 1979, it was a toss-up between Nick Lowe's "Cruel to Be Kind" and The Knack's "My Sharona."  The latter was a bigger hit and probably much more well-known, so I decided to go with "Cruel to Be Kind."  It's a catchy power pop song that hit #12.  Like Zevon, Lowe is a well-regarded songwriter and had a lot of critical acclaim, but this was his only big hit in the U.S. I'd like to think that my hair would have been just about like Lowe's in the video right now had my wife not made me get a haircut last month.

CoronaVinyl Day 140 (Famously Bald): No Jacket Required by Phil Collins

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

Today's CoronaVinyl category is "famously bald," and there have been many musicians over the years who have been either follicly challenged or intentionally bald, like Isaac Hayes, Phil Collins, Sinead O'Connor, Rob Halford, Billy Joel, Kenny Chesney, and Billy Corgan, to name a few.

I'm going with Phil Collins's third studio album, the massively successful No Jacket Required from 1985.  Though Collins wasn't quite bald when he released this album, as you can see from album cover, he was well on his way.

No Jacket Required was an international smash, selling over 25 million copies worldwide, including 12 million in the U.S. alone, making it not only Collins's best-selling album, but one of the top 40 best-ever-selling albums in the U.S. ever and one of the Top 50 worldwide.  No Jacket Required hit #1 on the album charts in the U.S. (for seven weeks), the UK, and at least seven other countries.  At the Grammy Awards in early 1986, Collins picked up Grammys for Album of the Year, Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, and Producer of the Year for No Jacket Required.

Collins released four singles from the album in the U.S. and three in the UK, all of which hit the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Top 20 on the UK pop charts:  "Sussudio" (#1 U.S., #12 UK), "One More Night" (#1 U.S., #4 UK), "Don't Lose My Number" (#4 U.S.), and "Take Me Home" (#7 U.S., #19 UK).  The album is also credited as expanding the use of drums and drum machines (the latter of which Collins had been using and experimenting with for several years) in pop music.

The version of the album on Spotify is a 2016 remaster with a bonus track and an updated album cover featuring a now-bald Collins.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Sussudio"

For a brief period of time, this was my favorite song after it came out in 1985, and I still love it.  The title is a gibberish word that Collins made up when he was trying to find a word that fit the rhythm of a drum track.  He couldn't find anything else that fit better, so he just kept "sussudio" as the lyric and song title.  The rest, they say, is history.  And, of course, it was prominently featured 15 years later in one of my favorite movies, American Psycho.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Don't Lose My Number"
Collins has said that he improvised the lyrics and even he himself doesn't fully understand what they mean.  I'll let you read my Retro Video of the Week commentary about it from this past February to get my take on what the lyrics mean.  But regardless of what the song might mean, it's a great pop/rock song.