American Top 40 PastBlast, 1/26/85: Giuffria, “Call to the Heart”

Like I suspect was true of many other folks, I sorta wondered if this was Journey the first time or two I heard it. Greg Giuffria, the band’s namesake, is the guy on keyboards, not the vocalist (that’s David Eisley who’s sounding more than a little like Steve Perry). I don’t think I ever saw this clip back in early 85, else I might have nominated it for Worst Video in our year-end awards show on WTLX. The hair! The fashion, from fake animalskin pants to biceps bracelets! The wind machines! The pouting attempt to imitate Keith Emerson and/or Geoff Downes with their manly approaches to playing two keyboards simultaneously! One of the YouTube commenters wonders if this isn’t meant to be parody—you’ve got to consider the possibility. I know these guys were just trying to break through, but this is a pretty low budget affair, and it shows. Nonetheless, I liked the song fairly well; it’s #22 this week and would climb to #15.

A couple of side notes:
(1) The weekend before this countdown was the coldest it got in Lexington during my college years: officially, the low was -18°F on Sunday morning, which was abnormal even back then. It climbed to a high of about 0; unfortunately, Sunday dinner was the one meal during the week when the Transy cafeteria was closed, so we had to bundle up and hope that our cars would start so we could go out and forage for fast food.
(2) Also on this countdown, at #27, is the latest by Kool and the Gang. There was a freshman DJ at WTLX that winter who clearly was befuddled as to how to pronounce its title. I don’t recall which of us it was now, but someone among my fellow jocks was tuned in when the poor fellow used a long i sound for the second letter, a z sound for the third, and transposed the fourth and fifth…