American Top 40 PastBlast, 6/16/84: Icicle Works, “Whisper to a Scream (Birds Fly)”

I occasionally listen to a station via the iHeart Radio app devoted exclusively to playing old AT40 shows (called, appropriately enough, Classic American Top 40). The channel cycles through almost 180 shows, evenly split between the 70s and 80s (though right now they play two 80s shows for every 70s show). Both of the shows being featured by Premiere Networks this weekend are in those rotations, and I’ve heard at least parts of each there more than once.

That’s how I know that on this show Casey reveals the source of this band’s name: it comes from the title of a short story by science fiction writer Frederik Pohl. We also get a brief plot outline of “The Day the Icicle Works Closed.” Just in the nick of time, too, as “Whisper to a Scream (Birds Fly)” was in its last week on the countdown, at its peak of #37. Icicle Works never hit again.

This is the fifth week in a row that the featured 80s track climbed no higher than #28 (and I’d expect the streak to go to six next Sunday). Apparently late spring/early summer was a prime time for low-peaking songs that I really liked.