Time to play a little catch-up from a couple of weekends ago.
This is pretty far along in time for me to be playing this game, but summer 87 had a number of pop hits that I fancied. Here are five songs I heard/saw then that didn’t make AT40.
#90: Whitesnake, “Heat of the Night”
Okay, well, this is NOT a song I particularly fancied. Plays pretty much like third-rate Zeppelin, mainly because of Coverdale trying to do the Plant thing (though I actually don’t mind one of the versions of “Here I Go Again”). The first of their videos to feature Tawny Kitaen. On the way down from a #79 peak.
#83: Jon Astley, “Jane’s Getting Serious”
On the other hand, I rather liked this quirky thing from British producer Astley (who’s no relation to the Rickroller). Actually have the 45 for this (that’s true of a couple other songs appearing here—maybe one of my last spasms of single-buying of hits in real time). Made it as high as #77.
#73: Kim Wilde, “Say You Really Want Me”
“Kids in America” is one of my very favorite 80s songs, though I didn’t include it in my semi-official “Top 10 80s Tunes” list a couple of years ago. That might have been an error. This one followed Wilde’s #1 remake of “You Keep Me Hangin’ On,” which turned out to be her second and final US Top 40 hit. I mainly remember this one because of everyone watching Kim stroll down the street at the beginning of the video. Peaked at #44.
#71: Tom Kimmel, “That’s Freedom”
Earlier in the year, I’d written a couple of letters to a college friend about “Don’t Dream It’s Over” and “Luka,” accurately predicting chart success for both well before it happened. I went to that well once too often, though, as I’d tried to make it three in a row with this heartland rocker. It’s coming off a high of #64, but I still think it’s pretty good.
#58: John Waite, “These Times Are Hard for Lovers”
It’s a true mystery to me why this didn’t get considerably higher on the Hot 100. It totally rocks and is clearly (to me, anyway) the best thing he did after “Missing You,” (especially) including the Bad English stuff. Got only as high as #53.
The Music of My Life 
I started in college radio in September of ’87, and recall “These Times are Hard for Lovers” getting a lot of airplay. Of course, we were also trotting out The Babys “Anthology” like it was a current. Either way, it seemed like it should have been a bigger hit. Nice catch.
Have always liked Jon Astley’s stuff as well.
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