Rhino Records struck nostalgia gold when it released the 25-volume Have a Nice Day series in a few installments during the 90s. Each CD in the set features a dozen pop songs from the 70s, some big hits but many others fairly obscure now. They’re generally arranged chronologically; I bought only the last eight, as those are the ones with songs from June 76 onwards (they helped immensely in my quest to obtain AT40 hits from 6/76 to 5/86). As I’ve learned more about the music of the first half of the 70s these last few years, it’s occurred to me that it wouldn’t be terrible to look into buying some of the first 17 disks…
In 95, just around the time Rhino was putting a bow on Have a Nice Day, they started an analogous series for songs from the following decade. Radio Daze: Pop Hits of the 80s didn’t resonate with the buying public nearly so well, however, and Rhino pulled the plug after only five volumes (yes, I have them). The first disk actually reaches back as far as September 79; there are songs on Volume Five that debuted on AT40 as late as April 81 (six of Volume Five’s entries are on the 5/30/81 show, including five of the top thirteen).
I’d like to think that if a Volume Six had ever been issued, it might have included this week’s #38 song, Jim Photoglo’s “Fool in Love with You.” This was his second and last trip to the Top 40; he’d reach #25 in early July. Then again, since his first hit, “We Were Meant to Be Lovers,” is on Volume Two, they may have passed it over.
“Fool in Love with You” was very tough to find digitally—I wound up buying the album of the same name as a Japanese import. Photoglo was on 20th Century Records, which shut down soon after this song hit the charts. Perhaps that’s a primary reason why it’s essentially unavailable and never played now. That’s a shame; it’s a decent slice of adult-contemporary pop. Maybe someone can whisper in the right person’s ear and get it on Yacht Rock Radio this summer?
The video, on the other hand, is pretty weak sauce. In some ways it reminds me of the clip for “He Don’t Love You,” by the Michael Stanley Band from earlier in the year, except with an even lower budget (but less overacting). I get that it’s from the pre-MTV era; nonetheless…
Photoglo still records occasionally, and he’s written a number of country hits over the years.
The Music of My Life 
Photoglo is Italian for a man who possesses a dated style and thus comes off as a predator.
Rhino was ahead of the game on that Radio Daze series. They should try another 5 volumes and sell it to the Yacht Rock crowd since there’s lots of songs from that era still unavailable digitally.
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