1982: My Top 100 (At The Time)

If you’ve been checking things out here for a while, you likely recall that I kept track of my personal Top 50 from early Spring 1980 through the end of 1982. One requirement I had in place from the beginning was that any song on AT40 had to have a place on my chart–this meant that big hits in real life that didn’t float my boat as much often languished in the teens and twenties while I was waiting for them to begin their tumbles back down.

A few weeks after I left for college in September 1982, I stopped making my formal weekly AT40 charts, though I have evidence that I was keeping notes on it until March 1983. I dropped doing my own list over the winter break, though–forty years ago today was a Saturday, the day that broke that streak, I suppose.

I left some unfinished business. At the end of 1981, I’d painstakingly tabulated points for dozens of songs based on their positions on my charts over the calendar year and drawn up a list of my Top 100 songs. That didn’t happen for the 1982 charts as the new year dawned. One of my resolutions for 2022 was to go back and compile that list; going in, I didn’t know which of three or four songs would wind up on top.

I could reconstruct the formula I’d used for the 1981 summary from the work I’d kept, so that was employed again: 50 points for being #1, 49 for #2, 48 for #3, etc., 10 points for each week on the chart, plus some bonuses thrown in if a song stayed at #1 for more than two weeks. I used Excel for my calculations this time around–pretty painless other than the data entry, of course.

Anyway, without further adieu, the results–I won’t even keep you in suspense by starting at #100:

Rank	Title	Points	Peak	Weeks
1	867-5309/Jenny	1009	1(4)	23
2	Don’t You Want Me	948	2	22
3	Rosanna	917	1(4)	19
4	Only the Lonely	877	1(3)	19
5	Do You Believe in Love	843	1(5)	17
6	Sweet Dreams	839	1(3)	18
7	Hard To Say I’m Sorry	831	1(2)	18
8	Hurts So Good	825	5	22
8	Who Can It Be Now?	825	4	18
10	Caught Up in You	818	1(1)	18
11	Don’t Talk to Strangers	817	1(2)	18
12	Take It Easy on Me*	814	2	17
13	Kids in America	810	4	18
14	Shake It Up*	808	1(3)	17
15	Abracadabra	805	3	19
16	Theme from ‘Chariots of Fire’	800	1(1)	17
17	I Love Rock ‘n Roll	797	3	17
18	Eye in the Sky	788	1(3)	17
19	The One You Love**	783	1(3)	15
20	You Should Hear How She Talks About You	777	3	17
20	You Can Do Magic	777	2	17
22	Open Arms	775	2	16
23	Gloria**	773	2	16
24	Tainted Love	772	1(1)	17
25	’65 Love Affair	759	3	17
26	Never Been in Love	716	1(4)	15
27	Centerfold*	712	2	15
28	Key Largo	711	10	18
29	Somebody’s Baby	705	3	16
30	Always on My Mind	688	4	17
31	Man on Your Mind	666	3	15
32	Heat of the Moment	663	6	15
33	Gypsy**	658	1(2)	14
34	Ebony and Ivory	645	9	16
35	Love Is Alright Tonite	620	5	16
35	You Don’t Want Me Anymore	620	6	14
37	Hot in the City	617	7	15
38	Did It in a Minute	614	4	14
39	Under Pressure*	610	1(2)	13
39	Spirits in the Material World	610	6	15
41	Hold Me	606	9	15
42	Nobody Said It Was Easy	599	4	14
43	Vacation	597	1(1)	13
44	Eye of the Tiger	586	15	18
45	Our Lips Are Sealed*	584	1(2)	12
46	Think I’m in Love	583	5	13
47	The Other Woman	580	7	14
48	My Girl (Gone, Gone, Gone)*	576	1(1)	12
49	We Got the Beat	572	11	15
50	Jack and Diane	566	11	17
51	Tonight I’m Yours (Don’t Hurt Me)	544	7	13
52	That Girl	542	9	13
53	You Could Have Been with Me*	526	8	15
54	I Ran (So Far Away)	525	8	13
55	Keep the Fire Burnin’	521	7	13
56	I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)*	514	13	13
57	Someday, Someway	512	12	14
58	Steppin’ Out**	511	2	10
59	Love’s Been a Little Bit Hard on Me	510	8	14
60	Physical*	506	4	11
61	Blue Eyes	499	10	13
62	Cool Night*	498	10	12
62	Make a Move on Me	498	9	12
64	Up Where We Belong**	497	9	12
65	Pac-Man Fever	496	11	14
65	Even the Nights Are Better	496	13	14
67	Waiting for a Girl Like You*	495	3	10
67	Personally	495	12	14
69	Wasted on the Way	493	11	13
70	Heartlight**	486	10	12
71	Through the Years	484	6	13
72	Harden My Heart*	480	9	12
73	I’ve Never Been To Me	474	15	14
74	Take Me Down	473	9	12
75	Empty Garden	472	10	12
76	Sweet Time	467	9	12
77	Angel in Blue	464	11	13
78	Freeze-Frame	461	13	13
79	Leader of the Band*	460	19	15
80	New World Man	459	8	11
81	Goin’ Down	458	7	12
82	Play the Game Tonight	456	10	12
83	Truly**	453	3	9
84	Turn Your Love Around*	445	14	11
85	Let It Whip	442	20	16
86	Without You (Not Another Lonely Night)	441	13	12
86	I Keep Forgettin’	441	15	13
88	Get Down on It	430	9	11
89	Love Will Turn You Around	420	9	11
90	Body Language	412	12	11
91	Waiting on a Friend*	407	15	11
92	Heart Attack	405	16	13
93	Hooked on Classics*	396	14	10
93	Let Me Tickle Your Fancy	396	15	12
95	Break It Up	395	13	11
96	Love in the First Degree	384	17	12
97	Bobbie Sue	383	13	11
98	Hold On	381	16	11
98	Shadows of the Night**	381	1(3)	8
100	It’s Raining Again**	379	7	8

*was on the chart for at least one week in 1981
**would have been on the chart for at least one week in 1983

It turned out not to be that close for the top spot. Overall I can’t complain too much about how the top ten turned out, though I think Huey was probably top 3 in my heart, and I wouldn’t have Johnny Cougar nearly so high now.

I’m a tiny bit surprised to see “Don’t You Want Me” all the way up at #2. That said, I’ve come to recognize over the last couple of years its importance (yes, along with “Tainted Love”) in being the leading edge of the Second British Invasion. I just finished reading Tom Breihan’s The Number Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal the History of Pop Music, in which he devotes a chapter to “Don’t You Want Me” for essentially that reason (with immense credit to MTV for its role in it all).

The song that lost out the most due to bad timing was Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” which was #1 the last week of December 1981 and the first week of January 1982, and didn’t make the Top 100 either year. On the other hand, both “Physical” and “Waiting for a Girl Like You” were on both Top 100s, due to their chart longevity. It’d perhaps be worthwhile to take a cue from the AT40 staff and include more (or all) of a song’s run in this exercise–of course, that couldn’t be done with songs that hung on into some of 1983…

Anyway, laugh as you will at the results; I’m glad to have ranked them at last. Here’s to the best for all of us in 2023.

—

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