This Week In The 80’s: Call The Police There’s a Mad Man Around

This Week In The 80’s: Call The Police There’s a Mad Man Around

It’s the second semester of my sophomore year, 1986. We’re a couple of weeks from summer break. Most of my friends and I are sixteen, have cars and are chomping at the bit to get the school year over with so we can drive around all summer and act a fool. My buddy Rob and I shared a ride to school every now and then. Rob was a big euro-synth fan and that’s what you’d hear while riding in his car. Stuff like OMD (sitting at #10 this week with “If You Leave“), Howard Jones (“No One Is To Blame” is at #31 this week), and the duo sitting in the #1 spot this week with “West End Girls”, The Pet Shop Boys.

In my car, you’d have heard Van Halen’s new album, 5150, blaring out of the windows. Their new single, “Why Can’t This Be Love”, is sitting at #4 this week. Interestingly enough, it’s one of the scant few of songs at the time that becomes a hit WITHOUT having a video on MTV. There’s so many good songs on the chart this week. Among them, you’ve got “Your Love” from the Outfield, Prince’s “Kiss“, “Let’s Go All The Way” by Sly Fox, INXS and “What You Need“, “Nothing At All‘ from Heart (a song my wife and I used in our wedding a few years ago) and the only Top 40 single for Honeymoon Suite’s sophomore album, The Big Prize, “Feel It Again”. They’re one of my absolute favorite bands to come out of the 80’s and you should really check out either or both of their first two albums if you’ve never have. Sadly, they never got the amount of attention they deserved to catch on and make it big.

This Week In The 80’s is a weekly look at the Top 40 charts with Eric Vardeman. His Twitter handle is @ericvardeman.