This Week In 1983: The Top Music of July 1st, 1983
Big drops this week by Journey (ten spots), Men At Work (thirteen spots) and Lionel Richie (seventeen spots). Michael Jackson moves his fourth single, “Wanna Be Startin’ Something”, into the top 10. Prince makes the biggest jump of the week with “1999” up ten spots to #23.
New songs on the chart this week include “Maniac” by Michael Sembello, Loverboy’s “Hot Girls In Love” and the highest debut of the week, “Fascination” by Human League, debuting at #32. Irene Cara is spending her last week in the top spot with “Flashdance”, our featured song of the week.
Song Story: “Flashdance” by Irene Cara
The actual title of this song is “Flashdance…What a Feeling” even though the word “Flashdance” never appears in the lyrics. It’s Cara’s second hit that comes from a movie centered around dancing (The first being “Fame”) and she won the Grammy for “Best Pop Vocal Performance by A Female” in 1983 for her work on this song. The lyrics were co-written with songwriter Keith Forsey and Giorgio Moroder composed the music. Moroder and Forsey wrote several songs that became hits when they were used in ’80s movies: Moroder wrote “Danger Zone” and “Take My Breath Away” for Top Gun, while Forsey penned “Shakedown” for Beverly Hills Cop II and “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” for The Breakfast Club.
This was the title song to the movie of the same name, one of the first movies centered around music but not fitting into the “musical” category. As more people started watching MTV, it became easier and more acceptable to integrate pop music into movies, which led to movies like Footloose and Dirty Dancing.
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