Way Back Wednesday: The Top Music of July 8th, 1983

This Week In 1983: The Top Music of July 8th, 1983

We have a new #1 song this week. The Police and “Every Breath You Take” dethrone Irene Cara to take over the top spot. It’s a spot they’ll occupy for the next eight weeks on their way to becoming THE song of 1983. The Eurythmics, Donna Summer and Prince all jump into the Top 20 while “Cuts Like A Knife”, “Hot Girls In Love” and “Maniac” all make big leaps up the chart as well. Michael Jackson and “Beat It” continues it’s quick descent down the chart as do Naked Eyes, Journey’s “Faithfully” and David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance”. His new single “China Girl” debuts in the Top 40 this week along with Def Leppard’s “Rock of Ages”.

For as well known and popular as this song was and still is, “White Wedding” by Billy Idol is peaking this week at #36 (I’ve always found it surprising that it didn’t move higher up the chart). Also peaking this week, at #5, is “Too Shy” from Kajagoogoo. It’s also our featured song of the week.

Song Story: “Too Shy” by Kajagoogoo

This is the band’s first single from their debut album “White Feathers”. Before the band was signed to a label, lead singer Limahl (who’s real name is Chris Hamill) ran into Duran Duran’s Nick Rhodes in a club one night and passed off the band’s demo cassette and, boldly, asked Rhodes to produce some songs for the band. Rhodes listened to the cassette, loved what he heard and agreed to help the band out. He was not only instrumental in getting the band signed to EMI Records but also arranging and produced their only US hit, “Too Shy”. With the assistance of their video being put into heavy rotation on MTV, the song reached #5 here in the states but reached #1 in the UK. The fact that Nick Rhodes had a hand in helping another band reach #1 rubbed his bandmates in Duran Duran the wrong way seeing as they themselves hadn’t reached #1 yet. Soon after the album and the single debuted, the band fired Limahl over differences of opinion about the direction of the band. The band floundered after that point. Limahl went on to write and record the title track to the movie “The Neverending Story”.