Way Back Wednesday: The Top Music of June 3rd, 1983

This Week In 1983: The Top Music of June 3rd, 1983

It’s week number 2 for Irene Cara in the #1 position. In fact, all the songs in the Top Ten stay in the top group they just shuffle themselves a bit. While “Beat It” is losing steam and moving down the chart, Michael Jackson’s new single “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin'” debuts in the Top 40 this week, moving up from the #41 spot to #22. This biggest debut this week, however, is The Police and “Every Breath You Take” which debut on the CHART at #36. In a few weeks it’ll take over the top spot for ten weeks. The biggest drop of the week belongs to Duran Duran and “Rio” which falls seventeen spots to #38. The band is just starting their time in the spotlight. Later in the year they’ll have two Top Ten hits and be the only band in history with multiple Top 20 singles from three different albums in the same year. 1984 (the year I fell in love with them) will be a banner year for them as well. Other drops include “Stranger In My House” (a personal favorite) which falls eight spots, “Der Kommissar” falling seven spots and this weeks feature song, “Jeopardy” by The Greg Kihn Band, which drops seven spots to #25 after peaking at #2 a few weeks ago.

Song Story: “Jeopardy” by The Greg Kihn Band

While this is, by far, the bands biggest hit, it’s been a slow build for the band. The band released nine albums between 1978 and 1986 and this single didn’t happen till number eight. In the video, Kihn plays a man about to marry. He gets an extreme case of cold feet, then he falls asleep and dreams that his bride and all the guests turn into monsters. He decides to run out on the wedding, only to find out his bride has also run out – so they drive off together. Kihn never used “video vixens” in his videos and explains why: “I’ll tell you, when I watch a Duran Duran video I get so horny I have to leave the room! Jeez, man, I don’t even know the bands in half the videos I see, just the girls. I’ve never made a sexist video. It’s just fun. I wanted to make a video that kids would like.” Much to the chagrin of their record company, the band would never reach the success that “Jeopardy” reached again. In 1986, Kihn replaced most of the band and put out an album as simple Greg Kihn. That albums claim to fame was, at the time, a little known guitarist named Joe Satriani. Kihn went on to write multiple novels and was a DJ in San Jose for fourteen years. He still plays music from time to time.

Tangentially, Weird Al released his parody of this song, “I Lost on Jeopardy” in 1984. It’s a personal favorite of mine.