This Week In 1983: The Top Music of May 27th, 1983
After only one week in the top spot, David Bowie gives way to Irene Cara and “Flashdance…What A Feeling”. She’ll occupy the top spot for six weeks. There are also seven songs making their first appearance in the Top 40 (one of which being “That’s Love” by Jim Capaldi at #34 which is, regrettably unavailable on Spotify) meaning seven songs dropped out to make room. Several songs drop at least seven spaces this week including “Rio”, “Jeopary”, “Der Kommisar” and “Mr. Roboto”. Several songs jump at least six spaces including “Electric Avenue” by Eddy Grant. Sadly, Grant’s song is not available on Spotify due to a record label dispute (sadly, there are about two dozen bad covers of the song). Topping out at #5 is “She Blinded Me With Science” and reaching it’s peak position of #6 is this week’s featured song, “Little Red Corvette” by Prince.
Song Story: “Little Red Corvette” by Prince
Prince claims the idea for this song came to him while he dozed off in band member Lisa Coleman’s 1964 Mercury Marauder (that Prince had helped her buy at auction in 1980) after a late night studio session. The lyrics came to him in bits and pieces after that during other catnaps. This is the second single from the album 1999. It’s Prince’s fifth album but had seen only modest success with just one Top 20 single. This was his first Top 10 US hit and it helped propel him to superstar status. The success of this single and the next one (“Delirous”) prompted his label to re-release the album’s first single, “1999”, which saw far better chart success the second time around.
A year later, Prince would star in and release the album Purple Rain and the rest is history.
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