ilviolino

Yarbrough & Peoples - Don't Stop The Music On Solid Gold - February 28, 1981 (My "Stereo Studio Sound" Re-Edit) "Don't Stop the Music" is a song by Yarbrough and Peoples, from the duo's 1980 debut album, The Two of Us. It was released as a single on Mercury Records in 1980. The song reached number 26 on the dance charts, number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100, and fared even better on the US R&B chart, where it hit number one, Outside the US, "Don't Stop the Music" went to number 7 in the UK. The song's success helped to earn a gold record for the duo. Radio promotion for the record was handled in Los Angeles by independent marketing firm Dudley-Gorov, while a young Russell Simmons shopped the record to New York club DJs as one of his early jobs.

Pet Shop Boys: Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots Of Money) On Top Of The Pops - June 5, 1986 (My "Stereo Studio Sound" Re-Edit) "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" is a song by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys from their debut studio album, Please (1986). It was released as a single in 1985 and re-recorded and reissued in 1986, gaining greater popularity in both the United Kingdom and United States with its second release, reaching number 11 on the UK Singles Chart and number 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100. After a Super Bowl ad in February 2021, featuring the song, it re-entered the charts claiming the Billboard Dance/Electronic Digital Songs No. 1 spot on 27 February, 2021, among others.

Johnny Hates Jazz: Shattered Dreams - On Italian TV (Tutto di tutto) 1987 (My "Stereo Studio Sound" Re-Edit) "Shattered Dreams" is a song by English musical group Johnny Hates Jazz from their debut studio album, Turn Back the Clock (1988). Written by the band's lead singer Clark Datchler, the song was released in March 1987 as the album's lead single. "Shattered Dreams" entered the UK Singles Chart at number 92 and gained popularity through extensive radio play and video rotation on MTV, eventually peaking at number five in May 1987 and spending three weeks at that position. Internationally, "Shattered Dreams" reached the top 10 in Canada, Ireland, Norway, Switzerland, and West Germany. In the United States, it was released with an alternative music video shot entirely in black and white and directed by David Fincher, which Datchler preferred. The single topped Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart for one week and peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. Singer Clark Datchler wrote "Shattered Dreams" in a small studio he had set up in the front room of his parents' house. He had an upright piano, a 4-track portastudio, a drum machine, and a keyboard in the studio. He wrote the song quickly, but the bongo solo took a while to conceive. Datchler knew he had written something special by his dad's reaction. Usually, his dad would offer musical advice if he asked for it, but would otherwise leave Clark alone. But this time, his dad walked in and told him he had written a big hit, and believed in the song's potential when few other people in the music industry did. On the lyrics, Datchler said: Obviously when I wrote "Shattered Dreams" I had it in mind that it would revolve around divorce, not just a relationship break-up but something a little bit heavier. But actually, the way I think people relate to it is that there are all kinds of shattered dreams that we experience on an individual level or in partnerships or as a people, as a nation, as humanity. We are facing some very serious shattered dreams right now whether that be environmental, or economic, or philosophical even. There are ways that "Shattered Dreams" reaches out and touches people when they are going through difficult times. And in some ways, it's not necessarily a very hopeful song. But I think the energy of the song is still quite bright which makes it an interesting combination. It's kind of opposites of each other, but that is something I tend to do lyrically and musically, having serious subjects with more up-tempo music.

Nena: 99 Luftballons (1984) (My "Stereo Studio Sound" Re-Edit) "99 Luftballons" (German: Neunundneunzig Luftballons, "99 balloons") is a song by the German band Nena from their 1983 self-titled album. An English-language version titled "99 Red Balloons", with lyrics by Kevin McAlea, was also released by Nena on the album 99 Luftballons in 1984 after widespread success of the original in Europe and Japan. The English version is not a direct translation of the German original and contains lyrics with a somewhat different meaning. In the US, the English-language version did not chart, while the German-language recording became Nena's only US hit. While at a June 1982 concert by the Rolling Stones in West Berlin, Nena's guitarist Carlo Karges noticed that balloons were being released. As he watched them move toward the horizon, he noticed them shifting and changing shapes, where they looked like strange spacecraft (referred to in the German lyrics as a "UFO"). He thought about what might happen if they floated over the Berlin Wall to the Soviet sector.Also cited by the band was a newspaper article from the Las Vegas Review-Journal about five local high school students in 1973 who played a prank to simulate a UFO by launching 99 (one was lost from the original 100) aluminized Mylar balloons attached with ribbons to a traffic flare. The red flame from the flare reflected by the balloons gave the appearance of a large pulsating red object floating over Red Rock Canyon outside the Las Vegas Valley in Nevada.A direct translation of the title is sometimes given as "Ninety-Nine Air Balloons", but the song became known in English as "Ninety-Nine Red Balloons". The title "99 Red Balloons" almost scans correctly with the syllables falling in the right places within the rhythm of the first line of lyrics, although Neunundneunzig (99) has one syllable more than "ninety-nine".The lyrics of the original German version tell a story: 99 balloons are mistaken for UFOs, causing a military general officer to send pilots to investigate. Finding nothing but balloons, the pilots put on a large show of firepower. The display of force worries the nations along the borders and the war ministers on each side encourage conflict to grab power for themselves. In the end, a cataclysmic war results from the otherwise harmless flight of balloons and causes devastation on all sides without a victor, as indicated in the denouement of the song: "99 Jahre Krieg ließen keinen Platz für Sieger," which means "99 years of war left no room for victors." The anti-war song finishes with the singer walking through the devastated ruins of the world and finding a single balloon. The description of what happens in the final line of the piece is the same in German and English: "'Denk' an dich und lass' ihn fliegen," or "Think of you and let it go." The English version retains the spirit of the original narrative, but many of the lyrics are translated poetically rather than being directly translated: red helium balloons are casually released by the civilian singer (narrator) with her unnamed friend into the sky and are mistakenly registered by a faulty early warning system as enemy contacts, resulting in panic and eventually nuclear war, with the end of the song near-identical to the end of the original German version.From the outset Nena (the lead singer) and other members of the band expressed disapproval of the English version of the song, "99 Red Balloons". In March 1984, the band's keyboardist and song co-writer Uwe Fahrenkrog Petersen said, "We made a mistake there. I think the song loses something in translation and even sounds silly." In another interview that month, the band, including Nena herself, were quoted as being "not completely satisfied" with the English version since it was "too blatant" for a group not wishing to be seen as a protest band. American and Australian audiences preferred the original German version, which became a very successful non-English-language song, topping charts in both countries, reaching No. 1 on the Cash Box chart, Kent Music Report, and No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, behind "Jump" by Van Halen. It was certified Gold by the RIAA. The later-released English translation, "99 Red Balloons", topped the charts in the UK, Canada and Ireland.

Tavares - A Penny For Your Thoughts On Solid Gold - October 30, 1982 (My "Stereo Studio Sound" Re-Edit) Tavares - A Penny For Your Thoughts On Solid Gold - October 30, 1982 (My "Stereo Studio Sound" Re-Edit) "A Penny for Your Thoughts" is a song by R&B/disco group Tavares in 1982, originally recorded by Marion Jarvis in 1975. It was written by Kenny Nolan. Released from their 1982 album New Directions, the song became Tavares's eighth and final US Top 40 hit, peaking at number 33 on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and number 28 on the Cash Box Top 100. Unlike all of their bigger hits, "A Penny for Your Thoughts" did not chart in Canada. Three collections of the group's work were issued during the early 2000s by Capitol Records, however, because of their label change to RCA the song was not included among their other hits. "A Penny for Your Thoughts" was his ninth of 10 compositions to become U.S. chart hits. Ten years later Atlantic Starr would reach the Top 10 with Nolan's song, "Masterpiece." At the 25th Annual Grammy Awards "A Penny For Your Thoughts" received a nomination for Best R&B Performance By A Duo or Group With Vocal.

Atlantic Starr: Secret Lovers - On Solid Gold (1986) (My "Stereo Studio Sound" Re-Edit) "Secret Lovers", released in 1985, is the third single from As the Band Turns, the sixth album from American group Atlantic Starr. "Secret Lovers" was Atlantic Starr's true breakthrough hit on the pop charts in both the US and UK, though the group had previously minor pop and R&B hits in both countries. The flip side "When Love Calls" had previously been issued in the US in 1981 as a single (A&M Records AM-8634) and proved a substantial club success in the UK where its presence contributed to sales of "Secret Lovers". Sung as a duet between Atlantic Starr members Barbara Weathers and David Lewis, "Secret Lovers" is the story of a man and a woman who are having an affair with each other even though they are both married to other people. Although they know their actions are wrong and are forced to keep their relationship secret as a result (hence the title of the song), they love each other too much to let the affair end. They also justify the affair by trying to convince themselves that maybe their spouses have their own "secret lovers" as well.

Prince: Little Red Corvette - On Solid Gold (My "Stereo Studio Sound" Re-Edit) "Little Red Corvette" is a song by American recording artist Prince. The song combines a Linn LM-1 beat and slow synth buildup with a rock chorus, over which Prince, using several automobile metaphors, recalls a one-night stand with a beautiful promiscuous woman. Backing vocals were performed by Lisa Coleman and Dez Dickerson; Dickerson also performs a guitar solo on the song. Released in 1983 as the second single from 1999, the song was, at that point, Prince's highest charting and his first to reach the top 10 in the U.S., peaking at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was also his first single to perform better on the pop chart than the R&B chart. Later, it was re-released as a double A-side with "1999", peaking at number two on the UK Singles Chart in January 1985. Following Prince's death in April 2016, "Little Red Corvette" re-charted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 29, rising to number 20 the following week. It has sold more than 900,000 copies in the United States. Prince got the idea for the song when he dozed off in band member Lisa Coleman's 1964 pink Mercury Montclair Marauder after an exhausting all-night recording session. The lyrics came to him in bits and pieces during this and other catnaps. Eventually, he was able to finish it without sleeping.

Remembering Steve Lawrence: (Born Sidney Liebowitz; July 8, 1935 – March 7, 2024) R I P Steve Lawrence (born Sidney Liebowitz; July 8, 1935 – March 7, 2024) was an American singer, comedian, and actor, best known as a member of a duo with his wife Eydie Gormé, billed as "Steve and Eydie", and for his performance as Maury Sline, the manager and friend of the main characters in The Blues Brothers. Steve and Eydie first appeared together as regulars on Tonight Starring Steve Allen in 1954 and continued performing as a duo until Gormé's retirement in 2009 Lawrence was born as Sidney Liebowitz to Jewish parents in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. His father, Max, was a cantor at the Brooklyn synagogue Beth Sholom Tomchei Harav. His mother, Helen, was a homemaker. He attended Thomas Jefferson High School. During his high school years, Lawrence earned some money after school singing for songwriters in the Brill Building. Lawrence and Gormé married on December 29, 1957, at the El Rancho Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada. They had two sons together; David Nessim Lawrence (b. 1960) is an ASCAP Award-winning composer, who wrote the score for High School Musical, and Michael Robert Lawrence (1962–1986), who died suddenly from ventricular fibrillation resulting from an undiagnosed heart condition at the age of 23. Michael was an assistant editor for a television show at the time of his death and was apparently healthy despite a previous diagnosis of slight arrhythmia. Gormé and Lawrence were in Atlanta, Georgia, at the time of Michael's death, having performed at the Fox Theater the night before. Upon learning of the death, family friend Frank Sinatra sent his private plane to fly the couple to New York to meet David, who was attending school at the time. Following their son's death, Gormé and Lawrence took a year off before touring again. Eydie Gormé died on August 10, 2013, at age 84, after a brief, undisclosed illness. In June 2019, following public speculation about his health, Lawrence announced that he was in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease and that treatment to slow its progression had so far been successful. Lawrence died from complications due to Alzheimer's disease in Los Angeles, on March 7, 2024, at the age of 88.

Dan Hill w/Corinne Plomish: Can't We Try - On Solid Gold In Concert - September 19, 1987 (My "Stereo Studio Sound" Re-Edit) **Audio is Dan Hill and Vonda Shepard. "Can't We Try" is a 1987 duet performed by Dan Hill and Vonda Shepard. The ballad was Billboard's No. 1 Adult Contemporary Song of the Year for 1987. "Can't We Try" was released as a single from Dan Hill's 1987 self-titled album. The song reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and also on Cash Box, making it Dan Hill's second-biggest hit behind "Sometimes When We Touch", which hit No. 3 back in 1978, and was Vonda Shepard's only Top 10 Pop hit. It also reached No. 2 for three weeks on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart (behind "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" by Whitney Houston and "Moonlighting" by Al Jarreau). In Canada, the song reached No. 14.

The Dream Academy: Life In A Northern Town - On Solid Gold - March 1, 1986 (My "Stereo Studio Sound" Re-Edit) "Life in a Northern Town" is the debut single by British band The Dream Academy, released in March 1985. It appears on the band's self-titled debut studio album, The Dream Academy. The song was written as an elegy to British folk musician Nick Drake. Written by band members Nick Laird-Clowes and Gilbert Gabriel, the song was produced by Laird-Clowes with help from Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour. The single reached No. 7 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in February 1986 and reached No. 15 on the UK charts. It is the band's highest charting single in the UK, the US, and Ireland.

Kenny Loggins: Footloose - On Solid Gold Countdown '84 (My "Stereo Studio Sound" Re-Edit) "Footloose" is a song co-written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins. It was released in January 1984 as the first of two singles by Loggins from the 1984 film of the same name (the other one being "I'm Free (Heaven Helps the Man)"). The song spent three weeks at number one, March 31—April 14, 1984, on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming Loggins' only chart-topper, and was the first of two number-one hits from the film. Billboard ranked it at the No. 4 song for 1984. The song was very well received, and is one of the most recognizable song recorded by Loggins. When the American Film Institute released its AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs, "Footloose" reached the 96th position. The song was covered by country music artist Blake Shelton for the 2011 remake of the 1984 film. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 1985 ceremony, losing to Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called to Say I Love You" from The Woman in Red. The single version is slightly shorter in length compared to the album version. It begins with a soloed guitar track instead of a drum intro, and features more prominent backing vocals in the mix, particularly towards the end of the song. In 2018, it was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or artistically significant."

Kenny Loggins: Meet Me Halfway - On Solid Gold -1987 (My "Stereo Studio Sound" Re-Edit) "Meet Me Half Way" is a song by American singer Kenny Loggins written by Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock for the film Over the Top. It also appears as the final track on his sixth studio album Back to Avalon. It was his sixth soundtrack single and also his 13th Top 40 single, peaking at number 11, while it was more successful on the Adult Contemporary chart, peaking at number two. The single debuted at number 95 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent twenty-five weeks on the chart, peaking at number 11 in the week of June 13, 1987. It was ranked 96th on the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1987. It also peaked at number 28 on the Canadian RPM 100 chart.

Cyndi Lauper: Time After Time - On Solid Gold Countdown '86 (My "Stereo Studio Sound" Re-Edit) "Time After Time" is a 1983 song by American singer-songwriter Cyndi Lauper, co-written with Rob Hyman, who also provided backing vocals. It was the second single released from her debut studio album, She's So Unusual (1983). The track was produced by Rick Chertoff and released as a single in March 1984. The song became Lauper's first number 1 hit in the U.S. The song was written in the album's final stages, after "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", "She Bop" and "All Through the Night" had been written or recorded. The writing began with the title, which Lauper had seen in TV Guide magazine, referring to the science fiction film Time After Time (1979). Music critics gave the song positive reviews, with many commending the song for being a solid and memorable love song. The song has been selected as one of the Best Love Songs of All Time by many media outlets, including Rolling Stone, Nerve, MTV and many others. "Time After Time" was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Song of the Year at the 1985 edition. The song was a success on the charts, becoming her first number-one single on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart on June 9, 1984, and remaining there for two weeks. The song reached number three on the UK Singles Chart and number six on the ARIA Singles Chart. Although "Time After Time" would eventually become one of Lauper's signature songs, it was one of the last songs on her debut album to be recorded. While Lauper was still writing material for She's So Unusual in the spring of 1983, her producer, Rick Chertoff introduced her to American musician Rob Hyman, a founding member of the Hooters. Lauper had by then already recorded the majority of the album, including the songs "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and "She Bop," but Chertoff insisted that she and Hyman needed to record just "one more song". Therefore, she and Hyman sat at a piano and started working on "Time After Time". The inspiration for the song came from the fact that both songwriters were going through similar challenges in their respective romantic relationships; Hyman was coming out of a relationship, and Lauper was having difficulties with her boyfriend/manager, David Wolff. One of the early lines Rob wrote was "suitcase of memories," which according to Lauper, "struck her," claiming it was a "wonderful line," and other lines came from Lauper's life experiences. The song's title was borrowed from a TV Guide listing for the 1979 movie Time After Time, which Lauper had intended to use only as a temporary placeholder during the writing process. Although she later tried to change the song's name, she said that she felt at some point that "Time After Time" had become so fundamental to the song that it would fall apart with a different title. Initially, Epic Records wanted "Time After Time" as the album's lead single. However, Lauper felt that releasing a ballad as her debut solo single would have pigeonholed her stylistically as a balladeer, limiting her future work and thus potentially killing her career. Wolff felt that "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" could become a successful pop anthem and was a better choice; ultimately the label agreed and released it as the lead single. "Time After Time" became the album's second single, released on March 27, 1984.

Kenny Loggins: Danger Zone - On Solid Gold Countdown '86 (My "Stereo Studio Sound" Re-Edit) "Danger Zone" is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins in 1986, with music composed by Giorgio Moroder and lyrics written by Tom Whitlock. The song was one of the hit singles from the soundtrack to the 1986 American film Top Gun, the best-selling soundtrack of 1986, and one of the best-selling of all time. According to Allmusic.com, the album "remains a quintessential artifact of the mid-'80s" and the album's hits "still define the bombastic, melodramatic sound that dominated the pop charts of the era". The song is also featured in the 2022 sequel film Top Gun: Maverick and its soundtrack, using the same original recording. Film producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, along with music supervisor Michael Dilbeck, had over 300 songs to employ on Top Gun. Testing compositions against the dailies of the opening scenes at the aircraft carrier, nothing satisfied them, and Bruckheimer asked soundtrack producer Giorgio Moroder to write something. With the help of songwriter Tom Whitlock, he composed "Danger Zone" and had Joe Pizzulo record a demo. With the approval of the producers, soundtrack distributor Columbia Records requested Moroder to have "Danger Zone" performed by an artist signed by the label. Pizzulo's original demo version would later make a partial appearance in the 1987 TV movie Cracked Up.The band Toto was originally intended to perform the track, but legal conflicts between the producers of Top Gun and the band's lawyers prevented this. According to Steve Lukather, when the band sent their version to the producers, they were told that only Joseph Williams' vocals would be used, which the band deemed unacceptable and pulled out. In a 2022 interview with AXS TV, Kenny Loggins revealed that it was Jefferson Starship that was the first act to be offered the track, but the band pulled out of the project. Corey Hart was also approached to perform "Danger Zone", which he declined, preferring to write and perform his own compositions. Loggins said in a 2022 interview that Kevin Cronin told him he said no because the notes were too high. Eventually, the film producers offered the song to Loggins, who would recall his assent to recording "Danger Zone" as "a very snap judgement". Whitlock went to Loggins' Encino home, and once shown the lyrics, the singer added his own improvisations. Reaching number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, "Danger Zone" was kept out of the number 1 spot by Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer". It became Loggins' second-highest chart hit, bested only by his 1984 number 1 hit "Footloose". In a 2008 interview, Loggins said that the song does not represent himself as an artist. In 2018, Loggins told TMZ that he was having discussions with the film's lead actor Tom Cruise about having a new version of the song featured in the then-upcoming film Top Gun: Maverick. Ultimately, however, the original recording was used instead; Loggins stated that Cruise wanted to invoke the same feelings listening to the song as with the original Top Gun.

Tina Turner: What's Love Got To Do With It - On Solid Gold Countdown '84 (My "Stereo Studio Sound" Re-Edit) "What's Love Got to Do with It" is a song written by Graham Lyle and Terry Britten, and recorded by American singer Tina Turner for her fifth studio album, Private Dancer (1984). Capitol Records released it as a single from Private Dancer in May 1984 and it eventually became Turner's biggest-selling single. Although Turner had already scored a late-1983 top 30 hit with her rendition of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together", "What's Love Got to Do with It" became her first and only Billboard Hot 100 number-one single, selling over 2,000,000 copies worldwide. At the time, aged 44, Turner became the oldest solo female artist to top the Hot 100. It was the second-biggest single of 1984 in the United States and the 17th-biggest in the United Kingdom, where it peaked at number three on the UK Singles Chart. "What's Love Got to Do with It" received three awards at the 27th Annual Grammy Awards: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. In 1993, the song's title was used as the title for the biographical film based on Turner's life. In 2012, "What's Love Got to Do with It" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, marking Turner's third Grammy Hall of Fame award. The song ranked number 309 on Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" and at number 134 in their 2021 updated list. It also ranked number 38 on RIAA's "Songs of the Century" list.

Deniece Williams: Let's Hear It For The Boy - On Solid Gold Countdown '84 (My "Stereo Studio Sound" Re-Edit) "Let's Hear It for the Boy" is a song by Deniece Williams that appeared on the soundtrack to the feature film Footloose. The song was released as a single from both the soundtrack and her album of the song's same name on February 14, 1984, by Columbia Records. It was written by Tom Snow and Dean Pitchford and produced by George Duke. The song became Williams' second number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 on May 26, 1984, also topping the dance and R&B charts, and peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart, behind "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" by Wham!. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song, and was certified platinum in the US and gold in Canada and the UK by the Recording Industry Association of America, Music Canada and the British Phonographic Industry, respectively. The music video was released in mid-April 1984. The song features background vocals from George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, who would go on to form the duo Boy Meets Girl.

Olivia Newton-John: Have You Never Been Mellow (Live 1975) (My "Stereo Studio Sound" Re-Edit) R.I.P.

Thompson Twins: Hold Me Now - On Solid Gold Countdown '84 (My "Stereo Studio Sound" Re-Edit) "Hold Me Now" is a 1983 song by British band the Thompson Twins. Written by the band members, the song was produced by Alex Sadkin and the group's lead vocalist Tom Bailey. The song is a mid-tempo new wave song that uses a varied instrumentation, including keyboards, a xylophone, a piano and Latin percussion. It was released in November 1983 as the first single from their fourth studio album, Into the Gap. Released in the United Kingdom in late 1983, the song peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart in November of that year. It was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in 1983, becoming the band's biggest-selling single, and their first top five in that country. The song was released in the United States in February 1984. It also became the band's highest charting single there, peaking at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 in May, remaining on the chart for 21 weeks. In addition, the song topped Billboard's Hot Dance Club Play chart for one week in April 1984. "Emotionally, it was written as the result of some argument that was resolved between Alannah and myself", explained Tom Bailey in an August 2014 interview with Songfacts. "We actually decided, well, this is an interesting emotional subject. What it feels like to get back together again after separation and the kind of ideas that come up and the way that emotion and physicality somehow are brought together." According to Bailey, the song also "had a very strong idea" behind it and was written very quickly.

Laura Branigan: Self Control On Solid Gold (1984) (My "Stereo Studio Sound" Re-Edit) "Self Control" is a song by Italian singer Raf, released in 1984. It was written by Giancarlo Bigazzi, Steve Piccolo and Raf, and arranged by Celso Valli. The track topped the charts in Italy and Switzerland, and started the explosion and dominance of Italo disco-style recordings in continental European charts during the 1980s. That same year, "Self Control" was covered by American singer Laura Branigan, whose version reached No. 1 in countries such as Austria, Canada, Germany and Switzerland, as well as No. 4 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Both versions of the song were commercially successful across Europe during much of the summer of 1984, with Branigan's rendition becoming the most successful single of the year in Germany and Switzerland. "Self Control" has become one of the defining songs of the 1980s, with a number of remakes recorded each year. Notable covers include Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin in 1993, a dance remake by Branigan in 2004, Royal Gigolos in 2005 and Danish dance group Infernal in 2006.

The Delfonics - Didn't I Blow Your Mind This Time (My Stereo Studio Sound Re-Edit) "Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time)" is a song co-written by record producer Thom Bell and William Hart, lead singer of the American R&B/Soul vocal group the Delfonics. It was released by the group in 1969 on the Philly Groove record label and is regarded as a classic, winning a Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group. It is considered one of the most notable early Philly soul singles and typical of the genre, "Didn't I" is a slow love ballad, with layered strings, horns, and chromatic production. Among the Delfonics' signature songs, "Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time)" was a number 3 hit on the Billboard R&B singles chart, and number 10 on the Billboard pop chart in 1970. The song peaked at number 81 in Australia. Overseas the song peaked at number 22 on the UK Singles Chart in 1971.

Huey Lewis & The News: I Want A New Drug - Solid Gold Countdown '84 (My "Stereo Studio Sound" Re-Edit) "I Want a New Drug" is a song by American rock band Huey Lewis and the News from their third album Sports. It is its second single, following the top-ten hit "Heart and Soul" in January 1984. The single reached number six on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Dance Club Play chart. It is a love song wherein the word "drug" has an intentionally open-ended meaning for the listener's interpretation, and became one of the band's signature songs. According to Lewis, he wrote the song in only a few minutes. He drove to his attorney's office and told him, "Bob, give me a pen and paper!" According to Lewis, the song is a love song, and the meaning of the word "drug" in the song was purposely open ended. "It's really a love song. It's not a pro-drug song; it's not really even an anti-drug song. The word drug sort of gets your attention. But I think in love relationships there's more than 'I want you' or 'I need you' kind of thing." Lewis believed the definition of love was very open to interpretation depending on the listener. "I think real love contains humor and anger and confusion, all of those things." Three versions of the song were released. The album version has two extensive guitar solos, one in the middle of the song and the other as a fade out. The single edit eliminates the first solo (on their greatest hits album, the first solo is there but truncated) and has the band stop on a sustained chord which is allowed to fade out naturally.[citation needed] This is used in the music video and is parodied by "Weird Al" Yankovic as "I Want a New Duck". A special dance mix reduces the instrumental, gives the song a more electronic feel, and extends the song to 5 minutes and 32 seconds. Lewis was heavily influenced by "Purple Haze" by The Jimi Hendrix Experience with the recording of the song and called the guitar riff at the end of the song a "tip of the hat" to Hendrix. The video echoes the song's origin, with Lewis waking up late, remembering he has a concert that night, and racing across San Francisco using his yellow convertible, the San Francisco ferry, and a chartered helicopter to get to the concert on time, sighting a woman twice on his way, and finding her in the front row at the concert. The woman is actress Signy Coleman, whose mother was a friend of Lewis's mother and also appears in the music video for "Heart and Soul". According to Lewis, one of the reasons the band agreed on doing the music video was to avoid a literal translation of the song and its lyrics. "The song [...] is not about drugs. It's a love song. The only way to avoid that was to sort of do 'a day in the life', which is what [the video] is." When the theme song of the 1984 film Ghostbusters was released, Huey Lewis sued Ray Parker Jr. and Columbia Pictures for copyright infringement, claiming that Parker had stolen the melody from "I Want a New Drug". The three parties settled out of court. Details of the settlement (specifically, that Columbia paid Lewis a settlement) were confidential until 2001, when Lewis commented on the payment in an episode of VH1's Behind the Music. Parker subsequently sued Lewis for breaching confidentiality.

Dan Hartman: I Can Dream About You - On Solid Gold Countdown '84 (My "Stereo Studio Sound" Re-Edit) "I Can Dream About You" is a song written and performed by American singer Dan Hartman on the soundtrack album of the film Streets of Fire. Released in 1984 as a single from the soundtrack, and included on Hartman's album I Can Dream About You, it reached number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. According to Daryl Hall, Hartman had initially written the song with Hall & Oates in mind, and offered the song to them to record as their own. Hall & Oates declined, as their new album was about to be released. Later in their career, however, they issued an album of covers called Our Kind of Soul, in 2004, on which they recorded their own version (with changed lyrics) of Hartman's song. When performing the song live in February 2005, Hall revealed before the performance: "Here's a song that we did on the new album that we sort of did twenty years late. An old friend of ours, Dan Hartman, wrote this song. I remember back in the day he came up to me and said 'You know, I have this great song I wrote for you guys. It's you, you know? – you have to sing this song.' And unfortunately we had just finished an album, we couldn't put it on the album so I said sorry Dan. About six months later I was watching MTV and there it was, and it was a hit for him, God bless him. So here we are twenty years later, I hope he's hearing it, and I hope he enjoys it."

Rick Springfield: Love Somebody - On Solid Gold Countdown '84 (My "Stereo Studio Sound" Re-Edit) "Love Somebody" a song by Rick Springfield was released in 1984 as the first single from his soundtrack album Hard to Hold. Cash Box said that the song demonstrates Springfield's improvement as a songwriter since he began his pop music career. The song peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The Pointer Sisters: Jump (For My Love) On Solid Gold Countdown '84 (My "Stereo Studio Sound" Re-Edit) "Jump (For My Love)" is an electro-pop song by American vocal group the Pointer Sisters, released on April 11, 1984, as the third single from their tenth studio album Break Out (1983). The song hit the top ten on the US Billboard Hot 100, R&B, and Dance charts, and it was the best-selling American dance single of 1984, sold as a trio of songs including "I Need You" and "Automatic". The song features June Pointer on lead vocals and scored global chart success. "Jump (For My Love)" features June Pointer on lead vocals. It was co-written by regular collaborators Marti Sharron, Gary Skardina, and Stephen Mitchell. Skardina and Mitchell were responsible for the chord progressions, melody, and arrangement while Sharron's focus was on the lyrics and melody. According to Sharron the instrumental track for the demo of "Jump" was completed before the lyrics: on first hearing the playback of the instrumental track in the studio (Marti Sharron quote:) "My partners and I...were so happy with the results we jumped up and down" which led to the song being called "Jump". Eventually it was titled "Jump (For My Love)". Sharron recalls phoning Richard Perry, who was producing the Pointer Sisters' upcoming album, and telling him: "I have the album's big hit" and - although Perry considered giving the song to Julio Iglesias, Perry being a contributing producer to the singer's 1100 Bel Air Place album - "Jump" did become the final song slated for the Pointer Sister's 1983 album release Break Out. Despite being one of the last songs recorded for the album, "Jump (For My Love)" would be the first song on the album's song listing. It would be released as the album's third single, with the ballad "I Need You" being the first single, which continued the Pointer Sisters' presence at R&B radio. Automatic" eventually became the album's second single as it had enjoyed dance club airplay as an album cut and the record company wanted to capitalize on that. "Automatic" returned the Pointer Sisters to top ten after a three-year absence. "Jump..." became the most successful US single off of Break Out upon its release as the album's third single in April 1984. "Jump" ascended to a peak of #3 on both the US Hot 100 and R&B chart in Billboard magazine that July, with the song also charting on Billboard's adult contemporary chart at #11. "Jump (For My Love)" would give the Pointer Sisters an international hit, charting in Belgium (#3 on the Flemish chart), West Germany (#20), Ireland (#2), the Netherlands (#9), New Zealand (#3), Switzerland (#13), and the UK (#6). In Australia, "Jump..." was issued as the lead single off Break Out in December 1983 and peaked at #79: reissued after "Automatic," it would reach an Australian chart peak of #8 in September 1984. "Jump" featured June Pointer on lead vocals and the international release was somewhat unique. The Australian single release featured as the B-side the Break Out song "Operator" with Anita Pointer on lead. In other territories, the sing's B-side was "Heart Beat", a song with Ruth Pointer on lead, and that was initially on the Pointer Sisters' previous album So Excited!. Released prior to the 1984 Summer Olympics, "Jump (For My Love)" featured footage of athletes competing in track and field events, as well as NBA stars Julius Erving and Magic Johnson. The Pointer Sisters won the 1985 Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "Jump...", and co-writer Stephen (Steve) Mitchell received his nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance in 1985 for his musical performance as the principal musician on the song's recording. Although the group scored several Top 20 hits on the Hot 100, "Jump (For My Love)" is viewed as the signature song for the group. At the 1985 ASCAP Pop Awards, "Jump (For My Love)" received "Most Performed Song" honors for songs in the ASCAP repertory during the 1984 ASCAP Survey Year.

Air Supply: Even The Nights Are Better - On Solid Gold (1982) (My "Stereo Studio Sound" Re-Edit) "Even the Nights Are Better" is a 1982 song by the British/Australian soft rock duo Air Supply, released on their seventh studio album Now and Forever (1982) as the album's first single. It first charted in the United States on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, where it spent four weeks at No. 1 in July and August. This was Air Supply's third song to reach the summit on this chart. It also reached No. 1 on the Canadian AC chart. In September 1982, the song reached its peak position of No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the group's seventh consecutive top five hit on the US pop chart. However the song is in the record books for how quickly it fell off the top 40. The song slipped to six. Then on the issue dated September 25th, 1982, the song fell to 42. It held the record for highest drop from the top 40 for thirty years. In the United Kingdom, where the group did not enjoy the same amount of success as they did in Australia and the US, the song missed the top 40 by four places, reaching No. 44 on the UK Singles Chart. It is their second highest charting single in the UK, after their No. 11 hit with "All Out of Love" in 1980. This song is written from the perspective of a man who had lost a significant other at the song's beginning, before the rest of the song's lyrics tell a much happier story from the singer's perspective of life with someone new, who had the same feelings of loneliness as the lyricist.