Hey Betty, spin the latest beat from the Hit Parade on your hi-fi!
My first recollection of a favorite song being a big hit on my birthday was The Knack's My Sharona on my 10th birthday. I loved this song so much, I begged for and got the vinyl as a present.
Before anyone thinks, "woo, sophisticated tastes for a 10 year old," know I carried a Little Twin Stars wallet in my pink Hello Kitty purse until I was
For a good while, what song was #1 on my birthday mattered to me. In later years, those songs served more as a bookmark for a place in time. I'll focus on the early years for now.
On with the countdown!
1975 - Get Down Tonight, KC and the Sunshine Band: I went way back to birthday number 6 because a.) I remember my sister loved KC; and b.) this song blistered live at Muskegon Summerfest.
1977 - Best of my Love, The Emotions: A disco-era movie soundtrack staple, and also a great groove from my VD present, Can You Dig It? box set.
1979 - My Sharona, The Knack: love. See story above.
1981 - Endless Love, Diana Ross and Lionel Richie: What was I, twelve? No boy on the horizon, or even my radar, T (Feb. angst!) has probably just started 7th grade with me then. Good song, but as far as duets go, I'd take Billy Preston and Syreeta's With You I'm Born Again.
1982 - Eye of the Tiger, Survivor: oh hell yes! Power chords! Power moves! It's got Rocky, Tigers, classic rock and lives on in the annals of adult figure skating (of course). Bex will snap to attention the moment this plays.
1983 - Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), Eurythmics: cool and creepy. It baffled me at the time someone as beautiful as Annie Lennox would diminish her beauty on purpose, but now I get it. By creating a mystery around herself, she created an aura around the song, and made the focus about the music. Of the 80s new wave bands, their catalog endures.
1986 - Venus, Bananarama: take an icky early metal song and remake with an English dance-pop band? The girls looked beautiful, the song was catchy, and they were able to do what Blue Cheer could not, make this song sexy. Yeah baby she's got it.
1987 - La Bamba, Los Lobos: I loved this song and the movie and the soundtrack back then. The movie, however, has not aged well at all. This remake has. I bugged my friend Jill, who was fluent in Spanish, to translate. It lost none of its mystery or charm.
1989 - Cold Hearted Snake, Paula Adbul: It was more of a song of the summer that crept up the charts and finally hit number one my first week at college. A standard at the clubs, it was a dance floor filler as student bodies mingled. I didn't identify with the lyrics since I was grappling with a breakup I instigated (Feb angst!). Maybe I was the cold cold cold hearted sssssssssssssssssnake.
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