Maximize opportunities, minimize mistakes.
BrianWilkins.org
September 21, 2023
For the record, “September” by Earth, Wind & Fire peaked at number-8 on the Billboard Hot 100 on February 10, 1979.
The 21st of September should be a national holiday just because of this song.
I’m rarely a fan of remakes. And there will never be a better version of this song than the original. But give my girl Nataly Dawn of the duo Pomplamoose a listen. She introduced “September” to a completely different demographic and generation in the 21st century.
BrianWilkins.org
May 12, 2023
Kathy Troccoli, like Amy Grant, was a Christian singer who briefly crossed over to pop music. And interestingly, 42 years ago this week, on May 9, 1981, Ms. Troccoli moved from Long Island to Nashville to live with Dan Harrell, who was Amy Grant’s brother-in-law at the time.
Her Christian rock career launched with the 1982 album Stubborn Love.
She released two more albums before taking a five-year hiatus from music, beginning in 1986, and moved back to New York. Troccoli became a studio singer for Mariah Carey and Taylor Dayne in 1991.
BrianWilkins.org
May 6, 2023
It was part of the Saturday Night lineup: 227, Amen, Golden Girls and Empty Nest.
227 aired for five seasons, from September 1985 until the final episode on May 6, 1990.
BrianWilkins.org
February 3, 2023
This song was a sign of the new times, the end of old humanity and the start of what we have today. It was readily apparent when I first left home for college in Sioux City, Iowa in 1993.
The girls in college asked questions like “what do you think of abortion?” I thought “WTF” and “huh”? I really only knew the word abortion from the 1986 gross-out movie “The Fly.”
Geena Davis wanted an abortion because she got pregnant by a dude (Jeff Goldblum) who was half human and half insect. The movie was funny, disgusting and disturbing at the same time.
BrianWilkins.org
December 24, 2022
I was barely alive when “You Light Up My Life” graced the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for 10 weeks from October 15, 1977 to December 24, 1977. But the song was such an incredible cultural and musical phenomenon that you’d literally hear it ten times a day on the radio, in television shows, etc. for the next 10 years.
Here is the song that everyone knows, by then 21-year-old Debby Boone.
Boone told anyone who would listen that the song was about God. That story stuck for over four decades. But God was just Boone’s interpretation of the song, as she came from a very conservative Christian family. Pat Boone is her dad.
BrianWilkins.org
December 17, 2022
I will forever and always miss these days. Amy Grant had a stellar 1991.
“Baby, Baby” reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 27, 1991, and #1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary (A.C.) Charts on May 4, 1991. “Every Heartbeat” peaked at #2 on the A.C. Charts on August 10, 1991, and #2 on the Hot 100 in August 17, 1991.
Both of those songs are tied to so many great memories. But not as many as “That’s What Love Is For.” The song topped out at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 on November 23, 1991. But it hit the top spot on the A.C. Charts on November 30, 1991 and stayed there for three weeks.
BrianWilkins.org
October 7, 2022
My cousin and best friend Boo always used to give me shit for loving “shake your booty” music over the conscious Public Enemy, X-Clan, etc. stuff when we were kids. I’ll always wonder what he and I could have accomplished as artists and rappers if my parents didn’t separate us via divorce.
Regardless, “Bust A Move” is one of the best end of the 80s tunes – and a great “shake your booty” song. It topped out at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 on October 14, 1989.
BrianWilkins.org
September 18, 2022
You can’t get much more 80s than the Commodores “Lady (You Bring Me Up)” video. The short afros (compared to the 1970s), the short shorts and, of course, the ode to a special woman.
Yes, the short shorts that both men and women wore.
“Lady (You Bring Me Up)” peaked at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 19, 1981. Not sure why it couldn’t get any higher, considering, in my world, only Juice Newton’s “Queen of Hearts” (one of the seven songs ahead of it) has equal or more lasting memories.
BrianWilkins.org
April 29, 2022
The 1989 movie “Chances Are” isn’t exactly a classic. But it’s definitely weird and worth a watch if you’re bored one night. The short, spoiler version is that Louie Jeffries was a young lawyer in the 1960s. He was married to Corrine Jeffries, played by Cybill Shepherd. Louie get killed when he’s hit by a car while crossing the street. But when he goes to the “pearly gates” after death, he slipped through the cracks and was instantly reincarnated as baby Alex Finch (Robert Downey Jr.).
BrianWilkins.org
April 24, 2022
Once upon a time, circa 2000, I downloaded 90 episodes of Family Feud via Napster because I was bored and had broadband. The original show ran from 1976 to 1985. It was a daytime game show, wedged between a bunch of soap operas. So I only saw it when I was faking sick or really sick, and at home from school. There were a few prime time (night) special episodes of Family Feud, like the Three’s Company vs. The Love Boat vs. Soap vs. Eight is Enough casts episode in 1978. I saw the re-reruns, as obviously I was too young to remember this live.