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Brian A. Wilkins Posts

“After All”: Peter Cetera and Cher hit #1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts 33 years ago this week, April 22, 1989

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.). read more

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Did You Know? Richard Dawson, the original host of Family Feud, met his second and last wife, Gretchen Johnson, in an episode of the show in May 1981

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. read more

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Blondie: “Call Me” reached number-1 on the Billboard Hot 100, 42 years ago this week, April 19, 1980

BrianWilkins.org
April 23, 2022

The year 1980 is to the oldest of Generation X, as 1990 is to the youngest of Generation X (i.e. ME). Those years transitioned from one era to the next. I talked about Disco Demolition Night in another blog post and in a 2006 podcast I created while a student at Arizona State University.

Disco (circa 1972-1980) was one of the grooviest eras in music history; and the last truly creative genre of Black American music. Synthesizers came along in the 1980s and trivialized pure music talent, meaning people who played actual instruments. The 80s, by far, is my favorite decade of music. But it was nowhere near the most talented decade for artists. read more

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Second Amendment means you don’t need permission, and it brings back memories

BrianWilkins.org
March 4, 2022

I’m just bored tonight, ran a few hundred rounds through the AK, and now just posting a few pics.

The above was my first gun, an AR-15, back in 2009. And that’s my buddy Max. Notice how hard I’m gripping him with my left hand. He’s a Brindle Pit Bull, weighed close to 80 pounds, and was trained to hurt certain people at certain times. One of those certain people were in the vicinity and he was ready. That would not have been pretty. Max was my first, last and only dog in adulthood (2004-2010). read more

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27 years ago this week (February 25, 1995), “This Is How We Do It” by Montell Jordan debuted at #93 on the Billboard Hot 100

BrianWilkins.org
February 27, 2022

“This Is How We Do It” gradually climbed the charts for the next seven weeks, until it hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 15, 1995.

Montell Jordan dethroned Madonna and “Take A Bow,” which had been number-1 for seven-straight weeks. That’s a feat to be proud of.

Jordan and “This Is How We Do It” stayed at number-1 for the next seven weeks. Bryan Adams and “Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman” knocked “This Is How We Do It” out of the number-1 spot on June 3, 1995. I like a lot of Bryan Adams songs, particularly “This Time,” “Heaven,” and “Can’t Stop This Thing We Started.” read more

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The Facts of Life: 41 years ago today, November 26, 1980, Season 2 debuted and introduced Jo Polniaczek (Nancy McKeon)

BrianWilkins.org
November 26, 2021So the headline isn’t 100% true. The Facts Of Life Season Two debut aired on November 19, 1980. But it was a two-part series. “The New Girl: Part 1” aired on November 19. Part Two aired on November 26, 1980.

Jo Polniaczek (Nancy McKeon) joined Blair Warner (Lisa Whelchel), Dorothy “Tootsie” Ramsey (Kim Fields), Natalie Green (Mindy Cohn), and housemother Edna Garrett (Charlotte Rae) at Eastland, a private, upscale all-girls high school in upstate New York. read more

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39 years ago today, November 20, 1982, Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes were #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Up Where We Belong” for the third consecutive week

BrianWilkins.org
November 19, 2021

I watched “An Officer and a Gentleman” way late at night on Cinemax or HBO in 1983. My calendar journal from that year has a little side note on the August page. It says “Paul’s mom looks like the Officer Gentleman woman.” I don’t recall who exactly Paul (or his mom) is.

I had no idea what was going on in that movie, or what I was watching. Most 8-year-old kids wouldn’t. But something about it, particularly the soundtrack, stuck with me. I still love it today. read more

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Janet Jackson: “Come Back To Me” peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 on August 18, 1990 – stayed on charts for 23 weeks

BrianWilkins.org
November 7, 2021

“Come Back To Me” was #2 for two weeks, as it couldn’t overtake “Vision of Love” by Mariah Carey (which frankly isn’t even in my top five of Mariah songs). The final week for “Come Back To Me” on the Billboard Hot 100 was October 20, 1990, when it was #90. That’s a little over 31 years ago – my sophomore year in high school.

The video was filmed in Paris, in November 1989. “Miss Jackson’s” love interest in the video is Mexican songwriter and director René Elizondo Jr. They secretly married on March 31, 1991. In fact it is said to be Elizondo’s hands covering Janet Jackson’s breast on the September 1993 cover of Rolling Stone magazine. read more

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38 years ago today, “Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the fourth and final week

BrianWilkins.org
October 18, 2021

I implore every child to keep calendar journals starting right now. Because I couldn’t write these stories without my own journals from childhood.

1983 was a great year for me as an 8-year-old. I was making “good” money from my paper route (about $30/week) and another $5 to $10 per week from golf ball hunting/selling during the summer months. Sure I mostly bought Star Wars action figures, Legos and comic books (the first Transformers toys didn’t come out until 1984). But one of my paper route customers held a garage sale on July 8, 1983; and I bought a used walkman and a tape recorder. At the time, walkmans were still too expensive for an 8-year-old kid to buy brand new with his paper route money. read more

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39 years ago today, “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts was #1 for the fifth of seven weeks in 1982

BrianWilkins.org
April 15, 2021

Damn I’m getting old! I remember so vividly playing Pac-Man at the bowling alley down the street from my house in Marshalltown, Iowa when I heard this for the first time. I got the quarters to play the arcade game from selling golf balls. We used to go golf ball hunting across the street from the golf course, and golfers would buy them. That’s Gen X economics for kids.

Some argue “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” is the greatest song of the 80s. Billboard ranked it #56 of all-time in 2008. It’s a classic for sure, with lots of childhood memories tied to it. But many people don’t know that Joan Jett neither wrote the song, nor originally performed it. Those honors go to 1970s glam rock band The Arrows. Lead singer Alan Merrill and guitarist Jake Hooker wrote the song and first performed it in 1975. read more

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