Harry Vanda and George Young, formerly members of the Australian group the Easybeats put this band together and came out with a New Wave creation that my buddies and I thought was some cool music. Their first album charted #80 on the Billboard 200 Album chart which is pretty decent. It was much more popular here in Canada where it got to #25. The above song was actually the B side to their only charting song on the Hot 100, “Walking in the Rain” which went to #74.
Grace Jones covered this song in 1981 on her album Nightclubbing, as a single it charted in New Zealand, West Germany and Australia..
“Lights In The Night” is the title track from their next album, released in 1980, it went to #1 in Sweden.
One of Prince’s hit songs from 1984 was “Purple Rain”, now considered a classic. It spent just two weeks at #2 on The Hot 100 behind Wham’s “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”. I think history feels a bit differently about these two songs now. “Purple Rain” is #18 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It’s also on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. Charts, eh?
There are 160 versions of “Purple Rain”, the most recent was released by Dolly Parton in November of 2023.
Also in 1984, Bruce Springsteen’s highest ranking Hot 100 single “Dancing in the Dark” peaked at #2 for four weeks, three of them, interestingly behind “When Doves Fly” by Prince that was his first #1. That Prince song ranked a bit farther down the list at #37 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and it too is included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
Speaking of the 500 Greatest Songs list, there are two of the (#2 Billboard) songs I mentioned earlier; “What’s Going On” is ranked at #6 and “Like a Rolling Stone is ranked at #4.
This will wrap up the series on songs that perhaps should have been #1 but make very memorable #2’s. There are at least a dozen more songs I skipped over from the time the Hot 100 began and just up to this song and 1984. For example, Lennon’s “Woman” and Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street” I thought were #1 songs.
For this series on No. 2 I want to give a big thank-you to Top 40 Weekly, an excellent and very accurate resource for charts and as always I make use of https://secondhandsongs.com/.
Billy Joel from the great Glass Houses album “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me”
As we continue on the journey of songs with “Rock and Roll” in the title, I was a bit surprised to find about 20 released in the 80’s . I would have thought it was going out of fashion by then. Indeed it was, because after 1985, and for the next 38 years I can find less than ten more songs, even if I have missed a few that’s a long drought.
1980: It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me by Billy Joel, It’s Only Rock and Roll by Rodney Crowell
1981: A cover of I Love Rock and Roll by Joan Jett and The Blackhearts, Rock and Roll Party by Iggy Pop, Rock and Roll Preacher by Slade. Recorded in 1955, ya gotta love this title, I’m a Ding dong Daddy from a Rock and Roll City, by the oft overlooked Jerry McCain. Not to be confused with the much earlier “I’m a Ding Dong Daddy (From Dumas)” or just plain old “Ding Dong Daddy” by Wynona Carr which was also recorded in 1955 and not released until 1985.
1983: The Heart of Rock and Roll by Huey Lewis and The News, Rock ‘n Roll is King by ELO, I’ve Got a Rock and Roll Heart by Eric Clapton, 1234 Rock and Roll by Girlschool.
“I’ve Got a Rock and Roll Heart” by Eric Clapton, “I get off on screaming guitar…”
1984: Rock and Roll Creation by Spinal Tap, Rock and Roll Shoes by Ray Charles and BJ Thomas, a cover of Rock and Roll Widow by Tina Turner, Even Cowboys Like a Little Rock and Roll by Chris LeDoux.
1985: Rock ‘n’ Roll Children by Dido, Rock and Roll Girls by John Fogerty, A cover of I Love to Rock and Roll by Canned Heat, I Knew the Bride When She Used to Rock and Roll by Nick Lowe a cover of a song he wrote for Dave Edmunds.
“Rock and Roll Girls” by John Fogerty. You have to see him live in person to capture the true magic that is JF.
Mostly Music Covers 