Songoftheday 12/31/13 - I don't wanna take it anymore, I'll just stay here locked behind the door...

The Pointer Sisters - "The Neutron Dance"
from the album Break Out (1983) and Beverly Hills Cop (Original Soundtrack) (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #6 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14

Today's final song of 2013 belongs to the pop/soul sibling trio the Pointer Sisters, whose prophetically-titled album Break Out had already produced three top-10 singles with "Automatic", "Jump (For My Love)", and a re-release/mix of their 1982 single "I'm So Excited" (included in the newer prints of the album). For their fifth single (the first, "I Need You", peaked under the top-40) released from the set was used in the Eddie Murphy blockbuster film Beverly Hills Cop. "The Neutron Dance", with verses about everyday pains with a chorus that hints that the "nuclear" button could be pushed at any time, was nonsensical and topical at the same time...


Pointer Sisters - Neutron Dance by jpdc11

"The Neutron Dance" became the Pointers' seventh and so far latest top-10 single in February of 1985. It also was a hit on the dancefloor, ascending to #4 on the club chart, and tackled R&B radio at #13 and adult-contemporary (or "easy-listening") at #23. Internationally it was a more modest hit, making it to #31 in the UK and #18 in Germany, but it did manage to top the singles chart in Canada...

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The song even made an appearance on the Golden Girls performed by the wacky Del Rubio Triplets...

...and finally, here's the Pointers on a TV appear letting it all hang out...

Tomorrow we'll take a break from the song of the day, but on Thursday I'll be back with a duo with some contemporary romance.