8 of the 80s: 1/16/14 (1985)...

80's throwback time is here, and this week I'm back to 1985, the year that British Telecom announced that they will start getting rid of their iconic red telephone booths (there's some that still exist). I've included links to buy anything you see on MP3 and CD when I can...

Jenny Burton - "Bad Habits"
from the album Jenny Burton (1985)
Billboard peak: #101
Songwriters: Allen George, Fred McFarlane

The voice behind the classic club hit "One More Shot" by C-Bank came back with another #1 dance hit. She also sang at New York's Don't Tell Mama club in Greenwich Village.

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The Boogie Boys - "A Fly Girl"
from the album City Life (1985)
Billboard peak: #102
Songwriters: Gary Cooper, Ted Currier, Joseph Malloy, Rudy Sheriff, David Spradley, William Stroman

The early hip-hop group from Harlem scored an underground hit with this record sampled on Sly Fox's "Let's Go All The Way"...

Ready For The World - "Tonight"
from the album Ready For The World (1985)
Billboard peak: #103
Songwriters: Melvin Riley, Gordon Strozier

The Minneapolis lite-funk outfit released this as their first single, but had much bigger success with its follow-up "Oh Sheila".

Fat Boys - "Jail House Rap"
from the album Fat Boys (1984)
Billboard peak: #105
Songwriters: Salvatore Abbatiello, Kurtis Blow, Mark Morales, David Reeves, Darren Robinson, Lawrence Smith, Damon Wimbley

The Fat Boys were the New Edition to the Beasties' New Kids On The Block - deserved wider attention for their comic talent but racially pigeonholed on radio.

Narada Michael Walden with Patti Austin - "Gimme Gimme Gimme"
from the album The Nature Of Things (1985)
Billboard peak: #106
Songwriters: Jeffrey Cohen, Preston Glass, Narada Michael Walden

The producer behind Aretha Franklin and Whitney Houston's mid-80s hits scores a minor one of his own with this boppy little number with the jazz-soul singer who hit with "Baby Come To Me"..

B.B. King - "Into The Night"
from the album Six Silver Strings (1985)
Billboard peak: #107
Songwriter: Ira Newborn

The blues-rock king gave three songs to the soundtrack to the Jeffrey Goldblum/Michelle Pfeiffer movie directed by John Landis. David Bowie plays the villain in this one.

Peter Brown - "Zie Zie Won't Dance"
from the album Snap (1984)
Billboard peak: #108
Songwriters: Peter Brown, Robert Vavrik

Brown earned himself an MTV Video Award nomination for art direction in 1985 for this clip, not bad for a song that didn't get much pop play.

Atlantic Starr - "Cool, Calm, Collected"
from the album As The Band Turns (1985)
Billboard peak: #110
Songwriters: Joey Gallo, Pamela Phillips, Wardell Potts

Six of the album's nine songs hit the charts in either the US or Britain, and this one also made the top-40 on the R&B chart for the outsized soul/funk unit.

That's it for tonight...Tomorrow I'll bring you another Song of the Day and my top 100 songs of the week. Good night!