8 of the 80s: 3/13/14 (1983)...

I'm ready to bring out eight more nuggets from the 80's, and this week it's back to 1983, the year President Ronald Reagan proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative, otherwise known as "Star Wars", where the idea was to make missiles to "take other missiles down". (I've included links to buy anything you see on MP3 or CD).

Crosby, Stills & Nash - "War Games"
from the album Allies (1983)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #45
Songwriter: Stephen Stills

Back when the Russians were the bad guys, the title theme to the Matthew Broderick movie with nuclear annihilation bringing audiences to theaters. Happy times are here again.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


Poco - "Shoot For The Moon"
from the album Ghost Town (1982)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #50
Songwriter: Rusty Young

The final hit from the band with their most prominent lineup, this song was a top-10 adult contemporary hit.

Randy Newman & Paul Simon - "The Blues"
from the album Trouble In Paradise (1983)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #51
Songwriter: Randy Newman

The two heralded songwriters paired up for the chunk of sad lyrics wrapped in a sugary veneer.

The Alan Parsons Project - "You Don't Believe"
from the album The Best Of The Alan Parsons Project (1983)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #54
Songwriters: Alan Parsons, Eric Woolfson

An extra track on the prog-rock band's hits compilation, this record's vocals were handled by Lenny Zakatek, born in pre-independence Pakistan.

The Moody Blues - "Blue World"
from the album The Present (1983)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #62
Songwriter: Justin Hayward

Another minor hit for the British prog-rockers, and it was their most recent top-40 hit in the UK, as their "comeback" with "Your Wildest Dreams" failed to do the trick as it did in America.

Donald Fagen - "New Frontier"
from the album The Nightfly (1982)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #70
Songwriter: Donald Fagen

I was pulling for this underrated gem to make the pop top 40, but the second "British Invasion" just dominated the radio and slapped adult pop hits like this to the back of the line. Also, too, the coolest Cold War jam to date.

Neil Young - "Little Thing Called Love"
from the album Trans (1982)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #71
Songwriter: Neil Young

)

The single pulled from Neil's "electro-pop" album Trans, this was probably the lesser-jarring of the newer material, which did to his fans was Dylan's electric changeover did to his.

Industry - "State Of The Nation"
from the album Stranger To Stranger (1983)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #81
Songwriters: Jon Carin, Mercury Caronia

I'll finish with another anti-war single from the New York new wave group that topped the Italian chart with this record.

Tomorrow I'll have another Song of the Day and my top 100 tunes for the week. Cheers!