Twostepcublog

" Why You Treat Me So Bad? " - Club Nouveau from the album Life, Love & Pain (1986) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #39 (one week) Weeks in the Top-40: 1 Today's SOTD comes from the R&B group Club Nouveau , whose leader/producer Jay King rose from the ashes of the Timex Social Club to score a #1 hit pop single with their proto-new jack swing cover of Bill Withers' " Lean On Me ". Their next 7" release was an original, a moody, melancholy heartbreak piece called "Why You Treat Me So Bad?". Written by King with member musicians Denzil Foster and Thomas McElroy, lead singers Samuelle Prater and Valerie Watson-English traded off verses of deceit providing the shadow image of their previous hit... "Why You Treat Me So Bad?" became the Club's second and most recent top-40 pop hit in July of 1987. The record did much better on R&B radio, climbing to #2 on that chart, and peaked at #22 on Billboard 's Dance Club Pl...

" La Bamba " - Los Lobos from the album La Bamba (Original Soundtrack) (1987) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (three weeks) Weeks in the Top-40: 14 Today's SOTD is a cover of a 50s classic remade for the film made about its original singer, Ritchie Valens. Valens, who was born in California but who drew upon his Mexican heritage like no other popular solo rock star of the time. In 1958, he covered an old folk song from the Mexican Gulf regino of Veracruz called "La Bamba", which before had been used in the 1947 movie Fiesta with Ricardo Montalban and Cyd Charisse (it's a minute and 36 seconds in after "Tapatio")... Valens released "La Bamba" as the "flip-side" to his #3 hit "Donna", and it climbed to #22 on Billboard 's pop chart in 1958.. Sadly, Valens didn't get to continue his burgeoning career, dying in a plane crash with Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper, with Ritchie only 17 years old. Howeve...

Friday is here, and it's time to run down my top 100 tunes from the week. Jamaican pop/reggae artist OMI scores his first #1 hit, while New York alternative rock band X Ambassadors (pictured above) climb into the top-5. Former big hits by Kenny Chesney, Duke Dumont, and Alesso drop off my list, while songs from Beck, Tyrese, and Rob Thomas make the biggest jumps (moves of 10+ places highlighted in red ). Party down in P-Town! This Week            Song/Artist (last week's position in parentheses) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Cheerleader - OMI (2) 2. Honey, I'm Good. - Andy Grammer (1) 3. Want To Want Me - Jason Derulo (3) 4. Shut Up And Dance - Walk The Moon (4) 5. Renegades - X Ambassadors (7) 6. Fight Song - Rachel Platten (8) 7. Crystals - Of Monsters and Men (5) 8. Dead Inside - Muse (6) 9. Lean On - Major Lazer & DJ Snake f/MO (13) 10. Girl Cru...

" It's Not Over ('Til It's Over) " - Starship from the album No Protection (1987) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #9 (one week) Weeks in the Top-40: 10 Today's SOTD comes from Starship , the remnants of acid-rock giants Jefferson Airplane, though only member Grace Slick remained from the original lineup (even Jefferson Starship-era bassist Pete Sears quit out), leaving them a quartet after their #1 pop/rock single " Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now " in the spring of 1987. That summer, they released their second album under the "Starship" moniker, No Protection , with a single that originally was recorded by Manfred Mann singer Chris Thompson for the Playing For Keeps soundtrack, "It's Not Over ('Til It's Over)", which was co-written by pop singer Robbie Nevil ("C'est La Vie", "Wot's It To Ya")... The version recorded by Starship, produced by Keith Olsen, doesn't sound much diffe...

" Who's That Girl " - Madonna from the album Who's That Girl (Original Soundtrack) (1987) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (one week) Weeks in the Top-40: 11 Today's SOTD is by Madonna , whose third album True Blue had cemented her place as the most popular female singer of the decade, with five top-5 hits including three #1 singles in " Live To Tell ", " Papa Don't Preach ", and " Open Your Heart ". In 1987, not learning her lesson from the disaster of a film of Shanghai Surprise (with husband Sean Penn no less), Madge went to work on her fifth movie, what would eventually be called Who's That Girl . A comedy where she played a framed ex-con out to get revenge in Philadelphia, the movie was completely silly and tanked at the cinemas, but the soundtrack, which included four songs from its star, made up for it. The title track and first single, "Who's That Girl", was co-written with Patrick Leonard, who work...

" Don't Mean Nothing " - Richard Marx from the album Richard Marx (1987) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (one week) Weeks in the Top-40: 12 Today's SOTD comes from pop singer/songwriter Richard Marx , who came from the Chicago suburbs to California, singing back-up for Lionel Richie and writing songs for Kenny Rogers. After landing his own solo contract, Marx recorded his debut solo album in 1987, releasing his first single, "Don't Mean Nothing", in May. Written by Marx with Bruce Gaitsch (who co-wrote Madonna's "La Isla Bonita"), he enlisted the Eagles' Randy Meisner , Timothy B. Schmidt, and Joe Walsh to play on the single, which made it even doubly sound like an out-take from that band, especially with the "trying to make it in L.A." lyrical angle... "Don't Mean Nothing" became Richard's first big hit, reaching the top-3 on the pop chart in America in August of 1987. The single also went all the ...

" Rock Steady " - The Whispers from the album Just Gets Better With Time (1987) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #7 (one week) Weeks in the Top-40: 12 Today's SOTD comes from the R&B/disco group the Whispers , who came together way back in the mid-60s in California, led by twin brothers Wallace ("Scotty") and Walter Scott. Their first hit on the R&B chart, " The Time Will Come ", put them as a retro-style doo-wop/soul outfit, and made the top-20 on that list in 1969 during a rash of nostalgic soul offerings of that year. Their next single, " Seems Like I Gotta Do Wrong ", did even better, reaching #6 on the R&B chart and finally crossing over to the Hot 100 pop list at #50. They had some minor success on the R&B chart until 1976, when "One For The Money" returned them to the top-10 on the R&B list and made it to #4 on the new "Disco" chart. They did the same with a disco treatment of Bread's soft-r...