Friday, September 25, 1981

The Police “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” charted

Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic

The Police

Writer(s): Sting (see lyrics here)


First Charted: September 25, 1981


Peak: 3 US, 6 CB, 8 HR, 3 RR, 12 AR, 1 CO, 11 UK, 11 CN, 2 AU, 2 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.)


Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.4 UK


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 9.0 radio, 45.6 video, 206.57 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

“Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” was released in most parts of the world as the lead single from their fourth album, Ghost in the Machine. In the UK and Ireland, the lead single was the far less commercial-sounding “Invisible Sun.” The latter would reach #2 in the UK, but “Magic” would become the Police’s fourth #1 in the UK and third top 10 in the U.S.

Sting wrote and recorded a demo of the song as an acoustic ballad SF in 1976 after moving from Newcastle to London. As he said, “I had no money, no prospects, nowhere to live. All I had was [drummer] Stewart Copeland’s phone number and some vague idea of forming a band.” SF He sang it when he auditioned at the Zanzibar in Covent Garden but was told he needed “commercial hit songs. We don’t need this kind of stuff.” SF

He recorded another demo in January 1981. WK The record company was convinced it was a hit and the band, who thought it was too soft, tried recording it from scratch. According to Copeland, “We tried it fast, we tried it slow, we tried it reggae, we tried it punk, we tried it as a bossa nova…We tried every which way, but nothing.” SF Sting agreed that none of the new versions had the same level of energy as his 1981 demo. They ended up using the demo with Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers playing on top of it. WK It also includes a piano part by French Canadian keyboard player Jean Alain Roussel.

In reviewing the end results, Chris True of All Music Guide said, “The choppy reggae guitars are pushed aside by amazing piano and synth arrangements, that trademark reggae beat is there but it’s a bit more transcendent, a bit more pop mainstream (but not in a bad way). Summers’ guitar is still there, but it’s more of a background instrument adding yet another layer to the wall of sound. There are sounds all over the place on ‘Every Little Thing,’ but they never get muddy or obtrusive. Sting, as usual, is in amazing form lyrically (‘it’s a big enough umbrella / But it’s always me that ends up getting wet’), as the…doofus in love.” AMG

The song won an Ivor Novello Award for Best Pop Song.


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First posted 7/12/2022; last updated 7/27/2022.

Saturday, September 19, 1981

The Rolling Stones’ Tattoo You hit #1 in US for 1st of 9 weeks

Tattoo You

The Rolling Stones


Released: August 30, 1981


Peak: 19 US, 2 UK, 17 CN, 111 AU


Sales (in millions): 4.0 US, 0.1 UK, 8.0 world (includes US and UK)


Genre: classic rock


Tracks:

Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts.

  1. Start Me Up [3:31] (8/14/81, 2 US, 4 CB, 5 HR, 9 RR, 1 AR, 7 UK, 2 CN, 1 AU)
  2. Hang Fire [2:30] (9/26/81, 20 US, 32 CB, 56 HR, 21 RR, 2 AR, 99 AU)
  3. Slave [6:34] (23 CL)
  4. Little T & A [3:23] (10/10/81, 5 AR)
  5. Black Limousine (Jagger/Richards/Wood) [3:31]
  6. Neighbours [3:30] (4/30/82, 47 CL)
  7. Worried about You [5:16]
  8. Tops [3:45]
  9. Heaven [4:21]
  10. No Use in Crying [3:24]
  11. Waiting on a Friend [4:34] (11/27/81, 13 US, 14 CB, 16 HR, 6 RR, 8 AR, 50 UK, 10 CN, 44 AU)

Songs written by Jagger/ Richards unless indicated otherwise.


Total Running Time: 44:19


The Players:

  • Mick Jagger (vocals, guitar, percussion)
  • Keith Richards (guitar, vocals, bass)
  • Ronnie Wood (guitar, backing vocals)
  • Bill Wyman (bass, guitar, synthesizer, percussion)
  • Charlie Watts (drums)
  • Mick Taylor (guitar)


Spotify Podcast:

Check out Dave’s Music Database podcast: The Rolling Stones’ Tattoo You: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary. It premieres October 26, 2021 at 7pm CST. Tune in every Tuesday at 7pm for a new episode based on the lists at Dave’s Music Database.

Rating:

3.921 out of 5.00 (average of 23 ratings)


Quotable: “The band’s last great album.” – Amazon.com review by Steve Knopper


Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album:

For a band who’d been around nearly two decades, this shouldn’t have ranked amongst the most celebrated albums of their career. This was their 16th British studio album and 18th in the United States. The Rolling Stones had topped the album chart in the U.S. eight times previously, but this one – their ninth trip to the top – proved the most successful with nine weeks at the pinnacle. It was second only to 1978’s Some Girls in terms of worldwide sales for their studio albums.

Return to Glory
Tattoo You “captures the Stones at their best as a professional stadium-rock band.” AMG It is “an essential latter-day Stones album, ranking just a few notches below Some Girls.” AMG It is “often viewed as the band’s last great album.” AZ It is “a potent slab of swagger and sass” CD made up of songs that are “confident and consistent.” BN The “album delivers its share of thrills on the tight, dynamic first side” AMG which was devoted to rock & roll, while the other side, focused on ballads, “suffers in comparison.” AMG

“Much of the last decade consisted of…camouflage for an essential loss of nerve, an unwillingness to be seen unguarded for the length of an LP, or even a tune…Just when we might finally have lost patience, the new record dances (not prances), rocks (not jives) onto the scene, and the Rolling Stones are back again.” RS

In The New York Times, Robert Palmer wrote that “remarkably, Tattoo You is something special...None of [the tracks] are Chuck Berry retreads, none of them are disco, and none of them are reggae – they are all rock-and-roll, with more than a hint of the soul and blues influences that were so important in the band's early work...The new album’s lyrics are also a surprise. The Stones seem to have dropped the studied decadence that was their most characteristic pose throughout the ‘70s. The songs on Tattoo You seem to be by and about real people rather than larger-than-life caricatures.” WK

Raiding the Vaults
What’s surprising is that the Stones achieved their revival with a collection of mostly studio outtakes. Between touring obligations and their feuding, the band found little opportunity at the close of the ‘70s to come together in the studio. Because of that, Tattoo You and its predecessor, Emotional Rescue, relied on “unused recordings from prior sessions,” WK some dating back as far as 1972.

The material came together because Chris Kimsey, the album’s associate producer, spent three months sifting through the vaults. He told the band, “Hey, look guys, you’ve got all this great stuff sitting in the can…do something with it.” WK Most of the songs were instrumental backing tracks without vocals. The members came into the studio when they were available to polish up the tracks. WK

While the album is comprised primarily of leftovers “it never sounds that way.” AMG “This unity is partly the work of Bob Clearmountain, who mixed the finished tracks and gave them his characteristic vacuum-packed clarity (you could bounce a quarter off each of Watts’ rim shots). Mostly, though, it sounds like the Stones simply decided it was time to challenge themselves again.” RS

“Start Me Up”
Tattoo You contributed one true classic, ‘Start Me Up,’ to the Stones’ canon.” AZ It “became the record’s definitive Stonesy rocker,” AMG and “the catchiest Stones single in ages.” RS It became a stadium-rattling anthem that proved they were “still capable of rousing the blood.” BN The song, “still used as a concert finale,” AZ is “replete with Jagger’s sexual braggadocio and Keith’s patented ‘Honky Tonk Women’-style riffs.” CD It “ends with a leering Mick Jagger murmuring about a woman who could ‘make a dead man come.’” AZ

The song began life “under the working title ‘Never Stop’…as a reggae-influenced number in 1978 during the Some Girls sessions.” WK it was recorded during sessions in Paris at Pathé Marconi, as was “Black Limousine.” WK

“Hang Fire”
“The frenzied doo wop” AMG of “the fast-paced ‘Hang Fire’” AZ “is a tight two-minute and twenty second redefinition of surf music.” CD The song grew out of sessions from 1978’s Some Girls and 1980’s Emotional Rescue. WK

“Slave”
“The reggae jam of ‘Slave’” AMG features jazz great Sonny Rollins. He turns “a standard Stones blues jam, into something searing and passionate by establishing a level for the rest of the musicians to match.” RS The backing tracks for this song and “Worried About You” dated back to sessions for the 1976 Black and Blue album. Both songs featurd Billy Preston on keyboards and Ollie E. Brown on percussion. WK

“Little T&A” and “Neighbours”
There are two “sleazy Chuck Berry rockers,” AMG the “cocky ‘Little T&A” CD and “the trashcan rockabilly of ‘Neighbours.’” BN Both songs came out of the sessions for Emotional Rescue. WK The former is “sung by an endearingly raspy Keith Richards” CD and is “full of wonderful chordal soloing.” RS The latter features Rollins again on a solo that “has the full-bodied sound of classic R&B–always about to go over the edge.” RS

“Black Limousine”
“The barrelhouse blues of ‘Black Limousine’ is…goosebump-inducing.” BN It “is as much a lament for the halcyon days of a relationship as it is a memory of glittering innocence.” RS

“Worried About You” and “No Use in Crying”
“The vocal blend in ‘No Use in Crying’ and the way that Mick Jagger drops from falsetto to full voice in ‘Worried about You’ have the instant impact of a lover’s touch–a strength that means far more than a mere return to form.” RS “No Use in Crying” and “Heaven” came out of the sessions for Emotional Rescue. WK

“Tops”
“The Philly-soul falsetto of ‘Tops’ acknowledges that ‘every man has the same come-on’ without faulting the man for trying (a trace of sadness here, maybe) or the woman for believing him.” RS This song, and “Waiting on a Friend,” are “effortless, excellent ballads” AMG which were built on backing tracks from the 1972 sessions for the Goats Head Soup album. WK

“Heaven”
“Heaven” is ” a paean to physical love that glorifies tenderness, not sweat and excess. It’s an odd, hymnlike number, more reminiscent of Television than of anything by the Stones. In part, ‘Heaven’ is a lover's talisman, a promise of protection: ‘Nothing will harm you/Nothing will stand in your way.’ Like all of Tattoo You, it begs the listener's trust. And, for the first time in years, the Rolling Stones deserve it. Deserve it in spades.” RS

“Waiting on a Friend”
The album wraps up with “the wistful” CD “Waiting on a Friend” which features a sax solo from Rollins and “a moving lyric that captures Jagger in a shockingly reflective and affecting state of mind.” AMG The song is “a celebration of maturity…melodic and transcendent.” RS It is “an absolute masterpiece” AMG rating “as one of the band’s best ever.” BN


Notes: A 2021 40th anniversary deluxe edition included a disc of nine songs entitled Lost & Found – Rarities and a 1982 concert from Wembley Stadium.

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First posted 3/23/2008; last updated 10/23/2021.

Saturday, September 12, 1981

Journey’s Escape hit #1

Escape

Journey


Released: July 31, 1981


Peak: 11 US, 32 UK, 6 CN, -- AU


Sales (in millions): 9.0 US, -- UK, 12.1 world (includes US and UK)


Genre: classic rock


Tracks:

Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts.

  1. Don’t Stop Believin’ (8/15/81, 9 US, 8 AR, 6 UK, 9 CN, 100 AU, sales: 5 million)
  2. Stone in Love (8/1/81, 13 AR)
  3. Who’s Crying Now (7/18/81, 4 US, 4 AR, 14 AC, 46 UK, 3 CN, 65 AU, sales: 1.0 m, airplay: 2.0 m)
  4. Keep on Runnin’
  5. Still They Ride (5/22/82, 19 US, 47 AR, 37 AC)
  6. Escape
  7. Lay It Down
  8. Dead or Alive
  9. Mother, Father
  10. Open Arms (1/16/82, 2 US, 35 AR, 7 AC, 2 CN, 43 AU, sales: 1 million, airplay: 3 million)


Total Running Time: 42:46


The Players:

  • Steve Perry (vocals)
  • Neal Schon (guitar, backing vocals)
  • Jonathan Cain (keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals)
  • Ross Valory (bass, backing vocals)
  • Steve Smith (drums)

Rating:

4.112 out of 5.00 (average of 14 ratings)


Quotable: Journey’s “definitive statement” – Classic Rock Magazine


Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album:

Escape was a groundbreaking album for San Francisco’s Journey,” MD flinging the band “steadfastly into the AOR arena” MD and making “them stadium-filling superstars.” CR The album is marked by songs that “are more rock-flavored, with more hooks and a harder cadence compared to their former sound.” MD

Part of the new sound could be attributed to Jonathan Cain, who came on board as the keyboardist after the departure of founding member Gregg Rolie. He co-wrote every song on the album and his “blatant keyboards” MD combined with “Neal Schon’s grand yet palatable guitar playing” MD and “the passionate, wide-ranged vocals of Steve Perry, who is the true lifeblood of this album, and this band.” MD The “heartfelt songwriting and sturdy musicianship” MD has “a way of rekindling the innocence of youthful romance and the rebelliousness of growing up.” MD

The year of its release could be marked as the pinnacle of arena rock. REO Speedwagon, Styx, Foreigner, and Journey had all been around since at least the mid-‘70s and amassed huge followings, but peaked that year with the only #1 albums of their careers.

All four groups were savaged by critics. Their power ballads were mocked and their proclivity toward radio-friendly rock wasn’t taken seriously. Journey may have had the last laugh, though. More than two decades after Don’t Stop Believin’ first hit the charts, it had a surprising resurgence when it was used in the finale of television’s The Sopranos. Then it also served as the springboard for Glee, giving that television franchise a #4 hit. The song, an evocative tale of “‘streetlight people, living just to find emotion’, became an American classic.” CR “The whisper of Perry’s ardor is crept up to with Schon’s searing electric guitar work, making for a perfect rock song.” MD Thanks to its revival, it has sold five million copies and become the biggest hit in Journey’s catalog.

However, it was only one of three top-ten, million-selling singles from Escape. The lead single from the album, Who's Crying Now, “spotlights the sweeping fervor of Perry’s voice, whose theme about the ups and downs of a relationship was plentiful in Journey’s repertoire.” MD

“One of rock’s most beautiful ballads, Open Arms, gleams with an honesty and feel only Steve Perry could muster.” MD The song, “rejected by [Cain’s] previous band The Babys – was a monster hit” CR and the quintessential power ballad. It was as close as Journey got to a #1 song on the pop charts – it spent six weeks at #2 on the Billboard charts.

“There is a certain electricity that circulates through the rest of the album.” MD While the album is best known for those three singles, the album also boasted a fourth single, the top 20 hit Still They Ride, and album-rock favorite Stone in Love. “The songs are timeless, and as a whole, they have a way of rekindling the innocence of youthful romance and the rebelliousness of growing up, built from heartfelt songwriting and sturdy musicianship.” MDEscape became Journey’s “definitive statement” CR – its biggest-selling studio album and “one of their most popular and best-reviewed works to date.” JM

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First posted 3/24/2008; last updated 8/29/2021.

Saturday, September 5, 1981

Soft Cell hit #1 in the UK with “Tainted Love”

Tainted Love

Soft Cell

Writer(s): Ed Cobb (see lyrics here)


Released: July 17, 1981


First Charted: August 1, 1981


Peak: 8 US, 7 CB, 5 GR, 58 HR, 7 RR, 12 AR, 12 UK, 13 CN, 13 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.)


Sales (in millions): -- US, 1.5 UK, 2.03 world (includes US + UK)


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 136.96 video, 782.66 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

While most people know this song because of Soft Cell, it actually originated in the mid-‘60s. Ed Cobb, a former member of the U.S. group the Four Preps, wrote the song about toxic relationships. He told Blender magazine, “I had a lover for whom you could say wasn’t a good individual. I tried to go into her head and write a song from her standpoint.” SF

The resulting song was recorded by American R&B singer Gloria Jones and released as the B-side of her 1965 single “My Bad Boy’s Comin’ Home.” While the song didn’t take off at the time, it found an audience years later when Richard Searling, a club DJ, picked up a copy of the song in Philadelphia in 1973. He began playing it during his sets at Va Va’s, a popular club in Bolton, England. The song found life again and Jones re-recorded it in 1976. SF “It became a favorite of Britain’s Northern Soul clubs in the late 1970s.” TB

“As synthesizers became readily available and affordable in the early 1980s, many seized the chance to try to emulate Kraftwerk and David Bowie’s ‘Berlin’ trilogy of albums. Among them were Marc Almond and Dave Ball, who formed Soft Cell, the archetypical synth-pop duo.” TB “Most synthesizer artists of the time were making clinical, clever and sweet tunes with the new technology. Soft Cell made the keybard as dity and sexual an instrument as any other.” TC

They started covering “Tainted Love” to use as an encore for their shows. KL “It was a novelty to have an electronic synthesizer band doing a soul song.” KL Soft Cell’s record label wanted them to record the song, but add bass, guitar, and drums. As Almond said, though, “We wanted to be a guitarless band…We were looked on as rubbish, but we had the last laugh.” KL They kept the “solid, stamping beat – thus ensuring their version would work as a dance number.” TB

Indeed. In their native UK, Soft Cell’s recording of “Tainted Love” became the best-selling single of 1981. WK The song didn’t chart in the U.S. until the following year. By the summer of 1982, it reached #8 and before its run was done, it had accumulated a then record-breaking 43 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. WK The DMDB ranks the song as one of the top 5 new wave/college rock songs of all-time.


Resources:


First posted 4/17/2019; last updated 5/2/2024.