 | Purple RainPrince & the Revolution |
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DavesMusicDatabase.com is devoted to ranking, rating, and reviewing music of all genres and eras. The DMDB blog serves up album and song reviews, best-of lists, music history snapshots, and music-related essays.
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Wednesday, September 26, 1984
Prince released “Purple Rain” as a single
Monday, September 24, 1984
Robert Plant helms the Honeydrippers on a retro-rock covers EP
Volume 1 |
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Released: September 24, 1984 Charted: October 20, 1984 Peak: 5 US, 56 UK, 11 CN, 13 AU Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, world: 1.3 (includes U.S.) Genre: rock |
Tracks: Song Title (Writers) (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts.
Total Running Time: 18:07 The Players:
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Rating:  2.929 out of 5.00 (average of 13 ratings)
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About the Album: Supergroups don’t get much bigger than this. Led Zeppelin fans were overjoyed to see Robert Plant and Jimmy Page reunite. In addition, Jeff Beck – who Page replaced in the Yardbirds – showed up as well to get classic rock guitar fans swooning. Nile Rodgers, formerly of Chic, leant his production talents as well. While initially associated with Chic and Sister Sledge and other disco acts, he had started branching out to other pop and rock acts like David Bowie, Duran Duran, and Madonna. This EP of R&B covers came about at the request of Atlantic Records’ boss Ahmet Ertegun. With a couple of solo albums in the classic rock vein and his “monolithic Zeppelin” AMG only a few years behind him, this project surprised some of Plant’s fans. However, he’d “always harbored deep, abiding love for early rock & roll” AMG so this “unabashedly retro-rock project” AMG shouldn’t actually be that startling. “Plant excelled on Rockin’ at Midnight but landed an accidental US hit when DJs began playing the band’s version of the 1959 smoochie Sea of Love.” Q The latter has “a certain sense of pastishe…in how…[it] is drenched in oceans of strings…but that’s part of the charm of the record.” AMG Some might find it “even campy, but there’s a genuine warth in Plant’s performance...and his…Honeydrippers…have a great time running through these handful of oldies.” AMG Plant has said it “is his personal favorite project that he ever recorded.” WK |
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First posted 9/27/2010; last updated 5/20/2022. |
David Bowie Tonight album released
Tonight |
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Released: September 24, 1984 Peak: 11 US, 11 UK, 4 CN, 4 AU Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.1 UK, 3.5 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.
Songs written by David Bowie unless indicated otherwise. Total Running Time: 35:32 The Players:
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Rating:  2.577 out of 5.00 (average of 24 ratings)
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About the Album: After achieving the best-selling album of his career with 1983’s Let’s Dance, David Bowie followed up with an album in much the same formula with dance-oriented pop inflected with blue-eyed soul. Unfortunately, the album was missing a few of the key players that made Let’s Dance so successful, namely Chic’s Nile Rodgers as producer and Stevie Ray Vaughan on guitar. Blue Jean, the lead single, is generally viewed as the best song on the album, which isn’t surprising since it followed the same formula as the hits from Let’s Dance. Other than that song, “none of the material equals the songs on Let's Dance, but that doesn’t stop Tonight from becoming another platinum success.” AMG The Serious Moonlight tour in support of Let’s Dance brought a new audience which Bowie didn’t even recognize. He was uninspired to record a new album, but was pressured by the record label to come up with a quick follow-up. As on the previous album, Bowie didn’t play any instruments, focusing exclusively on vocals. He didn’t even provide much direction to the other musicians in the studio. WK He also stepped back on the writing, covering the Beach Boys’ God Only Knows and Chuck Jackson’s I Keep Forgetting, written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Biographers Nicholas Pegg and Chris O’Leary have both called Bowie’s version of “God Only Knows” “the worst recording he ever made.” WK Author David Buckley called “I Keep Forgetting” “unmemorable.” WK Bowie originally wrote Neighborhood Threat and the title cut with Iggy Pop for Pop’s 1977 Lust for Life album. Don’t Look Down was written by Pop for his 1979 New Values album. The pair also wrote the new songs Tumble and Twirl and Dancing with the Big Boys. Pop duets with Bowie on the latter. In addition to “Blue Jean,” the song Loving the Alien was released as a single, but it didn’t even scratch the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. Bowie felt the song didn’t fit with the rest of the album because of its darker nature. WK The “reggae-influenced” WK “Tonight,” featuring Tina Turner, reached #53 in the U.S. They sang the song face-to-face in the studio together. WK Almost immediately upon the album’s release, Bowie seemed almost apologetic in interviews. WK Critics weren’t too kind in judging the album. All Music Guide’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine said, “The record stands as one of the weakest albums Bowie ever recorded.” AMG Rolling Stone said “this album is a throwaway, and David Bowie knows it.” WK Stylus magazine did, however, say “It’s a much better album than you think it is” and that even though it isn’t a great album, it is a good one. WK The New Statesmen’s Yo Zushi said, “no album that begins with the seven-minute masterpiece ‘Loving the Alien’ and contains the rocking ‘Blue Jean’ should have received the drubbing it got.” WK Notes: “As the World Falls Down,” from the Labyrinth soundtrack, and singles “This Is Not America” (with Pat Metheny – from the soundtrack for The Falcon & the Snowman) and “Absolute Beginners” (from the soundtrack of the same name) were added to the Virgin Records CD reissue. |
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First posted 2/20/2008; last updated 8/2/2021. |
Saturday, September 22, 1984
Stevie Wonder’s The Woman in Red charted
The Woman in Red (soundtrack) |
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Charted: September 22, 1984 Peak: 4 US, 14 RB, 2 UK, 4 CN, 4 AU Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.3 UK, 8.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: R&B |
Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts.
Total Running Time: 41:19 |
Rating: 2.724 out of 5.00 (average of 11 ratings)
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About the Album:
1984 was a good year for Stevie Wonder. Detroit gave him the key to the city and he considered a run for mayer. He played harmonica on “I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues,” Elton John’s biggest hit in 4 years. Wonder released the biggest single of his career with I Just Called to Say I Love You. It became one of Britain’s ten largest-selling singles of all time. The song also won the Oscar for Best Song, but Wonder evoked some anger in dedicating the award to Nelson Mandella. South African radio stations responded by banning his music.
The parent album did well commercially, reaching #4 in the U.S. and going platinum, and also becoming Wonder’s first #1 in the UK. However, the album – a soundtrack to a Gene Wilder comedy – still frustrated fans and critics who didn’t rate it amongst his best material. All Music Guide’s William Ruhlmann said it was “less than a full-fledged Wonder record,” AMG which was a disappointment to fans who’d already waited four years for an entire album’s worth of new material. Ruhlmann said that even “I Just Called to Say I Love You” was a “sappy” AMG and “formulaic TV commercial-in-the-making.” AMG
The album did produce a second top-20 hit, Love Light in Flight and the single Don’t Drive Drunk. The U.S. Department of Transportation used the latter as a Drunk Driving Prevention public service announcement the following year. WK
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First posted 6/20/2008; last updated 8/3/2021. |
Friday, September 14, 1984
Madonna performed “Like a Virgin” at the MTV Video Awards
:format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-138918-1329937096.jpeg.jpg) | Like a VirginMadonna |
Writer(s): Billy Steinberg/Tom Kelly (see lyrics here) Released: October 31, 1984 First Charted: November 16, 1984 Peak: 16 US, 15 CB, 15 GR, 13 RR, 29 AC, 9 RB, 3 UK, 11 CN, 15 AU, 4 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 2.14 US, 0.93 UK, 6.0 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 136.85 video, 276.59 streaming |
Awards:Click on award for more details. 
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About the Song:One could potentially mark September 14, 1984 as the date when Madonna became a superstar. Over the last year, she’d had three top twenty Billboard pop hits with “Holiday,” “Borderline,” and “Lucky Star.” However, the title track from her sophomore album launched her into the stratosphere. She premiered the song on the aforementioned date at the first MTV Video Music Awards. When she writhed on the floor in a wedding dress, the world took notice of her no-holds-barred sexuality. It was “one of the seminal moment in the history of MTV” SF and “one of the most iconic pop performances of all time.” WK The song wasn’t originally written for Madonna, or even a female singer. Lyricist Billy Steinberg wrote the song from personal experience. He said it wasn’t about truly being a virgin, but about the positive feeling that came with a new relationship. Madonna also denied that the song was about sex, saying, “It means a woman who has obviously been mistreated and kind of looked over and not treated well.” SJ Steinberg also said the song started as a “sensitive ballad” RC but it didn’t work when Tom Kelly, the song’s co-writer, tried to put it to music. The pair also found success with “So Emotional” by Whitney Houston, “Alone” by Heart, “Eternal Flame” by the Bangles, and “True Colors” by Cyndi Lauper. Kelly started playing the bass line and sang with “a falsetto, almost Motown inspired vocal” RC and Steinberg said, “Yeah, that’s it.” RC At a meeting with Warner Brothers Record’s Michael Ostin, Steinberg and Tom Kelly, the song’s co-writer, played a demo of the song and told him they weren’t sure who it would fit. Ostin happened to have a meeting with Madonna the next day and thought it would be perfect for her. FB Ostin said, she “went crazy, and knew instantly it was a song for her.” WK Madonna said, “I certainly wasn’t a virgin, and, by the way, how can you be like a virgin? I liked the play on words; I thought they were clever.” WK She said she never realized it would become one of her signature songs. WK Producer Nile Rodgers gave the song “a masterful pop sheen,” TC bring in bassist Bernard Edwards and drummer Tony Thompson, his bandmates from Chic (“Le Freak,” “Good Times”). Rodgers didn’t want Madonna to record the song initially. He didn’t think the title was, as he told the Los Angeles Times, “the all-time catch phrase. But after about four days I couldn’t get the song out of my head.” FB Audiences couldn’t get it out of their heads either. “Like a Virgin” became her first of twelve #1 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 and the biggest song of 1984. CPM Madonna became “an icon to a generation of emancipated women.” TC Resources:
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First posted 11/14/2019; last updated 5/1/2024. |
The First MTV Video Music Awards
 | September 14, 1984The First MTV Video Awards |
Barely three years old, MTV launched its first video music awards in 1984. They handed out the awards on September 14 at New York’s Radio City Music Hall in a show hosted by Bette Midler and Dan Aykroyd. Surprisingly, the big winner of the night was not one of the beloved ‘80s superstars who owed a debt to the power of visual presentation, but a jazz artist born in 1940 who started making music in the 1960s. Herbie Hancock’s ground-breaking and unusual video for “Rock-It” received eight nominations and won Best Concept Video, Most Experimental Video, Best Special Effects, Best Art Direction, and Best Editing. The other most-nominated video of the night was “Every Breath You Take” by The Police. It would only take home the prize for Best Cinematography. The song, however, would go on to rank in the top 5 of all time according to Dave’s Music Database and tops the list of Radio’s Most Played Songs in History. Cyndi Lauper was the most nominated artist of the night with nine nominations – six for “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” and three for “Time After Time.” She took home the prize for Best Female Video for “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” The Cars received six nominations for “You Might Think.” They only took home one Moon Man award (the nickname for the astronaut statuette inspired by MTV’s then logo), but it was the biggie – Video of the Year. Michael Jackson – the man who may have most benefited from MTV – was nominated for six awards for “Thriller,” winning for Best Overall Performance, Best Choreography, and Viewers’ Choice. It tops the Dave’s Music Database list of The Top 100 Videos of All Time. Other awards went to David Bowie (Best Male Video for “China Girl”), the Eurythmics (Best New Artist for “Sweet Dreams Are Made of This”), and Van Halen (Best Stage Performance for “Jump”). ZZ Top took home the prizes for Best Group Video (“Legs”) and Best Direction (“Sharp Dressed Man”). Bowie and ZZ Top were among the night’s performers, which also included Huey Lewis & the News, Ray Parker Jr., Rod Stewart, Tina Turner, and – most notably – Madonna. She launched her first single, “Like a Virgin,” from her sophomore album with a much-talked about performance in which she emerged from a wedding cake and writhed on the floor in a risqué wedding dress. It was arguably the moment when she became a superstar. Note: six of the videos which won awards that night appear on the DMDB list of the top 100 videos of all time: “Thriller” (#1), “Every Breath You Take” (25), “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” (29), “Sweet Dreams Are Made of This” (34), “You Might Think” (40), and “Rock-It” (43). For more important days in music history, check out the Dave’s Music Database history page. Resources and Related Links:
First posted 9/14/2012; updated 9/10/2023. |
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