Fifty years ago, I made my first appeared on the Earth. In celebration, we are going to take a look at the year-end Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for each year of my life and see what songs resonated with me at the time and if they continue to do so to this day.
We continue our look back at the music of my lifetime with 1982, the year I moved from second to third grade and turned 8. Given my late-October birthday. Songs from movies would be the only ones I knew from their original release. Only 29 of the Hot 100 are familiar to me now, with 20 of them appearing in my collection in one way or another.
#96: Loverboy – Working for the Weekend
iTunes stats: N/A
The first single from the group’s second album, it topped out at #29 but was eventually ranked #100 on VH1’s 100 Greatest Songs of the 80s.
#91: Kim Wilde – Kids in America
iTunes stats: 15 plays
Released a year earlier in the UK, this first single from Wilde peaked at #25 on the Hot 100 despite heavy radio play and acclaim on MTV.
#88: Van Halen – Oh, Pretty Woman
iTunes stats: 12 plays
Intended as a non-album single before the band went on a planned hiatus, it became their second Top 20 hit, reaching #12.
#87: The Go-Go’s – Vacation
iTunes stats: 17 plays
Peaking at #8, the song was the group’s second, and final, top ten hit.
#79: The Police – Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
iTunes stats: 21 plays
Originally written for a 1976 demo, the tune topped out at #3 on the Hot 100.
#78: Joan Jett & The Blackhearts – Crimson and Clover
iTunes stats: 10 plays
This cover of the Tommy James and the Shondells hit from 1968 reached #7 on the chart, the band’s second-highest charting single.
#75: Laura Branigan – Gloria
iTunes stats: 13 plays
Originally written and recorded as an Italian love song in 1979, Branigan’s reworking of the tune spent three weeks at #2 late in 1982.
#73: Journey – Don’t Stop Believin’
iTunes stats: 143 plays
Peaking at #8 on the Mainstream Rock chart and #9 on the Hot 100, the song gained a second life in the 21st century thanks to, among others, the final episode of The Sopranos and, locally, its use by the 2005 World Series Champion Chicago White Sox.
#68: Jackson Browne – Somebody’s Baby
iTunes stats: 17 plays
Recorded for the Fast Times at Ridgemont High soundtrack, the song reached #7, becoming Browne’s highest charting hit and his final top ten.
#63: The Go-Go’s – Our Lips Are Sealed
iTunes stats: 17 plays
The band’s debut single, it peaked at #20, but spent 30 weeks on the Hot 100.
#40: Asia – Heat of the Moment
iTunes stats: N/A
The debut single from the English progressive rock supergroup spent six non-consecutive weeks atop the Mainstream Rock chart while stalling out #4 on the Hot 100.
#34: Journey – Open Arms
iTunes stats: 14 plays
Featured on the Heavy Metal soundtrack, the song spent six weeks at #2 in early 1982.
#32: The Alan Parsons Project – Eye in the Sky
iTunes stats: 12 plays
Paired with the instrumental piece Sirius, used by the Chicago Bulls for decades, on the album, this became the group’s most successful release, peaking at #3 in October.
#30: Men at Work – Who Can It Be Now?
iTunes stats: 12 plays
The track hit #1 in the US more than a year after its original release in the band’s native Australia.
#25: The Go-Go’s – We Got the Beat
iTunes stats: 20 plays
The group’s biggest hit, it spent three weeks at #2.
#22: Willie Nelson – Always on My Mind
iTunes stats: 18 plays
Originally recorded by Brenda Lee in 1972, Nelson’s version raced to the top of the Hot Country Singles chart in May, while reaching #5 on the Hot 100 and charting for 23 weeks.
#19: Foreigner – Waiting for a Girl Like You
iTunes stats: 18 plays
The single, from the band’s fourth studio album, spent a record-setting ten weeks at #2 without rising to the top of the charts.
#16: Tommy Tutone – 867-5309/Jenny
iTunes stats: 20 plays
The troublesome track, at least for people who shared a phone number with the titular Jenny, peaked at #4.
#14: Toto – Rosanna
iTunes stats: N/A
Winner of the 1983 Grammy for Record of the Year, it spent five weeks at #2.
#11: Soft Cell – Tainted Love
iTunes stats: 13 plays
Originally recorded by Gloria Jones in 1964, the cover initially looked to be a bust, nearly falling out of the Hot 100 after just six weeks, but it rebounded, cracking the Top 40 after 19 weeks and eventually making it to #8.
#9: Steve Miller Band – Abracadabra
iTunes stats: N/A
The group’s final top ten hit, it spent two non-consecutive weeks atop the charts.
#8: John Cougar – Hurts So Good
iTunes stats: N/A
Peaking at #2, it spent 16 weeks in the top ten, the longest tenure for any song released in the 80s.
#7: John Cougar – Jack & Diane
iTunes stats: N/A
Chosen by the RIAA as one of the Songs of the Century, it sat on top of the charts for four weeks.
#6: The Human League – Don’t You Want Me
iTunes stats: N/A
The band’s best known and most commercially successful song, it spent three weeks atop the Hot 100 in July.
#5: The J. Geils Band – Centerfold
iTunes stats: 17 plays
The lead single from the group’s tenth album, it held the top spot on the charts for six weeks in late winter.
#4: Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder – Ebony and Ivory
iTunes stats: N/A
Banned in South Africa after Wonder dedicated it to Nelson Mandela at the 1984 Oscars, it spent seven weeks at #1.
#3: Joan Jett & The Blackhearts – I Love Rock ‘n Roll
iTunes stats: 22 plays
Originally recorded by the Arrows in 1975, Jett’s version spent seven weeks atop the charts, becoming her only #1 hit.
#2: Survivor – Eye of the Tiger
iTunes stats: 34 plays
Written for Rocky III, the track, which won a Grammy and was nominated for an Oscar, spent fifteen weeks in the top ten, six of which were at the top of the charts.
#1: Olivia Newton-John – Physical
iTunes stats: N/A
Originally written for Rod Stewart, Newton-John’s biggest hit lasted ten weeks at #1 on the Hot 100, the longest stretch of any song in the 80s.