Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009

Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 67

by Dave Steed

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Well, here’s another week of the letter P. And while I hate to say it up front, I think this might be the weakest post of the series.

I know that’s not the best way to promote something, but since it’s alphabetical here at Bottom Feeders, it’s all just luck of the draw, and we all know bad weeks are going to come along now and again. I’m curious to see what you’ll think of it. Let’s get started with more of the songs that charted at #41 or lower on the Billboard Hot 100 during the 1980s.

dolly-partonDolly Parton
“But You Know I Love You” — 1981, #41 (download)
“The House of the Rising Sun” — 1981, #77 (download)
“I Will Always Love You” — 1982, #53 (download)
“Save the Last Dance for Me” — 1983, #45 (download)
“Downtown” — 1984, #80 (download)

Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers
“The Greatest Gift of All” — 1984, #81 (download)
“Real Love” — 1985, #91 (download)

How could you not love Double-D, as I like to call her? Okay, so there are plenty of other ways to look at breasts that might be more interesting than these, but as a kid growing up in the ‘80s, I knew nothing of Dolly Parton’s except for “9 to 5” and ginormous cans. But I have to give respect to Miss Dolly as she’s had a great career and despite making traditional country (something I have no interest in) she made it quite tolerable.

If I’m not mistaken, “The Greatest Gift of All” might be the first Christmas song in this series.

The Pasadenas
“Tribute (Right On)” — 1989, #52 (download)

It’s not a shocker that the Pasadenas never blew up. Their music is more ‘60s and ‘70s soul than ‘80s. And while this song (thankfully not a mash-up of hits) is actually damn good, it was about 9 years too late to be a major hit for them. If this had been released in ’80 or ’81, I have no doubt this would have gone top 10.

Robbie Patton
“Smiling Islands” — 1983, #52 (download)

Robbie Patton’s major breakthrough was in 1979 when Fleetwood Mac asked him to open up for them on tour. After that Christine McVie played keyboards and produced both his solo records and Stevie Nicks sang on “Smiling Islands” which was his second and final Hot 100 hit. Stevie’s contribution to this track actually makes it worse in my opinion.

Henry Paul Band
“Keeping Our Love Alive” — 1981, #50 (download)

Henry Paul was an initial member of the second incarnation of the Outlaws, in the early ‘70s. He left the band around ’79 or so and formed the Henry Paul Band which yielded only this one hit (maybe because everyone was deaf after the ear-bleeding falsettos at the end of this track). In ’92 he teamed up with Van Stephenson to form the country band Blackhawk.

Teddy Pendergrass
“Can’t We Try” — 1980, #52 (download)
“Love TKO” — 1980, #44 (download)
“You’re My Latest, My Greatest Inspiration” — 1982, #43 (download)
“Hold Me” — 1984, #46 (download)
“Joy” — 1988, #77 (download)

Growing up in Philadelphia, I remember the Teddy Pendergrass story vividly. My mom talked to me about “TP” being on Lincoln Drive in Philadelphia when his brakes failed and he plowed into a tree, paralyzing him from the waist down. And I guess I heard so much about it that I always thought he had a bigger career than he really did. Granted, he had a ton of hits on the R&B charts, but his only Top 40 entries after he left Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes were 1978’s “Close the Door,” which reached #25, and “Two Hearts,” a Stephanie Mills duet that hung around at #40 for two weeks in the summer of ‘81. Key tracks here are “Love TKO,” one of his best minor hits, and “Hold Me,” a duet with Whitney Houston from his 1984 album Love Language that also appeared on her self-titled debut a year later.

Pendulum
“Gypsy Spirit” — 1980, #89 (download)

Here’s another one of those songs that if you look on ‘80s message boards, collectors will always list. “Gypsy Spirit” is an impossible to find 45 on Venture records. And while I do own a copy of the single, I’ve never seen a copy of their album Just Bitchin’. A quick ebay search yields neither result. And if you’re thinking this is a pretty shitty sounding MP3 — well, the actual record doesn’t sound much better than that and I’m listening to a copy that’s as mint as you are going to find these days.

Pepsi & Shirlie
“Heartache” — 1987, #78 (download)
“All Right Now” — 1988, #66 (download)

Background singers made good – these two ladies were both backing singers for Wham! early on in their career. Shirlie’s original partner was Dee C. Lee, who also sang for Wham! before marrying Paul Weller and singing backing vocals for the Style Council. Both these tracks come off their lone ‘80s record which shares the title of the Free cover song here.

Bernadette Peters
“Dedicated to the One I Love” — 1981, #65 (download)

Bernadette Peters may be a great Broadway actress but he voices translates better on stage than on disc. This is a pretty tepid version of a song that’s been done by many artists, most famously the Shirelles and the Mamas & the Papas.

QUICK HITS
Best song: Dolly Parton, “I Will Always Love You”
Worst song: Pendulum, “Gypsy Spirit”

TOP 40 ONLY
Partland Brothers (1); Peaches & Herb (1); Leslie Pearl (1); Pebbles (2); Nia Peeples (1); Steve Perry (5)

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 7:30 am and is filed under Bottom Feeders, Featured, Featured - Frontpage, Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • MichaelFortes
    Again... the Pasadenas' "Right On," didn't go top 40, so that begs the question, how the HELL do I know that song?? It obviously wasn't from listening to AT40 on Sundays. Anyway, I remember it fairly well, and it actually sounds way better to me now than it did back then. I thought it was just OK in '89, but now? I wanna hear the rest of the album!
  • luffy66
    Bernadette Peters always cried when she sang, which was very disturbing.

    That Pasadenas song had to be in a movie that I saw 50 times because I remember it too.
  • thefxc
    Did you purposefully stop at Bernadette Peters to ensure that this would be the weakest Bottom Feeders ever? The Pet Shop Boys would have redeemed it!
  • JPH
    shouldn't Pet Shop Boys come BEFORE Peters?
  • kingofgrief
    Not if you eliminate the spaces:

    PETERS
    PETSHOP

    See?

    [BTW, I hit the "like" button by accident. I appreciate your input nonetheless.]
  • And I eliminate the spaces...which explains it away. I just try to cut it off as close to 20 as I can without going over...exact science this is not. But I'm sure there was some part of me that strangely enjoyed ending it here too.
  • The Man I Used To Be
    Growing up in Philly as well, I agree with you 100% about Teddy P. The crash was a bigger moment then his solo career. Thanks to that crash, I learned at about the ripe young age of 10, what a "tranny" was. It was rumored at the time that TP was driving around with a tranny entertainer who was not injured in the crash. Thanks Channel 6.

    I remember that and his performance at Live Aid which was pretty solid. Could not sing one of his tunes though.
  • ElCartero
    And remember that he was the reason Whitney Houston was denied a Best New Artist Grammy back in '85 -- under the old rules, her duet performance on that one '84 song ("Hold Me") disqualified her, and created an uproar that led to the rules being loosened up.
  • And boy, are they wayyyyy loose now.
  • that's what she said.
  • Dexter "Stovetop" Stuffins
    "Growing up in Philly as well, I agree with you 100% about Teddy P. The crash was a bigger moment then his solo career."

    The crash overshadowed his solo career? Maybe if you're WHITE.

    Because Teddy was an unavoidable fact of life on the black charts, back in the late seventies and early eighties; he had several major hit singles in that field. If he were to do a concert somewhere in his wheelchair, you can bet that the audience would be yelling for more songs BESIDES "Close The Door." Give the man credit; he had a career, he wasn't Jive Bunny & the Mastermixers.

    Not to start a flame war or anything, but you can't judge soul, country and album-oriented artists by their one token pop hit. I love this column, but I've noticed time and time again that if a MAJOR soul/country/album act only charts once or twice, Steed always treats them like some obscurity from the woods, even if they had their biggest successes elsewhere. Jimi Hendrix was one of the biggest sellers ever, and he had exactly ***one*** single in the Top 40 in the US. But while he was alive, his albums were consistently in the Top 10, so he wasn't exactly unknown...

    Despite that, I am STILL a big fan of Bottom Feeders and read it every week, so I hope this isn't taken as a knock! Keep 'em coming...
  • The Man I Used To Be
    Wait - Steve Perry had FIVE solo Top 40 Hits in the 80s? Oh my, what a bad decade.
  • :::theroux
    I just couldnt ever get into Pepsi & Shirley. I much preferred Fresca & Laverne.
  • Wakka wakka!
  • Ray
    Ba-da-boom, Tishhhhhhhhh

    I have a copy of the Pepsi and Shirlie single "All Right Now" (with picture sleeve), but NOT for the A-side. The B-side was a non-album track called "(Each Time) Feels Like the First Time", which actually got a little bit of airplay for a couple weeks on late 80s hit station Z95 in Chicago, although it never charted. If you have a copy of the single, flip it over and give the B-side a spin; while it's admittedly nothing special, it's certainly light years better than the A-side.
  • kingofgrief
    "I have to give respect to Miss Dolly as she’s had a great career and despite making traditional country (something I have no interest in) she made it quite tolerable."

    But when you think about it, Dolly's made plenty of records outside the confines of trad country. I doubt some of these covers (or "9 to 5", for that matter) would have gotten any country airplay if her name wasn't attached to it. "Save the Last Dance for Me" especially was a grab for pop radio. And who can forget that disco remix of "Baby I'm Burnin'" on pink vinyl? (Points deducted for the lyric change in "Downtown". I know the gentle bossa nova had fallen out of favor with dance crowds by then, but show some decorum!)

    Shirlie Holliman (now Mrs. Martin [Spandau Ballet] Kemp) was HOT. I'll betcha she still is. Doesn't make the P&S material any better. I'll bet the composers of "Heartache" were listening to old Bonnie Tyler singles and Thriller at the time of the song's creation.

    For the first week since I began adding my .02, I ain't got much...I'm saving the Teddy cuts for nighttime for better ambiance. You'll get 'em next week, Steed. Neil and Chris will see to it.
  • Well, sure - I mean, I know she had some pop records as well but even those that weren't somehow don't bother me. I mean, I can't listen to a Conway Twitty record for more than 3 minutes, but I could sit through a Dolly record. Maybe not enjoy it, but not hate it either. I'd love to travel back to say '81 or '82 and listen to country radio and see what the climate was like. I open up the Billboard country book and it looks like every artist in the history of country music is in there - but I'd be curious how many new bands broke the trad. country mold at that time and got significant airplay. (This of course doesn't interest me enough to pry that book back open anytime soon though)

    PS: Next week is a great week.
  • mjheyliger
    That Pasadenas record was a gem. I remember the video-they all had this retro-greaser look, which I found interesting at the time...they looked like a bunch of black Fonzies. Actually, I think the song was released a year or two too early...they just missed out on the Brit-soul wave that spawned Soul II Soul and Lisa Stansfield, among others.

    Teddy P. was never a big pop radio guy, but he was inescapable on R&B radio when I was a kid. He was one of those guys (Gerald LeVert also comes to mind) that was HUGE in the R&B world (I even remember him co-hosting the American Music Awards in 1980 or 1981) but just couldn't cross over.
  • Well, we're both in agreement they missed their time at least - 8 years too late or 2 years too early.
  • jamesballenger
    Although I am familiar with Teddy Pendergrass as a musician, I always think of him because of Eddie Murphy's Delirious. "You got, you got what I need!"
  • JonCummings
    That Henry Paul track got a lot of airplay in southwestern Virginia at the time. Thanks for the (not-so-great) memory...and it's nice to hear Robbie Patton's voice again. "Don't Give It Up" was a really nice song; I still have my single of it.

    I believe I may have already told my Dolly Parton story (maybe during Mellomas), about how my college girlfriend announced to our Rhetoric of Popular Music class that she'd always respected Dolly because "she has a lot of class." To which the professor responded, as he usually did when somebody said something outlandish, by pointing his finger at her and snidely asking, "Where are you from?"
  • rob
    I really like Dolly's duet with Norah Jones on her (Norah's) second album, "Creeping In." It's a match that works better than you might think.

    Do I now admit that I've been to Dollywood and actually enjoyed aspects of it? Of course, my then-wife had me come along as part of a press trip.

    "You’re My Latest, My Greatest Inspiration” is the basis for one of my favorite rap songs, "Higher" by Do or Die featuring Kanye West and (I believe) Twista. They ramp up the gospel choir at the end, which really lifts it up the ground (pun intended) Plus, they get props for actually mentioning Teddy in the lyrics, which most rappers don't do when they rip off an old song (Kanye included).

    Here's the video with the requisite scantily clad women – so I guess it's NSFW)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN3Fk5FPodI
  • yeah, this weak is definitely week. Er, this week is definitely weak. You know what I mean. Man, last week kinda sucked too.

    I'm not extensively familiar with Teddy Pendergrass' solo material, though I do like his voice. Huge, huge, HUGE Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes fan though. They played the first concert I ever saw live (along with Robert Hazard-RIP- and the Heroes) way back in 1986, at the grand, majestic, Live Aid hosting JFK Stadium (also RIP) but I find myself listening to their stuff a whole lot even these days. I couldn't name one Teddy solo song off the top of my head though, other than "Hold Me" which was my parents' (mom and stepdad technically) wedding song. They got divorced 16 or so years later. EPIC FAIL. I blame Whitney Houston, personally.

    I honestly can't say a word about anything else this week. Pet Shop Boys in 7 days?
  • Pet Shop Boys in 7 days. Man, there's a lot of people looking forward to them. Don't screw this up Steed.
  • The Pasadenas track made the top 10 in the UK in 1988.

    It's a good enough record but it tells you everything you need to know about the state of pop here in the late 80s.
  • I can't believe that Pepsi & Shirlie had TWO top 100 songs in the US! They were the bee's knees in the UK, but I thought they totally flopped here (well, I guess they sort of still did). And for good reason, they were pretty weak. I'm surprised you didn't have their version of All Right Now as your worst song. Ugh. And I was going to feature them on my blog, but now that I see they actually managed a couple semi-hits, they may not qualify... Oh, and they did release a second album in the UK:

    http://www.discogs.com/Pepsi-Shirlie-Change/rel...
  • Tanno
    I'm a little late to the party -- and having great fun listening/downloading these. Am I right in thinking that only the current and previous weeks are available? I'm checked parts 64 on down and the links all seem to be dead.
  • Actually, right now - only this week is available. Songs stay up for a week, give or take a day or two.
    Still have plenty of the alphabet to go though!
  • Tanno
    Is there a Torrent?
  • Anybody else hear a little "No One is to Blame" in Dolly's "But You Know I love You?"
  • "No One is To Blame" is my favorite song in the history of the world! I don't hear it.
  • kingofgrief
    I do! It's in the chord progression for the verse. Sing the first verse of "No One..." over the first verse of "But You Know..." and it should get clearer.

    The intro to "But You Know..." always makes me think of the Marshall Tucker Band's "Can't You See". Must be the flute.
  • Elaine
    Is it just me or did Madonna ..borrow... from Gypsy Spirit for her song Fighting Spirit? Or is this common knowledge and I'm just late?
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