We’re quickly closing in on the letter I, but we’ve still got some H to enjoy before we get there, so let’s continue with a look at the lower 60 percent of the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the ’80s.

High Inergy
“He’s a Pretender” — 1983, #82 (download)

Could this be the first time we’ve started off with a funk track? It seems like more often than not, the first song in the post is pretty crappy, so I’m excited to get a good one. High Inergy was a four-woman group on Motown. They had their biggest hits in the late ’70s, and did pretty well for themselves on the R&B charts (nine charting songs). This was their third and final trip into the Hot 100, and their only Hot 100 song in this decade.

Dan Hill
“Never Thought (That I Could Love)” — 1987, #43 (download)

Dan Hill had been releasing albums since 1975 at this point, but hadn’t had a US hit on any chart since 1978. His biggest ’80s hit, “Can’t We Try,” was released right before “Never Thought” and these became his only two hot 100 hits in the decade. He did have five more adult contemporary hits after this, however. Both of his ’80s hits were from his self-titled 1987 album. That was his second self-titled record, coming 12 years after the first one, a scenario I like to call “the career restart.”

Eric Hine
“Not Fade Away” — 1981, #73 (download)

A tough to find 45 in my collection. As far as I can tell, this single (a poor cover of the 1957 Crickets tune) was Eric Hine’s only release on a small label called Montage Records. He went on to engineer and mix some music no one has heard, and rereleased this song in 1984 on Line Records.

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