Darren Robbins: This song was the exact turning point for Adams. Up until then, his music has a certain us-against-them quality. While “Run To You” is not a bad song per se, it and the entirety of Reckless (the album on which it appears) is much too polished for my taste.

I like to think that if time travel really were possible, the first thing I’d do is travel back in time and tell Bryan Adams 1984 that I have two songs I’d like to play for him: “All For Love” & “I Wanna Be Your Underwear”. Why, you ask? Because I wanna see Bryan 1984 wrinkle his nose and shout profanities and struggle to find the “off” button before being subjected to another note, all the while trying to keep his lunch down. By doing so, I think I could make the world a better place for everyone.

Dw. Dunphy: About a year ago I got the Live Aid DVD set. I was flipping through chapters and somehow landed on Bryan Adams. Not literally, of course, ’cause I’d have killed him. (Ba-doo-sha! Try the brisket!) At any rate, my brother John walked into the room intrigued. Then he noticed what he was hearing and said, “Oh, I forgot Bryan Adams used to be a rock guy.” And with that one statement the entirety of the Reckless album was put into perspective.

Beau Dure: The first Bryan Adams song I heard was “Cuts Like a Knife.” Good solid rock song. He has spent the rest of his life slowly and painfully sliding into uselessness.

Maybe not that slowly — “Summer of ‘69″ makes me wish the electric guitar had never been invented. (more…)

We’re going to jump right into the songs this week as we have an extended post in order to finish up the letter E in just two weeks. Enjoy the 26 tracks below as we continue digging through the bottom of the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

Dave Edmunds
“Almost Saturday Night” — 1981, #54 (download)
“High School Nights” — 1985, #91 (download)

I’d love to hear a remastered version of “Almost Saturday Night.” It’s a good song written by John Fogerty, but it would be nice to see how great it would be with better production. “Almost Saturday Night” was off Twangin …, which would be Edmunds’s final album with his group Rockpile. In 1985 Edmunds put together the Porky’s Revenge soundtrack, which included the theme song “High School Nights.”

Dennis Edwards
“Don’t Look Any Further” — 1984, #72 (download)

This is an absolute classic R&B song from Edwards — one the lead singers of the Temptations. This is another one of those ‘80s R&B tracks that I feel has been used in a billion samples in the past few decades. The only one I can pick out off hand is 2Pac’s “Hit ‘Em Up” but I know there must be more. It was actually covered unnecessarily in 1988 by the Kane Gang. The female voice in this is an artist we will get to very shortly - Siedah Garrett.

Walter Egan
“Fool Moon Fire” — 1983, #46 (download)

Walter Egan is pretty much known for one song, 1978’s “Magnet and Steel” but this cool track was his fourth and final charting single. According to the ”official” Walter Egan website this song charted in the Top 40. Who am I to call bullshit on that? Wait, I guess by posting this I’m doing just that.

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