Let’s hop right into the music this week and stray all over the map within the borders of the letter J, looking at songs that charted no higher than #41 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the 1980s.
Garland Jeffreys
“96 Tears” — 1981, #66 (download)
Garland Jeffreys had been putting out music since 1969 with little success, though he had a non-charting yet popular song in 1973 called “Wild in the Streets.” His 1980 album Escape Artist yielded “96 Tears”, his only charting song.
Jellybean
“The Real Thing” — 1987, #82 (download)
John “Jellybean” Benitez had three songs on the Hot 100, the most well known being ’85s “Sidewalk Talk” written by and featuring Madonna on the chorus. Jellybean’s solo career consisted of using other artists as vocalists and apparently on quite a few occasions, “using” should be in quotes. On the cover of the “Sidewalk Talk” single he made prominent mention of Madonna writing it though didn’t bother to credit the main female singer, Catherine Buchannan. He’s also sold the rights to some of his songs without the knowledge of the singer on the track, most famously with his track “Love’s Gonna Get You” which featured Jocelyn Brown singing “It’s getting kind of heavy” which would be the prominent line in Snap’s song, “The Power” in 1990. “The Real Thing” is the most generic of his three solo hits, this one featuring singer Steven Dante.
Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson
“Just to Satisfy You” — 1982, #52 (download)
Billed as Waylon & Willie on the single, this is a nice modern remake of a track Waylon released back in 1969 on his album of the same name. I’m no Willie Nelson fan, but I think this is one of his best in the decade.
