The Ben Maynard Program

EP. 117 We Revisit January 1980’s Billboard Hits And Build The Ultimate Playlist

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Ready for a time machine that still grooves? We kick off the year by rewinding to the Billboard Hot 100 from the first week of January 1980 and taking a lively, story-rich tour through the songs that defined a moment when radio rotation and word of mouth made hits last. From the O’Jays’ soulful return to Blackfoot’s Southern crunch, from ABBA’s elegant sweep to the Sugarhill Gang’s breakthrough Rapper’s Delight, every stop on this countdown reveals how different genres shared the same stage.

We dig into why certain tracks climbed for months, how a duet like Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer rocketed to number one, and what made bands like the Eagles, Supertramp, and Fleetwood Mac soar even as internal tensions rose. You’ll hear the case for Tom Petty’s Damn the Torpedoes era, the debut power of Mickey Thomas on Jefferson Starship’s Jane, and the velvet glide of Smokey Robinson’s Cruisin’. Then it’s a top-ten sprint: Cliff Richard’s global smash, the club-shaping joy of Kool and the Gang’s Ladies Night, Kenny Rogers’ story-song mastery, Lionel Richie’s ballad brilliance with the Commodores, and Styx’s tender Babe that almost stayed off the album.

We close with Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall gem Rock With You, Rupert Holmes’ cultural earworm Escape (The Pina Colada Song), and KC and the Sunshine Band’s Please Don’t Go sealing the decade with a soft-voiced number one. Along the way we swap concert notes, playlist tips, and a reminder that charts once rewarded patience and craft. If you love pop history, R&B velvet, AOR hooks, disco shimmer, and the thrill of a great countdown, this ride delivers.

If you had to pick three tracks from this list for the perfect starter playlist, which would you choose? Follow, subscribe, leave a rating, and share this episode with a friend who loves a good musical deep dive. Your picks might show up in a future segment!

Thanks for listening! Follow me on Instagram: benmaynardprogram
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I also welcome your comments. email: pl8blocker@aol.com

SPEAKER_01:

Hey there. Welcome into the Ben Maynard program. Thanks for being here. It's been a little bit, right? Yeah. It's been a couple of weeks. So yeah, let's get into this, all right? But before we do that, before we get started, let's take care of some housekeeping first. All right. Deal. As you guys know, this program is available wherever you get your podcasts. No matter where it is, no matter what streaming service you use, just search the Ben Maynard program. Boom, it's right there. But subscribe to it, download it, share it with your people, all right? Share it with your family and friends. And then you guys can give me a five-star rating too. But if you're watching on YouTube, thank you for doing that. I greatly appreciate it. Again, subscribe to the channel. I need the subscribers. I didn't hit my goal for the end of 2025. So subscribe to the channel, hit the notification bell. You'll get notifications, of course, every time a new episode publishes. Then give me a thumbs up and leave a comment. All right. Last but not least, follow me on Instagram. Simply Ben Maynard program, all one word. Or where I'm a little bit more active, you can follow me on the TikTok. And that is the Ben Maynard program. All right. So there are plenty of ways to take in this show for your dancing and listening pleasure. And like I said, it's been uh a couple of weeks, not by design, that is for sure. Uh I was trying to get this episode, been trying to get this episode out for a week, but um things happen. Uh if you guys watched the last episode of the year, that was with um my good buddies, my good friends, Pepper Ann and Larry Reedy. We had a blast, just you know, just discussion. We're talking about family, talking about friends, talking about just you know, us doing it, doing what it is that we do uh and that type of thing. But um I was I was a little under the weather at that time, and I've been under the weather for geez, well, since before Thanksgiving. So it's been a while. And um last week was was no different. So I rang in the new year lying in bed. It hit me pretty good. Hit me pretty good. I I had to work, and I worked last week, and I worked Monday night, Tuesday night, and Wednesday night, and I wasn't feeling it from the beginning, but but I knew I had to do it, and I was like, okay, I gotta suck it up. And I, you know, I know if I work Wednesday night, I'll have all day Thursday, and I don't have to go back to work till Friday night. So it'll be better than a day and a half. And so I thought, okay, that's cool. I can handle it. So I sucked it up, went to work on uh Wednesday, and just barely made it through my shift, just barely made it, and of course it was the longest night. It was a 14-hour day or night, however you want to look at it. And I'm running a fever and all kinds of stuff, and just wasn't feeling it. So I came home, went to bed, and I was in bed for nearly two days. Um I'm okay. Still got some phlegm. I don't know what it is, but uh no, but I'm doing all right. So thanks for your concern. I appreciate it. Um, yeah, but we're all right, it's all good. But I'm back, back by popular demand, right? So uh yeah, it's kind of too late, you know, to start, you know, to keep saying happy new year. So I'm not gonna do that. But I thought I would ring in the new year with something. Well, just kind of ease us into the new year. So I got a lot of good stuff that I want to go over with you guys. Um, we'll take a trip down memory lane, okay? Uh, but before, you know, last night, I want to tell you about a show I saw last night. Went to um went to a fairly local club, and I saw um I saw Ashley Felton, uh previous guest on this program. She's dynamite. I mean, I have seen her a couple of times, but the the first time I saw her, it was um purely acoustic. This was with the full band, and it was great. She was absolutely dynamite, and she played, she played her, you know, she obviously did some covers, but she played her new stuff as well or and her original stuff too. And man, she just knocked it out of the park. She looked good, she sounded good, the you know, the crowd was into her. So she was great. And Catherine and I, we had a uh just a great time last night. And if you missed that episode, just go back a couple of clicks, you know, and and and and give it a listen, give it a watch, whatever it is. It's Ashley Felton. She's um she's dynamite, she's just great, just a just a great young lady. And uh I hope that she's got a very bright future in the music business. I I I really she's got something. She really does. She really has something. And uh I just Catherine and I, we're just like big cheerleaders for her. We just want nothing but the best for her. She's just such a sweet young lady. Um, so yeah, go check it out. And then you know, you guys, you know, you can download her her stuff. She's got uh she's got her uh her original music on uh I know it's on Apple Music, I'm sure it's on Spotify and some of the other uh streaming platforms. So just check it out. It's Ashley Felton. Check out her stuff. All right. That's it. Enough said. Let's just dive right into this. Um let me make myself a note really quick here. Uh let's see. Let me do something here real fast so I don't forget. I don't want to do it just yet. Uh all right. Boom. All right, made my note. So let's dive into this. How do how about that? Uh and like I said, we're gonna just actually, it's it's really not a dive. It's more like dipping our toes in the water, getting into 2026 here. Um, but it's fun. You guys know I like my pop music, you know I like my top 40, all that um, all that good stuff. So here's what I thought I'd do. I would run down the top 40, the top 40 uh uh billboard songs from the first week of January 1980. Yeah, let's go way back. First week of a new decade. All right, okay, so I made some notes here. Some will be a little longer than others, but uh nonetheless, here it is. Let's have some fun. I'm trying to get I haven't been in the studio uh for a little bit and I can't get myself situated here. I'm just all over the place. So, but I'll do the best I can. All right. So sorry for those of you who are watching, watching me fumble through everything here. At least if you're listening in the car or something, uh, you know, on your on your AirPods or whatever, you don't have to see any of this. Okay, so first week of January 1980. Let's open up with song number 40. This is song number 40 on the Billboard Hot 100. And that song is Forever Mine from the OJs. It's from uh their 13th album, uh Identify. It it's it reaches number four on the RB chart, and it it uh peaks at number 28 on the hot 100. It's a good song. Um, it's it's kind of a comeback. It's their the OJs, I think they were they hadn't had a record out or a song on the charts for I think it was like seven or eight years at that point. So this is a bit of a comeback for them. At number 39, I'd rather leave while I'm in love by Rita Coolidge. Now, I I like some Rita Coolidge. I wasn't real familiar with this song. I kind of remember it going way back when. It um it was uh another bit of a comeback. It reaches number three on the adult contemporary chart. Remember, there's a chart for everything, but it only uh it only tops the the top 40 at number 38. So um so we see it one position away from that. So it's really not going too far. Number 38. This one's a really cool one. Train Train from Blackfoot. Blackfoot's kind of a I don't want to say it's an offshoot of Leonard Skinnard, if you're unfamiliar, but but Ricky Medlock, one of the guitar players in Leonard Skinner, this was his band, and he I left Skinnard for a period of time, started up Blackfoot, so it's that Southern rock. Um, this is a really good one. It's it's written by Ricky's grandfather, Shorty Medlock, but it it peaks right here. It stalls at number 38, so it goes no further. Um, but check it out. Here's what I want you to do. All right, we're only three songs into this, but here's what I want you to do get a pen and paper. All right, you can hit pause and you can go get a pen and paper right now. Start jotting these down and put your own playlist together because this is some some dynamite stuff. It truly is. There's gonna there's it, there's just so much like gold in this um in this top 40 list here. It's it's great, absolutely great. All right, moving uh, moving along, number 37, rappers delight by the Sugar Hill Gang. Oh, I love this song so much. I love this song, it's so good. This was basically the introduction of rap music to a wider audience. You know, it was in the dance clubs a little bit in the in the late 70s, uh, like in the New York area. And uh yeah, this this was such a good song, and there's so much involved in it as well. The um a lot of the music is um it's a couple of different tracks, but primarily it's good times from Sheik. And I believe that song had come out the year previous. And uh so Nile Rogers, when he heard that, I mean he appreciated it, but he went after the guys, and so they kind of had to to to cut a deal to where he'd get some of the publishing on it. Whatever, it's okay, it's all good. It's a great song. You guys know that one. It is so good. And I just it's it's just so fun. And and and to me, like this is this is like my rap music. This is rap music here. Not not a lot of that stuff that you hear today. And I'm not gonna get into it, I'm not gonna go down that road, but you guys know what I'm talking about. Especially if you are my audience, you know what I'm talking about. So this one's at number 37 this week. It's got one more spot to go till it hits its peak. At number 36 is Rotation by Herb Albert. Now, I I know the track, and if you guys know Herb Albert, he's uh he's an instrumentalist. Everything he does is pretty much all instrumental. Uh big time, big time. Herb Albert and the Tijuana brass. But um I just wasn't as familiar with this song, and then I started looking some things up, and it actually here it's here it sits at number 36, but it it peaked at number one on the chart for two weeks in a row in 1979. So here at this point, you see it's making its way back down the chart. Um number 35 is Romeo's tune from Steve Forbert. And some of you guys are probably like, who's Steve Forbert? Well, he basically had like two albums and he was kind of done. But this was his this was his one big hit that he had. It reached number 11, and it's from the album Jack Rabbit Slim. It's a song, it's a song about like fading away from the world, um, and and and into the arms of your lover. The the the it's funny, it's called Romeo's um tune, but or yeah, but the the the song title never appears once in the song lyrics at all. So, but it's a good one. I do like it. And and remember, this is 1980, and it's the first week of 1980, so all of this stuff here was released in 1979 at some point. And I'll get into it a little bit, and you'll get you're gonna get to see the difference in the charts then uh as opposed to to now, um, and how music was so different, how the music business and radio and all that was so different than it is now. But uh so Steve Forbert, you know, uh he's at number 35 right now. At number 34, we see Heartache Tonight from the Eagles. Now, this one was released September 18th, 1979. It peaks at number one, it hits that peak position on November the 10th of 79. So from its release, you see, I mean, it makes a quick climb to number one on the chart. Um, and it just it's it's a really um it's a really cool song. If you guys are fans of the Eagles, it's you know from the long run album. It uh um it's kind of a party country rock groove. So it's just a really good one. Glenn Fry does the lead vocals on it. It's I I like it. I really like the song a lot. Long run's a great album. So but you see it right now uh making its way back down the chart from its number one position. Uh number 33, half the way from Crystal Gale. Now you guys know Crystal Gale. If you don't, you you'll you should remember when I when I explain who Crystal Gale is. She's a country artist, uh, real pretty woman. Hair, like past her waist, like almost to the like backs of her knees, is how long her hair was back then. And I even saw stuff from her, I don't know, maybe within the last 10 years, and her hair was still that long. Amazing, but great voice, and honestly, way bigger than I even thought. Um, this song here, it peaks um uh at number 15. It was released in September of 79. It peaks at number 15, so it's kind of it's kind of coming back down the chart right now. It's it's AC leaning, you know, which like adult contemporary. Um, but like I said, she was way bigger than I thought she was. Um I mean, I knew she was pretty big, but no, no, no, way bigger. I I was looking her up and just the the number of singles. She probably between the 70s and the 80s, she probably she must have had close to 100 singles released. It doesn't mean they're all number ones or or anything or even top tens, but she was huge in the country world for sure. Now it's kind of the point I'm just trying to make, but uh yeah, she was big time. And you guys remember that that um that duet she did with Eddie Rabbit, I think it was around 1982, just you and I. Good stuff, good, good, good, good stuff. All right, at number 32, pop music from M. Now I I I like this song a lot. It's kind of it's kind of new wave, techno, synth pop, a little funkiness to it as well. It it actually hit number one in November of 79. November the 8th of 79. It hit number one. It's uh I it's just a real interesting, cool song. It's a the the um the artist M, he's a British artist. I didn't know that. I honestly didn't know that. Um, but I the lyrics are real just um goofy. I don't want to say goofy, they are unique, and uh there was like one line, it's you know, eny meeny, mining mo, whichever way you want to go, talk about pop music, talk about pop music, so stuff like that, but it's really cool. It is kind of bouncy, kind of bouncy a little bit too. Uh number 31. I hope you guys are jotting these down. Jot them down, all right. Number 31 is Yes, I'm ready from Terry DeSario and KC from Casey in the Sunshine Band. This is a cover of an old Barbara Mason tune from uh 15 years prior, 1965. Right now we see it's making its way up the chart, so it's climbing right now, and it's gonna reach a peak position of number two, and it's gonna stay there for two weeks. Uh, that will be uh that will be in March of 1980, so it's got a little ways to go um till it gets there. What's funny is Casey was producing this. He was like high school friends with uh Terry DeSario, and she was working on an album. Neil Bogart, the president of uh Casablanca Records, her record company, um well had he had signed her to his record company or his record label. But um, so Casey's producing it, and and Neil liked that song a lot, so wanted uh Terry to do it, but he recommended that it be uh presented as a duet. So that's where that idea came from. And if you're not familiar, but some of you will be familiar out there, what's the connection with Neil Bogart? I'll give you three, two, one. Okay. As I said, Neil Bogart, president Casablanca Records. There were a lot of artists on Casablanca Records, but I've said this before at some point. All roads lead back to KISS because that was KISS' record label, and of course, Neil was president back then too. So So yeah, just had to throw that out there. At number 30, Chiquitita, which means I think like pretty little girl or something like that, beautiful little girl. That's from ABBA. It's a really good song. It's got some Latin flavor to it as well. Well, it should, right? I mean, it's a Spanish word. Uh, it was released in January of 1979, but in the US, it wasn't released until October of that year. And unfortunately, this song, and like I said, I think it's dynamite, and ABBA is a fantastic, um, a fantastic group. I don't want to call them a full-on band, but the the the two the two men, or I like former ex-husbands, uh, they uh they do play instruments, but a tremendous vocal group, great voices, great harmonies, and they did write some tremendous stuff. So um, and I do like this one. So it was kind of yeah, kind of uh um sad to see it stalling at number 29. At number 29, this one is Deja Vu from Dion Warwick. It was released in November of 79, and so at this point it's still it's still climbing up the charts. It will tap out though. It will tap out at number 15. The music was written by Isaac Hayes, the book, the um, the lyrics by Adrian Anderson, and the song was produced by Barry Manilo. Good stuff, and it was a bit of a I don't want to say, I don't want to really say a comeback, kind of sort of. It was a a comeback of sorts for Dion, but um yeah, a good song, a good song. And it was the it was the this the the second single from this album, the one prior was the title. It's I think it's I know I'll never love this way again. Something like that. At number 28, third time lucky from Fog Hat. This is a just a ballady song of some uh of sorts. It uh definitely it's not that hard, bluesy rock that you come to expect from Fog Hat. Um, and at this point in 1980, they're kind of on the downside of their heyday. Um, they've already had uh several lineup changes, and uh, but I believe well, I didn't go back and do any of this research, but I can tell you in the 80s, this was the only top 40 song that they had. Umned if I do, from the Alan Parsons project. It's um it's one of the band's um it's one of the band's minor hits by their standards. It uh it hits its peak like right here at uh 27. It doesn't go any higher than this uh before it starts before it starts moving back down the chart. It's a good song. I do like it. Um certainly the Allen Parsons project has put out some great material over the years, um and certainly far better than this, but I do I do like this song. Um moving along to number 20, what is it, number 26? So good, so good. Take the long way home by Super Tramp. It's the fourth single from the Breakfast in America album, the biggest album, biggest album in the band's catalog. It's yeah, it's just uh it was a huge, huge album. And Super Tramp are on the rise uh before they released Breakfast in America. They were rising, they had uh a lot of traction, a lot of popularity, and then released Breakfast in America and just blew up. And what stinks so much is that for a lot of bands, not all of them, but there's a lot of bands that when they hit that moment where they just, you know, for lack of a better term, they just blow up. Well, then like egos start getting in the way and and and um personality start just I don't know, all of a sudden people can't get along. Let's put it let's put it that way. And that was the case with with Supertramp. And the division came between Roger Hodgson and um Rick Davies. So and they were the two primary songwriters, and they were like co-lead singers as well, but but they were still good at this point, and and Breakfast in America was the biggest album of their career. This is a great song. It's a nice bouncy song. It's about you know, it's about the journey of self-discovery. Um, and uh it it it peaks at number 10. So it gets up there pretty good. At number 25, Sarah from the Tusk album, and that is Fleetwood Mac. Now, this is a really, really good song. Um, but it's there's conflicting, um, conflicting stories of the writing or the origin of this song. Um, from like unborn children to infidelity. Um but who who knows? Who knows? Now, eventually the song will uh break the top 10 and it'll peak at number seven. Good song, though. Uh number 24, don't let go by Isaac Hayes. Now, I just mentioned him a short while ago, right? Um, this is a good funky song. Um, and Isaac Hayes, that deep voice. Just a really cool one. It was released um in August of 1979. So right now you see it starting to drop back from its peak position of number 18. At number 23, wait for me from Holland Oates. It's from the album Ecstatic. It um it reaches a high of 18. The uh, in my opinion, I think the better version is the live version from their 1983 Greatest Hits package. It was called Um Rock and Soul Part One. I really like that. And in that live version, uh you get to hear Daryl Hall, uh, you get to hear a lot of his vocal range. He does a really, really good job with that. Good, good song. At number 22, another great song. I mean, come on. So far, there's there are some gems in here. And as we climb higher, I think you'll see it it just gets better and better. But at number 22, don't do me like that from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It's the first single off the uh Damn the Torpedoes album. This was actually my exposure to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. I remember uh for Christmas 1979, uh brother Jim bought albums for my brother Chuck, or our brother Chuck, and I. And Jim bought me Molly Hatchet's uh what was it? I think it was Flirtin' with Disaster. And he bought Chuck, uh Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Damn the Torpedoes. And though I loved the cover of Flirtin with Disaster, I thought it was a dynamite album cover. Molly Hatchet had some great album covers. Um, I always turned to the Tom Petty album. And I I played that thing all the time. Chuck didn't play it, I played it. That was my first exposure. I I I guess I thought it was like a debut album for Tom Petty, but it wasn't. And um, it's a good song. That that whole album, Damn the Torpedoes, is fantastic. It really, really is from start to finish. So, so good. It it at this point here, it's still uh it's still climbing the chart and it will reach its peak position of uh number 10 on the hot 100. So, but good stuff. Good, good, good stuff. I think my favorite song on that album is um Here Comes My Girl. That I think that one's my favorite song. That was so good. So good. It's kind of an album track, but man, that one's a killer one. All right, at number 21. This one is uh another duet. Two top female artists at this time. They're at the top of their game. It's no more tears, and in parentheses, enough is enough. It's a collaboration with uh, or I shouldn't say a collaboration, it's a duet with Barbara Streisand and Donna Summer. And it's it the the song actually was huge, huge song. It entered the Hot 100. Now remember the hot I'm a hundred, okay, a hundred songs. It enters the hot 100 chart at number 59, skips over everything, hits the chart at number 59 on October the 20th, 1979, and it skyrockets, and I literally mean skyrockets to number one by November. It hits number one in November. So in less than a month, it climbs an additional 58 spots to number one on the chart. It uh what's what's kind of unique about it though, it's featured on albums from both of these women. Uh the um the wet album from Barbara Streisand and the Greatest Hits, volume one and two from Donna Summer. I think that's kind of that's kind of different. You don't see that too often. At number 20, you're only lonely from JD Southern. Now, you may or may not recognize the name. You you well, not everybody is a geek like me, but uh you certainly know his voice, you know his his music. You should know this song, especially if you're like my age. It's a good song. It's his only top 10 on the Hot 100. It peaks at number seven. It was released in August of 79, and so right now it's making its way back down uh the chart. But here's the cool thing is is you you see the like the staying power of some of these songs. Uh, and that's why I kind of bring up when they're released, because a song would enter the chart, and you know, it might only move one or two positions, three positions one week, and then the next week it makes a tremendous jump, and then maybe two couple positions the next week. Songs would creep their way up, but even if they didn't creep their way up, they sometimes there were some weeks where they would hold their position from week to week, and then they would start climbing again. And that's how that's just how music was. That's how radio was back then. There was like I like I said, there was staying power with this stuff. It stayed on the charts. It didn't just enter the chart one week, and then three weeks later it's gone, never to be seen again, like a lot of albums do these days. You know, you'll get albums from artists, they pre-sell them, pre-sell them, pre-sell them, they push the pre-sell, and uh they'll enter the chart at number one, number two, whatever it is. And then three weeks later, you can't even find them anymore. They're not on the chart. And that's the way it was with that's the that that's the way it a lot of this stuff is with singles. But back then it just wasn't like that, man. Something would stay on the chart forever. A lot of this stuff did not everything, not everything. There was just some stuff that just came and went, and it was unfortunate because some of it was still really good. But um, and and and JD Souther was he worked with so many, he was kind of one of those uh, I guess you like the I've talked about it before, the California sound, you know, like Jackson Brown, the Eagles, um uh well, JD Southern kind of just a laid-back sound, even to a certain extent, a little bit like you know, even like Kenny Loggins, too. But uh these guys all worked together. They all were co-writing, they were collaborating. They this guy was singing on this guy's stuff and back and forth. And I think on this song, this particular song, you had you had guys like Glenn Fry, Donfel, Don Henley, Jackson Brown, like singing back background vocals and maybe playing a little bit on this song. And JD would do the same. Uh in fact, I think it was like the next year. JD and James Taylor had a big hit with um uh what was it? Uh oh, doggone it, what was it? Something about you, oh, this uh your town? Is it your town or her town? Something like that. Doggone it. Can't think really quick on the fly like this, but this is her town, this is your town, this is my town, something like that. Anyway, it's about a breakup. It is. Um, but it's a good song, too. All right, so moving along at number 19. I want you tonight. I want you tonight. That's the the the line in the the first line in the chorus from Pablo Cruz. Unfortunately, for Pablo Cruz, it peaks right here at number 19. It's from the album Part of the Game. It's a good song. It's it's not it's not my favorite Pablo Cruz song, but it is a good song. Um it's uh and it's a good um, it's a good up-tempo yacht rock song. Um I do like me some Pablo Cruz, though. I really do. I I don't, I think uh what you're gonna do, that might be my favorite, or um what's that other one? Doggone it. I can't remember. It it came like uh a couple years later than uh I think around 1981 or 82. Anyway, but Pablo Cruz stalling at number 19. All right, so at number 18, this is it from brought him up just a minute ago, Kenny Loggins from the album Keep the Fire. It will reach number 11 on the Hot 100. It's co-written by Michael McDonald and all these guys. Again, Michael McDonald's another one. All these guys are contributing on each other's uh albums and songs, co-writing, playing, all that stuff. So Michael McDonald co-writes this song. He also contributes some uh additional um additional vocals to the uh to the track. And you can hear Michael McDonald's voice is so um, it's just so recognizable. Yeah, you can't miss it at all. He he can't get away from from his from himself, really. Sorry, I'm getting a little dry. Let me take a sip real quick. All right, I've been talking a lot. Dead air is always good, isn't it? Please. All right, number 17. Oh, I love this song. It is so good, so good. Um, I wanna be your lover from Prince. Yes, Prince. It's from his second album. This album is self-titled. Um at this point right now, the song is still climbing up the chart, and it will uh it will peak at number 11 and it'll stay there for two weeks before uh slowly making its way back down. But it is such a good song. If you're unfamiliar, go check it out. It's like all sung in falsetto, it's great. Um, and uh I just I just think you guys really dig it. It's not it's and I do like 1999. I like that album, I like the music on that, Purple Rain as well. It's not bad, it's so good though, so good. At number 16, again, love this song. It's Jane from Jefferson Starship. It's from the album Freedom at Point Zero. This is the debut of Mickey Thomas as the lead singer in Jefferson Starship. At this point, Grace Slick, she bows out when I think Marty Ballin left also. And she comes back. I think she comes, she she she only steps away for this album, she comes back on the next one. But uh, this is a really nice debut for Mickey Thomas. And if you're I mean, if you're familiar with Mickey's voice, it's a high voice, it's a strong voice, it is really good, and this is a killer song with killer guitars in it. It's one of my favorite um Jefferson Starship songs. It is my one of my absolute favorite Jefferson Starship songs. And when this every time I hear this song, I have to crank it. I mean, I have to turn it up to 11. So it's just that it's it's it's that good. But it um it's at 16 right now this week in 1980, and it will uh it will uh creep up two more spots and then that's where it's gonna that's where it's gonna stay. At number 15, better luck, uh better love, better love next time from Dr. Hook. Now this um this one reaches number 12 so it's three spots away from from that peak on the hot 100. It's good for soft rock. It's uh I don't I mean I don't hate it um there's other stuff from Dr. Hook and I don't go deep I don't go deep into Dr. Hook but there's other stuff from Dr. Hook that I probably like a little bit better than this one. But you know it's there. And so if I'm putting a playlist together of this stuff it's got to go there. It has to go on the playlist. So don't scratch it off don't refuse to write it down. Make sure you're jotting it down and you you're gonna add it to your uh first week of January 1980 playlist uh let's see oh oh so good so so so good number 14 head games from foreigner it's the second you guys know I love foreigner you know I love my foreigner it's the second single from the album of the same name it's um right here at 14 it you it's sitting right here at it at its peak position it and it is so good it really um Lou Graham really gets to demonstrate his awesome his awesome ability as a lead singer he was just one of the best absolutely one of the best in his heyday and uh yeah so so good and and a good album you know go back go back I don't know what episode it is but go back in my catalog or my library and look at um watch the episode or listen to the episode where I rank all of the foreigner studio albums okay all right get it done get it done that's your homework at number 13 the long run from the Eagles it's the title track it's uh it's the second single and at this point it's it's making its way up the chart um while we saw heartache tonight making its way down but uh uh uh the long run is gonna reach a number eight position it's the the album itself is a it's a great album coming off of uh coming off the heels of putting out one of the biggest selling albums of all time in Hotel California um so it uh but it is it's a great album and and what I guess what kind of makes it uh or what's I don't know what's kind of interesting about the greatness of the album is the fact that the band themselves the band is they're they're imploding when they're when they're recording this album when they're writing and recording they're just coming apart at the scenes and uh and then which is evident because right after the tour they break up so to put out a great album and then you you tour and then it's it you call it quits it did a pretty good job it did a pretty good job number 12 so so good so good it's cruising from Smokey Robinson yes released in August of 1979 at this point here at number 12 it's coming off of its peak position at number four. Again you see released in August we're now in the first week of January and it's just outside the top 10 on its way back down. So that's kind of what I'm my point that I'm I'm trying to make here with how how music was back then and with radio and the top 40 charts and all that just incredible stuff. It really really was and this song here go listen to it please just go you're gonna add it to your playlist anyway but go listen to it and then you gotta just listen to those lyrics I listen to those lyrics they're so gosh smokey so good smokey smoke thank you smokey but it this song just like makes me want to close my eyes and like I picture myself driving this big convertible bomb and if you don't understand what I'm talking about I'm talking about big convertible like Oldsmobile or or or or Chevy Impala or uh Pontiac something like big old bomb 64 65 66 you know right in that area right in that range there you know top down I got my best girl sitting right next to me on the bench seat it's you know and listening to this stuff. Oh so good. It's like music is played for love cruising is made for love. I love it when we're cruising together so good so good we're almost there at number 11 another fantastic song cool change from the Little River Band it's it's the um the second single released from their album First Under the Wire it's going to reach number 10 so we've got one one more spot to go and lead singer to me lean lead singer Glenn Shirac he uh he just gives a a like a very passionate performance on this and what I've always appreciated about um Little River Band is their harmonies. Their harmonies are just out of out of sight. They're out of sight and this is a really really cool song you gotta go check it out. You're gonna have it on your playlist so there you go. Okay so that's cool change from Little River Band. All right we're breaking the top 10 top 10 going fast I love it all right we don't talk anymore from Cliff Richard. Some of you might be saying Cliff who who's Cliff this the the the this song reaches number seven on the hot 100 and it's um it's a good song I like it. Oh I know Cliff Richard okay uh um what's it uh devil woman from like two years prior to this she's just a devil woman with evil on her mind. You know what I'm talking about beware the devil woman she's gonna get you okay you probably know that one anyway this is Cliff's number one selling single worldwide sold uh like over four million copies um and and cliff I didn't know this I mean I found it out obviously like in in the early 80s but I didn't know it at the time he was a British artist and though his career was not as big here in the United States he did have some he did have some big hits he really did and he still had uh even after this one he had I think two maybe two or three more uh top 40 hits in fact I think they were all top 20 hits um but Cliff Richard was enormous in the UK enormous and I mean he he was as far as like record sales and all that he's he's number three behind Elton John oh no I'm sorry not Elton John um the Beatles and Elvis that's it that's how big Cliff Richard was huge um and oh and and this was I I I wonder if I talked about it I know I had to have this was the number six video played on MTV when they made their debut on August 1st 1981 I have to go back through my notes and see if I made that mention. At number nine great song Ladies Night from Cool and the gang it it's peaking it its peak position is number eight so it's one away from from that spot and um it stays at number eight for three weeks but what I mean like what else can you say about this song it you everyone knows this song. It began like it it began a movement in in in the clubs and the bars where um you know half price drinks for women uh no cover charge for women that kind of stuff it was you know ladies night and you got all this stuff going on for you so uh it just yeah it started all kinds of stuff like that so but it's it's a great song anyway but it's just kind of funny how a song could do that that it's Lady's night um I remember I only saw I only saw Cool and the gang perform once but I saw them open for Van Halen. Yeah that's a bill right it was on um so it was back in whatever like 2010 2011 something like that when they toured for a different kind of truth and they took cool and the gang out to open the shows cool cool and the gang like they tore the roof down on the arena they were that good it was so so good I honestly think they were better than Van Halen and I love Van Halen so but anyway uh at number eight at number eight Coward of the County from Kenny Rogers you guys know that one it's another it's another one of Kenny's many big time crossover hits this started a couple years prior um it's from his self-titled album the song reaches number three it's a great song it's a great story and you guys know I just love me some Kenny just love me some Kenny Rogers at number seven still from the Commodores it's another smash hit this one is still working its uh way up to number one this one will reach number one Lionel Ritchie has always been a great songwriter and and and and and always a master balladier and this song is he doesn't miss with this one doesn't miss at all at number six babe from sticks it's uh it it actually spends two weeks in the number one position uh in December of 79. So it's slowly making its way back down now. It's written and sung by Dennis de Young if you guys are unfamiliar he he he wrote the song and and and and and sung this song as a as a a birthday gift to his wife he actually didn't want it to be on the album he had to be convinced by J.Young and Tommy Shaw to put it on the album and you know good thing they good thing that they were able to convince him because the song goes number one so uh good decision by all right so now we reach the top five here we go at number five good good stuff do that to me one more time from Captain and Teneal this song was written by Tony Teneal she wrote it as a message to her husband and um actually he didn't even he didn't even get it he didn't even know the lyrics to the song at the time of its recording and all that but um it at this point here it's it's it's spending 27 weeks on the hot 100 it's still making its way up to up the charts and uh it will it will hit its top spot at number two it will peak at number two where it um uh I don't know I don't know how many weeks it spent at number two but it's uh it's a few short weeks from that from that uh that peak you just gotta listen to fellas okay fellas listen to the lyrics that's all I'm telling you okay listen to the lyrics fellas and learn okay take heed at number four send one your love from Stevie Wonder it's uh dropping one spot from its peak position this one is uh it's just basically an old-fashioned love song like straight from the heart straight straight from the corazon you know it's a good one it it's not my favorite Stevie Wonder song I do like the song though um I don't know I think like that girl that girl from 1982 that's a really good one that is a really really good one and there's um oh shoot um what is it ain't gonna stand for it yeah I think that's that and that's a really killer one too like the full version is like 10 minutes on that one but um anyway so good one at number four send one your love from Stevie Wonder number three Rock with you from Michael Jackson it's from the off the wall album this one eventually makes it to number one it stays at number one for four weeks it's a great song it's from a great album um I think it's I think it's Michael's next best album behind Thriller. I think that those two albums are just fabulous and where and everybody knows and just in case you don't thriller has sold like 74 million copies worldwide something like that but um but let me see I think it was the bad album has sold about 11 million copies off the wall is about 10 million it might be I mean it's obviously going to be a little bit more than 10 million but how incredible is that we've talked about it in the past diamond albums which are albums that set that sell 10 million copies or more how about having three first off an artist would just probably kill to sell a million copies all right but back in the 70s and 80s you would fall out of bed and sell a million copies okay so it just happened because just we consumed music so differently but three 10 million selling albums that's phenomenal for any one artist that's just crazy to think about so I and I do I really like that album such a good album I'll write at number two number two escape the Pina Colada song from Rupert Holmes it uh it's it's off its peak at this point of number one which was in December of 1979. It's the final the final number one song of the 70s no more number one songs in the 70s that's the last one it's a catchy fun song it uh and it's just like it's become such a big huge part of like pop culture you know everyone knows that song it's so it's good it's such a good song it really really is um I think I I think I read somewhere that Rupert Holmes he originally wrote the you know the the line and the hook start again the first line of the hook is if you like Pina Colada um he originally had written it as if you like Humphrey Bogart if you like Humphrey Bogart getting caught in the rain it it goes but it doesn't go. So he he thought to himself I guess previously he had written about you know he had he had used movie stars and that kind of thing celebrities in in his music so he was like yeah I can't do that again. So uh change it to Pina Colada and bam there it is probably wouldn't have been a number one song if it had been you know the uh escape the Humphrey Bogart song yeah I don't think that was gonna work so that one is off its peak of number one at number two slips back one spot so what is number one here we go number one is please don't go from Casey and the Sunshine Band. It it sits in the top spot for one week that's it just this one week um and I like it it's a really good song I think I may have told you guys uh a while back I went to see Casey and the Sunshine Band live this was a couple three years ago and son of a gun it was so good. Casey was yeah I mean a little bit heavier than I remember but he was like 70 years old at the time but dancing playing behind his uh keyboard and it was all live all real sounded great had dancers singers musicians all on the stage everybody I mean probably had 12 people on the stage you don't put 12 people on the stage when you're playing to tracks you don't do that. It was great. It was great. I would love to see Casey and Casey and the Sunshine Band. But at this point, what's funny is they have a number one song, and the band like breaks up right after this, and Casey goes and embarks on a solo career. So go figure, right? Remember, we were talking about success and what it does to uh to bands. Crazy, crazy, crazy. Uh, so there you go. That's your top 40 for the first week of January 1980. Told you we would just kind of ease into ease into 2026. You know what? I I have like two, two more top 40s that I could do because I love them. They're awesome. I should share them with you so you can put playlists together, but I don't know. I don't think it makes for I'll I don't I don't think it makes for great content week after week after week. So, you know, kind of have to spread it out. But this is fantastic stuff. Fantastic. Uh before I get you out of here, I want you guys to, I'm gonna plug this next week. Next week I'm gonna have a young artist on the podcast. Her name is Marissa Fullen Camp. Okay, it's M-A-R-I-S-A, Fullen, F-U-L-L-E-N, K-A-M-P, Fullen Camp. She's a kind of a pop alternative folk. I don't like, I don't like the term folk, Americana artist. She plays her own stuff or plays her own instruments, she writes her own songs, she's great, she's got a wonderful voice. So she'll be on next week. And uh I think you guys are gonna really enjoy it. Yeah. I'll see if I can get her to I don't know, bust out a guitar and play something. That would be fun. That would be fun. So we'll see if we can get that to happen again. Anyways, all right, we're done. Thank you guys so much for being here. Before I let you go, you guys know the drill. This program is available wherever you get your podcast. Just search the Ben Maynard program. Boom, it's right there. Go with it, please. Subscribe to it, download it, share it with all your people, and give me a five-star rating too. But if you're watching on YouTube, because you can't resist all this right here, because and that's okay. I'm I'm I'm with you on that. Thank you for doing so. Subscribe to the channel. Please subscribe to the channel. Give me a thumbs up and leave a comment. Leave a comment with on this list here. I'm interested in some of your thoughts on it. Um, and and and please tell a thousand of your family and friends. Tell a thousand of your family and friends about the Ben Maynard program. All right. Come on, do me a solid. Last but not least, follow me on Instagram, simply Ben Maynard program, all one word, or on the TikTok at the Ben Maynard program. We're out, we're done. Thank you everyone for being here. Ringing in 2026, just kind of easing into it, right? Easy does it. Thanks for being here, guys. I will see you next time. This is the Ben Maynard program. Tell a friend.