Professor of Rock

I was thinking the other day, it’s hard to believe that the year 1986 was 40 Years ago. Talk about a Phenomenal year for music. There were so many classic Hits that a lot of them missed out on hitting #1, but they deserved to be. Today we are going to fix that, as we take the time machine back and put it right, with 10 songs that are #1 in our hearts. Including the making of the Dream Academy classic Life in a Northern Town, mentored by one of rock’s greatest lyricists, and produced by a guitar legend, yet passed over by dozens of record labels who wanted NO part of it. Plus the futuristic 1986 song Silent Running that describes our day to a tee but got banned years later because it was deemed too dangerous for us to hear. What were they hiding? Plus the perfect song that was, unsurprisingly, a 1 hit wonder because no band in history could’ve followed it up. It was just too perfect. And Danger Zone that was turned down by half a dozen legends, so the producer, in a panic, called a singer in who was working in a studio close by and he laid it down and it became his biggest hit. And to think it was co-written by a guy who fixed the producer's brakes on his car. And finally the greatest song of all time, Level 42's Something About You, at least in my humble opinion. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Executive Producer Brandon Fugal Honorary Producers Kelly Moan, Curtis Stoddard, Paul Duenas, Robert Hickerty, rondell m ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe to the Professor of Rock Podcast Apple: https://apple.co/445fVov Spotify: https://spoti.fi/42JpfvU Amazon: https://amzn.to/44b5D6m iHeartRadio: https://bit.ly/444h8MO ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patreon: http://bit.ly/ProfessorofRockVIPFan Merch Store: https://professor-of-rock-lsn-shop.fourthwall.com/ Instagram: https://bit.ly/Instagram_Professor_of_Rock #classicrock #80smusic #vinylstory #onehitwonder Hey Music Junkies, Professor of Rock, always here to celebrate the greatest artists and the greatest songs of all time. If you remember watching MTV at all hours of the night waiting for you favorite music videos to come on: You’ll dig this channel of deep musical nostalgia. Alright, it’s time to time-jump 40 years to the past and the year 1986. There were some devastating events in 1986 that dominated the headlines, including the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, the explosion of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, the Red Sox botched the World Series to the Mets, and the Chicago Bears overwhelmed the Patriots in the Super Bowl with the Refrigerator! And Crocodile Dundee, Platoon, and Aliens took over the box office, and of course, there were some remarkable songs released during that year that we still love today. 30 singles made it to #1 on the Hot 100 in 1986, but the 10 songs we’re showcasing on this episode came up short of the top spot on the big list. But today we are going to rectify that in a special episode of #1 in our hearts. .10 songs that most deserved reaching that coveted crown- beginning with “A Different Corner” by George Michael at #10: Created at the peak of Wham!, “A Different Corner” grew out of a painful, short-lived, unrequited infatuation. George locked himself in a Paris studio and tracked the song in roughly 14 hours using only his voice and two guitars. He later said he felt like crap, but writing the song helped him break free: As George reflected on the emotion he felt while writing “A Different Corner, he said that it became “the sound of a heart that’s been broken.” He put his feelings to paper when he was just 19. One of his friends told George that “A Different Corner” is “beautiful, but pathetic.” At the song’s April 1986 release, George Michael was still part of the duo, but a few months later he and Andrew Ridgeley decided to part ways, and WHAM! was no more. That decision was followed by an emotional farewell show at Wembley Stadium in London, before a crowd of 72,000 fans: Back in 1986, the track made chart history: George became the first solo artist in UK chart history to top the chart with his first two singles (Careless Whisper and A Different Corner). It also marked a milestone as the first British number-one hit written, sung, arranged, produced, and performed entirely by one person. In the U.S., “A Different Corner” climbed to #7 on the Billboard Hot 100, but in my opinion, it was deserving of reaching #1. Back to the countdown of the Top 10 Songs that deserved to be #1 on the Hot 100 in ’86, it’s “Life in a Northern Town” by Dream Academy at #9: Dream Academy leader Nick Laird-Clowes drew inspiration for "Life in a Northern Town" after visiting Newcastle, England, and witnessing the damage