It’s time to jump in the Time Machine and change Music History with the songs that deserved to be #1 in an amazing year from the 80s. Today we have some great songs, including the shy, unknown singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman, who was asked to sub in for a legend who was having technical difficulties… The only problem was it was at a sold-out Wembley Stadium with tens of millions watching via satellite. She only had a guitar and a mic, but one song from her called Fast Car blew the audience away and took her record to #1 overnight. Plus the classic GNR track Welcome to the Jungle that was a failure because neither MTV nor radio would touch it. Not until a desperate plea to play it 1 time at 4 in the morning turned it into the biggest rock album of the 80s. Plus the fast song that was hell to record until the band kept slowing it down. And then it became a revelation. Plus the band Information Society that ruled the charts with 3 straight hits but then vanished without a trace. But today we track them down 38 years after they disappeared. Let’s rewrite history.
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Executive Producer
Brandon Fugal
Honorary Producers
Kelly Moan, Curtis Stoddard, Paul Duenas, Robert Hickerty, rondell m
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Hey Music junkies, Professor of Rock always here to celebrate the greatest songs and the greatest artists of all time. If you ever changed into your play clothes when you got home from school. You’ll dig this channel of deep musical nostalgia. That little memory was from our friend Randall. It’s time for another edition of #1 in our Hearts yearly edition where we look at the top 10 hits from an amazing year in music and rewrite history by crowning the songs that really deserved the top spot, and this time we're going back to the year 1988. Let’s do it. Our countdown begins with my favorite artist that I’ve ever interviewed. One of the true good guys in music. Huey Lewis and his News with “Perfect World”#10. “Perfect World” was written by Alex Call, a former bandmate of Lewis and keyboardist Sean Hopper from their pre-fame group, Clover.
After Clover broke up in ‘78, Alex remained close to Huey and Sean, and he’s also known for co-writing Tommy Tutone’s major hit “867-5309/Jenny.” Alex Call wrote the lyrics for “Perfect World”. He was the lead singer of Clover, which Huey Lewis later joined as a harmonica player. Clover released four albums and served as Elvis Costello’s backing band on his debut, My Aim Is True. Despite the work of producer Mutt Lange on their final two albums and Nick Lowe’s mentorship, the group never landed a hit single.
While Alex and Huey carried on as buddies after the demise of Clover, “Perfect World” came back around as something for Huey & News. Alex felt the song would benefit from a legendary group like Tower of Power playing the horn lines rather than chasing a mainstream hit. He said they worked through a full horn arrangement during recording, remembering that when Huey was checking the parts, they repeatedly removed sections until they kept pretty much all of Alex’s horn ideas.
While some small elements weren’t originally his, Alex was especially proud of the final result. He praised the performances, noting how much he loved the recording. He gushed over Johnny Colla’s work on the track, saying Colla’s vocal and horn arrangements on the track are “just fantastic.”“Perfect World” was the lead single from the Small World album. At the time, it seemed like another reliable hit after earlier chart giants like Sports and Fore!, delivering the band’s 12th straight top-10 entry. Even though historians view it as the abrupt close of their peak chart run and as the band’s last top-10 appearance, “Perfect World” is #1 in our hearts.
At #9 on our countdown of songs that didn’t reach the top of the Hot 100, but #1 in our hearts, it’s one that many of you will be shocked wasn’t a chart-topper. It’s the spellbinding “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman. Tracy Chapman came from playing coffee houses near the campus of Tufts University to writing “Fast Car,” one of the most compelling songs of the 80s. She was discovered by her classmate, Brian Koppelman, who had a famous father in the record business. “Fast Car” is about the struggles of the working class.
