Old Music Friday: 11/8/24
Let's take a look at the songs that debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 this week in 1984
Truth be told, I might have found enough new stuff to justify a New Music Friday post this week, but there were some interesting debuts 40 years ago... and since the country just decided to send itself back in time, it seemed appropriate to look back. With all that in mind, here's a rundown of the new stuff on the Hot 100 this week in 1984.
"The Wild Life," Bananarama (No. 94)
Perhaps the most goofily named act to come streaming out of the leviathan's blowhole that was the Stock/Aitken/Waterman pop factory* in the '80s, Bananarama enjoyed their big breakout in 1984, notching their first U.S. Top Ten hit with "Cruel Summer." Follow-up single "Robert De Niro's Waiting..." went to No. 3 in the U.K. but sputtered out at No. 95 here; after that, "Rough Justice" and "Hot Line to Heaven" performed respectably in the U.K. but failed to chart here. And following all that, along came "The Wild Life," which peaked at No. 70 here and wasn't even released anywhere else.
The interesting footnote here is that "The Wild Life" wasn't recorded for, or initially included on, the Bananarama LP; instead, it was hastily assembled soundtrack fodder for the Christopher Penn/Lea Thompson movie of the same name. Much like the film, the song was largely unloved and soon forgotten, but Bananarama were just getting started — their next U.S. single, a cover of the old Shocking Blue hit "Venus," went to No. 1 all over the world, solidifying a string of (mostly European) hits that survived multiple lineup changes and lasted through the middle aughts.
Anyway, as for "The Wild Life"? It's fine, I guess — it does a reasonable job of summing up the "synths and singing in unison" Bananarama sound, and also does a reasonable job of distilling the air of enforced gaiety that surrounded a lot of the songs and videos from its era. You could listen to it five times in a row, not mind the experience at all, and remember absolutely none of it several hours later.
(*Yes, I know they weren't working with S/A/W yet in 1984. Shut up.)