Toronto's 1050 CHUM top 20 songs of the year.

1 Gemini Dream Moody Blues
2 Start Me Up Rolling Stones
3 In The Air Tonight Phil Collins
4 Keep On Loving You R.E.O. Speedwagon
5 Bette Davis Eyes Kim Carnes
6 Friends Of Mr. Cairo Jon & Vangelis
7 The Best Of Times Styx
8 Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (LP Cut) AC/DC
10 While You See A Chance Steve Winwood
11 Urgent Foreigner
12 No Reply At All Genesis
13 'Stars On 45' Medley Stars On 45
14 Hey Nineteen Steely Dan
15 Sausalito Summernight Diesel
16 Under Pressure Queen & David Bowie
17 Too Much Time On My Hands Styx
18 The Stroke Billy Squire
19 Passion Rod Stewart
20 I Missed Again Phil Collins


I like every song here, except for #13.

I never liked any 'Stars on '45" songs. When I heard it the first ime, it was nice, in a novelty kind of way. The 2nd time...still cute...but after that, it was "change the radio dial to anything else".  ;D  Beats me how all those "Stars on '45" were ever famous. I thought Disco died...why are there new disco songs? lol  :D ;D Stop torturing the public! lol

I think "Friends of Mr Cairo" was one of those songs that were very successful in Canada, but went nowhere in the USA.

I liked 1981 for music. "Long Distance Voyager" was such a good album (Moody Blues). Classics like "Gemini Dream:, "The Voice" and "Talking out of turn".  "Tattoo You" was the last Rolling Stones really good album. Sausalito Summernight (Diesel) is such a good song too.

Toronto's 1050 CHUM top 20 songs of the year.

1 Gemini Dream Moody Blues
2 Start Me Up Rolling Stones
3 In The Air Tonight Phil Collins
4 Keep On Loving You R.E.O. Speedwagon
5 Bette Davis Eyes Kim Carnes
6 Friends Of Mr. Cairo Jon & Vangelis
7 The Best Of Times Styx
8 Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (LP Cut) AC/DC
10 While You See A Chance Steve Winwood
11 Urgent Foreigner
12 No Reply At All Genesis
13 'Stars On 45' Medley Stars On 45
14 Hey Nineteen Steely Dan
15 Sausalito Summernight Diesel
16 Under Pressure Queen & David Bowie
17 Too Much Time On My Hands Styx
18 The Stroke Billy Squire
19 Passion Rod Stewart
20 I Missed Again Phil Collins


I like every song here, except for #13.

I never liked any 'Stars on '45" songs. When I heard it the first ime, it was nice, in a novelty kind of way. The 2nd time...still cute...but after that, it was "change the radio dial to anything else".  ;D  Beats me how all those "Stars on '45" were ever famous. I thought Disco died...what are there new disco songs? lol  :D ;D

I think "Friends of Mr Cairo" was one of those songs that were very successful in Canada, but went nowhere in the USA.

I liked 1981 for music. "Long Distance Voyager" was such a good album (Moody Blues). Classics like "Gemini Dream:, "The Voice" and "Talking out of turn".  "Tattoo You" was the last Rolling Stones really good album. Sausalito Summernight (Diesel) is such a good song too.


The Friends of Mr. Cairo was #1 for 5 consecutive weeks and placed 4th in the Top 100 songs in Canada for 1981.  It seems to have peaked at #33 on the US Rock chart, but other than that, it never charted anywhere else other than Canada.  It's a great song, but to me, it just never sounded like #1 hit material and I still wonder how it spent 5 weeks there.

Sausalito Summernight was also a #1 hit in Canada for just 1 week.  It's a really good song.  I have the album 'Watts in A Tank' on cassette.


Good rock songs for 1981, one of my favourites was He Can't Love You by Michael Stanley Band.  It reached #33 in the US and #13 in Canada, and also placed 92nd on the Top 100 singles in Canada of 1981 (I love chart facts LOL)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2K9ArYPbJg

The Friends of Mr. Cairo was #1 for 5 consecutive weeks and placed 4th in the Top 100 songs in Canada for 1981.  It seems to have peaked at #33 on the US Rock chart, but other than that, it never charted anywhere else other than Canada.  It's a great song, but to me, it just never sounded like #1 hit material and I still wonder how it spent 5 weeks there.



Totally agree.



Sausalito Summernight was also a #1 hit in Canada for just 1 week.  It's a really good song.  I have the album 'Watts in A Tank' on cassette.


Not too many people have that one.


Good rock songs for 1981, one of my favourites was He Can't Love You by Michael Stanley Band.  It reached #33 in the US and #13 in Canada, and also placed 92nd on the Top 100 singles in Canada of 1981 (I love chart facts LOL)



Yeah, that's a good one too.

My 2 favorite songs from 1981 are these two:

John Lennon ~ Woman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-x1FsvOAz4

It was a single in 1981 (Album released in 1980)  It's my favorite John Lennon song since "A day in the life". One of my favorite love songs ever.

The Police ~ Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aENX1Sf3fgQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ2OXOMKzUo


The Nolans-Chemistry

I'm surprised you know that Nolans track Howard.  They had zero success in North America.  They had fun songs though.  I have one of their albums on cassette, but I don't remember which one


John Lennon ~ Woman


Good song!  Speaking of John Lennon, here is some intersting trivia.  On that horrible night, December 8, 1980, Lennon had cassette tapes in his hand when he was shot by Mark David Chapman.  One of those tapes was the final mix of a song titled Walking on Thin Ice which he played guitar on and produced for Yoko.  In January of 1981, it was decided to be released as a single, dedicated to John, and it went to #35 in the UK, #58 in the US and #22 in Canada

I find alot of people do not like this song, but I thought it was ok

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f4/Yoko_Ono_Walking-Single-1981.jpg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft7-xEiwvJw

Here's two songs that did not chart in Canada, but I still remember them well.

One of them is Canadian ...

Gary O' - I Believe in You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKjzMHy_n2Q

The other is American ...

Nielsen and Pearson - The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ3Qp06fBuo

I had a K-Tel hits album circa 1981 called Nightflight and both of those songs were on it, indicating they were big hits in Canada, but they both did not chart.  The Nielsen and Pearson track did reach #58 in the US and was released as a single only, but originally was not supposed to be.  As indicated on the 45, it was from their forthcoming album Atomic Cafe, but if you look at their album discography, you will never find this album as it was never released.  It is a cover of the 1965 song by Frankie Valli (but more known by The Walker Brothers in 1966), and sits comfortably in my Top 20 of greatest cover songs ever! 

I'm surprised you know that Nolans track Howard.  They had zero success in North America.  They had fun songs though.  I have one of their albums on cassette, but I don't remember which one

Hey Man, I grew up on listening to the radio just as you're a DJ who always listens to music all day, I love music just as much as you do.  ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNN2gdly5YA

T-Life (Something That You Do To Me (Keeps Turning Me On)

Looking back at the 1050 CHUM list, lots of Rock and Roll songs there from Rock bands or artists who were popular and made good music in the 1970s. 1981 was the last year for that as things changed in 1982 and 1983 and afterwards, and things were never the same after that.  :-[

My friends and I got together back in the late 1980s and decided that the year 1981 was the year that music "jumped the shark"  :D  Some of my friends think music jumped the shark in 1975 (when disco songs were on the radio), but the consensus was 1981.  I assume we came to this consensus because of the age group we belong to (Born between 1958 and 1963) and it might be just a Canadian thing too. I'd guess Americans might think differently.

The biggest hit of 1981 in Canada was a song from The Netherlands, and the story of this group's success in 1981 is so grand, it is also a bit confusing so please bear with me ...

A Dutch novelty group called Starsound released a single in early 1981 called Stars on 45.  It was a medley of Beatles songs plus incorporated Shocking Blue's Venus and The Archie's Sugar Sugar.  It reached #1 in the Netherlands and #2 in the UK.


And you Canucks only have yourselves to blame for this...

The original concept was a bootleg called 'Bits And Pieces' which originated from Montreal - it was this record that was playing when a guy who worked for the company that owned the rights to 'Venus' heard it. Deciding not to sue, he pitched the idea to Jaap Eggermont who rounded up some session singers and a drum machine. The rest was lucid history!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEMJChDGxaQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huNejF17gzg

Sheena Easton- Morning Train

And you Canucks only have yourselves to blame for this...

The original concept was a bootleg called 'Bits And Pieces' which originated from Montreal - it was this record that was playing when a guy who worked for the company that owned the rights to 'Venus' heard it. Deciding not to sue, he pitched the idea to Jaap Eggermont who rounded up some session singers and a drum machine. The rest was lucid history!



Oh Paul, that record is a train wreck! Ruined so many good songs. The horror! The horror!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNUr__-VZeQ

Champaign-How About Us?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBUqDr14DEw

The New Wave and New Romantic movement came out that year with groups like Duran Duran, U2, and Depeche Mode leading the movement out of the underground and growing and growing until they became cult bands.  :)

8NF6Qa84mno _6FBfAQ-NDE

And you Canucks only have yourselves to blame for this...

The original concept was a bootleg called 'Bits And Pieces' which originated from Montreal - it was this record that was playing when a guy who worked for the company that owned the rights to 'Venus' heard it. Deciding not to sue, he pitched the idea to Jaap Eggermont who rounded up some session singers and a drum machine. The rest was lucid history!


I was totally not aware of this.  I don't know if this is good or bad.  I liked Stars on 45 for what they were, but at the same time, they were greatly overplayed.  I have fond memories of the 1st Beatles Medley (Medley I)

The New Wave and New Romantic movement came out that year with groups like Duran Duran, U2, and Depeche Mode leading the movement out of the underground and growing and growing until they became cult bands.  :)



I like "Just can't get enough" from Depeche Mode. Good song.

Champaign-How About Us?



Truly one of the greatest songs of 1981. :) It even ended up #1 in the year-end list of Dutch Top 40. 8)


I like "Just can't get enough" from Depeche Mode. Good song.


I find it kinda misleading how DM are hailed by the general public for two songs ("I Just Can't Get Enough" and "People Are People") that I don't think are stereotypical of their entire works.

The biggest hit of 1981 in Canada was a song from The Netherlands, and the story of this group's success in 1981 is so grand, it is also a bit confusing so please bear with me ...

A Dutch novelty group called Starsound released a single in early 1981 called Stars on 45.  It was a medley of Beatles songs plus incorporated Shocking Blue's Venus and The Archie's Sugar Sugar.  It reached #1 in the Netherlands and #2 in the UK.

In North America, the group was renamed Stars on 45 and the title of the single was renamed (Medley: Intro Venus / Sugar Sugar / No Reply / I'll Be Back / Drive My Car / Do You Want to Know a Secret / We Can Work It Out / I Should Have Known Better / Nowhere Man / You're Going to Lose That Girl / Stars on 45) due to copyright requirements.  When released in North America in 1981, it spent 1 week at #1 in the US and 12 weeks at #1 in Canada.  In the US year end chart for 1981, it placed #24


In North America and the UK, the follow-up to that song (which has since been known as Medley I) was Medley II, which was a continuing collection of Beatles covers.  It peaked at #2 in the UK, #67 in the US and #19 in Canada.  It was, like the first one, branded with all the song titles in North America due to copyright for the songs

Medley II - (Stars On 45/Good Day Sunshine/My Sweet Lord/Here Comes The Sun/While My Guitar Gently Weeps/Taxman/ A Hard Day's Night/Things We Said Today/If I Fell/You Can't Do That/Please Please Me/From Me To You/I Want To Hold Your Hand/Stars On 45) - Stars on 45

Continued below ...


Just to make things clear: in The Netherlands, the artists were credited as Stars on 45 on all releases - never as Starsound.

I know this next one was released in 1980, but it didn't hit our charts (and how!) until 1981.


Yarbrough & Peoples - Don't Stop The Music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XZ7gi1VRwU

The message is in the muuuuuuuuuuuuuuusic!  8)

Bohannon - Let's Start II Dance Again

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfAZ1Oe-iDo



K.i.D. - Don't Stop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3QbeamwjdQ

Truly one of the greatest songs of 1981. :) It even ended up #1 in the year-end list of Dutch Top 40. 8)

I find it kinda misleading how DM are hailed by the general public for two songs ("I Just Can't Get Enough" and "People Are People") that I don't think are stereotypical of their entire works.


That's probably true Henk.  They got by on two songs, which were their most famous ones, and never had another hit in Canada until 1990.  That's when things started to go downhill for them with Dave's substance abuse issues and his suicide attempts.  :)  Thank goodness there's a different Dave Gahan in this day and age.  One that's clean and eager to work.

Truly one of the greatest songs of 1981. :) It even ended up #1 in the year-end list of Dutch Top 40. 8)

I find it kinda misleading how DM are hailed by the general public for two songs ("I Just Can't Get Enough" and "People Are People") that I don't think are stereotypical of their entire works.


and Pauli Carman from Champaign is still recording music.

I know this next one was released in 1980, but it didn't hit our charts (and how!) until 1981.


Yarbrough & Peoples - Don't Stop The Music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XZ7gi1VRwU


One of my favorites.  :) They even tried to rack a few more hits in the mid 80's.