KC and the Sunshine Band, "Please Don't Go!"

The year was 1979! The introduction of the Sony Walkman, Swatch Watch, Apple Computers, Sock Sweat Bands, Skateboarding, Slip n Slides and this song, PleaseDon’t Go, my all time favorite KC and the Sunshine Band record!

A few facts you might not have known??

• The song was the band's first love ballad, and was the first number one song of 1980.

• They took their name from lead vocalist Harry Wayne Casey's last name ("KC") and the "Sunshine Band" from KC's home state of Florida ('The Sunshine State').

•  “KC” worked part-time in a record store. He noticed often that customers would come in not remembering the titles of the records they wanted, and the store would lose the sale — this is the reason so many of his songs repeat their titles over and over.

Where is he now?

In the mid ‘90s, due to the revived interest in the music and fashions of the 1970s, “KC” re-formed the Sunshine Band and plays up to 200 dates a year and continues to produce other artists. He's still rockin'!

You know, if they ever made a movie about “KC’s” life, I could only see one actor playing him…...Jim Carrey!?! Come on! You can see the resemblance!

Buckner & Garcia's Top Ten Hit Single, "Pac-Man Fever!"

When I was in Jr. High and High School, I can remember going to my favorite arcade game rooms (especially the one in the Sunrise Mall in Corpus Christi) spending ENDLESS amounts of quarters playing video games for HOURS! Wow! I’m getting depressed just thinking about all that money I wasted on those games “back in the day”! I loved playing Pac-Man although I have to admit that my favorite was Space Invaders and Asteroids.

It’s funny to think that Pac-Man just celebrated its 30 year anniversary! Wow! How time flies!
Pac-Man was first released in Japan in 1980 and is considered to be one of the classics and an icon of 1980s popular culture. As soon as it came out, the game became a social phenomenon that sold a ton of merchandise and inspired, among other things, an animated television series and this 1982 top top-ten hit single, “Pac-Man Fever” by Buckner & Garcia.

Pac-Man is one of the longest running video game franchises from the golden age of video arcade games and succeeded by creating a new genre and appealing to both genders.

It’s among the most famous arcade games of all time and has the highest brand awareness of any video game character. It’s actually on display at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C.

I gotta tell ya! I got a Pac-Man Fever!! And the only prescription……is more cowbell!!

De Do Do Do De Da Da Da! The Police!

When I think of the 80’s, I think of the Police! Now, I used to get in a lot of trouble as a teen but I’m not talking about the cops mind you, but the awesome band that recorded one of my favorite songs, “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da". The Police, released this as a single in December 1980. It was the second single from the album Zenyatta Mondatta and a top ten hit in the United Kingdom and the United States!

According to Sting, the song is about the attraction that people have to simple songs. About the way politicians, entertainers and other people use words to manipulate others. He decided to write this when he became interested in songs with nonsense lyrics like, “Do Wah Diddy Diddy,” and “Tutti Frutti,” and “Da Do Ron Ron”. He wanted to find out why those songs worked and decided to write one of his own. He claims that his son came up with the title. Sting called it, “An articulate song about being inarticulate.”

There are those critics out there that still dismiss this song but Sting says they just haven’t bothered to listen to the lyrics. Critics! I say, with a reunion tour that ended in 2008 that grossed $358 million? Who cares!!

Remember this One-Hit Wonder? “Pilot of the Airwaves”!

In 1980, I had this 45 and played it over and over and over again on my little blue and red hand held turn table (it actually would fold up like a suitcase and I could carry it anywhere)! “Pilot of the Airwaves”, an ode to an unknown DJ by Charlie Dore is a perfect example of a One-Hit Wonder. It literally “flew” in and out like a flash but when it hit, it hit BIG! Although this song would be considered her only personal hit, Charlie wrote other hits for Celine Dion, Sheena Easton, Tina Turner and Barry Manilow.

Funny, I hadn’t actually heard this song on the radio literally since the early 80’s! I must confess though, it still “sounds good to me” after 30 years!