I need to get a little personal here. As if you haven’t figured it out by now (heh heh), music was a HUGE part of my life. I had loved music since I was a little kid. And while some out there consider February 3 1959, when Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper were all killed in a plane crash, to be “the day the music died“, it’s exactly 24 years and one day later, February 4 1983, that holds that distinction to me. It was on that date that the world lost the heaven-sent voice of perhaps the greatest female vocalist OF ALL TIME, and I lost perhaps the greatest influence on my entire musical life. I, and the world, lost Karen Carpenter. I got the news from “Entertainment Tonight” that evening and I spent the next few hours alone in my room, listening to my entire collection of Carpenters music…and bawling my eyes out. I grieved for her parents and her brother Richard and her millions of fans around the world, that she had died such a tragic and preventable death from anorexia nervosa just less than a month before her 33rd birthday. The duo had returned with a vengeance to the TKR charts over the previous two years after a long four-year layoff, and as they were my all time favorite musical act, her loss utterly devastated me. Karen would continue to hit the TKR charts with several posthumous releases over the next two decades, but it was never the same. And neither was i. I did my best to move on musically, because I knew I had to. But my Carpenters albums are never far from my reach, and I play their music on Spotify all the time. We did a tribute to Karen on Subject:CINEMA near the 30th anniversary of her passing if anyone is interested. Anyway, there’s more to the 1983 charts than my musical broken heart…MTV continued to grow as as my #1 influencer. “Thriller” by Michael Jackson came out and took over the world. Prince and Def Leppard became prominent on my charts and would remain so over the years, as would a band that was the total 180 degree opposite of those kind of acts, as Puerto Rico’s Menudo made their first chart appearance – in SPANISH no less, didn’t even wait for their English language songs – and would continue to hit the TKR charts for the next SIX YEARS..talk about something that makes you shudder today…heh heh. Movie themes and country artists were also prominent throughout the year as well. So I guess I truly was all over the freaking road this year…
JANUARY 1 1983
JANUARY 8 1983
JANUARY 15 1983
JANUARY 22 1983
JANUARY 29 1983
FEBRUARY 5 1983
FEBRUARY 12 1983
FEBRUARY 19 1983
FEBRUARY 26 1983
MARCH 5 1983
MARCH 12 1983
MARCH 19 1983
MARCH 26 1983
APRIL 2 1983
APRIL 9 1983
APRIL 16 1983
APRIL 23 1983
APRIL 301983
MAY 7 1983
MAY 14 1983
MAY 21 1983
MAY 28 1983
JUNE 4 1983
JUNE 11 1983
JUNE 18 1983
JUNE 25 1983
JULY 2 1983
JULY 9 1983
JULY 16 1983
JULY 23 1983
JULY 30 1983
AUGUST 6 1983
AUGUST 13 1983
AUGUST 20 1983
AUGUST 27 1983
SEPTEMBER 3 1983
SEPTEMBER 10 1983
SEPTEMBER 17 1983
SEPTEMBER 24 1983
OCTOBER 1 1983
OCTOBER 8 1983
OCTOBER 15 1983
OCTOBER 22 1983
OCTOBER 29 1983
NOVEMBER 5 1983
NOVEMBER 12 1983
NOVEMBER 19 1983
NOVEMBER 26 1983
DECEMBER 3 1983
DECEMBER 10 1983
DECEMBER 17 1983
DECEMBER 24 1983
DECEMBER 31 1983
If you find a broken link (and it might happen) please report it to “webmaster (at) pnrnetworks.com”!