The year 1984 was nothing like the George Orwell book of the same name, at least musically. It was all over the road. A lot of artists discovered from MTV would dominate the charts this year, including Duran Duran and Culture Club, former leader of The Babys, John Waite, had some breakout hits, and Menudo and Def Leppard would continue to grow with bigger and bigger hits on my chart, with the former grabbing their first #1 TKR hit. Jim Steinmann, who had produced Meatloaf‘s breakthough in the 1970s, and had a solo hit in 1981, produced and wrote hits for nearly a dozen acts. The Kids From “Fame“ were still plugging away, as were Stacy Lattisaw, Dolly Parton, Laura Branigan, and Olivia Newton-John on the female side, and Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, and Phil Collins on the male side. Styx would have their last hit as a group until nearly a decade later, Journey’s Steve Perry cut a highly successful solo album, Madonna, Corey Hart, Sylvia, Billy Ocean. and Cyndi Lauper really took off, and a lot of “two or three hit” wonders continued to hit the TKR charts. Another act, Rockwell, and his monster hit “Somebody’s Watching Me” , became a “one hit wonder” nationally, (although technically he was a two-hit wonder, since his second single “Obscene Phone Caller” also made the top 40) but would remain prominent on my chart through the his second album the following year – radio REALLY underestimated the talent this dude had. The UK’s Paul Young and his amazing voice entered my psyche and had several big TKR hits in 1984, although he wouldn’t click hugely until the following year nationally. TV stars were again trying their luck on the charts, with music from “One Day At A Time” teen star Glenn Scarpelli and “General Hospital” star Jack Wagner. TV and Movie themes were all over the chart again, soundtracks produced a TON of hits this year as well – in fact, radio was soundtrack happy, with monster hits from “Footloose”, “Eddie And The Cruisers” (thanks to cable tv), “Streets Of Fire”, “The Karate Kid”, “The Woman In Red” “Ghostbusters” and even “Terms Of Endearment”, just to name a few, on the TKR chart. And of course, “Purple Rain“, which made Prince a movie star as well. And in the last quarter of the year, three vocalists who would forever cement me as a fan had their first big TKR – and national – hits; George Michael debuted as one half of Wham, Limahl had his first solo success after being unceremoniously booted as the lead singer of Kajagoogoo with yet another soundtrack hit, and the newish TV talent series “Starsearch” gifted us with the divine voice of Sam Harris….yeah…1984 was one hell of a busy musical year…OH, yeah, um, one other thing…for reasons that I cannot fathom, there are TWO distinct in-succession charts dated December 15. I don’t know what happened, but as it is in order, I’m keeping both of them, listed as A and B…I guess I just got overzealous for some reason…must have been the holiday season…heh heh heh…
JANUARY 7 1984
JANUARY 14 1984
JANUARY 21 1984
JANUARY 28 1984
FEBRUARY 4 1984
FEBRUARY 11 1984
FEBRUARY 18 1984
FEBRUARY 25 1984
mARCH 3 1984
MARCH 10 1984
MARCH 17 1984
MARCH 24 1984
MARCH 31 1984
APRIL 7 1984
APRIL 14 1984
APRIL 21 1984
APRIL 28 1984
MAY 5 1984
MAY 12 1984
MAY 19 1984
MAY 26 1984
JUNE 2 1984
JUNE 9 1984
JUNE 16 1984
JUNE 23 1984
JUNE 30 1984
JULY 7 1984
JULY 14 1984
JULY 21 1984
JULY 28 1984
AUGUST 4 1984
AUGUST 11 1984
AUGUST 18 1984
AUGUST 25 1984
SEPTEMBER 1 1984
SEPTEMBER 8 1984
SEPTEMBER 15 1984
SEPTEMBER 22 1984
SEPTEMBER 29 1984
OCTOBER 6 1984
OCTOBER 13 1984
OCTOBER 20 1984
OCTOBER 27 1984
NOVEMBER 3 1984
NOVEMBER 10 1984
NOVEMBER 17 1984
NOVEMBER 24 1984
DECEMBER 1 1984
DECEMBER 8 1984
DECEMBER 15A 1984
DECEMBER 15B 1984
DECEMBER 22 1984
DECEMBER 29 1984
If you find a broken link (and it might happen) please report it to “webmaster (at) pnrnetworks.com”!