Last year, I was very excited to learn that 107.9 FM here in Indianapolis re-broadcasts an '80s "American Top 40" episode every weekend. It's great to hear all those old episodes again. "AT 40" was a big part of my youth, especially from 1982-87, when the bulk of my musical taste was formed.

 

This weekend's re-broadcast is from 7/23/83 and features "After the Fall" debuting at #39. I had almost forgotten about that song. Though it was a hit, it's largely been forgotten about, lost in the shadow of some of their other hits. And "Lights" seems to have become even more popular than it was at the time.

 

Last week's episode was from 7/9/88 and though Journey isn't in that episode, Casey Kasem cites Journey and Kool and the Gang as being tied for most top 40 hits so far in the '80s by a group. That surprised me at first. Of course, I knew Journey was big, but I didn't expect them to be #1 in that category. But after thinking a while about it, I realize that most of the super-super-superstars of the decade were solo acts - Michael Jackson (RIP), Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Lionel Richie, Prince.

 

Two week's ago, they played an episode from 7/19/86 and Journey was at #32 with Suzanne.

 

A few months ago, right before playing "Girl Can't Help It," Casey mentioned that the group intentionally didn't make videos for the first two singles from that album to focus instead on radio. And I remember back in the '80s, Casey told the story of "Raised on Radio" being held up because of the government investigating some illegal activity at the studio at which it was being recorded, or something like that.