1984: The Year In Top 40 Hits (Week #3: January 21, 1984)
In which we examine the mystery of Matthew Wilder, plus Duran Duran, The Motels, Naked Eyes, and why I like one Lionel Richie song
(Note: If you’re new here, you might want to read an introduction to this series to get caught up on what we’re doing. Glad you could make it.)
The third week of January 1984 was a big time for me personally, because that was the week my parents and I moved from Russell, Kansas, to Levelland, Texas, my dad’s discount store employer having transferred him for the second of three times in a little over a year. The aptly-named Levelland was over three times bigger than Russell, although at around 13,000 people it wasn’t anywhere near “big.” It sucked slightly less, but I still felt like a complete outcast, let’s put it that way. Seven new singles charted this week, the highest being John Lennon’s posthumous hit “Nobody Told Me” at #36.
At #5, “Break My Stride” by Matthew Wilder
You should know that I have done absolutely no research about either Matthew Wilder or this song before I started writing this entry. Unusually for Top 5 singles of this era, I have no memory of ever seeing a video for this song on MTV. I’m not even sure I…
