1984: The Year In Top 40 Hits (Week #7: February 18, 1984)
More Culture Club and Billy Joel, plus Huey Lewis and the News, Tina Turner, and the UB40 hit that wasn’t… yet
(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.)
A second somewhat stagnant week on the charts, without a lot of movement and even fewer new entries than last week. The highest of six was the second new song from Hall and Oates’ greatest hits LP Rock ‘n Soul Part 1, “Adult Education,” at #43. Still lots to talk about, though.
At #1, “Karma Chameleon” by Culture Club
I don’t think any of us expected this countrified shuffle — with a harmonica hook! — to end up being Culture Club’s biggest hit and only American number one, but here we are. But in retrospect, it kind of makes sense, because although the song is as oblique as all of Boy George’s lyrics, it now seems to have more of an emotional grounding than most.
It might hard to believe if you weren’t there, but during Culture Club’s biggest period of success, Boy George was fairly cagey about his sexuality. It wasn’t until British journalist Dave Rimmer (a staff writer for the…
