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1985: The Year In Top 40 Hits (Week 15: April 13, 1985)
Madonna Dominates, Frankie Titillates, Fogerty Fights Back, and Jules Gets Weird
By the middle of April, 1985, I had already seen The Breakfast Club three times, once during its first run in the South Plains Mall cineplex with my brother Reagan and his fiancée Tracy and twice by myself at the Showplace 6, the dollar theater next to the Kmart on University Avenue. That theater was kinda dingy and you could hear the soundtracks from the other screening rooms during the quiet parts and the popcorn was terrible, but it was only a 30-minute walk from my house.
I was kinda surprised that I was so all-in on The Breakfast Club, because I had absolutely hated John Hughes’ first movie, National Lampoon’s Vacation, which just felt sour and mean-spirited to me. (I’m still furious about the dog scene.) And Sixteen Candles was just okay, although like almost every other suburban teenager from 1984 to 1986, I had a massive crush on Molly Ringwald. I guess I liked The Breakfast Club because despite some of the goofier bits — like Judd Nelson crawling through the school ventilation system like some kind of teenage proto-Bruce Willis — it felt more emotionally real. The high-school archetypes were broad, but I knew kids at my school who fit all of them. Me, I was roughly 40% Anthony…
