1985: The Year In Top 40 Hits (Week 19: May 11, 1985)

Tears For Fears match the moment, Faltermeyer goes bananas, Patti LaBelle reigns again, and Belouis Some tries his best

Photo by Frank Okay on Unsplash

I don’t remember the screen size of our TV, just that it was in a big blonde-wood cabinet heavy enough that two people had to move it. And if it was going more than a couple feet, we needed the four-wheeler appliance dolly that lived out in the garage. When I wasn’t in my bedroom listening to records and/or reading, I was usually sprawled on the couch watching it. That couch had hideous red-on-white toile upholstery with an Early American scene involving wild turkeys and wagon wheels repeated all over it. It was like one of those kitschy Thanksgiving platters that you could sit on, but it was impossibly comfy.

On Tuesday nights in the spring of 1985, I was watching Moonlighting. It was supposedly a detective show like my mom’s favorite Remington Steele. But secretly, it was like the 1930s screwball comedies I’d loved since I was a little kid. The star was Cybill Shepherd, a gorgeous blonde who casting directors had never quite known what to do with. Her sparring partner was an newcomer named Bruce Willis. Stubble-faced and balding with a general vibe of “Billy Joel’s kid brother,” he turned out to have off-the-charts charisma.