#1 Song in America, August 1981

Last night I was at a big outdoor barbecue and there was an excellent cover band. Most of the hits I have written about in my series "This day in History" involved songs and events from the 1960's and the 1970's. The cover band played a memorable tune that took me back to the 1980's.

This song, the original, was written and performed by an individual whom many people knew more as a soap opera actor than as a singer -- at least initially. The fact is, this Australian born performer had been working on music since his 13th birthday.

Back in 1981, the first week of August, when the song topped the charts, MTV made it's debut. Nobody knew if music TV was going to be a hit or not. Everybody knew that the Hot 100 was big on radio, but there was some doubt about the viability of a 24 hour network dedicated to rotating music videos.

It was helpful for this performer that his song, being #1 on the Billboard chart, dominated MTV programing at the time of the network debut. The artist went on to win a Grammy for best male vocal performance.

The story of the song is pretty interesting. The performer was taking a class in stained glass, along with a buddy. In the course of the class, he met his friend's girlfriend. The theme of the song was a combination of lust and unrequited love and longing for his friend's girlfriend. Some years later, Oprah tried to track down this girl, so we could all see just how special she might be, but the search hit a dead end. We will probably never see the girl who was the apple of the singer's eye.

If you are a soap opera fan, this performer was a regular on General Hospital.

To go back in time, to 1981, and see the original performer sing his original song, you need to change channels. You probably already know who shot JR, so the best thing for you to do is get to the music right away. Simply click on the play button at the front of the TV to be transported back in time to see this #1 hit from 1981.