Back 
in 83 or 84, Tim “Split Enz” Finn’s had a hit with ‘Fraction Too Much Friction’ in Europe (or maybe it was only a hit in The Netherlands 1). I mention this song because out of the blue, the last couple of weeks, I have been humming this song’s melody too frequently (20+sec fragment).
So, what’s so special about this song (Finally now at YouTube)? Nothing really: except for that it has a catchy tune and it has this elaborate musical arrangement that includes saxophones and other horns. Quite different from the standard 80s hits. Oh, and if I remember correctly, Tim Finn’s voice was often compared with the voice of that other great 80s singer Stevie Wonder.
1 Browsing through those Historical (Dutch) Top 40 pages linked above, I think the youth of those days were exposed to (generally) rather obnoxious music. It makes no sense. Maybe the Eighties made no sense.
Seeing Chic’s You are beautiful there surprises me. I’d thought it was an older song.
1984 was also Righeira ‘No Tengo Dinero’, Bandolero ‘Paris Latino’ (“Don’t Forget I’m Doctor B!”, absurd French, I think it is), Ruud Gullit “Not The Dancing Kind” [no really].
Awful music.
Awful music.
If you extrapolate this with what we nowadays get with American/Canadian/European Idol contests and popular idols, you’d think not much has changed.
(this is ironic too, if you take the last weeks of 1984 and go into 1985, it appears that you can pinpoint the rise of the mega-popstars [Prince, Madonna, Ritchie]).
Where’s Michael when you need him?
What took them so long?
You were looking for it too, eh?