Sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti

Continuing my trip up the list of the most streamed songs for each year.  

1982 : Africa - Toto

This is another surprising winner for me - it feels like there's a reasonable amount of love for it, but tempered with the realisation that it's absolutely loaded with cheese.  It's very similar to last year's winner, but without (as far as I'm aware) the extra Glee push or anything similar (although it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if Glee had done a version of it - we'll find out soon enough).  But first, let's see if it's as cheesy as I remember...

Oh yes - it's 4:21 of mega-cheddar.  And, for kinda the first time on this list (if we ignore Bohemian Rhapsody's effort), we have an official video to consider - and what a load of nonsense it is!  The lead singer is in a library - which appears to have made him remarkably sweaty, but maybe it's the presence of a lovely lady, who is obviously black (because, like, Africa!) and obviously a librarian because she's wearing glasses.  All the while, they seem to do very little except look at some books whilst the camera, representing the viewpoint of an African native watching them from outside, finds stranger and stranger angles to take until we get to the chorus when the band are playing on top of a pile of books.  And then, towards the end, the native throws a spear, some books fall over and get set on fire - what says Africa more than that?

Wikipedia tells us that the initial ideas for song and melody came to David Palch (the group's keyboard player who'd never been to Africa) so quickly he believed they came from God - and he then spent another six months refining them before showing them to the group, who spent a load more time on it, to the point they all got bored with it and nearly binned it.  

But, as you can probably guess, they didn't and, as Wikipedia puts it, "the song was popular upon its release".  It got to #1 in US and even #3 in the UK - and we weren't the biggest Toto fans (to say the least), with them having a couple of top twenty tracks on either side, but that was pretty much it for our interest in them in their 46 year career.  Apart from a few very random occurrences, it has only charted in '82/3 - those random occurrences being New Zealand and Slovenia in '13 and Poland in '18.  Just don't ask me what was going on there!

However, has that stopped it being popular?  Well, you probably know the answer given that I'm writing about it but maybe Wikipedia can explain why.  Well, it does tell us it's the third most streamed track from the 70s, 80s and 90s after - anyone, anyone?  Well, "Bohemian Rhapsody" is one of them, but I can't tell you the other one because it would simply ruin 1995 for you (and we couldn't have that now, could we).  Why it's so popular is not quite so clear - it's been used in a lot of memes (but that doesn't count for streaming surely), telly shows (ditto) and CBS used it during their coverage of Nelson Mandela's funeral (a move not without controversy).  None of which, quite frankly, gives me a bloody clue why this track took the year.

Wikipedia only lists one cover - in '17, a Twitter user asked Weezer to cover it - so they immediately covered "Rosanna".  But they did cover "Africa" in '18 and it got #51 in the US (and it's much closer to the original than I was expecting ).  secondhandsongs.com offers up some interesting selections - David Essex (unfindable, surprisingly), Chris de Burgh (which sounds exactly like you'd expect), Ninja Sex Party (I'd never heard of them, but was suspecting something wild - but it's very bland) and Laura Mvula (this only seems to be available on Deezer, but from the snippets I've from it sounds not bad at all).  I also stumbled across this metal version by Leo Moracchioli, who I'd never heard of but at least he does something different with it.

Well, I accept this track took the year but I'd be very surprised if there weren't a load of better tracks from a personal viewpoint.  The year-end charts have taken a step up this year - we've got a top FIFTY for you (don't worry, I won't list them all).  The top five are Dexy's Midnight Runners "Come On Eileen", Irene Cara's "Fame" (actually released in 1980, so it doesn't really count), Survivor's "Eye Of The Tiger", Tight Fit's "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and Culture Club's "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" - well, there are four decent tracks there at least.  The rest of the top fifty is a welcome trip down memory lane - most of which I'd choose to listen to before "Africa" (OK, maybe not Goombay Dance Band's "Seven Tears" at #8).

The rest of the top fifty and the top tens throughout the year offer up Meat Loaf's "Dead Ringer For Love", The Stranglers' "Golden Brown", The Jam's "Town Called Malice", Soft Cell's "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" (I think this is a very underrated track), XTC's "Senses Working Overtime", Haircut One Hundred's "Love Plus One", "Fantastic Day" and "Nobody's Fool" (a fine year for an underrated group), The Associates' "Party Fears Two" (is this peak 1982?), Toni Basil's "Mickey" (or this?), Japan's "Ghosts" (or this?), Yazoo's "Only You" and "Don't Go" (ah - Vince and Alf!), Adam Ant's "Goody Two Shoes", Madness's "House Of Fun" and "Our House", Duran Duran's "Hungry Like The Wolf", "Save A Prayer" and "Rio", Grandmaster Flash's "The Message", Bucks Fizz's "Land Of Make Believe" and "My Camera Never Lies" (not cool tracks, but surprisingly good nonetheless), Tears For Fears's "Mad World",  Wham!'s "Young Guns", PHD's "I Won't Let You Down" (a track that's both ahead and behind its time) and Phil Collins's "You Can't Hurry Love".

OK - so very few of those tracks could be considered as cool but, for me, this feels like peak 80s - yes, it's early 80s but that's gotta be peak for some, right?  And obviously, I reserve the right to totally change my mind every year - at least until we get to 1990.  The best selling tracks from the US is quite an interesting list - Olivia Newton-John's "Physical" was the best seller (it's not a great track but I suspect the video might have helped) and everything else in the top ten was very US (including John Mellancamp's "Jack And Diane", The J Geils Band's "Centrefold" and Steve Miller Band's "Abracadabra") except for The Human League at #6.  It was a surprise to see Soft Cell's "Tainted Love" and Vangelis's "Chariots Of Fire" at #11 & #12 (but both from '81 so we can ignore for this year) but after that it gets very US-centric with a load of people I've never heard of - Tommy Tutone, Bertie Higgins, Melissa Manchester are all in the top 20 - no idea about any of them!

So I still don't know why Toto won the year with the internet suggesting Stranger Things might have helped, but I'm not convinced that's enough of a reason - but nothing alters the fact that they did.  It's a fine slice of early 80s cheese, but there are many other tracks I'd pick ahead of it to represent the year - going with Dexys' effort feels like as good as a shout as any for me.

1981 - A track that's grown in popularity
1983 - An unexpected but enjoyable winner