BLAST OFF [1982]

Hello and welcome to the first of four consecutive albums from K-Tel's Fall/Winter campaign of 1982. Blast Off and three others were launched on October 14, 1982. It has thirteen songs and each one is a pop hit I know well. Wouldn't be at all surprised if one or more missed the Top 40 but they all got airplay back in the day and a few are probably heard daily on retro radio stations like the local commercial-free, solar-powered 98.5 KRDX. By 1982, I was fully committed to buying albums and used to own twelve of the parent albums to the singles included on Blast Off. (Sorry, Tane.) Five of these albums still reside on the Vinyl Wall though it would take me a while to find them as they are not in alphabetical order - after the big move last week, I just threw them all back on the shelf but will organize them properly in the coming weeks.

After listening, I'm guessing the majority of these tracks crossed over from The Top Tracks chart and am projecting low amounts of cross-overs to and from the other charts. Thinking that there are are Number Ones and maybe not all that many Top 10's on the Pop chart so let's feed Blast Off through the K-Tel Scale and see what we get. I'm guessing a score in the low 20's.

BLAST OFF [1982]					21.73
		Billboard Top 40s
		Pop	R&B	DISCO	Rock	AC	CB
You Should Hear How She Talks About You	Melissa Manchester	5		8		10	4
The Other Woman	Ray Parker Jr	4	2	24		33	2
Hot In The CIty	Billy Idol	23			31		27
Paperlate	Genesis	32			2		31
Dancing In The Street	Van Halen	38			3		39
I Ran (So Far Away)	A Flock Of Seagulls	9		8	3		14
You Don't Want Me Anymore	Steel Breeze	16			9		19
You Keep Runnin' Away	38 Special	38			7		34
Play The Game Tonight	Kansas	17			4		22
Holdin' On	Tane Cain	37					36
Love Plus One	Haircut One Hundred	37		8	18		(49)
Crimson And Clover	Joan Jett & the Blackhearts	7			6		6
Hurts So Good	John Cougar	2			1		1

Kinda nailed it on this one: no #1's and only five Top 10's with minimal cross-over beyond the Top (Rock) Tracks chart. So, yeah technically there was a Number One song, just not on the Pop chart where the majority of a song's points are earned in the Scale. And with nearly half of the album's tracks missing the Top 20, a lot of points were lost. Biggest discrepancy on the Cashbox chart was the placement of "Love Plus One" - a difference of twelve positions.

Blast Off was available on both 8-track and cassette with a slightly scrambled playlist as seen on the front cover featuring tracklist of the cassette (above) and the images of each side of the tape (below).

Up in Canada, Blast Off was released with rather lame graphics and sixteen tracks including just two from its American counter-part. The required by law four Canadian artist tracks appear as block at the end of the second side of the album, beginning with Loverboy's "When It's Over" and ending with the Payola$ "Eyes Of A Stranger," both favorites of mine and as is sometimes the case, I prefer listening to the Canadian Blast Off over the U.S. model.

While I know there is at least one Number One song here and some definite Rock crossover, the four Canadian artist tracks are the unknown entity here - if they charted well here in the States, we may have an ultra-rare upset in the K-Tel Scale for our neighbors up North.

BLAST OFF [1982] CAN					19.84
		Billboard Top 40s
		Pop	R&B	DISCO	Rock	AC	CB
Think I'm In Love	Eddie Money	16			1		21
Make Believe	Toto	30					19
Keep The Fire Burnin'	REO Speedwagon	7			2		10
Never Been In Love	Randy Meisner	28					23
Personally	Karla Bonoff	19				3	12
Play The Game Tonight	Kansas	17			4		22
Hold On	Santana	15			17	34	9
Leader Of The Band	Dan Fogelberg	9				1	9
Don't Fight It	Kenny Loggins + Steve Perry	17			4		15
You Should Hear How She Talks About You	Melissa Manchester	5		8		10	4
Eye Of The Tiger	Survivor	1		(59)	1	27	1
Let Me Go	Ray Parker Jr.	38	3				(56)
When It's Over	Loverboy	26			21		25
Your Daddy Don't Know	Toronto	(77)			28		(72)
Don't It Make Ya Feel	Headpins
Eyes Of A Stranger	Payola$

Only Loverboy made it onto Top 40 from all the way up in Canada - the other three Canadian tracks missed the charts (almost) entirely and I could have sworn "Eyes Of A Stranger" creeped into the Top 40. A disappointing score for a good listen fer shure. Here's the full-on CAN-AM playlist combining songs from both versions of the album into one easy to listen to Spotify playlist.

Next time out, it's The Hit List, a Terrific 2 Record Set featuring 22 of 1982's Best Hits and it comes in an alternate twenty song Canadian version which makes no such promises on its cover art.