While I'm driving the truck around delivering mail each day, I begin the morning by listening to 95.7 The Jet FM, which is a local '80s music station. Unfortunately, they only seem to be aware of about 112 songs from the 1980s, so they just keep playing those same ones over and over again. Some of the songs are SO overplayed, I finally had to make a rule. At first, I decided I would change the dial over to 90.3 KEXP whenever The Jet played any one of these three songs: 1.) "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor; 2.) "Sunglasses At Night" by Corey Hart; or 3.) "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by Eurythmics.
But then I got so tired of hearing "American Pie" by Don McLean every 75 minutes (it turns out I absolutely hate this song; it's like some awful children's rhyming game!) and Michael Jackson's "Thriller" (not his finest moment, surely) that I had to add them to the list too. Then there's that other song, maybe by The Traveling Hillbillies or whatever, where the guy (Tom Petty?) whines, "She's a good girl...she's crazy about Elvis..." Oh, please. She sounds like a bore! I had to add that one to the list too. So basically, I listen to 95.7 The Jet for about 11 minutes every morning before they overplay one of these songs again and I have to change the station.
We could choose any '80s artist for the following game, but let's take, for example, Eurythmics. "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" is a fantastic song (it went to no. 1 in 1983). But if you're going to claim that you play "the very best variety" of '80s music on the radio, then there's simply no reason in heaven or on earth to be playing this (or any other) song 6 or 7 times a day! Every now and then The Jet remembers about "Here Comes the Rain Again" (no. 4 in 1984), but as for Eurythmics, that's it, buddy. That's all you get. No "Missionary Man" (no. 14 in 1986), no "Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves" (w/ Aretha Franklin! - no. 18 in 1985), no "Right By Your Side" (no. 29 in 1983), no "I Need a Man" (no. 46 in 1988), no "Thorn In My Side" (no. 68 in 1986), no "Would I Lie to You?" (no. 5 in 1985), no "Love Is a Stranger" (no. 23 in 1983), no "There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart)" (no. 22 in 1985), no "It's Alright (Baby's Coming Back)" (no. 78 in 1986), no "Don't Ask Me Why" (no. 40 in 1988) and no "Who's That Girl" (no. 21 in 1983). And they've certainly never played "Never Gonna Cry Again," which is Eurythmics' first single, from 1981. It didn't chart in the US at all, and only went to no. 63 in the UK. I think I'll start calling the station to request it. Relentlessly.
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