Truth in advertising from the good folks over at Rhino: ten dance tunes from 1985, all but one hit #1 on the Billboard Dance chart. Lots of extended versions and with a total disc running time of an hour. One in a series of ten covering the years 1976-1985, not to be confused with either The Disco Years or Special Editions Disco series, also issued by Rhino. I never planned on buying all ten discs in this Top Dance Hits series, but they keep popping up in used bins so ya never know.
Some of the songs were released in late 1984 but all peaked on the dance chart in 1985. The compilation is slanted towards the first half of the year, with 8 of the 10 tracks peaking during that time with the other two tracks peaking in July (19) and August (Freeway Of Love).
Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart
Tracks:
| Song | Artist | Time | Dance | Hot 100 | R&B |
| New Attitude (Extended Version) | Patti LaBelle | 6:13 | 1 | 17 | 3 |
| Point Of No Return (Extended Version) | Exposé | 6:07 | 1 | * | |
| Fresh (Remix) | Kool & The Gang | 5:51 | 1 | 9 | 1 |
| 19 (Extended Version) | Paul Hardcastle | 5:16 | 1 | 15 | 8 |
| Freeway Of Love (Rock Mix) | Aretha Franklin | 4:53 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| Loveride | Nuance feat. Vikki Love | 6:44 | 1 | 34 | |
| Everybody Wants To Rule The World (Extended Version) | Tears For Fears | 5:43 | 1 | 1 | |
| Loverboy (Extended Club Remix) | Billy Ocean | 8:06 | 1 | 2 | 20 |
| We Are The Young (Club Version) | Dan Hartman | 6:56 | 1 | 25 | 58 |
| Turn Your Back On Me | Kaja | 4:00 | 2 |
*a re-recorded version of the song hit #5 on the Hot 100 in 1987.
Mostly familiar tunes here given the typical '80s extended treatment: drums pushed up in the mix, longer intro, dance break or drum breakdown in the middle, lots of production tricks, and a repetitive final two minutes. My recently rekindled love affair with Kool & The Gang continues unabated, but the two remixes that I enjoy more with every spin of this disc are the guitar-heavy Rock Mix of Freeway of Love and Everybody Wants To Rule The World. Best I can recall, two innocuous tracks were new to me when I purchased this disc: Loveride and Turn Your Back On Me. They don't send me scrambling to push the skip button, but neither does much for me.
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Nothing in particular, but I'm immediately swept back to my first year in college. Back when I matriculated, the name of the school was East Texas State University. In 1996, it became part of the Texas A&M System and renamed Texas A&M - Commerce. However, just last month it was renamed yet again to East Texas A&M University, the school's seventh name in its 135 year history. Go Lions.
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| 1985 logo of ETSU, nicknamed the "flaming snail" |
Previously revisited for the blog:
Billboard Top Dance Hits 1976 (1992)
Billboard Top Dance Hits 1978 (1992)
Billboard Top Dance Hits 1979 (1992)
Billboard Top Dance Hits 1980 (1992)
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