March 9, 1985

Last week's Throwback Thursday post was fun.  Let's do it again this week...and the next week...and the next week after that even!

Now for today's entry, I can reveal to you that it is music themed.  But by now you all know the drill.  It was the same as it was on Tuesday Timelines and Wayback Wednesdays.  We're taking a look at the other significant events that took place on this date in history first.

So, what happened on the 9th of March?  Have a gander.

1796 - Napoleon Bonaparte and Josephine de Beauharnais marry

1841 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules in the "United States vs. The Amistad" case that the captive Africans who seized control of the ship that was carrying them were taken into slavery illegally

1842 - The first documented discovery of gold in California is made in Rancho San Francisco

1910 - The Westmoreland County Coal Strike begins

1933 - Franklin D. Roosevelt submits the Emergency Banking Act to Congress

1940 - Actor Raul Julia (d. 1994) is born in San Juan, Puerto Rico

1943 - Chess champion Bobby Fischer (d. 2008) is born in Chicago, Illinois

1944 - Tallinn, Estonia is attacked by Soviet planes during World War II

1946 - Thirty-three people are crushed to death during a football game inside Burnden Park Stadium in Bolton, England

1957 - A devastating earthquake strikes the Aleutian Islands and causes a subsequent tsunami that strikes Hawaii

1959 - Barbie makes her debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York City

1961 - Sputnik 9 successfully launches

1976 - The Cavalese Cable Car Disaster of 1976 occurs, killing 42 people

1977 - The Hanafi Siege takes place in Washington D.C. - 149 are taken hostage, and two are killed

1982 - A group of people who call themselves "Krononauts" host an event in Baltimore, Maryland where they discuss the possibility of time travel

1996 - Actor/comedian George Burns dies at the age of 100

1997 - Rapper Christopher "Notorious B.I.G." Wallace is gunned down in a drive-by-shooting in Los Angeles - Wallace was just 24 years of age

2011 - After thirty-nine flights, Space Shuttle Discovery makes its final landing

And I hope you love celebrity birthdays because there are a lot of them today!  Happy birthday to Taina Elg, Walter Mercado, Keely Smith, Mel Lastman, Lloyd Price, Joyce Van Patten, Mickey Gilley, Mark Lindsay, Charles Gibson, Robin Trower, Jeffrey Osborne, Chris Thompson, Trevor Burton, Linda Fiorentino, Martin Fry, Lonny Price, Finn Carter, Juliette Binoche, Steve Wilkos, Brian Bosworth, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Emmanuel Lewis, Jean Louisa Kelly, Travis Lane Stork, Oscar Isaac, Matthew Gray Gubler, Julia Mancuso, Brittany Snow, Shad "Bow Wow" Moss, YG, and Domo Genesis.

See, I told you March 9th was a busy day in the maternity ward!

So, what date will we be visiting this week?

Well, it's only 32 years ago.  March 9, 1985.  And I can tell you that this was a date that particular song reached the top of the Billboard charts.

Unfortunately, it was released by a band that admittedly I'm not much of a fan of.  And the song that reached #1 thirty-two years ago is one that I believe has been played over and over and over again.

(And no, the song wasn't performed by the Dave Clark Five.  I actually like those guys.  Plus, their heyday was twenty years before the mid-1980s.)

However, the song did stay at the top of the charts for three weeks.  It was performed at the Live-Aid Benefit Concert that took place in the summer of 1985.  And it was a song that was featured prominently in the 2008 film "Horton Hears a Who!".

ARTIST:  REO Speedwagon
SONG:  Can't Fight This Feeling
ALBUM:  Wheels Are Turnin'
DATE RELEASED:  December 31, 1984*
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #1 for 3 weeks.

NOTE:  The star indicates that this was the release date within the United Kingdom.  In North America, it wasn't officially released as a single until January 23, 1985.

Now, when one thinks of REO Speedwagon, you probably don't think of the group being hard core rockers.  If anything, you might think them as the very definition of rock that is so soft you could squeeze it like a ball of Play-Doh.  I know I certainly thought that when I first listened to them.

And again, I'll admit it.  This song is not exactly one of my favourites.  If I had to pick a song by the band (made up of Kevin Cronin, Gary Richraft, Bruce Hall, Neil Doughty, and Alan Gratzer), I tend to like their 1981 hit "Keep on Loving You" much better.  I think a part of that could be the way that it was overplayed on most radio stations.  I often wondered if this song was the only song that they owned by the band.  That's how often it was played.

The fact that the song is also used in a comedic sense for parody films in serious scenes also kind of turned me off of it.

However, I do appreciate the fact that the song exists - and not just because it gives me something to talk about in this blog.  No, I think that as time passes by, I start to understand why the song became such a hit in the first place.  It's a song that most everyone in the world can relate to because we all have had feelings for someone who started out as a friend or an acquaintance, and no matter how hard you try to keep those feelings inside, sometimes you just can't hold them in and you have to let them know.  I think it's a situation that most of us have experienced at one time or another.  And maybe that's the reason why this song was such a hit thirty-two years ago.