THROWBACK THURSDAY:
’82 IN THE SHADE

Posted on Facebook today by Michael Sigman: “TBT from what turned out to be the swan song of Record World mag, April, 1982. Beatles on the cover, Stan Cornyn on page 3, some guy named Portnow on page 4.”

To which we would add: It was then that Neil became the boss of future HITS hack Bud Scoppa. “A little over a year later, Clive would have Neil fire me,” Scoppa ruefully recalls. “Goodbye A&R, hello Music Connection.”

At the time, Ronald Reagan was President and MTV was nine months old. Here are some other highlights of 1982 (what would we do without Wikipedia?):

January – The Commodore 64 8-bit home computer is unveiled in Las Vegas (released in August); it becomes the all-time best-selling single PC model.

March – Elizabeth II opens the Barbican Centre in London; Chariots of Fire wins Best Picture.

April – Falklands War begins.

May – Cal Ripken Jr. begins his record 2,632-consecutive-games streak; Roxy Music releases Avalon, which goes on to become an all-time boudoir go-to LP.

June – Israel invades Lebanon.

July – Lawn Chair Larry flies 16k feet in lawn chair hoisted by weather balloons

Aug. – First CDs sold in Germany.

Sept. - First emoticons posted; marchers demand resignation of Menachem Begin.

Oct. – John DeLorean busted for cocaine; Disney opens Epcot Center.

Nov. – Channel 4 is launched in U.K.; Yuri Andropov becomes head of USSR’s Communist Party Central Committee; Thriller released.

Dec. – First permanent artificial heart; ABBA makes final public appearance on U.K.’s The Late, Late Breakfast Show; Time gives first-ever Man of the Year to a non-human: the computer.

Average yearly income: $21k.

Cost of a gallon of gas: 91 cents (two cents more than a bag of Cheese Puffs).