Thoughts of a Bony Scribe: A Special Halloween Flashback

Hello and Happy Halloween. Last week, we just happened to have "National Cat Day" and "National Black Cat Day," which got me to thinking back about something from my teenage years; wasn't Janet Jackson's hit song "Black Cat" from her 1989 album Rhythm Nation 1814 popular around Halloween of 1990? And wasn't even number one around that time? Well, with today being Halloween, I thought I would take a look back at the Radio and Records chart from October 26, 1990 and see where exactly "Black Cat" fell on the chart that week. along with the rest of the Top 40 from that week. And with this flashback, instead of giving my memories of the songs that came out at the time like I usually do, I thought I would sprinkle in some random thoughts that have been on my mind this weekend.

40. Miles Away by Winger. I didn't get too much sleep this weekend. Friday and Saturday nights were restless sleepless nights for me and as a result I didn't watch ANY football yesterday, and I missed a doozy of a game between Atlanta and Carolina.

39. Think by Information Society. Of course, the Bucs crapping the bed kinda helped with my decision not to watch football yesterday, plus a lot was on my mind Saturday night that I want to get out, but not on this blog (it's "privileged" information).

38. Policy of Truth by Depeche Mode. As for Halloween, I never really got to be very "involved" in it, whether it be trick or treating as a kid or dressing up throughout my life.

37. Freedom '90 by George Michael. The reason for that was that on Halloween night in 1981, when I was seven, I lost my mother. It has affected me GREATLY over the course of my life, as she was the only woman who I felt truly loved me.

36. (Can't Live Without Your) Love and Affection by Nelson. Because of it I have had major difficulty socially growing up. Kinda makes me wish sometimes I hadn't been born at all. But I still persevere and try my best to thrive, even though this year has been shitty.

35. My Love Is A Fire by Donny Osmond. I think the ONE Halloween I actually enjoyed myself was a dozen years ago in 2010, when for one of the very few times of my life I was actually in love (kinda) with someone, and she actually helped me with Halloween that year.

34. Miracle by Jon Bon Jovi. I dressed up as Spock that year. Why? I don't remember. But I do remember going to Downtown Orlando with several of her friends and packing into her rather cramped car to head over to a house party somewhere near Lake Nona. How the police never pulled us over for having that many people in the car I'll never know. On a side note, I could really use a miracle right about now...

33. Something Happened On The Way To Heaven by Phil Collins. Sounds like the story of my 2022. Anyway, we the house party we went to was loud AF, and there were cars everywhere. I mean parked along the sides of the streets in the neighborhood and everything. I was DOUBLY shocked that no police were called out then, cannabis was present, as well as possibly other drugs, and remember, this was 2010, when you still could get in serious trouble for possessing cannabis. So, me and one of my former roommate's friends decided to chill in the car.

32. Romeo by Dino. No, I didn't go all Romeo and make out with this woman, there was another woman who I wound up getting with that night, but as luck would have it, it was shark week.

31. High Enough by Damn Yankees. One thing about me and parties is that I can't say I've ever been "high enough." Moving on...

30. Lyin' To Myself by David Cassidy. My sisters and I went to a nearby convenience store to get gas and pick up a few Powerball tickets (the jackpot is now at *makes Dr. Evil face*1 BILLION dollars), and my sister mentioned that she had heard (on Fox 13 no less, so consider the source) that Republicans have outnumbered Democrats in early voting. About that time, I saw a Ron DeSantis campaign yard sign, which I promptly flipped off.

29. Knockin' Boots by Candyman. No, not the fictional horror character. Anyway, I did see that stunt DeSantis pulled in Jacksonville at the Luke Bryan concert (to which Bryan responded to the backlash as a result) as well as hearing about him tossing the coin at this weekend's Florida-Georgia game. No wonder the Gators played like crap. After all, University of Florida students are angry over their potential new president, picked by none other than DeSantis, of course...

28. Feels Good by Tony! Toni! Tone! Getting back to Halloween though, another favorite Halloween of mine was 2008. At the time, and I guess they still do this, Winghouse had a dress-up contest for Halloween. I wound up dressing as some mob/pimp hybrid (I was trying too hard, as usual) to get into the spirit.

27. Heart Like A Wheel by Human League. I even took some nifty photographs of sunset at the beach. As well as picture from the festivities at Winghouse. Too bad the pictures are now lost for good...

26. Hippychick by Soho. In fact, I wore the very Halloweenish colors of black, purple, and orange. Speaking of orange apparel, I'm wearing an orange shirt that should be a little peculiar to Bucs fans...

25. The Way You Do The Things You Do by UB40. Take a look at the below pictures. The first is a hoodie with the old Bucco Bruce logo, the second is a T-shirt with the old Bucco Bruce logo. Notice the difference between the two logos?

24. Joey by Concrete Blonde. The top logo was actually the original helmet insignia that was used from 1976 to c. 1992. While the bottom logo was the one used throughout the Bucs history from 1976-1996. When the throwback unis were re-introduced in 2009, the Bucs used the original helmet insignia as their throwback logo. Now I have no idea why the above facts are not acknowledged by the organization or insiders within the organization, Oh well, like my late father would say, "close enough for government work."

23. Say A Prayer by Breathe. You know, looking back upon the events of this year (as well as most of my life) that have personally affected me, I wonder if someone has been saying prayers AGAINST me...

22. Because I Love You by Stevie B. That reminds me, along with the Christmas gifts I'm going to be giving to my crush, I should include a very long letter to boot.

21. Groove Is In The Heart by Deee-Lite. We are only halfway through this countdown?! Sheesh I need to do a better job of ad-libbing.

20. Cherry Pie by Warrant. Speaking of National Cat Day that I mentioned at the beginning of this entry, one of my favorite cats was a Siamese that my parents had around this time. The cat's name? Samantha. Hmmm...

19. Impulsive by Wilson Phillips. Speaking of impulsive, here's something I have been thinking about since at least June. BSSB has a pretty good ring to it. Just saying...

18. Everybody Everybody by Black Box. Speaking of boxes, I have to find a box for at least one of the gifts I am giving. I need to get a measuring tape to jot the dimensions of said gift down.

17. Stranded by Heart. The biggest challenge of course is a way to get to where I need to go. I have to take the bus of course, but with several gifts I may have to utilize an Uber or a taxi. An Uber will alreay set me back about $55, and I don't really want to spend that much moolah on that (Since I only see a tiny amount of money to begin with). I may have to improvise.

16. From A Distance by Bette Midler

15. Something To Believe In by Poison. There are a few things and people I believe in. I just wish that feeling would be reciprocated...

14. Close To You by Maxi Priest. See below.

13. Praying For Time by George Michael. These last two songs kinda tie into my current state of emotion right now. I'm praying for time so I can be close to her.

12. So Close by Hall & Oates. If you listen to the lyrics to this song that's exactly how I feel at the moment.

11. Suicide Blonde by INXS. Actually I prefer redheads.

10. I'm Your Baby Tonight by Whitney Houston. I saw on TikTok the other day where I saw the collaboration Whitney did with Mariah Carey in 1999.

9. Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers. Anyway, here it is Halloween and already people are saying that Mariah's waiting in the wings with THAT DAMNED SONG. Can't we just cool it with the Mariah talk until AT LEAST Thanksgiving?

8. Pray by MC Hammer. This song got me thinking. There were FOUR songs on this countdown that had to do with prayer/faith. Isn't it interesting that the very next year (within a few months even) we'd all be "losing out religion?"

7. Can't Stop by After 7. No, I can't. OH, just thought of something. If you're on YouTube, check out the Real Life Lore channel. A lot of informative content for you to chew on from that site, including a new video out today covering how the war in Ukraine may spell the fall of Russia.

6. More Than Words Can Say by Alias. Some of their content isn't conducive to YouTube though, so I may have to subscribe to Curiosity Stream and Nebula to get the total package of what the channel is telling us. Details are on his channel.

5. Love Takes Time by Mariah Carey. Well speak of the devil...and yes it does take time. Too much time.

4. Giving You The Benefit by Pebbles. What's that saying, what you don't know can't hurt you?

3. Ice Ice Baby. Two things I would love to see for Christmas: me with a bicycle so I can ride the couple of miles to the bus stop or Planet Fitness, and an ice storm to hit Florida, but then we'd have to say hell hath frozen over.

2. BLACK CAT by Janet Jackson. AHHHHHHHHH!!! So close to number one! In fact, the week before this one in 1990, it WAS number one. Wait a minute, Billboard had it at number one? GOOD! Very fitting with it being Halloween and such.

So, who had the number one song according to Radio & Records the week of Halloween, 1990?

1. I Don't Have The Heart by James Ingram. I'm sure there are some people that don't have the heart to hurt me, and don't have the heart to love me the way I want to be loved. Which in a way, kind of goes back to what I mentioned about Halloween and my mother, RIP.

Well, after about three hours of typing this, I'm all done for now. Time for me to plan/work on my drawing that I'm also getting you know who for Christmas. As well as some meditating. I could use some ideas right now, and not the type that Wile. E. Coyote has. Until sometime later this week, have a good day, and once again,

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!