Saturday 9

Heart to Heart (1982)

Unfamiliar with this week's song. Hear it here.


1) With whom did you most recently have a "heart-to-heart" talk? My friend Henry. He seems to want to reconcile with his father, from whom he's been long-estranged, before it's too late. (Dad is 80-something.) I hope he does, and I hope his mother -- divorced from Dad for 30 years -- doesn't make him feel guilty about it.


2) When this song was on the charts, audiences were tuning in to a TV show called Hart to Hart. Are you familiar with it? Vaguely. I watched a rerun from a hotel room while on a business trip and thought it was completely unrealistic. Like it made Murder, She Wrote look like Forensic Files. I never watched it again, but I do recall thinking Mrs. Hart (Stefanie Powers) had great clothes.

I like her earrings, too.

3) In the music video, Kenny Loggins plays an illustrator. It’s said that the hardest thing to draw is a straight line, because all the joints in your hand have to work together in sync. Can you draw a straight line, without the aid of a ruler or a straight edge? It is a dichotomy of my life: I have beautiful handwriting but I can't draw. Anything. Can you figure that? I can't.

4) This video also prominently features teddy bears. A 2018 article in the NY Post estimates that 4 in 10 adults has a plush toy of his/her own. Are you one of the 40%? Yes. As I write this, I'm looking at stuffed animals I received as gifts from my late mother and my friend, Henry.

5) Kenny Loggins performed in a tribute to Aretha Franklin at Carnegie Hall. Do you have a favorite Aretha Franklin song? Enjoy!

 

6) Kenny cowrote this song with Michael McDonald of the Doobie Brothers. You can also hear Michael on the background vocals. Do you have a favorite Doobie Brothers song? I love this one because the music sounds upbeat, but the lyrics are so poignant.

 

7) The third cowriter is David Foster. 1982 was a big year for Foster, since Chicago had a big hit with another of his compositions, “Hard to Say I’m Sorry.” Do you have a favorite Chicago song? I like my Chicago old school.

 

8) In 1982, when this song was popular, Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide killed 7 people in Chicago. In response, tamper-proof packaging was introduced. What’s the last thing you opened that required you break a seal? Salad dressing. First I had to peel away the wrapper around the cap. Then I had to remove the cap to peel off the seal over the bottle. A lot of work for a little honey mustard goodness.

9) Random question – You’re having a party. Which guest annoys you most: the one who arrives 20 minutes early, or the one who shows up 20 minutes late? 20 minutes early, because I will not be ready.