The Number Fortys: Ollie & Jerry - "There's No Stopping Us"

In The Number Fortys, we review every song that was sitting at #40 on the Billboard chats, starting in the first week of January 1984, right around the time this writer became cognizant/obsessive about music. The seeds for the idea came from Tom Breihan's Number Ones column over at Stereogum. However, we here at k-postpunk believe that the bottom is more interesting than the top (and obscurity is more interesting than either).

I've always wanted to write a poem, or something, with the title "Daylight Doesn't Matter," but the phrase doesn't jump off the page the way it jumps out here in this song.

Ollie & Jerry never released an album. The duo wrote and recorded this song for the movie Breakin', a quickie B-movie designed to cash in on the breakdancing fad sweeping (parts of) America. The film is better than it has any right to be, given that as you watch it, you can imagine the actors and crew sprinting to the next location in an attempt to stay under budget. The ending is basically a cheesier version of the already cheesy ending of the previous year's Flashdance. Still, the movie's a 6. I'm (barely) old enough to have seen Breakin' in the theater. Afterwards my friends and I heading back behind the grocery store and fished out some cardboard boxes so we could learn to breakdance. Turns out it's really hard, but that didn't stop every kid at East Junior High in Brockton, MA around this time from trying to do some spins while waiting for gym class to start.

As for the song itself, it's got one foot firmly planted in late 70's R&B like Sister Sledge (the chorus, pretty much), and the other embracing contemporary cutting-edge synth sounds (the verses). But the sentiment of the song--we're going to fucking make it, man--is hard to pull off, and they did it, so good for Ollie & Jerry. This one went all the way to #8, and deservedly so. The song's a 6.

Despite the song's success, Ollie & Jerry would break up the following year, but not before recording a song for Breakin''s (I think I did that right, typographically speaking) sequel, Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo. The movie, by the way, is either a 1 or an 8, depending on your tolerance for unintentional comedy. Ollie & Jerry's contribution to the soundtrack, "Electric Boogaloo" is just boring and forgettable. It's (maybe) a 2. Since it never reached the Top 40, I'll go ahead and post it here.

Another song off the Breakin' soundtrack, "Ain't Nobody," by Chaka Khan & Rufus, was also pretty great. It reached #22 the year before; it's a 7. 

THE NUMBER ONE

Cyndi stays at #1 for a second week, and I'm just pissed there isn't a number higher than 1--or lower than 1. Wait. Hold on. Yeah, I know 0 is lower than 1. I'm just trying to say that it's unfair that a song like "Time After Time" can't reach a higher number, quantitatively speaking, than Footloose did. Like there's an unfair barrier keeping it from going further than any other song. Whatever. It's still a 10. It will always be a 10.