History was made on October 25, 1986, on the Billboard charts.
40 years ago, for the first time in Billboard Hot 100 history, female solo acts held the top three spots. Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors” held down the No.1 position, followed by Tina Turner’s “Typical Male” at No.2 and Janet Jackson’s “When I Think Of You” at No.3.
After spending two weeks at No. 1, Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors” still has an enduring legacy, especially for the LGBTQ+ community. The track has resonated with the singer due to the recent death of her friend, Gregory Natal, from HIV/AIDS.
“I saw what was happening at that time as an infringement of people’s civil rights,” the two-time Grammy winner told Billboard in 2021. “Being a friend and family member of the community, I just said, ‘You know what, I’m not going to be silent.’”
Phil Collins played drums on “Typical Male” for Turner’s studio album Break Every Rule. It landed on number 2 on the Billboard charts. The track describes a woman who consults a lawyer about her personal troubles only to find herself falling for him.
The song landed at number 3 of Rolling Stone’s Essential Tina Turner Tracks. They call “the song is a perfectly kitschy Eighties pop hit with Turner’s playful, sexy charm burning down the house.”
In third place that week was “When I Think Of You” by Janet Jackson. The song is about a person who finds relief and fun in a lover, and it became Jackson’s first number-one single on the US Billboard Hot 100.
After “When I Think of You” reached number one, it made Janet and her brother Michael Jackson the first, and only, siblings to both have solo number-one singles on the Hot 100. Pitchfork included the song on their “The 200 Best Songs of the 1980s” list at number 48.
