Cheryl Pepsii Riley - "Thanks For My Child"

[johnnywest]

Sappy song from late 1988. This was the butt of no less than 2 jokes on Rick Dees Weekly Top 40.

[Michael1973]

You are perhaps referring to the week when Rick played the "special edited version" of the song, which was all of 5 seconds long?

[Hervard]

Man, he was doing that back then, too? I thought he started doing that in the 1990s (i.e. "Let me give you a little taste of #28 (drop piece of song at #28) now onto #27...)

I remember either on AT40 or CT40, near the end of the song's run, Shadoe (or Casey) did a story about how teachers were up in arms about the song being played on the radio because they thought it promoted teenage pregnancy.

As for the song, it never fails to bring tears to my eyes (especially the end "I love you sweetheart." "I love you too Mommy.")

[BillboardBoy]

Man, he was doing that back then, too? I thought he started doing that in the 1990s (i.e. "Let me give you a little taste of #28 (drop piece of song at #28) now onto #27...)

I'm shocked too. I don't remember him doing that prior to "The Sign" in 1994. And that was after it had been on the countdown for more than 20 weeks.

He also did that with "One And One" by Robert Miles f/Maria Nayler and "Fastlove" by George Michael.

The first time I remember Rick actually skipping over a whole song was "Playground" by Another Bad Creation back in 1991 or 1992.

[johnnywest]

Back in 1996, Rick played drops of "The Top 3 most-least requested songs."

3) Thanks For My Child
2) Just A Friend
1) I Love You - The Legendary Stardust Cowboy

[Michael1973]

"Thanks For My Child" was one of only two songs I remember Rick doing this with prior to the mid 1990's.  However, I think it might have been related to the controversial subject matter of the song.  When the song appeared on the countdown for it's final week, Rick said something like, "Here's the special Weekly Top 40 edited mix" and went on the play the opening notes immediately followed by the spoken ending.  If I remember right, this was followed by mock laughter.

The only other time I remember him omitting a song during that era was when Milli Vanilli's "All Or Nothing" appeared on the 1990 year end special.  By this time, the scandal had been made public, and Rick introed the song, played about 3 seconds of it, followed by an explosion sound effect, then moved on to the next song.

It wasn't until years later that he began skipping over songs just for the heck of it.

[reception]

I didn't like it.

[Whi$tlin' Pete]

I also remember the story about the negative feedback regarding the message of the song. I believe it was on AT40 with Shadoe Stevens. I remember the song well, I have it recorded some place, but never cared a great deal for it.

[Hervard]

Michael1973 said:

The only other time I remember him omitting a song during that era was when Milli Vanilli's "All Or Nothing" appeared on the 1990 year end special.  By this time, the scandal had been made public, and Rick introed the song, played about 3 seconds of it, followed by an explosion sound effect, then moved on to the next song.

That was about the time when it was getting to be too many songs in the year end countdown. The year-end chart increased by one song each year and by now, there were 45 songs to be played in a four-hour period and they were getting strapped for time. However, I don't think it was until 1992 when Rick began just mentioning the positions of the songs. Until then, I believe he just started fading out certain songs a little before the end. Of course, for several years (1987 through 1989), his countdown was just a Top 40, so he didn't need to do this.

[johnnywest]

Whistlin' said:

I also remember the story about the negative feedback regarding the message of the song. I believe it was on AT40 with Shadoe Stevens.  I remember the song well, I have it recorded some place, but never cared a great deal for it.

What was so negative about this song?

[mst3k]

ulij20 said:

Shadoe (or Casey) did a story about how teachers were up in arms about the song being played on the radio because they thought it promoted teenage pregnancy.

[BillboardBoy]

"Papa Don't Preach" had a similar theme.

[Michael1973]

If I recall correctly, the song's message was misinterpreted by a great many people -- enough so that it was pulled off the air by a number of radio stations.  Hence, the song's "fast rise, fast fall" chart run.  I don't remember AT40 addressing this issue, but then again it was over 15 years ago.  And I'm sure the Rick Dees "edited mix" was a result of these actions.

[BillboardBoy]

What does she look like? I imagine her looking like Nenneh Cherry.

[cartman2002]

This tune got to #1 on the R&B chart and #32 on the Hot 100 in 1988

[areyoureadytojump]

The video:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVXSfx-9jJU

[BillboardBoy]

ulij20 said:

As for the song, it never fails to bring tears to my eyes (especially the end "I love you sweetheart." "I love you too Mommy.")

That end quote sounds like it was borrowed from the end of Helen Reddy's "You And Me Against The World."

[Soulsista]

This may surprise some of you, but this song was written and produced by Full Force. In their episode of TVOne's Unsung, one of the members, Bowlegged Lou, revealed that his wife had a miscarriage, and that this song was born out of that experience. I never cared much for this song, but after hearing the story behind it, I appreciate it more.

[johnnywest]

She looks a little like Janet Jackson.

[Verisimilitude]

This is so cute. Teen pregnancy trailblazer!

[Soulsista]

This song isn't about teenage pregnancy.

[Deleted]

I never liked this. So cheesy.

[🇯🇲 lucy88 🇯🇲]

I like it. It's a nice song. First time I heard that song was when they played it on an old school radio station in Jamaica.