I came across this 1981 performance of “When She Was My Girl” by The Four Tops, on Fridays, ABC’s failed answer to Saturday Night Live. I’d forgotten this single was released so late, during the period when the romantic grooves made popular by The Sound of Philadelphia and early disco had long turned to Germanic robo-funk and early rap. Someone with a better knowledge of release dates may shoot my thoughts down rightfully, but this song seems like it was released a good 2 or 3 years past its musical style’s expiration date. I would have thought that McFadden and Whitehead‘s 1979 hit “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now,” for instance, was the last of its kind. Smokey Robinson‘s “Cruisin'” is another 1979 single that I remember fitting in with the last run of mid-’70s soul. By 1981, I recall veteran soul artists moving into smooth jazz, stuff like Grover Washington Jr. and Bill Withers‘ “Just the Two of Us.” I suspect many of you won’t see the difference between that song and this Four Tops number. Oh well.

Can you think of other “last of its kind” hit songs, not retro-styled songs by a band like The Stray Cats or records by totally out-of-touch and unpopular local bar bands, but contemporary releases that came on the tail end of a certain movement and managed to make a splash on the charts? For instance, there must be a “last new wave song” or a “last hair metal song” or a “last psychedelic song.”