adult contemporary

"All the other songs on the album were up and festive. I needed a ballad on the album, just to change the pace a bit," he said in an interview for The Billboard Book of No. 1 Adult Contemporary Hits.

In fact, “Fumbling Towards Ecstasy” turned out to be a hit at the so-called hot AC format then bridging the gap between Top 40 and adult contemporary; “Angel,” from “Surfacing,” would eventually top Billboard’s adult pop airplay chart.

During the decade that followed “All By Myself,” Carmen remained a staple on adult contemporary and album rock radio, finally achieving another smash when “Hungry Eyes,” his contribution to the “Dirty Dancing” soundtrack, reached number four in 1988, followed swiftly to the upper reaches of the charts that year by “Make Me Lose Control.”

The psychedelic, synth-pop duo of Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser joke “Musically speaking, we are running at around 20% adult contemporary.”

Weil’s early-’80s hot streak in quiet-storm soul music also included this stately Bryson number, which Weil co-wrote with Tom Snow and Michael Masser and which topped Billboard’s adult contemporary chart for four weeks.