Annual Playlists

1986: I’m Gonna Show You What It’s All About

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When I posted my 1985 mix, I indicated the following year was more in line with what we think of as “Peak Eighties”, i.e. state-of-the-art, ultra-synthetic, BIG sounds that evoke bright neon colors, huge hair and millions spent. Roughly half the tracks below conform, often blatantly (Bananarama’s S/A/W-produced Shocking Blue cover, Siouxsie and the Banshees at last embracing the sparkly pop in their goth, Talk Talk bridging the gap between their new-pop past and near-ambient future) but occasionally accidentally as well. Given their timeless melodies, one can easily imagine what songs from The Bangles, Peter Gabriel (with crucial help from Kate Bush) and Eurythmics would’ve sounded like if recorded in another era.

Still, not everything in ’86 was spandex and synths (to quote another blog.) British-inspired jangle guitar pop was at a shimmering peak, whether crafted by Americans (The Feelies, R.E.M.), Australians (The Go-Betweens, Crowded House) or actual Brits (XTC, The Smiths, The Housemartins.) Meanwhile, ‘Til Tuesday’s “Coming Up Close”, an underrated, pastoral, anomaly-within-the-artist’s-catalog ballad not only transcends 1986, it anticipates Aimee Mann’s subsequent and unlikely (at the time) solo career.

As always, I love the year’s true oddities, from an ingeniously cheeky track off of They Might Be Giants’ debut album to the rise of innovative producers Jam/Lewis via Janet Jackson and The Human League to more sophisti-pop including The Blow Monkeys and Everything But The Girl’s brief but compelling departure into orchestrated Burt Bacharach splendor. Also, actual one hit wonders like Timbuk 3’s goofy/caustic rave-up and the immortal “I Can’t Wait” by the terribly-named Nu Shooz, which both reeks of 1986 and could’ve come out yesterday.

In addition to “Venus” and “Human”, we also had a treasure trove of all-timers topping the Billboard Hot 100. I couldn’t even make room for such undeniable bangers as Whitney Houston’s “How Will I Know”, Heart’s unexpectedly enduring “These Dreams” and Pet Shop Boys’ “West End Girls” (opting instead for their brilliant flop follow-up single.) However, I couldn’t leave off “Live To Tell” (daringly liminal and moody for the time), “Holding Back The Years” (a revelation when it appeared in the TV series Pose a few years back) and of course, “Kiss”—it took a talent as monumentally original as Prince to score a chart-topper so bizarre yet catchy, concise and deliriously out-of-time.

1986: I’m Gonna Show You What It’s All About

  1. The Feelies, “Let’s Go”
  2. Nu Shooz, “I Can’t Wait”
  3. They Might Be Giants, “Number Three”
  4. The B-52’s, “Ain’t It A Shame”
  5. Stan Ridgway, “Drive, She Said”
  6. The Go-Betweens, “Spring Rain”
  7. The Housemartins, “Think For A Minute”
  8. Erasure, “Oh L’Amour”
  9. Bananarama, “Venus”
  10. Pretenders, “Don’t Get Me Wrong”
  11. R.E.M., “Fall On Me”
  12. The Smiths, “Half A Person”
  13. Siouxsie and the Banshees, “Cities In Dust”
  14. The Blow Monkeys, “Digging Your Scene”
  15. Crowded House, “Don’t Dream It’s Over”
  16. The Human League, “Human”
  17. Janet Jackson, “What Have You Done For Me Lately”
  18. Husker Du, “Don’t Want To Know If You Are Lonely”
  19. Pet Shop Boys, “Love Comes Quickly”
  20. ‘Til Tuesday, “Coming Up Close”
  21. Talk Talk, “Life’s What You Make It”
  22. Peter Gabriel, “Don’t Give Up”
  23. Madonna, “Live To Tell”
  24. Everything But The Girl, “Cross My Heart”
  25. Simply Red, “Holding Back The Years”
  26. New Order, “All Day Long”
  27. Prince and the Revolution, “Kiss”
  28. The Bangles, “Manic Monday”
  29. Timbuk 3, “The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades”
  30. Cameo, “Word Up”
  31. Paul Simon, “The Boy In The Bubble”
  32. XTC, “Earn Enough For Us”
  33. Eurythmics, “Thorn In My Side”
  34. Hunters & Collectors, “Throw Your Arms Around Me”
  35. Concrete Blonde, “True”

1985: So Far Out Of Reach

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Whether 1985 qualifies as Peak ‘80s is a matter of personal taste (personally, I’d lean towards ’86 or ’87), but mid-decade is by design an ideal place to assess how we think of its music as a whole. This playlist’s run from the greatest up-tempo Madonna single of her imperial phase to the least overplayed of three massive Tears For Fears hits (along with Aretha’s tailor-made driving anthem and Murray Head’s musical-project-written-by-Benny-and-Bjorn-from-Abba oddity (which I remember it sounding like nothing else on syndicated TV series Solid Gold at the time) exhibits the lofty heights mainstream radio could then ascend to.

Sade and Prince also scored pretty neat leftfield ’85 hits too as did (with considerable help from the latter) Sheila E., undoubtedly scanning as Top 40 while reinterpreting the very notion of such in ways that were beyond, say, Phil Collins, REO Speedwagon or Dire Straits. Not as much as Kate Bush, of course—her sole top 40 hit in the US still startles, not least because it doesn’t dilute one whit of her otherness. “Although built almost entirely on era-specific synthetics, it somehow sounds as out of time now as it ever did,” is something I wrote in 2021, a year before its surprise revival in Stranger Things proved me right and the song became the massive worldwide hit it was always meant to be (reaching a new peak of #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, even.)

In addition to Tears For Fears, punchy singles from New Order, Big Audio Dynamite, The Cure and OMD would suggest 1985 was the year of Brit postpunk bands making big pop moves; however, I detect a more novel trend in guise of a cool, crisp, slightly jazzy subgenre dubbed Sophisti-Pop: Sade for sure, but also Prefab Sprout, Everything But The Girl, Fine Young Cannibals (to a lesser extent) and even a few old(er) souls like Bryan Ferry and Leonard Cohen (transforming his sound from monochrome folk to Casio keyboard pastels.) I’ve also slotted in some Sci-Fi Sophisti-Pop: The Rah Band’s daffy but strange and charming “Clouds Across The Moon”, a UK top ten hit I’d never heard of until a few years ago.

If the sublime INXS album track doesn’t particularly sound like 1985 while the Oingo Boingo one couldn’t possibly come from any other time, the late, great Kirsty MacColl’s “He’s On The Beach” splits the difference—while steeped in era-specific production, its sun-kissed yet melancholic view of an ex-lover from afar is, like nearly everything else the British singer-songwriter recorded, the most perfect pop song you’ve likely never heard. It was released as a stand-alone single that year and it didn’t seem to chart anywhere; it deserves some “Running Up That Hill”-like rediscovery.

1985: So Far Out Of Reach

  1. Prefab Sprout, “Bonny”
  2. Sade, “The Sweetest Taboo”
  3. Kirsty MacColl, “He’s On The Beach”
  4. Suzanne Vega, “Marlene On The Wall”
  5. Fine Young Cannibals, “Johnny Come Home”
  6. Everything But The Girl, “When All’s Well”
  7. Tom Waits, “Clap Hands”
  8. Felt, “Primitive Painters”
  9. Madonna, “Into The Groove”
  10. Aretha Franklin, “Freeway of Love”
  11. Murray Head, “One Night In Bangkok”
  12. Tears For Fears, “Head Over Heels”
  13. Oingo Boingo, “Dead Man’s Party”
  14. Camper Van Beethoven, “Take The Skinheads Bowling”
  15. Prince, “Raspberry Beret”
  16. R.E.M., “Driver 8”
  17. Kate Bush, “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)”
  18. Big Audio Dynamite, “The Bottom Line”
  19. Echo & The Bunnymen, “Bring On The Dancing Horses”
  20. New Order, “Love Vigilantes”
  21. Leonard Cohen, “The Law”
  22. INXS, “Shine Like It Does”
  23. Grace Jones, “Slave To The Rhythm”
  24. Bryan Ferry, “Slave To Love”
  25. Commodores, “Nightshift”
  26. The Jesus and Mary Chain, “Just Like Honey”
  27. Talking Heads, “Road To Nowhere”
  28. The Smiths, “That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore”
  29. The Cure, “A Night Like This”
  30. OMD, “So In Love”
  31. Sheila E., “A Love Bizarre – Pt. 1”
  32. The Rah Band, “Clouds Across The Moon”
  33. Mekons, “Last Dance”

1984: Love Never Ends

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The Los Angeles Olympics, the Apple Mackintosh Super Bowl commercial, Reagan’s landslide reelection and Clara “Where’s The Beef?!” Peller–1984 only lived up to George Orwell’s dystopian novel of the same name depending on where one stood with such (no matter how dubious) cultural touchstones. As for the year in music, given Purple Rain, Born In The USA, Private Dancer, Make It Big, Let It Be (Replacements, not The Beatles, naturally) and This Is Spinal Tap (which I couldn’t resist including a track from here), I don’t need to further the argument for 1984 being a bit special. Even beyond those LPs, the year was flush with classic hit singles, from Chaka Khan’s transformative Prince cover to the beginning of Madonna’s world-conquering run to era-defining anthems by Thompson Twins and General Public to, well, “Weird Al” Yankovic capturing the zeitgeist with his so-obvious-it’s-almost-brilliant Michael Jackson parody.

As with any year, the stuff that missed the Billboard Top 40 but lingered on in the collective unconscious is just as noteworthy. Nine years old at the time, I didn’t even hear these selections from The Smiths, Echo & The Bunnymen, Bronski Beat, The Nails and Hoodoo Gurus until at least a decade later when I was a college student and the local Alternative Rock station aired their daily “Retro Flashback Lunch” hour dedicated to post-punk new wave gems.

However, it’s in the margins where ’84 truly fascinates. Billy Bragg’s electric but spare folk music sits next to Kirsty MacColl’s big pop cover of one of his songs. Rubber Rodeo reinterprets the Pretenders’ jumpy rock with a western twang. Cocteau Twins seem to beam out from their own planet with a sugary wall of sound and pleasantly indecipherable vocals. Everything But The Girl (and to a lesser extent, Sade) subsist on their own jazz-and-bossa-nova-suffused plane. XTC continues to craft perfect pop music while defying nearly everything about it the rest of the world describes as such.

“Sexcrime (1984)” by the Eurythmics obviously sums up the year (and when else but in ’84 would one soundtrack an adaptation of Orwell’s novel with this?); slightly less on-the-nose, however, is a sweet techno-pop movie theme (about a love triangle between a man, a woman and a computer voiced by Bud Cort from Harold and Maude!) from the lead singer of The Human League and the electronic music pioneer whom seven years before gave us Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love”.

1984: Love Never Ends

  1. Chaka Khan, “I Feel For You”
  2. Alison Moyet, “Love Resurrection”
  3. Bananarama, “Robert De Niro’s Waiting”
  4. Kirsty MacColl, “A New England”
  5. Billy Bragg, “Between The Wars”
  6. XTC, “Wake Up”
  7. R.E.M., “Harborcoat”
  8. The Go-Betweens, “Bachelor Kisses”
  9. The Psychedelic Furs, “The Ghost In You”
  10. The Replacements, “I Will Dare”
  11. Bronski Beat, “Smalltown Boy”
  12. Cocteau Twins, “Lorelei”
  13. The Smiths, “What Difference Does It Make?”
  14. Prince, “Take Me With U”
  15. Spinal Tap, “Big Bottom”
  16. Madonna, “Material Girl”
  17. Phil Oakey and Giorgio Moroder, “Together In Electric Dreams”
  18. Echo & The Bunnymen, “The Killing Moon”
  19. Cristina, “Smile”
  20. General Public, “Tenderness”
  21. Rubber Rodeo, “Anywhere With You”
  22. Everything But The Girl, “Fascination”
  23. Sade, “Hang On To Your Love”
  24. Tina Turner, “Better Be Good To Me”
  25. INXS, “Original Sin”
  26. Cyndi Lauper, “Time After Time”
  27. The Nails, “88 Lines About 44 Women”
  28. Eurythmics, “Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four)”
  29. The Go-Go’s, “Head Over Heels”
  30. “Weird Al” Yankovic, “Eat It”
  31. Wham!, “Freedom”
  32. The Style Council, “My Ever Changing Moods”
  33. Thompson Twins, “Hold Me Now”
  34. Hoodoo Gurus, “I Want You Back”
  35. The Icicle Works, “Whisper to a Scream (Birds Fly)”
  36. The Specials, “Nelson Mandela”

1983: When Things Fall Into Place

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Just as New Wave completes its mutation into New Pop (more on that next year), 1983 reveals just how much the former could evolve before being superseded by the latter. Across this spectrum, you have post-punk stalwarts such as The Cure, XTC and Siouxsie Sioux at their most accessible to-date and old souls like Tom Waits and Joan Armatrading at their spikiest and also most contemporary sounding.

And yet, much of what’s included here comes from artists making their debuts/breakthroughs: Violent Femmes and R.E.M. representing new regional Americana, Billy Bragg reinventing electric folk for the post-Dylan era, Heaven 17 and The Blue Nile respectively adding soul and atmosphere to synth-pop, The Smiths and to a lesser extent The Three O’Clock and The Go-Betweens kicking off the ‘60s revival through slightly askew lenses and of course, Madonna basically (and rather shrewdly) updating what would’ve been called disco a few years previously (now under the safer guise of “Dance Music”);  Melle Mel’s “White Lines (Don’t Do It)” does essentially the same trick only as Hip-hop.

In many cases, I chose the less obvious hits: “Your Silent Face” instead of “Blue Monday”, “Church of the Poison Mind” but not “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me”, “Love Is A Stranger” over “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)”, “This Must Be The Place (Naïve Melody)” proving more timeless than “Burning Down The House”, etc. While there’s nothing by The Police, Michael Jackson or one-hit wonders Nena, Taco and Kajagoogoo, I still made room for Chaka Khan and Rufus’ enduring “Ain’t Nobody”, the deathless “Electric Avenue” (its original hit version finally on Spotify as of 2024!) and sole number-one-hit “Total Eclipse of the Heart” which you’d want in a time capsule for future generations to effusively understand what the year sounded like at its loudest and most expensive.

As for 1983 at its weirdest, look no further than “Shiny Shiny”, which asks the question, “What’s more inexplicable, the band’s name or the song?” (Answer: its music video.) For those seeking a little extra substance with their style, you can’t go wrong with The The’s “This Is The Day”, which grafts jubilant fiddle and accordion onto an electro-exoskeleton and sports a melody that blooms and resounds with each passing minute—an anthem both melancholy and bright that feels neither faceless nor cheap.

1983: When Things Fall Into Place

  1. Joan Armatrading, “Drop The Pilot”
  2. Culture Club, “Church Of The Poison Mind”
  3. The Go-Betweens, “Cattle and Cane”
  4. Heaven 17, “Temptation”
  5. Was (Not Was), “Knocked Down, Made Small”
  6. Eurythmics, “Love Is A Stranger”
  7. Peter Schilling, “Major Tom (Coming Home)”
  8. XTC, “Great Fire”
  9. The Cure, “The Lovecats”
  10. Marshall Crenshaw, “Whenever You’re On My Mind”
  11. Siouxsie and the Banshees, “Dear Prudence”
  12. Talking Heads, “This Must Be The Place (Naïve Melody)
  13. Billy Bragg, “The Milkman of Human Kindness”
  14. Yaz, “Nobody’s Diary”
  15. Tom Waits, “16 Shells From A 30.6”
  16. Melle Mel, “White Lines (Don’t Do It)”
  17. Chaka Khan & Rufus, “Ain’t Nobody”
  18. Violent Femmes, “Prove My Love”
  19. Haysi Fantayzee, “Shiny Shiny”
  20. The B-52’s, “Legal Tender”
  21. R.E.M., “Perfect Circle”
  22. New Order, “Your Silent Face”
  23. The Smiths, “This Charming Man”
  24. Madonna, “Burning Up”
  25. Bonnie Tyler, “Total Eclipse of the Heart”
  26. David Bowie, “Modern Love”
  27. Eddy Grant, “Electric Avenue”
  28. The The, “This Is The Day”
  29. Echo & The Bunnymen, “The Cutter”
  30. The Blue Nile, “Stay”
  31. Brian Eno, “Always Returning”
  32. The Three O’Clock, “Jet Fighter”
  33. Funy Boy Three, “Our Lips Are Sealed”

1982: Before I Talk, I Should Read A Book!

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We’re at a crossroads, a convergence of competing subgenres. I could’ve easily put together an all-post-punk/new wave collection of tunes, or an all-Brit edition or even an American Top 40 variety; I’m sure a solid indie/underground representation of 1982’s out there somewhere, curated by a soul with more firsthand knowledge of it than myself.

What I’ve ended up with, naturally, is a blend of all of the above that nonetheless more often than not leans towards post-punk/new wave because there’s just so goddamn much of it: The Cure entering their goth-pop phase with a newfound emphasis on the latter, The (English) Beat ever more sophisticated and expansive with “Save It For Later”, quirky one-offs like Haircut 100 and Wall of Voodoo claiming their moment in the sun, synth-pop now officially a chart-worthy thing, as witnessed by Yaz’s venerable ballad and Missing Persons’ El Lay take on the genre; even relative “veterans” like Sparks and Kate Bush bending their sounds and styles to fit into and, at least in Bush’s case redefine the genre. There’s also a bunch of R&B/rock mutations: Kid Creole and The Coconuts sharpening their bon vivant take on new wave, Prince swaggering his way  into the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time and even Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott, a black rock pioneer going unapologetically, disarmingly pop (complete with baroque, “Penny Lane”-style trumpet solo!)

Predictably, I couldn’t ignore those mainstream hits that made an indelible impression on my seven-year-old brain. I’ve spared you such cheese as “Key Largo” and “Ebony and Ivory” (the latter: two legends reduced to mush!) but have made room for Bee Gees-produced Dionne Warwick (Gibb a much better Barry for her than Manilow), the smooth, hook-laden reassurance of The Alan Parsons Project, Stevie Wonder’s last great single, another sterling Christine McVie-written Fleetwood Mac one, and of course, “Goody Two Shoes”, Adam Ant’s only early 80s American Top 40 hit (in this case, us Yanks chose the best, most endearing one.)

Despite the abundance of Brits represented, I’m more intrigued by that American-indie contingent I was far too young to know at the time. Some days, “Mesopotamia” is my favorite B-52’s song, riding texture and an electro-groove unlike any of their other standards (Fred Schneider’s inimitable, exuberant vocal hook, which provides this playlist’s title is just the icing on a multi-layered cake); other days, I hear “Wolves, Lower”, the opener from R.E.M.’s first EP Chronic Town and it’s as fresh and exciting and enigmatic as it ever was, even compared to all of their era-defining output over the subsequent decade.

1982: Before I Talk, I Should Read A Book!

  1. A Flock of Seagulls, “Space Age Love Song”
  2. The Cure, “Let’s Go To Bed”
  3. Indeep, “Last Night a DJ Saved My Life”
  4. Prince, “Little Red Corvette”
  5. The Alan Parsons Project, “Eye In The Sky”
  6. Kid Creole and The Coconuts, “I’m A Wonderful Thing, Baby”
  7. The Psychedelic Furs, “Love My Way”
  8. Roxy Music, “The Space Between”
  9. The B-52’s, “Mesopotamia”
  10. Kate Bush, “Suspended In Gaffa”
  11. Split Enz, “Six Months In a Leaky Boat”
  12. Phil Lynott, “Old Town”
  13. Wall of Voodoo, “Mexican Radio”
  14. David Bowie, “Cat People (Putting Out Fire)”
  15. Siouxsie and the Banshees, “Fireworks – 12” Version”
  16. XTC, “No Thugs In Our House”
  17. Adam Ant, “Goody Two Shoes”
  18. R.E.M., “Wolves, Lower”
  19. The Dream Syndicate, “Tell Me When It’s Over”
  20. Chic, “Tavern On The Green”
  21. The English Beat, “Save It For Later”
  22. Fun Boy Three and Bananarama, “It Ain’t What You Do, It’s The Way That You Do It”
  23. Dionne Warwick, “Heartbreaker”
  24. Carly Simon, “Why (12” Version)”
  25. Yaz, “Only You”
  26. Missing Persons, “Destination Unknown”
  27. Sparks, “Angst In My Pants”
  28. The Waitresses, “Square Pegs”
  29. Fleetwood Mac, “Hold Me”
  30. ABC, “The Look Of Love, Pt. 1”
  31. Stevie Wonder, “Do I Do (Single Version)”
  32. Haircut 100, “Love Plus One – 12” Version”
  33. The Associates, “Party Fears Two”
  34. The Jam, “The Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had To Swallow)”
  35. ABBA, “Under Attack”
  36. Richard & Linda Thompson, “Wall of Death”

1981: Feeling Like A Woman, Looking Like A Man

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The peak year for post punk, 1981 even had its own theme song of sorts in Kim Wilde’s immortal “Kids In America”. It came from the synth-end of that spectrum, along with other such newfangled artists as Depeche Mode, OMD and Soft Cell (not to mention then-veterans Kraftwerk); on the guitar-end, you had The English Beat, Pretenders, The Go-Go’s, even the good ol’ Ramones. More often than not, however, post punk encompassed a canny blend of the two, an in-between space that collected oddballs from Romeo Void (with Deborah Iyall wailing “I might like you better if we slept together” over and over again into the void) to angular glam pirates Adam & The Ants, whose “Prince Charming” is surely one of the oddest UK number one hits of the 80s.

On that note, Laurie Anderson’s “O Superman” is easily the oddest UK number two hit ever, a free-form, spoken word proto-ASMR tone poem spread out over eight minutes. A six-year-old in Wisconsin in ’81, I didn’t hear it until I was in my twenties. My favorite song at the time was undoubtedly the famous-orchestral-flourishes-over-a-drum-machine-beat medley “Hooked On Classics”; I remember becoming ecstatic whenever it came on the radio and more recently, I fully appreciated its appearance in the gay sex montage in the first episode of It’s A Sin.

Most of the stuff I knew at the time came from Solid Gold and my parents’ preferred soft rock station; while I have a nagging respect for some of it, you won’t see the likes of Air Supply, Christopher Cross or even Rick Springfield here. But Kim Carnes’ husky voice (and slap-happy music video for “Bette Davis Eyes”) endures, as does Lindsey Buckingham’s “Trouble” (he had no good reason to keep such gibberish in the intro, but I’m thankful he did) and ABBA’s startling, verging-on-post-punk “The Visitors” (Who are these “Visitors”? Immigrant hordes? Alien invaders? Mere figments of the singer’s imagination?)

This is the year hip-hop begins to seep (however slowly) into pop culture. Although I didn’t include Blondie’s “Rapture” (too obvious) or Grandmaster Flash, I did make room for the soon-to-be heavily-sampled ESG and Tom Tom Club, plus Frankie Smith’s novelty crossover and Gil Scott-Heron’s epic proto-rap Reagan takedown. Inevitably, my attention shifts over to post-disco anthems by Taana Gardner, Was (Not Was) and former disco diva herself Grace Jones: Nightclubbing, her gender-bending (and genre-bending) covers-heavy apotheosis (from Iggy Pop’s title track to selections from Bill Withers and The Police) has steadily grown into one of my favorite albums since first hearing it just a few years ago, with slinky, sultry “Walking In The Rain” (also a cover!) its perfect leadoff track.

1981: Feeling Like A Woman, Looking Like A Man

  1. Kim Wilde, “Kids In America”
  2. Pretenders, “Talk of The Town”
  3. Lindsey Buckingham, “Trouble”
  4. Frankie Smith, “Double Dutch Bus”
  5. Prince, “Controversy”
  6. ESG, “U.F.O”
  7. Grace Jones, “Walking In The Rain”
  8. Blue Oyster Cult, “Burnin’ For You”
  9. The Go-Go’s, “Our Lips Are Sealed”
  10. Taana Gardner, “Heartbeat”
  11. Kim Carnes, “Bette Davis Eyes”
  12. OMD, “Souvenir”
  13. Dollar, “Mirror Mirror”
  14. The English Beat, “Too Nice To Talk To”
  15. Adam & The Ants, “Prince Charming”
  16. Ultravox, “Vienna”
  17. Kraftwerk, “Computer Love”
  18. Tom Tom Club, “Genius of Love”
  19. Family Fodder, “Film Music”
  20. Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, “Hooked on Classics (Parts 1 & 2)”
  21. Was (Not Was), “Wheel Me Out (Long Version)”
  22. Romeo Void, “Never Say Never”
  23. Ramones, “The KKK Took My Baby Away”
  24. Stevie Wonder, “That Girl”
  25. The Specials, “Ghost Town”
  26. ABBA, “The Visitors”
  27. Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, “Bad Reputation”
  28. Stevie Nicks, “Edge of Seventeen”
  29. Bee Gees, “Living Eyes”
  30. Laurie Anderson, “O Superman”
  31. Depeche Mode, “Just Can’t Get Enough”
  32. Soft Cell, “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye”
  33. Gil Scott-Heron, “’B’ Movie (Intro, Poem, Song)”

1980: On A Ride Through Paradise

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An unexpected and exceptionally weird year for pop culture: on the basis of such stupendous offerings as The Jazz Singer (starring Neil Diamond!) and Pink Lady and Jeff, one detects a higher-than-average collective lapse in good taste. Happily, that’s not the case regarding the year’s music—I had to show restraint in limiting it to three dozen tracks. While not perverse enough to include anything from The Apple or Can’t Stop The Music soundtracks, I’ve made room for two from Xanadu without apology: Olivia Newton-John’s “Magic”, because I retain so many memories of hearing it on road trips to visit extended family out in the boonies, and ELO’s “All Over The World”, arguably the Xanadu song most perfectly capturing the futuristic cheese it was attempting.

Still, I don’t think any of these subsequent annual playlists will have as many actual number-one hits. At its death throes, AM Top 40 radio gave us such glories as Diana Ross’ Chic-produced eleganza, Blondie’s Moroder-produced iconic New Wave sleaze, Streisand’s Gibb-produced immaculate and soaring, melodramatic soft rock, McCartney’s kooky new wave experiment (actually a hit in the US in a less interesting live recording), and, most intriguingly, Lipps Inc.’s midway-between-disco-and-synthpop one-shot whose remedial genius will likely outlive all of its chart-topping cohorts. I didn’t even have room for worthy number ones from Queen (take your pick) or Pink Floyd, instead opting for two from the UK: one of Abba’s least overplayed (and thus, freshest) standards and Bowie’s chilling-but-catchy “Space Oddity” sequel.

As Macca knew, new wave was a big thing at the time, if not always on the charts. The Brits were all over it (The English Beat, The Cure, The Soft Boys, Siouxsie and the Banshees, XTC, etc.) as was Australia (Split Enz), Canada (Martha and the Muffins, Rough Trade), and in the USA, representatives from Akron, Ohio (Devo, Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde), Athens, Georgia (The B-52’s, Pylon) and, oh, New York City (Talking Heads). Proto post-punk stalwarts Roxy Music effortlessly adjusted to the times (the scintillating “Same Old Scene”); forgoing easy categorization, Prince on his third album crafted a new wave song simply because he could and naturally it was great.

The rest is a typically eclectic assortment of post-disco both mainstream (The Jacksons pushing lessons learned from Michael’s Off The Wall into euphoric overdrive) and esoteric (Cristina’s deranged Peggy Lee cover) brushing up against a bevy of smooth pop that we now call “Yacht Rock”: late Steely Dan, brief superstar Christopher Cross, Rupert Holmes’ slick and drenched-in-irony follow-up to “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” and George Benson, who pioneered the R&B strain of this with 1976’s Breezin’ and this year brought Quincy Jones on board for Give Me The Night, its title track his biggest and best hit.

1980: On A Ride Through Paradise

  1. Diana Ross, “Upside Down”
  2. The English Beat, “Mirror In The Bathroom”
  3. Roxy Music, “Same Old Scene”
  4. Blondie, “Call Me”
  5. Split Enz, “I Got You”
  6. Prince, “When You Were Mine”
  7. The Cure, “A Forest”
  8. Martha and the Muffins, “Echo Beach”
  9. Steely Dan, “Babylon Sisters”
  10. Stevie Wonder, “Master Blaster (Jammin’)”
  11. Cristina, “Is That All There Is?”
  12. Kate Bush, “The Wedding List”
  13. Visage, “Fade To Grey”
  14. Lipps Inc., “Funkytown”
  15. The Soft Boys, “Tonight”
  16. Rough Trade, “High School Confidential”
  17. Devo, “Whip It”
  18. Paul McCartney, “Coming Up”
  19. Peter Gabriel, “Games Without Frontiers”
  20. Barbra Streisand, “Woman In Love”
  21. Olivia Newton-John, “Magic”
  22. ABBA, “Super Trouper”
  23. George Benson, “Give Me The Night”
  24. Christopher Cross, “Ride Like The Wind”
  25. Rupert Holmes, “Him”
  26. Siouxsie and The Banshees, “Christine”
  27. Pylon, “Stop It”
  28. The B-52’s, “Private Idaho”
  29. The Jam, “Man In The Corner Shop”
  30. Talking Heads, “Crosseyed and Painless”
  31. Pretenders, “Mystery Achievement”
  32. XTC, “Towers of London”
  33. The Jacksons, “Can You Feel It”
  34. Electric Light Orchestra, “All Over The World”
  35. David Bowie, “Ashes To Ashes”
  36. Paul Simon, “Late In The Evening”

1979: Please Tell Me Who I Am

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One of my earliest memories is hearing “The Logical Song” in my parents’ car, not once but multiple times, to the point where it was likely one of the first pop songs I ever consciously liked. Of course, its words were gibberish to a four-year-old, but its melody and somewhat unique structure (that key-changing coda, with the stuttered “d-d-d-digital” followed by an electronic ringing phone noise) were sounds I took note of and began anticipating whenever the song reappeared.

Still, this is an odd, transitional year as a whole, with disco fading, post-punk ascendant and very little else on this list untouched by either. Even the catchiest song on Tusk differentiated itself from Rumours by latching onto a sort of power-pop that would flourish in the coming decade. Meanwhile, veterans from Marianne Faithfull (I should’ve included Broken English in 100 Albums) and Bowie (of course) to Giorgio Moroder-produced Sparks adapted to the times while displaying enough insight to help define them. Of these selections, only Herb Alpert (with an unlikely number one hit thanks to General Hospital!) and Wings (with a B-side that should’ve been a hit) remained mostly unencumbered by the new, now sounds (although I’m sure the former played well in mainstream discos.)

1979 might be the precise moment that catch-all term new wave expanded to include all sorts of new mutations, from second wave ska (The Specials) to retro girl group-isms (Kirsty MacColl’s debut single and maybe her most perfect still); the best dance music, on the other hand, understood a need to push its limits. Note how rock-friendly (Donna Summer), shamelessly campy (Don Armando’s Annie Get Your Gun cover) and sublime and sophisticated (the Chic organization, represented here by two cuts) it could be.

A few songs convincingly brought a familiar sound seamlessly into the present (XTC’s first British Invasion pastiche, The B-52s’ surf/trash rock nirvana), while others now scan as thrillingly ahead of their time: Gino Soccio’s “Dancer” could be a ’80s or ’90s house music spectacular if you toned down the disco specifics a bit; “Video Killed the Radio Star” is predominantly thought of as an ’80s tune due to its first-ever-video-played-on-MTV status, but it fully fits the bill. Although the Village People infamously declared they were “Ready For The ‘80s” in the closing months of this year, they honestly weren’t—the likes of Blondie and later, Prince, would rapidly supplant them as cultural bellwethers.

1979: Please Tell Me Who I Am

  1. Blondie, “Dreaming”
  2. David Bowie, “DJ”
  3. Prince, “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?”
  4. XTC, “Life Begins At The Hop”
  5. The Flying Lizards, “Money”
  6. Marianne Faithfull, “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan”
  7. Patti Smith, “Dancing Barefoot”
  8. The Specials, “A Message To You Rudy”
  9. Lene Lovich, “Lucky Number”
  10. Donna Summer, “Bad Girls”
  11. Herb Alpert, “Rise”
  12. Wings, “Daytime Nightime Suffering”
  13. Roxy Music, “Still Falls The Rain”
  14. The Cure, “10:15 Saturday Night”
  15. The B-52’s, “Rock Lobster”
  16. Dave Edmunds, “Girls Talk”
  17. Sniff ‘n’ The Tears, “Driver’s Seat”
  18. Chic, “My Feet Keep Dancing”
  19. Elvis Costello & the Attractions, “Accidents Will Happen”
  20. Gino Soccio, “Dancer”
  21. Supertramp, “The Logical Song”
  22. Talking Heads, “I Zimbra”
  23. Sister Sledge, “Lost In Music”
  24. Kirsty MacColl, “They Don’t Know”
  25. The Buggles, “Video Killed the Radio Star”
  26. Don Armando’s 2nd Avenue Rumba Band, “I’m An Indian Too”
  27. Sparks, “Tryouts For The Human Race”
  28. Patrice Rushen, “Haven’t You Heard”
  29. The Clash, “The Card Cheat”
  30. The Jam, “Strange Town”
  31. Fleetwood Mac, “Think About Me”

1978: Let Me In Your Window

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It’s the golden age of New Wave, from heavy hitters like Blondie (“Picture This”, while not a US hit encapsulates everything great about them) and Elvis Costello to emerging artists such as Nick Lowe (a year away from his only US hit) and Talking Heads (opted for their elegiac single rather than the obvious one from that year) and a few true weirdos: XTC, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Devo (whose chaotic Stones cover is the very definition of smashing “post” and “punk” together.)

Still, those selections comprise but a small portion of what the year had to offer—you can make ’78 look especially cool by spotlighting The Undertones, The Ramones, even a reformed Walker Brothers (with the wondrous, Bowie-aping “Nite Flights”), but it’s not the whole story. Far more telling is Olivia Newton-John, the only artist who appears more than once here with the John Travolta duet “You’re The One That I Want” (honestly the only thing I love about Grease) and her late-in-the-year, less-remembered smash “A Little More Love”, which nearly rivals ABBA (don’t worry, they’re here too) in ultra-catchy power-rock shlock.

Actually, let’s talk about schlock (some might alternately describe it as “trash”.) I suppose I’m more susceptible to it from this period for it includes the first songs I’d remember hearing on the radio in the immediate years to come. The epic sax solos of “Baker Street” and “Time Passages”, Michael McDonald’s inimitable backing vocals on “You Belong To Me”, the faux-exotic, extra-cheese samba that is “Copacabana”—all of them talismans from my early childhood, none of them at odds of ever seeming remotely hip (at least until Yacht Rock became a recognized, categorized thing in the 2000s.)

Disco only further plays into this: sure, one can unironically praise the crisp, gleaming funk of “Every 1’s A Winner” or lush elegance of “I Want Your Love” or unstoppable drive of “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”; however, one then must also consider “I Love The Nightlife (Disco ‘Round)” where Alicia Bridges’ campy intonation surely inspired generations of drag performers or (speaking of camp) Boney M’s inexplicable “Rasputin” (aka, “Russia’s Greatest Love Machine”), which threads both the ridiculous and the sublime more seamlessly than even Santa Esmeralda did in ’77.

As usual, Kate Bush is an entirely different matter. If you listen to her debut single “Wuthering Heights” (not the ’86 remake on The Whole Story, my own introduction to it) or watch the music video above, you might be tempted to lump her in with all that schlock (and camp) and call it a day. But no, there’s something present within the song, within her essence, even, that transcends the very notion of schlock—an ingenuity projecting sincerity even in the most theatrical of presentations. It blows my mind that this was a four-weeks-at-number-one-hit in the UK and yet, it makes total sense that so many listeners could instantly give themselves over to it. Bush’s salvo is one-of-a-kind in how it simultaneously looks forwards and backwards, utilizing elements from the past to formulate what still feels like a whole new language.

1978: Let Me In Your Window

  1. Elvis Costello & The Attractions, “Pump It Up”
  2. ABBA, “Angeleyes”
  3. Patti Smith, “Because The Night”
  4. Kate Bush, “Wuthering Heights”
  5. Gerry Rafferty, “Baker Street”
  6. Olivia Newton-John, “A Little More Love”
  7. Blondie, “Picture This”
  8. Siouxsie and the Banshees, “Hong Kong Garden”
  9. Boney M., “Rasputin”
  10. Alicia Bridges, “I Love The Nightlife (Disco ‘Round)”
  11. Nick Lowe, “I Love The Sound of Breaking Glass”
  12. XTC, “This Is Pop?”
  13. Neil Diamond, “Forever In Blue Jeans”
  14. Warren Zevon, “Werewolves of London”
  15. Toto, “Georgy Porgy”
  16. Carly Simon, “You Belong To Me”
  17. Al Stewart, “Time Passages”
  18. The Walker Brothers, “Nite Flights”
  19. Sylvester, “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”
  20. Chic, “I Want Your Love”
  21. Sweet, “Love Is Like Oxygen”
  22. Devo, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”
  23. John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John, “You’re The One That I Want”
  24. The Undertones, “Teenage Kicks”
  25. Talking Heads, “The Big Country”
  26. Barry Manilow, “Copacabana”
  27. Hot Chocolate, “Every 1’s A Winner”
  28. Cheap Trick, “Surrender”
  29. Ramones, “I Wanna Be Sedated”
  30. Exile, “Kiss You All Over”
  31. Donna Summer, “Last Dance”

1977: Can’t You See It’s Burning Out Of Control?

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The year of Rumours, Star Wars, Saturday Night Fever (all represented!) and more. In addition to OG punks The Ramones putting out their second and third albums, you can also hear stirrings of this new genre bubbling up in fellow yanks Talking Heads and Television; France also has its say with Plastic Bertrand’s cheeky one-off, which smashes the 50s, 60s and 70s together until it resembles punk.

Still, even before Travolta transformed into a silver screen, white-suited icon at year’s end, disco was arguably at its creative peak. The extended dance remix, popularized by Donna Summer the previous year nearly dominates this playlist, from Santa Esmeralda’s epic flamenco-disco take on an Animals song to Belle Epoque’s quirky fiddle-laced take on the genre (when I first heard those intro vocals, I thought I’d put on Joan Jett or Suzi Quatro by mistake) and of course, Summer’s own synthetic, predicting-the-‘80s-and-beyond masterpiece “I Feel Love”.

And yet, by a hair, “Marquee Moon” remains the longest track here, for the post-punkers and prog-rockers felt more comfortable taking their time as well. By then, you expected six-minute mood pieces from the likes of Brian Eno (“Julie With…” serenely drifts in and gradually coalesces only to gently fade into the ether.) But Steely Dan? Making the title track of their best-selling LP an eight-minute tone poem almost jazzy enough for fusion-era Miles Davis? And endurable enough for me to first hear on classic rock radio on a chilly Saturday afternoon in early 1993?

Balancing out other big hits from rockers (ELO, Heart), MOR-ers (Jimmy Buffett, Commodores, ABBA) and dancers (Chic, KC, Marvin Gaye and the most perfect disco single of all time from Thelma Houston) are relatively lesser-known gems: Joan Armatrading’s rhythmic folk, ex-Beach Boy Dennis Wilson’s attempt to make his own Nilsson Schmilsson and Bobbie Gentry, who recorded a few tracks around this time that didn’t see the light of the day until much later. “Thunder In The Afternoon” sounds very little like her 1967-74 catalog but it’s so full of promise it leaves one wondering what else she could’ve done had she kept releasing albums well into the next decade or three.

1977: Can’t You See It’s Burning Out of Control?

  1. Joan Armatrading, “Show Some Emotion”
  2. KC and the Sunshine Band, “I’m Your Boogie Man”
  3. Bee Gees, “More Than A Woman”
  4. Chic, “Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)”
  5. Boney M., “Ma Baker”
  6. Bobbie Gentry, “Thunder In The Afternoon”
  7. The Brothers Johnson, “Strawberry Letter 23”
  8. Brian Eno, “Julie With…”
  9. Dennis Wilson, “Dreamer”
  10. Thelma Houston, “Don’t Leave Me This Way”
  11. Marvin Gaye, “Got To Give It Up (Part 1)”
  12. Climax Blues Band, “Couldn’t Get It Right”
  13. Iggy Pop, “Lust For Life”
  14. Belle Epoque, “Miss Broadway”
  15. Donna Summer, “I Feel Love”
  16. Ramones, “Teenage Lobotomy”
  17. ELO, “Turn To Stone”
  18. Plastic Bertrand, “Ca Plane Pour Moi”
  19. Television, “Marquee Moon”
  20. Talking Heads, “Psycho Killer”
  21. Althea and Donna, “Uptown Top Ranking”
  22. Steely Dan, “Aja”
  23. Fleetwood Mac, “The Chain”
  24. Heart, “Barracuda”
  25. Abba, “The Name of the Game”
  26. Santa Esmeralda, “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”
  27. Cerrone, “Supernature”
  28. Meco, “Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band”
  29. Jimmy Buffet, “Margaritaville”
  30. Commodores, “Easy”
  31. David Bowie, “Sound and Vision”