Music

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”

1976: It’s The Best I Can Do

Chris Kriofske1 Comment

With no firsthand memory of it (being one year old at the time), for me, 1976 will always evoke the US Bicentennial, disco’s ascendancy and Stevie Wonder’s monumental (if not best) album Songs In The Key Of Life, whose still-dazzling first single leads off this year’s playlist. Another prime ’76 totem remains Wings’ sublimely daft “Silly Love Songs”, over which I’ve chosen its follow-up hit “Let ‘Em In” if only for its sheer weirdness—the precise moment Paul truly began (to paraphrase critic Robert Christgau) making pop directly geared towards potheads (give or take a “Hi, Hi, Hi”.)

Rather than blending everything together like a fruit salad (or this being the ‘70s, a health shake laced with alfalfa sprouts and some ‘ludes because why not), the first dozen or so tracks gradually shift from funk to disco, finding common ground between Boz Scaggs and ELO, or squeaky-clean Tavares and real-life porn actress Andrea True. While disco nears its artistic summit (but doesn’t quite reach it—check back next year) with extended jams from The Spinners, Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band and Diana Ross (her best single of the ’70s), there’s also new sounds to behold: punk via The Ramones (albeit at their cuddliest here), new wave from Blondie and The Modern Lovers (I don’t know where else to slot the latter; Jonathan Richman is more defiant dweeb than mere punk) and the newfound resilience of their forebears (Lou Reed, Bryan Ferry, David Bowie.) 

ABBA’s “Knowing Me, Knowing You” is not only peak ’76 (from Arrival, but a hit the next year) but also the Swedish foursome’s crowning achievement (“Dancing Queen” a close second): it encompasses infinite shades of heartbreak in an immaculate pop song where the cracks still show but never fully give way to chaos amidst the steady beat and melodic hooks. Not even Elton and Kiki’s impassioned duet can top it. The lingering ennui of “Year of the Cat” by Al Stewart (the proto-Stuart Murdoch) is as good a place as any to go out on, although I debated placing The Langley Schools Music Project version of “Rhiannon” at the end: when those kids suddenly go loud at the chorus, it’s spookier than anything even Stevie Nicks could’ve come up with.

1976: It’s The Best I Can Do

  1. Stevie Wonder, “I Wish”
  2. Parliament, “Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off The Sucker)”
  3. Boz Scaggs, “Lowdown”
  4. Electric Light Orchestra, “Livin’ Thing”
  5. Candi Staton, “Young Hearts Run Free”
  6. Maxine Nightingale, “Right Back Where We Started From”
  7. Tavares, “Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel”
  8. Andrea True Connection, “More, More, More”
  9. Diana Ross, “Love Hangover”
  10. Bee Gees, “You Should Be Dancing”
  11. Walter Murphy, “A Fifth of Beethoven”
  12. ABBA, “Knowing Me, Knowing You”
  13. Blue Oyster Cult, “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”
  14. Cliff Richard, “Devil Woman”
  15. Wings, “Let ‘Em In”
  16. Elton John & Kiki Dee, “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”
  17. Bryan Ferry, “Let’s Stick Together”
  18. AC/DC, “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”
  19. Ramones, “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend”
  20. Blondie, “Rip Her To Shreds”
  21. David Bowie, “TVC15”
  22. Lou Reed, “Coney Island Baby”
  23. The Langley Schools Music Project, “Rhiannon”
  24. The Modern Lovers, “I’m Straight”
  25. James Brown, “Get Up Offa That Thing”
  26. The Spinners, “The Rubberband Man”
  27. Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band, “Cherchez La Femme / Se Si Bon”
  28. Lou Rawls, “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine”
  29. Steely Dan, “The Royal Scam”
  30. Joan Armatrading, “Down To Zero”
  31. Joni Mitchell, “Hejira”
  32. Al Stewart, “Year Of The Cat”

1975: Such A Crazy High

Chris KriofskeLeave a comment

I’ve often heard my birth year described as the absolute nadir of the 1970s: after all, the year’s top-selling US single was The Captain and Tennille’s “Love Will Keep Us Together”, as deathless an encapsulation of mid-seventies kitsch as one could imagine. Easy listening, in addition to prog-rock and earnest singer/songwriter stuff seemed to dominate. Punk and new wave were still a year or two off from creating seismic change (in the UK, at least.)

Still, scanning through this year’s number-one singles, look beyond the likes of Olivia Newton John, John Denver, Barry Manilow, etc. and you’ll find imperial phase Elton John (for good (“Philadelphia Freedom”) and for ill (his pointless Beatles cover)), Earth, Wind and Fire (somehow their only Hot 100 number-one) and even David Bowie (with help from arguably the coolest Beatle.)

You also have The Bee Gees thrillingly reinventing themselves with “Jive Talkin’”, reflecting how disco, not yet entirely dominant, started seeping into the mainstream. This mix’s first third is made for dancing, bouncing between instrumental funk (Average White Band–the number one song when I was born), orchestral splendor (ELO) and pure camp (Disco Tex and His Sex-O-Lettes). It shows how disco gradually spread across the globe, from Philly (The Spinners) to Miami (KC and the Sunshine Band) and over to Munich, with Silver Convention’s remedial but transcendent simplicity setting the stage for Donna Summer’s 16-minute-long orgasmic aria, truly like nothing preceding it in the clubs or on the charts.

Perhaps another innovative single, 10cc’s “I’m Not In Love” evokes the era more vividly, its watery electric piano and overdubbed expressionist vocals suffusing the air like pea soup; both its era-specificity and peculiarity anticipate the weird assortment of songs that follow. On one hand, the artists everyone knows: Fleetwood Mac, Paul Simon, Heart, Steely Dan (albeit with an (admittedly catchy) album track about a pedophile!); on the other, the cultish stuff my contemporaries will lionize decades later—Sparks, Roxy Music, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and even some proto-punk/new wave stuff like Patti Smith and Brian Eno.

Going forward, these annual playlists will feature at least thirty songs and occasionally a few more if I can’t justify leaving anything off.

1975: Such A Crazy High

  1. Average White Band, “Pick Up The Pieces”
  2. Silver Convention, “Fly Robin Fly”
  3. Earth, Wind & Fire, “Shining Star”
  4. LaBelle, “Lady Marmalade”
  5. Bee Gees, “Jive Talkin’”
  6. Disco Tex and His Sex-O-lettes, “Get Dancin’ (Part 1)”
  7. KC & The Sunshine Band, “That’s The Way (I Like It)”
  8. Donna Summer, “Love To Love You Baby”
  9. Electric Light Orchestra, “Evil Woman”
  10. The Spinners, “They Just Can’t Stop It The (Games People Play)”
  11. Dionne Warwick, “Once You Hit The Road”
  12. Elton John, “Philadelphia Freedom”
  13. Shirley & Company, “Shame, Shame, Shame”
  14. David Bowie, “Fame”
  15. 10cc, “I’m Not In Love”
  16. War, “Low Rider”
  17. Paul Simon, “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover”
  18. ABBA, “Hey, Hey Helen”
  19. Joni Mitchell, “Edith and the Kingpin”
  20. Fleetwood Mac, “Say You Love Me”
  21. Tim Curry, “Sweet Transvestite”
  22. Sparks, “Looks, Looks, Looks”
  23. Teach In, “Ding-A-Dong”
  24. Pink Floyd, “Wish You Were Here”
  25. Steely Dan, “Everyone’s Gone To The Movies”
  26. Patti Smith, “Gloria: In Excelsis Deo”
  27. Brian Eno, “The Big Ship”
  28. Heart, “Crazy On You”
  29. Roxy Music, “Just Another High”
  30. Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, “Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)”
  31. Queen, “Bohemian Rhapsody”

1970-74: Keep On Keepin’ On

Chris KriofskeLeave a comment

When asking what the absolute worst era for music actually was, most Boomers and Gen-X-ers will probably answer the 1970s and the early 70s in particular. A time immediately predating me, I have no authority on what it was really like or how things turned so… brown coming out of the comparatively Day-Glo 1960s. Browsing through a list of the era’s number one hits, one finds support to back up this notion: “Tie A Yellow Ribbon ‘Round the Ole Oak Tree”, “The Candy Man”, “My Ding-A-Ling”—all easy targets for sure, but don’t forget when bad hits happened to good people like Paul McCartney’s putrid “My Love”. On the other hand, “It’s Too Late”, “You’re So Vain”, “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” and Macca’s own “Band On The Run” also topped the charts. No matter the era or the year (as we’ll see here), there was always plenty of excellent pop music to go with all the bad stuff.

Scan through the following list of fifty songs and you’ll see there’s a lot going on: the golden age of the singer/songwriter with figures as disparate as Randy Newman, Todd Rundgren and Cat Stevens; the last great gasps of Top 40 AM radio (The Fortunes, George Baker Selection); truly new sounds from other lands (CAN’s krautrock, the peculiar, Polish vocalese of the Novi Singers); psychedelic hangovers (the Martyn’s, Linda Perhacs); perennial, titanic figures at their peaks (Stevie Wonder, Van Morrison, Elton John, Paul Simon); UK glam-pop (T. Rex, Sweet) and UK art-rock (Pink Floyd, Roxy Music and their ex-member Brian Eno.)

Arguably, the creative leaps in music made by African-American artists most crucially defines this period. While Dionne Warwick and James Brown each push their aesthetic (baroque pop-soul and relentless funk, respectively) as far as they reasonably can, an upstart such as Gil Scott-Heron heavily anticipates hip-hop, another like Bill Withers writes songs rivaling Newman’s own and Curtis Mayfield, a relative veteran redefines the times by singing explicitly of them. The Pointer Sisters recontextualize the past for the present, The Fifth Dimension convey how sophisticated the latter could be and Barry White and Gladys Knight & The Pips thrillingly look ahead towards what would later become disco.

All that and novelties (Redbone), Broadway (Pippin), the rock movie musical (Paul Williams, more convincing there than as a singer-songwriter) and of course, the inaugural international smash from Eurovision-winning ABBA, whom we’ll see plenty of in the next couple of years. We officially begin next week with 1975!

1970-74: Keep On Keepin’ On

  1. Al Stewart, “A Small Fruit Song”
  2. Rodriguez, “Crucify Your Mind”
  3. Novi Singers, “Torpedo”
  4. John Martyn & Beverly Martyn, “Auntie Aviator”
  5. George Baker Selection, “Little Green Bag”
  6. Tom Jones, “Daughter of Darkness”
  7. Linda Perhacs, “Parallelograms”
  8. Van Morrison, “Into The Mystic”
  9. George Harrison, “What Is Life”
  10. Randy Newman, “Have You Seen My Baby?”
  11. Cat Stevens, “Don’t Be Shy”
  12. Harry Nilsson, “Jump Into The Fire”
  13. Redbone, “The Witch Queen Of New Orleans”
  14. Gil Scott-Heron, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”
  15. Bill Withers, “Harlem”
  16. Serge Gainsbourg, “Melody”
  17. Dionne Warwick, “Amanda”
  18. James Brown, “Hot Pants”
  19. The Fortunes, “Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again”
  20. The Who, “My Wife”
  21. Ben Vereen/Pippin Original Cast, “Magic To Do”
  22. Big Star, “The Ballad of El Goodo”
  23. CAN, “Spoon”
  24. Carly Simon, “You’re So Vain”
  25. Curtis Mayfield, “Superfly”
  26. The Fifth Dimension, “(Last Night) I Didn’t Get To Sleep At All”
  27. Paul Simon, “Mother and Child Reunion”
  28. Lou Reed, “Satellite of Love”
  29. T. Rex, “Telegram Sam”
  30. Todd Rundgren, “I Saw The Light”
  31. Barry White, “I’m Gonna Love You Just A Little More Babe”
  32. Bryan Ferry, “A Hard Rain A-Gonna Fall”
  33. Elton John, “Grey Seal”
  34. Gladys Knight & The Pips, “I’ve Got To Use My Imagination”
  35. Sweet, “Little Willy”
  36. The Pointer Sisters, “Yes We Can Can”
  37. Stevie Wonder, “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing”
  38. John Cale, “Paris 1919”
  39. Pink Floyd, “The Great Gig In The Sky”
  40. Al Green, “Here I Am (Come and Take Me)”
  41. ABBA, “Waterloo”
  42. Brian Eno, “Mother Whale Eyeless”
  43. Steely Dan, “Any Major Dude Will Tell You”
  44. Richard & Linda Thompson, “I Want to See The Bright Lights Tonight”
  45. Kiki Dee, “I’ve Got The Music In Me”
  46. Leonard Cohen, “Who By Fire”
  47. Sparks, “Hasta Manana, Monsieur”
  48. The Staple Singers, “City In The Sky”
  49. Roxy Music, “Prairie Rose”
  50. Paul Williams, “The Hell Of It”

1965-69: Watch Out, The World’s Behind You

Chris KriofskeLeave a comment

Throughout this blog, I’ve posted annual playlists, at first in accordance with my 100 Albums project (from 1990-on), then rather haphazardly filling in the gaps. Last year, I deleted them all; in 2024, I’ll be posting new, improved versions of them every Sunday in chronological order from my birth year (1975) until the present.

I originally intended to go all the way back to 1965 when the Beatles’ influence fully gelled and pop music evolved into something that one could easily differentiate from early rock and roll, doo-wop, and everything else that came before. Instead, I’m sticking with my own timeline, but preceding it with two playlists each covering a five-year period featuring roughly ten songs from every year (again, in chronological order.)

I’m uncertain as to how comprehensively one can sum up a single year in ten songs, so the only ground rule I implemented below was one song per artist. I’ve selected beloved tracks from all-time favorites (Dionne Warwick, Nina Simone, The Velvet Underground, Stevie Wonder), glorious one-shots (We Five, The Darlettes, Margo Guryan, Mason Williams) and songs that more or less begat seismic shifts in what pop music could be (James Brown’s rhythm-forward soul, The Mothers of Invention practically inventing psych-rock and The Beatles perfecting it, Desmond Dekker importing first-wave ska to the rest of the world.) Subsequent playlists will see examples of all three categories.

Over this particular five-year period, one can detect some evolving trends: although both were ostensibly conceived of as mood-music, there’s a world of difference between something like “Spanish Flea” and “69 année érotique”; similarly, The Miracles and The Supremes represent one golden mean of soul-pop, while Sly & The Family Stone and Dusty Springfield (in Memphis) each exemplify vastly different ones. In later years, there’s as much of a push to innovate via prog (“One Way Glass”), tropicália (“A Minha Menina”) and whatever swamp-rock “Gris Gris Gumbo Ya Ya” is as there’s one to comfort via the good ol’ bubblegum of “Sugar Sugar” and “Quick Joey Small”. Still, 1969’s “Space Oddity” is deliberately placed at the end as a bridge between explaining what the 1960s did to pop culture and anticipating what the next decade might achieve.

Check back next week for a companion playlist for 1970-74!

1965-69: Watch Out, The World’s Behind You

  1. Marvin Gaye, “Ain’t That Peculiar”
  2. James Brown, “Papa’s Got a Brand-New Bag”
  3. Dionne Warwick, “Are You There (With Another Girl)”
  4. Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, “Spanish Flea”
  5. Tom Lehrer, “The Vatican Rag”
  6. We Five, “You Were On My Mind”
  7. Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, “The Tracks of My Tears”
  8. The Darlettes, “Lost”
  9. Unit 4 + 2, “Concrete & Clay”
  10. Vince Guaraldi Trio, “Linus and Lucy”
  11. The Mothers of Invention, “Hungry Freaks, Daddy”
  12. The Beatles, “She Said She Said”
  13. Lou Christie, “Trapeze”
  14. Nancy Sinatra, “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’”
  15. The Rolling Stones, “Under My Thumb”
  16. Nina Simone, “Four Women”
  17. Simon & Garfunkel, “A Hazy Shade of Winter”
  18. The Supremes, “Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart”
  19. The Temptations, “(I Know) I’m Losing You”
  20. Norma Tanega, “You’re Dead”
  21. Cat Stevens, “Matthew & Son”
  22. The Free Design, “I Found Love”
  23. The Kinks, “Waterloo Sunset”
  24. The Monkees, “For Pete’s Sake”
  25. Scott Walker, “Montague Terrace (In Blue)”
  26. The Who, “Pictures of Lily”
  27. Lulu, “To Sir With Love”
  28. The Velvet Underground, “Sunday Morning”
  29. The Zombies, “This Will Be Our Year”
  30. Dr. John, “Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya”
  31. Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus, “Quick Joey Small (Run Joey Run)”
  32. Lalo Schifrin, “Bride Of the Wind”
  33. Laura Nyro, “Eli’s Comin’”
  34. Leonard Cohen, “Winter Lady”
  35. Margo Guryan, “What Can I Give You”
  36. Bobbie Gentry, “Casket Vignette”
  37. Os Mutantes, “A Minha Menina”
  38. Sly & The Family Stone, “M’Lady”
  39. The Association, “Everything That Touches You”
  40. Van Morrison, “The Way Young Lovers Do”
  41. Mason Williams, “Classical Gas”
  42. Desmond Dekker, “Israelites”
  43. The Archies, “Sugar, Sugar”
  44. Stevie Wonder, “My Cherie Amour”
  45. Dusty Springfield, “Don’t Forget About Me”
  46. Manfred Mann Chapter Three, “One Way Glass”
  47. Serge Gainsbourg, “69 année érotique”
  48. Donovan with Jeff Beck, “Barabajagal”
  49. Nick Drake, “Cello Song”
  50. David Bowie, “Space Oddity”