I’ve already written about how 1980 was an 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 forty 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 in the backseat of my parents’ Mercury Monarch, and ELO’s “All Over The World”, arguably the Xanadu song most perfectly capturing the futuristic cheese it was attempting (even more than the beloved title track, I’ll argue.)

Still, I don’t think any of these annual playlists will have as many actual number one hits as this one. 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, 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, Post-Punk/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, Joy Division, 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 New Wave 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 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.

Go here to listen to my favorite songs of 1980.

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. Squeeze, “Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)”
27. Siouxsie and The Banshees, “Christine”
28. Pylon, “Stop It”
29. The B-52’s, “Private Idaho”
30. The Jam, “Man In The Corner Shop”
31. Joy Division, “Love Will Tear Us Apart”
32. Talking Heads, “Crosseyed and Painless”
33. Pretenders, “Mystery Achievement”
34. Donna Summer, “Cold Love”
35. XTC, “Towers of London”
36. Stephanie Mills, “Never Knew Love Like This Before”
37. The Jacksons, “Can You Feel It”
38. Electric Light Orchestra, “All Over The World”
39. David Bowie, “Ashes To Ashes”
40. Paul Simon, “Late In The Evening”