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SOUPCAN
1984. My freshman/sophomore year of college. I had grown a bit and filled out a little since high school and thankfully, the acne had finally cleared up. Skinny black leather ties, black and white checkered sweater vests and Ray Ban Wayfarers were staples of my wardrobe. Most of my musical tastes were formed as a result of new friends and classmates. I came to college listening to Billy Joel, ELO and The Beach Boys and graduated with cds by Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark, The English Beat, The Blasters and The Housemartins in my collection.
I went from awkward slow dancing to Al Jarreau at the prom to slam dancing to ‘Once In A Lifetime’.
Like LF, I tried to mix up the ‘hits’ with songs that I remember really digging. In some cases I liked songs from albums that weren’t the big hits (Born In The USA for example) but still not completely anonymous…
1) Pride (In The Name Of Love) - U2 – Before Joshua Tree there was The Unforgettable Fire, arguably this band’s best album
2) Melt With You - Modern English - Now I think this song was released in ’83 but didn’t appear on Archer’s list. It was such a good song and I think it got most of its airplay in ’84 so I put it here.
3) Legal Tender - B-52s – Another with a debatable release date but wow, what a tune.
4) I Will Follow - U2 – An ‘80s anthem if ever there was one.
5) Tenderness - General Public - As far as I know this song brought ska into the mainstream for the first time.
6) Missing You - John Waite – What a great song. What a weird looking guy.
7) Ghost In You - Psychedelic Furs – Not one of their most popular songs for sure, but it charted and anything by the Furs is good enough for me.
8 ) I'm Goin' Down - Bruce Springsteen – In my opinion the best song on the album and not nearly exposed enough. A simple little rocker.
9) Original Sin – INXS – Again, not their most popular work but how can you have a list of best 80’s songs and not include INXS?
10) Middle Of The Road - Pretenders –The Pretenders could rock. Plain & simple.
11) Head Over Heels - Go-Gos – Loved the Go-Gos, Consistently produced songs you could give yourself a whiplash to. Besides Belinda was cute.
12) The Lebanon - Human League – Better known for other songs but this was their best effort that year.
13) Hold Me Now - Thompson Twins – The breakout hit for the Twins always reminds me of Ft. Lauderdale, spring break ’84.
14) Hyperactive - Thomas Dolby – How fitting.
15) Borderline – Madonna – Not a big Madonna fan but this was from her first album that also contained Holiday and Lucky Star. You could not avoid these three songs no matter where you went. And surprisingly, I liked them.
16) You Might Think - The Cars – Definitely not the greatest Cars song of all time (I’ll give my vote to ‘Since You’re Gone for that honor) but still a solid effort that hung in there through the years.
17) She Bop - Cyndi Lauper – Another unappreciated song from a hit album. ‘She Bop’? Of course she does, if you looked like her you would too!
18 ) 99 Luftballoons – Nena – Luftballoons? What the hell are those? Oh, ‘red’ balloons. Cool song from a German chick.
19) Jump - Van Halen – Friend of mine won an air band contest doing this song. I still laugh at that memory.
20) Rebel Yell - Billy Idol – Loved Billy Idol, 'Dancing With Myself' was my favorite tune of his.
21) Talking In Your Sleep - The Romantics - The one-hit wonders almost made it two hits with this track. A little too syrupy for my tastes, but not a bad band actually. They put out some good records.
22) That's All – Genesis – Phil Collins before LITE fm adopted him as their poster boy.
23) Cruel Summer – Bananarama - Liked this song, love this band’s name.
24) Hot For Teacher - Van Halen – Van Halen with David Lee Roth was just a great combination of sound and attitude. They made so many great songs with a tongue-in-cheek sensibility. I liked this one and ‘Ice Cream Man’
25) Reflex - Duran-Duran – I like Duran-Duran too, but the ‘flex was really a so-so song.
26) Sea Of Love - The Honeydrippers – So let me get this straight, you’re going to abandon your screaming acid rocker roots to try some romantic crooning? Who knew ?
27) Sunglasses At Night - Corey Hart – Made it palatable to for me see people in clubs at night wearing shades.
28 ) New Song - Howard Jones - The militant vegan makes the list.
29) Drive - The Cars – Second best song on the Heartbreak City album.
30) Footloose - Kenny Loggins – From the ‘Footloose’ soundtrack. Along with Let’s Hear It For The Boy’ catapulted that movie into cult status.
Songs that were hits that year that I kinda sorta liked but didn’t make my cut..
Dancing In The Dark - Bruce Springsteen
We're Not Gonna Take It - Twisted Sister
Karma Chameleon - Culture Club
Authority Song - John Cougar Mellencamp
Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go - Wham
Owner of A Lonely Heart - Yes
Its My Life - Talk Talk
Do They Know Its Christmas - Band Aid
Here Comes The Rain Again - Eurythmics
No More Words -Berlin
Eyes Without A Face - Billy Idol
Infatuation - Rod Stewart
What Is Love? - Howard Jones
Against All Odds - Phil Collins
The Old Man Down The Road - John Fogarty
Please note also that Huey Lewis and The News ‘Sports’ album was H-U-G-E in 1984 but I wouldn’t know it, cuz I thought it sucked.
THE BIG TRAIN
'Can, we should've hung out.
Very little overlap with my as-yet unpublished 1985 list
"Melt with You" -- nice recovery from Archer's neglect
"I Will Follow" -- Way earlier.
"Cruel Summer" –- definitely earlier, but was a hit that year because it ended up in The Karate Kid.
"Sea Of Love" -- This one I have claimed for 1985. Are you sure?
REM.
Reckoning.
"South Central Rain (I'm Sorry)."
"Pretty Persuasion."
"(Don't Go Back To) Rockville."
Do the right thing.
A. BARTLETT GIAMATTI
Good timing...Today would have been Orwell's 100th birthday.
THE BIG TRAIN
Which is why we need "Sex Crime"!
SOUPCAN
Doh!
I Will Follow Originally on Boy circa 1980. The release of the Under A Blood Red Sky (Live At Red Rocks) album gave the live version more airplay in '84. My bad.
Since I was neglectful of R.E.M. I'll replace that with South Central Rain, although not as high on the list. I'll republish the order later.
The Honeydrippers album was released in calendar year '84 and Sea Of Love showed up in 2 separate '84 hit lists that I saw, but I can replace it if you want it.
THE BIG TRAIN
Bam, you get to keep "Sea 'o Love." One more guy jumps into my top 30.
If you want to go with the alternate live version of "I Will Follow," that would seem to be within our rules.
WIDE BEE GEE
That takes me back. 84 was a good year (got out of HS and the Mets suddenly got good!)
First impressions:
Never liked I MELT WITH YOU or TENDERNESS. Just didn't.
Good calls on I'M GOIN DOWN, GHOST IN YOU (the ultimate 80s slow-dance hook-up and/or get-some song), MIDDLE OF THE ROAD, and TALKING IN YOUR SLEEP (great song even if the singer had a terrible lisp).
HOLD ME NOW, JUMP, and 99 LUFTBALLOONS were extremely 1984.
I prefer DISSIDENTS (greatest song ending -- ever) or THE FLAT EARTH (one of the great intros ever) from Dolby that year. HYPERACTIVE was almost a strategic mistake coming after SCIENCE -- he really had a rep as a novelty act then and his good songs were forgotten.
--You're missing SYNCHRONICITY -- more to come!
METHEAD
Others from Van Halen: "House of Pain" was the B-side to the "Jump" single, and "Panama" is awesome.
Out of that whole album I really can't stand "Jump"... once Eddie got his hands on that freakin keyboard, it was all over for Van Halen.
CENTERFIELD
"Jump" - Friend of mine won an air band contest doing this song. I still laugh at that memory.
Can's friend/CF similarity score = +10.
No one played air guitar like me back in my prime.
COOKIE MOM
The Reflex got me through finals that spring. Not necessarily a great song, but it never failed to pump me up - a personal favorite
Tenderness was a nice song, but not great, IMHO.
SOUPCAN
"If you want to go with the alternate live version of "I Will Follow," that would seem to be within our rules."
Nah, I'll take it off. But if whoever is doing 1980 doesn't include it then I reserve the right to bring it back.
Synchronicity - Well I suppose I could have included Wrapped Around Your Finger or Tea In The Sahara but to be fair that album just didn't do it for me. I'm much more enamored with The Police's earlier albums.
I'm assumed that Every Breath You Take is going to be on the '85 list.
SLUGGER1138
Synchronicity II deserves a mention. (Best song on the record.)
Where's Stevie Ray?
Lest we forget the dearly departed, 1984 saw the release of Couldn't Stand the Weather featuring such classics as:
Couldn't Stand the Weather
Voodoo Chile
Cold Shot
not to mention Scuttle Buttin'
Where's the love for Stevie Ray?
COOBY
2) Melt With You - Modern English - Now I think this song was released in ’83 but didn’t appear on Archer’s list. It was such a good song and I think it got most of its airplay in ’84 so I put it here
A very nice song; I am glad that it showed up on someone's list. It was at the end of one of those cheesy teenage flicks, but I don't hold it against it.
I hear this song at least once a week but I would be glad to hear it everyday
SOUPCAN
My revised list...
1. Pride (In The Name Of Love) - U2
2. Melt With You - Modern English
3. Legal Tender - B-52s
4. Bad - U2
5. Tenderness - General Public
6. Missing You - John Waite
7. Ghost In You - Psychadelic Furs
8. I'm Goin' Down - Bruce Springsteen
9. Original Sin - INXS
10. Middle Of The Road - The Pretenders
11. Head Over Heels - Go-Gos
12. South Central Rain - R.E.M.
13. The Lebanon - Human League
14. Hold Me Now - Thompson Twins
15. Hyperactive - Thomas Dolby -
16. Borderline - Madonna
17. You Might Think - The Cars
18. She Bop - Cyndi Lauper
19. 99 Luftballoons - Nena
20. Jump - Van Halen
21. Rebel Yell - Billy Idol
22. Talking In Your Sleep - The Romantics
23. That's All - Genesis
24. Cruel Summer - Bananarama
25. Hot For Teacher - Van Halen
26. Voodoo Chile - Stevie Ray Vaughn
27. Reflex - Duran-Duran
28. Sea Of Love - The Honeydrippers
29. Sunglasses At Night - Corey Heart
30. New Song - Howard Jones
Voodoo Chile & South Central Rain both chart (thanks for the heads up Sluggs & Edgy)
I Will Follow get's de-listed as it was a 1980 release.
I also was remiss in not including one of my own personal favorite U2 songs, so Footloose & Drive drop off the bottom and Bad makes my top final 30.
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