1982 is significant as being the year that the synthesizer sound that would define the decade took over the pop charts. I cannot argue that this was a positive trend. Without further ado…
25. “Sex Bomb,” Flipper. Flipper was somewhat of a grunge before we knew what grunge was band and “Sex Bomb” sounds like a punk era “Louie Louie” performed with the chaotic intensity of early Pere Ubu and The Stooges. Flipper was more influential than successful, creating a slow, sludgy, bass driven sound that would later be heard in the work of The Melvins, Nirvana, and mid-80’s Black Flag. Henry Rollins, “They were just heavy. Heavier than you. Heavier than anything.”
24. “Rock the Casbah,” The Clash. I’m not sure any band has had a more bifurcated audience than The Clash. For hardcore music fans, The Clash was one of the most significant bands of the punk rock era, and by extension, one of the most important bands ever. People took the marketing tagline, “The Only Band That Matters” pretty seriously in the pre-MTV era. For pop music fans, they were simply another band from England with a few catchy pop hits. “Rock the Casbah” made light of Middle Eastern leaders who, as part of their national identity, banned Western music. However, most listeners had no idea what the subject matter was and the single was the band’s only U.S. Top Ten pop hit.
23. “Kids in America,” Kim Wilde. “Kids in America” is a timeless slice of danceable, new wave synth pop that was penned and originally slated for Kim’s brother Ricky Wilde, who had a failed U.K. push as a teen sensation in the early ‘70s. Ricky’s biggest push came with the single “I Am An Astronaut” which was later covered by Snow Patrol and sounds like something that David Bowie would have recorded in pre-school. U.K. pop star Kim Wilde had her biggest U.S. success with her 1986 #1 cover version of “You Keep Me Hanging On,” an effort that was several rungs below atrocious.
22. “If You Want My Love,” Cheap Trick. Cheap Trick recorded with Beatles producer George Martin on their 1980 All Shook Up, but waited until 1982 to record their most blatant and successful Fab Four tribute record. According to Wikipedia, the song was a Top 5 hit in Poland and Australia. Perhaps those two counties were celebrating their ten-year anniversary of formal diplomatic relations with this generous sentiment.
21. “Golden Brown,” The Stranglers. The U.K. band The Stranglers have been together since 1974 with no break in service, but have never sniffed any legitimate success in the U.S. They first hit the U.K. Top Ten in 1977 with “Peaches,” as blatant a piece of sexism as you’ll ever hear. Their biggest hit was this waltz time number about heroin. The title also serves as a good baking goal for your Thanksgiving turkey.
20. “I. G. Y. (What a Beautiful World),” Donald Fagen. Steely Dan frontman Donald Fagen turned his cynicism drenched jazz-rock toward the 1957/1958 Soviet Union and United States cooperative scientific effort known as the International Geophysical Year. That fact sounds like something I would make up, but as Olympic goal medal winner Kurt Angle would say, “It’s true, it’s true!”
19. “Steppin’ Out,” Joe Jackson. Joe Jackson, not the one that fathered Michael, first hit the airwaves in the late ‘70s with “Is She Really Going Out With Him?,” a song that younger music fans know as “Steady As She Goes” by The Raconteurs. “Steppin’ Out” received a Grammy nomination for Record of the Year, but lost out to Toto’s “Rosanna.” That’s kind of the musical equivalent of losing a hot girlfriend to a guy whose stained teeth are only made less noticeable due to his bladder control issues.
18. “Wild and Blue,” John Anderson. This Appalachian heartbreak stomp is as country as moonshine and kicks like a Tennessee mule. John twangs on steroids on this 1982 heartbreak/album title track that was his first #1 song. Interestingly enough, the cover versions have been by (excellent) female artists – Sally Timms of the Mekons and Lucinda Williams.
17. “Don’t You Want Me,” The Human League. One of the signature songs of the decade, memorable for the “I made you/talk to the hand” sexual politics and for solidifying new wave synth pop as a mainstream commercial genre. Songwriter Philip Oakley in 2014, “’Don’t You Want Me’ might have shifted gazillions, but either I’ve heard it too many times or the rest of (the) Dare! (album) is just so far ahead that it puts it in the shade. Still, it made the band.” When famed rock journalist Lester Bangs was found dead in his New York apartment, The Human League’s Dare! album was playing on his stereo. No cause and effect implied.
16. “I Ran (So Far Away),” A Flock of Seagulls. The Seagulls made their primary impact on popular culture with the much-lampooned, mug obstructing hairstyle of lead singer Mike Score. Even with their effortless ability to toss out catchy pop hooks (Bruce Springsteen dipped into the Flock’s catalogue of tricks when writing “We Take Care of Our Own”), they couldn’t overcome their novelty image appearance for a sustained career.
15. “Girls Like Me,” Bonnie Hayes with the Wild Combo. This gender celebration song is best known for its use in the 1983 hipster flick Valley Girl. Later in the decade, Hayes wrote the hits “Have a Heart” and “Love Letter” for Bonnie Raitt. I’ve corresponded with Hayes in the past and her talent is only matched by her sweet disposition.
14. “Beyond Belief,” Elvis Costello and the Attractions. Produced by Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick, “Beyond Belief” is the pinnacle of Costello’s clever word play period, which would later be viewed as much as a liability as an asset. This effort stands out as much for the sound as it does the song. Critic Bill Janovitz, “’Beyond Belief’ roars out of the gate with vocal layering and effects and instrumentation that sounds like samples and loops far before such techniques were being widely used in rock & roll, resulting in a swirling and rising tension, released by the chorus at the song’s end.”
13. “Hungry Like the Wolf,” Duran Duran. Duran Duran’s new vision of a teen girl pop sensation act didn’t work for everyone. Roger Taylor, “We’d go to Alabama or Texas and the girls would be screaming and the guys in cowboy hats would be looking at us with clenched fists. I don’t suppose they’d seen so many guys in make-up pouting before.” Mixing Roxy Music with The Archies, “Hungry Like the Wolf” is the band’s best single.
12. “The Message,” Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five. This tale of urban strife is one of the most influential songs in hip hop history and even got the group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. You can either applaud or toss tamales at this song for its influence in making rap music, in the words of Chuck D, “black America’s CNN.”
11. “Atlantic City,” Bruce Springsteen. Boy, that Springsteen Nebraska album was a party in a can, wasn’t it? Who can forget all those upbeat dance tunes about murderers and mob hits. “Atlantic City” has become somewhat of a modern No Depression standard and has been covered by The Band, John Anderson, Eddie Vedder, Pete Yorn, The Hold Steady, among others.
10. “Let It Whip,” Dazz Band. Funk music was becoming as electronic based as new wave in the early 1980’s – the rhythm section for “Let It Whip” was comprised of a drum machine and a Minimoog synthesizer bassline. “Let It Whip” was a combination of dance, funk, and contemporary pop music and it was an across the board smash (#5 pop, #1 R&B, #2 on the Dance Charts). In the stick-to-itiveness dept., this was the group’s only Top 40 hit and they are about to reach their 40th anniversary as a performing act.
9. “Come On Eileen,” Dexy’s Midnight Runners. Kevin Rowland’s ragtag group were no strangers to U.K. pop audience – then went to #1 in 1980 with “Geno,” but “Come on Eileen,” was their first and only U.S. hit. With its complicated arrangement and quick tempo/key changes, “Eileen” sounds like a Celtic folk/rock version of Queen. Dexy’s, they dropped the “Midnight Runners” from their name in 2003, continue to record, but haven’t hit the U.K. singles charts since 1986. Too-ra-loo-ra, too-ra-loo-rye, aye.
8. “Sexual Healing,” Marvin Gaye. Marvin Gaye’s legal issues regarding songwriting credits didn’t begin with Robin “My Skull Is Too” Thicke. “Sexual Healing” was penned in Belgium in an impromptu collaboration between Gaye and music journalist David Ritz, who had never worked as a songwriter. Stories vary concerning how much the rock critic contributed, but when the record came out and David received a thanks in the credits, but not recognition as songwriter, the balding scribe deduced that Gaye was…wait for it…PUTTING ON THE RITZ. Anyway, after taking legal action, Ritz received his song credit. This all reminds me of that sunny afternoon in 2004 when Gwen Stefani refused to acknowledge her adoring fans and I commented to her, “Jeez, you ain’t no hollaback girl.”
7. “Genius of Love,” Tom Tom Club. While on hiatus from the Talking Heads in 1981, the band’s rhythm section created one of the most sampled songs of the 1980s (the group’s website list 47 songs that have sampled “Genius”). Tina Weymouth, “It just has a texture that sounds like magic. It was kind of a different edge. Everything else was about 120 bpm at the time for dance music, and we wanted to slow it down to give it more internal swing, and not have any four on the floor – maybe give it kind of an island feel as well. I can’t remember if it was 112 bpm or something. Maybe it was around 108, but it was really slow for us, because we were used to playing these nervous paces and breakneck speed and stuff, so it was a delightful challenge.” Chris Frantz, “We really had no interest in doing anything outside of the band. We were forced into something and this is what we did. Who knew that 30 years later we’d still be here talking about it?”
6. “You Dropped a Bomb on Me,” The Gap Band. Charlie Wilson, Ronnie Wilson, and Robert Wilson aren’t household names, the identities of the brothers were somewhat hidden within the structure of The Gap Band, named after Greenwood, Archer, and Pine streets in Tulsa, Oklahoma. From 1979 to 1990, the group had 15 Top Ten R&B hits, but only hit the pop charts in 1982 with the hits “Early in the Morning” and “You Dropped a Bomb on Me,” which has had a long life at sporting events, because, as we all know, touchdowns and home runs are “the bomb.”
5. “There She Goes Again,” Marshall Crenshaw. Marshall Crenshaw’s debut album was one of the most critically hyped albums of 1982 and he scored a minor hit with “Someday, Someway.” “There She Goes Again” is pop romantic obsession heartbreak at its finest and would be a beautiful instrumental just on the basis of Crenshaw’s sublime guitar chords.
4. “I Melt with You,” Modern English. Modern English, no relation to Bad, is a band that cannot score a hit and cannot be killed. The wondrous pop thrill of “Melt with You” was released in 1982, hit the lower rungs of the Top 100 in 1983, was re-recorded in 1990 and still didn’t make Top 40. The band has broke up twice, but a reformed version has been performing since 1995. After a string of hits in the mid-2000s, the comedy punk band Bowling for Soup released a cover of “Melt” and it completely bombed. Utter failure has never sounded so smashingly triumphant.
2. “867-5309/Jenny,” Tommy Tutone. The best song ever about a phone number, made even better by being a legitimate listing. Lorene Burns, quoted in an Alabama newspaper in 1982, “”When we’d first get calls at 2 or 3 in the morning, my husband would answer the phone. He can’t hear too well. They’d ask for Jenny, and he’d say ‘Jimmy doesn’t live here any more.’ Tommy Tutone was the one who had the record. I’d like to get hold of his neck and choke him.” Songwriter Alex Call, “A lot of women have told me they use the name and number as a brush off, which I think is really great. A guy wakes up with a hangover, he’s been obnoxious to some girl in a bar last night, he opens up a folded piece of paper and it’s ‘Jenny – 867-5309.’ A lot of people who had it were really pissed off about it. I’ve met a few Jennys who’ve said, ‘Oh, you’re the guy who ruined my high school years.’ Most Jennys are happy to have the song.”
2. “Tainted Love,” Soft Cell. In a desperate attempt for a hit record, the provocative English duo Soft Cell covered this obscure mid-60’s Gloria Jones number, which was originally recorded as a British “northern soul” r&b record. (For trivia fans I should note that Gloria Jones was the girlfriend of Marc Bolen and was behind the wheel during the car accident that caused his death). Soft Cell’s “bink bink” synthesizer and drum machine version spent what was then a record 43 weeks on the U.S. pop charts. Record a good song, go away, and never be heard from again. I wish more bands would do that.
1. “Cleaning Windows,” Van Morrison. “Cleaning Windows” is a utopian vision of a perfectly fulfilled life, where the pursuit of money is less important than the physical and soul nourishing activities such as reading Kerouac, listening to Muddy Waters, and eating Paris buns. Van was a working man in his prime when he developed this beautiful vision.
