90. Waiting for A Girl Like You – Foreigner – 1981 – What’s amazing to me is how few of these songs I’ll know. Just 11 songs in and this piece of MOR mush is unknown to me – D+
89. Family Affair – Mary J. Blige – 2001 – A big r&b hit and I saw her play this at Theater at MSG around this time and I thought we were all gonna die in an avalanche of self-satisfaction – B
88. I Swear – All 4 One – 1994 – new to me pop pap – C-
87. Nothing Compares to You – Sinead O’Connor – 1990 – Best Prince cover ever -better than The Family original – A
86. All Night Long (All Night) – Lionel Richie – 1983 – If anybody ever wants to know what the 1980s really really felt like -this is what the 1980s really really felt like – C
85. My Sharon – The Knack – My Sharona – It seemed to close up punk and new wave with the same song: skinny ties never seemed more irrelevant and whatever anybody thought had been hapenning in the late 1970s instananeously stopped happening. It was the end.
84. Say you, Say me – Lionel Richie – 1985 – The man was on fire, he owned the decade with the softest poppiest stuff in the world – C+
83. Play That Funky Music – Wild Cherry -1976 – Sorta Three dog Night meet Tavares and all are punished though the bass hook is pretty wild- B-
82. You’re So Vain – Carly Simon – 1973 – This is West Coast superego soft rock par excellence -no wonder taylor Swift loves it. For the record I prefer “We HaveNo Secrets”. Plus, you can see carly’s nipple through the tee on the album cover… – A-
81. Billie Jean – Michael Jackson -1983 – Compare this to Lionel’s “All Night Long” for a quick study in just how far aead of the game the man was – A+
81.