Bonus Tracks: 1980s

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[1980-1984 Best Songs]
[1985-1989 Best Songs]

 

Brass In Pocket - Pretenders (1980)
Hungry Heart - Bruce Springsteen (1981)
Stop Draggin' My Heart Around 
     - Stevie Nicks With Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (1981)
While You See A Chance - Steve Winwood (1981)
Whip It - Devo (1981)
Only The Lonely - Motels (1982)
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic - Police (1982)
Stray Cat Strut - Stray Cats (1983)
Oh Sherrie - Steve Perry (1984)
Cruel Summer - Bananarama (1984)
Wrapped Around Your Finger - Police (1984)
Dancing In The Dark - Bruce Springsteen (1984)
Major Tom (Coming Home) - Peter Schilling (1984)
Crazy For You - Madonna (1985)
We Belong - Pat Benatar (1985)
The Boys Of Summer - Don Henley (1985)
Don't You (Forget About Me) - Simple Minds (1985)
Papa Don't Preach - Madonna (1986)
Your Love - Outfield (1986)
Keep Your Hands To Yourself - Georgia Satellites (1987)
Good Thing - Fine Young Cannibals (1989)
Smooth Criminal - Michael Jackson (1989)

1985-1989: Larger Than Life

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Ronald Reagan was re-elected by a landslide in November, 1984. A famous campaign ad that year declared it to be "morning again in America." Indeed, America was on the upswing, after almost twenty years of economic (and social) struggle. Things were far from perfect, but the economy was booming, optimism was high, and every aspect of American culture was becoming amplified.

In the late 1980s - no doubt about it - bigger was better. Lifestyles Of The Rich and Famous popularized the envy of Mega-mansions and exotic sports cars. Movies became Blockbusters; In sports, fashion, film, and music, stars became super-stars. Our hamburgers were super-sized. Even our hair got bigger.

MTV, now the center of the music universe, influenced more and more music videos to have the same production quality as any Hollywood movie. If you were a big-time musician, you had no choice but to be an actor as well.

Pop music matched the times: more production, more instruments, more technology. It was a much richer sound, but easily overloaded. It's a fine line between greatness and excess. These are the songs that stayed on the right side of that line.

Everybody Wants To Rule The World - Tears For Fears (1985)

Kiss - Prince (1986)

Take Me Home - Phil Collins (1986)

La Isla Bonita - Madonna (1987) 

Wanted Dead Or Alive - Bon Jovi (1987) 

Sign Your Name - Terence Trent D'Arby (1988)

Hazy Shade Of Winter - The Bangles (1988)

Faith - George Michael (1988)

Bust A Move - Young MC (1989)

Love Shack - The B52's (1989)

Take Me Home - Phil Collins (1986)

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Billboard Top 100, 1986, #88

Phil Collins' Take Me Home is supposed to be about someone who's in a mental institution, but somehow it always came off to me as a tribute to the typical working man, trying to get by against so many unknown forces. Am I crazy?

Take that look of worry
I'm an ordinary man
They don't tell me nothing
So I find out what I can
There's a fire that's been burning
Right outside my door
I can't see but I feel it
And it helps to keep me warm
So I, I don't mind
No I, I don't mind

Seems so long I've been waiting
Still don't know what for
There's no point escaping
I don't worry anymore
I can't come out to find you
I don't like to go outside
They can't turn off my feelings
Like they're turning off a light

Take that look of worry, mine's an ordinary life
Working when it's daylight
And sleeping when it's night
I've got no far horizons
I don't wish upon a star
They don't think that I listen
Oh but I know who they are
And I, I don't mind
No I, I don't mind

So take, take me home
'Cause I don't remember
Take, take me home

Love Shack - The B52's (1989)

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[1985-1989 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1989, #47  



My first thought of the B52's was "what exactly is this skinny, awkward, high-pitched-sounding nerd doing with these two gorgeous girls who sing like angels?"

But somehow this strange combination works. Fred Schneider, in all his screechy geeky-ness, makes the ladies seem that much more fun and accessible. And what are the B52's about, if not fun?

Love Shack was the song that solidified The B52's at the top of everyone's "if I could have a giant party in my back yard, who would I want on stage?" list. It's as lively a party song as you'll ever hear, but it's also a force to be reckoned with, musically. The uninhibited mix of horns, percussion, guitar, and vocals (geeky and angelic alike) are pure joy. The song comes on, you have to turn up, you have to dance, or sing along, or both.

If only I could be a geeky, high-pitched... anyway, moving along...

Bust A Move - Young MC (1989)

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[1985-1989 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1989, #42

Don't tell me about Curtis Blow, about Rob Base, or about Grandmaster Flash. Don't tell me about The Breaks or Rapper's Delight. Definitely, don't tell me about NWA, Ice-T, Ice Cube, or even Public Enemy. Please, GOD, don't tell me about Blondie.

While they all laid years worth of groundwork, NONE of these songs and artists brought Rap and Hip-Hop music to the fore to become Pop music. No single artist or song had that impact like Bust A Move. After almost 15 years of being fringe, urban, almost exclusively black music, Young MC blew the doors wide open.

What ultimately bridged that gap with mainstream (and yes, I mean white, don't I?) audiences was that right combination of a dance-able musical style and hilarious lyrics anybody could relate to, not just one demographic. Young MC clearly wasn't first on the scene to use this approach. You can't forget about DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince (hey, what ever happened to that guy?), but Bust A Move stormed up the charts, and finally had everybody listening to - and buying - Hip-Hop.

A one-hit wonder, to be sure, but it was the one hit that made all the difference.

Everybody Wants To Rule The World - Tears For Fears (1985)

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[1985-1989 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1985, #7  

I'm not entirely sure what to say about this song. It's just really good, in that '80s way. It's got a rich sound, big vocals, lots of impressive instruments, and plenty of hooks.

The only thing I struggle with are the lyrics. It's *sounds* like it means something really deep, but reading them carefully and searching the internet led me to nothing but some really bad guesses. Even still, I love the way the words flow together, like the line "There's a room where light won't find you..."

So, add it to your iPod and pretend it's about whatever you'd like it to be about. I'm going to pretend it's about the environment.

Wanted Dead Or Alive - Bon Jovi (1987)

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[1985-1989 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1987, #74  

Mullet, aviators, acid-washed jeans.

You never had it better than you did in the 1980s, did you? Well, it's not 1987 anymore. Hell, even in 1987, it wasn't 1983 anymore. The "party-in-the-back" really needs to come
to an end.

You're 39, still trying to date college girls, and you spent more on wheels and window-tinting than you did on the actual car. I know you love Bon Jovi, but singing in the car with the windows down is not cool. Stop it. People can hear you.

Perhaps you're taking yourself a little too seriously? Consider the song you're singing: despite its name, your Mustang is not, in fact, a steel horse. Also, you're not a cowboy; you're the Cable Guy.

All that said, Wanted Dead Or Alive is still a very entertaining song. So, if you can keep from pretending you're the guy in the song (and roll up your windows), you can keep listening to it.

Faith - George Michael (1988)

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Billboard Top 100, 1988, #1  

The number one song of 1988 was one of the few number ones to really deserve its place. If you were around in 1988, you may not appreciate this, since the song was played to death that year. You can't blame a song for its popularity, though. If it's good, it's good.

Faith is textbook Pop music. Catchy melody, great hook, easy-to-relate-to lyrics.

What really makes Faith a great song is that, in an age of musical production overkill, it relies on a very spartan collection of instruments. Aside from the forty seconds of church organ at the start (get it? "Faith"), it's just an acoustic guitar, simple drums, a tambourine, and a little 12-string guitar in the interlude for a change of pace. 

So it went away for a while (a nice long while). I say we can all safely bring it back now and enjoy it again. (The same can't be said for George Michael himself)

Sign Your Name - Terence Trent D'Arby (1988)

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[1985-1989 Best Songs]

Billboard Hot 100, 1988, #58   

Cory: Yo Matt!
Matt: Hey Cory - what's shakin'?
Cory: Dude, so like, my parents are out of town, and Heather's coming over tonight!
Matt: Really? Whoa.
Cory: Yeah, so I'm thinking, you know?
Matt: Dude? Really?
Cory: Dude. Totally.
Matt: Dude! Awesome!
Cory: Yeah. So like, I got some candles, and, and I need some MUSIC - something... you know. Like, something all dark and romantic and sexy and stuff...
Matt: Yeah....... Oh, Yeah! I know!
Cory: Know what?
Matt: What? ... Oh, right! Music! Dude. Terence Trent D'Arby!
Cory: Who??
Matt: Terence Trent D'Arby. She'll like, totally melt and everything.
Cory: Dude?
Matt: Dude.
Cory: Excellent!

Kiss - Prince (1986)

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Billboard Top 100, 1986, #19   

Prince's Kiss would have been a gigantic hit in any decade of our list. Put it in 1967 and it's a Motown classic; play it in 2006 and it's a retro-feel Dance anthem. You might change a little of the production here or there, but the song stands on its own. Simply timeless.

Hazy Shade Of Winter - The Bangles (1988)

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Billboard Top 100, 1988, #35   

A friend of mine disagrees with this pick. He says The Bangles ruined the original Simon & Garfunkel work.

Good thing for us that he's wrong. 

Here's a song that sounds good even if you've never heard the original. The big drum beat and aggressive electric guitar really get your blood pumping. The female-voiced harmonies work well with the lyrics. It's just a fun song all around.

At the same time, it pays tribute to its roots, giving the curious among us the chance to discover a whole other world of great music - kind of like what we're doing here.

And to appease my friend (and improve your iPod even further), go get the Simon and Garfunkel version as well:   

La Isla Bonita - Madonna (1987)

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[1985-1989 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1987, #58          

Ever have a friend who goes on vacation - to, let's say Ireland - and they come back and think they're now the authority on all-things-Irish: "Did you know that the color associated with Saint Patrick was originally BLUE?" Dude, shut up.

This is what I first thought about La Isla Bonita. Madonna spends a week in Belize and now she thinks she's the freakin' Chiquita Banana lady! (...which is very much her - why exactly does she have a British accent??)

No doubt Madonna was well aware of the sudden popularity of Gloria Estefan and her Miami Sound Machine, and capitalized on the Latin craze. Gee, where would she have been without that?

But in the end, it's a beautiful song. It's Latin-inspired, but still Pop in melody. Madonna's vocals are rich and rangy, with both high and low notes sounding pure. By this point in her career she had really matured as a singer, a songwriter and a musician, and it all comes together here (like a giant fruit salad hat).

1980-1984: Fashion Statement

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If you were a teenager in 1983, I have one question for you: what were you wearing? Or, just let me see a picture. I'll tell you in an instant what music you were listening to. Long hair, concert T-shirt, jeans and Vans? You probably weren't much into Depeche Mode. Wearing a lot of PURPLE?? Let me guess...

But fashion wasn't just an expression of musical taste. It was identity. Music was fashion, and vice-versa. MTV put every Pop artist on television. Teenagers fed off the styles they saw in videos and TV shows, and the media just as often stole their looks from kids on the street.

And then there was the music. The change in Pop was the most dramatic shift since the late Sixties. The Eighties introduced lots of unmistakeably new sounds: synthesizer and techno beats, teeny-bopper girl rock, a hot new R&B, the second British Invasion, and Heavy Metal. A lot of it was different, but very bad. A lot of it was good.

Here are the best, ready to wear:

Don't Stand So Close To Me - The Police (1981)
Bette Davis Eves - Kim Carnes (1981)
Tainted Love - Soft Cell (1982)
I Ran - A Flock Of Seagulls (1982)
867-5309 (Jenny) - Tommy Tutone (1982)
Our Lips Are Sealed - Go-Go's (1983)
Little Red Corvette - Prince (1983)
Billie Jean - Michael Jackson (1983) 
Down Under - Men At Work (1983)
Photograph - Def Leppard (1983)
When Doves Cry - Prince (1984)
Pink Houses - John Cougar Mellencamp (1984)

Photograph - Def Leppard (1983)

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[1980-1984 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1983, #90 [unavailable on iTunes]

A shout-out to my good friend Kevin, for filling my high school days with all the glam-rock, hair metal, head-banging 80s cheese I could ever want.

Was any of it good? Looking back: not much. Motley Crue, Quiet Riot, Twisted Sister, Cinderella, RATT, Poison, Slayer, Judas Priest, and of course Def Leppard.

The volume of bad songs matched the volume of the hairspray.

Which is why Photograph is so surprising. It's got winner hooks, lyrics that aren't completely ridiculous or misogynistic, and a Pop-inspired sound I wanted to hear long after we all got haircuts (yes, even Kevin).

Bette Davis Eves - Kim Carnes (1981)

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[1980-1984 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1981, #1

Her hair is Harlowe gold,
Her lips sweet surprise
Her hands are never cold,
She's got Bette Davis eyes
She'll turn her music on you,
You won't have to think twice
She's pure as New York snow,
She got Bette Davis eyes

And she'll tease you,
She'll unease you
All the better just to please you
She's precocious, and she knows just
What it takes to make a pro blush
She got Greta Garbo stand off sighs,
She's got Bette Davis eyes

She'll let you take her home,
It whets her appetite
She'll lay you on her throne,
She got Bette Davis eyes
She'll take a tumble on you,
Roll you like you were dice
Until you come out blue,
She's got Bette Davis eyes

She'll expose you, when she snows you
Off your feet with the crumbs she throws you
She's ferocious, and she knows just
What it takes to make a pro blush
All the boys think she's a spy,
She's got Bette Davis eyes

And she'll tease you,
She'll unease you
All the better just to please you
She's precocious, and she knows just
What it takes to make a pro blush
All the boys think she's a spy,
She's got Bette Davis eyes

Don't Stand So Close To Me - The Police (1981)

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[1980-1984 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1981, #71

Don't Stand So Close To Me could make this list on its lyrics alone.

A drama unfolds from the very first line:

Young teacher: the subject of school-girl fantasy.

Few would endorse such a relationship, but the torment the two characters endure makes them sadly sympathetic.

Loose talk in the classroom / To hurt they try and try
Strong words in the staff room / The accusations fly

The chorus doesn't even have to explain who's saying it to whom, or why it's being said.

By the end of the song, it's not clear where this is all headed, but the Lolita reference tells us it can only be somewhere unfortunate.

The music fits the words perfectly: tense, uncomfortable, slightly sad. The high pitch in Sting's voice comes off like a minstrel bearing a timeless, cautionary tale.

Pink Houses - John Cougar Mellencamp (1984)

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[1980-1984 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1983, #86

Johnny Cougar... John Cougar... John Mellencamp... John Cougar Mellencamp...

Rock Superstar - humble working man.
Small-town Midwest boy - champion of liberal causes.

Walking contradiction.

He's the only guy I can imagine giving George W. Bush the Dixie Chicks Treatment, and still getting his music in Chevy Truck commercials.

Well, like the song says, "ain't that America?"

Pink Houses makes you feel that very same way, lamenting the sometimes pointlessness of how we all live, while celebrating it at the same time. If the black man with the black cat and the house near the interstate thinks he's got it so good, well, then who's to say he doesn't?

I miss the perspective and courage we had in those days to see and embrace our contradictions.

I think John would agree.

When Doves Cry - Prince (1984)

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[1980-1984 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1984, #1

There goes that Prince again!

Prince is like the Napoleon Bonaparte of sex. He's like 5-foot-1, scrawny, kinda pale, a bit feminine-looking. Yet there he is: surrounded by Amazon goddesses on every side, swarmed by rabid female fans (and probably quite a few male ones) who would do anything, ANYTHING for five minutes alone with the guy. What gives??

My God, if I had HALF this guy's mojo, I'd...

Never mind. (...IlovemywifeIlovemywifeIlovemywife...)

Down Under - Men At Work (1983)

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[1980-1984 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1983, #4

Remember the Australia craze??

Olivia Newton-John, Crocodile Dundee, "G'day, mate! Put anotha shrimp on tha bawbie!", koala bears, kangaroos, Aborigines, Foster's Lager (okay, so I still like the Foster's)...

The Aussies were so cool! They were like the Californians of Great Britain, but 10,000 miles away - all sun-bathed and blond and beautiful, partying on the beach (in January!), with the funny accents and all.

We wore their clothes, learned their catch-phrases, ate their food. People with money flew there on Qantas and tried it all out first hand. The rest of us went to Outback Steakhouse.

And Men At Work gave it all a theme song. Catchy, musical, easy to sing along to (or fake it, anyway), with lots of native-sounding Australian musical influences.

Ironically, the song is more a lamentation of Australian over-commercialization than just a modern Waltzing Matilda. But you don't care about that, so I won't ruin it for you!

I still have no idea what Vegemite is.

I Ran - A Flock Of Seagulls (1982)

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[1980-1984 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1982, #67

This song breaks my heart every time I hear it.

As much as the boy loves the girl, hard as he tries, they can never be together. Bridging these huge cultural differences is beyond the abilities of a young romantic, despite what he wants to believe.

The doomed couple are just no match for her strict Persian upbringing, and the tensions between their two countries.

The Shah dying, the hostage crisis, the Islamic Revolution... some things can't be overcome by love alone.

Iran is, truly, so far away.

Billie Jean - Michael Jackson (1983)

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[1980-1984 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1983, #2

How good is Billie Jean?

At thirteen years old, with all my long-haired rocker friends, I wouldn't have been caught dead listening to Michael Jackson. Yet every time Billie Jean came on MTV, I watched it beginning to end (of course the video was insanely cool as well).

It's the best pop song ever made, hands down.

867-5309 (Jenny) - Tommy Tutone (1982)

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[1980-1984 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1982, #16

Does having a brilliant idea for a song, a cool guitar line, good lyrics, and a sweet hook excuse a person for screwing up the home lives of hundreds of people around the country, most of whom are NOT named Jenny?

Of course it does!

I mean, so what if you had to change your phone number? This is art - art borne of bathroom graffiti. What better kind?

For a good time, for a good time CAAALLL!!!

Our Lips Are Sealed - Go-Go's (1983)

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[1980-1984 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1982, #63

We live in an age ruled by the pre-teen girl: American Idol, Miley Cyrus, Twilight. Everywhere you look, "tween" girls are a multi-billion dollar economic powerhouse. For over twenty years now, Pop music has focused first and foremost on this group.

But not long ago, no demographic got less attention. There was a time when an 11-year-old girl was expected to be respectful, hard-working, humble, and mostly quiet. They tended to wear simple jeans or long dresses, and had lots of long, straight hair. Their favorite TV show: Little House on the Prairie. A girl this age in 1978 was the wallflower at the School Dance of Life.

Enter the Go-Go's. In a convertible. In giant sunglasses and short skirts. In big hoop earrings, and 80 pounds of costume jewelry. LOUD in every sense.

Everything changed.

To say this new image and sound captured the imagination of girls everywhere is an understatement. Girls this age have always had that penchant for fandom, but the Go-Go's (and soon after, Madonna) reflected their own style and personality back on them. In a sense, they were fanatics for themselves.

A tween girl isn't going to set the song-quality bar very high, but Our Lips Are Sealed is - surprisingly - a perfect Pop song. It's almost as if it was made by a machine. It's the right length, has hooks in all the right places, has that A-A-B-A song form, with a sweet little bridge in the middle, giving about 15 seconds to catch your breath like you might on an amusement park ride. Then one last flourish, and a little exclamation point right there at the end.

I can almost see the little heart-with-the-happy-face on the back page of my junior high school yearbook.

Little Red Corvette - Prince (1983)

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[1980-1984 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1983, #25

I wonder if, when Little Red Corvette came out, Billy Ocean, Lionel Richie and Jermaine Jackson all realized it was over?

Once Prince laid down

you had a pocket full of horses, Trojans, and some of them used...

no longer were all these excitable teenagers going to be satisfied with corny leftovers lyrics. Nor would they accept second-rate R&B music.

Prince was fearless - he could dance like James Brown, sing like Michael Jackson, even jam on a guitar like Eddie Van Halen (almost). He never hesitated to introduce a rock guitar or a horns or strings section, and of course, he was far more overt sexually than anyone before on the R&B Pop scene.

I'm sure you've heard it a million times, but don't miss how good this song really is. Like Prince himself, it's a virtuoso: sexy lyrics, dynamic music, slick melody, and soul all coming together to save an entire genre of music from lameness.

Tainted Love - Soft Cell (1982)

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[1980-1984 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1982, #11

Imagine songwriting as fashion design. A simple, classic line goes a long way - think of a pencil skirt. Same goes for writing a great hook. Keep it simple: try just two notes:

BOMP BOMP!

The boys of Soft Cell figured this out. They start it early, and play it often:

BOMP BOMP!

These two simple notes sew together a synth, a horn, and a drum-beat:

BOMP BOMP!

Weave in an old-school R&B rhythm, and a classic love-gone-bad lyric, and you've got the Little Black Dress of Eighties Pop songs.

Bonus Tracks: 1970s

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[1970-1974 Best Songs]
[1975-1979 Best Songs]

 

Mama Told Me (Not To Come) - Three Dog Night (1970)
25 Or 6 To 4 - Chicago (1970)
Vehicle - Ides Of March (1970)
Let It Be - The Beatles    (1970)
Won't Get Fooled Again - The Who (1971)
Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress) - The Hollies (1972)
Kodachrome - Paul Simon (1972)
Do It Again -Steely Dan    (1973)
One Of These Nights - Eagles (1975)
Ballroom Blitz - Sweet (1975)
Killer Queen - Queen (1975)
Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen (1975)
50 Ways To Leave Your Lover - Paul Simon (1976)
Love Is Alive - Gary Wright (1976)
Golden Years - David Bowie (1976)
Dream On - Aerosmith (1976)
Dancing Queen - Abba (1977)
Sir Duke - Stevie Wonder (1977)
Somebody To Love - Queen (1977)
Jet Airliner - Steve Miller Band (1977)
Boogie Oogie Oogie - A Taste Of Honey (1978)
Baker Street - Gerry Rafferty (1978)
Blue Bayou - Linda Ronstadt (1978)
Running On Empty - Jackson Browne (1978)
Hot Stuff - Donna Summer (1979)
The Logical Song - Supertramp (1979)
Hold The Line - Toto (1979)
Boogie Wonderland - Earth Wind & Fire (1979)
Heart Of Glass - Blondie (1979)

Dance The Night Away - Van Halen (1979)

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[1975-1979 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1977, #19

Ready for a peak into the 1980s? Enter Van Halen. Pretty Woman was a bigger hit, but Dance The Night Away established the sound for a thousand big-haired 80s rock bands. Sadly, almost none of them sounded as good as this.

Go Your Own Way - Fleetwood Mac (1977)

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[1975-1979 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1977, #19

During the recording of the album Rumours, Stevie Nicks had broken up with Lindsey Buckingham, who wrote Go Your Own Way with Stevie as the subject. Meanwhile, Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie endured their own marriage collapse.

The album is filled with deeply personal songs they all were writing - to each other, but out in public. Go Your Own Way is the best example: poignant and fitting.

There's something special about music that raw - exposed like an open wound. I couldn't imagine having to play an instrument on stage next to somebody singing about how I've torn their heart out. It's brave.

At Seventeen - Janis Ian (1975)

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[1975-1979 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1975, #19

I learned the truth at seventeen
That love was meant for beauty queens
And high school girls with clear skinned smiles
Who married young and then retired
The valentines I never knew
The Friday night charades of youth
Were spent on one more beautiful
At seventeen I learned the truth...

And those of us with ravaged faces
Lacking in the social graces
Desperately remained at home
Inventing lovers on the phone
Who called to say "come dance with me"
And murmured vague obscenities
It isn't all it seems at seventeen...

A brown eyed girl in hand me downs
Whose name I never could pronounce
Said: "Pity please the ones who serve
They only get what they deserve"
The rich relationed hometown queen
Marries into what she needs
With a guarantee of company
And haven for the elderly...

So remember those who win the game
Lose the love they sought to gain
In debentures of quality and dubious integrity
Their small-town eyes will gape at you
In dull surprise when payment due
Exceeds accounts received at seventeen...

To those of us who knew the pain
Of valentines that never came
And those whose names were never called
When choosing sides for basketball
It was long ago and far away
the world was younger than today
when dreams were all they gave for free
to ugly duckling girls like me...

We all play the game, and when we dare
We cheat ourselves at solitaire
Inventing lovers on the phone
Repenting other lives unknown
That call and say: "Come on, dance with me"
And murmur vague obscenities
At ugly girls like me, at seventeen...

Love Is Like Oxygen - Sweet (1978)

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[1975-1979 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1978, #23

Love Is Like Oxygen has about as "tight" a chorus as you'll ever hear. The piano, guitar, bass and drums sync on every note.

Not a lot more to say about it. Just listen - it's Sweet.

September - Earth, Wind, & Fire (1979)

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[1975-1979 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1979, #78

My favorite part of the song September is that "the 21st night of September" was my wedding day. We played this song as the last one at our reception, and it was the perfect finale.

Earth Wind & Fire were a musical powerhouse, and September is their best hit song. The horns are sharp. The chorus is catchy. It's a can't-miss, feel-good song for any party. People know it well enough to have that familiarity, but not so well that they'll be bored.

It's even better if you play it on just the right day.

Hotel California - Eagles (1977)

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[1975-1979 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1977, #19

For most bands, the super-famous song (think Stairway to Heaven, Tom Sawyer by Rush, Jump by Van Halen) is the one that "real" fans of the band hate - it's far from their best, but it's the only one ever played on the radio - usually over-played. Meanwhile, tons of great songs never make the airwaves.

Hotel California is the exception.

It's ubiquitous - it's been played on the radio a billion times. Everyone knows it - everyone loves it. Yet it's unquestionably the Eagles best song. Actually, it's one of the best songs ever made.

It's so good even Eagles fans love it.

Shake Your Groove Thing - Peaches and Herb (1979)

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[1975-1979 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1979, #31

Disco Sucks.

Well, alright... Disco mostly sucks.

Disco mostly sucks because of Disco songs trying to be more than Disco. They try to be high art, or the music is self-indulgent, or too serious. Disco can only be good when it knows it's Disco.

It unclear whether Shake Your Groove Thing was written by Herb, or by Peaches, if it was written before they broke up, or after they were Reunited, but they made an excellent song. It's a song that knows it's just Disco: fun and light. It's got a funky beat that's easy to dance to, where you can put on some loud clothes, jump on a multi-colored floor and look out for the mirrored ball above your head.

This song really is about as good as Disco gets.

Thank God. Now we can move on.

Dust In The Wind - Kansas (1978)

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[1975-1979 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1978, #39

Never has a more beautiful song told you what a worthless speck you are.

Mandy - Barry Manilow (1975)

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[1975-1979 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1975, #35

Barry Manilow? Mandy?? Oh, vomit!

Isn't this everything you hated about the Seventies? There were men with perms in mustard yellow leisure suits, clogs, fondue sets, the AMC Pacer, and ESPECIALLY sappy Seventies love ballads!

The problem is that you secretly like it.

You sold the Pacer years ago, gave the fondue set to Goodwill, threw out the clogs and burned the leisure suit, along with every picture of you with permed hair. But the day you discovered Napster, you downloaded Mandy. Then, you renamed it so nobody would see it.

It's okay. Every other song of the genre may be sappy junk, but Mandy is a genuinely great song. The piano line, the melody, the lyric, and the chorus are all as good as these kinds of songs get, and it deserves its place in the top 100.

I won't tell if you don't.

What A Fool Believes - The Doobie Brothers (1979)

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[1975-1979 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1979 - #19

Want to learn how to write songs? Study this one - it gets everything right. Start with the hook:

She had a place in his life. He never made her think twice

The long, powerful high notes demand attention. The lyric is efficient - just fourteen syllables to perform a setup ("aww, how romantic...") followed by a knock-down ("Damn, that's harsh.")

The rest of the lyrics are just as effective. You can almost have a conversation with this song. A friend is telling you a story. He starts with the setting and the main characters, all in one line:

He came from somewhere back in her long-ago...

Really? Who is he?

A sentimental fool can't see - tryin' hard to recreate what had yet to be created.

Ah, did it work?

Only to realize, it never really was.

She wasn't into him?

He never made her think twice.

As for music, the cool jazz sounds is a nice foundation, but the real instrument here is Michael McDonald's booming, rangy vocals. Only that kind of voice really could justice to such impeccable lyrics.

Radar Love - Golden Earring (1974)

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[1970-1974 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1974, #64

Minimalism. Radar Love is just pure, simple Rock N' Roll. Most of the song is a guitar, a bass and drums. A bit of horns is thrown in for a bigger crescendo toward the end. Nothing else - no strings, no synthesizers, no backup singers.

The raw, deliberately UNDER-produced sound makes it stand out among the songs of its day. It also leaves little room for error. Kind of like a model without her makeup: she's got to be extraordinary.

All I can think of is Raquel Welch... (really, that's all I can think of.)

Superstition - Stevie Wonder (1973)

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[1970-1974 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1973, #26

You've probably heard Superstition so many times, you can't even remember what it sounds like anymore. You may have even gotten so burned out on it that you refuse to listen to it anymore.

Get it on your iPod. Get a high-quality recording of it. Play it loud - not excessively, but loud enough. Listen to every beat, the bass-line, every horn. Follow how tight together the instruments play, and how they drift apart and find each other again. Notice the seamless blending of Jazz, Rock, and Funk. It's like all the greatest musicians of the day gathered together, and unanimously agreed Stevie should sing.

It's a masterpiece.

Papa Was A Rollin' Stone - The Temptations (1973)

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[1970-1974 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1973, #100

By most standards, Papa Was A Rollin' Stone shouldn't even be a hit. It's almost two full minutes before the first word is sung. It's a song is about an estranged, drifter, con-man, polygamous father with illegitimate kids. It ought to be an episode of Jerry Springer.

So then why is it so great? It's infectious - that two minute intro builds up like the opening of a suspense movie. When the singing finally starts, you're hooked. The Temptations sound more like that group of guys singing around an oil barrel on an inner-city street corner than their usual polished Motown Pop.

Mostly, you'll never hear a better chorus.

I Just Want To Celebrate - Rare Earth (1971)

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[1970-1974 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1971, #66

Here's a song just to get you fired up.

Whether you're going on a weekend road trip, or you're stuck home on a rainy Saturday with ten loads of laundry, I defy you to listen to it and not be in a better mood.

If you've had the fortune of ever hearing Rare Earth play this live, I'd love it if you'd share it with us here.

Woodstock - Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (1971)

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[1970-1974 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1971, #79

Well, I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, Tell me, where are you going?
This he told me

Said, I'm going down to Yasgur's Farm,
Gonna join in a rock and roll band.
Got to get back to the land and set my soul free.

[chorus]
We are stardust, we are golden,
We are billion year old carbon,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.

Well, then can I roam beside you?
I have come to lose the smod,
And I feel myself a cog in somethin' turning.
And maybe it's the time of year,
Yes and maybe it's the time of man.
And I don't know who I am,
But life is for learning.

By the time we got to Woodstock,
We were half a million strong
And everywhere was a song and a celebration.
And I dreamed I saw the bomber jet planes
Riding shotgun in the sky,
Turning into butterflies
Above our nation.

We are stardust, we are golden,
We are caught in the devils bargain,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.

Woodstock was actually written by Joni Mitchell, who in fact didn't even attend the show, but instead wrote it while watching TV from a New York City hotel room. Her agent insisted that it was most important she appear on the Dick Cavett Show.

David Crosby said "She captured the feeling and importance of the Woodstock festival better than anyone who’d been there.” In her words: "The deprivation of not being able to go provided me with an intense angle on Woodstock."Joni's version is a wistful, almost aching ballad.

Crosby, Still, Nash and Young, of course, did make the show. They turned the song right on it's head, reuniting the sound of the festival itself with the lyrics that couldn't be there.

Riders On The Storm - The Doors (1971)

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[1970-1974 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1971, #99

It's unacceptable to listen to Riders On The Storm in dry weather. It has to be raining - no excuses.

And nighttime. Or at least dusk.

I like to play it while I'm driving. The sound of the rain hitting outside the car mingles with the rainy sound effect in the song, plus the piano and bass-lines, creating something of a super-stereo effect.

I know it's a cliche; I don't care. The Doors bring music and nature like lovers reunited.

(Okay I know - cheesy - sorry. Best I could think of. You try writing a hundred of these!)

Lola - The Kinks (1970)

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[1970-1974 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1970, #52

Here's a little story you'll like.

A couple of years ago, my stepson, then about 13, was at the computer, rocking out to Lola.

I asked him, "Do you have any idea what that song's ABOUT??"

He looked at me blankly and said, "No. Why?"

"Go look up the lyrics."

He typed it in, clicked around, then started reading. The look on his face slowly changed from confusion to disgust. "She's a... hermaphrodite??"

"Transvestite," I corrected. I proceeded to explain the difference. He definitely chose the wrong word for what he meant.

"Dude," he said, still a little grossed out. "Well, it's still a cool song."

Indeed.

Fire And Rain - James Taylor (1970)

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[1970-1974 Best Songs]
Billboard Top 100, 1970, #67

One of the most poignant lines I've ever heard:

Well, there’s hours of time on the telephone line
To talk about things to come
Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground.

Fire And Rain is the original soundtrack to despair. James Taylor writes an agonizingly personal lyric, touching on death, addiction, failure, and depression, and somehow everyone in America thinks it's a song written in their name.

A great song can have that effect.

You Don't Mess Around With Jim - Jim Croce (1972)

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[1970-1974 Best Songs]
Billboard Top 100, 1972, #68

In the early 1970s, Jim Croce had a string of quaint-but-catchy hits, making him one of the more famous singer-songwriters of the time. The most famous of these songs was Bad, Bad Leroy Brown. The best of them is You Don't Mess Around With Jim.

I can't help but imagine this song was created on the spot, in the very pool hall mentioned. I envision a dimly-lit, seedy little joint, cloudy from smoke. Next to a stage the size of a postage stamp is a bar where you can get any drink you want, so long as it's whiskey or beer.

This song was one of the first one I ever learned the words to. I still enjoy it a lot: if you appreciate lyrics, these are good ones. If not, it's still catchy.

Rocket Man (I Think It's Gonna Be A Long, Long Time) - Elton John (1972)

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[1970-1974 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1972, #40

Let's face it, most Pop music from the early 70s - well, sucks. (You had to know by this point I wasn't going to be putting The Carpenters, Captain & Tenille or Helen Reddy on your beloved iPod, right?)

And that's what makes the songs of Elton John, especially Rocket Man, so extraordinary. He uses the same piano, strings, a little guitar, and drums, to make a dynamic sound where everyone else could only succeed in creating "Easy Listening" (I still can't figure out that name, it's a struggle for me to listen to...)

This too applies to Bernie Taupin, with lyrics just a little more nuanced than you'll ever get from, say, Tony Orlando.

Which is why, when it comes on the radio, you're singing along to Rocket Man instead of changing the station ...or inducing vomiting.

I Can See For Miles - The Who (1967)

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[1960-1969 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1967, #98

The Who, for many years, were known to be the loudest rock band in the world. I Can See For Miles is a song deserves all that volume.

As you listen, picture Pete Townshend windmilling his arm around to play that driving chord; Roger Daltrey's piercing eyes and menacing voice escalating from a low growl to full crescendo, and Keith Moon's unrelenting drumbeat.

As the guy from Spinal Tap would say, turn this one up to 11.

Something - The Beatles (1969)

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[1960-1969 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1969, #83 [Not Available on iTunes]

It had to be tough to be George Harrison. He was an accomplished guitarist, and a member of the greatest Rock N Roll band of all time. On the other hand, he was in the shadow of John and Paul, and struggled to get his songs recognized through that Lennon/McCartney juggernaut.

Still, George had his moments of greatness, and Something was one of them. It's as pure and simple a love song as you'll ever hear, yet it's intangibles set it above. The best part of the song is the bridge - simple but powerful.

With all the great music that The Beatles made, I suppose the one regrettable thing is that George didn't get to make more songs. At least we have Something.

Paint It Black - The Rolling Stones (1966)

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[1960-1969 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1966, #21

The Rolling Stones were like The Beatles' evil twin: talented, British, R&B-influenced, and clearly not as loved. But they shared their dark side with their audience long before the Fab Four dared take such chances. Paint It Black is the perfect example, with sitar (actually influenced by George Harrison) running in minor chords and Mick Jagger's voice going from low and somber to loud and angry.

Revolution - The Beatles (1968)

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[1960-1969 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1968, #78 [Not Available on iTunes]

"...but if you go carryin' pictures of Chairman Mao,
You ain't gonna make it with anyone anyhow.

You know it's gonna be alright"

I think John Lennon was an amazing optimist. There was so much to be negative about, especially in 1968. And yet, John wrote a song that threaded hope and decency into the frustration and anger so many people endured at the time.

Revolution was also yet another brilliant Beatles song, with musicianship and melody, great rhythm, and rich vocals. Topping it all off is that rock-box guitar (done with studio tricks years before the actual device was invented).

For What It's Worth - Buffalo Springfield (1967)

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[1960-1969 Best Songs]

Billboard Top 100, 1967, #27

If I had to pick the quintessential song of the late 1960s, this would be it. I wasn't born until 1970, but every time I hear this song it's like I'm there.

If you've every watched a documentary (or any number of films) set in the late 1960s, you know what I mean: Still photo slide shows of angry protesters, slow motion video of soldiers, some in black and white, some in faded color. Behind all these scenes is a melancholy blues guitar, ringing like the toll of a bell.

Cliche? Yes, but has any song ever more fused itself to a time and place? You can't tell the history of these years without this song, and you can't hear this song without thinking of the times it belongs to.

Alongside it's official place in our historical reference is the fact that it's an extraordinary song.