I think that's got a lot to do with why music from the 80s is special - you had to work for it. It wasn't just there whenever you typed something into youtube or spotify (for which I'm eternally grateful by the way - there were loads of 80s songs I never thought I'd ever hear again unless I'd got one of those 'record collectors' magazines and sent off £14 for a copy of 'Labour of Love' by Hue and Cry in the post. Anyway... I digress (again). Here's my countdown of songs 160 to 151 in my personal chart of the best 200 singles of the 80s.
160 - Safety Dance - Men Without Hats
There was only one man in the video from the band and he definitely didn't have a hat. This is a song which has proliferated the human conscience and is now part of our very beings. However, thanks to The Simpsons, I can't hear this song now and not sing 'We can dance, We can dance, Everybody look at your pants'.
They don't write 'em like this any more!
159 - Africa - Toto
I'm suspicious of this song a little bit as it has the same hook as Abba's Dancing Queen, in fact, I'm pretty sure it's exactly the same. You know the twinkly bit when they sing 'Friday night and the lights are low...' and it goes 'dooby dooby dooby dooby dooby doodloo'? Well, Africa goes 'Doo do do d-do do dooo' and then 'dooby dooby dooby etc.' You know what I mean? Anyway, the chorus of 'Africa' is a masterclass in how to shift your brooding yet intriguing verse into a Dream Academy type burst of energy that wakes everyone up. There's a bit of a dodgy lyric going on in this song too though - 'see as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus'. What they're saying is see as that mountain rises like this other mountain? Hmmm. Otherwise, it's great!
158 - Heartache - Pepsi and Shirley
Not everyone's cup of tea is Europop. This was before Europop became a thing but it fits that genre perfectly. I'm a sucker for a three minute energetic pop song, especially one about which Margaret Thatcher said you could 'definitely do a movement to it'. The horror of that assessment is at about 30 seconds into this youtube clip :
157 - Hey Little Girl - Icehouse
Such a strange song this. It's almost David Sylvian but better. It was from a time when people were experimenting with sampling and building chains of synthesizers and singing with theatrical expressionism. I loved it and always give it a cheeky play now and again these days.
156 - Wishing Well - Terence Trent D'Arby
I might have said this before in a previous post but this guy had the best voice of the 80s. He just knew how to use it. The beauty of this song is it's minimalist qualities - it may as well have been acapella from beginning to end and it would still have been a beautiful masterpiece. Oh to be able to sing like Terence. Pity he lost his way in the 90s.
155 - Touch Me - Samantha Fox
Couldn't get this out of my head when I was 11 years old. When I bought the single, after reading 'touch me' on the front cover, I half expected the back to have the words 'now wash your hands'. She wasn't a singer was she? She did manage to belt this number out with some conviction though so full marks for that. My favourite lyric in this song is 'Like a tramp in the night I was begging for you'. Still have no idea what the hell that means.
154 - Love Resurrection - Alison Moyet
A perfectly crafted pop song and a million miles away from the stuff she did with Yazoo. I always thought she was brave. She was a punk with a soulful blues voice singing straight up pop. Whether she ever wanted to produce this kind of record wasn't clear but it was very successful alongside songs like 'Invisible' and 'All Cried Out'. She worked with Jolley and Swain on this single who'd written massive hit singles for Bananarama. It was always going to be a winner wasn't it?
153 - Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now - The Smiths
I don't need to tell you anything of the genius of Morrissey but I very often find myself singing the second line of this song in my head from day to day. I was looking for a job and then I found a job, and Heaven knows I'm miserable now.
Classic.
152 - Don't tell me - Blancmange
Thinking about it, this should maybe have been in my top 100. It's a genius tune and so timeless. I was a little bit scared of the lead singer to be honest. He looked a little bit unhinged, like he'd just walked out of Alfred Hitchcock's imagination. I remember when libraries started loaning CDs out (one of the first places I was able to finally listen to all the albums I'd been denied in the past because of the price of things on 50p pocket money a week) I got the Blancmange album out and gave it a spin. They started sing about God being in the lampshade so I turned it off. I think I'll stick to just listening to this track instead.
151 - I'm Still Standing - Elton John
The doyen of piano pop. Elton taught me most of what I know today about using pianos in pop music. I bought a sheet music book of his greatest hits and it was actually transcribed exactly from the records (normally, they just print an approximation and simplify it) and I learned a lot about how to make chords 'bigger' sounding, splitting cadences and inverting chords that seemed impossible to invert. My admiration for this man has no bounds. Still, he could still learn a thing or two about discords from Gary Numan. There's a double act I'd pay to see.
'I'm still standing' is to this day, a faultless piece of pop perfection. If you don't enjoy this song then there's a piece of your soul missing.
Watch out for 150 to 149 of the countdown soon!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8C2p97n8SmX5qmS8asB7YWWuu2GCDq_o
Watch 160 to 151 right here :
