#1 Singles During My Senior Year in High School (1986-1987)

Janet Jackson pretty easily for me.

Knew You Were Waitin for Me

I hope Atlantic Starr get their asses kicked

1. "Shake You Down" by a good distance for me, then more or less:

2. "Head To Toe"
3. "Walk Like An Egyptian"
4. "Livin' On A Prayer"
5. "The Way It Is"
6. "You Keep Me Hangin' On"

I voted Atlantic Starr! Sublime piece of songcraft. Janet's song is pretty good but there are a lot of weak post-new wave tracks in here.

Open Your Heart

I Just Died in Your Arms makes me want to die. Look how many fake "r & b" songs there are!

Cyndi.

Interesting that there are three covers from the late 60s/early 70s here (Venus, Lean On Me, Keep Me Hanging On), and also a number of artists who started releasing music in the 60s (Peter Cetara, Billy Vera, Starship, Aretha). Guess it was only 20 years ago at that point, but this is def. an era when the baby boomers were running things.

"The Way It Is" further evidence of that -- at the time this was totally a song for old people, but now that I am +/- an old person (by 7th grader standards), it sounds kinda poignant.

Bruce Hornsby benefited from being named "Bruce". It was a name associated with authenticity and a political conscience. On some unconscious level, people were hearing that song and thinking "Bruce" and it seemed somehow related to Springsteen.

Lisa Lisa.

I'll be shocked if "Amanda" gets any votes. Song is worse when group of boys sings it to you in a crowded cafeteria and changes "eyes" to "thighs".
Horrifying, tbh.

I think I'm gonna vote for "Shake You Down" because of the "eenie meenie miney mo" part.

I love "Amanda" for its lyrical flexibility (read: dumb sing-song-y chorus); my kids are well-familiar with about 1,000 variants of it sung by yours truly. I don't know any of the words except for the title (duh) but I know the rhythm of the chorus & it's a keeper. I don't know anyone irl with the name Amanda, though.

voted "Open Your Heart"; loved it as a thirteen year old b/c I was a Good Boy but naturally horny & the song was sexually open without being dirty, my kinda thing it turns out.

"Open Your Heart" bcz I ws singing it to myself (re: my coworkers) earlier today

"Open Your Heart" over Janet.

"When I Think Of You" — might be my favorite Janet

Mirrors my year working in a downtown record store exactly, when I found out that most of the world really didn't care about Husker Du and the Jesus & Mary Chain...1. "When I Think of You," 2. "Open Your Heart," 3. "True Colors" or "Head to Toe." I would have guessed that "Rumors" and "Word Up" hit #1 too.

"When I Think of You," narrowly over "With Or Without You," "Stuck With You" and "Open Your Heart." no matter how I voted, You definitely had to be involved.

U2, but I like a lot of these.

My senior year, too. Pretty middling list. I'd forgotten about "Human," Human League seemed so quaint by then. Voted Lisa Lisa over Bangles, Janet, Bananarama, etc.

So are Jam/Lewis and Hornsby the only songwriters with multiple credits on here?

Also Bon Jovi.

Huey's on there twice (assume he wrote both, but maybe not?)

Bruce Hornsby is up twice: he wrote "Jacob's Ladder."

Yeah. That's what I meant.

But, right, Bon Jovi. (With a Desmond Child assist.)

One Giorgio Moroder credit.

this will be between Madonna and Janet. voted Madonna.

Livin' on a Prayer is probably my favorite hair banger

As far as singles go, it's hard to get better than True Colors.

Ha -- listening to "True Colors" was my first experience with feeling betrayed by an artist.

there is nothing better than the last 20 or so seconds of "true colors"

I'ma go ahead and vote for Berlin here. I f/w a lot of these songs still -- this was my senior year as well -- but that one sorta just sticks out for me.

"True Colors". A beautiful little song from an otherwise very disappointing followup album.

As far as singles go, it's hard to get better than True Colors.

― suspecterrain, Sunday, March 27, 2011 6:04 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

Cyndi herself did it at least 3 times, if not many more

i'll take all 6 she's so unusual singles, 'change of heart' (only non-she's so unusual cyndi i care for really), and 'goonies r good enough' if i get to watch the videos over 'true colors'. have a hunch i'd take her pre-unusual version of 'you make loving fun' also and listening to it now on youtube...HOLY SHIT WTF IS THIS THING.

I like "Change of Heart" now more than I did then.

voted janet over bangles, gregory abbott, kim wilde, u2. the only song up there i really do hate is fucking cutting crew.

Only nine songs ever have gone to #1 for two different artists, and three of them are here.

And then a month after this list, Los Lobos' version of "La Bamba" went to #1.

srsly that Cutting Crew song has never gone away. I hear it at least once a week. Every time it plays it releases mephitic fumes that kill everything in a 4-mile radius.

mark did either of the tommy james covers that went back-to-back #1 not long after that ever hit #1 for james. cuz if so that's 6 of 9 and the other three are i think maybe mariah songs, feel free to correct me here.

Surprised by how little I love on this list, since I was 14/15 at the time.

Anyway, it's an easy choice -- I seriously think I like "Walk Like an Egyptian" twice as much as my second favorite of these ("True Colors.") At the time, my second favorite of these would have been "Venus."

If we're picking Cyndi Lauper singles that aren't "True Colors", I could listen to "I Drove All Night" another million times and not ever tire of it.

It's okay but Roy Orbison killed it.

Go Away Little Girl - Steve Lawrence (1/12/1963) & Donny Osmond (9/11/1971)

I'll Be There The Jackson (10/17/1970) & Mariah Carey (6/20/1992)

Lady Marmalade LaBelle (3/29/1975) & Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mya & Pink (6/2/2001)

Per Billbaord, these are the songs that hit #1 for two different artists:

Lean On Me - Bill Withers (7/8/1972) & Club Nouveau (3/21/1987)

The Loco-Motion - Little Eva (8/25/1962) & Grand Funk (5/4/1974)

Please Mr. Postman - The Marvelettes (12/16/1961) & Carpenters (1/25/1975)

Venus - The Shocking Blue (2/7/1970) & Bananarama (9/6/1986)

When A Man Loves A Women - Percy Sledge (5/28/1966) & Michael Bolton (11/23/1991)

You Keep Me Hangin' On - The Supremes (11/19/1966) & Kim Wilde (6/6/1987)

Kind of messed up the text there, but I think this is clear.

It's okay but Roy Orbison killed it.

Reversed for me. Can we agree that Celine Dion ruined it?

But yeah, throw in those two Tommy James songs, and that's six covers of songs from the late 50s to early 70s going to #1 in the span of a year.

And that's honestly how I remember it too, post-Big Chill was a very retro time. I grew up in the 70s with Happy Days, American Graffiti, Grease, and Sha Na Na, and it felt like the 50s; the 80s felt like the 60s.

for me the most lol...right '1986' song up there is the billy vera by far. also this period of madonna is the weakest by far pre-evita to my ears but i cannot overstate how much i thoroughly enjoyed the 'open your heart' video at the time.

Yeah Billy Vera went to #1 b/c it was in "Family Ties", right, what a strange thing that was.

"Egyptian," but I love pretty much every song on here.

srsly that Cutting Crew song has never gone away. I hear it at least once a week. Every time it plays it releases mephitic fumes that kill everything in a 4-mile radius.

It has become one of those main "80s nostalgia" tunes for some reason. I don't hate it as much as you seem to do, but still puzzled that the next singles, who were actually better songs, didn't achieve the same hit status. I guess just giving a song such a title was in itself enough to secure de-facto one-hit-wonder status.

that Billy Vera song is fantastic, though

Billy Vera was a good singer, made some decent blue-eyed soul records in the 60s

voting Janet tho

Cutting Crew = the Canadian a-ha

oh don't get me wrong, I'm not voting for that song

I am voting "Always" because that is the song I always try to get my wife to sing with me at karaoke.

Cutting Crew = the Canadian a-ha

Well.. A-ha were largely synth based at the time, Cutting Crew were not.

Plus a-ha were far from one-hit-wonders outside the USA.

they weren't even one-hit wonders in the US

because they scored two hits?

OK I forgot about Cutting Crew also notched a top ten with "I've Been In Love Before," famously derided by Neil Tennant for offering the worst lyrics of all time ("I've been in love before/The hardest part is when you're in it...").

4 Cutting Crew (I Just) Died In Your Arms Tonight Aug 1986
31 Cutting Crew I've Been In Love Before Oct 1986

xpost ach, here anyways.

it was a failed joek. I'm not comparing Cutting Crew and a-ha musically but as teen idols. in the same way that Bon Jovi stepped into Duran Duran's shoes here in the US

back in the days when so-called teen idols actually had fans who were teenagers

Voted for "Head To Toe". In 1986 I would have voted for "Lean On Me", ugh.

ugh I can't bring myself to vote for any of these

I interviewed Lisa Lisa just after "Head to Toe" came out--over the phone, I'm sad to say.

I listened to Casey every single week in this era.

back in the days when so-called teen idols actually had fans who were teenagers

before grown men who post on ilx started liking them?

"Venus" actually went to #1 a third time on a technicality, because back in '81 it was part of the Stars on 45 medley that topped the charts.

Janet over "Prayer," "Open Your Heart," "With Or Without You"

I always liked the Club Nouveau track from when I was a kid, so that.

Open Your Heart
Take My Breath Away
Livin on a Prayer*
With or Without You
True Colors
The Way It Is

^voting for one of these

*this would have been my vote in 1987 (I was 5)

can't remember how that Janet song goes, which is kind of unfortunate, since I tend to vote Janet in these types of things...

really the song here that gets closest to terrible is "Jacob's Ladder"

xp: that Janet song is the bomb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaleKN9GQ54

i might vote for hornsby just because that song is kind of a jam and it should get some votes

really the song here that gets closest to terrible is "Jacob's Ladder"

Worse than "I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight"? "Jacob's Ladder" is meh but it has the advantage of being a completely forgotten #1 -- I don't think it's gotten airplay since '87

Open Your Heart vs. Egyptian

hmmmm..

Egyptian

Went w/Hornsby

when i was a kid i didn't understand how people liked songs like "shake you down" and i still basically don't.

well, I actually LIKE "I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight" so...

xp: ROBOT

if you can't get behind "you read my mind/girl I'm gonna shake you down/I can give you all the loving you need/ooh I wanna shake you down/we'll go all the way to heaven" may I suggest upgrading your motherboard and RAM

These were the years I was discovering punk, jazz and avant-garde noise, so I have a reflexive hate for all the poll options. I do recognize that there's a lot of great songcraft here, though.

The song is lovely and simple – Abbot had a Bill Withers vibe.

I guess that first line is less sexual-assaulty than I typed it, oops

also I think I learned about Skinny Puppy right about this time period and was already up on Bad Brains and I still think most of these songs are great

i guess 'lovely and simple' just seems like 'barely there' to me, i dunno. not my thing!

Shake You Down" is a deceptively slight slow burn, a come-on so unassuming that you don't notice you're being seduced until after you've slipped into something more comfortable, and most of his Columbia album works the same subliminally hooky con--harmless until it whispers gotcha, it's a model of shameless commercial calculation. The persona is green-eyed handsome man with the wherewithal to support his fine tastes and yours. The songs are tuneful ditties with chords and harmonies out of Burt Bacharach and Thom Bell. And the singing is generic Spinners, generic because Abbott can't match pipes with Pervis Jackson or Bobbie Smith, much less Henry Fambrough or John Edwards or the late great Phillippe Wynne

WmC and I were going in exactly the opposite direction at exactly the same moment.

I'd award "Shake You Down" a B+; it just reminds me too much of Midnight Love-era Gaye.

http://images.contactmusic.com/videoimages/sbmg/gregory-abbott-i-got-the-feeling-its-over.jpg

The persona is green-eyed handsome man

going through the other songs i don't really remember -- wow this boston song is some crap

I'm gonna take you by the hand
And make you understand
goo-oo-oole

A grotesque streak:

Starship - Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now
Aretha Franklin and George Michael - I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)
Cutting Crew - (I Just) Died in Your Arm

tbh if you can't get behind Grace Slick's ridiculous over-emoting on "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now", I don't think you are living life to its fullest

"Jacob's Ladder" is meh but it has the advantage of being a completely forgotten #1 -- I don't think it's gotten airplay since '87

I was a big Huey fan as a kid, overjoyed at his every appearance on VH1 (which were frequent) and I don't think I've ever heard this song.

basically whenever people are making fun of Huey Lewis and the News for being totally bland forgettable bar rock, they are talking about this song

(regardless of whether they intend to or not; this is the big HL hit that actually IS completely bland forgettable bar rock)

the image the Cutting Crew song implies is weird — like a man fainting Southern belle-style in (I assume) a woman's arms?

right. Cutting Crew and Starship songs are the defintion of "guilty pleasure".

xp to DJP. I'm at school in the library. No headphones so I can't listen to the Janet song :(

pretty sure it's the Shakesperean/poetic "death"

Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight
It must have been something you said
I just died in your arms tonight

I keep looking for something I can't get
Broken hearts lie all around me
And I don't see an easy way to get out of this
Her diary it sits on the bedside table
The curtains are closed, the cats in the cradle
Who would've thought that a boy like me could come to this

Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight
It must've been something you said
I just died in your arms tonight
Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight
It must've been some kind of kiss
I should've walked away, I should've walked away

Is there any just cause for feeling like this?
On the surface I'm a name on a list
I try to be discreet, but then blow it again
I've lost and found, it's my final mistake
She's loving by proxy, no give and all take
'cos I've been thrilled to fantasy one too many times

Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight
It must've been something you said
I just died in your arms tonight
Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight
It must been some kind of kiss
I should`ve walked away, I should've walked away

It was a long hot night
She made it easy, she made it feel right
But now it's over the moment has gone
I followed my hands not my head, I knew I was wrong

Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight
It must have been something you said,
I just died in your arms tonight
Oh iI, I just died in your arms tonight
It must have been some kind of kiss
I should have walked away, I should have walked away

Hearing "Jacob's Ladder" song for the first time, and discovering it was written by Bruce Hornsby helps me understand why this is bad-even-for-Huey, if not why it went to #1

And the ugly lead singer of Cutting Crew reportedly wrote the song title on a pad he keeps on his nightstand after "making love" to his girlfriend.

I wonder if he had time to include the parentheses after he came.

Bruce Hornsby had one good song in him!

Unfortunately it was his first one and it was strong enough to trick people into thinking his subsequent songs were also good for a brief window of time (I now call this "The Ryan Tedder Effect").

definitely going w/ Janet, but i also really like "Shake You Down"

I kinda like "Every Little Kiss."

And the ugly lead singer of Cutting Crew reportedly wrote the song title on a pad he keeps on his nightstand after "making love" to his girlfriend.

I wonder if he was trying to say he dick was so thin that he was able stab her arms with it like a needle or if he was shooting large, unwieldy blocks that she had to lift out of the way.

It got Hornsby a gig with the Dead

xp but lol if not

either way, dan HE SHOULD HAVE WALKED AWAAAAAY

I followed my hands not my head, I knew I was wrong

that's what u get for following ur hands

asshole

this line was always wtf:

She's loving by proxy, no give and all take

oh I get it, the song is about a handjob

xp to DJP (and others)

no love for "Mandolin Rain"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKegBrffx_k

I liked "Mandolin Rain" for about 2 weeks until I realized it was terrible

...guess I won't even bother to post Don Henley's "End of the Innocence"...

oh I still like that one

Hated "Shake You Down" when it came out. Was surprised to see it in Dave Marsh's 1001 Singles book; revisited it, love it.

Still, "When I Think Of You" towers above all else. And it's not even the best single on that album.

"Livin on a Prayer" and "With or Without You" are probably the best songs from either artist.

"True Colors" for the win.

I worked at a mall Musicland my senior year of high school (87-88) and could only play albums the manager approved. Huey Lewis's Small World fit in with that, and the whole thing was completely forgettable except for "Jacob's Ladder," which is a whole lot better on the ears than "Stuck with You" and "Back in Time" when we're talking six or so plays per shift.

tbh if you can't get behind Grace Slick's ridiculous over-emoting on "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now", I don't think you are living life to its fullest

I own the cassingle of "We Built This City" and even I'm not behind this song, dude.

Slick is always playing corporation games.

Huey Lewis's Small World fit in with that, and the whole thing was completely forgettable except for "Jacob's Ladder," which is a whole lot better on the ears than "Stuck with You" and "Back in Time" when we're talking six or so plays per shift.

wrong album!

http://moz2407.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/huey-lewis-the-news-fore-289068.jpg

aka Born To Ugh

voted Banglees

Oops!

Fore!'s singles did even better than Sports' – with none of the charm.

Def "Human"

Kim Wilde is my 2nd place.

Voted Bangles for the video alone.

This was my senior year in HS too! But I was listening to Slayer and Licensed To Ill... (the fact that I still listen to Slayer and Licensed To Ill is a point of pride for me, believe it or not.)

Huey Lewis's Small World fit in with that

Wasn't that their, ahem, "progressive" album, with Stan Getz taking some solos? On Behind The Music they had this attitude of, "Man, the fans just couldn't dig it, man."

yes - small world was their attempt at growth - 'perfect world' was a minor hit thru sheer force of brand, 'small world' a smaller hit still, every 'hit' since have been pandering attempts at a comeback. it just occurred to me that 'fore!' is a pun.

They still got airplay through 1991's "Couple Days Off" and this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtxX1MFXkeg

every single on control went to #1 on the r&b/in 1986 'black' chart...except 'when i think of you', which was the only single from control to go to #1 on the hot 100 chart. believe it or not!

for some reason I thought you were still talking about Huey Lewis

mutt lange wrote 'do you believe in love'!

lol me too

who sang that one again?

Baby Huey

he's the worst

talkin bout hard times

"It Hit Me Like a Hammer" sounds like a rip of "Everybody Wants To Rule the World"

"Everybody Wants To Hit The World With a Hammer"

video's a compendium of leftover ideas from rod stewart videos of the era

xp after 30 seconds of Huey Lewis, I can believe it

huey lewis played on a thin lizzy album (as 'huey harp')

And members of the News played on My Aim Is True (as Clover).

"Pineapple Express" is pretty good.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

i remember the first time i heard "Shake You Down." it was summer in ohio, around 2 am, and i was high as a kite driving my car a couple blocks to buy cigarettes. i just sat in my car until the song finished, because really: that track is absolutely perfect.

Oh shit, just youtube'd Shake You Down to see if I remembered it. OF COURSE I REMEMBER THIS JAM. Fuck, I forgot all about this song. Will put on repeat until I can get home and put the moves on my lady.

It tends to work.

has "eenie meenie miney" mo ever been employed so effectively?
no it has not

yeah, it is a serious jam. that summer was filled with lots of Gregory Abbott, Sade, and Hall & Oates.

86-87 was my first year in college, so naturally I hated most (all?) of these and couldn't believe how far Top 40 had fallen in two years. Still hate most of 'em, but Berlin, Cyndi and Madonna (who gets my vote) are pretty great.

Honestly don't know if I'd recognize the Janet and Lisa Lisa tracks. I'm gonna check 'em out forthwith.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

yeah, it is a serious jam. that summer was filled with lots of Gregory Abbott, Sade, and Hall & Oates.

Hall and Oates in 1986-87?

Never understood the love for "Walk Like an Egyptian," and I love the Bangles, their song doctored-hits, and novelty pop.

Otherwise the results are pretty good: splendid turnout. And the shit songs sank to the bottom.

I'm kind of amazed there are that many voters percentage-wise who still feel so favorably towards "With or Without You" in 2011. Even if you're someone who loved it at the time, I would have thought some combination of overplay and the how-can-we-miss-you-if-you-won't-go-away? problem would have left it with very few votes.

But I do like the zero beside "You Give Love a Bad Name." I have a general antipathy towards Bon Jovi, but a very pointed animus towards that song.

I think w or w/o u is probably one of the least played-out of U2's big hits...like I can bear that song way more than Pride or Streets have No Name or Still Haven't Found...

wait, people like "Walk Like An Egyptian"? seriously? i was like 4 when it came out but i'm pretty sure even then i was like yo this song is pretty dumb.

0 votes for the one on this list I still hear the most ("You Give Love A Bad Name"), esp. in sports/karaoke bars.

xp: I'm on the fence about Walk Like An Egyptian as a song, but I have no qualms in voting for this is 100 times better than any of that other marginal crap from 2nd grade:

http://www.rockband.com/files/zine/susanna_hoffs_bangles.jpg

I'm much more surprised that so many people voted for U2. I mean, what the fuck?

this isn't a WS poll

It's a lot easier to like U2 when you didn't grow up thinking they were the late-80s Arcade Fire (or whatever).

With or Without You is still my favorite pop song ever, despite everything the band has done in the years since to make me turn on them.

omg @ "late-80s Arcade Fire"