KROQ Top 50 1986

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3MrdJJvYScitbmWB0GKHkC?si=Rf3jIIW8Q6i-_xlWwtAQOw

a helluva top 20

I feel fine and I feel good
I feel like I never should

27 Fine Young Cannibals - Ever Fallen in Love?

lmao what is this

27 Fine Young Cannibals - Ever Fallen in Love?
lmao what is this

― c u (crüt), Wednesday, July 19, 2023

Haha, I was just looking that up

UK band Fine Young Cannibals had a No. 9 UK hit with their cover version, recorded for the soundtrack of the 1986 film Something Wild, which was later included on the band's album The Raw & the Cooked.

Also looked up "Suspicious Minds:"

In 1986, the band Fine Young Cannibals' cover version, which features backing vocals by Jimmy Somerville, reached No. 8 on the UK Singles Chart. Singer Roland Gift said that Elvis had come to him in a dream and told him he would record the greatest version of "Suspicious Minds" ever.

Wait

You guys have never heard them

I was just gonna say…

I've heard "She Drives Me Crazy" and "Good Thing" but had never heard this cover until now

#4 Dramarama - Anything, Anything

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFhx6FLxGxQ

Had no idea (1) this video existed & (2) Eddie Vedder based his entire persona on the singer lol

I was looking up Ever Fallen in Love? As I thought it came from a movie and turns out it did. Then looked up Suspicious Minds to see if it said anything about all these cover songs in this particular year.

I actually love both songs

Heart says Close to Me but afraid I might have to go with Dramarama cause it is kind of THE KROQ song.

This is where I really do feel like I grew up under the shadow of KROQ, because that "Suspicious Minds" cover was massive - KROQ was playing it, early-AAA station KMPC/KEDG picked it up. There was a good couple of years when if you got a mixtape from me, it probably had it on it.

(voted "Cities In Dust")

Love those FYC covers but…. “Kundalini Express”

"Suspicious Minds" was a hit in Canada. It was how I first heard the song.

What I find suspicious is "Bizarre Love Triangle" only being at 22.

I admit I also heard the FYC “Suspicious Minds” before the Elvis one, though that has since become my favorite Elvis song (and it placed #1 in the ILM Elvis poll).

The cover of "Suspicious Minds" was probably the highlight of the FYC debut album.

It will never win, it probably won't get a single vote, but my endless love for Debbie Harry certainly extends to "French Kissin' in the USA."

all your base are lies in dust

Voted for "Rise", still invigorating.

Make mine a BLT

I admit I also heard the FYC “Suspicious Minds” before the Elvis one,

Same.

"Ask" and "Panic" are pretty much the only two Smiths songs I ever listen to on purpose, but "Heartbreak Beat" remains (along with "All That Money Wants") the Furs late-career peak, so that.

that Big Country single's the last time they ever got MTV rotation

XTC's "Dear God" was supposed to be at number 20, but it got left out. Surprised that INXS' "This Time" only made it to 68. Also lol at Genesis on KROQ (number #71)

XTC's "Dear God" was supposed to be at number 20, but it got left out.

Because it will show up in the Top 10 for 1987. I did say there are going to be small edits for repeated songs. I thought about editing out Boys Don't Cry and Bigmouth Strikes Again but decided not to as year of impact and all that.

favorite songs on here are "Cities in Dust," "Rise," and "Don't Get Me Wrong." tough call.

"Don't Get Me Wrong," "If You Leave" and "Walk Like an Egyptian" were likely my favourites in 1986. Still like 'em all.

should add "Suburbia" to my list - I'd spent a year loathing the PSBs because "West End Girls," popular at the club where I danced, seemed & still seems awful to me, but "Suburbia" was the one that made me so -- ah -- I'm starting to get it, maybe

Surprised that Wang Chung's "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" didn't make the top 50 (it's #65). Massive ultra heavy rotation on KROQ

Should John Lydon die tonight, I want him remembered for "Swan Lake/Death Disco" and "Rise."

should add "Suburbia" to my list - I'd spent a year loathing the PSBs because "West End Girls," popular at the club where I danced, seemed & still seems awful to me, but "Suburbia" was the one that made me so -- ah -- I'm starting to get it, maybe

― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi),

I assume KROQ played the single version?

so many New Order bangers ... but "Cities in Dust" ... "Close to Me" ... "Suburbia" ... "Superman" (which is just a gem) ... tempted to vote for the Gene Loves Jezebel song tbh ... both that and the R.E.M. had those "noise" elements that I'm trying to remember if I'd heard in popular music prior to then?

xp Elvis -- that Wang Chung song was in massive ultra heavy rotation everywhere at the time lol, along with "Addicted to Love"

ha, had no idea "Superman" earned airplay.

of Suburbia or WEB? I knew the latter in Portland so I heard several mixes. The former I assume it was the single version? They played it a lot.

"Suburbia," yeah.

I know I heard multiple versions of "Suburbia" at the time ... Live 105 would play an extended mix at night ...

This beauty?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aRN05Ub8Vw

Such a great song. They opened with it on last year's tour, at least when I saw them.

yes! barking dogs! ... several years before "Been Caught Stealin'" was a hit

It's "Sledgehammer," but these also ...

16 OMD - If You Leave
19 INXS - What You Need
22 New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle
26 The Bangles - Walk Like an Egyptian
34 Peter Gabriel - Big Time

ha, had no idea "Superman" earned airplay.

Lots of airplay here (far more than "Fall on Me") and iirc the first R.E.M. track to get some airplay on KLOS and KMET rock radio.

KROQ in southern California at that time was such a defining thing -- the DJs were all personalities, they hosted shows on local cable and were in the clubs all week, Power 106 was still new, the rock stations KMET & KROQ were half-assedly trying to adapt but it would be all over for KMET by 1987 when the entire on-air staff was fired and the programming changed to new age. (1987 was a moment.) KROQ was in its own very hot spot -- more commercial & danceable than college radio, way less square than the post-hippie types on rock radio. It was also really egregiously white & unfunky; if you wanted to hear what was really new, you had to go to the AM dial, where KDAY sounded like it was broadcasting from two years in the future at all times. Most of the people I went to high school with are very nostalgic for charts like this, but to me they speak to the homogeny of what still sometimes got called "new wave" in SoCal: a lot of good English bands & a lot of American bands who really liked those bands, making some very good records but very content to wall off the garden.

Have not thought about KMET in a long time, never listened to them but I know people were devastated when they went away. KLOS was owned by Disney at some point but I think thay sold it and not sure the window of ownership.

In 1970s Denver, the "black" stations were on the AM side of the dial. AOR ruled the FM band. That has changed dramatically.

xps to JCLC's point, KDAY/Greg Mack played a massive role in 1987's NWA & The Posse's success. Eazy was always indebted to him and featured Greg on his first single.

(None of this has anything to do with KROQ sorry)

but to me they speak to the homogeny of what still sometimes got called "new wave" in SoCal: a lot of good English bands & a lot of American bands who really liked those bands, making some very good records but very content to wall off the garden.

Live 105 (San Francisco) was like this as well around the time, though a lot of nights were like "dance mixes" -- so you weren't really going to hear that many of the guitar bands that are on this list -- but you would hear a lot of extended mixes of New Order, PSB, Erasure, Depeche Mode because a significant portion of the audience at the time was gay (though similarly white).

New Order, PSB, Erasure, Depeche Mode, add Echo and Siouxsie and Smiths/Moz -- the bread and butter of every college/modern rock station for the next six years.

I had never heard of Ken Heaven "The Calling," it's a Hi-NRG song.

feeling reassured that my vote in this poll has now been officially endorsed by Barack Obama

Like I do every year, here are some songs I’ve been listening to this summer — a mix of old and new. Look forward to hearing what I’ve missed. pic.twitter.com/H2Do2iaD1p

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) July 20, 2023

Puzzled that "Puzzlin' Evidence" got played even once on radio, much less became one of the hits of the year. I'm voting "A Question of Lust" for the instrumental countermelody in the closing choruses.

I looked up the chart list for Toronto's alternative station, CFNY, to see what Canadian content they were broadcasting in 1986. In descending order of popularity:

Chalk Circle
54.40
Bruce Cockburn
Images in Vogue
Skinny Puppy
Breeding Ground
The Spoons
The Parachute Club
The Northern Pikes

I really liked a lot of those bands.

I only know Skinny Puppy and 54 50 of thoses

I think I need to explain myself a bit. I was going to edit out Boys Don't Cry for the next Cure song on the list as it came out in 1979. Next songs was A Man Inside My Mouth but decided against it as Boys was played a lot in 1986 because of Standing on a Beach. I also said something about Bigmouth Strikes Again and that was because I only thought Louder Than Bombs came out in 1986. I would have caught that tho as Bigmouth was actually also released in 1986.

Bottom line is I'm glad I didn't make those edits but would have been tempted to vote for A Man Inside My Mouth.

When I first saw this list I didn't think it was as good as the last year but I picked more songs after relistening:

1 Pet Shop Boys - Suburbia
4 Dramarama - Anything, Anything
5 The Smiths - Ask
6 Gene Loves Jezebel - Desire (Come And Get It)
8 Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer
9 Duran Duran - Notorious
10 Talking Heads - Wild, Wild Life
11 The Cure - Close to Me
12 Dead or Alive - Brand New Lover
13 Depeche Mode - But Not Tonight
16 OMD - If You Leave
19 INXS - What You Need
20 Erasure - Oh L'Amour
22 New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle
23 Public Image Ltd. - Rise
24 The Pretenders - Don't Get Me Wrong
26 The Bangles - Walk Like an Egyptian
29 Siouxsie & the Banshees - Cities in Dust
31 The B-52's - Summer of Love
34 Peter Gabriel - Big Time
35 The Cure - Boys Don't Cry
37 Sigue Sigue Sputnik - Love Missile F1-11
39 New Order - Shellshock
44 Love and Rockets - Kundalini Express
48 The Psychedelic Furs - Heartbreak Beat
49 Robert Palmer - Addicted to Love
50 Fine Young Cannibals - Suspicious Minds

This list is also very much what I was listening to in the late ‘80s but it seems to be a less exciting selection than the 1985 list. Lots of songs that I liked a lot at the time but seem dated now. My vote goes to “Panic”, one of my favorite tracks from my most-played Smiths CD, Louder Than Bombs.

Did they play the Ciccone Youth version of Addicted to Love?

I wouldn’t have thought of “She Brakes For Rainbows” as a big new wave radio airplay song. So I’m throwing it a vote because it’s lovely.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

"If You Leave" is pure pop perfection.

In the end voted Close to Me

Lots of good choices here. I think "Bizarre Love Triangle" is the most classic overall, with "Cities In Dust" a close second.

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

Nice!

"Suburbia"!

This would actually be my top 3.