Best 1980 P&J Single (POLL Closes 16 May)

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The second P&J Singles Poll.

Poll Results

Option	Votes
Joy Division: "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (Factory import)	10
Joy Division: "Atmosphere"/"She's Lost Control" (Factory 12-inch)	10
Kurtis Blow: "The Breaks" (Mercury)	6
Lipps Inc.: "Funkytown" (Casablanca)	6
The Clash: "Train in Vain"/"London Calling" (Epic)	5
Split Enz: "I Got You" (A&M)	3
Diana Ross: "Upside Down" (Motown)	3
Stevie Wonder: "Master Blaster (Jammin')" (Tamla)	3
Martha & the Muffins: "Echo Beach" (Virgin)	2
Dead Kennedys: "Holiday in Cambodia" (Optional)	2
Pretenders: "Talk Of the Town"/"Cuban Slide" (Real import)	2
Pylon: "Cool"/"Dub" (Caution)	1
Blondie: "Call Me" (Chrysalis)	1
The Jam: "Going Underground" (Polydor import)	1
Bush Tetras: "Too Many Creeps"/"Snakes Crawl"/"You Taste Like the Tropics" (99)	1
The Vapors: "Turning Japanese" (United Artists)	1
Rolling Stones: "Emotional Rescue" (Rolling Stones)	1
Pretenders: "Brass in Pocket" (Sire)	1
Devo: "Whip It" (Warner Bros.)	1
Jermaine Jackson: "Let's Get Serious" (Motown)	0
John Lennon/Yoko Ono: "Just Like Starting Over"/"Kiss Kiss Kiss" (Geffen)	0
Bruce Springsteen: "Hungry Heart" (Columbia)	0
Jim Carroll Band: "People Who Died" (Atcol)	0
Donna Summer: "The Wanderer" (Geffen)	0
Paul Simon: "Late in the Evening" (Warner Bros.)	0
The Pointer Sisters: "He's So Shy" (Planet)	0

― JN$OT, Monday, 14 May 2007 12:26 (eighteen years ago)

From Xgau's essay:

My album choices are somewhat eccentric--four of my top 10 finished toward the bottom of the Pazz & Jop top 100, and 13 of my top 40 didn't make the top 100 at all. But this is the kind of thing that happens to hermits--my singles list is positively weird. I didn't get to go out dancing much in 1980, and listened to the radio only on vacation. (When I could stand it, that is--commercial broadcasting has really regressed. I'm hanging a red ribbon out my window till PIX comes back.) I've always believed that singles transcended consensus and objective judgment--there are so many that those you love aren't just good, but enter your life. Here are 10 that affected mine:

1. Pylon: "Cool" (Caution) 2. The Beat: "Twist and Crawl" (Go-Feet 12-inch import) 3. Diana Ross: "Upside Down" (Motown) 4. John Anderson: "She Just Started Liking Cheatin' Songs" (Warner Bros.) 5. Joy Division: "She's Lost Control" (Factory 12-inch) 6. Stevie Wonder: "Master Blaster (Jammin')" (Talma) 7. Pretenders: "Brass in Pocket" (Sire) 8. The Slits: "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (Antilles) 9. Lenny Kaye: "Child Bride" (Mer) 10. Suzanne Fellini: "Love on the Phone" (Casablanca).

The top of the singles poll is pretty weird, too, in a way--and exciting. When "Rapper's Delight" tied for 22nd last year, who would have figured that a rap record would take it all 12 months later. I like other rap records even more than "The Breaks," but there can be no doubt that it was Kurtis Blow (later for Deborah Harry) who took a genuine (New York!) street form to all of the people some of the time. Almost as remarkable (later for Deborah Harry) is the passionate support of Joy Division, who--unlike the Pretenders, last year's import champs--did it with little radio. As for Deborah Harry, I figured "Call Me" for a shoo-in--she's even got a Spanish-language disco disc out on Salsoul. But after that I think the singles list gets boring--commuters enjoying favorite album cuts outnumber the voters who live for all the one-shots that make 45-rpm so speedy these days. Other noteworthies include this year's domestic-indie champs, the Bush Tetras of Gotham's own 99 Records; John and Yoko; destined-to-be-mythic one-offs from the Vapors (the exotically slanted "Turning Japanese"), Lipps, Inc. (the tract-disco "Funkytown"), and Martha and the Muffins (the post-surf "Echo Beach"); imports from the Jam and the Pretenders (again); indies from Pylon and the Dead Kennedys; is-it-an-indie-or-import from Joy Division; and almosts by Richard Hell, Suicide, Delta 5, the English Beat, and, er, Queen.

― JN$OT, Monday, 14 May 2007 12:43 (eighteen years ago)

lipps inc v diana ross AAAAARGH

at this point, not having heard these particular donna summer and pointer sisters songs is a blessing!

― lex pretend, Monday, 14 May 2007 12:46 (eighteen years ago)

Has to be "Atmosphere" for me.

― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 14 May 2007 12:47 (eighteen years ago)

We should totally do one of these up until the 2006 poll.

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 14 May 2007 12:48 (eighteen years ago)

love will tear us apart, again

― m coleman, Monday, 14 May 2007 12:50 (eighteen years ago)

Had to go with "Funkytown", which I absolutely loathed at the time, funnily enough.

― JN$OT, Monday, 14 May 2007 12:50 (eighteen years ago)

Within the past 7 days, I've witnessed two of these songs being performed live by their original creators. I'm going with the second of those two.

― mike t-diva, Monday, 14 May 2007 12:51 (eighteen years ago)

Voted for "I Got You", obviously. A genius start of Neil Finn's hit-songwriting career.

― Geir Hongro, Monday, 14 May 2007 12:52 (eighteen years ago)

The two being?

xp

― JN$OT, Monday, 14 May 2007 12:52 (eighteen years ago)

"exotically slanted"!!

― Groke, Monday, 14 May 2007 12:53 (eighteen years ago)

haha...

― JN$OT, Monday, 14 May 2007 12:54 (eighteen years ago)

ok diana gets it, it's such a joyous whirl. and i prefer 'how long' by lipps inc.

― lex pretend, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:10 (eighteen years ago)

I think you may be right Lex. But I already voted for Lipps Inc.

― Groke, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:12 (eighteen years ago)

by mistake i voted kurtis blow the breaks, i didnt notice upside down. having said that, itd be pretty close between the two

― 696, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:13 (eighteen years ago)

ha, on the poptimists poll (which blondie won by a surprising distance!) i said my fave was lipps inc...

this is one of the few blondie singles i've managed never to hear.

― lex pretend, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:19 (eighteen years ago)

Wait, I posted to this, I thought, a "Love Will Tear Us Apart" image and all.

― Rockist Scientist, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:19 (eighteen years ago)

It's the only one on the list for which I ever had a poster up on my wall. I think it's the only one that has ever made an appearance in one my dreams as well.

Lots of good potential choices though.

― Rockist Scientist, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:21 (eighteen years ago)

This was quite a difficult decision. I went for Stevie.

― hobart paving, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:29 (eighteen years ago)

Very hard: "He's So Shy," Jermaine Jackson, peak Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, and Joy Division...yargh.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:30 (eighteen years ago)

Pretenders--Talk Of The Town

― kornrulez6969, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:35 (eighteen years ago)

1980 voters OTM. "The Breaks", definitely.

― The Reverend, Monday, 14 May 2007 15:19 (eighteen years ago)

Feel somewhat guilty about not voting for the hometown favourite ("Echo Beach"), which I love, just not as much as what I did vote for ("Atmosphere"). Also considered "The Wanderer," "Call Me," "Love Will Tear us Apart," and "Upside Down."

― sw00ds, Monday, 14 May 2007 19:02 (eighteen years ago)

Went with "Echo Beach." Closestt also rans: Kurtis Blow, Jim Carroll, Pylon, "She's Lost Control," Stones, "Love Will Tear Us Apart," more or less in that order.

Dullest record on the list, I think: Lennon/Ono (which is still okay). Or maybe the Jam or Split Enz (which ditto.)

Free lunch, for some reason: "Let's Get Serious" (though nowhere near as much of a free lunch as Jermaine's Top 40 Devo duet from two years later, "Let Me Tickle Your Fancy," would've been if it had made Pazz&Jop.)

― xhuxk, Monday, 14 May 2007 19:28 (eighteen years ago)

Good stuff, but Atmosphere is really something else.

Actually should've voted for Love Will Tear Us Apart, because in my mind...

Atmosphere > Love Will Tear Us Apart > These Days > She's Lost Control

― dan selzer, Monday, 14 May 2007 19:43 (eighteen years ago)

Very close to choosing "Upside Down" - not only Diana's finest moment but very possibly Rodgers/Edwards/Thompson's too. ('80 was the year 'rock' and 'disco' became one: discuss.) But in the end, nothing can trump "Brass In Pocket", the most joyous single of all time.

Never heard Pylon or the Bush Tetras.

― Myonga Vön Bontee, Monday, 14 May 2007 20:18 (eighteen years ago)

Both are playing the occasional shows these days...

― dan selzer, Monday, 14 May 2007 20:24 (eighteen years ago)

Suzanne Fellini: "Love on the Phone" (Casablanca)

this song should be discussed more frequently on ILM.

― fact checking cuz, Monday, 14 May 2007 20:34 (eighteen years ago)

I've always been curious about that Suzanne Fellini song! What is it like? (I'm guessing disco since it's Casablanca but who knows)

I went with "Love Will Tear Us Apart," very narrowly over "Upside Down." Good list!

― Matos W.K., Monday, 14 May 2007 23:04 (eighteen years ago)

Fellini = "New Wave."

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Monday, 14 May 2007 23:25 (eighteen years ago)

Oh, and Stevie Wonder, since you asked.

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Monday, 14 May 2007 23:25 (eighteen years ago)

Ha ha, I bought the Suzanne Fellini album for $1 last year. (And yeah, new wave -- fake corporate dance-oriented-rock new wave, to be exact. Somewhere between the B-52s and Pat Benatar? And it's a song about having phone sex, by the way.)

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 00:40 (eighteen years ago)

Or maybe like some music bizster's idea of Lene Lovich...

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 00:44 (eighteen years ago)

As a comparator, the results when the Poptimists LJ community did this:

1. Blondie - Call Me (45 votes)
2. Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart (37 votes)
3. Lipps Inc - Funky Town (35 votes)
4=. The Clash - Train In Vain/London Calling (32 votes)
4=. Diana Ross - Upside Down (32 votes)
4=. The Dead Kennedies - Holiday In Cambodia (32 votes)
7. The Vapors - Turning Japanese (31 votes)
8=. Martha And The Muffins - Echo Beach (29 votes)
8=. Joy Divison - Atmosphere/She's Lost Control (29 votes)
10. Devo - Whip It (25 votes)

(Methodology different - it was pick 1/3 of the options not pick one only).

― Groke, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 10:30 (eighteen years ago)

Would it be possible to change the poll script to make it possible for the poll starter to choose how many each user can vote for?

― Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 10:56 (eighteen years ago)

I mean, not in this particular poll, but in ILM polls in general.

― Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 10:56 (eighteen years ago)

wtf at poptimists not voting for kurtis blow at all:/

somehow i dont think ive heard that blondie song. i'd love it to be a cover of the tony hatch standard, but i know its not going to be the case. :/ again

― 696, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 11:00 (eighteen years ago)

better for polls just to be a vote for one, otherwies the consensus picks all end up drifting to the top. this is better because you get a sense of peoples actual real favourites

― 696, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 11:01 (eighteen years ago)

Picking just one is an advantage for the "Love'em or hate'em" albums first and foremost, since such a poll will only reflect who loves the album, and not whether the rest like it too or rather hate it.

― Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 11:07 (eighteen years ago)

ack, this is how quisling norway started

― 696, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 11:09 (eighteen years ago)

We asked single favourite as well and I think Blondie won that too.

Set the number of picks based on the number of items on the list, is my advice.

(Kurtis Blow got 13 votes.)

― Groke, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 11:10 (eighteen years ago)

As a comparator, the results when the Poptimists LJ community did this:

How many votes in total were involved?

― JN$OT, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 12:05 (eighteen years ago)

55-60 voters with (IIRC) 9 votes each.

― Groke, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 12:16 (eighteen years ago)

Thanks.

― JN$OT, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 12:17 (eighteen years ago)

Had to go "Train in Vain." Though "Upside Down" may have been the best thing Diana Ross did sans Supremes.

― Jiminy Krokus, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 14:09 (eighteen years ago)

for ref, the poptimists poll: http://community.livejournal.com/poptimists/235235.html

― lex pretend, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 14:12 (eighteen years ago)

Wow, ILM sure loves itself some Joy Division. I know, big fucking surprise.

― JN$OT, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 06:48 (eighteen years ago)

joy division 20 votes
diana ross 3 votes

ugh

― lex pretend, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 07:14 (eighteen years ago)

wow kurtis blow got 3rd!!

― 696, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 07:15 (eighteen years ago)

"Call Me" only got one vote?

― JN$OT, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 07:24 (eighteen years ago)

Most of its 'favourite' votes on Poptimists were from girls I think.

― Groke, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 07:29 (eighteen years ago)

Good to see two more people voting for "I Got You". I thought that one was very much an outsider (even though I realize it sounded more "modern" at the time than anything by Crowded House ever did 10 years later)

― Geir Hongro, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 10:15 (eighteen years ago)

it sounded more "modern" at the time than anything by Crowded House ever did

Strangely, I agree with this, which is probably part of the reason I've always resented Crowded House. (And despite what I say above, I like "I Got You." It could almost be Mi-Sex or somebody! Did Split Enz do much other music with those catchy kind of electro-hooks? I haven't checked out any music by them in decades, but I remember being disappointed by what I else I heard.)

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 10:35 (eighteen years ago)

'Lipps Inc - Funkytown'

I just looked this up on YouTube and realised which song it was! Awesome record. I went for 'The Breaks' though.

I have only enjoyed Joy Division once and that was when it was playing in a vegan cafe with a hot girl serving me a smoothie and kind of very subtly dancing to JD at the same time.

― braveclub, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 11:31 (eighteen years ago)

oh that sounds good!

― 696, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 11:33 (eighteen years ago)

Did Split Enz do much other music with those catchy kind of electro-hooks?

They did have keyboardist Eddie Rayner, who would even write 1-2 very electronic sounding instrumentals for each album.

I don't see why sounding modern is a point in itself, which is why I like Crowded House better (also, because Neil finn had become the obvious leader to a larger extent then, and I find him a better songwriter than his older brother is)

― Geir Hongro, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 12:55 (eighteen years ago)

I'm the only one who voted for "Brass in Pocket"? I thought Myonga must have voted for it too, based on comments above. Maybe I forgot to vote.

― o. nate, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 21:34 (eighteen years ago)

Sounding modern not necessarily a great point in itself, but definitely > sounding like one of the most boring bands in human history, if you ask me.

Totally fucking awesome singles lists that year!:

LESTER BANGS: Au Pairs: "Diet"/"It's Obvious" (021 import); Teenage Jesus & the Jerks (Migraine EP); Mars (Lust Unlust EP); Mekons: "Snow" (Red Rhino); the Clash: "Bankrobber" (CBS import); Lipps Inc.: "Funkytown" (Casablanca); Ramones: "I Wanna Be Sedated" (RSO); Was (Not Was): "Wheel Me Out" (ZE/Antilles); Public Image Ltd.: "Memories"/"Another" (Virgin import); Bush Tetras: "Too Many Creeps" (99).

BRIAN CHIN (all 12-inch disco discs): S.O.S. Band: "Take Your Time" (Tabu); Queen: "Another One Bites the Dust" (Elektra); George Benson: "Give Me the Night" (Warner Bros.); Rod: "Shake It Up (Do the Boogaloo)" (Prelude); Cameron: "Get It Off" (Salsoul); Gayle Adams: "Your Love Is a Life Saver" (Prelude); Gene Chandler: "Does She Have a Friend?" (20th Century); Kurtis Blow: "The Breaks" (Mercury); Teena Marie: "Behind the Groove" (Gordy); the Brothers Johnson: "Stomp!" (A&M).

DEBRA RAE COHEN: Joy Divison: "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (Factory import); Joy Divison: "Atmosphere"/"She's Lost Control" (Factory 12-inch); Delta 5: "You" (Rough Trade import); Robert Wyatt: "At Last I Am Free" (Rough Trade import); Pylon: "Cool"/"Dub" (Caution); Suicide: "Dream Baby Dream" (Red Star); Rolling Stones: "Emotional Rescue" (Rolling Stones); Kurtis Blow: "The Breaks" (Mercury); NRBQ: "Me and the Boys" (Red Rooster); the Jam: "Going Underground" (Polydor import).

VAN GOSSE: Joy Divison: "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (Factory import); Generation X: "Dancing with Myself" (Chrysalis 12-inch import); Kurtis Blow: "The Breaks" (Mercury 12-inch); the Tamlins: "Baltimore" (Taxi 12-inch import); Pylon: "Cool"/"Dub" (Caution); Siouxsie & the Banshees: "Christine" (Polydor import); Stevie Wonder: "Master Blaster (Dub)" (Motown 12-inch import); Bush Tetras: "Too Many Creeps" (99); Split Enz: "I Got You" (A&M); Siouxsie & the Banshees: "Israel" (Polydor import).

GREIL MARCUS: The Beat: "Twist and Crawl" (Go-Feet 12-inch import); J. Geils Band: "Love Stinks" (EMI America); Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers: "Refugee" (Backstreet); Blondie: "Call Me" (Chrysalis); the Clash: "Train in Vain" (Epic); Red Crayola: "Born in Flames" (Rough Trade import); the Beat: "Stand Down Margaret (Dub)" (Go-Feet 12-inch import); Delta 5: "You" (Rough Trade import); Tommy James: "Three Times in Love" (Millennium); Anemic Boyfriends: "Guys Are Not Proud" (Red Sweater).

JON PARELES: Siouxsie & the Banshees: "Happy Home" (Polydor import); Glenn Branca: "Lesson No. 1" (99); NRBQ: "Me and the Boys" (Red Rooster); the Dance: "Dance for Your Diner" (ON import EP); Bush Tetras: "Too Many Creeps" (99); Joy Division: "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (Factory import); Rod Stewart: "Passion" (Warner Bros.); Paul Simon: "Late in the Evening" (Warner Bros.); the Method Actors: "This Is It" (Armageddon import EP); Colin Newman: "B"/"Classic Remains"/"Alone on Piano" (Beggars Banquet).

― xhuxk, Thursday, 17 May 2007 11:38 (eighteen years ago)

Siouxsie & the Banshees: "Happy Home"

Er, House?

― Rockist Scientist, Thursday, 17 May 2007 11:45 (eighteen years ago)

Split Enz had a couple other pretty good songs: "Hard Act to Follow" and "Six Months in a Leaky Boat." Their stuff ain't great, but on a few songs they captured a sound that was likably (for lack of a better description) skinny.

I always loved seeing "Funkytown" on Bangs's list.

― sw00ds, Thursday, 17 May 2007 12:07 (eighteen years ago)

Why did he vote for "I Wanna Be Sedated" in 1980, though? (I'm thinking maybe it was on the Times Square soundtrack, or something like that?)

Then again, Christgau voted for "Rock The Casbah" in, like, 2001 or something (and "You Shook Me All Night Long" in maybe 1984-ish). So you never know.

― xhuxk, Thursday, 17 May 2007 12:09 (eighteen years ago)

That's true--isn't "Sedated" 1978? I'm pretty sure it was in the movie Rock & Roll High School, maybe that's why?

― sw00ds, Thursday, 17 May 2007 12:11 (eighteen years ago)

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