The Eighth P&J Singles Poll!

http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pj86.php

Ok no one can do ANYTHING (no breakfast, no nothing) until you help me figure out what the freak this single is on Xgau's list:

P.B.S.: "Mr. Rogers"/"Girl of My Own" (Troubled Youth)

Jason Gross told me it was a punk version of the Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood theme song and that he had it on a tape somewhere. Other than that, it remains a mystery.

Who has heard this? Who owns this? What IS it? Pretty please with sugar on top, help!!

In the meantime, I voted for "Open Your Heart" which I had pegged as a 1987 release. Not Madge's best but definitely her best vocal (she could sing, ya know...or rather, she could work miracles with her vocal limitations).

M.I.A.:

Trinere: "How Can We Be Wrong" (Jam Packed 1986)
Sa-Fire: "Don't Break My Heart" (Cutting 1986)
Jermaine Stewart: "We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off" (Arista 1986)

What a pathetic list -- eyeballing it, it looks like the first P&J where songs I care about (uh...Run DMC, Cameo, Timbuk 3, Beasties, Ciccone, Bangles, Timex Social Club, "Papa Don't Preach", ???) might actually be the exception to the rule. ("Open Your Heart" has always struck me as Madonna phoning it in, with not even much of a hook.) Maybe I'll do the math later and discover otherwise, but it's close -- either way, a lot of shit up there for sure.

Anyway, I voted for "West End Girls," no contest.

And even "care about" is probably overstating things for most of the ones I just listed -- I mean, "Papa Don't Preach" and "Walk Like An Egyptian" and "Fight for Your Right" and the "Walk This Way" remake sound fine if they come on the radio (sometimes I'd sit through them, sometimes I wouldn't), but I can't imagine putting any of them on out of my own volition, ever. (I will admit to playing "Into The Groovey" a couple times during DJ sets, however.)

this list is full of 'i either love(d) it or haven't heard it'

xp I guess what's also hitting me is the preponderance of songs I actively dislike -- "Sledgehammer," Smithereens, Winwood, "Wild Wild Life," "Living In America," "Don't Get Me Wrong," "Addicted To Love," those blowhard Springsteen covers. (I must have blocked that Billy Bragg song and "Fall On Me" from my memory banks, but I'm pretty sure those really bugged me, too.)

"Manic Monday" and "The Way It Is" (the latter of which I probably hated at the time) are fine though, I guess (add them to the "if they came on the radio, maybe they'd stay on, depending on my mood" list.)

On Christgau's list, I love Sly Fox and Gregory Abbott (and, uh, AC/DC), and the Real Roxanne and some of the others are real good too. Curious about Mixmaster Gee, Junkyard Band, Skipworth & Turner, Bang Orchestra. Not curious about Karen Finley. And nope, I have no idea what the PBS single is, either.

Cameo: "Word Up" (Atlanta Artists)
Beastie Boys: "Hold It, Now Hit It (Acapulco)" (Def Jam)
Talking Heads: "Wild Wild Life" (Sire)
Teddy Pendergrass: "Love 4/2" (Elektra)
AC/DC: "You Shook Me All Night Long" (Atlantic)
Aretha Franklin: "Jimmy Lee" (Arista)
Sly Fox: "Let's Go All the Way" (Capitol)
Mixmaster Gee and the Turntable Orchestra: "The Manipulator" (MCA)
Junkyard Band: "The Word" (Def Jam)
Timex Social Club: "Rumors" (Danya)
Karen Finley: "Tales of Taboo" (Pow Wow International import)
Skipworth & Turner: "Thinking About Your Love" (4th & B'way)
Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald: "On My Own" (MCA)
Timbuk 3: "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades" (I.R.S.)
Gwen Guthrie: "Ain't Nothin' Goin' On but the Rent" (Polydor)
The Real Roxanne with Hitman Howie Tee: "Bang Zoom (Let's Go Go)" (Select)
Bang Orchestra: "Samples" (Geffen)
Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: "War" (Columbia)
Ciccone Youth: "Into the Groovey"/"Burnin Up"/"Tuff Titty Rap" (Blast First import)
Gregory Abbott: "Shake You Down" (Columbia)
Jermaine Stewart: "We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off" (Arista)
P.B.S.: "Mr. Rogers"/"Girl of My Own" (Troubled Youth)
Bruce Hornsby & the Range: "The Way It Is" (RCA Victor)
Joeski Love: "Pee-wee's Dance" (Elektra)
Pet Shop Boys: "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" (EMI America)

(I feel like I had a different Junkyard Band single once -- "Sardines," maybe? -- though it's not on my shelf so I guess I got rid of it. They were kiddie go-go from D.C., right? Did they ever make an album?)

Google says "Sardines" was "The Word"'s B-side, hmmm. And this suggests there was an EP, but no LP:

http://www.discogs.com/artist/Junkyard+Band,+The

I almost voted for "One Hit (To The Body)" on principle, then remembered I had none, so I voted for "West End Girls."

How does "Open Your Heart" not have a hook, Chuck??? It's one of the more classically constructed Madonna songs!

Alfred OTM! Also, the 12" has what I remember as being the most memorable (synth?) bass line on a Madonna record (unless memory has totally failed me, which is indeed very likely).

This is also OTM:

Not Madge's best but definitely her best vocal (she could sing, ya know...or rather, she could work miracles with her vocal limitations).

skipworth & turner was a stevie wonderesque R&B thang -- not bad IIRC.

I'll probably go w/"word up" or "west end girls" in the absence of "the finest" by sos band. and yeah, I still dig those cheezy simple minds hits where they tried to go all stadium-rock. sorry.

That Mixmaster Gee track never did much for me - noisy sampladasia with a clunky beat. Bang Orchestra had Ralphi Rosario on it. A remarkable house track with a great section where the music drops out and the vocals echo all over the dancefloor. Seek it out.

And I love that Karen Finley track. The flip has an a cappella with two snare hits every coupla measures ("you fuckin' asshole!" clam! clam! "you bastard bitch!" clam! clam!) that made it perfect for mixing in with various instrumentals. I usually spun it with Hope's "Tree Frog" in my DJing days. It worked beautifully - half the room dancin' like fools, the other looking around to see if their parents were there.

looking around to see if their parents were there

that sounds about right. karen finley's chocolate-stained schtick always seemed like the "edgy" angry rant of a privileged 13 yr old. epater le bourgeoisie, whatever.

Yeah, exactly, Finley always struck me as a moron who set out to shock people's mom's (or maybe nuns), and nothing in Kevin's description makes me think otherwise. Though I think I do own a good S-Express 12-inch somewhere that samples her.

Not sure why "Open Your Heart"'s hook never grabbed me; just seemed too weak or subtle or something. (And since I've never particularly minded or complained about Madonna's singing otherwise, I don't really get why that would be an issue. She certainly sings plenty of songs more effectively than that one. But given how much people love the song, I'm willing to concede that my response might just be quirky or something.)

I probably have Bang Orchestra somewhere, come to think of it. Like on some house music compilation maybe...

(Or, re "Open Your Heart", maybe "classically constructed" just = "boring" sometimes?) (Not that I dislike it. It's fine.)

torn between PiL, PSB, and Madonna

I agree with Chuck - lousy year, radio-wise. Patrick Bates woulda loved that list. Just about the only stuff that had any life to it were those gimmicky techno-funk thing or whatever you call it - "Word Up" and "Rumours" and "Let's Go All The Way." (And I can't believe the absence of Sly Fox, unless it was on the '85 poll, which I missed.) The Run-DMC and Beastie Boys singles remain my LEAST-favourite tracks on their respective albums. (I will never be convinced that Aerosmith's original isn't more swinging, and superior.)

I'm tempted to vote PSB since I've never given proper love to those ILM darlings. And "West End Girls" is still my favourite of theirs, and maybe the only song to ever make me want to use the word "ethereal". But in the end I'm gonna go with "Word Up", which even Korn couldn't ruin.

I went for "Kiss," my all-time favorite Prince single. "West End Girls" would be an easy second. I still think the '85 P&J singles are weaker but it's hard to feel much love for this as a list.

"Kiss" for me too.

Pet Shop Boys!

I love "Kiss" and "Sledgehammer" and "Land of Confusion," and like plenty of the others, but I'm voting for "Don't Get Me Wrong" because it's my favorite song on here that I don't feel really burnt out on and sick of. If the Junkyard Band track was "Sardines" I probably would've voted for that, though.

The Run-DMC and Beastie Boys singles remain my LEAST-favourite tracks on their respective albums. (I will never be convinced that Aerosmith's original isn't more swinging, and superior.)

Completely agree with this. I always felt disappointed that the title track from Raising Hell wasn't a big single (actually, I don't even know if it was a single... I don't think so).

For me it's between Cameo, Ciccone Youth, Prince, PSB, Bangles ("Manic Monday"), and Bruce Hornsby. Two songs that don't hold up nearly as well as I would've thought at the time: "Levi Stubbs Tears" and "Rumors."

A few great ones I don't see here: "How Will I Know" (Whitney), "I Can't Wait" (Nu Shooz) (and probably "Point of No Return" also, which I like better, but which might've been on the radio in '87), "Live to Tell" (which I prefer to the two Madonnas)... maybe some others.

actually, my two favourite singles of the year (today, anyway), which aren't on this list are "Point of No Return" (which I just checked, and did chart in '86) and Heart's "Nothing at All." Hardly surprising neither of them are on this list.

xp "Rock Me Amadeus" (which went #1 in the States) would be my second favorite song on the list, if it was there.

No Expose' singles went Top 40 in the States until February '87 (when I voted for a "Come Go With Me'/"Point of No Return"/"Let Me Be The One" megamix, with "Seasons Change" on the B-side, on my own P&J ballot.) Though apparently an earlier version of "Point Of No Return" had hit the Dance chart in '85. Which just reminds me that I actually have an even earlier, indie label single by them where their name is "X-pose" or something like that. But I'm nowhere near my vinyl now, and can't check to make sure which song it is.)

Sorry for the confusion, Chuck--I'm talking about Nu Shooz's "Point of No Return," not Exposé's.

Wait, Scott, you mean Nu Shooz' "I Can't Wait" (which would definitely have a shot at being my single of the year, in retrospect?) I'm confused now.

And nobody has mentioned Stacey Q's "Two of Hearts" or Teena Marie's "Lips To Find You" yet, and I voted for AC/DC's "Who Made Who" and ELO's "Calling America" (and lots of indie obscurities from the Necros' "Tangled Up" on down) myself that year (but there are always tons of great singles that get left off the Pazz & Jop list --doesn't that just go without saying? -- and it seems pointless to try to list all of them, which is why I haven't been, for the most part. I'm kind of shocked that Kevin can limit himself to three or four missing ones every year. Once you start, it's hard to stop.)

No, Chuck, the Nu Shooz followup hit, "Point of No Return," which is better (to my ears) than Exposé's "Point of No Return" and better than "I Can't Wait." You must know it.

Yeah, "Two of Heart," "Calling America," and "Who Made Who" are also amazing singles from that year.

xp Oh yeah....I guess I just always thought of it is pleasant, not earth-shattering like "I Can't Wait," so I'd forgotten it was ever a single. I should go back and listen to it again (and will.).

funny thing is, I'm listening to both now... and maybe I would consider them about equal, to be honest: "Point of No Return" has a better keyboard hook, "I Can't Wait" has a better bass hook. To me, they're both pretty much perfect singles. (And the followup single, "Should I Say Yes," is my favourite single of all time, which I've noted ad nauseum anywhere I've had the chance to do so, but uh, anyway...)

Voted for Prince's "Kiss" over PSB's "West End Girls" in a photo-finish. The other 2 tracks that I think maybe deserve props were written by someone else ("Walk This Way" and "Manic Monday") so I deducted a phantom point.

"Point of No Return," which is better (to my ears) than Exposé's "Point of No Return" and better than "I Can't Wait."

To add to the confusion: Stevie Nicks' "I Can't Wait" was also a single and pretty good.

I'll substitute "Manic Monday" for "If She Knew What She Wants" and add Daryl Hall's "Dreamtime."

Oooh, "I Can't Wait." (Drools.)

It's "Kiss"/"Love or Money" for me, with Cameo and Run-D.M.C. just behind.

Too bad Steve Earle's fans were all in the album category; "Guitar Town" is a good single, not just an album-track-on-45.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I LOVE 1986. LOVE!! LOVE!!!

Prince over Cameo & Janet. I prefer other Run & Beasties from that year. I think I'd vote for "My Adidas"/"Peter Piper" if it was included.

Oh yeah, and the Aerosmith "Walk This Way" is sooooo much better.

Oh, and big soft spot for "Addicted to Love".

I really wish I could reprint my Voice lead music section piece "Dead Air" (which ran Dec 30, 1986) here, but I'll just transcribe the lead couple sentences instead: "Rock'n'roll radio has never been as boring as it's been this year. Not in the middle '70s, not in the early '60s, not ever. By which I'm mainly talking Top 40, but with 'classics'-damaged Apartheid-Oriented Rock and crossover-damanged Urbane Contemporary rapidly closing whatever miniscule gaps remain between formats, and with Top 40 adopting Adult Contemporary's no-fast-ones rule, distinctions are pretty useless anyway."

In retrospect I was exagerrating somewhat, probably. And most of the exceptions I mention in the piece (most of which I argue, probably wrongly, weren't all that good anyway) have been mentioned on this thread already, but here are a few that haven't been:

The Jets - "Crush On You"
.38 Special - "Somebody Like You"
Van Halen - "Why Can't This Be Love" (the latter two of which I argued were pale imitations of better hits the acts had had before, as was "Live To Tell," apparently)
Simply Red - "Money$ Too Tight (To Mention)"
Oran "Juice" Jones - "The Rain" (wow -- maybe this was the real single of the year!)
Eddie Money - "Take Me Home Tonight" (mentioned in the course of a laundry list of all the revived oldies and bad cover versions that hit that year)

Some other interesting '86 singles people voted for on ballots sent in to the Boston Phoenix (the first four came from indie-obssessed me, though I also voted for EPs by the Ex, Laughing Hyenas, and Uzi):

Me:
Last Sacrifice - "Suspended"/"Acid Rain Dance"
The Leather Nun - "Desolation Avenue"
Dinosaur - "Repulsion"
Age of Chance - "Bible Of the Beats"

Other people:
Hazel Dean - "They Say It's Gonna Rain"
Spagna - "Easy Lady"/"Jealousy"
Debbie Deb - "When I Hear Music"
Robert Cray - "Smoking Gun" (I hated this then)
Cherelle and Alexander O'Neal - "Saturday Love"
Reba McEntire - "Whoever's In New England"
Billy Ocean - "When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going"
New Order - "Bizarre Love Triangle"
Rosanne Cash - "Hold On"
Mel McDaniel - "Stand On It"
David Lee Roth - "Yankee Rose"
Chip E. Featuring K-Joy - "Like This"
Dionne Warwick and Friends - "That's What Friends Are For"
Force M.D.'s - "Tender Love"
LL Cool J - "Rock The Bells"

A few I don't think I've ever heard:

Dhar Braxton - "Jump Back (Set Me Free)"
John Fogerty - "My Toot Toot" (! -- I never even realized this existed! Peter Guralnik voted for it)
Georgia Satellites - "Keep Your Hands To Yourself"
John Eddie - "Pretty Little Rebel"
Sister Carol - Wild Thing"
Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam - "All Cried Out" (or maybe I did hear this and the title just isn't ringing a bell, but what year were "Head To Toe" and "Lost In Emotion"? I always liked those way more than "I Wonder If I Take You Home," but nobody ever agreed.)
Levert - "Pop Pop Pop Pop Pop (Goes My Mind)" (mentioned in Michael Freedberg's essay)
Vesta Williams - "Once Bitten Twice Shy" (ditto)
Issac Hayes - "Ike's Rap" (ditto)
Suzy Q - "Can't Live Without Your Love" (ditto)

3 great hit singles Michael Freedberg mentions in his dance music essay that nobody has mentioned yet:

Baltimora - "Tarzan Boy"
Dead Or Alive - "Brand New Lover"
Nocera - "Summertime, Summertime"

?? Er, I've obviously heard this -- It should have been on the "other people voted for it" list, duh:

Georgia Satellites - "Keep Your Hands To Yourself"

Ugh. On that short list, the Eddie Money track is probably my fave. LOATHE the Van Halen and prolly the .38 Special if I could recall it. The Simply Red lyric is great, its track a yuppiefication of "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)" which, come to think of it, kinda counters the lyric, as if the song were written expressly for the moneyed early adopters of compact disc technology. The Jets is waaaay just okay but watered-down DeBarge is better than none at all (and hey! my high school won a free Jets concert by destroying a plantation of trees and sending thousands of index cards with our school name on them to a local radio station. We got free juice boxes too!). And I've never heard the Oran "Juice" Jones. Need to get on him, so to speak.

Guess 1986 radio was a bit blah.

I'm kind of shocked that Kevin can limit himself to three or four missing ones every year.

I'm just stealing my M.I.A. lists from my top 100 singles of the 1980s and 1990s list from my blog (which took forfreakinever to do). Of course, I like a lot more than I list. I just don't have the time (and resources - those Phoenix lists are a scream) to list everything, assuming that were even possible.

I saw you/and him
Walking in the rai-ai-ain
You were holding hands/and I
Will never be the same

Haven't heard that one in a long time, great song. Music's got a great atmosphere to it. From the list provided I chose PSB, though at the time I would have picked "Fall On Me", I think.

Of the Phoenix lists above, I've never heard:

Last Sacrifice - "Suspended"/"Acid Rain Dance"
Mel McDaniel - "Stand On It"
John Fogerty - "My Toot Toot" (this can't be right but then again, everyone and their mom recorded this at the time)
Levert - "Pop Pop Pop Pop Pop (Goes My Mind)" (mentioned in Michael Freedberg's essay)
Issac Hayes - "Ike's Rap"

And I've never even heard of the artists here:
Spagna - "Easy Lady"/"Jealousy"
John Eddie - "Pretty Little Rebel"
Vesta Williams - "Once Bitten Twice Shy"
Suzy Q - "Can't Live Without Your Love"

And gawd, wasn't "When I Hear Music" 1983??

Bleah list.

(oh for fuck's sake I did enter a message)

Yeah, my Jampacked "When I Hear Music" 12-inch says 1983 on it (maybe it hit in the clubs years later?)

Which reminds me -- my Pantera Records (!!) 12-inch of "Point Of No Return" by X-Posed says 1984.

Spagna was a great Italodisco warbler with new wave hair (whose catchiest song was "Call Me," I think.)

John Eddie was a hack Jersey Springsteen imitator with new wave hair (whose catchiest song was "Jungle Boy," I think, and who was discussed briefly on the rolling country thread earlier this year.)

I'm not sure about Vesta Williams or Suzy Q, but I wonder if Vesta's single is an Ian Hunter cover (of a song covered a couple years later by Great White.)

Cherelle and Alexander O'Neal - "Saturday Love"
Reba McEntire - "Whoever's In New England"
Billy Ocean - "When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going"
New Order - "Bizarre Love Triangle"
Rosanne Cash - "Hold On"

five outstanding five star singles that still sound great!

my Pantera Records (!!) 12-inch of "Point Of No Return" by X-Posed says 1984.

Oh that's too perfect.

And yes, the five above are pretty funkin' five star.

That Eddie Money/Ronnie Spector single holds up great--it'd probably be a Top 10 choice for me.

But where's the love for the best single of 1986, Trinere's "How Can We Be Wrong," freestyle's very pinnacle? A downright cunty hook, beats that slam down like cages, requisite glass breaking, head-turning stereo separations, and a pitch shift down on the word "wrong" which reasserts the supermacy of the producer in this great genre and evacuates the conviction in the title question. Hey, maybe we CAN be wrong. More terrifying than Slayer.

And come on, no one knows what this single is:

P.B.S.: "Mr. Rogers"/"Girl of My Own" (Troubled Youth)

No one?!?!? Dare I create a thread just for it?

You know, the problem John, is trying to google "P.B.S. Mr. Rogers"--doesn't quite bring up the desired results.

I really want to hear that Triniere song (if I have heard it, I don't remember it).

Oops, sorry--I identified you as "John" - I meant Kevin.

No prob.

Yeah, even "Girl of My Own" doesn't work too well with Google.

I can YSI the Trinere here if you'd like. Just let me know.

I love the Trinere album from 1986! But I have never heard any of the tracks out of the context of that album (also on Jampacked, by the way), so it's hard for me to think of any of them as singles, offhand.

Kevin, thanks for the offer, I'd certainly give it a listen (but wouldn't be able to do so until later tonight, as I'm at work). I'll leave it up to you, if you feel like doing so.

>>>Mel McDaniel - "Stand On It">>>

I'm pretty sure this is a country version of a Springsteen b-side, no? I liked Springsteen's version quite a bit, I recall, and I think this cover was good also, though I may have heard it just once.

>>Dead Or Alive - "Brand New Lover" >>>

Phil Dellio made me a big fan of this one. It's so much more surprising sounding in a way than "Spin Me Round" (which I still like a lot, however).

Trinere: "How Can We Be Wrong"

http://download.yousendit.com/4065D08248D329DF

Rosanne Cash's "Hold On," Robert Palmer's "Hyperactive," Duran Duran's "Notorious," Janet's "When I Think of You," the New Order song, and Eddie Money's "Can't Go Back" (which I prefer to "Take Me Home Tonight") would make my Top 20.

Also: Gregory Abbot's "Shake You Down."

Did Whodini never make P&J?

I don't think so....

And Alfred, if you mean "I Wanna Go Back" by Eddie Money (which I agree is great), it didn't hit Top 40 until January 1987 (though I suppose the single may have hit the stores before New Year's.)

Dammit, I just wrote a long detailed defense of "Boy in the Bubble" and forgot to check for x-posts before I closed my browser. Salient points:

a.) "Boy..." is a rockin' jam.
b.) It does not sound mired in that era.
c.) I also enjoy "Kiss." (the first Prince song I ever heard - but possibly on a commercial)

Junkard Band's "The Word" was on a Def Jam promo sampler a year or so later, and provided the sinking bass-synth sampled by the Beastie Boys on "Shake Your Rump." It's a cool political go-go track (and pro-farmer!), very raw-sounding compared to where Troublefunk and EU were going at the time.

I'm surprised the overwhelming consensus no-brainer choice here isn't "Kiss," with AC/DC the overwhelming consensus no-brainer second choice, but it's not like I actively hate anything here (though Cameo annoyed me at the time). Good to see the Shop Assistants on the Dean's list. And shouts to Madison-Austin success story Timbuk 3.

Btw "When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going" >>>>> "Get Out of My Dreams, Get Into My Car"

Xgau's list >>>>> Critic's list--consistently thru the 80s

And speaking of Reba, did any country singles make P&J in the 80s? 7 Year Ache, I guess.

"Kiss" is fabulous, but it's all about "Addicted to Love". "Addicted to Love" or "West End Girls" were almost was my birthday songs, but instead I got "The Greatest Love of All". Truly depressing.

But "Loverboy">>>>"When The Going Gets Tough..."

Also add to my Top 20: Boys Don't Cry, "I Wanna Be a Cowboy," E.G. Daily's "Say It, Say It," and Human League's "Human."

Dammit, I just wrote a long detailed defense of "Boy in the Bubble"

Actually, I like this one a lot as well. It's the one song from Graceland that's as great as that album's reputation...it has a really beautiful melody.

And I LOVE the echo on Simon's voice in some parts--how he sounds like he's playing over a loudspeaker.

It's the one song from Graceland that's as great as that album's reputation

That's pretty much how I put it in the post that got eaten. I've had my ups and downs with Graceland, but I've enjoyed this song consistently over the past twenty years.

Patti Smith just did an...interesting version.

The more I look over the '86 charts, the more it really seems like the last stand for a certain kind of post-Lionel black balladry, with the presence of Whitney and Jam/Lewis hinting two major future shifts.

I mean, ballads ahoy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_100_number-one_hits_of_1986_%28USA%29

The more I look over the '86 charts, the more it really seems like the last stand for a certain kind of post-Lionel black balladr

that's cuz white people don't like Freddie jackson or Stephanie Mills.

True, but whatcha mean?

Stephanie Mills placed only one single in the Hot 100 during her R&B mid-eighties heyday.

I'm seeing three from '84-7 -- which isn't much better, since the highest is #65.

I'm surprised the overwhelming consensus no-brainer choice here isn't "Kiss," with AC/DC the overwhelming consensus no-brainer second choice

OTM, except for AC/DC (only because it had already been out as a single in 1980, iirc). But yeah, cripes, "Kiss" should really be the runaway winner here.

I think Fogerty's "Toot Toot" was a B-side. And I agree with the kudos for "Money's Too Tight (to Mention)," but it's worth noting that it was a cover.

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

No surprise here -- except for Bruce Hornsby making the top five.

OK, who are the two wisenheimers who voted for "Higher Love"? It's perhaps the most cringe-inducing track on the list, and that's saying a lot.

1980, eh? Okay, I'm the one with no brain. I never listened to AC/DC until the '90s, anyway...

Yet MORE memorable (or more often, not -- like, feel free to fill in the missing blanks) 1986 singles

5. cheetah chrome motherfuckers - easy target/furous party/frustration
9. sonic youth - starpower/bubblegum/expressway to yr skull
10. tackhead - mind at the end of the tether
11. ??? - ain't nothin to do (green river?)
12. membranes - spike milligan's tape recorder (version)
14. big black - il duce
16. swans - time is money (bastard)
17. janitors - good to be the king
18. antietam - until now
19. celtic frost - return to the eve (party mix)
22. three johns - brainbox
23. eastern dark - johnny and dee dee
24. dream syndicate - dwight frye/low rider
25. the workdogs - funny $/last friend's gone
27. the nomads (i think, or maybe their alter ego the screaming dizbusters?) - summer of love/out of the frying pan
28. red lorry yellow lorry - cut down
29. billy squier - shot o'love
30. slovenly (apparently?) - plug
31. public image ltd - rise
32. leather nun - 506
33. ???? - walking on my hands (maybe red lorry yellow lorry again?)
34. larry wallis (i think) - leather forever
35. bogshed - morning sir
36. fats comet (perhaps) - stormy weather
37. couch flambeu (i think) - we're not so smart/mississippi queen
38. world domination enterprises (i think) - cartalogue clothes
39. the iconoclast (maybe?) - in these times
40. halo of flies - rubber room
41. white zombie - slaughter the grey/pig heaven
43. dobie grey (i think, but i may be way off on this one) - dark side of town
44. run-dmc - my adidas
45. the fall - mr. pharmacist/lucifer over lancashire
46. nick cave (i think) - running scared/black betty
47, halo of flies - ddt fin 13 (pcp)
48. crime and city solution (i think) - the kentucky click
50. the proletariat - marketplace/death of a hedon
51. butthole surfers - american woman
52. the cramps - can your pussy do the dog
53. big black - rema rema
55. journey - only the young/be good to yourself
56. big flame - why pop stars can't dance
57. rifle sport - box of dirt
58. squirrel bait - kid dynamite
59. ???? - baby's on fire
61. ???? - piles
63. soul asylum - long way/tied to the tracks
64. age of chance - kiss

explanation here:

probably not really the 125 best albums of 1986

oops, duh, pil's "rise" already way up there, sorry

Baby's On Fire from '86 is Hagar (unless it's some indie punk band covering Eno)

And Ain't Nothing to Do is Green River, but it's a Dead Boys cover I believe...

Wasn't "Brainbox" an '85 EP, xhuxk? According to xgau it was.

Uh....probably? For the four hundred zillionth time, literal release dates (especially of import singles by obscure British bands) don't matter in Pazz & Jop.

Yeah, "Ain't Nothin To Do" being Green River's Dead Boys (actually Rocket From The Tombs first, right?) cover sounds right. And I assume "Baby's On Fire" was somebody's Eno's cover, but damned if I know whose now. Definitely wasn't Sammy Hagar's, though.

Google confirms these were all circa '86-ish singles, as suspected (though not necessarily why I liked them so much then), which leaves "Piles" and "Baby's On Fire" the only mysteries:

27. screaming disbusters - this ain't the summer of love/out of the frying pan
30. slovenly - plug
33. red lorry yellow lorry - walking on your hands
34. larry wallis - leather forever
36. fats comet - stormy weather
37. couch flambeau - we're not so smart/mississippi queen
38. world domination enterprises - cartalogue clothes
39. the iconoclast - in these times
46. nick cave - running scared/black betty
48. crime and city solution - the kentucky click

That Iconoclast single can be heard here:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=38015088

And oh yeah, "The Dark Side Of Town" was indeed a 1986 Dobie Gray 45. Sounds cool (and really stands out on that pigfucking list); wish I still had it.

how does all that pigfuck/forced exposure stuff sound NOW?

"Interesting."

(Inasmuch as I still own any of it. The Couch Flambeau and Big Flame CD collections that came out a couple years ago were both not bad, really, though pretty hard to get through in one sitting. Couch Flambeau was easily the more enertaining of the two.) (And Red Lorry Yellow Lorry are more listenable than either of them -- they had a real groove and a real kick, somehow, like Killing Joke early on, I guess, but somehow with better melodies, and a better singer than Sisters of Mercy's to boot.)

Don't have that Janitors 45 anymore, but the vinyl EP I found by them for a buck last year was better than tolerable, as British post-punk art bands with bad singers and not much chops pretending to be hard rock go. Still seemed endearing, somehow, though that's probably owed to nostalgia to my distant past.

(Or maybe more a "roil" than a groove for RLYL? Something like that. And a drone that sounds good in the background, while reading or washing dishes. But I'm still not sure I'd call them a singles band.)

I can definitely vouch for the four of these still holding up, though -- actual tunes, actual songs, actual hooks, and they actually made my P&J Top 10, which means my tastes were based on something:

Necros - "Tangled Up"
The Leather Nun - "Desolation Avenue"
Dinosaur - "Repulsion"
Sonic Youth - starpower/bubblegum/expressway to yr skull

Wish I still owned the Cheetah Chrome Motherfuckers and Last Sacrifice 45s (both of whom also made my P&J); would love to figure out what I heard in those. (Ditto Tackhead, which was an Adrian Sherwood thing, though I had no use for their later full LPs).

Also maybe worth noting that lots of the songs on my pigfuck singles list (Dinosaur, Green River, Squirrel Bait, Soul Asylum, not to mention Die Kreuzen way up high on my '86 album list) are pretty clearly in the direct ancestry lineage of Nirvana, which means there's at least the small chance I was hearing something in that music that millions of other people would notice a half-decade later or so.

Also: I listed scads of cover versions -- Green River doing Dead Boys, Dream Syndicate doing Alice Cooper and War, Screaming Disbusters (alias the Nomads) doing Blue Oyster Cult, Couch Flambeau doing Mountain, Butthole Surfers doing the Guess Who, Nick Cave doing public domain songs via Ram Jam, the Fall doing whatever '60s punks invented "Mr. Pharmacist," Big Black doing Rema Rema if that counts which it probably doesn't, somebody undetermined doing "Baby's On Fire," and isn't that "Bubblegum" song by Sonic Youth actually some Kim Fowley oldie? --- so that factor no doubt added to their songness as well, inasumuch as said songs remained intact.

Not to mention, duh, Age of Chance covering Prince. (Wish I still had my copy of "Bible of the Beats," too. In my mind, even though I haven't heard it for years, I still prefer that single to either version of "Kiss," though that probably makes me nuts.)

Uh....probably? For the four hundred zillionth time, literal release dates (especially of import singles by obscure British bands) don't matter in Pazz & Jop.

Right. Didn't realize that was part of your then year-end-list.

I probably would have voted for "West End Girls". "Bizarre Love Triangle" would have been second, if it were included.

In case anyone cares:

A mere three days before my first post (grrrrrrrrr), a video for the song in question went up on youtube. It's real!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ad8PkYZzqU