The UK Top 50 of 1981

It does actually give a Top 100 when asked to do an entire year, but I thought 100 options would be a bit too much for one poll, so I only included the Top 50.

Extremely hard for me to choose between "Don't You Want Me" and "Ghost Town". Voted for the former, but might as well have gone for the latter. Lots of other great songs there too.

What's the last track in the poll, Geir?

it's got to be Love Action. Souvenir second.

if you were going to do a poll based on the videos, it would obv. be Adam and the Ants.

There are a number of tracks here which simply *couldn't* be No. 1, or even top 10 hits today, even in some kind of remixed or repackaged form. Particularly Joe Dolce.

There are a lot of good songs on there and a lot of novelty songs! What is this:

Kate Robbins & Beyond More Than In Love

?!??!?!

Soppy ballad to go with the Crossroads marriage du jour.

Kate Robbins & Beyond More Than In Love

...someone hum this one for me please!

XPOST

Stevie Wonder vs Altered Images fite!

What's the last track in the poll, Geir?

That would be Let's Groove by EWF. The biggest selling record released that year was actually 'Don't you want me', but it's sales were more or less equally split between 81 and 82.

Kate Robbins & Beyond More Than In Love

...someone hum this one for me please!

-- NickB, Thursday, 1 November 2007 11:49 (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Hmmmm hmm hm hmmmmmmm, hm hmm hm hm hm hmhmmmmm

Sorry, I have a cold.

Ah, now I recognise it

xxpost
Though Big Phil's 'In the Air Tonight' might be catching them up.

love action </obvious>

Billy is right. That is Let's Groove.

Kings Of The Wild Frontier ftw

Oi what about Ghost Town, people?

Despite that I'm voting for Kids in America.

Me too.

Wow, I hadn't even noticed "Can You Feel It" was on there!

Ha - I just noticed that Tom. Great recd. Very tempting, but I'm happy with my choice.

As you'd expect, dominated by the colossus that was Shakin' Stevens.

Torn between Landscape and Ottawan. Bah, Landscape it is....

Hideously catchy.

I was just listening to "Can You Feel It" last night...again. It's very much a contender for greatest song of all-time (at least while it's playing). And it provides the undergirding for my favorite single of the Aughties - A*Teens: "Halfway Around The World."

1981 = part of the year at primary school / part of the year (September onwards) at comprehensive school.

I remember so many of these tracks.

For me 1981 = first year/second year Univ. Totally classic.

This is a pretty staggering list of songs, if you think about it. Just a great mish-mash of styles, rip-offs, innovations, and stone-cold classics. I'm guessing the US list for '81 would be terrible by comparison? I voted OMD.

"Souvenir" is one of man's greatest achievements

Ghost Town.

Mrs Vague has that Kate Robbins single somewhere I think.

Two songs called "Happy Birthday"!!!!

Always struck by the similarity between "Chi Mai" and Slowdive's "Catch The Breeze".

Wow, this was a great pop year. "Prince Charming" for me...not the most elaborate song, but oh well.

This is a great poll. I was only 8, so apart from the obvious classics (Tainted Love, Ghost Town, all the Adams & The Ants ones) I've got fond memories of the novelty stuff like Joe Dolce and Aneka (but I think I can live without hearing the birdie song again). Even 'Kids in America' and 'Einstein A-Go-Go' seemed pretty great to me. I've got no idea which way to jump for this one.

oh god "Einstein A-Go-Go" makes me cringe

We're the kids! Yay!

In Americuahhhh!

(Remembering the fakey John Rot fadeout vocal)

The Specials' "Ghost Town", because it fits Thatcher's Britain at that time. There are a lot of great pop singles in that list though. 1981 was really Shakin' Stevens' big year.

Good list and a close run thing, but Souvenir is OMD's finest moment and also the moment where I realised it was OK to like synth bands who weren't Kraftwerk.

All these records seem to be filed in different departments in my head. Like "Stand and Deliver" and "Ghost Town" should belong to completely different years. Mind you a lot of these bands did inhabit entirely different aesthetic universes.

I remember John Lennon hanging round the charts like a bad smell for ages after his death. I may have been a particularly callous 11-year-old, but I really remember wanting him to fuck off and take his mawkish nonsense with him at the time.

"Double Fantasy" was pretty new at the time, so no wonder the singles from that album performed well. "Imagine", of course, wasn't among those though.

"Souvenir" is probably my favorite song on the list -- and it's one of those interesting tracks where a synth tune serves in place of a sung chorus. "Stand and Deliver" might have been my favorite at the time these came out. But I've still got to go with "Don't You Want Me"; it's the one I most want to hear when I'm out with friends. (I do like "Love Action," but it's a bit further down the list for me.)

'"Double Fantasy" was pretty new at the time, so no wonder the singles from that album performed well. "Imagine", of course, wasn't among those though.'

Hmmmmm. I suspect they would have performed less well if it weren't for JL being topped the year before. I rather suspect they wouldn't have performed at all.

That said, they were in hindsight good songs, so fair do's to the sentimental scouser.

Hmmmmm. I suspect they would have performed less well if it weren't for JL being topped the year before.

Probably, yes. Although "Woman" was a very strong song that could possibly have been something of a comeback hit anyway.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

Looks like Specials didn't need my vote to win. A classic anyway!

champaign - "how bout us" is one of the best sounding records i've ever heard

Geir, not to start something (necessarily), but isn't that whole Specials EP kinda tuneless for you?

Geir, not to start something (necessarily), but isn't that whole Specials EP kinda tuneless for you?

"Ghost Town"? No. Some wonderful chords in there.

Not too fond of "Too Much Too Young", particularly not the version on the live EP. But tuneless? No. Just too fast.