US #1s of 1981

dollyyyyyyyyy

"Rapture" vs. "Jesse's Girl"

omg i didn't even see jesse's girl.....

I remember hearing all of these songs on the crappy boombox that Donna the school bus driver kept propped up on the dashboard.

Tough call between "Bette Davis Eyes" and "Jesse's Girl" for me. I like "The Tide is High" better than "Rapture" (but not better than the Kim Carnes and Rick Springfield tracks).

Uggh, "Donna the school bus driver" sounds like a McCain-Palin campaign figure...

goddamn what a year

I really do remember the decade falling apart between 1983 and 1984, despite all the wonder of 1981-1982

I had to go with Rapture over 9 to 5 on a snap 1-credit-left-on-the-jukebox-decision

"Private Eyes."

The UK chart toppers from 1981 are a lot better, as America didn't discover real 80s music until 1982. Great song from Rick Springfield though.

Upon review, my first instinct of "Rapture" was correct.

ditto

and me.

fourthed

As much as it pains me to vote against H&O, it's gotta be Eddie Rabbit.

damn tough call, but, dudes "she's ferocious"!

a tough call between "Jesse's Girl," "Bette Davis Eyes," and "Private Eyes." I went for H&O cuz, at the moment, I wouldn't vote for 1982's "I Can't Go For Tha."

i remember these being big hits very fondly (even the annoying stars on 45 one which was confusing to me when I was 8). bettie davis eyes wins.

fab five freddy told me everybody's fly

I'm not a huge H&O guy but they're probably my top 2 on this list, with "Private Eyes" in the lead.

Jesse's Girl

Very strong year. I also voted "Jesse's Girl" - a great piece of songwriting, the way it so succinctly sets the scene, and then the emotional payoff of the chorus - very catchy too.

yeah it's very relatable for some reason

Rapture is absolutely unfuckablewith. Nothing here even comes close or was as ground-breaking at the time. I'm rather confused about that Stars on 45 thing, though, because the way I remember it, it was ALL Beatles songs. But I guess the whole appeal of it was that it led INTO a bunch of Beatles songs in a climactic way. Ha! Looking at the inner label of that record on wikipedia really takes me back. Wow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

what do you call a tennis match between stevie wonder and ray charles?

suggest ban?

^^ban
xp

'81 was the heart of my top-40 radio fixation. my sister and i (she was 10, i was 11) would listen to casey kasem from start to finish every week and argue about which songs sucked or didn't. i HATED "jessie's girl," for the simple reason of being named jesse. at little league games kids in the outfield would sing it to me when i came up to bat. i've never forgiven the song.

the blondie, hall & oates and sheena easton songs are classics, but dolly rules this list. (out of these songs, i think my sister bought 45s of sheena easton, stars on 45, "the tide is high" and "celebration," and my dad bought "9 to 5" and "kiss on my list." the only single i remember for sure buying that year was "the breakup song" by greg kihn, which stalled out at #15.)

. at little league games kids in the outfield would sing it to me when i came up to bat.

okay that is awes

that and carly simon's "jesse" song made my life hell.

Oooh! Both great songs! The Simon song doesn't get enough love.

i'll be very surprised if there isn't a vote for "keep on lovin' you." and if there isn't, some voters here aren't being honest with themselves (esp. those in their mid-30s and older).

i voted for "rapture."

Heh, "Christopher Kross". Lotsa possibles but ultimately impossible to vote for with Kim & Bette up there.

What crap. I had to vote for Rabbitt because today it sounds the weirdest.

Damnit, I was just thinking about that Rabbitt song earlier tonight. Don't know why, either.

I heard that Sheena Easton song in a grocery store maybe a few months ago and it cracked me up. I mean it was just so...sexist. I mean what woman today can even afford to even stay at home, waiting all day for her man to come home? I mean, that's fine if a woman do that and has the means or wants to, but that song is just pathetic, okay? It's fucking hilarious if you ask me.

Also I forgot to mention I think The Tide Is High is SOO way overrated. Most overrated Blondie song ever.

considering how slutty sheena easton became later in the 80s -- to wit, after she met prince -- "morning train (nine to five)" is a rather odd relic in her canon.

Haha! Yeah I know! That's the charming side of it, though, isn't it? That she actually became sluttier later. LOL There was one early 80's song of hers I loved though, to give her credit. Let met think...what teh fuck was that called...argh. "You Could Have Been With Me"! That's it! I bought the single of that in England in 1991 because I remembered it so fondly. Fantastic record.

I'd just about kill to hear that Christopher Cross song again. Sigh. I liked the b-side of that, too, if I recall correctly - "Minstrel Gigolo" wasn't it?

Anyway I guess I've posted enough on this thread. Soon the posting police are gonna arrest me. HAHA

Smell the vinyl:

Okay I know that is one of the cheesiest songs known to mankind, but Air Supply will always be cheesier.

Jessie's Girl = classic

1. Christopher Cross "Arthur's Theme (The Best That You Can Do)"

2. Hall & Oates "Kiss On My List"
3. Kim Carnes "Bette Davis Eyes"

jesse's girl, with private eyes a close second choice

Voted for Tide Is High just because some of my earliest memories of moving to the States is being driven around New Canaan in the back of a pick-up truck with a load of 11 y.o. preppies and dogs and things and that song being on the radio and feeling extraordinarily happy.

It's funny, because I can remember watching Solid Gold religiously - and the 1981 best of the year program, I remember so vividly because No. 1 was Bette Davis Eyes - which, up until that point I had NEVER HEARD so I felt really cheated - especially as I'd begged to stay up late to watch it. (My dad was on my side, coz he loved the Solid Gold Dancers, natch.)

Then the song because utterly ubiquitous, of course.

I can't believe "Celebration" was this late. It seems like it has always been there, for better or worse.

I despise "Jesse's Girl" and always have.

I'm tempted to vote for "Keep on Loving You," which I'm pretty sure I did not like at the time, but at the moment I'm liking what I remember of how it sounds.

I think Kim Carnes gets it though.

kevin cronin's enunciation on "keep on lovin' you" is sort of hilarious:

yew play dayy-ud
uh but chew nevah blayy-ud
instayy d'yew lay steel in the gray-us
ull coy-uld up'n heee-yuh-seeeen

jesse's girl SEEMS like it was a hit later to me, was it just that big a hit? I heard it more like, in 83 or something.

a friend of mine has had a song recorded about her, to the tune of "keep on livin you":

"i'm gonna keep on druggin yoooou
cause it's the only thing i wanna dooooo
you ain't gonna sleep
i'm just gonna keep on druggin yoooou"

"i love a rainy night" wins for me

I voted Rick Springfield, but what a fantastic list. I turned seven that year, just old enough for these songs to register with me when I heard them on the radio. I wasn't old enough to understand the longing in "Jessie's Girl" or "Arthur's Theme" or "The One That You Love", but I felt it when listening anyway. The nervousness and paranoia of these songs, which continues into 1982, still astounds me. To feel Reagan nostalgia while feeling these songs must be complicated.

I prefer Springfield's other hits, actually ("I've Done Everything To You," "Love Somebody"), but it's no pox on "Jesse's Girl." Springfield had SO many hits that you don't hear anymore; he's the missing link between L.A. studio-pop and New Wave.

*"Everything FOR You," rather

yeah, I don't remember any of his other songs, so maybe I'll pick up a greatest hits.

So I'm the loner for "Endless Love"?

It's a song I despised as a kid, but I hated ballads as I kid. As I embrace my oldageness, "Endless Love" stands above a lot of this list, though "Private Eyes" comes really close, though it wasn't H&O's best knockout.

EMBRACE TEH LINEALL!
EMBRACE THE ROSS!

"Jesse's Girl," though "Private Eyes" is close.

A lot of this list reminds me of late shifts doing newspaper paste-ups. That would have been a decent job without the constant immersion in cheese.

So this was the year I first became aware there was any such thing as pop music: the three earliest songs I remember liking are "I Love a Rainy Night," "Jessie's Girl," and "Leader of the Band" (also 1981). I'd have been turning four years old. And living in eastern New Mexico, which probably explains the Rabbitt and the Fogelberg.

Wait, Brad, were you working for CheeseTrend Daily or something?

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

kind of surprised at no votes for "Physical"

over 100 votes!

this poll was impossible

nabisco did you live in NM in 1984?? I was born there, then.

granted, there's some strong competition here -- but i am surprised at the weak cumulative showing of the hall and oates songs here given this board's love for those two dudes.

I missed this thread, else Sheena Easton would have had another vote. 1981 was a year of much upheaval for me, and the high concentration of AC material I'd hear on the radio that summer and fall - "Morning Train," "The One That You Love," Marty Balin's "Hearts" - I found comforting. '81 musically was a very soft year, as I experienced it.

AC?

adult contemporary

Actually, I think chart-wise, 1980 was a very "soft year" as well, moreso than 1981. I can't remember how Marty Balin's "Hearts" goes. I think it's hilarious that one person actually voted for Stars on 45. I can't think of a single excuse for that and they must have an extremely boring record/CD/mp3 collection.

It's a fun novelty

I used to own both the first AND second "Stars On" LPs! (Both unasked-for '81 Xmas gifts, mind.)

Well I recently checked out their Bee Gees Medley and thought it was really cool.

Let's rank the top tens of 1981.

u sure can't wank to em