1985 Grammy Awards Record of the Year poll

Cyndi > Tina > Bruce > Huey > ugh

beinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn without youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...takes a lot of getting ussssssssEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDDDD TOOOOOOO

you learn to live with ittttttttttttttttttttttttt

BUT I DONT WANTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT 22222222222222222222222222222222222222

God, I know.

Sheepishly kinda like Huey's harmonica + baseball stadium drum track schtick.

But am still voting Tina.

Bruce over Tina narrowly. I'd love to hear each artist cover the other's song; I think they could each pull it off, especially Tina. I kinda like the Chicago song (in the right time/place etc.) but it's an odd duck on this list.

Cyndi > Bruce > Huey > Tina > etc

Sad to say, I'm sick to death of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." I voted for Tina very narrowly over Bruce.

Definitely Cyndi for me, although I've also heard it enough. Never really liked the Tina and Bruce tracks. I guess the Huey Lewis is one of his better songs. I'm surprised "When Doves Cry" isn't on that list.

It is kind of a weird list, isn't it? No "Jump," no "When Doves Cry," no "All Night Long (All Night)," no "Jump (For My Love)" (winner of Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal), not even "Ghostbusters" (the instrumental of which won Best Pop Instrumental Performance!), though a showdown between that and "I Want a New Drug" would have probably caused a fistfight and even more lawsuits.

Weird thing: Song of the Year is almost entirely different nominees. "What's Love" won both ROTY and SOTY; the other Song noms were Phil Collins's "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)," Lionel Richie's "Hello," Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called to Say I Love You," and Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time." (Thanks again, Wikipedia.) Haven't investigated much further, and YMMV, but that's a pretty good nominee list too, points to what a strong year '84 was.

Wiki doesn't have the full list of Best Male or Best Duo/Group Rock Performance nominees, but I would assume that "Jump" and another big one like John Waite's "Missing You" would make the cut.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/08/10/chicago.champlin/index.html

seems like a timely thing to bring up here

what a letdown. proof that the grammys suck. so many great hits missing in action. what you'd expect, though, from the institution that prized petulia clark over the beatles in their heyday. ah well. voting tina and shaking my head over godawful huey (tho i kinda liked 'power of love') and CHICAGO?

I don't hate the Huey song but m coleman nevertheless OTM.

"This music is callin' me," said Champlin, whose new solo album "No Place Left to Fall" was released last week on the DreamMakers label. "I'm really looking forward to playing more intimate venues and hearing what fans think of the new music. I can't wait to spend some one-on-one time with my old and new fans!"

(I also love "Downtown" actually.)

http://www.bluedesert.dk/images/champlin/champ97a.jpg

hey I remember the sons of champlin, sort of the proto-chicago. i like petulia clark too, downtown is classic. but it's bizarre that she won grammy.

It's kind of more bizarre that the Beatles were nominated, isn't it?

I don't know, guys...I've always had trouble even feigning shock/surprise/disgust by any Grammy nominees and/or winners ever. Just goes with the territory. (Fwiw, I've always liked "What's Love Got To Do With It" more in theory than actuality, where it's always sounded kind of draggy. And I think Sports -- on which "The Heart Of Rock and Roll" is not nearly the best track, and only in a three way-tie for the biggest hit -- is more fun than Private Dancer too. I'd also take "Downtown" over any of the five songs nominated for 1984.)

I'm not expressing shock or surprise or even disgust here, Chicago aside. If anything, I'm surprised by how good the '85 nominees have been.

more like amusement or bemusement at the grammy process. i save my shock or surprise or disgust for stuff like politics or undercooked lamb.

I mean, the Chicago nom is not at all surprising, even in retrospect. The Grammys are biz awards; they're going to favor biz giants, meaning people who sell lots of records and have "paid their dues" or "will stay around for a long, long time" (or whatever it was Tony Bennett said about Norah Jones when she swept the awards). Worth noting: Chicago (I believe their second album, after switching from Transit Authority) was an Album of the Year nominee for 1971. (Maybe I'll do that year next.) (Sorry about all the parens.)

Sports is a very good album: "Walking on a Thin Line" was an excellent single (though according to Wikipedia, the only of Sports's singles not to hit the top ten, topping out at #18).

If it had been "Time After Time" instead of "Girls" in RotY, I'd have voted for that in a heartbeat.

Based off of what was clearly on Grammy's radar, my ideal set of RotY nominees would've been:

Phil Collins, "Against All Odds"
Chaka Khan, "I Feel For You"
Cyndi Lauper, "Time After Time"
The Pointer Sisters, "Jump (For My Love)"
Prince, "Let's Go Crazy" or "I Would Die 4 U" (never was as big a fan of "Doves")

Yep, Sports is a good album. Not godawful at all. Come out you Sports fans.
Outside of that it's Tina, Bruce, Cyndi, Huey and Chicago

Christgau on Huey:

Huey Lewis and the News: Sports [Chrysalis, 1983]

You said it, the man's an utter cornball, but on this album I simply succumb to the stupid pleasures of his big fat rockcraft. Even though I know it isn't the "same old back beat" that keeps rock and roll alive, but rather musicians brave or bored enough to fuck with it, something same-old has me grunting with pleasure at that song every time I let down my guard. No guard required: "I Want a New Drug" (recreational), "Bad Is Bad" (bad), and "Walking on a Thin Line" (when are Vietnam Veterans Against the War putting together their compilation album?). B+

hey man that 2nd chicago album was no joke

Isn't that the one with "It Better End Soon"? I dunno, man.

The other nominees for Best Male Rock Vocal. They're, uh, interesting:

David Bowie - "Blue Jean"
Billy Idol - "Rebel Yell"
Elton John - "Restless"
John Cougar Mellencamp - "Pink Houses"

WINNER: Bruce Springsteen, "Dancing in the Dark."

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

OK, who are the Chicago trolls?

I voted for Huey.

Huey I could see someone liking. "Hard Habit to Break" just screams troll to me.

Unless my mom voted three times. (Hi, Mom!)

I like Hard Habit to Break, but voted Dancing in the Dark.

Polling without lols
Takes a lot of getting used to
Should learn to live with it
I don't want to
Polling without lols
Is all a big mistake
Instead of getting any easier
It's the hardest thing to take
I'm addicted to you
You're a hard habit to break

but I think this time I actually voted for Bruce instead of taking the lol way out. I like glossy 80s Chicago, in the way I like other since-unexamined parts of childhood, including riding in wagons, sloppy joes, and naps. All of these would not likely sustain critical attention in 2009, and besides there are many other glossy things from the 80s that reward continued attention (Avalon, Penthouse spreads).

One last note: "Hard Habit to Break" was co-written by Steve Kipner, who also co-wrote "Genie in a Bottle".