UK Pop Poll: Rhino's "Teenage Kicks" and "Starry Eyes" Comps

I don't know all of these, but I'm going with the Buzzcocks. Doubt there's anything here I haven't heard that I would like more than that song.

WHITE MICE, c'mon now

Wow, I bought the "Starry Eyes" comp when it was new! Excellent collection. I recall there were two companion "UK Punk" CDs too, and thinking that many of the tracks on the "pop" discs wouldn't be out of place on the punk comps either. I probably would have never heard the Jags, the Squares, or Mo-Dettes without it, all who have strong entries here.

Don't know all the songs on the "Teenage Kicks" set (but the title track is uber-classic).

There was a hilarious Maxell cassette advert back then that featured the Skids "Into The Valley", with a video showing a man flipping cue cards illustrating the lyrics (in the style of the classic Bob Dylan "Subterranean Homesick Blues" video) but getting the lyrics all wrong because the sound quality of the cassette was so poor. The last card would say "I think that's what he's singing, but I need to hear it on a Maxell".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gib916jJW1o

Another similar advert was even better:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxELSzay2lc

can't easily decide between starry eyes, airebeat and the distractions song. i think i'm going to go with the distractions since i have the label of their b-side tattooed on my arm.

i voted for yachts, but there was some stiff competition.

specifically, "yachting type":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2yCAKJOdTo

"Another Girl, Another Planet," without even checking anything else--that's one of my half-dozen favourite songs ever. Runners-up: "Life Begins at the Hop," "Whole Wide World," "Girl of My Dreams," "Starry Eyes." The Undertones and Buzzcocks have many other songs I like better.

Mo-Dettes > Wreckless Eric > Buzzcocks > Jilted John

Teenage Kicks, by far

Very bored with Teenage Kicks, gonna go for Get Over You by Undertones, The instead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_Axli2C5ew

I could easily pick a dozen of these, so much to love here but today it's Bram Tchakovsky's "Girl Of My Dreams", one of my all-time favorites. The album it's from, "Strange Man Changed Man" is totally fantastic as well.

'get over you,' way better than 'teenage kicks.'

The Boys - "Brickfield Nights"

The Boys - "Brickfield Nights"

The Boys - "Brickfield Nights"

The Boys - "Brickfield Nights"

The Boys - "Brickfield Nights"

4ever

I get really depressed that contemporary movements like American dubstep and chillwave and jerk will never get really intense overview comps from an impartial/objective/scholarly source like Rhino.

you know rhino is for old farts

i thought sundazed for for old farts

Great liner notes in these comps IIRC

I get really depressed that contemporary movements like American dubstep and chillwave and jerk will never get really intense overview comps from an impartial/objective/scholarly source like Rhino.

Make it happen, Whiney. Or, alternately, wait 20 years and Rhino will probably make it happen.

This is just the toughest poll. I seriously cannot decide between "Teenage Kicks", "Whole Wide World", "Top Of The Pops", and 95% of everything on Starry Eyes (which, song for song, might be among the top 10 compilations I've ever heard).

Wreckless eric

"Up the Junction" - nobody wrote lyrics like that.

"Get Over You" when when I found that the Undertones were not to be a "one great single then goodbye" band.

Have listened to get Over You about twenty times since this poll started. Watching that video I'd never really realised what an oddly cool figure Feargal Sharkey once cut. When was it that he lost it exactly?

This is the most impossible poll of all impossible polls. But that's because I listened to WHFS in the afternoons in the 80s.

"do anything you wanna do" is corny & obvious but that's a power pop virtue, right? anyway voting eddie & the hot rods

I really need to update my copy from cassette! The books a million in my florida hometown had the entire DIY series in the cutout bin. Got all seven volumes for like $10 in 1997. I still play them!

The Distractions

I'd never really realised what an oddly cool figure Feargal Sharkey once cut. When was it that he lost it exactly?

My view is that the first two Undertones albums are stone-cold classics, the third is patchy and the fourth just doesn't work for me with all the soul sounds. I liked one of his solo singles but that's about it, and now he works for Ireland's RIAA or something like that.

That's probably about how I break it down too. Of his solo stuff, I liked 'You Little Thief' at the time, but listening to it now, what a vicious little song it is! Never knew the backstory to it before (from Wikipedia):

"You Little Thief" is pop vocalist Feargal Sharkey's first single of 1986 and follow-up to previous hit A Good Heart...

The single was written by member of Tom Petty's band Benmont Tench about his relationship with Maria McKee who had wrote Sharkey's previous hit single A Good Heart, based on Tench. Sharkey placed them next to each other on his debut album.

The lyrics:

You little thief
You let me love you
You saw me stumbling
You watched me fall
You left me broken
Shattered and bleeding
But there's no hard feelings
There no feelings at all

You little thief
You little savage
You little beauty
You little whore

You've taken everything
I had to believe in
Now there's nothing
To believe in at all

So tell me how does it feel
To make a grown man wanna die
Does it make you uneasy
Does it every cross your mind

You little dream
You little nightmare
You little nothing
You little girl

You left me broken ...
There's no hard feelings ..
Cos when I needed you
You watched me fall

Appalling really, Maria McKee must have been delighted to receive her copy of the album.

1 Feargal Sharkey A Good Heart Oct 1985
5 Feargal Sharkey You Little Thief Jan 1986

I guess Maria won, in this particular battle ground.

there are so many good songs on these CDs but this is the tops:

The Jags – "Back Of My Hand (I've Got Your Number)"

such clean guitars and memorable hook.

The Motors - "Dancing The Night Away"

is the bestest

my favorite Boys track is "Weekend":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dKvaieNuGY

Boys' "First Time" is stone classic, guess I should look into those guys further!

Schooldays.

Voting "Airport", but this is impossible. Couldn't you at least made separate polls for each compilation?

Toughest poll ever!

Shortlist: So It Goes, Whole Wide World, Dancing The Night Away, Another Girl Another Planet, Into The Valley, Get Over You, Up The Junction, Back Of My Hand, Time Goes By So Slow, Where's The Boy For Me, White Mice.

Voting for Dancing The Night Away, as it's the track I want to play the most right now.

Besides being an awe-inspiring collection of songs, the compliers really sweated the presentation and sequencing of these discs. It's not just a jumble of great songs; careful attention was paid to sequencing and flow. "In My Schooldays" may never have meant to segue into "Girl of my Dreams", but it sure sounds like it was if you'd only heard them on these comp CDs. Few "real" albums flow together this well.

What other comps of this ilk are comparable? My favorite is the 1-2-3-4 Punk & New Wave box set.

Besides being an awe-inspiring collection of songs, the compliers really sweated the presentation and sequencing of these discs. It's not just a jumble of great songs; careful attention was paid to sequencing and flow. "In My Schooldays" may never have meant to segue into "Girl of my Dreams", but it sure sounds like it was if you'd only heard them on these comp CDs. Few "real" albums flow together this well.

So OTM. I cannot possibly understate how blown away I was when I first heard Starry Eyes or how well it's held up in the years since.

What other comps of this ilk are comparable? My favorite is the 1-2-3-4 Punk & New Wave box set.

i love love love that set.

Teenage Kicks, AGAP or Up The Junction

What other comps of this ilk are comparable?

Rhino has a Poptopia power-pop comp; the '70s disc has some overlap with these two, though the song selection is somewhatless punk-influenced than these and with less indie representation.

Yeah, I know the Poptopia series, and "The Roots Of Power Pop" is damn good too. It seems to be an under-anthologized genre though.

Rhino comps are the best.

I have a couple from a series called "The Indie Scene" - one disc for each year between 1977 and 1985. The later ones are a bit dodgy but the first 3 or 4 are solid.

Here's the tracklist from the 78 one, which I think is the best.

01 THE UNDERTONES / Teenage Kicks
02 STIFF LITTLE FINGERS / Alternative Ulster
03 THE LURKERS / Ain't Got a Clue
04 ANGELIC UPSTARTS / The Murder of Liddle Towers
05 THE MEKONS / Where Were You?
06 THE FALL / Bingo Masters Breakout
07 TV PERSONALITIES / Part Time Punks
08 SNATCH / All I Want
09 WAYNE COUNTY / Eddie and Sheena
10 KLARK KENT / Don't Care
11 JILTED JOHN / Jilted John
12 LENE LOVICH / I Think We're Alone Now
13 TV PERSONALITIES / Where's Bill Grundy Now?
14 THE UNDERTONES / True Confessions
15 RUDI / Big Time
16 BUZZCOCKS / Ever Fallen In Love
17 THE NIPS / All the Time In the World
18 DOLL / Desire Me
19 THE STRANGLERS / Five Minutes
20 PROTEX / Don't Ring Me Up
21 TEARDROP EXPLODES / Sleeping Gas
22 JOY DIVISION / Glass
23 THE NORMAL / Warm Leatherette
24 TUBEWAY ARMY / Bombers

i liked the burning ambitions comp, though i haven't had a copy in quite a while:

1) Boredom - Buzzcocks
2) Bingo Masters Breakout - Fall
3) 12XU - Wire
4) Life - ATV
5) Keys to Your Heart - One O Oners
6) I'm Alive - Nine Nine Nine
7) Gary Gilmore's Eyes - Adverts
8) (Get A) Grip (On Yourself) - Stenglers
9) Baby Baby - Vibrators
10) Identity - X Ray Spex
11) (I'm) Stranded - Saints
12) Chinese Rocks - Hearbreakers
13) Love Song - Damned
14) In a Rut - Ruts
15) Stranglehold - UK Subs
16) Flares and Slippers - Cocney Rejects
17) The Wait - Killing Joke
18) Holiday in Cambodia - Dead Kennedys
19) Dead Cities - Exploited
20) Last Rockers - Vice Squad
21) Someone's Gonna Die - Blitz
22) City Baby Attacked by Rats - GBH
23) Russians in the DHSS - Attila the Stockbroker
24) Lust for Glory - Angelic Upstarts

stenglers?

I remember their live album, "Stenglers in Knightsbridge"

I guess it's a cliche, but for me this is an endless, irresolvable battle between "Another Girl, Another Planet" and "Teenage Kicks". Been listening to these two songs for most of my life, sometimes on endless repeat, and I haven't yet tired of either one. Today I'm giving the victory to The Only Ones, but tomorrow it might well be The Undertones.

If it weren't for those two world-crushing ringers, I'd have a hard time choosing between:

Squeeze - "Take Me, I'm Yours"
XTC - "This Is Pop?"
Rich Kids - "Ghosts Of Princes In Towers"
Undertones, The – "Get Over You"
Squares, The – "This Is Airebeat"
Squeeze – "Up The Junction"
The Records – "Starry Eyes"

Love The Boys, but "Brickfield Nights" isn't a particular favorite. Would be more tempted by "Soda Pressing" or "T.C.P."

Love the Records track but Too Much Joy's cover still kills the original.

think this is my favorite "starry eyes", tbh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dynAXp5vHck

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

If you are in the mood to dig a little deeper check out the Shake Some Action 8-CD set. http://powerpopcriminals.blogspot.com/2012/03/shake-some-action-volumes-1-8-2003-all.html

I would also add the Yellow Pills sets, especially the Prefill double CD. The main YP sets are mostly 90s/00s cheese, which some of us like but aren't in the same vein as the stuff in these polls.

i'll add a good word for yellow pills v.4, which i am on. track 10. mid-80s cheese.

"Carolina"!

I meant to mention that the Power Pop Criminals and Power Pop Overdose blogs both assemble their own compilations that sneak in some really good stuff. I downloaded one called See the Antz Waltz that had an amazing song by Chris Twinning called "Netherlands."

Burning Ambitions is very good, but past the Vibrators' "Baby Baby," it's pretty much straight punk.

Without a doubt the toughest poll I have ever had to consider on ILX. "Another Girl Another Planet," "Get Over You," "Up The Junction, "Where's The Boy For Me," "So Good To Be Back Home Again," and "Back of My Hand" all all-time classics. But for me it comes down to the two question songs: "Ever Fallen In Love?" vs. "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" And I have to go with Joe Jackson, just on grounds that when i heard this song it blasted open for me whole new worlds of what rock songs were allowed to to. So even though this is one of the only songs here DIDN'T hear first on the comp, I'm voting for "Is She Really Going Out With Him?"

And you know what? As much as I love both volumes of this comp, they are only the second- and third-most frequently played Rhino cassette comps in my car from 1995 through 2009, thanks to the amazing THE MODERN WORLD (UK PUNK II 1977-78)

http://www.amazon.com/DiY-Modern-World-Punk-1977-78/dp/B000008F4L/ref=pd_sim_m_4

Have we polled that?

(Overall most-played cassette in my car = London 0, Hull 4, natch.)

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

Who voted for "Girl Of My Dreams" along with me? Let's party on Outloud.fm!

How the hell did I miss this?

I love so many of these but probably would have voted Ever Fallen in Love. It's so wonderful.

XTC - "This Is Pop?" 0
Rich Kids - "Ghosts Of Princes In Towers" 0

sad, love these with an unreasonable passion

Who voted for "Girl Of My Dreams" along with me? Let's party on Outloud.fm!

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, May 29, 2012 8:50 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'd listen to that! Great track.

I'd love your DJ set, Contenderizer.

Honestly, you could do another poll of the songs that got 0 votes on this poll and it would still be a way better set of choices than most polls. For me it would be "So Good To Be Back Home Again" by a neck over "Where's The Boy For Me?"

Man, I kept coming back to this and kept finding it impossible to choose. Even eliminating "Teenage Kicks" (an all-time favorite that earned me accolades from the band and other strangers when I live-band karaoked the hell out of it), it was just too much. I vacillated between ""Girl Of My Dreams", "Starry Eyes", "Time Goes By So Slow", "Ever Fallen In Love...", etc. Ugh. ALL SO GOOD.

Would love if somebody made a Spotify playlist of these two and the US comps from the other Rhino thread going on right now. I don't have the time or I'd do it.

an all-time favorite that earned me accolades from the band

I guess you mean the band that was backing you, but when I first read this I totally thought you meant the Undertones were in the audience and were like "damn, Deric, you nailed it"

Feargal gave me the publishing rights to their back catalog that night, iirc.

I was the other vote for "Girl Of My Dreams". I like it because I thought it was just Bram singing a love song for his girlfriend until i listened more closely to the lyrics and realized the "of my dreams" part is literal. Plus I like how there's about five different kinds of verses before anything repeats.

"Ever Fallen In Love?" is probably the best song here, but I wanted to choose something I don't often hear in other contexts - I have several Buzzcocks albums, but nothing from, say, the Starjets.

I forgot to vote because I couldn't decide between at least 4 of these (and that was after ruling out the absolute classics which I currently feel no need to hear ever again, e.g. "Ever Fallen In Love").

RIP "Into the Valley" and "Top of the Pops", half of my 4 with no votes between them. (The other half were "At the Hop" and "Another Girl, Another Planet", both of which have done quite nicely.)

Inevitably incomplete Spotify playlist; I had to substitute a Rezillos Peel session version and a Revillos demo version, but they aren't so very far from the single versions.

http://open.spotify.com/user/miketd/playlist/6xd3iHvoZfnAHr2cbsR3Nv

Forgot to vote, would probably have voted for one of the top finishers, of the unloved on this poll would have gone with "Marie Provost."

Mike, thanks for Spotifization!

Was pleasantly surprised when I realized that it's totally worth just going ahead and getting everything the Revillos/Rezillos put out.

Well it's just the one Rezillos CD, innit? I have a Revillos comp and a BBC sessions disc, enough for me.

Yeah, one reason I wasn't too tempted to vote for "Where's The Girl For Me?" is that it's no "(My Baby Does) Good Sculptures."

"Where's the boy for me"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKly-dga3Nw

sorry

For the Revillos you need Rev Up, the Radio Sessions CD and Attack of the Giant Revillos, a comp which gathers all the best post-Rev Up material. Otherwise you're missing the studio versions of Bongo Brain, Hip City, Mind Bending Cutie Doll, and a couple of other essentials. I see Captian Oi! released a new, slightly different version of this, just called Attack, so they are presenting it as a version of their lacklustre second album. Attack! is okay but did not have any of the tracks I just mentioned.

kind of want to change my vote to "Starry Eyes."

Hey everything, are you sure about "Attack" vs "Attack Of The Giant Revillos"? Amazon reviews seem to indicate the Captain Oi version, which looks like it has all the same tracks, is the superior release.