Hot Black Singles #1 Hits 1984

ok so prince obv plus a great billy ocean and that chaka khan cut that bridged generations but also bear in mind:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5AAhqW-BNU

Love Cameo and a few others, went with Billy Ocean.

Excellent selections. Finalists:

She's So Strange
Encore (Jam and Lewis' first big songwriting/production hit)
Let's Hear It For The Boy
Solid
I Feel For You
When Doves Cry

...but it's gotta be "Time Will Reveal." Only Debarge surpassed Vandross as balladeers in the early eighties.

Billy Ocean bc Prince will rule again

I like a lot of these - "Doves" was really the big Prince moment in so many ways, Cameo was so in the zone, "Time Will Reveal" is a jam for sure -- but "I Feel For You" is one of my favorite singles of all time; the build, the release: it's profound imo, in a class all by itself

thought this thread was about hot black singles :-(

"i feel for you" is so so great but busting makes me feel good, so that's the toss-up for me

there's a fantastic greg wilson edit of "i feel for you" out there but i can't find a link

75.

Voting for "I Just Called..." because nobody else well, certainly.

oh and rockwell too, shit this is a hard poll!!

the Rockwell song is the worst song on the list!

wha? you're tripping alfred.

no the stevie is sadly

i would have thought one of the ones i've never heard of would be the worst!

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

so many great stuffed animal facial expressions in that video, both on rockwell and on the others

Rockwell's British accent is enough to disqualify him.

joanna is the worst of the ones i remember

chaka def the one i liked the best at the time

The bottom three would be:

Joanna
Somebody's Watching Me
I Just Called To Say I Love You

rockwell video holds up imo

dorky rock buds at the time really dug the rockwell, not sure if that's a plus or minus

'joanna's the closest we're gonna get to a little river band song in this thing so let's just watch what we say now

rockwell is basically a thomas dolby song, listening to it again i was imagining if the big bopper had released a song w/ jackie wilson singing the chorus

haha good call

The "is it HIM?" on the Rockwell track was a big deal at the time. love the song

a Thomas Dolby song with shitty synths.

sorry, guys: I loathe that song.

rockwell song feels like somebody in the business owed rockwell a huge favor and he called it in

michael jackson iirc

haha:

Somebody's Watching Me [Motown, 1984]

Berry Gordy III sounds like he learned his accent from British Airways ads rather than Boy George or George Harrison, which would be bad enough. Worse still, the cartoon only begins there. Never trust a rich man's son, even a prodigal, when his misgivings about government focus on the IRS, and don't be sure he's so damned concerned about runaways either. C

as for Kool and his gang, "Misled" is the keeper from this period.

it's v weird to me that anybody's memory of that song ranks higher than "not-unpleasant novelty single" - it's just not a good song in any way, though it does have Michael Jackson at the height of his powers singing the hook, which means there's something good in the song

xp "Fresh" is better than "Misled." I can't even tell you how much time I spent musing over this question in 1984.

Michael Jackson at the height of his powers in '84 was on "Tell Me I'm Not Dreaming."

Gotta go with "When Doves Cry," the first 45 I bought.

"Don't Waste Your Time" must be one of the most successful (and oddly delayed) instances of flagrant self-plagiarism, right? Almost four years later than "Don't Stop the Music."

"Let's Go Crazy" was my first 45. "When Doves Cry" regardless.

if you were a kid in 84 'funny'/scary new wave novelty song w/ michael jackson at the height of his powers singing the chorus was plenty, i probably have more fondness for it tbh than i do for ghostbusters though maybe not more than for danny devito shrugging 'ghostbustuhs' in the video.

one of the most successful (and oddly delayed) instances of flagrant self-plagiarism

a year later: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbSGMRZsN4Q

balls otm

see also that jerrmaine jackson one they did on beavis and butthead

"torture"

ok now, that was actually a shitty song, i admit

prefer "Torture" to "Somebody's Watching Me" but not to "Tell Me I'm Not Dreaming."

"I Feel For You" is the no contest winner of this and all polls for me.

yeah, it's hard to beat

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7107/7770725838_2311fb65a7_o.gif

so many jams on this list

Looking at the list, I would like to call bullshit on the whole "MTV used to be racist!" thing. I remember all these videos. Unless of course they had cleaned up their act by this point.

If I were you, I'd conduct some research prior to calling "bullshit" on this matter.

O'Bryan vs. New Edition for me. That O'Bryan song is a serious jam.

i love every one of these songs! must be a poll first. 1984 = great year for music all around

ok well "hello" i don't love but in the spirit of generosity cutting Li a break

Voting Cameo, that song's beautiful.

Prince Purple Rain vs. Prince Chaka Khan, with great ones from many more including Lionel,Ocean, Deniece, Cameo, Ashford & Simpson.
The Patti LaBelle is pretty good, as is the Ray Parker and DeBarge. Rockwell does indeed still hold up.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Wait. There are some very, very good songs on this list. But oh man, Time Will Reveal is an actual miracle of a song.

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

chaka robbed

otm imo