On The Charts, a 1994 compilation of hit songs released by I.R.S. Records acts

My top three:

Mad About You
Our Lips Are Sealed
Save It for Later

voted for "Mexican Radio"

a lot of these are fine and then there's "Save It For Later," one of the greatest singles of the 80s or any era

It's about time I admitted "Mad About You" > "Our Lips are Sealed" but only slightly.

voted for "Save It For Later."

true, definitely my #2 (xpost)

free drink to whoever can guess my completely predictable line concerning "Mexican Radio"

you've listened to actual mexican radio and you feel the song gives an unrealistic depiction?

Celtic Frost's version is better?

waiter, send a drink over to Colonel Poo's table

Our Lips Are Sealed - The Go-Go's
Mexican Radio - Wall of Voodoo
Save It for Later - The English Beat
Tenderness - General Public

having a hard time choosing between these

Weak spot for FYC.

a whole other 80s-90s

The Alarm, Oingo Boingo and dada are the only 3 I would skip. Voting Go-Go's.

i hate having to narrow it down to one, but i voted for "mexican radio."

however having just heard the celtic frost version i will take my barbecued iguana wall of voodoo style.

"Save It for Later"; then "Mexican Radio," to which I still have an inexplicable attachment.

Good companion volume:

http://punkygibbon.co.uk/images/various/irsgreatesthits2and3_lp_400.jpg

Missed "Tenderness"--that'd be my #2 pick.

go-gos

in any poll where "Our Lips Are Sealed" is an option i'm gonna vote for it

I believe Sabbath was on IRS in '94. But they did not produce a hit (or even a listenable song) at that time.

oof at "dizz knee land" being the only entry from the four years between "joey" and '94

lot of good songs but easily "save it for later" for me

Save It For Later

well there's a reason they're thought of as an '80s label

fyi the IRS name was revived a couple years ago, their roster is now (not kidding) Chiddy Bang and Foxy Shazam

xpost

it was still a going concern until '96, so the past tense of "On The Charts" - especially during the alterna-boom - is still a yeesh.

lol from wikipedia:

n 1990, the band Green Day included a letter from then-I.R.S. college radio rep Lori Blumenthal in one of their last cassette releases for Lookout Records. The letter expressed IRS' interest in signing the band to the label. A reply letter from Lookout, also included in the cassette artwork, deemed I.R.S. a "cheesy" and "washed up" record label, and they expressed their loyalty to Lookout! Records.

i wonder if their decline during the EMI years had anything to do with EMI or if the label really just lost its way or didn't know how to adapt to the new alternative guard

'Our Lips Are Sealed' by a mile, followed by 'Save it for Later', with a half-mile to the next runner-up. Loooove Call of the West but not 'Mexican Radio' so much.

the more i think about "Tenderness" the more i kinda wish i'd voted for it, such a perfect song

mexrad

The label's decline might have had something to do with the departure of their biggest revenue generators. R.E,M. and the Police. Miles Copeland still rode Sting's coattails, but looked a bit poleaxed when he reported that Sting had said he was fine with making artier records and selling just a million or so--something like that; still a lot but maybe not so much vs. Copeland's previous overall budgeting. Strong starters like the Go-Gos gradually went down the tubes, English Beat subdivided into other fine combos and also faded, from the American charts anyway. But "She Drives Me Crazy"--I still have to give it up for Roland Gift. Despite the other good songs on this list, there's yer starpower across the years.

I actually have this CD, because it had some songs I didn't have elsewhere -- Mad About You, She Drives Me Crazy, Mexican Radio. But yeah, Save It for Later for sure. I saw General Public in 1987, they had Saxa touring with them and they did Save It for Later as an encore. It so completely upstaged the rest of the set that I felt kind of bad for them.

Our Lips Are Sealed - The Go-Go's
Mexican Radio - Wall of Voodoo
Save It for Later - The English Beat
Tenderness - General Public

having a hard time choosing between these

― i know your nuts hurt! who's laughing? (contenderizer), Friday, August 31, 2012 12:07 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

All awesome. Went with SIFL

For the curious, this concert soundtrack gives an idea of Copeland's ambitions and range of resources, though it's on IRS senior partner A&M

http://www.kristianhoffman.com/images/urgh.jpg

No Lords of the New Church!

Apparently he was the auteur/main finagler behind the movie, basically a bigass big screen video promoting this cunning double-LP, which I've still got somewhere.

There is a shitload of good music on Urgh! My first exposure to Pere Ubu.

Voted Mexican Radio for nostalgia's sake, though the Beat and Go-Gos songs are probably better.

yeah, Pere Ubu's the first one I always associate with that collection, of all those bands.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Urgh! is serious desert island disc for me (maybe DVD more than LP), it's such a great new wave time capsule. Voted Beat in this poll, wish they were in Urgh!

voted for the go-go's again, just to make sure. yup, it's still the go-go's.

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