Acclaimed Music Top 40 Songs from 1981 poll

the rest of the top 50: 41 Romeo Void - Never Say Never, 42 Duran Duran - Girls on Film, 43 Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft - Der Mussolini, 44 Men at Work - Down Under, 45 The Police - Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, 46 The Cure - Charlotte Sometimes, 47 Grace Jones - Nightclubbing, 48 Adam and The Ants - Stand and Deliver, 49 Spandau Ballet - Chant No. 1 (I Don't Need This Pressure On) and 50 Kim Wilde - Kids in America.

the Top 3 are solid!

impossible

It's not the best song on here, but I can't pass up a chance to vote for Teardrop Explodes.

fuck, great year. "In The Air Tonight" over "Tom Sawyer," "Genius Of Love," and "Don't You Want Me."

Surprisingly good year. Voted for Journey but all of these are great:

R.E.M. - Radio Free Europe
Joan Jett and The Blackhearts - I Love Rock 'n Roll
Mission of Burma - That's When I Reach for My Revolver
Laurie Anderson - O Superman
The Rolling Stones - Start Me Up
Rick James - Super Freak
New Order - Ceremony
Phil Collins - In the Air Tonight
Kim Carnes - Bette Davis Eyes
Rush - Tom Sawyer
The Birthday Party - Release the Bats

I even kind of like "TV Party".

radio free europe over that's the joint, walking on thin ice, heartbeat, moody

this really has to be "Genius of Love" as that song is perfect. going to wait however and try and listen to every song before voting.

Yep, impossible. Also going with Phil Collins. But the Kim Carnes is also awesome.

save the dylan for 'we're wasted/let's watch the sunrise before we hit waffle house' and the phil collins for the four am very intense conversation w/ a drunk girl and the rest is a nice partymix

Will probably vote Grandmaster Flash, but man, "Tom Sawyer" is so ridiculously far-and-away the best thing Rush ever did.

And theoretically, I should gripe about "Another Tricky Day" or "Daily Records" not being included, but I just can't.

oh fuck "Under Pressure" is on here, i need to change my vote

http://cache.io9.com/assets/images/8/2008/04/medium_lauriealien.flv.jpg

let's not forget:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0dSq5p4gYo

no, please, let's forget all recent "lol 80s" pop culture ephemera attached to these songs and just appreciate their merits as songs right now

Oh, I forgot to mention "Under Pressure".

Pull Up To The Bumper just ahead of Ghost Town.

Joy Division

Moody just over Tom Sawyer

What a great year. Laurie Anderson or ESG but I could've voted for at least half of these.

(Might have gone with Der Mussolini or Kids In America if all 50 were options)

might've gone with stand + deliver

my favorite year :) so i won't be a dick and complain about all the great r&b that's missing from the list

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTjNQ2Jkiio

Yeah this is one of my favorite years too

Jesus what's with the impossible polls lately?

Following are pretty all time for me

The Specials - Ghost Town
Mission of Burma - That's When I Reach for My Revolver
Queen & David Bowie - Under Pressure
New Order – Ceremony
Black Flag – TV Party
Depeche Mode - Just Can't Get Enough
The Teardrop Explodes – Reward
Japan – Ghosts
Minor Threat - Straight Edge

and there are several others that I love.

I am having a really tough time between UP and Ceremony both of which would actually be top 10 songs of all time if not top 5 for me.

Fine.

Ceremony.

But mostly because UP will get enough votes for sure.

And also because it's wonderful.

Crazy year. Any of these would've gotten my vote over what I voted for in the '80 poll:

8 438 Laurie Anderson - O Superman
9 555 Tom Tom Club - Genius of Love
11 635 Go-Go's - Our Lips Are Sealed
15 850 Yoko Ono - Walking on Thin Ice
19 1049 Grace Jones - Pull Up to the Bumper
20 1183 Phil Collins - In the Air Tonight
23 1303 Daryl Hall and John Oates - I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)
25 1351 Taana Gardner - Heartbeat

Under Pressure

I like pretty much all these songs, but I went for O Superman which has personal significance to me.

You're Superman?!

Having trouble deciding from the following. It makes it worse that a couple of these I have only gotten into fairly recently, so I'd probably rather here them at the moment, but don't love them as much as the ones I've known forever:

Go-Go's - Our Lips Are Sealed
Rick James - Super Freak
New Order - Ceremony
Daryl Hall and John Oates - I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)
The Psychedelic Furs - Pretty in Pink

Like a bunch of the others as well.

Will probably end up voting H&O in the end.

Obligatory Spotify list, minus Joan Jett because wtf with that album not being on there?

http://open.spotify.com/user/pdennison1/playlist/5T0P4wB4aT4agSAg1RuDo3

Spotify doesn't seem to have have any JJ? I found this out just the other day actually.

ha or wait - I must have just been looking for something off the same album

i would rather die than choose but i think i've whittled this down to like five contenders

23 1303 Daryl Hall and John Oates - I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)
25 1351 Taana Gardner - Heartbeat
29 1417 Scritti Politti - The Sweetest Girl
38 2200 Gang of Four - To Hell with Poverty!
40 2259 ESG - Moody

my heart says scritti but my head says heartbeat or h&o

R.E.M.
Grandmaster Flash
Rick James
Hall & Oates
New Order

The only songs I don't like on this list are "Under pressure" and Journey

I would like "Under Pressure" so SO much more if Mercury didn't try to scat on it.

I even kind of like Start Me Up. That album/tour was a big deal in my high school.

the 1981 'box set' remains one of the very finest things the net ever gave me, musicophilia if you're watching I kiss u.

ghosts!

A weaker set than 1979 (as were the 1980 Billboard charts - radio programmers were flummoxed by Brit new wave and the disco backlash at the time).

Still, "James Br◌́wn! James Br◌̀wn!" wins it for me on the faultless bass riff.

heartbeat in a heartbeat

The top two are the top two

my top 10:

9 555 Tom Tom Club - Genius of Love
20 1183 Phil Collins - In the Air Tonight
14 806 Rick James - Super Freak
23 1303 Daryl Hall and John Oates - I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)
28 1403 Pigbag - Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag
40 2259 ESG - Moody
25 1351 Taana Gardner - Heartbeat
19 1049 Grace Jones - Pull Up to the Bumper
6 354 Joan Jett and The Blackhearts - I Love Rock 'n Roll
2 186 Soft Cell - Tainted Love

mostly arbitrary, perhaps, but I decided to determine my vote for this by # of itunes plays, listed below:

The Specials - Ghost Town (4)
Soft Cell - Tainted Love (12)
The Human League - Don't You Want Me (14)
R.E.M. - Radio Free Europe (21)
Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five - The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel (9)
Joan Jett and The Blackhearts - I Love Rock 'n Roll (9)
Mission of Burma - That's When I Reach for My Revolver (13)
Laurie Anderson - O Superman (26)
Tom Tom Club - Genius of Love (3)
Queen & David Bowie - Under Pressure (9)
Go-Go's - Our Lips Are Sealed (34)
Funky Four Plus One - That's the Joint (7)
Rick James - Super Freak (6)
Yoko Ono - Walking on Thin Ice (19)
New Order - Ceremony (8)
Phil Collins - In the Air Tonight (11)
Depeche Mode - Just Can't Get Enough (9)
The Teardrop Explodes - Reward (6)
Journey - Don't Stop Believin' (3)
Squeeze - Tempted (8)
Japan - Ghosts (11)

The Go-Go's it is! Tho fwiw I should mention that I've played the Galaxie 500 cover of 'Ceremony' 87 times.

I voted for "I can't go for that (no can do)".

i had my car stolen today. think i'm going to get very drunk tonight and listen to the Spotify that Phil did up thread.

"Tainted Love" is so much better with "Where Did Our Love Go," really puts this song on a different level.

i can't listen to it without where did our love go. and sorry about your car!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPudE8nDog0

Always seems to be the favourite year of anyone a bit younger than I am. I've got 90 minutes on my hard-drive, only a little of it on the list.

1. "Radio Free Europe," 2. "Ceremony," 3. "That's When I Reach for My Revolver," 4. one of the Black Flags.

50 Kim Wilde - Kids in America

gotta say if this were on the ballot I'd be strongly compelled to vote for it

Very hard to vote for anything over "Tainted Love" or "Super Freak" but I think it's gotta be "Genius of Love".

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

ended up voting for "That's the Joint"

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

lol i had wondered 'so will the track that's basicaly a joy division track win this automatically also?'

JD didn't win 1980!

Huh I voted for Moody because I thought O Superman was more likely to get other votes, so I got that "right", but if I had voted Laurie then she might've displayed before New Order and made me not roll my eyes when I opened this thread...

(or maybe not, I don't know what magic order ILX uses for things with the same # of votes)

lol I actually got Moody & UFO mixed up in my head when I voted for it but I got no regrets

i went to buy stuff for Thanksgiving last night and heard "I Love Rock and Roll" and wondered to myself how many votes will this song get. it turns out it was none? also "Tainted Love" getting no love is tragic. so many good songs to vote for however.

taking off for the holiday will be back in a week with 1982, which has an eclectic mix of songs.

Good news, I did the advance work of making a 1982 Spotify list already, and it's actually got all 40 songs: http://open.spotify.com/user/pdennison1/playlist/4i5CA6CHaOSbkVIAzEO8OV

1982 list is O_O