Jaz13music

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Wow another fantastic group! Obviously Billie Jean is a 10, MJs best, a brilliant groundbreaking song and video. It forced MTV to change from its almost complete exclusion of black artists and its focus on rock music at the time. I love ‘Change’, its driving rhythm and of course the xylophone. On many days it’s my favourite TFF song. The Cutter is fantastic, the start of a great run of singles ahead by them. 1999 was a sign of many wonderful things to come from Prince. I’ve always had a soft spot for Too Shy. At the time Kaja were painting as Duran Duran copyists but that song is excellent, especially the lovely long intro. Christians is a gorgeous slinky synth ballad.

Oh no, I just realised when talking about Joy Division in ‘80 I forgot about ‘Atmosphere’ an all time favourite of mine. How could I?!

Thank you, yours is brilliant too, and thanks for giving me the impetus to do the list! Yes I really love all 3 Blondie songs and to be truthful the order might change from day to day depending on my mood, I just think Tide Is High is so joyous. But what a fantastic year they had in ‘80. My self imposed rule of having one song per artist (basically to try to squeeze more variety in) is working against me here. The Beat, Madness and Joy Division (as you highlighted) all had many great songs that year

1980 is my all time favourite year for music! So I’m joining in with my top 40. I’m allowing one song per artist:- Ashes to Ashes – David Bowie Going Underground – The Jam It’s Different for Girls – Joe Jackson Love Will Tear Us Apart – Joy Division The Tide Is High – Blondie Hands Off... She’s Mine – The Beat Don’t Stand So Close to Me – The Police Funkytown – Lipps, Inc. Ace of Spades – Motörhead Embarrassment – Madness Talk of the Town – Pretenders Too Much Too Young – The Specials So Good to Be Back Home Again – The Tourists Geno – Dexys Midnight Runners Bankrobber – The Clash Antmusic - Adam & The Ants Echo Beach – Martha and the Muffins Games Without Frontiers – Peter Gabriel Use It Up and Wear It Out – Odyssey The Spirit of Radio – Rush The Winner Takes It All – ABBA Whip It – Devo King – UB40 Babe – Styx We Are Glass – Gary Numan Three Little Birds – Bob Marley & The Wailers Upside Down – Diana Ross I Can’t Stand Up for Falling Down – Elvis Costello & The Attractions Enola Gay – Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark Turning Japanese – The Vapors A Forest – The Cure Another Nail in My Heart – Squeeze Eighth Day – Hazel O’Connor Master Blaster (Jammin’) – Stevie Wonder Someone’s Looking at You – The Boomtown Rats Special Brew – Bad Manners Runaway Boys -Stray Cats To Cut A Long Story Short - Spandau Ballet Another One Bites The Dust - Queen I Hear You Now - Jon & Vangelis

I’d put Meet Me Halfway… halfway in the list of the 3 BEPs number ones. A bit more straightforward pop than Boom Boom Pow but I still like to hear it ‘in the real world’.

Boom Boom Power is my favourite of the BEPs number ones in 2009. Loved the pivot to harsher EDM .

I think My Life… is a good song, and I’m glad she got a number 1, but I prefer many of her other hits.

I agree, that’s a very strong start to the year and my favourites are very similar to yours. Men At Work was so unusual in all sorts of ways and, if I remember correctly, at the time they were one of the rare artists who had achieved simultaneous UK and U.S. number-ones in both album and singles charts. New Years Day is one of U2’s best, a real uplifting anthem. Story Of The Blues might be my favourite of the group, another unique sounding song the strings are indeed beautiful. I love both of Eddy Grants biggest hits of that period. Gloria has a great singalong chorus. The Stranglers and Joe Jackson songs in the group are good but I don’t like them as much as their preceding hits.

Good song if a little generic for me, I’d forgotten it was Guetta’s first #1

I love both Run This Town and Empire State Of Mind, but there’s a very different vibe to the 2 songs. Run has a harsher aggressive feel whereas Empire is warmer and joyous. Great collaborations!

Respectable, along with You Spin Me Round, is one of my favourite SAW number ones. I think I preferred the more House leaning music of their releases. Plus Mel & Kim always seemed to have infectious joy.

I do like Fight For Your Love. It’s very catchy but I agree that X Factor appearance was the most memorable thing about it, when Cheryl outdid pretty much all of the contestants. By this stage it felt that the show was more of an publicity vehicle for the guests than it was for the competition

My 40 favourite top 40 songs from 1982 would look something like this (as a self imposed rule I like to choose only one song per artist):- 1 New Order - Temptation 2 Dexys Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen 3 Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Maid Of Orleans (The Waltz Joan Of Arc) 4 The Associates - Club Country 5 Soft Cell - Say Hello, Wave Goodbye 6 The Stranglers - Golden Brown 7 Musical Youth - Pass The Dutchie 8 The Clash - Rock the Casbah 9 Tears For Fears - Mad World 10 XTC - Senses Working Overtime 11 Kid Creole And The Coconuts - Annie, I'm Not Your Daddy 12 Depeche Mode - See You 13 The Jam - The Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had To Swallow) 14 Grandmaster Flash - The Message 15 Yazoo - Don't Go 16 Fat Larry's Band - Zoom 17 Madness - House of Fun 18 ABC - The Look Of Love 19 Japan - Ghosts 20 Haircut 100 - Love Plus One 21 Marvin Gaye - Sexual Healing 22 Blancmange - Living On The Ceiling 23 Malcolm McLaren - Buffalo Gals 24 Culture Club - Do You Really Want To Hurt Me 25 Pigbag - Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag 26 Adam Ant - Goody Two Shoes 27 Bucks Fizz - My Camera Never Lies 28 The Human League - Mirror Man 29 ABBA - The Day Before You Came 30 Duran Duran - Save a Prayer 31 Daryl Hall & John Oates - I Can't Go for That (No Can Do) 32 Joan Jett & the Blackhearts - I Love Rock 'N Roll 33 Hot Chocolate - It Started with a Kiss 34 Rhoda Dakar - The Boiler 35 Roxy Music - More Than This 36 Ultravox - Hymn 37 Talk Talk - Today 38 Chicago - Hard to Say I'm Sorry 39 A Flock Of Seagulls - Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You) 40 Tight Fit - The Lion Sleeps Tonight I apologise for #40, but I met the real vocalist a few years ago and he was such a lovely guy, I have to include it! 🤷‍♂️ And it’s an ear worm.

I’ve had chance to listen through them all a few times now. There’s some I already knew, some I recognised on hearing and a lot that were excellent new discoveries, but all are great in their own ways. Thanks for the recommendations everyone and sorry if you don’t ultimately get my votes!

Here’s the 5 I would choose, though there are loads of songs I love that I had to leave out, many of you have highlighted those ones (Eurythmics are a very close 6th) Wah! - The Story Of The Blues U2 - New Year's Day Tears For Fears - Change Michael Jackson - Billie Jean Thompson Twins - Love On Your Side

‘Evacuate..’ is a good ‘of its time’ dance record, though I was surprised it stopped MJ from getting a posthumous number one

I like ‘I Just Can’t Stop…’ one of MJs best ballads, and even at the time I thought it was a brave choice of 1st single off Bad when you think of all the massive songs that were available on that album.

Oh no, I was hoping to join in with you for the first time, but I’m now going to be away with limited internet access! I’ll try again next time I suppose, and definitely catch up when I can. Have fun guys!

Always On My Mind is one of my all time favourite cover versions, completely reimagining the Elvis version (which is also excellent) exactly right the way to do it in my opinion. I also really love the ‘Always In My House’ version on Introspective, stretching the song out to a magnificent house monster! It would be my 2nd 10/10 of the year.

Excellent choices! Really looking forward to having a few listens through.

Beat Again is quite good especially when compared with some of the X Factor debuts, I agree they were one of the few group acts who were convincing as a unit. Excellent fact about the Supernovas too!

I agree Pixie’s debut is my favourite, I hadn’t realised the Amy similarities but I see that now.

‘From my homie, to my only’! For some reason I have a little soft spot for ‘Number 1’. It’s catchy but a bit daft and certainly of its time but it still makes me smile when I hear it🤷‍♂️. Agreed regarding In For The Kill, the original version is best, but the very best from them is yet to come I believe?

I’ve done the same, primarily chosen a song because I really love it, though I’m nervous it might not get any votes!