THAT'S THE POWER OF LOVE: Among the many great tidbits in
Grantland's Huey Lewis deep dive (and, man, are those words that I didn't think would go together)--for the 52 weeks of 1984, only 5 albums hit #1--
Thriller,
Purple Rain, the
Footloose soundtrack,
Born In The USA, and Huey's own
Sports. In contrast, this year, we've already had 21 different number 1 albums, with only four albums lasting more than a single week atop the charts (
Red, Babel, The 20/20 Experience, and
Random Access Memories).
I have, at one point in time or another, owned all five of those albums. I still have Purple Rain and Footloose. And still listen to both regularly.
ReplyDeleteThriller won the Grammy's album of the year in 1984, beating David Bowie, Billy Joel, The Police, and the Flashdance soundtrack.
ReplyDelete1985 was Lionel are you fucking kidding me? Richie, beating out Cyndi Lauper, Prince, Bruuuuuce, and Tina Turner.
1984 Rolling Stones critics poll: Born In The U.S.A. - Bruce Springsteen; Runners Up: Purple Rain - Prince, Private Dancer - Tina Turner, How Will The Wolf Survive? - Los Lobos, Learning To Crawl - The Pretender.
Thriller topped the 1983 poll.
Looks like KROQ just ranks their top songs. 1983: Duran Duran, Men Without Hats, The Police, Big Country, Culture Club. 1984: Frankie Goes to Hollywood, General Public, U2, Bronski Beat, Prince.
Footloose is arguably the best movie soundtrack ever made.
ReplyDeleteBetter than Purple Rain?
ReplyDeleteIf you want to limit it to compilation soundtracks, I'd probably go with Singles. (Other question is whether it's "best music which happens to be compiled on a soundtrack," or "best use of compiled songs in a movie," ) We've kicked these questions around some. http://throwingthings.blogspot.com/2012/01/there-will-be-peace-4-those-who-love.html
I was arguing from a compilation soundtrack POV. For me, Footloose > Singles but I was never a huge fan of a lot of grunge bands. I can appreciate them, but the joy even songs like "I'm Free" give me over anything by Pearl Jam makes Footloose better.
ReplyDeleteI get that's a personal taste thing but I also think that the fact that the songs for Footloose were written for the film make them more immediately associated with it as compared to the songs for Singles, and that ultimately makes it a better "soundtrack." Since the songs were written for the film, it doesn't really fit the "best music which happens to be compiled on a soundtrack" theory...not sure if it works for the other either.
And now I'm off to listen to "Let's Hear It For the Boy."
Really? I think we experienced two completely different 80s. Just in 1984 we have:
ReplyDeletePurple Rain
Repo Man
Stop Making Sense
This is Spinal Tap
Streets of Fire
That's not even close. I'll make it fairer by moving Footloose into generic top 40 soundtracks where it still falls behind Against All Odds and Risky Business.
I'd have to rank Footloose with Ghostbusters but ahead of Beverly Hills Cop.
A lot of this is personal for me, so yes, different 80's. That movie was just so cool to me then and I love love loved the music and I was at an age where top 40 music was perfect sounding to me.
ReplyDeletePurple Rain is amazing but I didn't love the movie so the music was it's own thing to me - it never felt like a movie soundtrack to me if that makes sense. And for practical argument's sake, if we'er saying "compilation soundtrack," it doesn't belong in the same category.
I didn't see Risky Business, Against All Odds, Stop Making Sense, Repo Man, This is Spinal Tap or Streets of Fire when they came out, so they aren't as locked into my consciousness as Footloose in terms of iconic, memorable, puts you in a specific time and place, soundtracks. Again, I totally get that all of that is personal. As is the fact that for me, anything with Phil Collins on it cannot be better than Footloose. I dislike his music. Intensely.
"Best" might not be the right word for what I'm describing, as I think more on it. Maybe "most iconic" is what I'm looking for.
Compilation? I'd go with Fast Time sat Ridgemont High, but Singles is damn close.
ReplyDeleteThis is surely (as Maret and Bill say below) personal. My own "Best Movie Soundtrack" list would surely include Pretty In Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful. Probably Garden State. Recently, Silver Linings Playbook had a really good soundtrack. (And no, Adam, "Demolition Man" is not my favorite soundtrack.)
ReplyDeleteDitto to Pretty in Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful.
ReplyDeleteSay Anything... is a solid soundtrack and, since I'm like Maret and not super into grunge, I like it better than Singles for a Cameron Crowe soundtrack.
I'm a huge fan of soundtracks - even ones that are better than the movies they come from. Case in point: Stealing Beauty was a meh movie, fantastic soundtrack. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stealing_Beauty#Soundtrack
Beautiful Girls is a soundtrack I've worn out as well, though it's 90s, not 80s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beautiful_Girls_(film)#Soundtrack
Oh, and of course, Pulp Fiction.
I absolutely loved the Pretty In Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful soundtracks. Of course, Purple Rain is on a whole other level. Valley Girl also is a great 80s soundtrack - it includes I Melt With You and some great stuff from the Plimsouls.
ReplyDeleteThe amazing thing about the Footloose soundtrack is just how many singles it included. It had nine songs on it and six of them made the Top 40 (Footloose and Let's Hear It For The Boy got to No. 1).
A couple of 90s soundtracks I really enjoyed were Clueless and Empire Records.
I'd make an argument for Natural Born Killers, if it didn't have dialog from the movie right in the middle of the songs.
ReplyDeleteIf we're counting Saturday Night Fever as a compilation album then, what an awesome soundtrack, and chart wise, I'm guessing nothing holds up to that second British Invasion. Plus, unrelated to the music Travolta > Bacon, unless making a BLT.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have to throw the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack into the mix. It's amazing.
ReplyDeleteThe Big Chill, but I'm older than most of you.
ReplyDelete