IT WAS A BRIGHT COLD DAY IN APRIL, AND THE CLOCKS WERE STRIKING THIRTEEN: I was born in February 1970, so 1984 is almost certainly my sweet spot for influential pop music but -- my goodness -- what an insane list of enduring pop music can be found here, in Rolling Stones collection of "100 Best Singles of 1984: Pop Music's Best Year".
There aren't 10 songs here I couldn't have identified by name and artist if they'd come on the radio on any random afternoon in the last fifteen years. Much as I still enjoy them, I'm sorry I was so obstinately listening to only Blue Oyster Cult and Scorpions and Emerson Lake and Palmer at the time. That said -- at the risk of brushing up against the Rule -- my own politics notwithstanding, I must say that Nena's 99 Luftballoons remains one of my all time favorite songs
(I'll risk the argument with Adam about the relatively overrated Prince here (important for his era? My goodness, yes. But 3 in the top 8? And all of them above A-Ha? Really?). And that's setting aside the DQ here of not having your videos available on YouTube.
Yes, really. Though I'd rather listen to Computer Blue and Darling Nikki than the three on the list. Of the hundred, I picked out 11 I'd really enjoy listening to right now, with SMALLTOWN BOY topping all.. Put me back in 1984 and I could probably add another 10-15 songs. Plenty of good music in 1984, most of it isn't on this list. For 1984 songs that might brush up against the rule, I'll take FREE NELSON MANDELA.
ReplyDeleteErotic City, maybe his best song of 1984, was released as the b-side to "Let's Go Crazy."
ReplyDeleteI had a similar reaction to TPE re: Prince.
ReplyDeleteBest. List. Ever. The year I got my driver's license and first girlfriend (who would end up being my wife). My god was that a great year and I am sure there are 100 other songs that deserve mention. Need to go make a spotify playlist.
ReplyDeleteI'm a little younger (like TPE, born in 1970), but 1984 was pretty much THE sweet spot in terms of how much I cared about pop music -- we'd had about two years of MTV by then, I'd gone through high bar/bat mitzvah season, and I spent my first summer away at camp, grooving off of the cassettes my friends and my counselors brought and poring over the albums in the camp radio station's collection. Good times...good times.
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