1976-1985: My Favorite Decade: Top Selling Albums of 1982

My personal Top Ten Albums of 1982:

Asia - Asia
The Golden Age of Wireless - Thomas Dolby
Rio - Duran Duran
Special Beat Service - The English Beat
The Nightfly - Donald Fagen
Pelican West - Haircut 100
Night and Day - Joe Jackson
The Nylon Curtain - Billy Joel
Incognito - Spyro Gyra
IV - Toto

I thought it would be an interesting exercise to compare my personal list to the top ten selling albums of that year. Not so, it turns out. Why? Of the best selling albums of 1982, only two were released during that calendar year. Seven others were released in July and October of the previous year. I shoulda seen that coming. But since I did the research, I thought I'd post the results anyway. Turns out the only record the two lists have in common is the Asia album. In order, here's how Billboard magazine ranked the top ten sellers of 1982.

		Title: Asia Artist: Asia Released: March 1982 (Geffen) Number of weeks in the Billboard 200: 64 Peak position: #1 Number of weeks at #1: 9
		Title: Beauty and the Beat Artist: The Go-Go's Released: July 1981 (I.R.S.) Number of weeks in the Billboard 200: 72 Peak position: #1 Number of weeks at #1: 6
		Title: 4 Artist: Foreigner Released: July 1981 (Atlantic) Number of weeks in the Billboard 200: 81 Peak position: #1 Number of weeks at #1: 10
		Title: American Fool Artist: John Cougar Released: July 1982 (Riva) Number of weeks in the Billboard 200: 106 Peak position: #1 Number of weeks at #1: 9
		Title: Freeze-Frame Artist: The J. Geils Band Released: October 1981 (EMI) Number of weeks in the Billboard 200: 70 Peak position: #1 Number of weeks at #1: 4
		Title: Escape Artist: Journey Released: July 1981 (Columbia) Number of weeks in the Billboard 200: 146 Peak position: #1 Number of weeks at #1: 1
		Title: Get Lucky Artist: Loverboy Released: October 1981 (Columbia) Number of weeks in the Billboard 200: 122 Peak position: #7 Number of weeks at #1: n/a
		Title: Bella Donna Artist: Stevie Nicks Released: July 1981 (Atco) Number of weeks in the Billboard 200: 143 Peak position: #1 Number of weeks at #1: 1
		Title: Chariots of Fire Artist: Vangelis Released: April 1981 (Polydor) Number of weeks in the Billboard 200: 57 Peak position: #1 Number of weeks at #1: 4
		Title: Ghost in the Machine Artist: The Police Released: October 1981 (A&M) Number of weeks in the Billboard 200: 109 Peak position: #2 Number of weeks at #1: n/a

I bought the Asia and Vangelis albums on vinyl and the albums by The Go-Go's, Foreigner, The J. Geils Band, Journey, and The Police on cassette. I've since bought CD copies of the albums on this list by Asia, The Go-Go's, The J. Geils Band, Vangelis, and The Police. No current plans to buy the others, but I'm a fickle guy when it comes to things like that.

2 comments :

HERCNovember 8, 2013 at 2:29 AM
Cheer up, buckaroo. Popularity rarely equals quality, especially in the music game. Your memories, choices and opinions are vaild and important.

Your post, your rules: How about you take those two bonafide 1982 albums and see how many 1982 albums were among the best sellers in 1983? I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Thriller makes the cut.

Or go rattle the critics cages and see what falls out: Rolling Stone, Village Voice, Dave's Music Database, acclaimed music, etc

Or go readers poll results: Rolling Stone (again), slicingupeyeballs, pazzandjop, rateyourmusic, besteveralbums, etc

Host your own poll?

Despite your findings, 1982 remains the best year ever in pop music.
Martin MaenzaNovember 8, 2013 at 5:15 AM
Mark, that is one thing I have found doing my blog - the year I remember an album being big does not always equate to the year of release (especially for those late fall albums from October to November). Still, I enjoy putting things in a sort of chronological perspective just to see what was coming out the same week as something else. That is why I like the 70's and 80's so much - such diverse music.

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Top Selling Albums of 1982

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