Saturday, December 7, 2013

Nominees for the Top 82 of '82


Under coercion from faithful readers Herc and Martin (it didn't take much coercing, believe me), I'm planning on constructing a list of the top 82 albums released in the year 1982, a.k.a. the greatest year in pop music.  Here are the 116 nominees for that list, in alphabetical order by title:
1999 - Prince
A Broken Frame - Depeche Mode
A Flock of Seagulls - A Flock of Seagulls
A Kiss in the Dreamhouse - Siouxsie and The Banshees
Abracadabra - The Steve Miller Band
After the Snow - Modern English
All Four One - The Motels
All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes - Pete Townshend
American Fool - John Cougar
Another Grey Area - Graham Parker
As We Speak - David Sanborn
Asia - Asia
ATF - After the Fire
Avalon - Roxy Music
Big Science - Laurie Anderson
Billy Idol - Billy Idol
Blackout - The Scorpions
Built for Speed - Stray Cats
Business as Usual - Men at Work
Chicago 16 - Chicago
Combat Rock - The Clash
Convertible Music - Josie Cotton
D.E. 7th - Dave Edmunds
Dawn Patrol - Night Ranger
Diver Down - Van Halen
Emotions in Motion - Billy Squier
English Settlement - XTC
Eye in the Sky - Alan Parsons Project
Eye of the Tiger - Survivor
...Famous Last Words... - Supertramp
Forever Now - The Psychedelic Furs
Friend or Foe - Adam Ant
Fun Boy Three - Fun Boy Three
Get Closer - Linda Ronstadt
Get Nervous - Pat Benetar
Good Clean Fun - Bonnie Hayes with The Wild Combo
Green Light - Bonnie Raitt
H2O - Hall and Oates
Heaven 17 - Heaven 17
Hello I Must Be Going - Phil Collins
High Adventure - Kenny Loggins
Hollywood - Maynard Ferguson
Hot Space - Queen
If That's What It Takes - Michael McDonald
Ignition - John Waite
Imperial Bedroom - Elvis Costello
Incognito - Spyro Gyra
It's Hard - The Who
Kissing to be Clever - Culture Club
Lionel Richie - Lionel Richie
Long After Dark - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Love and Dancing - The League Unlimited Orchestra
Love Over Gold - Dire Straits
Marshall Crenshaw - Marshall Crenshaw
Mesopotamia - The B-52's
Midnight Love - Marvin Gaye
Mirage - Fleetwood Mac
Nebraska - Bruce Springsteen
New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) - Simple Minds
Nick the Knife - Nick Lowe
Night and Day - Joe Jackson
Oh, No! It's Devo - Devo
Offramp - Pat Metheny
Pelican West - Haircut One Hundred
Pleasure Victim - Berlin
Pornography - The Cure
Primitive Man - Icehouse
Quartet - Ultravox
Rhythm of Youth - Men Without Hats
Rio - Duran Duran
Shabooh Shoobah - INXS
Shoot Out the Lights - Richard & Linda Thompson
Showtime! - The J. Geils Band
Simple Man - Klaus Nomi
Special Beat Service - The English Beat
Special Forces - .38 Special
Spring Session M - Missing Persons
Stevie Wonder's Original Musiquarium I - Stevie Wonder
Suburban Voodoo - Paul Carrack
Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet - Rick Springfield
Sweets from a Stranger - Squeeze
Talking Back to the Night - Steve Winwood
The Best is Yet to Come - Grover Washington, Jr.
The Blue Mask - Lou Reed
The Concert in Central Park - Simon and Garfunkel
The Days of Wine and Roses - The Dream Syndicate 
The Dollar Album - Dollar
The Dreaming - Kate Bush
The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect - Todd Rundgren
The Gift - The Jam
The Golden Age of Wireless - Thomas Dolby
The Kids from "Fame" - The Kids from "Fame"
The Lexicon of Love - ABC
The Message - Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
The Name of this Band is Talking Heads - Talking Heads
The Nightfly - Donald Fagen
The Nylon Curtain - Billy Joel
The Other Woman - Ray Parker, Jr.
The Party's Over - Talk Talk
The Secret Policeman's Other Ball - Various Artists
Thermonuclear Sweat - Defunkt
Three Lock Box - Sammy Hagar
Three Sides Live - Genesis
Thriller - Michael Jackson
Time and Tide - Split Enz
Toto IV - Toto
Too-Rye-Ay - Dexy's Midnight Runners
Tug of War - Paul McCartney
Under the Big Black Sun - X
Upstairs at Eric's - Yaz
Utopia - Utopia
Vacation - The Go-Go's
Vs. - Mission of Burma
Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes
Warp - New Musik
Wasn't Tomorrow Wonderful? - The Waitresses

Additions?  Corrections?  Comments?  Leave a comment below or email me. Putting these in any kind of order may take a while, so your patience is appreciated.

7 comments :

  1. Replies
    1. Grease 2 and Spys will now be considered as well.

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  2. Mark, I actually started to think of my Top 100 for 1982, based on our discussions. I started with a list of 250 albums (the ones I reviewed on my blog back in 2012 for their 30th anniversaries). I am in the process of narrowing that list down to 100 first (that's a tough job) and then I will have to actually order them. I hope to have this compiled before the end of the year. Just by your list, I can see that we'll have some in common and some differences.

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    1. Sounds like you'll be working faster than me! I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

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    2. Progress report: I have the list down to 104. Next step is to sort them into groupings to make the ranking easier to manage (I think it will be quarters). The bottom four will be the ones that drop off (or get honorary mentions). This is really hard! My goal is to have it posted to my blog within a week or so and then we all can discuss.

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  3. Herc, just looked over your list and some of those you listed will be making my top 100 of 1982. When I present my list, it will be clearly noted as Martin's Favorite 100 Albums from 1982.

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