Rolling Stone magazine's "100 Best Singles of 1984: Pop's Greatest Year" (Part 3 of 3)

I was going to wrap up this series of posts about Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Best Singles of 1984" by mercilessly ripping apart the flawed methodology and pointing out how the editors bent their own rules to get their personal favorites on the list, but then this caught my eye:

And, of course, that's absolutely correct. So I'll drop the matter.

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Looking at Rolling Stone's list, the big winner is Prince, who placed 3 songs in the top ten as a performer plus 2 more top ten songs that were written by him.  Other artists who placed 3 songs on the list are Van Halen and Bruce Springsteen.  19 songs peaked at #1 in 1984 and 15 of those made the Rolling Stone list; the editors obviously didn't discount what the buying public liked.  So what big hits didn't make the cut? 

What I've listed below are the 45 highest ranking songs of 1984 that failed to be selected, stopping at #100.  These songs peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1984 and I've included their rank for the year to the far right.  Songs marked with an asterisk are cuts that I might include on my own list of top 1984 singles ('cuz we all know that's coming eventually).

Title	Artist	Hot 100	Year
Footloose*	Kenny Loggins	1	4
Against All Odds	Phil Collins	1	6
I Just Called to Say I Love You	Stevie Wonder	1	7
Hello*	Lionel Richie	1	11
The Wild Boys	Duran Duran	2	21
Girls Just Want to Have Fun	Cyndi Lauper	2	23
Joanna	Kool & The Gang	2	25
Hard Habit to Break*	Chicago	3	35
Lucky Star	Madonna	4	42

Title	Artist	Hot 100	Year
Twist of Fate*	Olivia Newton-John	5	44
Miss Me Blind*	Culture Club	5	45
Better Be Good to Me	Tina Turner	5	46
Love Somebody	Rick Springfield	5	47
To All the Girls I've Loved Before	Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson	5	50
All Through the Night	Cyndi Lauper	5	51
Sad Songs (Say So Much)	Elton John	5	52
The Heart of Rock & Roll	Huey Lewis & the News	6	54
No More Lonely Nights*	Paul McCartney	6	55

Title	Artist	Hot 100	Year
I Want a New Drug*	Huey Lewis & the News	6	56
Infatuation	Rod Stewart	6	59
Running with the Night	Lionel Richie	7	63
Almost Paradise	Mike Reno & Ann Wilson	7	64
On the Dark Side	John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band	7	65
Strut	Sheena Easton	7	69
Penny Lover	Lionel Richie	8	70
Blue Jean*	David Bowie	8	73
Adult Education	Hall & Oates	8	74

Title	Artist	Hot 100	Year
Let the Music Play	Shannon	8	75
Breakdance	Irene Cara	8	76
Think of Laura	Christopher Cross	9	79
I'm So Excited	The Pointer Sisters	9	80
Breakin'...There's No Stopping Us	Ollie & Jerry	9	82
If Ever You're In My Arms Again	Peabo Bryson	10	83
Desert Moon	Dennis DeYoung	10	85
An Innocent Man	Billy Joel	10	86
Got a Hold on Me	Christine McVie	10	87

Title	Artist	Hot 100	Year
Some Guys Have All the Luck	Rod Stewart	10	88
New Moon on Monday*	Duran Duran	10	89
Doctor! Doctor!*	Thompson Twins	11	91
Magic*	The Cars	12	92
I Still Can't Get Over Losing You	Ray Parker, Jr.	12	95
I Can't Hold Back	Survivor	13	97
Tonight	Kool & The Gang	13	98
I'll Wait	Van Halen	13	99
It's a Miracle*	Culture Club	13	100

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