Smash Hits Album Ratings - 1981 [part 2 of 2]

Smash Hits was a British teen music magazine that was issued fortnightly. On a scale of 1-10, here's how the magazine's reviewers rated albums released in the second half of 1981. Hope you find something new that you missed back in '81.

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July 9 issue
The Models	Alphabravocharliedeltaechofoxtrotgolf	6
Pointer Sisters	Black & White	7
Joe Jackson	Jumpin' Jive	6
Wah!	Nah = Poo - The Art of Bluff	8
Kiki Dee	Perfect Timing	6
Polecats	Polecats Are Go	7½
Henry Badowski	Life is a Grand...	8

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July 23 issue
Jon and Vangelis	The Friends of Mr. Cairo	8
The Equators	Hot	6
Odyssey	I Got the Melody	5
Angelic Upstarts	2,000,000 Voices	5
The Brothers Johnson	Winners	7
Was (Not Was)	Was (Not Was)	7
The Ramones	Pleasant Dreams	5
Kim Wilde	Kim Wilde	6½

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August 6 issue
Icehouse	Icehouse	8
Pat Benatar	Precious Time	4
Evelyn King	I'm in Love	7
Delta 5	See the Whirl	8
Stevie Nicks	Bella Donna	6
Foreigner	4	8
Kirsty MacColl	Desperate Character	4
The Pretenders	II	7

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August 20 issue
ELO	Time	5
The Go-Go's	Beauty and the Beat	5
Philip Rambow	Jungle Law	5½
Dennis Bovell	Brain Damage	9
Rickie Lee Jones	Pirates	6½
Any Trouble	Wheels in Motion	8
Ian Hunter	Short Back N' Sides	5
David Johansen	Here Comes the Night	3

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September 3 issue
The Korgis	Sticky George	3
Blank Slate	Sirens in the City	5
Hazel O'Connor	Cover Plus	3
Simple Minds	Sons and Fascination/Sister Feelings Call	8
Desmond Dekker	Compass Point	8
Cabaret Voltaire	Red Mecca	7½
Funkadelic	The Electric Spanking of War Babies	7½
Devo	New Traditionalists	7

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September 17 issue
Heaven 17	Penthouse and Pavement	8
Ian Dury	Lord Upminster	8
Gary Numan	Dance	9
Shakin' Stevens	Shaky	8
Ultravox	Rage in Eden	5
Crusaders	Standing Tall	8
Altered Images	Happy Birthday	6
The Comsat Angels	Sleep No More	8
Meat Loaf	Dead Ringer	9

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October 1 issue
The Police	Ghost in the Machine	6
Cliff Richard	Wired for Sound	7
Bette Bright	Rhythm Breaks the Ice	6½
Tom Tom Club	Tom Tom Club	6½
Saxon	Denim & Leather	4
Pete Shelley	Homosapien	7
Genesis	Abacab	6½
Godley & Creme	Ismism	4
Sheena Easton	You Could Have Been With Me	5
Madness	7	8
The Passions	Thirty Thousand Feet Over China	8½
John Foxx	The Garden	5

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October 15 issue
The Human League	Dare	8
U2	October	9
The Slits	Return of the Giant Slits	6½
Bow Wow Wow	See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang Yeah, City All Over! Go Ape Crazy!	8½
Eurythmics	In the Garden	7½
Rose Royce	Jump Street	7
The Cuban Heels	Work Our Way to Heaven	6
Bob Marley	Chances Are	5
Fingerprintz	Beat Noir	7½
Blondie	The Best of Blondie	9½
Carlene Carter	Blue Nun	5
UB40	Present Arms in Dub	8

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October 29 issue
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark	Architecture and Morality	9
Linx	Go Ahead	6
Gillan	Double Trouble	7½
Elvis Costello	Almost Blue	9
Martha and The Muffins	This is the Ice Age	7½
Vice Squad	No Cause for Concern	0
Bauhaus	Mask	4
Rex Smith	Everlasting Love	2
Rachel Sweet	And Then He Kissed Me	5
Imagination	Body Talk	8
Joy Division	Still	9
The Meteors	In Heaven	7
Bad Manners	Gosh Its's...	8

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November 12 issue
Adam and The Ants	Prince Charming	5
The Bee Gees	Living Eyes	5
Japan	Tin Drum	8
Prince	Controversy	4
Depeche Mode	Speak and Spell	7
Rush	Exit...Stage Left	2
Diana Ross	Why Do Fools Fall in Love	8½
TV21	A Thin Red Line	5
Earth, Wind & Fire	Raise!	7
Fad Gadget	Incontinent	9
The Sound	From the Lion's Mouth	5
Stray Cats	Gonna Ball	7

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November 26 issue
Soft Cell	Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret	8½
Ian Dury & The Blockheads	Jukebox Dury	9
The Teardrop Explodes	Wilder	8½
The Four Seasons	Tonight!	8
Rainbow	The Best of Rainbow	5
Skids	Joy	5
David Bowie	Changestwobowie	10
The Stranglers	La Folie	8
Kool & The Gang	Something Special	6
New Order	Movement	8
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft	Gold und Liebe	5½
Jacksons	Live	8

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December 10 issue
AC/DC	For Those About to Rock	3
Modern Romance	Adventures in Clubland	6
Durutti Column	LC	8
Boney M	Boonoonoonoos	4
10cc	10 Out Of 10	4
Chas Jankel	Chasanova	7
Various Artists	A Christmas Record	8
Jools Holland	Jools Holland And His Millionaires	3
David Byrne	Catherine Wheel	6½
Tenpole Tudor	Let the Four Winds Blow	6
Jerry Harrison	The Red and the Black	7½
Poison Girls	Total Exposure	4

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December 24 issue
No Album Reviews

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h/t to Brian McCloskey over at Like Punk Never Happened

Charting the Charts: Simple Minds - New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) (1982)

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Here's a look at how the 1982 album New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) fared on the album charts in various publications:

1983
Date	Billboard 200	CashBox 200
Feb 19	131
Feb 26	125	152
March 5	118	133
March 12	99	116
March 19	92	107
March 26	79	99
April 2	72	98
April 9	69	96
April 16	69	95
April 23	86	92
April 30	83	88
May 7	90	86
May 14	100	86
May 21	104	113
May 28	106	133
June 4	113	147
June 11	118	149
June 18	151	158
June 25	200	169
July 2		194

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Billboard, January 29, 1983, p. 80

Rolling Stone, April 14, 1983, p. 73

Smash Hits, September 30, 1982, p. 25

For other reviews, click here.

MFD Not-So-Random Five #7

In which I select five songs from 1976-1985 based on an arbitrary theme. (Not to be confused with this blog's Random Five feature, a different exercise in arbitrariness). Today's theme:  Songs that have the word "summer" in their title.

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1. "Cruel Summer" by Bananarama (1983, London)
   Sounds a lot like a Madonna tune of the same time, no? And why are there three of them when they mostly sing in unison? Great synth bass line, but this is not my favorite Bananarama song. However, I can appreciate a song about oppressive heat and loneliness during the long summer months. We've probably all been there. Released in '83, it didn't become popular here in the US until its inclusion in 1984 movie, The Karate Kid.
   
   
   
   In 1984, this single spent 11 weeks in the Billboard Top 40, peaking at #9 on September 29 of that year.
   


2. "My Summer Love" by Sergio Mendes (1983, A&M)
   The 1983 Sergio Mendes album has long been a favorite of mine. I think it falls between The Dude and Bossa Nova Hotel, but Billboard also chose to compare it to Earth, Wind & Fire, which I'm just not hearing.
   
   

   

   Billboard, April 23, 1983, p. 75

   
   I like the album and this deep cut may be my favorite track. Arranged by Michael Sembello and sung by Mendes' wife Gracinha Leporace, this was originally a French cut written by Alain Chamfort and Serge Gainsbourg. The translation is lacking (rhyming "indigo" with "let you go") but the writing and arranging is so catchy, I don't mind the lyrics.


3. "Suddenly Last Summer" by The Motels (1983, Capitol)
   Based on my current mood, I'm calling this my favorite Motels tune. Stuck way back in the mix is a fantastic guitar line and Martha Davis is wonderfully sexy. And that brief descending bridge at about the 2:10 mark gets me every time.
   
   This tune was more of autumn single, peaking at #9 on November 19, 1983 during 13 weeks in the Top 40.


4. "Summer" by War (1976, United Artists)
   A few years back, I made a list of summer songs, one for each year since 1966 and it's a heckuva list if I do say so myself. Anyway, this single was the pick for '76. It peaked at #9 on the charts in September, 1976 and if there's a song that captures the laid-back, carefree summers of my youth, it's this one. "It's summer, my time of year." Indeed.
   


5. "Someone Somewhere in Summertime" by Simple Minds (1982, A&M)
   A moody album opener with an in-your-face subtlety (how's that for an oxymoron?). This song, the third single released from the most excellent New Gold Dream (81–82–83–84), didn't even get a whiff of the US charts and barely scrapped the UK charts. But that doesn't have anything to do with the quality of this tune. Kerr's lyrics are typically obtuse, but I'm guessing this one has to do with a person looking through a metaphorical rain in search of a love.

MFD Random Five #28

In which I click the shuffle icon on the iTunes app and listen to the first five songs that pop up from the years 1976-85.

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1. "Meanwhile" by The Moody Blues (1981, Threshold)
   I came to Long Distance Voyager waaaay late but better late than never. This song opens side two of that album and is filler, but better-than-average filler. Fun chord progressions, lots of electric piano, and a happy bubblegum chorus. It's not in the top half of songs on that album, but enjoyable nonetheless. (That album should be enjoyed as a full album from top-to-bottom, so the designation of tracks as filler is probably a moot point, but I did it anyway.)


2. "Bustin' Loose" by Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers (1979, Source)
   The "Godfather of Go-Go" layin' down the funk! This tune has everything I could want in a funk tune: clavinet, call-and-response, tight horn licks, Hammond organ, percussion breakdown, and Chuck Brown telling me what to do. For the record, I listened to the complete 7:46 version this morning, not the single edit (just when you think it can't get any better, a sax solo by Leroy Fleming kicks in at about the 6:40 mark). So good, I don't want to move on to anything else, but I'll power through to the next tune and circle back around to this one. Wikipedia claims that the Washington Nationals play this tune after every home run in their ball park, so that means it's good enough for my new ring tone, right?


3. "Police and Thieves" by Junior Murvin (1976, Wildflower)
   The segue to this reggae tune wasn't as jolting as you might have expected. I'm more familiar with the cover of this tune by The Clash, but I like this one better. As with many reggae tunes, protest never sounded so good. Sadly, the lyrical themes (police brutality and gang warfare) are as timely today as they were when they were first written.


4. "Don't Walk Away" by Rick Springfield (1984, RCA)
   For reasons now unknown, I was done with Ricky S. by 1984 so I'm not too familiar with this tune, the soundtrack album it came from, and I've never seen said movie. Anyway, this is a fairly pedestrian pop-rock tune with aggressive drum reverb and out-of-tune sax interludes. The synth solo ain't bad, though, so there's that.


5. "Up on the Catwalk" by Simple Minds (1984, A&M)
   The lead track from Sparkle in the Rain and if it's not the best song on the album, only "Waterfront" can best it. Like the previous song, there's plenty of "aggressive drum reverb" but it works here; maybe it's the syncopated, cascading drum part. Lots of Simple Minds-ish piano licks in octaves and synth pads. Then Jim Kerr name-checks the likes of Nastassja Kinski, Deodato, Robert DeNiro, and Martin Luther.  And while I've always enjoyed the metaphoric imagery of Kerr's lyrics, I never have a clue what he's on about.

Simple Minds - Somebody Up There Likes You (1982)

Somebody Up There Likes You
Simple Minds

Written by: Simple Minds Produced by: Peter Walsh Album: New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) (A&M, 1982)

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I couldn't tell you why, but out of all the great songs on this album, I've always gravitated towards this simple, repetitive, moody, instrumental soundscape.  There's not much too it, not even noodling solos over the chords - the main feature seems to be the chord progression itself.

From the Simple Minds website:

The song was based around the Mahler Chords, an idea Charlie [Burchill] developed whilst jamming in a Fife farmhouse for the New Gold Dream (81,82,83,84) album.

"We had words for Somebody Up There Likes You but we took them off - we felt that the music spoke more than the words did. Up until then, Simple Minds always had this ambient side" - Jim [Kerr], Sunday Herald interview, 2008.

I have no idea what "Mahler Chords" they are referencing.  If you have any insight, please comment below.  In the meantime, I'll continue to enjoy.

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1985 - The Golden Age of Soundtracks?

In 1985, 27 singles reached the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100. Of those 27, one-third came directly from movie or TV soundtracks.  That's 9 soundtrack singles and there's not even any Kenny Loggins on this list!!

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		"Crazy for You" Madonna #1 for one week, May 11  from the movie Vision Quest
"Don't You (Forget About Me)" Simple Minds #1 for one week, May 18 from the movie The Breakfast Club
		"Heaven" Bryan Adams #1 for two weeks, June 22-29 from the movie A Night in Heaven
"A View to a Kill" Duran Duran #1 for two weeks, July 13-20 from the movie A View to a Kill.
		"The Power of Love" Huey Lewis & the News #1 for two weeks, August 24-31 from the movie Back to the Future
"St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)" John Parr #1 for two weeks, September 7-14 from the movie St. Elmo's Fire
		"Miami Vice Theme" Jan Hammer #1 for one week, November 9 from the TV series Miami Vice
"Separate Lives" Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin #1 for one week, November 30 from the movie White Nights
		"Say You, Say Me" Lionel Richie #1 for four weeks, December 21, 1985 - January 11, 1986 from the movie White Nights

Interesting that the cover for the "Say You, Say Me" single states that it is the title song from White Nights.  Wha?  Wouldn't the title song be titled "White Nights"?  There I go nitpicking again.  Regardless of the song title, "Say You, Say Me" won the Oscar for Best Original Song at the 58th Academy Awards.

For the record, I don't like all of these, just the ones by Madonna, Simple Minds, Huey Lewis, and Jan Hammer.  I've never seen Vision Quest, A Night In Heaven, or White Nights.  Should I bother?

Other soundtrack hits from 1985 that didn't make the top spot include:

• "You Belong to the City" by Glenn Frey from Miami Vice  (peaked at #2)
• "The Heat is On" by Glenn Frey (#2), "Axel F" by Harold Faltermeyer (#3), and "Neutron Dance" by The Pointer Sisters (#6) from Beverly Hills Cop. 
• "When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going" by Billy Ocean from The Jewel of the Nile (#2)
• "We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)" by Tina Turner from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (#2)
• "Rhythm of the Night" by DeBarge from The Last Dragon (#3)
• "No More Lonely Nights" by Paul McCartney from Give My Regards to Broad Street (#6)
• "Spies Like Us" by Paul McCartney from Spies Like Us (#7)
• "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough" by Cyndi Lauper from The Goonies (#10)
• "Love Theme from St. Elmo's Fire" by David Foster from St. Elmo's Fire (#15)
• "To Live and Die in L.A." by Wang Chung from To Live and Die in L.A. (#41)
• "Into the Groove" by Madonna from Desperately Seeking Susan (surprisingly never released as a single)

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