SXM's "40 Cassettes Turning 40" - Part Two

So the Classic Rewind (Ch 25) channel on SiriusXM recently ran a listener's poll to determine the best album rock album releases of 1981. Poll results were played in a countdown around Labor Day weekend. I'm not saying their list is wrong, but here's what I would have broadcast if they'd bothered to ask me. Included below is the album's peak position on the Billboard Rock Albums Chart.

Rank	Artist	Album	Chart	Song Played
40	X	Wild Gift	-	"White Girl"
39	Blue Oyster Cult	Fire of Unknown Origin	6	"Burnin' for You"
38	Jefferson Starship	Modern Times	3	"Find Your Way Back"
37	38 Special	Wild-Eyed Southern Boys	8	"Hold On Loosely"
36	Def Leppard	High 'n' Dry	18	"Bringin' on the Heartache"
35	Stevie Nicks	Bella Donna	3	"Edge of Seventeen"
34	Duran Duran	Duran Duran	-	"Girls on Film"
33	Adam and The Ants	Prince Charming	-	"Stand and Deliver"
32	Loverboy	Get Lucky	3	"Working for the Weekend"
31	Sammy Hagar	Standing Hampton	1	"There's Only One Way to Rock"

Rank	Artist	Album	Chart	Song Played
30	AC/DC	For Those About to Rock...	3	"For Those About to Rock..."
29	Tom Petty	Hard Promises	1	"The Waiting"
28	Psychedelic Furs	Talk Talk Talk	-	"Pretty in Pink"
27	Pretenders	Pretenders II	11	"Message of Love"
26	U2	October	28	"Gloria"
25	Electric Light Orchestra	Time	10	"Hold On Tight"
24	Todd Rundgren	Healing	15	"Compassion"
23	Joan Jett	I Love Rock 'n Roll	2	"I Love Rock 'n Roll"
22	Rush	Moving Pictures	4	"Tom Sawyer"
21	Split Enz	Waiata	33	"One Step Ahead"

Rank	Artist	Album	Chart	Song Played
20	The Moody Blues	Long Distance Voyager	1	"Gemini Dream"
19	Phil Collins	Face Value	2	"In the Air Tonight"
18	Rick Springfield	Working Class Dog	16	"Love is Alright Tonight"
17	Billy Squier	Don't Say No	3	"In the Dark"
16	Genesis	Abacab	1	"No Reply at All"
15	Elvis Costello	Trust	16	"From a Whisper to a Scream"
14	Van Halen	Fair Warning	2	"Unchained"
13	Journey	Escape	1	"Stone in Love"
12	The Tubes	The Completion Backward Principle	11	"Talk to Ya Later"
11	Kim Wilde	Kim Wilde	44	"Kids in America"

Rank	Artist	Album	Chart	Song Played
10	Styx	Paradise Theatre	1	"Rockin' the Paradise"
9	The Who	Face Dances	1	"Don't Let Go the Coat"
8	Daryl Hall & John Oates	Private Eyes	19	"Private Eyes"
7	The J. Geils Band	Freeze-Frame	1	"Centerfold"
6	Squeeze	East Side Story	10	"Tempted"
5	The Go-Go's	Beauty and the Beat	10	"Our Lips are Sealed"
4	The Rolling Stones	Tattoo You	1	"Start Me Up" & "Waiting on a Friend"
3	The Cars	Shake It Up	2	"Since You're Gone" & "Shake It Up"
2	Foreigner	4	1	"Juke Box Hero" & "Urgent"
1	The Police	Ghost in the Machine	2	"Spirits in the Material World" & "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic"

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Music ads for 1980 releases

1980 Album of the Month: Argybargy

Released: February 1980 (A&M) Produced by: John Wood & Squeeze

Side One	Side Two
Pulling Mussels (from the Shell) Another Nail in My Heart Separate Beds Misadventure I Think I'm Go Go	Farfisa Beat Here Comes That Feeling Vicky Verky If I Didn't Love You Wrong Side of the Moon There at the Top

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Billboard 200	71
CashBox Albums	89
Rolling Stone 100	45

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Smash Hits, March 6, 1980, p. 31

Record World, March 29, 1980, p. 26

Billboard, April 4, 1980, p. 82

Allmusic	★★★★★
The Virgin Encyclopedia of Eighties Music	★★★★
Robert Christgau	B-
Sputnik	4.5 (Superb)

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Record World, March 29, 1980, p. 24

Record World, June 21, 1980, p. 14

CashBox, August 30, 1980, p. 11

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Billboard, June 28, 1980, p. 10

MFD Random Five #49

In which I shuffle through some music files and listen to the first five songs from the years 1976-85 that randomly pop up.

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1. "Prime Time" by The Tubes (1979, A&M)
   A single released from the Remote Control album. Said album was produced by Todd Rundgren and his hand is all over this disco tune, especially apparent in the vocal harmonies, the synth solo and (even without a writing credit) it sounds like he wrote the entire bridge. It peaked at #34 in the UK singles chart, but didn't see any action stateside.


2. "I'm On the Outside Looking In" by Leslie Smith (1982, Elektra)
   "I'm on the Outside (Looking In)" is a 1964 hit song by Little Anthony and the Imperials and if I've ever heard their version, I've forgotten it, but I can't imagine it being any smoother than this. Side A, track 2 on the wonderful Heartache album which was spotlighted on this very blog back in February 2019.


3. "Jump Street" by Boz Scaggs (1976, Columbia)
   A minor-key blues piece that harkens back to Boz's days in the late '60s - Boz gets to play some blues guitar, if only for a short bit. Not bad on its own or in a shuffle, it doesn't really fit into the rest of the Silk Degrees album. I dig the urgency to the track and when the tempo picks up at the end.


4. "Believe in Magic" by Maurice White (1985, Columbia)
   The answer to the question "what would Earth, Wind & Fire sound like if synths replaced all the instruments?" Good material wasted on poor arrangement and production. If you lived through 1985, you could easily pick the year this was released just by the sound of the thing. 


5. "I Learnt How to Pray" by Squeeze (1985, A&M)
   Speaking of characteristic 1985 production, here's more for ya. Squeeze was smart enough to include some "real" instruments in addition to the synths and LinnDrum, though. Typical Squeeze hooks aplenty throughout and a tasty organ solo from Jools Holland. Been awhile since I heard the Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti album, think I'll throw a copy into the truck's CD player today.

Smash Hits Album Ratings - 1981 [part 1 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 first half of 1981. Hope you find something new that you missed back in '81.

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January 8 issue
Rocky Sharpe & The Replays	Rock-It to Mars	6
Dollar	The Paris Collection	6
Jermaine Jackson	Jermaine	6
Showaddywaddy	Bright Lights	5
Black Slate	Amigo	5
Queen	Flash Gordon	2
The Clash	Sandinista!	5½
Linton Kwesi Johnson	LKJ in Dub	7

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January 22 issue
Boomtown Rats	Mondo Bondo	7½
Elvis Costello	Trust	9
The Runaways	Flaming Schoolgirls	2
Steve Winwood	Arc of a Diver	5
UFO	The Wild, the Willing, and the Innocent	5
Basement 5	1965-1980	6
Gen X	Kiss Me Deadly	2
Mtume	In Search of the Rainbow Seekers	8
Rose Royce	Golden Touch	6

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February 5 issue
Sheena Easton	Take My Time	7
Pearl Harbour	Don't Follow Me, I'm Lost Too	6
Phil Collins	Face Value	5
Heatwave	Candles	8
The Stranglers	The Meninblack	6
Mike Batt	Waves	3
Splodgenessabounds	Splodgenessabounds	3
Styx	Paradise Theatre	2
The dB's	Stands for Decibels	8

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February 19 issue
UK Subs	Diminished Responsibility	2
The Barracudas	Drop Out with The Barracudas	5½
Moon Martin	Street Fever	6
Jets	Jets	5
Nash the Slash	Children of the Night	4
Walkie Talkies	Surveillance	6
Joe Sample	Voices in the Rain	7
The Boys	Boys Only	6½
The Selecter	Celebrate the Bullet	5½
Nine Below Zero	Don't Point Your Finger	5

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March 5 issue
Sister Sledge	All American Girls	6
Stray Cats	Stray Cats	5
Rainbow	Difficult to Cure	7
Gang of Four	Solid Gold	7½
Eric Clapton	Another Ticket	3
Marvin Gaye	In Our Lifetime	7½
Todd Rundgren	Healing	6
Brian Briggs	Brian Damage	7
Defunkt	Defunkt	8½
Spandau Ballet	Journeys to Glory	7

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March 19 issue
New Musik	Anywhere	6½
Russ Ballard	Into the Fire	3
James Brown	Rapp Payback	6½
Detroit Spinners	Labour of Love	6
The Spizzles	Spikey Dream	6
Tata Vega	Giving All My Love	4
Shona Laing	Tied to the Tracks	3
The Vapors	Magnets	4
Wilko Johnson	Ice on the Motorway	4
Linx	Intuition	8

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April 2 issue
The Shakin' Pyramids	Skin 'Em Up	5
Rico	That Man is Forward	8
Change	Miracles	5
Landscape	From the Tea Rooms of Mars to the Hell Holes of Uranus	8
Chas'N'Dave	Mustn't Grumble	4
Slade	We'll Bring the House Down	6
The Who	Face Dances	4
British Electronic Foundation	Music for Stowaways	9
Diana Ross	To Love Again	6
Status Quo	Never Too Late	7

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April 16 issue
Dave Edmunds	Twangin	7½
Incognito	Jazz Funk	8
Public Image, Ltd.	Flowers of Romance	8
Stiff Little Fingers	Go for It	7
The Cure	Faith	7
Whitesnake	Come An' Get It	4½
The Jags	No Tie Like a Present	4
Cockney Rejects	Greatest Hits, Vol 3	11
Roger Taylor	Roger Taylor's Fun in Space	3
B.A. Robertson	Bully for You	6

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April 30 issue
Gillan	Future Shock	4
Girlschool	Hit and Run	5
Tenpole Tudor	The Swords of a Thousand Men	7
REO Speedwagon	Hi Infidelity	4
The Keys	The Keys Album	5
Quincy Jones	The Dude	7½
Sharon Redd	Sharon Redd	8
Snips	La Rocca	6
The Isley Brothers	Grand Slam	5
The Scars	Author! Author!	8

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May 14 issue
The Undertones	Positive Touch	9
Holly and The Italians	The Right to be Italian	4
The Plastics	Welcome Back	7½
Split Enz	Waiata	7
The Lambrettas	Ambience	7
The Tubes	The Completion Backward Principle	4
Ruts DC	Animal Now	8
Albania	Are You All Mine	7
Kraftwerk	Computer World	4
The Beat	Wha'ppen?	7
Squeeze	East Side Story	9
The Cramps	Psychedelic Jungle	8
The Searchers	Play for Today	5

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May 28 issue
Original Mirrors	Heart-twango and Raw-beat	7
Richard Strange	The Phenomenal Rise of Richard Strange	6½
Joe Walsh	There Goes the Neighborhood	5
Shakatak	Drivin' Hard	7
Grace Jones	Nightclubbing	8
Bill Nelson	Quit Dreaming and Get on the Beam	8
Classic Nouveaux	Night People	6
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers	Hard Promises	7
Wild Horses	Stand Your Ground	4
The Psychedelic Furs	Talk, Talk, Talk	8
Sparks	Whomp That Sucker	6
Positive Noise	Heart of Darkness	5
Toyah	Anthem	3

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June 11 issue
Elton John	The Fox	5
Echo and The Bunnymen	Heaven Up Here	9
Doll by Doll	Doll by Doll	8
Jean-Michel Jarre	Magnetic Fields	7
UB40	Present Arms	7½
Ken Lockie	The Impossible	6
Phil Seymour	Phil Seymour	4
Black Uhuru	Red	7½
Eddy Grant	Can't Get Enough	9

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June 25 issue
Killing Joke	What's This For	7½
Third World	Rock the World	5
TV Smith's Explorers	The Last Words of the Great Explorer	5
Duran Duran	Duran Duran	4
Magazine	Magic, Murder, and the Weather	7
Siouxsie and The Banshees	Juju	5
Thompson Twins	A Product of...	6
Peter Tosh	Wanted Dread & Alive	4
Yoko Ono	Season of Glass	3
Modern Eon	Fiction Tales	8
Barbara Dickson	You Know It's Me	4

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

Random album ad #53

Squeeze - Sweets from a Stranger (1982)

Bubbling Under 1982 [Part 4 of 5]

Using information found in the above supplement, below is an annotated list of songs that didn't quite crack the Billboard Hot 100, provided with links in hopes of helping you find some vintage tunes that are new to you. Click on the title to hear the tune or see the video, click on the artist for a Wikipedia entry, and click on the album for the Discogs entry. In all, there were 105 tracks that "bubbled under" the Hot 100 in 1982, here's 21 of those.

Title	Artist	Album	BU	Rock	AC	RB	Dance	Country
It's Our Own Affair	Ray Parker, Jr.	The Other Woman	106			44
Brown Eyed Girl	Henry Paul Band	Anytime	105
Song on the Radio	Pinups	The Pinups	110
Sea of Heartbreak	Poco	Cowboys & Englishmen	109		35
Ghost Town	Poco	Ghost Town	108
Let Her Go	Point Blank	On a Roll	109
As	Jean-Luc Ponty	Mystical Adventures	108
Let's Work	Prince	Controversy	104			9	1
Keep This Heart in Mind	Bonnie Raitt	Green Light	104	39
Me and the Boys	Bonnie Raitt	Green Light	109
Yes It's You Lady	Smokey Robinson	Yes It's You Lady	107
My Old Piano	Diana Ross	Diana	109
Take a Chance with Me	Roxy Music	Avalon	104
Can't Get You Out of My Mind	Dan Seals	Harbinger	110
I Can Make You Feel Good	Shalamar	Friends	102			33
Wait for Me	Slave	Show Time	103			20	21
It's Alright	Gino Soccio	Face to Face	108				2
What	Soft Cell	Non-Stop Ecstatic Dancing	101				31
Love Connection (Raise the Window Down)	Spinners	Can't Shake This Feelin'	107			68
Six Months in a Leaky Boat	Split Enz	Time and Tide	104
Black Coffee in Bed	Squeeze	Sweets from a Stranger	103	26

Charting the Charts: Squeeze - East Side Story (1981)

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Here's a look at how Squeeze's 1981 album fared in various publications:

1981
Date	Billboard 200	CashBox 200	Rolling Stone 100
May 30	148	122
Jun 6	128	108
Jun 13	106	90
Jun 20	86	82
Jun 27	78	76	82
Jul 4	68	74
Jul 11	62	73	33
Jul 18	61	72
Jul 25	55	69	31
Aug 1	49	62
Aug 8	48	56	29
Aug 15	45	55
Aug 22	44	54	25
Aug 29	53	67
Sep 5	66	73	25
Sep 12	58	76
Sep 19	52	74	13
Sep 26	52	71
Oct 3	67	85	22
Oct 10	83	92
Oct 17	91	118	31
Oct 24	120	141
Oct 31	141	179	40
Nov 7	164
Nov 14	198		56
Nov 26			70
Dec 10			79

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Smash Hits, May 14, 1981, p. 36

CashBox, May 16, 1981, p. 16

From Robert Christgau: "They're finally beginning to show the consistency that's the only excuse for obsessive popcraft. The songs are imaginative, compassionate, and of course hooky--the warped organ on "Heaven" bespeaks divine intervention. And with Elvis Costello coproducing, the music is quite punchy, though I wouldn't go so far as to say it rocks. B+" Note: the album was listed at number 6 on the Village Voice's 1981 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll.

The album landed on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Best Albums of the Eighties in the #81 position.