Best #1 single of the year retrospective: 1984

Cafe Society
61

Ah… Dream if you will the picture, a good year for the #1 chart.

Lots of tracks that have to go into the best-of-80s collection. Relatively small proportion of truly lame ones and those not *that *horrible. Some giants walk the top of the Pop chart, some long established and even in comeback, some very much of that specific time, and some just beginning what will be a long reign.

There were almost too many to choose from but in the end I’m overcome now as then by a purple aura emanating from Minneapolis. When Doves Cry barely edging out Tina and Cyndi.

62

I had forgotten about Missing You, but when I went to YouTube to refresh my memory I realized that at the time it was one of my favorites. I think I might have picked it if the polled that year. As it was I had a tough time picking one because they’re all good; I finally went with Owner of a Lonely Heart, probably because I got to hear that one in concert.

63

It’s interesting how subjective taste in music can be. “When Doves Cry” is excruciatingly terrible to my ears. I dislike everything about that song; it has no melody and is extremely difficult to even put up with as background music. It jars me.

Van Halen’s “Jump” wins this one.

Most of the rest are throw-away pop songs that hold no merit and already are long forgotten. It’s all personal taste, so it’s impossible to mount an argument against me, and I concede the reverse to also be true.

Peace.

64

Leaffan, I totally agree with you about “When Doves Cry” – it’s thinner than air. It was the first Prince song I’d heard (seen, really), so it turned me off the guy for a while. Then I heard “1999” (a little more there there), then some of his earliest stuff (when he was, you know, playing a guitar), and I thought he was okay. Finally, he came out with one song I could actually enjoy adding to my music collection (“Raspberry Beret”), and by then I did grudgingly admire his fashion-advancing taste and cultural impact (just how I came to feel about Madonna).

65

To me, what makes When Doves Cry good is the same thing that makes Jump good: the keyboard riff. Jump is the better song, of course, and there’s not much more to When Doves Cry beyond the keyboard riff, but I think in both cases that’s how those songs got the attention of listeners.

66

I like When Doves Cry, but I do think it’s kind of cheesy, and certainly not one of the strongest options in the poll. If forced, at gunpoint, to vote for Prince, I’d choose Let’s Go Crazy…which I also don’t think is one of the strongest, but I’d rank it higher than Doves.

67

Another tough choice. Lots of good songs in there again.

It boils down to Prince - When Doves Cry and Cyndi Lauper - Time After Time… OK, I pick Time After Time but I’m sure I’ll regret it in 5 minutes. Then, I’ll be fine with it 10 minutes later. Then regret it again.

Yes’ Owner Of A Lonely Heart and Duran Duran’s The Reflex were two songs I really liked at the time but not so much nowadays. The Reflex in particular has not aged well.

Ray Parker Jr. - Ghostbusters. I love it because of the memories but realistically, the song isn’t that good.

Billy Ocean - Caribbean Queen. Hey, I kind of like this one although it’s not really the sort of song I go for. Pretty sweet chorus.

And you know what, I’ll even admit to liking Phil Collins’ *Against All Odds * Lionel Richie’s Hello a.k.a. two of the sappiest songs of all time. But, yeah, if you’re in the right mood, they’re fine.

Finally, ** Van Halen** - Jump. How can I put it? It sounds like a great song the first time you hear it but turns out to be kind of lame. That synth sound is atrocious and the riff itself is a musical description of a drunk fat man falling from his couch. And the chorus? Might as well jump. Jump! Might as well jump. Go ahead, and* jump. Jump**! Go ahead, and jump*. Please, stop it.

68

Hey, it’s better than Ice Cream Man. Although lyrically I think Van Halen was much better with Hagar.

69

You bastard! I had somehow managed to purge all trace of “The Girl Is Mine” from my conscious memory, and now it has all come back! :mad::mad:

70

I figured I’d be voting for Don Henley’s “Boys of Summer” but obviously it didn’t hit #1, so I went with Cyndi. If the Prince song had been one of his better ones, I’d have voted for Prince, but “When Doves Cry” is only good enough for my second choice.

71

I’m pleased to see my choice, “Time After Time,” doing as well as it’s doing. I’m a song-oriented guy, and it’s simply a great and enduring song, movingly well-performed. This will always impress me more than guitar pyrotechnics, production flash, and (especially) synthesizers — the bane of so much 80s music.

I’m also surprised there’s so little love for “Missing You.” But in the end I guess it’s just a VERY good song, without rising to the level of a great one. Applying the usual standard, this is one of the few from this list I can say I wouldn’t punch the button on the radio if it came on.

72

Side note: “Boys of Summer” is my all-time example of an artist I absolutely loathe and despise putting out an undeniably great song.

Man, I hate when that happens!

I get around it by saying that Mike Campbell gets most of the credit for co-composing, co-producing and playing guitar on the song.

73

Yeah, Henley’s not my guy, either - I never knew it was Campbell. I just assumed it was his usual go-to guitarist for solo stuff, Danny Kortchmer, or perhaps Waddy Wachtell. Campbell is a tasty player.

74

I don’t listen to much music so I only know about half the songs on the list, but I don’t see any rules about that so I’m going to go ahead and vote anyway. As soon as I saw “Jump” on the list I immediately thought I didn’t have to read any further. But on doing so, I saw I was spoiled for choice. However:

“Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)” is a brilliantly-written song, but I’m not a fan of Collins as a singer.

“Time After Time” is a classic but I’m not a huge fan.

“Ghostbusters” is a good theme tune but not a classic song in its own right.

“What’s Love Got to Do with It” is another classic but not Tina’s best (heh).

“Missing You” I like a lot but it’s tainted by its similarity to “Every Breath I Take” (I like both but I’m just saying neither is unique as a result).

“I Just Called to Say I Love You” - nice song but a bit soppy.

“Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” - seems like a completely different era from most of the others, can’t believe it’s 30 years old. George Michael is a great singer, but it’s been too overplayed at discos for me.

“Like A Virgin” - classic Madonna but unfortunately I don’t like Madonna.

So “Jump” it is, for me - not played enough in my view, it’s one of the few songs where when it comes on, I will turn up to full volume. Just a stunning, inspiring, wall of sound.

75

Lots of good choices here, even though I’m not a big 80’s music fan.

I remember my brother remarking on “Like A Virgin” or one of her other early big hits; he loved her voice. All I could hear was the incessant multitracking to (I presumed) compensate for lack of intonation. I claimed she was a low-talent mostly-produced flash in the pan. Oops. My bad. Again, a song I didn’t care for at the time but which turns out to be a keeper.

I picked Time After Time, despite being thoroughly annoyed by Ms Lauper who showed up 2 hours late to a concert in a standing-only venue many years ago but these things leave impressions. No apology for being late even, and she had been in her truck the entire time. But no doubt there are stories like that for many of my heroes.

Owner is one of Yes’s best after the first two lineups, no question. Great keyboard work, involving a lot of what was high tech at the time but serving the song very well. I wonder what they did live!

Culture Club definitely deserves kudos. Too bad how things wound out for Boy George. But as the song says, “I’m a man without conviction.” Not my favorite CC tune, though. (PS: I don’t blame BG for cleaning up for the trial! An artist doesn’t have to be a martyr.)

No question, Jump is a symbol of the era, both in pop culture and in terms of musical style and especially keyboard use. (I’m a keyboard player, forgive me. I’ve certainly heard this botched way too many times in music stores and even on stages but I can’t blame that on VH.)

Phil Collins rocks and this was one of his best (though he has a lot of those).
Prince is a phenomenon. No question about that.
Ghostbusters was fun. Yeah, it did sound derivative of “Who You Gonna Call” but it might have lost in court since melody is so important in music copyrights, and the two melodies don’t even share the same rhythmic structure (though they do share a number of elements). The backbeat definitely sounds derivative, but I bet we could dig up similar precursors. Who knows what the out-of-court settlement was? On the other hand, everyone noticed the striking similarity, so a trial would have been a gamble.

That’s a great Tina tune.

I dug “Wake Me Up” when it first came out, and I still do. I also like “Walking on Sunshine”, and for the same reasons. I have it on good authority that I must be gay to want to play these tunes in my soul band. Oh well. Fortunately, my wife is not the good authority in question.

76

I voted for “When Doves Cry”, but my off menu vote goes to The Pretenders “Back on the Chain Gang”.

77

I went for “Like A Virgin” it was huge and back in 84 that was my jam.

78

My husband and I are both mid-forties, and we’ve been saying that for years - that 1984 was arguably the best year for pop music.

An overlooked aspect of Prince’s voice is his range - he has a huge range, and his voice is wonderful, up high or down low or right in the middle - no weakness anywhere.

We used “Suddenly” as our wedding song. :slight_smile:

Did you know he has a new album out? (Well, two, actually.)

And now for something completely different - When Doves Cry performed by The Pursuit of Happiness.

79

Never understood the appeal of that thing. I don’t wince when it comes on or run from the room or change the channel or anything but it’s a whole lot of nothing AFAIC.
I opted for the Tina Turner; Lot of other decently nice ones on the list. I wish Yes had placed a better song from 90125 than “Lonely Heart”.

80

Had a hard time choosing; I was in high school that year and they were all played unendingly.

For me, Jump is my least favorite VH song, so that was out.

I loved Duran Duran, and I love The Reflex, so that won.

But close seconds…both Prince songs, and Karma Chameleon. Also like that a lot.

Yep, I was one of those New Wave kids :smiley: