The issue with the 83-85 charts here is that they contain a lot of what are iconic tracks and acts from the period, as pulykamell points out. So if on one of those years you have one or two runaway blockbusters sucking up the majority of the votes, what’s left gets spread thin – paradoxically creating a vote tally similar to that for a year where the broad sample was just wretched but one or two were good.
Tears for Fears gets huge respect among the group on this poll, but for too many people the strongest imprint 1985 left on them was that They Wanted Their MTV.
This is a year where I very much like a bunch of the songs. First time I’ve been able to say that since probably one of the 1960s threads. Yeah, there’s the usual amount of junk (I’m looking at you, Foreigner, REO, Phil Collins, Starship, Bryan Adams (Canada has repeatedly apologized…), Lionel Richie, and the crew that put together “We Are the World”), but there were a decent number of songs that I really love hearing when they come up on the radio.
But Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” is the champ, AFAIAC.
In several of the preceding years, Simple Minds’ “(Don’t You) Forget About Me” or Tears For Fears’ “Everybody Wants To Rule the World” or Stevie Wonder’s “Part Time Lover” or even Huey Lewis’ “Power of Love” would have easily gotten my vote if they’d been in that year instead of this one. And for some of those years, I could have made arguments for Mr. Mister’s “Broken Wings” or even a-ha’s “Take on Me,” due to the weak level of competition. But not in 1985.
Yeah, but at least we’ve finally moved past the Hall and Oates years.
I’m not fond of that one, either. The only Phil Collins song I actually like is “That’s All,” which is also a departure from his usual run of sappy love ballads:
I can see day, and you say night,
tell me it’s black when I know that it’s white,
always the same, it’s just a shame, that’s all.
From this period, I can’t really tell which songs were Phil Collins as frontman for Genesis, and which songs were Phil Collins as solo artist. I’d call it a distinction without a difference.
My favorite single of 1985 was “Running Up That Hill” but since this is an Ameri-centric list I voted for “Everybody Wants To Rule The World.” Not only do I think it’s a great song, it also reminds me of the wonderful movie Real Genius, so every time I hear it I get a big grin on my face.
I haven’t much to say—1985 is the year I tuned out of new rock & pop music, and began devoting all my attention to world music. From here on out, until sometime in the '90s, I’ll have very little input on the hit parade, because I never even heard most of the songs. This time, I voted for “We Are the World”—not that it has much inherent musical value, but because it was for a good cause, and it united many different musical stars with their egos “checked at the door,” thanks to Quincy, who outdid himself with the production here. For global idealists like me, it was the most hopeful development in music since the Concert for Bangla Desh* in 1971.
*Which was the last time Bangladesh was ever written as two words.
All right, confession time: I got tired of the unanswered poll popping up when I clicked on this thread, so I voted for WBTC as a joke. It’s really the most execrable of a bunch of crappy songs from that year.
As might be expected, TV Tropes has a trope for when an author states his opinion about a certain type of music by having a character like Patrick Bateman praise it: Damned By a Fool’s (or Psycho’s) Praise.
I have to confess that even though I don’t think it is a great song, it isn’t a truly bad one either. I always leave it on when it comes on the 80’s XM radio unlike many others. I wouldn’t know that it is supposed to be a terrible song unless someone told me. There hundreds of worse contenders including the entire catalog of Rush.
There were several good options in this year but Money for Nothing was my clear and unambiguous choice.
I didn’t know their 70s stuff went multi-platinum. I was focusing on the singles success.
And their comeback slightly predated the hair metal phase. They were more associated with acts like REO Speedwagon, Journey, Starship, etc, who were big around this time. Bon Jovi would open the way for the hair metal explosion about a year later.
Toss up between Simple Minds, a-ha and Tears for Fears - “Shout” that is not the seemingly more popular release - which finally gets the nod.
Dire Straits had long sold out by this period - first album good but a rapid decline afterwards. And as for Phil Collins - what a turd that guy was. Genesis died when Gabriel left.
I’m with you. The eighties had some really happy times for me.
“One More Night” – first time a guy asked me to slow dance
“We Are the World” – my drama class performed this. I was out the day everyone chose their parts, and that’s how this little white girl got to play Lionel Ritchie (no one wanted to be the first to sing). We had so much fun in that class.
“The Power of Love” – Back to the Future, best movie ever made?
“Money for Nothing” – Best video ever, no wait maybe it’s “Take on Me”!
I’m going to go with “Careless Whisper” as feeling the most representative of that time to me. Remember how we all thought George Michael was straight? And sooooo cute.
Ditto. Everybody Wants to Rule the World is, in my opinion, a stellar song with a powerful groove and unique sound (and the album, Songs from the Big Chair, which I’ve only come to recently, is a must-have).
In another world I would have been very happy voting for Huey Lewis, Mr. Mister, or Simple Minds.
Brothers in Arms is one of my favorite albums, but Money for Nothing has never really done it for me.
