Our survey brings us now to 1986, and as I alluded to in the last thread, this period from here to 1989 is another of the must active periods in the history of the #1 spot. With “Say You Say Me” carrying over from last year, we have 31 songs at #1 to choose from, including one of the few #1s that’s a cover of a song that had previously been a #1 for another group, dueling Genesis/Phil Collins/Peter Gabriel singles, one of the only German-language songs to ever chart in the US, and possibly one of the only #1s ever by a contemporary Christian singer. There’s something for pretty much everyone on this list.
Bizarre… many of the songs I’m considering, I hated when they were popular. “Rock Me Amadeus”, “Holding Back the Years”, “True Colors”, “The Way It Is”.
However, when “Stuck With You” was big, at the time I thought the brunette in the video was the HOTTEST THING EVER, especially when they landed on the “abandoned” island.
But, really, gonna have to go with Madonna here. While “Papa Don’t Preach” is, possibly, a more significant song, I have always thought “Live to Tell” was one of her best songs, which is why it gets my vote.
I was barely born in this year, just barely at the last two weeks of December 1986 though I round off and say 1987. I most likely going to go with Madonna but I’ll abstain for now and decide later.
Wow. Another great year. I wasn’t feeling it for 1985, but this is more like it. So many to choose from. I went with Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors” here. “Sledgehammer” was my other main contender.
Nothing really sanding out. Of a sprinkle of songs that I have put on the car MP3 USB stick, I picked Simply Red. Could just as well have gone for Madonna (LTT), Peter Gabriel, Bangles, etc.
There’s a reason why I started exploring classical music from this year onwards.
It’s either Madonna, Peter Cetera, Peter Gabriel, Human League, Falco or Janet Jackson or Bruce or Berlin.Those are the ones I will vote not that I dislike others. I’ll vote at break time.
Wow, was this the worst year for music so far or what? Usually I have to choose between a couple of songs I really like. Here I had to pick the lesser of evils.
I went with Bruce Hornsby and the Range. That piano melody was a breath of fresh air amidst the pop music of that year. There was really nothing on the radio like it at the time.
The ones that jump out to me are Kiss and Sledgehammer, with Addicted to Love not too far behind, simply because of the phenomenon it was at the time.
I will go with Peter Gabriel, because I have already picked Prince and PG’s video and song were all over MTV for a long time - back when that mattered!
I voted for “True Colors”, but this was the most difficult year so far for me to choose my favorite. There were three other songs I could have voted for.
Clearly, the winner this year is Prince’s “Kiss”. The funk is strong with this one. (Plus it’s on my favorite Prince LP of all time, so there’s that, too.)
Other possibilities were: “Live to Tell”, “West End Girls”, “Holding Back the Years”, “Human”, “Sledgehammer”, “The Way It Is”, “Rock Me Amadeus”, and “Say You, Say Me”. (Yes, I said, “Say You, Say Me”, and I was being serious. Because I had a dream, and it was an AWESOME dream.)
