Bill Withers.
I love John Lennon, but not that song. Even a little.
“Just the Two of Us” by a hair over John Lennon’s “Woman.”
I dislike most of the songs on this list I remember. You’re welcome, Foreigner, REO, and Styx, not to mention Juice Newton, Rod Stewart, and Neil Diamond.
The songs that come to mind when I remember 1981 aren’t here. I’m not terribly surprised that the Moody Blues’ “The Voice” didn’t make the list, but I’d have figured Winwood’s “If You See a Chance” would be there.
Another “nothing here” year.
Y’see, to me it looks(sounds, rather) the diametrical opposite. From my POV, compared to this lot some of the 1980 runners-up are immortal classics (and similarly, on the #1 chart 1980 slaps 1981’s face and laughs). This is a year where I have to acknowledge REO Speedwagon as a respectable contender, for Pete’s sake! Pop music seemed to be experiencing a serious loss of momentum. HiYo Silver, away, indeed.
In the middle of all that I’d say Juice Newton acquits herself very well in this poll. I suspect ABBA will probably end up undervoted, because, ABBA, dude, but Winner Takes It All is one of their best efforts to make it big. Meanwhile Lennon’s final effort, as someone mentioned in the #1’s thread, was perfectly fine and good but just not that great… but against *this *field Woman puts him in good position.
Even though I said I couldn’t vote for one in my original post, I glossed over the ABBA offering. That’s who I ended up gong with in the end. In my experience, ABBA is actually fairly well regarded, especially among my music nerd friends.
“Just the Two of Us” finishes with a comfortable lead in the world-famous Ponch8 Music Rating System. Contenders for second place were “Slow Hand,” “Woman,” and “The Winner Takes It All.”
“I Love You” finished dead-ass last.
I’m glad to see that neither REO nor Foreigner is in the lead. The more I hear their songs on classic rock stations (which is WAY too often), the more evident their mediocrity becomes.
I love the song, too, but of all the recorded covers I’ve heard, this is the one that comes closest to being a carbon copy of the original. Juice doesn’t add a thing to what Merrilee Rush did with the song 15 years earlier.
Reo,
Styx
Forerunner
When is Journey and the rest of the wtf 80’s crew showing up?
Bill Whithers. there were a couple others in the not terrible camp but not many.
The ABBA song is one of my all-time favourites.
My thought, exactly.
ABBA. Not my favourite song of theirs but easily the best here.
Not the best crop of songs ever, but there are a few good tunes on this list. I voted for the Joey Scarbury song, just because I think it’s a really catchy song…but I must admit I am quite surprised to see it tied for the lead here
The only song I liked from that group was the Styx song.
You’ll get your chance to vote for Journey next year.
Had to go with Styx on this one. A few others (such as “Urgent” by Foreigner) caught my eye but “Best of Times” gets the nod because I remember a time when my wife and I yelled at each other (this was before we were married) and as a way of trying to make up I put “Best of Times” on the CD player (this was the next morning if I remember correctly). I started singing along and my (not yet) wife totally “got it” - she made a little duet out of it with me and then we both cried a little and apologized profusely for the previous night’s fight. With a story like that how could I possibly pick anything else from that list? (And, yes - that woman and I are still married. If we make it to May 24th of this year - and I can see no reason why we wouldn’t - it’ll be 14 years married)
Being with you is a classic…still holds up… almost voted for Withers/Grover jam… just a great song… Take it on the run is my fave REO song… Ray Parker song had a great line… "Come home early one day and get your feelings hurt… (Infidelity) we laughed and sang that over and over… I appreciate Love on the Rocks as an adult… but Urgent…the Junior Walker solo… Lou’s passion and well… urgency… its their best song…imo