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The 100 Greatest Songs of 1981 #1 Super Freak (1 Viewer)

19. Phil Collins “In The Air Tonight” (from Face Value) 

https://youtu.be/YkADj0TPrJA

Probably the best song of Phil Collins’ long career. It’s also one of the most famous videos ever to appear on MTV, and I hate it (the video, not the song.) It’s as annoying as hell. I just want to punch that ghostly face. 

 
timschochet said:
19. Phil Collins “In The Air Tonight” (from Face Value) 

https://youtu.be/YkADj0TPrJA

Probably the best song of Phil Collins’ long career. It’s also one of the most famous videos ever to appear on MTV, and I hate it (the video, not the song.) It’s as annoying as hell. I just want to punch that ghostly face. 
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Apparently, Ahmet Ertegan used to play it for newly signed artists and tell them that their goal should be to create something like it.

 
Pip's Invitation said:
Growing up with hippie kids turned you to punk/new wave? 😆
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I don't think a single post has ever gotten to my roots so well.

The Dead were everywhere...literally. band members, their kids, the music- I never liked the music, and couldn't escape it. I was surrounded by all the hippies who had come to the area in 68 and taken root. Never had a problem with them- just always was drawn to rhythm and hooks more than endless jam-melodies. I played piano/keyboard too, so new wavey synth stuff appealed, as well as most of the post-punk stuff. I've only come around to punk straight up as an adult.

Apple Jack said:
Bolinas is one of a kind.
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A magical place with some magical people. Was just explaining it to some colleagues here in nyc...combo of really dumb but earnest hippies living off the land, intellectual creatives- musicians, writers, filmmakers, artists, and whackadoodle super intellectuals (a friend's dad was a nuclear physicist who had painstakingly charted prevailing winds and geological maps to figure out the closest, optimal place to live near SF where when the atomic blasts take it out, is still safe). I knew a guy named Heironymus and twins named Raspberry and Cream from there, as well as a couple of my better friends. You always knew the bobo kids were going to have the best pot (grown by their whackaddodle scientist parents)

 
18. Journey “Don’t Stop Believin’” (from Escape) 

https://youtu.be/1k8craCGpgs

My oldest daughter was in 8th grade band. They were absolutely dreadful and they played this song over and over. In fact, we have the Huntington Beach Marathon here, and my daughter and her band serenaded them as they ran past- I’m sure it speeded them up, exhausted as they were, to run by as fast as possible. 
I have no other thoughts about this. 

 
I thought this would be number 1 or 2, especially since this, unbelievably, is now in the conversation for most popular rock song ever.  It used to probably be Stairway to Heaven, but Don't Stop Believin' and Bohemian Rhapsody have probably both surpassed it in recent years.

 
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The last 3 have been played to death to the extent I have no interest in hearing them anymore - like change the channel when they come on because I'm bored with them. I suppose that's a testament to their popularity.

 
Pip's Invitation said:
Ditto. Amazing what an appearance on a TV show about a glee club did for that song. 
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This may have caused the biggest spike in popularity, but the song was used in the series finale of The Sopranos. It was also featured at Detroit Red Wings home games and in the Broadway play/movie "Rock of Ages". At times the song seemed to be everywhere.

 
timschochet said:
20. Rush “Limelight” (from Moving Pictures) 

https://youtu.be/ZiRuj2_czzw
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I’ve stated in other threads, but the site of this video was the famous, and now defunct, Le Studio in Morin Heights, Quebec. Rush recorded a lot there and a few other videos from Moving Pictures (one of which may still appear in this countdown) were also filmed there. A Police song from this year was also recorded there as was a video from a few years earlier by thread MVP April Wine.

 
northern exposure said:
This may have caused the biggest spike in popularity, but the song was used in the series finale of The Sopranos. It was also featured at Detroit Red Wings home games and in the Broadway play/movie "Rock of Ages". At times the song seemed to be everywhere.
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ETA - My nephews are in what is referred to as a Melodic Death Metal band. They are in their 20s and when this song was played at a pre-COVID wedding, they were loving every minute of it. In fact, they asked the DJ to repeat the song later in the evening.

 
timschochet said:
17. The Stray Cats “Stray Cat Strut” (from The Stray Cats) 

https://youtu.be/vEtbfzMLVWU

An all time rockabilly classic by the era’s greatest retro band. That guitar solo by Setzer in this song is simply awesome. But the entire song is almost flawless in its presentation. 
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I’ve always really liked this tune - much more than Rock This Town. And agree on Setzer’s solo and tone here - good stuff.

 
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I loved this song like crazy back in the day. I still like it, but this was one of the videos that was in regular rotation on MTV when we first got cable TV, so it will always take me back to being 7 years old again. :cool:  

 
timschochet said:
Journey “Don’t Stop Believin
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Didn't realize how big this song had gotten.  Its arigh... but ah...

Used to tease one of the guys we hung with in high school because he liked Journey so the success this song had surprised me.  When I was a disc jockey I used to play THIS two-song combo by Journey and think that is the best from Journey.

timschochet said:
The Stray Cats “Stray Cat Strut
Click to expand...
LOVED the Stray Cats.  Blew my doors off first time I heard this one. 

Could have sworn that I heard an interview back in the 80s with a rocker like Dave Edmonds or someone of that ilk who claimed to have written the tune and sat on it waiting for a group like the Cats who were a better vehicle for the song but can't track down that story anywhere. 

In any case the Cats, Setzer's pompadour, with the guitar solo (the October 1998 issue of Guitar World magazine, Brian Setzer's solo from "Stray Cat Strut" ranked No. 92 on the "Top 100 Guitar Solos of All Time" list.) in this tune are rock and roll perfection.  

 
Bracie Smathers said:
Didn't realize how big this song had gotten.  Its arigh... but ah...

Used to tease one of the guys we hung with in high school because he liked Journey so the success this song had surprised me.  When I was a disc jockey I used to play THIS two-song combo by Journey and think that is the best from Journey.

LOVED the Stray Cats.  Blew my doors off first time I heard this one. 

Could have sworn that I heard an interview back in the 80s with a rocker like Dave Edmonds or someone of that ilk who claimed to have written the tune and sat on it waiting for a group like the Cats who were a better vehicle for the song but can't track down that story anywhere. 

In any case the Cats, Setzer's pompadour, with the guitar solo (the October 1998 issue of Guitar World magazine, Brian Setzer's solo from "Stray Cat Strut" ranked No. 92 on the "Top 100 Guitar Solos of All Time" list.) in this tune are rock and roll perfection.  
Click to expand...
Edmunds produced the track but the writing credit is Setzer. 

 
Pip's Invitation said:
Bracie Smathers said:
Didn't realize how big this song had gotten.  Its arigh... but ah...

Used to tease one of the guys we hung with in high school because he liked Journey so the success this song had surprised me.  When I was a disc jockey I used to play THIS two-song combo by Journey and think that is the best from Journey.

LOVED the Stray Cats.  Blew my doors off first time I heard this one. 

Could have sworn that I heard an interview back in the 80s with a rocker like Dave Edmonds or someone of that ilk who claimed to have written the tune and sat on it waiting for a group like the Cats who were a better vehicle for the song but can't track down that story anywhere. 

In any case the Cats, Setzer's pompadour, with the guitar solo (the October 1998 issue of Guitar World magazine, Brian Setzer's solo from "Stray Cat Strut" ranked No. 92 on the "Top 100 Guitar Solos of All Time" list.) in this tune are rock and roll perfection.  
Click to expand...
Edmunds produced the track but the writing credit is Setzer. 
Click to expand...
There was no way Dave was slipping away from that tune.

 
timschochet said:
17. The Stray Cats “Stray Cat Strut” (from The Stray Cats) 

https://youtu.be/vEtbfzMLVWU

An all time rockabilly classic by the era’s greatest retro band. That guitar solo by Setzer in this song is simply awesome. But the entire song is almost flawless in its presentation. 
Click to expand...
The Cats were so popular you could get a fake tattoo of a cat and pompadour -- The Stray Cat -- at carnies everywhere in rural CT/MA back around this time.

I know. I think I got one. :bag: Man, those cats.

They are still a darn fine band in my estimation to this day, Setzer's swing career notwithstanding. Setzer hits all the poor white boy checkmarks. Rock, check. Rockabilly, check. Texas and Western guitar-style swing, check, and with a heapin' helpin of sassafrass jazz. Guy's a do-it-all, jack-of-all-trades, crazy tomcat.

 
zamboni said:
Without looking it up, I think that title belongs to Physical.
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Holy crap.

Not single song from the Stones made the list.

Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1981

I have no idea how that is possible.  I have to imagine Tatoo You came out later in the year or they have an OAR hot-100 list because Start Me Up was a ubiquitous tune whenever we were cruising around.

Nope.  Not on 82's hot-100 either.  Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1982

At least waiting on a friend cracked the list at #94.  Wow.

 
Bracie Smathers said:
Holy crap.

Not single song from the Stones made the list.

Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1981

I have no idea how that is possible.  I have to imagine Tatoo You came out later in the year or they have an OAR hot-100 list because Start Me Up was a ubiquitous tune whenever we were cruising around.

Nope.  Not on 82's hot-100 either.  Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1982

At least waiting on a friend cracked the list at #94.  Wow.
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There is no year you can pull up of the Billboard Hot 100 where you will say, man, what great music!

It's the reflection of the stuff that appeals to the widest spectrum of people. It's always ####. 

*Theme  from Greatest American Hero at #11 is a great snapshot of 1981 musical purgatory. 

There is great music in 1981, obviously. There's great music every year. But when it was bad, ohhhh baby. 

 
15. J Geils Band “Centerfold” (from Freeze Frame) 

https://youtu.be/BqDjMZKf-wg

Peter Wolf and company had been around a long time before 1981 but it took MTV and this hilarious tune to turn them into huge stars for a short while. Yes the video has a bunch of scantily clad women in it but Wolf’s personality (and dancing skills) also feature; plus its a very catchy song. 

 
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