I got a good idea for a golf post from my Son but I said we’d take a break from that this week so we’ll table it for a bit. I had started this idea for Twitter awhile back but never finished or posted it because it’s somewhat unruly for that platform even in thread form. Anyway, if you know me you are aware I am passionate that the 1980’s are/were the best decade by every measure especially in music. Don’t believe me? I am going to demonstrate why in this post by giving you an essential album for any collector released in every single month of the decade (again, ALMOST. I’ll get to that). Rules of engagement are no Greatest Hits or Live cuts. Soundtracks and an occasional Country album are allowed. Obviously that means we will cover 120 albums with a cheat or two (patience, patience). There are countless others that just missed the cut so I’ll have an honorable mention for each year. Most are recognizable by name but I’ll include the covers for each if not. I have every one of these (I thought)* on CD and most I had on cassette before that. Except… Let’s just say they aren’t currently in my possession. Another story for another day. So get a cup of coffee or a tumbler of single malt as this will be lengthy. Now—before getting started I am well aware you could probably duplicate this for the 70’s and maybe the 90’s. No way in hell for the 00’s or 10’s. Whatever decade your teenage years were that’s very likely what you will prefer and that is fine. If anyone wants to take those projects on, I would be delighted to see it so hit me up. Off we go!
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January 14: Permanent Waves—Rush. Despite first dipping their toes into more radio friendly material this 7th album from Rush was not viewed as a “sell out” by fans or critics. Songs you know are “The Spirit of Radio” and “Freewill”.
February 29: Departure—Journey. This was pretty much Greg Rolie’s swan song with the band. Song you know is “Any Way You Want It”.
March 26: Women and Children First—Van Halen. Mercifully this Van Halen LP doesn’t feature any cover songs. Songs you know are “And the Cradle Will Rock” and “Everybody Wants Some”.
April 11: British Steel—Judas Priest. Many would say this is the best Priest LP and they are correct (I’m not a fan of Sad Wings of Destiny). Songs you know are “Living After Midnight” and “Breaking The Law”.
May: My Home’s in Alabama—Alabama. This was their 4th LP but the one that launched them to heights never dreamed by a country band. Songs you know are the title track, “Tennessee River”, and “Why Lady Why”.
June 27: Xanadu Soundtrack—Olivia Newton-John, ELO, Cliff Richard, and The Tubes. An absolutely laughable movie propped up by an elite record. Songs you know are probably most of them. But dial up Newton-John and The Tubes on YouTube doing “Dancin’” and thank me later.
July 25: Back in Black—AC/DC. Brian Johnson took over for the deceased Bon Scott and the band created its opus magnum. Not a bad Act II. Songs you know are the title track, “Hells Bells”, “Shoot to Thrill”, and “You Shook Me All Night Long”.
August 5: Crimes of Passion—Pat Benatar. Songs you know are “Hit Me with Your Best Shot”, “Treat Me Right”, and “You Better Run”. “You Better Run” was the second video ever shown on fledgling MTV.
September 12: Blizzard of Ozz—Ozzy Osbourne. Ozzy’s solo debut after being booted from Black Sabbath was a gamechanger for metal. Songs you know are several but my favorite two are “Crazy Train” and “Goodbye to Romance”.
October 8: Dirty Mind—Prince. A few years before superstardom real ones know this is when it started. Songs you (should) know are the title track, “When You Were Mine” and “Uptown”.
November 21: Hi Infidelity—REO Speedwagon. REO had been around for a long time and had moderate success but this was a whole new level. Songs you know are “Don’t Let Him Go”, “Keep On Loving You”, and “Take It on the Run”. “Tough Guys” is a semi deep cut to check out.
December 8: Flash Gordon Soundtrack—Queen. OK so this is the first chink in the armor. Hardly essential or even great. But I find the movie whimsically hilarious and the music fits it perfectly. Songs you know are probably none of them. You’d recognize some of the riffs and bass lines though.
1980 Honorable Mention
February: Sugarhill Gang—Sugarhill Gang, After Midnight—The Manhattans
March: Coal Miner’s Daughter Soundtrack—Sissy Spacek, On Through the Night—Def Leppard, Lost in Love—Air Supply
April: Empty Glass—Pete Townshend, One Eighty, Ambrosia, Robbie Dupree-Robbie Dupree
May: Joan Jett—Joan Jett (Re-released with new title Bad Reputation in Jan ‘81), 21 at 33—Elton John
June: Urban Cowboy Soundtrack—Various Artists
July: Voices—Hall & Oates
September: Celebrate!—Kool and the Gang
October: Boy—U2, Ace of Spades—Motorhead
November—9 to 5 and Odd Jobs—Dolly Parton, Autoamerican—Blondie, The Turn of a Friendly Card—The Alan Parsons Project
January 16: Paradise Theatre—Styx. A concept album conceived by Dennis DeYoung. An idea that went very wrong with their next offering, Kilroy Was Here. Songs you know are “Too Much Time on My Hands” and “The Best of Times”.
February 12: Moving Pictures—Rush. The best selling LP in the U.S. for the band to this day. Songs you know are “Tom Sawyer” and “Limelight”.
March 26: Fancy Free—The Oak Ridge Boys. This one is questionable but you couldn’t go anywhere that Summer and not hear “Elvira”. Songs you know are almost certainly only that one.
April: Mistaken Identity—Kim Carnes. Let me just say that 10 year old me had no idea how hot Kim Carnes was at the time. Today I would drop dead if a gal like that passed me on the street. Any youngsters reading this, check out “Bette Davis Eyes” on YouTube and you’ll agree. Songs you know are that one but probably no others.
May 5: Hard Promises—Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Song you know is “The Waiting”.
June 22: Fire of Unknown Origin—Blue Oyster Cult. Several songs on this LP were written for the movie Heavy Metal but only one made the cut. Song you know is “Burnin for You”.
July 17: Escape—Journey. Jonathan Cain replaced Greg Rolie on keyboards and Steve Perry graduated to sole lead vocalist. Things seemed to work out. This is a no skip LP but songs you know are “Don’t Stop Believin’, “Who’s Crying Now”, “Still They Ride”, “Stone in Love” and “Open Arms”.
August 24: Tattoo You—The Rolling Stones. This LP is probably not what you think. Consisting mostly of outtakes and song fragments that had to be completed, some a decade old, its almost a B side compilation. Songs you know are “Start Me Up”, and “Waiting on a Friend”.
September 1: Private Eyes—Hall & Oates. Songs you know are the title track, “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)”, and “Did It in a Minute”.
October 2: Ghost in the Machine—The Police. One of the most iconic album covers, the digital characters displayed are intended to depict the heads of the three band members. Songs you know are “Spirits in the Material World", “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”, and “Invisible Sun”.
November 20: For Those About To Rock—AC/DC. This was the finale of an unmatched trilogy of albums all produced by Mutt Lange. Lange never worked with the band again and it’s fair to point out future releases were uneven to be generous. Song you know is the title track and maybe “Let’s Get It Up”.
December 1?: Cool Night—Paul Davis. I loved the soft rock of the early 80’s (Christopher Cross, Dan Fogelberg, Robert John, Bertie Higgins, etc) and this album was near the conclusion of that genres run. The release date was really November 30 but what’s a day when you have a post to write with a theme and point to prove. Songs you know are the title track and “65 Love Affair”.
1981 Honorable Mention
January: The Nature of the Beast—April Wine
February: Point of Entry—Judas Priest, Working Class Dog—Rick Springfield, Face Value—Phil Collins, Wild-Eyed Southern Boys—38 Special, Being with You—Smokey Robinson, Feels So Right—Alabama, Juice—Juice Newton
April: Don’t Say No—Billy Squier, Fair Warning—Van Halen, Modern Times—Jefferson Starship
June: Duran Duran—Duran Duran, The One That You Love—Air Supply, In the Pocket—Commodores
July: High N’ Dry—Def Leppard, Beauty and the Beat—The Go-Go’s, 4—Foreigner, Bella Donna—Stevie Nicks, Time—ELO
August: The Innocent Age—Dan Fogelberg
September: Time Exposure—Little River Band, Abacab—Genesis, Worlds Apart—Saga
October: Get Lucky—Loverboy, October—U2, Controversy—Prince, Freeze Frame—The J. Geils Band, Physical—Olivia Newton-John, Dare—The Human League, Diary of a Madman—Ozzy Osbourne, Quarterflash—Quarterflash
November: Too Fast for Love—Motley Crue, Shake It Up—The Cars, Tonight I’m Yours—Rod Stewart, Business As Usual—Men At Work, I Love Rock N’ Roll—Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
January 29: Picture This—Huey Lewis and the News. I was never a big fan of these guys but they got on a pretty good run starting here. Songs you know are “Do You Believe in Love” and “Workin’ For a Livin’”.
February 25: Mountain Music—Alabama. Not sure I can think of any rock/pop band that could write a hit song in their sleep like these guys. The Eagles maybe. Songs you know are the title track and “Close Enough to Perfect”.
March 22: The Number of the Beast—Iron Maiden. This was the first Maiden album to have Bruce Dickinson on vocals. The cover art and religious allusions make me uneasy to this day as a Christian but I’ve since learned the ideas behind both. Songs you know are the title track and “Run to the Hills”.
April 8: Toto IV—Toto. For my money this record was as good as it gets for the first half of the decade. Incredible that a few of these guys were merely session musicians for a good stretch. Songs you know are “Rosanna”, “Africa”, and “I Won’t Hold You Back”.
May 10: Rio—Duran Duran. Duran Duran would have been successful no matter what. But I’m not sure they get AS big without the MTV firehose. Certainly no band gained more stroke out of non sensical song titles and lyrics. Songs you know are the title track, “Hungry Like the Wolf”, and “Save a Prayer”.
June 7: Chicago 16—Chicago. Chicago had been a successful act since the late 60’s but had been cold for several years prior to this mega hit. If you are my age the two singles were guaranteed on the playlist at Middle School dances. Those songs you know are “Hard To Say I’m Sorry” and “Love Me Tomorrow”.
July 30: Fast Times at Ridgemont High—Various Artists. There are several better choices for this month but this is THE teen movie for Gen X so I wanted to highlight it. The best pop deep cut of the decade, “Sleeping Angel” by Stevie Nicks is hidden in plain sight. Among others that weren’t lifted from previous releases are “Somebody’s Baby” by Jackson Browne and “Raised on the Radio” by Rob Fahey.
August: I Can’t Stand Still—Don Henley. This is Henley’s solo debut and of the five he released it is easily the least impressive. It still gets the nod here for lack of compelling competition. Song you know is “Dirty Laundry”.
September 9: Signals—Rush. For the third year in a row, mighty Rush makes an appearance. This LP furthered an emphasis on synthesizers and is my favorite in their catalogue. Songs you know are “Subdivisions” and “New World Man”.
October 27: 1999—Prince and the Revolution. I always wonder if Prince wrote the title track with any premonition it would be played even more 17 years later as the actual Millennial year approached than it was the year it was released. Other songs you know are “Little Red Corvette”, “Delirious”, and “Let’s Pretend We’re Married”.
November 29: Thriller—Michael Jackson. Nothing I can say about this that hasn’t been said so storytime. The ensuing summer after Thriller was released we took a family vacation by conversion van, an 11 hour jaunt one way at the time, to Disney World. I had brought along my trusty boom box and was fully armed with multiple backup packs of fat D sized Duracells. What I did not bring I realized to my horror about 45 minutes into the drive was my cassette case. Inside the player (thank the Lord) was Thriller of course. So we listened to that start to finish over and over again on both legs of the trip. After about playthrough number six my 59 year old Grandmother (who is still alive and turns 100 next month) started getting jiggy with it. At the close of “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” there is a chorus repeated 30+ times. Goes something like, “Ma-ma-se, ma-ma-sa, ma-ma-ko-squa”. Grandmother kept insisting they were saying “I’m goin to stay on the side of the mountainside”. Sounds about right to me. The other songs you know are all eight of them. Believe me.
December 6: Three Lock Box—Sammy Hagar. Now I am a big Sammy Hagar fan but I’ll admit calling this an essential LP is a reach. The thing I noticed researching this is record labels seemed to be very reluctant putting albums out in December in this era. Song you know is “Your Love is Driving Me Crazy”.
1982 Honorable Mention
January: Aldo Nova—Aldo Nova
February: Always On My Mind—Willie Nelson, Picture This—Huey Lewis and the News, Just Another Day in Paradise—Bertie Higgins
March: Asia—Asia, Success Hasn’t Spoiled Me Yet—Rick Springfield
April: Diver Down—Van Halen, American Fool—John Cougar, A Flock of Seagulls—A Flock of Seagulls, Jump Up!—Elton John, All Four One—The Motels
May: Eye in the Sky—The Alan Parsons Project, Special Forces—38 Special, After the Snow—Modern English, Now and Forever—Air Supply, One on One—Cheap Trick
June: Eye of the Tiger—Survivor, Good Trouble—REO Speedwagon, Abracadabara—Steve Miller Band, Daylight Again—Crosby, Stills, & Nash No Control—Eddie Money
July: Mirage—Fleetwood Mac, Screaming for Vengeance—Judas Priest, Pictures at Eleven—Robert Plant, Vacation—The Go-Go’s, Emotions in Motion—Billy Squier
August: Talking Back to the Night—Steve Winwood
September: Heartbreaker—Dionne Warwick
October: H2O—Hall & Oates, Kissing to be Clever—Culture Club, Get Nervous—Pat Benatar, Midnight Love—Marvin Gaye
November: Long After Dark—Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Hello! I Must Be Going—Phil Collins
January 20: Pyromania—Def Leppard. Some folks don’t realize Pete Willis is very present on this album before being replaced by Phil Collen due to alcoholism. Many fans bemoan the sound perfected later on Hysteria but the roots of moving away from metal were planted by Mutt Lange here. Hands down my favorite band of all time. Songs you know should be all of them if you’re smart. The only track I typically skip out of the ten is “Action! Not Words”.
February: Frontiers—Journey. It speaks to the brilliance of Escape that this LP is considered a step back in quality by most. Because Frontiers is fabulous but outside of the singles there isn’t much there. Songs you know are “Separate Ways”, “Faithfully”, “Send Her My Love”, and “After the Fall”.
March 23: Eliminator—ZZ Top. I don’t care for ZZ Top and personally this would not be my pick for this month. But culturally it’s the obvious choice despite a big reason being those smoking hot chics in the “Legs” video. Songs you know besides it are “Gimme All Your Lovin’” and “Sharped Dressed Man”.
April 11: Flashdance Soundtrack—Various Artists. Paramount Pictures had little faith in this movie which begat Casablanca Records and Polygram only pressing 60,000 copies of the Soundtrack which sold out essentially immediately. Songs you know are “Flashdance…What a Feeling” by Irene Cara and “Maniac” by Michael Sembello
May 25: Holy Diver—Dio. This was the debut album of Dio eponymously named after Ronnie James Dio who had departed Black Sabbath bringing drummer Vinnie Appice with him. Songs you know are the title track and “Rainbow in the Dark”.
June 17: Synchronicity—The Police. Appropriately the final recording from this trio, it was a worldwide smash and The Police were if ever so briefly the most significant band on the planet. Songs you know are “Every Breath You Take”, “King of Pain”, and “Wrapped Around Your Finger”.
July 15: The Principle of Moments—Robert Plant. Plant’s solo career is somewhat forgotten behind the shadow cast by Led Zeppelin. This however was his best effort headed by the haunting brilliance of “Big Log”. Phil Collins played drums on five tracks and actually performed on the North American swing of the tour. The other song you know is “In the Mood”.
August 8: An Innocent Man—Billy Joel. Joel was recently divorced and had since paired up with Christie Brinkley who was the most famous female face on the globe. She was expertly utilized for the video of “Uptown Girl” driving popularity. Other songs you know are the title track, “Tell Her About It”, and “The Longest Time”.
September 23: Shout at the Devil—Motley Crue. At the time of release this genre wasn’t my bag (which is funny now) but I came to enjoy the album as my interests changed. Irrespective of my tastes this was the LP that put the Crue front and center. Songs you know are the title track, “Looks That Kill”. and “Too Young to Fall in Love”.
October 14: Can’t Slow Down—Lionel Richie. Today this LP isn’t looked on like say Thriller or Purple Rain which is correct perspective. But I’ll tell you right now it was damn close and made Richie a very big deal for about five years. Songs you know are “All Night Long”, “Penny Lover”, “Hello”, “Stuck on You”, and “Running with the Night”.
November 21: Seven and the Ragged Tiger—Duran Duran. This was peak Duran Duran with regard to bizarrely named song titles and incomprehensible lyrics. It was widely derided by critics but teenagers ate it up, especially girls who were smitten by Simon LeBon and the Taylors, John & Andy, who are unrelated. Songs you know are “The Reflex”, “Is There Something I Should Know”, “New Moon on Monday”, and “Union of the Snake”.
December 2: Bark at the Moon—Ozzy Osbourne. OK, I had to cheat here. This LP was released November 18th in the U.S. but two weeks later in December in the UK. I’m telling you December is not a month that record companies wanted to be bothered with a marketing launch back then. Song you know is probably only the title track.
1983 Honorable Mention
January: Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)—Eurythmics, Cuts Like a Knife—Bryan Adams
February: War—U2, Metal Health—Quiet Riot
March: Burning Bridges—Naked Eyes, Living in Oz—Rick Springfield, The Closer You Get—Alabama, Error in the System—Peter Schilling
April: Headhunter—Krokus, Murmur—REM, Let’s Dance—David Bowie, Cargo—Men at Work, Outside Inside—The Tubes
May: Piece of Mind—Iron Maiden, Too Low for Zero—Elton John
June: The Wild Heart—Stevie Nicks, Speaking in Tongues—Talking Heads, Keep it Up—Loverboy
July: Kill ‘Em All—Metallica, Madonna—Madonna, The Crossing—Big Country, No Parlez—Paul Young, I Don’t Speak the Language—Matthew Wilder
August: Lawyers in Love—Jackson Browne, Alpha—Asia, Flick of the Switch—AC/DC
September: Sports—Huey Lewis and the News, Breaking the Chains—Dokken, Lick It Up—KISS, In Heat—The Romantics
October: Colour By Numbers—Culture Club, She’s So Unusual—Cyndi Lauper, Uh-huh—John Cougar Mellencamp, Midnight Madness—Night Ranger
November: 90215—Yes, Rebel Yell—Billy Idol, Break Out—Pointer Sisters, First Offense—Corey Hart, Tour de Force—38 Special, In the Heart—Kool & the Gang, You Broke My Heart in 17 Places—Tracey Ullman
January 9: 1984—Van Halen. This of course is the final Van Halen LP featuring David Lee Roth on vocals (for awhile anyway) and the best composition with this lineup despite what geezers 5-10 years older than me will tell you. In the end, Eddie was correct to incorporate keyboards and Roth was wrong. Songs you know are “Jump”, “Panama”, “Hot for Teacher”, and “I’ll Wait”.
February 17: Out of the Cellar—Ratt. There are a number of bands you could point to that chartered the glam metal boom. Quiet Riot, Twisted Sister, and Motley Crue come to mind. But to me this album is what kicked it into high gear powered by Stephen Pearcy’s acoustic vocals. BTW—that cover model is Tawny Kitaen of Whitesnake video fame. Songs you know are “Round and Round”, “Wanted Man” and “Back For More”.
March 13: Heartbeat City—The Cars. This was the 5th studio LP from The Cars and would become its most successful commercially by a wide margin. Stop me if you’ve heard this before but Mutt Lange stepped in as producer for the first time. I don’t know what artists paid that guy but it wasn’t enough. Songs you know are “You Might Think”, “Magic”. “Drive” and “Hello Again”.
April: Street Talk—Steve Perry. Perry’s first solo project was about what you would expect. With pipes like his it was going to be pretty unlikely he would fall on his face. Songs you know are “Oh Sherrie” and “Foolish Heart”.
May 29: Private Dancer—Tina Turner. Before I started driving on my own in late 1986 I very seldom heard any song cranked on a quality stereo. So down the road in time I heard some of these songs later and was shocked to find a lot of them really rock with the proper equipment. “Better Be Good To Me” from this LP is one of those. Give that a listen really loud if you have the means and you’ll see what I mean. Other songs you know are the title track and “What’s Love Got to Do with It”.
June 25: Purple Rain—Prince and the Revolution. The Prince catalogue is so extensive that you would have difficulty getting any two diehard fans to agree on which was his best. Allow me to set the record straight, this is his masterpiece. 24 consecutive weeks as the #1 album in the land, a chart position in the Top 200 for over three years, 13X platinum with 25 million copies sold worldwide and four Top 10 singles including two #1’s is persuasive evidence. You should know all nine songs. “Computer Blue” is the weak, skippable number.
July 27: Ride The Lightning—Metallica. From the triumvirate of Cliff Burton participated albums this one stands alone in my opinion. And if anyone tells you Metallica sold out and got soft, pop this in for them which features some acoustic guitar and actual harmonies. They were never totally a thrash/speed metal band. Songs you should know are “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “Fade to Black”.
August 17: W.A.S.P—W.A.S.P. Of all the metal bands in the 80’s from any style my view is W.A.S.P. is the most underrated and unappreciated. Blackie Lawless could REALLY belt it out and was terrific on bass. He very much painted himself in a corner with the imagery to where his music was a sideshow. Song you (might) know is “I Wanna Be Somebody”.
September 3: Powerslave—Iron Maiden. You could take a specific song from this album, put 40 minutes of dead air around it and release it like that and it would still make this list. That song is “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” a 14 minute epic paying tribute to the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem of the same name. With lyrics borrowing from the poem verbatim, multiple tempo changes with separate sections, and the master Steve Harris providing a clinic on how to make bass guitar something beyond thump-thump-thump on the top two strings this song has no metal peer. Other songs you should know are “Aces High” and “Two Minutes to Midnight”.
October 1: The Unforgettable Fire—U2. U2 had yet to throw its best pitch and this offering is not it either (was coming soon though). But as a fan you had to like most of all that each album trended upward in quality thus far. Song you know is “Pride (In the Name of Love)”.
November 12: Like a Virgin—Madonna. Madonna was no virgin to the music industry or otherwise (allegedly). But this marked a Rubicon crossing of fame and success few have ever forded. It is easy to forget the hypnotic trance this woman put teen boys in when seeing the house of horrors she has allowed evidently Frankenstein to create today. The quality of her music is almost cloaked but make no mistake, it was top shelf and would continue to be well after this. Songs you know are the title track, “Material Girl”, “Angel”, “Dress You Up” and “Into the Groove” (added in an 1985 re-release).
December 14: Agent Provocateur—Foreigner. This follow up to the classic 4 was mostly savaged by critics. Which should tell you how miserable the majority of that industry is since this is an excellent album headlined by two hit singles one of which was Foreigner’s only #1. Those songs you should know are “I Want to Know What Love Is” and “That Was Yesterday”.
1984 Honorable Mention
January: Learning To Crawl—The Pretenders, Defenders of the Faith—Judas Priest, Bon Jovi—Bon Jovi, Footloose Soundtrack—Various Artists, Slide It In—Whitesnake, Roll On—Alabama
February: It’s My Life—Talk Talk, Ammonia Avenue—The Alan Parsons Project, Into the Gap—Thompson Twins, Let the Music Play—Shannon
March: Rising Force—Yngwie Malmsteen, Love at First Sting—Scorpions, Human’s Lib—Howard Jones
April: Bananarama—Bananarama
May: Stay Hungry—Twisted Sister, Chicago 17—Chicago
June: Born in the U.S.A—Bruce Springsteen, No Brakes—John Waite, Breaking Hearts—Elton John
July: The Last in Line—Dio, VOA—Sammy Hagar
September: Animalize—KISS, Tooth and Nail—Dokken, Forever Young—Alphaville, Vital Signs—Survivor
October: Big Bam Boom—Hall & Oates
November: Make It Big—Wham!, Reckless—Bryan Adams, Wheels Are Turnin’—REO Speedwagon, Building the Perfect Beast—Don Henley, Emergency—Kool & the Gang, Giuffria—Giuffria
January 14: Centerfield—John Fogerty. This was the first released work from Fogerty in close to ten years for a variety of reasons not the least of which was burnout. He played all instruments on the album. No other musician was credited except in a 2010 re-release when two bonus tracks were added. Songs you know are the title track and “The Old Man Down the Road”.
February 14: Whitney Houston—Whitney Houston. Houston’s self titled debut had tepid uptake in sales initially but eventually reached #1 in seven countries and spawned three #1 singles on Billboard. Songs you know are “You Give Good Love”, “Saving All My Love For You”, “How Will I Know” and “Greatest Love of All”.
March 27: 7800 Fahrenheit—Bon Jovi. Similar to U2 around this time Bon Jovi was just on the periphery of superstardom. This album is tremendous although the band long ago abandoned it for live shows. Songs you should know are “In and Out of Love” and “Silent Night”.
April 22: Around the World in a Day—Prince and the Revolution. If you were a Prince fan, and I was a complete sheep at the time, this was your wake up call that 1999/Purple Rain were in the rearview mirror. Some have hung the psychedelic label on the whole deal from the cover art down and much of it is an acquired taste but it still rang cash registers commercially. Songs you should know are “Raspberry Beret” and “Pop Life”.
May 17: Brothers in Arms—Dire Straits. For my age group we didn’t know anything of Dire Straits other than perhaps “Sultans of Swing” for some of us. This LP changed that and introduced us to an unrealized guitar god in Mark Knopfler. Songs you should know are “Money For Nothing” and “Walk of Life”.
June 21: Heart—Heart. Anytime you hear someone talking about a band and they say something like, “I only like OLD (fill in the blank)” you can almost certainly regard them a fool. Because around this time you heard this refrain about Heart. A lot. Nothing they ever did approaches this record (or their next) song for song and Ann Wilson’s voice likely couldn’t be matched by an Archangel. Songs you should know are “Never”, “What About Love”, “These Dreams”, and “Nothin’ At All”.
July 31: Scarecrow—John Cougar Mellencamp. This album marked a determination by Mellencamp to fashion himself as a quasi Marxist rather than a rock singer. From a messaging perspective he was terrible at it because absolutely no one got what he was bemoaning. The songs for what they were though were excellent per usual. Songs you know are “R.O.C.K in the U.S.A”, “Lonely Ol’ Night”, and “Small Town”.
August: Lovin’ Every Minute of It—Loverboy. This would be the conclusion for Loverboy as a major force in the industry. Not my favorite of their work but a solid effort reaching double platinum. Songs you should know are the title track and “This Could Be the Night”.
September 16: Asylum—KISS. Sans makeup KISS albums of the 80’s were a mixed bag for most. I have no problem with any of them really but this is probably the best of the bunch on the whole albeit with the weakest single. Songs you should know are “Tears Are Falling” and maybe “Uh! All Night”.
October 21: Once Upon a Time—Simple Minds. Simple Minds was an accomplished act in the UK before The Breakfast Club and “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”. Largely unknown in the U.S. prior to that but they were no one hit wonder. This LP legitimized them as supremely gifted songwriters for Americans. Songs you should know are “Alive and Kicking”, “Sanctify Yourself”, and “All the Things She Said”.
November 27: Welcome to the Real World—Mr. Mister. First let me say that I love, LOVE this album. “Kyrie” is probably in my Top 10 songs ever. Damned if I know how they couldn’t follow up with anything at all of quality. Songs you should know in addition to “Kyrie” are “Broken Wings” and “Is It Love”.
December: And friends it is here that we reach the end of the road and I wave a white flag. There was nothing released in December of 1985 that I can even pretend is worth owning. Nor is anything close enough by date to fudge as I did in 1981 and 1983. I am very surprised and disappointed that we couldn’t pull this off as it’s the entire point of the post. But with four years left we might as well finish the race. Pour you another round of your beverage of choice! Oh wait! First, honorable mentions.
1985 Honorable Mention
January: Nightshift—Commodores
February: Vision Quest Soundtrack—Various Artists, No Jacket Required—Phil Collins, Rhythm of the Night—DeBarge, Songs From the Big Chair—Tears for Fears
March: Dream into Action—Howard Jones, Southern Accents—Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Secret of Association—Paul Young
April: Nervous Night—The Hooters
May: 7 Wishes—Night Ranger
June: Killing Is My Business… and Business Is Good—Megadeth, Invasion of Your Privacy—Ratt, The Dream of the Blue Turtles—Sting, Theatre of Pain—Motley Crue, Boy in the Box—Corey Hart
July: Fly on the Wall—AC/DC, Who’s Zoomin’ Who?—Aretha Franklin, St. Elmo’s Fire Soundtrack—Various Artists
August: Primitive Love—Miami Sound Machine
September: Living in the Background—Baltimora, Knee Deep in the Hoopla—Starship, Without Love—Black ‘n Blue
October: Mike + The Mechanics—Mike + The Mechanics, Listen Like Thieves—INXS, The Last Command—W.A.S.P., Afterburner—ZZ Top, Hunting High and Low—A-ha, Love—The Cult
November: Rock a Little—Stevie Nicks, The Dream Academy—The Dream Academy, Ice on Fire—Elton John
January 10: Different Light—Bangles. I have the polarizing opinion that “Walk Like an Egyptian” is barely to the good side of pig offal but that is a minority point of view. There is more to the album than that though and its quite good. Related—Susanna Hoffs was impossibly beautiful and remains so at 65 years old. She is fairly active on social media and seems completely uncorrupted by her former fame. Such a nice lady, very grounded and down to earth. Other songs you should know are “Manic Monday” and “If She Knew What She Wants”.
February 4: Control—Janet Jackson. Within the Jackson family only Janet came anywhere near the commercial highs of phenom Michael (she would actually surpass him in many ways). This was the first of a two album back to back tour de force. Songs you know are many including “What Have You Done For Me Lately”, “Nasty”, “When I Think of You”, “Control”, and “Let’s Wait Awhile”.
March 24: 5150—Van Halen. The first of four LP’s with Sammy Hagar as frontman remains divisive among fans to this day. Some of the Roth fanboys just cannot accept the reality that the band is much better as constructed here and that 5150 is alone at the summit of the catalogue. The only song that is a throw away is the finale. Songs you should know are all of the other eight but notably “Dreams”, “Why Can’t This be Love”, “Love Walks In”, “Summer Nights”, “Best of Both Worlds”, and the title track.
April 21: Raised on Radio—Journey. This would be the last Journey album for ten years and essentially the finale for Steve Perry as the band’s vocalist. It ranks pretty low for most hard core fans with no seminal songs but still featured a handful of at minimum marginal hits. Songs you may know are “Be Good to Yourself”, “The Girl Can’t Help It”, and “I’ll Be Alright Without You”.
May 19: So—Peter Gabriel. I don’t care for Gabriel at all either solo or with Genesis but this album was lauded to the moon by critics. That said, “In Your Eyes” alone makes it impossible to leave off as the choice for this month although there are several others I personally prefer. Other songs you should know are “Sledgehammer” and “Big Time”.
June 30: True Blue—Madonna. You would be hard pressed to identify the cultural pinnacle for Madonna but here would be a good guess. Embroiled in what would prove to be a debacle of a marriage to Sean Penn would emerge one of the best selling albums of all time including three #1 hits. Songs you know are the title track, “Papa Don’t Preach”, “Live To Tell”, and “Open Your Heart”.
July 14: True Confessions—Bananarama. Dimissed as three pretty faces (and boy were they ever) during the “Cruel Summer” phase, this album was critically acclaimed. It contains their only #1 song, “Venus”, which was a cover from Shocking Blue of 1969. Three other singles were released and I have no memory of any of them.
August 18: Slippery When Wet—Bon Jovi. If as I contended earlier that Ratt kicked off the glam metal boom then Bon Jovi crystallized it here with the best selling album of the year eventually going 12X platinum. The songs you definitely know are “Living on a Prayer” and “Wanted Dead or Alive” but every cut is excellent with no skips. A perfect album in my view.
September 29: Somewhere In Time—Iron Maiden. The follow up to Powerslave, these are 1A and 1B in the band’s catalogue for my money. This is the first Maiden album to use synthesizers. Evidently virtually none of the songs here are played live today which blows my mind. Songs you should know are “Wasted Years” and “Stranger in a Strange Land”.
October 7: Reign In Blood—Slayer. I’ll tell you right now this is NOT my kind of music. But this month has no other obvious candidate so I thought I would throw a bone to the thrash metal acolytes with what is supposedly one of the crown jewels. Songs you know beats me. Feel free to recommend any.
November 15: Licensed To Ill—Beastie Boys. And here is another from a genre I wouldn’t give a squirt of piss for, what was called rap at the time. This isn’t even the LP considered their best. That would follow with Paul’s Boutique which I also own and never unwrapped the cellophane. Songs you probably know are “(You Gotta Fight) For Your Right (To Party!)”, “Brass Monkey”, and “No Sleep till Brooklyn”.
December 8: Mechanical Resonance—Tesla. I have always maintained Tesla is the most underrated band of the entire decade. Most folks know “Love Song” and the cover of “Signs” from the live Five Man Acoustical Jam. But this was their debut and the first of two absolutely banging albums. They were also outrageously good live. Songs you SHOULD know are “Modern Day Cowboy”, “Little Suzi” and “Changes” to name a few.
1986 Honorable Mention
February: The Ultimate Sin—Ozzy Osbourne, Shake You Down—Gregory Abbott
March: Master of Puppets—Metallica, Parade (from Under the Cherry Moon)—Prince and the Revolution, Please—Pet Shop Boys
April: Turbo—Judas Priest, The Way It Is—Bruce Hornsby and the Range
May: Top Gun Soundtrack—Various Artists, Look What the Cat Dragged In—Poison, Who Made Who—AC/DC, GTR—GTR, The Final Countdown—Europe
June: Belinda—Belinda Carlisle, Invisible Touch—Genesis, Night Songs—Cinderella, The Thin Red Line—Glass Tiger, Music from the Edge of Heaven—Wham!, Back in the High Life—Steve Winwood
August: Dancing on the Ceiling—Lionel Richie, Fore!—Huey Lewis and the News, Fahrenheit—Toto, Graceland—Paul Simon, Can’t Hold Back—Eddie Money
September: True Colors—Cyndi Lauper, Peace Sells…but Who’s Buying—Megadeth, Dancing Undercover—Ratt, Third Stage—Boston, This Side of Paradise—Ric Ocasek
October: Inside the Electric Circus—W.A.S.P., The Lace—Benjamin Orr, One to One—Howard Jones
November: Broadcast—Cutting Crew, Forever—Kool & the Gang
January 14: Don’t Disturb This Groove—The System. Not a lot to choose from here so this is a bit obscure. But the title track is a marvelous, soothing song. Another you might know is “Nighttime Lover”.
February 6: Life As We Know It—REO Speedwagon. This was the last stop for REO as a popular act, my first favorite rock band, and what a run they had. They still perform live today (I am told competently) but without lead guitarist Gary Richrath who passed in 2015 and original drummer Alan Gratzer. Songs you should know are “That Ain’t Love” and “In My Dreams”.
March 9: The Joshua Tree—U2. Prior to this I could take U2 or leave them. And the first single, “With or Without You” I didn’t think was any great shakes or even the second, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”. But the third, “Where the Streets Have No Name”, intro’d with a repeating guitar arpeggio that captivated me and I took a real look at their whole body of work for the first time. After The Police disbanded no group had taken the world’s biggest band Championship belt but we had a new titleholder.
April 13: Tango in the Night—Fleetwood Mac. This was the final studio release from the band with its most accomplished lineup and they went out with a bang selling 15 million copies. Turmoil during recording made the Rumors era look like an episode of Happy Days by comparison. Songs you know are “Seven Wonders”, “Everywhere”, and “Little Lies”.
May 15: Girls, Girls, Girls—Motley Crue. Some fans from the beginning bemoaned the shift away from a heavy sound but that ship had long sailed with the mediocre Theatre of Pain. I judge an album by how likely you are to sit through the whole thing and this was the first from Crue that it was no chore at all. Songs you know are the title track, “Wild Side”, and “You’re All I Need”. (I nominated You’re All I Need for our prom theme and it was rejected. Which if you look at the lyrics carefully was probably wise).
June 15: Richard Marx—Richard Marx. Marx was absolutely insufferable on Twitter for awhile but it seems he’s thought better of that recently. My politics aside he was/is a fantastic composer. On this album Randy Meisner, Joe Walsh, and Timothy B. Schmidt of the Eagles are credited performers. Songs you know are “Hold On to the Nights”, “Should’ve Known Better”, “Endless Summer Nights”, and “Don’t Mean Nothing”.
July 21: Appetite for Destruction—Guns N’ Roses. Not sure any band ever got more mileage out of one album. Nothing afterward was worth a bucket of chaw spit and I’ll die on that hill. I mean I liked this one fine at the time but it hasn’t aged well. Probably due to overplaying. It’s the 7th best selling album in U.S. history for a reason though. My disconnect comes when the apologists want to act like they are Led Zeppelin. Songs you know are “Welcome to the Jungle”, “Paradise City”, and “Sweet Child o’ Mine”.
August 3: Hysteria—Def Leppard. My favorite album from my favorite band of all time, I could write a whole post just on this. Most everyone knows Mutt Lange’s goal was to create a rock version of Thriller where every song could be a successful single. And that is absolutely what they accomplished albeit after many years of trials and tribulation. There are no skips here and I couldn’t identify even one weak track. Except… The lead single in the U.S. and Canada was “Women” and it was received lukewarmly at best, peaking at 80 on Billboard. With all that was at stake monetarily and all the other songs they had to choose from this was really playing with fire. Some labels may have thrown in the towel right away but with what was invested they pressed on. The rest is history. Songs you definitely know are “Animal”, “Armadeddon It”, “Rocket”, “Love Bites”, “Pour Some Sugar On Me”, and the title track.
September 7: A Momentary Lapse of Reason—Pink Floyd. Like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd’s most celebrated work came largely before my time. This was the first release I had really given any attention to. It was also the first Floyd LP that was not a concept album and the first not to include founding member Roger Waters. Waters threatened legal proceedings over the use of the band name among other things and carried that out. There were many lawyers and billable hours. Songs you should know are “On the Turning Away” and “Learning to Fly”.
October 30: Faith—George Michael. People who know me now would be very surprised that I was a heavy consumer of British pop at one time. Culture Club, Duran Duran, UB40, and yes, Wham!. By this time I had fully converted to metal however, mostly of the glam variety. But there is no denying the impact of this LP, outselling every record in this most prolific year with the possible exception of Appetite for Destruction (I don’t trust sales figure reports). Songs you know are the title track, “Father Figure”, “Monkey”, “I Want Your Sex”, and “One More Try”.
November 2: Back for the Attack—Dokken. Within any subset of metal, few if any bands could match the talent on lead vocals and guitar like the duo of Don Dokken and George Lynch. Because of that a label of underachievement had long been hung on them. Several good albums had been produced but there was always the sense truly great had eluded them. It’s a fair criticism and this album doesn’t put that argument to sleep but it’s probably the closest they came to meeting their potential. Songs you might know are “Dream Warriors” and “Burning Like a Flame”.
December 7: Inside Information—Foreigner. Like fellow late 70’s and 80’s stalwart REO Speedwagon in February, this would mark the end of Foreigner as a relevant act with Lou Gramm departing the band afterwards. This was forecasted on the video for the spectacularly underrated ballad “I Don’t Want to Live Without You” when only clips of classic movies were shown with no participation by any band member. Other songs you should know are “Say You Will” and “Heart Turns to Stone”.
1987 Honorable Mention
February: Ready or Not—Lou Gramm, Jody Watley—Jodi Watley
March: Whitesnake (1987)—Whitesnake, Sign o’ the Times—Prince
May: Always & Forever—Randy Travis, Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt. 1—Helloween, Bad Animals—Heart
June: Pride—White Lion, Let It Lose—Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine, Once Bitten—Great White
July: Frehley’s Comet—Ace Frehley
August: Dirty Dancing Soundtrack—Various Artists, Out of the Blue—Debbie Gibson, The $5.98 E.P.-Garage Days Revisited—Metallica, The Lonesome Jubilee—John Mellencamp, Bad—Michael Jackson, Document—REM, Permanent Vacation—Aerosmith
September: Actually—Pet Shop Boys, Big Generator—Yes, Crazy Nights—KISS, Hall of the Mountain King—Savatage
October: Tunnel of Love—Bruce Springsteen, Heaven on Earth—Belinda Carlisle, Surfing with the Alien—Joe Satriani, Kick—INXS
November: Whenever You Need Somebody—Rick Astley, Less than Zero Soundtrack—Various Artists
January 19: Tell It to My Heart—Taylor Dayne. Sort of like Kim Carnes way back in 1981, Taylor Dayne was unreasonably beautiful. Except this time around I was 17 and very well aware. Two covers were printed for the album. Represented here is the second, more conservative version. Songs you know are the title track, “Prove Your Love”, “Don’t Rush Me”, and “I’ll Always Love You”.
February 1: Blow Up Your Video—AC/DC. After indifferent efforts in their prior two full studio albums with Flick of the Switch and Fly on the Wall, AC/DC rebounded nicely here. At least from a recognizable song perspective and commercially. Songs you should know are “Heatseeker” and “That’s the Way I Wanna Rock N’ Roll”.
March: What Up, Dog?—Was (Not Was). Definitely not “essential” or my cup of joe then or now but this month was particularly abysmal. At least this made a mark with some of the audience. Song you know is “Walk the Dinosaur”.
April 27: Open Up and Say… Ahh!. The first time I heard the opening riff to “Nothin’ But a Good Time” was the World Premier of the video on MTV about three weeks before the album was available in stores. And I said to myself, “OK these guys were no fluke, we may have something here”. The bellwether is the best power ballad of all time, “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”. Mocked by metal purists they followed up with an even better record in 1990, Flesh & Blood as the first leaves of Autumn fell on the metal boom. Other songs you should know are “Fallen Angel” and a cover of the Loggins and Messina hit “Your Mama Don’t Dance”.
May 20: OU812—Van Halen. The album title is likely a dig at David Lee Roth who had released Eat Em’ and Smile in 1986 but that could be urban legend. I find it to be slightly inferior to 5150 but what wouldn’t be. Songs you should know are “When It’s Love”, “Black and Blue”, “Feels So Good”, and “Finish What Ya Started”.
June 20: Roll With It—Steve Winwood. Make a list of the most purely talented musicians of the 80’s and you’re going to come to Winwood pretty quick. The man could do it all. Songs you should know are the title track and the fabulous night driving song, “Don’t You Know What the Night Can Do” which is regrettably most remembered from a Michelob ad.
July 5: Long Cold Winter—Cinderella. Probably no band of this era is more unfairly maligned with the hair metal slur than Cinderella. These guys could go. If you like AC/DC or even The Black Crowes you should like this band unless being intentionally obtuse. I always felt the band name did them no favors. Songs you should know are “The Last Mile”, “Coming Home”, “Gypsy Road”, and “Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone)”.
August 8: Straight Outta Compton—N.W.A. The band name should not be confused with the National Wrestling Alliance. Ahem. Anyway, this is not my deal and not interested in it so I will withhold further comment. I’m putting it in here because you have to for a legitimate 80’s history. “Songs” you should know I am told by the Google machine are the title track, “Gangsta, Gangsta” and “Express Yourself”.
September 19: New Jersey—Bon Jovi. Bon Jovi put a lot of pressure on themselves to follow up Slippery When Wet with similar success and got back in the studio right away after concluding touring. While it lacks the iconic song such as “Living on a Prayer” or “Wanted Dead or Alive” and it fell short of Slippery’s sales figures, my belief is this is a better overall record front to back. Songs you know are “Bad Medicine”, “Born To Be My Baby”, “I’ll Be There For You”, “Living In Sin”, and “Lay Your Hands On Me”. A marvelous deep cut is “Ride Cowboy Ride”, a short recorded in mono that leads immediately into “Stick to Your Guns”.
October 10: Rattle and Hum—U2. The rules I set way back in the beginning were no live albums so I’m cheating a little here. But this was a live/studio combo (plus a documentary) and had enough sufficient new material that I’m making an exception. This got ripped pretty hard by critics. For no other reason than people hate others being successful best I can tell. Songs you know are “Desire”, “Angel of Harlem” and “All I Want Is You”, the last being an out of body experience to hear live.
November 7: Green—R.E.M. I’ll just say I don’t like this group in any way from their look and music to specifically their messaging. I said in my prelude I own every one of these albums. That turns out to be false as I do not have this one. But it’s the correct choice here in a weak month that did feature multiple must have Greatest Hits comps. Only song you definitely know is “Stand”.
December: We have yet another December with no suitable candidate. If I knew then what I knew now I would have lobbied the record companies to get off their asses in December as it was going to mess up my Substack post 40 years later.
1988 Honorable Mention
January: So Far, So Good… So What!—Megadeth
February: The Seventh One—Toto, Tattooed Beat Messiah—Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction, Now and Zen—Robert Plant
March: No Exit—Fates Warning
April: Seventh Son of a Seventh Son—Iron Maiden, Lap of Luxury—Cheap Trick, Savage Amusem*nt—Scorpions, Reel Life—Boy Meets Girl
May: Operation: Mindcrime—Queensrych, Vivid—Living Colour, Lovesexy—Prince, Ram It Down—Judas Priest, Out Of Order—Rod Stewart, When in Rome—When in Rome
June: Small World—Huey Lewis and the News, Don’t Be Cruel—Bobby Brown, Forever Your Girl—Paula Abdul, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back—Public Enemy
July: Wide Awake in Dreamland—Pat Benatar
August: Winger—Winger, Hangin’ Tough—New Kids on the Block, Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt 2—Helloween
September: …And Justice For All—Metallica, Blow My Fuse—Kix, BulletBoys—BulletBoys, No Rest for the Wicked—Ozzy Osbourne
October: Look Sharp!—Roxette, Living Years—Mike + The Mechanics
November: Reach for the Sky—Ratt, G N’ R Lies—Guns N’ Roses
January 31: Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich—Warrant. Sort of viewed as a little brother to Poison, Warrant garnered little respect among the self appointed music czar’s. I’ll concede that as a group this was clearly not a collection of elite musicians. Almost no one believes credited guitarists Joey Allen and Erik Turner played much if any on the recording. The exception was the tragic frontman, Jani Lane who had exceptional vocal range and was a topflight songwriter. A delightful collection of singles you should know were “Down Boys”, “Heaven”, “Sometimes She Cries”, and “Big Talk”.
February 1: The Great Radio Controversy—Tesla. I already pimped for Tesla in 1986 so no need to do it again. I don’t listen to this one AS MUCH as Mechanical Resonance but picking between the two is kind of like having a ribeye or a porterhouse available. Songs you should know are the already mentioned “Love Song” plus “Hang Tough”, “The Way It Is”, and “Heaven’s Trail (No Way Out)”.
March 21: Like a Prayer—Madonna. Incredibly, Madonna had already turned 30 and as she always seemed to, smelled the winds of change in the industry. For the first time she put sex on the periphery (relative to her norms) and pivoted from the teen market. The result was yet another multiplatinum blockbuster. The lead single was the title track featuring an absurd and offensive video that was rightly savaged by the Vatican and cost her tour sponsorship from Pepsi. It was a pointless misstep in my view but likely only greased her popularity because that is planet earth. Prince co-produced and played guitar on some tracks uncredited. Other songs you know are “Express Yourself” and “Cherish”.
April 12: …Twice Shy—Great White. This was the sequel to the far superior Once Bitten (an album with the most pristine production I have ever heard to this day) from 1987. This though was much more popular by sales owing mostly to the lead single, a cover of Ian Hunter’s “Once Bitten, Twice Shy”. The video exploited a pack of smokeshow models, one of which was Bobbie Brown who would later “star” in Warrant’s “Cherry Pie” video. That led to a brief marriage with lead singer Jani Lane and although the payload wasn’t delivered for about 20 years, he never got over her and OD’d on alcohol at age 47. But I digress. Other songs you might know are “The Angel Song” and “House of Broken Love”.
May 30: The Other Side of the Mirror—Stevie Nicks. To me this is the most overlooked work on the Nicks CV. It only had one hit single, the FABULOUS “Rooms on Fire” and it somehow didn’t penetrate the Billboard Top 10. The rest of the record though is close to as good as any of her other solo work. The other songs you might know are “Long Way to Go” and “Whole Lotta Trouble”.
June 27: The End of the Innocence—Don Henley. This is Henley’s best solo work top to bottom and would be his last until 2000. It’s a de facto Greatest Hits collection with four perfect singles led by “Heart of the Matter” hallmarked by the most poignant lyrics he has written. Folks would be well served to take the message to heart, me most of all. The others you definitely know are the title track, “New York Minute”, and “The Last Worthless Evening”.
July 25: Paul’s Boutique—Beastie Boys. Unlike Licensed to Ill which we highlighted in 1986, I’ve never heard a song on this despite it being in my CD cabinet. MAYBE “Hey Ladies”. Sort of sounds familiar. But it is supposed to be some huge groundbreaking deal according to The Rolling Stone types and there is no other obvious choice for this month so I’m putting it on here. Don’t say I ignored the rap demo.
August 28: Dr. Feelgood—Motley Crue. You want to know how vivid this release date is for me? It was the very first day of class for my Freshman year in college. I raced from campus around noon to the mall and the then music retailer Record Bar. You know how they say you never know when is the last time you will do something at the time? Like playing wiffle ball with your neighborhood friends for example. I have not anticipated an album or bought one on it’s release day since and I did it for years routinely. It was a real demarcation line where my interests changed, responsibilities increased, and the industry soon left me behind with the grunge takeover. I wasn’t even 19. Anyway this is the Crue’s peak both creatively and commercially despite being stripped of any semblance of metal. Which was fine because the songs were outstanding almost uniformly. Those you know are the title track, “Kickstart My Heart”, “Without You”, “Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)” and “Same Ol’ Situation (S.O.S.)”.
September 19: Rhythm Nation 1814—Janet Jackson. The follow up to Control was more successful by any metric if measuring by Billboard charts and sales rather than quality. Although maybe it held the trump card there too, I dunno. There are many superlatives I could list but the one that jumps out is it became the first album to produce #1 hits on the Hot 100 in three separate calendar years— “Miss You Much” in ‘89, “Escapade” and “Black Cat” in ‘90. and “Love Will Never Do (Without You)” in ‘91. Three others made the Top 5— “Rhythm Nation”, “Come Back to Me”, and “Alright”. For perspective, her older brother Michael’s Thriller which is thought to be the gold standard also produced seven singles but only five placed in the Top 5 and but two reached #1.
October 17: Hot in the Shade—KISS. This would be the penultimate KISS album that was at all relevant. Revenge in 1992 would tie the bow although they’ve kept going to an extent as I’m sure you are painfully aware. All in all it’s a pretty solid KISS LP with “Hide Your Heart”, “Forever”, and “Rise To It” songs you might know. An interesting quirk is that former guitarist Ace Frehley released Trouble Walkin’ as a solo LP just four days before on October 13. He recorded his own version of “Hide Your Heart” (which was written by Paul Stanley) on his album but it was not released as a single.
November 7: Slip of the Tongue—Whitesnake. You ever notice when a pro golfer shoots a low score like 64 they usually follow it up with a 75 the next day? That’s pretty much what happened here in trying to match the success of the self titled masterpiece from 1987. Neither Vivian Campbell or Adrian Vandenberg returned on guitar for different reasons and virtuoso Steve Vai was recruited as a mercenary. It was one of those deals where it didn’t work despite the talent on the team. Personally I rather liked the album and was particularly obsessed with “Now You’re Gone” one week at Myrtle Beach the next summer. But it sold only half of what it’s predecessor did and was considered a disappointment. Other songs you may know are “Fool For Your Loving” and “The Deeper the Love”.
December 1: Gutter Ballet—Savatage. Appropriate we reach the end of the decade with a gutter. Because that’s what the 90’s would render when grunge was ushered in. That aside, if you aren’t a big fan of heavier metal such as Testament, Metal Church, Crimson Glory, etc. (and I’m mostly not myself) you may have overlooked Savatage. But this album was a shift to a more melodic sound on some tracks and is PHENOMENAL. I highly recommend, especially the title track and “When the Crowds Are Gone”.
1989 Honorable Mention
January: Electric Youth—Debbie Gibson, Skid Row—Skid Row, The Raw and the Cooked—Fine Young Cannibals
February: As Nasty As They Wanna Be—2 Live Crew
March: Girl You Know It’s True—Milli Vanilli, Larger Than Life—Jody Watley, Alannah Myles—Alannah Myles, Cross That Line—Howard Jones
April: Garth Brooks—Garth Brooks, Sonic Temple—The Cult, Full Moon Fever—Tom Petty, Repeat Offender—Richard Marx
May: Disintegration—The Cure, Cycles—The Doobie Brothers, A Night to Remember—Cyndi Lauper
June: Raw Like Sushi—Nenah Cherry, Soul Provider—Michael Bolton, The Real Thing—Faith No More, Bad English—Bad English
July: Heart of Stone—Cher, Cuts Both Ways—Gloria Estefan
August: Big Game—White Lion, Steel Wheels—The Rolling Stones, Enuff Z’nuff—Enuff Z’nuff, co*cked & Loaded—LA Guns
September: Wake Me When It’s Over—Faster puss*cat, Pump—Aerosmith, Foreign Affair—Tina Turner, Legacy—Poco
October: Runaway Horses—Belinda Carlisle, Trouble Walkin’—Ace Frehley, Can’t Fight Fate—Taylor Dayne
November: …But Seriously—Phil Collins
Shew. That was a fun look back for me but a heckuva lot of work. I’ve been piddling with this for about six months. Unfortunately my premise of the whole post lost a photo finish. And really that is charitable. Some of the months I credited certainly are not “essential” albums to a collector. But we found that out of 120 months at least a good and usually great new album was available to sample and buy in 116 of them. Besides the 118 (I cheated in 1981 and 1983) that were highlighted we also identified another 317 that provided the Soundtrack of my and maybe your formative years. That’s (at least) 433 total albums worth having, an average of 3.5 per month. I am further convinced the 1980’s are without peer in great music both in quality and quantity. My interest is peaked enough to maybe do the 70’s and/or the 90’s eventually. The 70’s however would likely not be very accurate considering my age. I would be guessing a lot or just going by historical Billboard charts which anybody can look up.
I have no doubt I left off many great albums. If I skipped some of your favorites, feel free to let me know. This was a subjective project reflecting my tastes in music so some genres got the short straw. That was not intentional and I tried to be fair to things like hip hop, thrash metal, and new wave that I’m not familiar with at all.
Next week, back to golf and a history of the Best Player Not To Win A Major since 1970.
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