16. Business as Usual by Men at Work

16. Business as Usual by Men at Work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SECVGN4Bsgg&list=OLAK5uy_mzG5DvQXjmQHAyFZ4RSnheGFVSwvS55GQ

Fun Fact: The album cover for the Australian release of this album was black and white. (Nice factoid. THANKS!)

This album is so good it really should have been two albums. And in fact, it kind of was. 

First, there was the album that got released in the U.S. in June of 1982 right in the middle of my obsession with the Paul Hogan Show and right before Randy came to spend his senior year at Marsh Valley High School. Randy has always been a big influence on my musical tastes, but I was already hooked on this album before we ever listened to it together. And we did like these songs a lot. I remember once he explained to me how Colin Hay made his voice do that rapid modulation thing. Also, I remember singing along to "Be Good Johnny" with Randy in the old truck in the middle of winter as we were feeding cows. Randy especially liked the verse that went:

Gonna play football this year, Johnny?

Nah.

Oh, must be gonna play cricket this year then are ya, Johnny?

Nah. Nah. Nah.

Ha. Boy, you sure are a funny kid, Johnny. But I like you! So tell me, what kind of boy are ya, Johnny.

I listened to this album so much during my junior and senior year of high school that I'm surprised that the tape didn't disintegrate. Of course, since I didn't have a tape player in any of the vehicles or a Walkman, listening to it was confined to my bedroom in the basement. But I'd listen to it while getting ready for school in the morning by taking the tape player into the bathroom. And I'd listen to it while lifting weights or just laying on the bed or doing math homework at my particle board desk that I'd built with my own two hands from a kit that I'd received as a Christmas gift in middle school. Is is possible to do your best at your math homework assignments while listening to Men at Work? No. It isn't. But that didn't stop me from doing it anyway. 

Also, remember how we had to do all that scripture reading in seminary in order to get a good grade? Well, in 1982 I discovered that it is definitely possible to read the scriptures while listening to Men at Work--especially if you have to basically read the entire semester's reading assignment in the next three days or you'll flunk the class. Of course, it was a bit strange later on in seminary when I was asked to read a verse and all I wanted to say was, "I went to the man. I told him a robot was what I am. But he just smiled, said I was a fractious child."

So that was the first album. Now for the second album.

In the HondoJoe write-up of this album, it was already pointed out that there were three other songs released as B-sides to singles from this album. And I agree that all three of them would be worthy of inclusion on the original album. Those songs are:

Anyone For Tennis

https://youtu.be/ZyOWkKTwIdw 

Crazy

https://youtu.be/nTK4S9gAEdE 

F-19

https://youtu.be/x_z1Ye-yd4Q

But there were other songs by Men at Work that were performed before their second album Cargo was released that were not included on Cargo, which I think makes them fair game as possible additions to a second Business as Usual album. Here are my top contenders.

The Ways of the Broken Hearted

https://youtu.be/YbPVoCJvbW0

Keypunch Operator

https://youtu.be/7lClxIxcOSE

https://youtu.be/yaHxVUbkSdw

Down Under (an early version of the song with extra reggae)

https://youtu.be/QKKy3lpJXL8

I Don't Understand

https://youtu.be/tOnYQNIC4UY 

Coin in the Slot

https://youtu.be/ovihEDSvntg

https://youtu.be/fmYHRQk0DrI

Don't Preach to Me

https://youtu.be/yaQthOd6eLM

I Changed My Mind

https://youtu.be/zunM-WI5mHQ

Okay, maybe not all of these are the same caliber of the songs on the first Business as Usual album. And maybe all of them weren't written before the album was released. (I couldn't find the info for all of the songs on when they were written.) But they are lots of fun to listen to, as they give you (me?) the pleasure of listening to new music while, at the same time, taking you (me?) back to the good old days of high adventure camping in the summer and snowmobile excursions to the Big Onion in the winter. And how many songs can do that anymore?

Well, I suppose the answer to that question would be "at least seven." I guess listening to Business as Usual didn't keep me from learning math after all! Sure it isn't really advanced math. But it's enough for me to get a job as a keypunch operator.

Nardo

17. Album by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

 17. Album by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9kZWlIgKyU&list=OLAK5uy_lfFkmAv1pOn5HklZTfRjqW8HxQTG9yxdA&index=1

In the July of 1983, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts released their third album titled...wait for it..., "Album." The song "Fake Friends" was the first single released from Album, which hardly broke the Top 40 list, followed by the cover of "Everyday People," which again, barely made it into the Top 40. It had to have been disappointing for Jett and the band, considering that their previous album had the number one song on the charts for seven weeks in a row with their cover of "I Love Rock and Roll," as well as a top-ten charting cover of "Crimson and Clover." While "The French Song" got a little airplay, and MTV showed the video a few times, since the song was about having a threesome, and since the chorus that sings about having the threesome is in French, it just wasn't the kind of song that could get onto the charts in 1983 America. As far as album sales go, Album reached only as high as #20 on the 1983 album charts. And frankly, I think it got that high in part due the excellent album cover. The '80s hair, the black leather outfit, the red Converse sneakers (Hondo had a pair of red sneakers in elementary school!), the sexy pout while playing the guitar and leaping into the air with a double knee bend, all against a bright yellow backdrop--I mean, damn! That cover really pops!

I don't recall ever playing "Fake Friends" during a school dance, nor do I have any memories of any songs on this album being related to my summer lifeguarding gig. Truth be told, I basically ignored this album when it came out. So why is it ranked so high on my list?

Fast forward from senior year high school to my second year of work at BYU-Idaho. The school had finished building it's new conference center / indoor gym that featured a large indoor elevated running track that wrapped around the upper story of the gym. (8 laps equaled one mile.) It was about that time that my boss called me into his office and said some things about my work that basically made me feel like all the hard work I had put in during the previous months of working 70-80 hour work weeks had been a waste and that I was not appreciated or valued by anyone at the university. This was also around the time when I was seeing a doctor about being pre-diabetic, and he wanted me to start working out every day, which was something I had avoided doing because of my long work hours. 

Anyway, I spent about a week being super-depressed about all of this. I had completely lost my mojo, and I didn't know if I'd even get it back again. But then one day I felt that spark of rebellion that I'd had back in my high school years--that I-don't-give-a-damn-anymore attitude--and I decided that it was time to get my mojo back. So I decided I was going back to a 40-hour work week, and I got some running shoes and a new iPod and earphones, and I scoured the Apple Music playlists for some running music. When I came across the "Fake Friends" song, I thought it was a perfect fit for my playlist, so I checked out some of the other songs on the album and realized that I'd hit pay dirt. For $9.99 I could get 16 songs that were not only runnable (except for "Why Can't We Be Happy") but also had enough go-to-hell attitude to keep me inspired to keep running as long as they were playing. So I committed to an everyday workout routine of weightlifting and running around that elevated track for every day Monday-Saturday for at least an hour. And Album was the album that I listened to the most as I did that. It is the album that helped me get my mojo back and get me into arguably the best physical shape of my life--even better than when I was training to run marathons. The 1980s sound of driving guitars, the triple-extra-naughty lyrics, the don't-give-a-damn-bout-my-bad-reputation attitude--they all combined to make it a supremely listenable workout album as I jogged lap after lap and did push-up after push-up between miles.

Speaking of extra-naughty lyrics, along with my previous warning about "The French Song," please don't listen to the cover of the Rolling Stones' "Star Star" while you're around the wife and kids, unless you think they'd like to hear the word "starfucker" 62 times. I'm guessing they wouldn't. Also, be aware that "Coney Island Whitefish" has some awesome lyrics--especially if you think about your dumbass boss while you sing along to them--but I don't think you'd want the little ones to incorporate "Scumbag" into their vocabulary just yet.

Oh, and one more warning. The song "Locked Groove" is a 3 minute and 47 second song that you can basically stop listening to after the first minute, because the rest of the song is the same loop played over and over and over. See, when Joan released "Fake Friends" as a single, she put "Nitetime" on the B-side with a locked groove at the end of the song. That meant that if a restaurant put "Fake Friends" into the jukebox, some kid who was in the know would play the B-side of "Nitetime," and at the end of the song, it would just keep playing that loop over and over until the record was "manually rejected." So the people listening to the song would have to listen to that annoying loop for a while before they'd get so upset that they'd complain to the manager, who would then have to figure out how to get into the jukebox and stop the record from playing. And all the time this was happening, the kids who had selected the song would sit there and laugh at how the song was driving everyone nuts. Now, if I'd been in the know back when that song came out, I would have played "Nitetime" on every damn jukebox I came across. Yep. I was that kind of kid. And pulling off that giant practical joke is one more reason why I love Joan Jett. 

Now, on a personal note, the song "Fake Friends" became especially meaningful to me as I reclaimed my mojo. It became even more meaningful about a year later when I ended up getting fired from BYU-Idaho. I do have about six people in Rexburg that I still consider to be genuine friends, but the rest of the campus, especially all of the administrators and faculty and local church leaders that repeatedly said how much they loved me and appreciated me and cared about me, were nothing more than fake friends. They were, in fact, whited sepulchres. So in the end, the one revelation I took from my time at BYU-Idaho--a truth I discovered in the hardest way possible--is that you've really got nothing to lose when you lose fake friends...except for your job. 

Nardo

18. Cosmic Thing by The B-52s

 18. Cosmic Thing by The B-52s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axyFMQUFASA&list=OLAK5uy_lCiIAxZkSeKCFtWxrukxbkgDk87CEUKss

Wanna party like it's 1989? Then you're gonna need this album, not only because the songs put you in a party mood, but also because the album cover looks like a party decoration.

The instrumental "Follow Your Bliss" is the only song you really couldn't dance to, unless you're keen to slow dance, in which case it might suffice. It's the last song on the album, so I look at it as the music that you play at the end of the party when everyone is exhausted and there's nothing left to do but clean up and go to sleep.

Obviously, the biggest hit off this album was "Love Shack," which was written in homage to the little cabin in Georgia in which the group wrote "Rock Lobster," which happened to be the biggest hit from their 1979 debut album, which also happened to be the song that got John Lennon wanting to write music again, which happened to lead to his final album, Double Fantasy. (Nice factoid. THANKS!)

Having already been a fan of The B-52s and owning their first two albums, it wasn't a hard sell to get me to buy this album when it came out during the summer of '89, even though money was tight during that summer. See, that was the summer that Julie spent getting pregnanter and pregnanter, and with no air conditioning in the Standrod House, she holed up for a number of weeks at her parent's house just trying to stay cool and keep food down. I was taking summer courses at ISU with Hondo and trying to work enough side jobs to pay the bills. Then Erik was born in September, and money got even tighter. The only way we survived was that we were living rent free in the Standrod House. Otherwise, I would have had to drop out of school and work full time just to keep the kid in diapers. Fortunately, we were able to scrape by, so I was able to stay in school long enough to graduate and get my first teaching gig at Irving Jr. High. And this album was one that I listened to a lot whenever I was working in my classroom. We even had the 7th grade kids dance in the hall to "Love Shack" once in a while. Also, during this time Julie went back to school and started her job as a nurse, which left me to do a lot of baby tending, which meant lots of trips to the zoo and walks with the stroller around downtown Pocatello. So this album is part of the soundtrack to those early years of marriage and family building in Pocatello--years that were really hard at the time, especially financially. But now I look back on them with much more fondness than they probably deserve. But then again, how can you not have positive memories when the ultimate '80s (and '90s) party album is playing?!

Nardo

19. Musical Bar-B-Que by Space Ghost, Zorak, and Brak

 19. Musical Bar-B-Que by Space Ghost, Zorak, and Brak

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNSGRXF51dE&list=PLAC1DE8344E299852&index=1

Top-Notch Tracks: "It Smells Like Cartoon Planet," "I Love You Baby," "Don't Touch Me," "I Love Beans," "I Love Almost Everybody," "Oh Fun Key Bay Bee," "Hoodliehoo," "Put Your Socks On Mama," "Highway 40 Unplugged"

Album Depth: "Zingor," "Ordinary Guy," "Minkey Boodle," "Everybody Needs Lovin'," "What Day Is It?" "The River," "Crazy Lovesick Fool," "The Water Song," "It Stunk," "De Der Down," 

Weak Links: "The Cartoon Planet Story," "The Song That Never Ends," "Everybody Wants to Be Space Ghost," "Ramblin' and Wanderin'" "Don't Send in the Clowns," "Bye-Bye, Goodbye Everybody"

Stand-Out Lyrics: "It smells like--Asparagus and Cabbage! It smells like--Boxer Shorts! Is smells like--Ahhhhh! It smells like Cartoon Planet, Hoowee!" -- It Smells Like Cartoon Planet

"Somebody left the cake out in the rain. Oh, nooo! I was gonna eat that cake. But now it's all wet, and I don't think I want any!" -- I Love You Baby

"I've got ants in my pants as I do the mating dance for Zingor, Zingor, Zingor." -- Zingor

"Our ancient love will survive the scourge of mankind and evolution." -- Zingor

"Don't touch me!" -- Don't Touch Me

"Wake up in the mornin' and tinkleedoo. Take a hot shower. Watch the news! Then it's eggs over easy on the greasy side. Oh, yeah, I'm just an ordinary guy." -- Ordinary Guy

"Work day's over and I got me a date with a big fat piece of pie! I sit around thinking what a good boy am I. But hey, I'm just an ordinary guy. Just an average superhero kinda guy. I'm just an extra ordinary guy!" -- Ordinary Guy

"Nobody comes to visit me in my little cloud. I don't know why. Maybe it's cause I'm cuttin' muffins." -- I Love Beans

"I got my mojo risin'. There's a poodle in my stroodle! Minkey Boodle! Minkey Boodle!" -- Minkey Boodle

"So tell me that I'm smelly. Tell my I'm a dope. But say you'll be my sweetie. At least give me hope. Cause I could use a cuddle, and a smooch or three. Everyone needs lovin'. Even me." -- Everyone Needs Lovin'

"You know, love is a happy time all throughout the universe. It's when a male part of the species goes to the female part of the species and says, 'Hey you want to go on a date?' and then she would say, 'Why yes, I'd like to go on a date' if you're lucky! And then you go to a restaurant, and she gets something called 'a salad,' and then he gets a big piece of beef that he eats. And that, to me, ladies and gentlemen, is love. Kind of makes you cry, doesn't it?" -- I Love Almost Everybody

"You pick your left foot up until you touch your nose. Put your rear on your ear and wiggle your toes. Hop all around like a kangaroo. Your almost ready to Hoodliehoo. Grab some pickles and a pound of cheese. Get some burgers on mayoneese. Eat 'em all up and don't forget to chew. Now you're doin' the Hoodliehoo!" -- Hoodliehoo

"I'm goin' down Highway 40 in my big ol' pickup truck!" -- Highway 40 Unplugged

Album Cover: 9 of 10. One point deduction for leaving Moltar off the cover (and the album). The idea that Space Ghost lives in the suburbs and hosts backyard bar-b-ques with Zorak and Brak is simply delightful. What's even more delightful is that the scene takes a horrific turn for the worse on the back cover when the grill explodes, blowing a hole through the backyard fence. And that, kids, is why grownups should never add lighter fluid once the briquettes have started glowing.

Comments: I cherish the memories of watching Cartoon Planet's "Space Ghost Coast to Coast" with my young son--who very much loved his dad during the 90s--in the basement of our little brick home on Tanager street in Pocatello. However, my memories of this album are mostly of listening to it with Erik during my grad school years while we were driving from Smithfield to Logan. I also listened to it by myself on headphones while working at Utah State writing HTML code in a teeny, tiny office. My latest memory of the album is of listening to it with my son while driving from Disney World to his home in Stuart and laughing our fool heads off. (He is now as old as I was when I started grad school.) For a father and son to have an album that they both love to listen to and laugh at for over 20+ years is no small thing.

Besides the lyrics listed above, my favorite parts of the album include several songs in which Space Ghost, Zorak, and Brak engage in some comedic scatting. I actually did some comedic scatting during my teenage years, so I really appreciate the artistry involved. See, the seniors on the football team demanded that I scat for them Louis Armstrong style while they sang "This Little Light of Mine" on the bus rides home from the games. They even made me scat to the song in front of the home crowd during a school-wide rally on the football field before the Homecoming game. Was it a dumb thing to do? Yes. Was I embarrassed to do it in front of all those alpha females in the cheerleading squad and the pep club? Yes. But when you're a scrawny kid trapped on a bus with muscle-bound seniors that are more than willing to pound you into a pile of silly putty during football practice, it's a good policy to humor them by doing whatever they ask you to do. For football practice during my junior year, scatting meant surviving. Of course, during my senior year when I had put on a little muscle and didn't have to worry about other guys trying to take my head off in practice with a flying tackle, I stopped scatting.

There are 25 excellent songs on this album, but between some of them are little spoken tidbits that are lots of fun to listen to as well. Zorak's Nugget of Joy and Brak's School Daze story (I told you never trust a monkey!) always tickle my funny bone (which is located somewhere in my torso area above my belly button but below my ribs). I like to follow along with these spoken interludes by doing the Zorak parts in my Zorak voice. For some reason, when Space Ghost first came out, I put in enough effort to figure out how to do a Zorak impersonation, but I could never master the voices of Brak or Space Ghost. Maybe I found Zorak easier to do because he's evil just like me. Or maybe it's because I've always had a high regard for the praying mantis because it eats all of the nasty bugs in the garden. In fact, along with the ladybug, it's one of the few insects I refuse to kill even if they make it inside the house. Also, Zorak plays the keyboard, so we have that in common as well. 

Why is this album so high on my list? Because not only does it activate happy memories of those days when I was kind of a cool dad, it still makes me laugh harder than any other album on my top 60 album list, including Weird Al's "Poodle Hat." So for all the joy that it has provided in the past and still provides today, this Musical Bar-B-Que makes it into my top 20 favorite albums.

Up Next: It's as big as a whale, and it's about to set sail!

20. True Romance by Charli XCX

 20. True Romance by Charli XCX

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGmM2l39LEs&list=PLrwB2tGkO7bKz-kWcRP7MSm2DYpoQfPUz

When I first heard Australian rapper Iggy Azalea's song "Fancy" on the radio in 2014, I didn't care much for Iggy's rapping. In fact, I found it more annoying that pretty much any rapping I had ever heard. But there was this ear-worm chorus sung by Charli XCX that got me to wondering what else this dark-haired girl had written. What Google told me was that while Charli had put out some music on MySpace and released a few mix tapes, she had only one bona fide album from 2013 called "True Romance." So I YouTubed the album and upon hearing the first song "Nuclear Seasons" I knew I'd found a type of music that was much different from anything that I was used to listening to. It sounded a bit like electronic dance music, but it had lyrics and layers to it that were much more interesting than the typical EDM club music I'd heard before (all of which I found to be really repetitive and boring). I wasn't sure what to call it. It wasn't quite pop music, and it wasn't quite dance music. It seemed to be more akin to art rock, but it really wasn't rock. It was its own thing.

I found out later that the term for this type of music is "Hyperpop," although it's also been called synth pop and gothic pop. However, Charli rejects all of those labels, even though she did refer to the music on her debut album as "Emotional Pop." At first, I wasn't sure if I liked it or not. But I found myself going back to the album repeatedly over the next year as one of my get-ready-in-the-morning albums. And the more I found out about Charli XCX -- her real name is Charlotte Emma Aitchison -- the more intrigued I became with her music. It turns out that she has synesthesia--a condition in which the brain interprets sound by seeing colors--and she actually sees colors in the music that she writes. She said that the songs on True Romance are mostly shades of purple. She prefers music that she sees as black, pink, purple or red, and she gave away what turned out to be the first hit song that she ever wrote--"I Love It" by the Swedish group Icona Pop--because she thought the song was the wrong color for her. Anyway, I bring this all up to show that there is a reason that the album cover is predominately black, pink, purple, and red. How you see the colors on the cover are similar to how she sees colors in music.

2014 and 2015 turned out to be a banner years for Charli, as she had her first big solo hit with the song "Boom, Clap" from the movie "The Fault in Our Stars." Her record company wanted to capitalize on her new popularity, so they got her to release a more mainstream pop album titled "Sucker." Along with "Boom, Clap," the album had hits with "Break the Rules," "Doing It," and "Famous." The rest of the album songs are really good pop, but they are a different kind of sound than what we got on True Romance. The record company continued to try to pressure Charli to do more mainstream songs, but after 2016, she said she wasn't going to release any more songs that she didn't love. She took back control of her own artistic future, and she faded from the pop music scene. Well, not really. She kept writing really good pop songs that other artists charted with, all the while experimenting with new sounds and collaborating with other artists. Her influence on other pop artists is pretty big, which is one reason why Taylor Swift asked Charli to go on tour with her in 2018. Of course, when the pandemic hit in 2020, a lot of artists stopped performing and took time off from making music. But Charli recorded and released the album "How I'm Feeling Now" while on Covid lockdown in her home. But of all the songs, mix tapes, and albums she's released over the last decade, I still like True Romance the best. 

Warning! Charli does use the F-word in some of her songs, so they aren't the kind you can listen to while around the kids. But I discovered True Romance around the time I started hating my job at Boise State, and the F-word was uttered by me more than once every morning while I was in the shower and started thinking about how I was about to face another work day in which every single meeting with my so-called superiors would be a humiliating kick in the crotch. Fortunately, a mix of Charli XCX and AC/DC (who never curse in their lyrics) somehow got me by until I managed to find a better job that didn't make me feel like dropping F-bombs in the shower in the morning. Also, Charli will use "shit" quite freely on some songs. It's definitely not the kind of album I could have listened to as a teenager in my basement bedroom. And my wife doesn't understand why I listen to this album either. When she hears me playing it, she'll say something like, "Why are you listening to that?!" Fortunately, I'm an old man now, and I get to listen to whatever I want. At least, I get to whenever Julie has already gone to work and I'm getting ready in the morning by myself--or with my poodles that like Charli XCX just fine! Yes, I realize that hyperpop written by a 20-year-old English woman is not really the kind of music that most people would think and old 50+ year old man like me would be listening to. But what can I say--maybe my ears aren't always as old as the rest of me.

Nardo

21. Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack by The Bee Gees

21. Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack by The Bee Gees  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_izvAbhExY&list=OLAK5uy_k2P31OPRADjYdtzYiDjFmk5Q5wxGIYm_U

If you hate disco, you hate this album. But if you fondly remember 1977 and 1978 like I do--which is that sixth grade year just before I turned 12--then this is album is not only the soundtrack to the movie, but it's also the soundtrack to pretty much your entire school year from September of 1977 through May of 1978. 

While there are a variety of artists on the album, most of them were previously released songs that got included in the movie. But it was the new songs by the Bee Gees that really made this album a true disco juggernaut. Two of the Bee Gees songs on the album had been previously released--"Jive Talkin'" and "You Should Be Dancin'." But they wrote five new songs for the album, all of which became major hits, including:

• Stayin' Alive
• How Deep Is Your Love (one of my Top 200 songs) 
• Night Fever
• More Than a Woman
• If I Can't Have You -- performed by Yvonne Eliman 

Fun Fact: John Travolta wasn't dancing to the Bee Gees during the filming of the movie. He was dancing to...you guessed it...Boz Scaggs. But the record company wouldn't license the Boz Scaggs music because they wanted to hold on to it for another disco movie. Bad move. So the Bee Gees were brought in AFTER the film was shot, and they made sure that the music beats of their songs matched that of the Boz Scaggs songs that were being danced to in the movie.

This soundtrack won the Gramm for Album of the Year, and it's the second-best selling movie soundtrack album of all time. (The Bodyguard soundtrack overtook it.) But as good as the album was, it could have been better. The Bee Gees wrote other songs for it that didn't get included, so they gave them to others to record. "Emotion" got recorded by Samantha Sang with Barry Gibb singing backup vocals. And little brother Andy Gibb recorded "(Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away." 

There are some other fun disco songs to listen to on this album, including "A 5th of Beethoven," "Disco Inferno," and "Boogie Shoes"--a B-side song for K.C. and the Sunshine Band that found new life when it got included on this album and got rereleased as a single. There are a handful of other instrumental disco songs that might work well as elevator music, but nothing so good that it deserves repeated listening. Nope. It's the Bee Gees songs that are the main attraction of this album, and it's because of the way that those songs trigger memories of that sixth grade year--playing fear-free at recess because all the bullies had moved on and we were at the top of the food chain, me and Sheldon getting in trouble for wearing bandanas and then stealing them back from the principal's office during the night of the school fair, riding the motorcycle on the farm for hours after school until it was time to watch "Wonder Woman" and "The Incredible Hulk." There just aren't too many albums that can conjure up the feelings and memories of that wonderful time for me anymore, but this one always delivers.

Nardo

22. Invisible Touch by Genesis

 22. Invisible Touch by Genesis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpmiZ7zsHXY&list=OLAK5uy_kSuRYdMa1N5VchHRcr5qSLo8AsFcXNwos

When this album came out in June of 1986, I had just returned from the heart of Sweden in Dalarna back to my beloved Sodermanland, where I was district leader in Esklistuna. Now, I have nothing against the city of Eskilstuna, but we called the area in which our apartment was located the "Concrete Jungle." It was a large section of multi-story apartment buildings with mostly immigrants and young, poor Swedes. I had both good companions and not-so-good companions during my time in Eskilstuna. And during one of the not-so-good companions, I looked for any opportunity to extract even a tiny little bit of joy from tracting for 10 hours a day and getting rejected by almost everyone we came in contact with. One steady source of joy was the local burger joint where we could get a burger and fries and sit down and eat them as slowly as possible while the MTV played on the television. One night, to my delight and horror, a Genesis video started to play. I was delighted because it was a new Genesis song that I had never heard before. I was horrified because it featured these freaky looking muppets that were satirizing Ronald Reagan and his vision of America as a nuclear superpower. 

Now, I wasn't a big fan of Ronald Reagan in 1986, but I had voted for him in '84 election because my other choice was Walter Mondale--who managed to only win his home state of Minnesota that election. (My father--a true-blue Democrat--would have been super upset if he had known how I'd voted.) However, when I went to Sweden, I started to really dislike Reagan, not necessarily because of how his policies had destroyed jobs for local truck drivers AND farmers, but because of all the angry Swedes that yelled at me at their front door because of bombs Reagan had dropped somewhere else on the planet. Swedes really dislike war, and they really disliked Reagan's policies when it came to building more and bigger nuclear weapons. 

Anyway, I knew that this new Genesis video was going to make my life more difficult. Yet, I couldn't help but enjoy watching it. I mean, it's got two things that I really love--Genesis music and freaky muppets! 

Over that summer, I got to hear many of the other songs on the album, and I instantly loved "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight," "In Too Deep," and "Throwing It All Away" because they were perfect songs for The Great Depression soundtrack. So when I got home and found out that my brother-in-law's record collection included this album, I made a tape of it. Actually, I made a tape of all the songs except for "Anything She Does," "Domino," and "The Brazilian"--the three weakest songs of the album. But the other songs were so damn good that they became an important part of my post-mission Great Depression playlist. They have a quality about them that is very similar to the Phil Collins' songs on No Jacket Required. Some music critics have said that is a problem with the album because it signals a change from the kind of music Genesis had created in the past towards a more pop-oriented sound. But in my opinion,  I think that it is a good thing. See, the band had put out the Trick of the Tail album 10 years earlier, and although the critics liked it, the band didn't see a single hit song from it. Some said this meant that with Peter Gabriel leaving the band, the fact that the album had no hit songs meant the group was headed towards obscurity with Phil Collins as the lead singer. But 10 years later, that same band puts out an album with five charting songs from an album with only 9 songs on it. So, yeah, music critics, it's okay to like earlier stuff, but lets face the fact that a lot of bands want to make music that makes them money. That's how they get to keep making music instead of having to figure out a way to make a living doing something else--like making freaky muppets for bands that know how to write a hit song.

Nardo

23. Xanadu by ELO and Olivia Newton-John

 23. Xanadu by ELO and Olivia Newton-John

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDmjEN-6ekE&list=OLAK5uy_mkHO_6VKXNhs5G5MnxG0cEprdLLB6uT_U&index=1

The summer of 1980 was a summer of "Magic." Literally. I heard that song played on the radio pretty much every day of that summer. It was released as a single at the end of May, about a week after school let out. And it spent four weeks at the Number #1 spot on the charts in August until it got knocked of by Christopher Cross (the artist) singing about how sailing takes him away. If, perchance, I didn't hear "Magic" on the truck or tractor radio while out helping Dad with all the farm work, there was a good chance that I'd hear it on the stereo when I got home, because Ruth added this album to her record collection right after it was released at the end of June. 

Now, normally, in the summer of 1980 I would have wielded the awesome power of the older brother song veto to keep any album off the turntable that would have taken up valuable listening time that could have been otherwise devoted rocking out to Billy Joel's "Glass Houses." However, this album also had ELO songs on it, and that changed everything. So as long as the album got played on both sides so that ELO got is fair share of listening time, I was okay with letting it play without objection.

Truth be told, I didn't mind hearing Olivia sing "Magic" and "Suddenly" at all. The other three songs on the front side were not my favorites. But listening to them was a reasonable price to pay for getting to listen to all five of the ELO songs on the flip side, including the hits "I'm Alive,""All Over the World," and "Xanadu." I thought "Don't Walk Away" and "The Fall" were also very good songs. Ruth didn't like the ELO songs as much as the Olivia songs, but she was willing to listen to the flip side all the way through because at the very end of Side 2 she got a little more Olivia and I got my beloved ELO with "Xanadu." And during a summer of "Magic" could there have been anything more magical than a song that had the power to bring about sibling harmony between brother and sister?

Nardo

24. Christopher Cross by Christopher Cross

 24. Christopher Cross by Christopher Cross

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdRPtf-mxE4&list=OLAK5uy_mAmb-9kDUBKm3aiAUHnHPfBSGIWPAtGDc&index=1

Yes, dammit, I like yacht rock!

And you can't get much more yachty than Christopher Cross (both the album and the artist). The flamingo on the cover of this eponymous album pretty much sums up that yacht rock vibe--just chillin' out in the water, lookin' pretty in my pink shirt, waitin' to watch Miami Vice later tonight.

Released December 20, 1979, Christopher Cross (the album and the artist) won five Grammys, including:

RECORD OF THE YEAR--Sailing

ALBUM OF THE YEAR--Christopher Cross

SONG OF THE YEAR--Sailing

BEST NEW ARTIST

BEST ARRANGEMENT ACCOMPANYING VOCALIST(S)--Sailing

His feat of winning those first four Grammys all in one night would not be repeated for 40 years until in 2020 when Billie Eilish managed to win them all.

Christopher Cross (the album) even beat out Pink Floyd's The Wall for  1980's Album of the Year, which, as much as I like Christopher Cross (the album and the artist), I think is crazyballs! But it just goes to show what kind of gentle power yacht rock had back in 1979 and 1980. Christopher Cross (the artist) had a follow-up hit in 1981 with "Arthur's Theme (The Best That You Can Do)," which won an Oscar for Best Original Song. That particular song also achieved another major milestone in music history when it got added to the Marsh Valley Pep Band playlist. With an award-strewn start like that, it seemed like Christopher Cross (the artist) was destined to become one of the most popular and successful musicians of his generation. 

Then came MTV.

And Christopher Cross (the artist) didn't have a made-for-MTV face that the youngsters liked back in 1981.

Yes, back in those days, video really could kill the radio star. But in fairness, I think his face would have faired much better with the smartphone-video-hungry youngsters 40 years later. My proof? Ed Sheeran.

Of course, back in 1979 and 1980, I really wasn't all that interested in yacht rock. (It wasn't even called "yacht rock" until the mid-2000s.) During that part of my life, I was starting to get into Billy Joel, and all my money went to purchasing his albums. So when Christopher Cross (the album) came out, I didn't buy it. But my sister Ruth did. And like all of my sister's music, I played it whenever I wanted, which turned out to be quite a bit. It was one of those safe albums I could play pretty much anytime and no one in the family would object, including Mom. That's because mom's simply can't object to yacht rock no matter how loud it is played nor the situation in which it is played. It's against the Mom rules. It's right there in Section 15--Popular Music, under Subsection 27--Music They Won't Dance To.

And "Sailing" is, of course, the theme song for all yacht rock. There is nothing yachtier than a soft rock song about sailing on a yacht. But since the closest thing I ever got to sailing on a yacht was paddling a canoe at scout camp, it is no surprise that "Sailing" reminds me of the time I spent in the summer of 1980 at youth leadership camp at Little Lemhi. I remember one boy there saying on the first night of that camp that he really liked "Sailing," which I was surprised that anyone would admit to a group of teenage boys, but I heartily agreed with him, and we immediately became friends all through that week. Then we never saw each other ever again. Such is the nature of scout camp friendships.

"Sailing," along with the other hits on the album--"Ride Like the Wind," "Never Be the Same," and "Say You'll Be Mine"--are some of the best yacht rock you'll ever hear. Some of the other non-hit songs on the album are pretty good too. 

"I Really Don't Know Anymore" is an excellent song that, like "Ride Like the Wind," features back-up vocals by another famous yacht rocker, Michael McDonald, who in my opinion is the doobiest of all the Doobie Brothers. I always wondered why this song didn't get released as a single, because I think it's every bit as good as, or even better than, "Say You'll Be Mine."

"Spinning" is a bit of yawner, but then there's this nice little jazz trumpet solo during the bridge at about 2 minutes and 20 seconds into the song, and I'm a sucker for a nice little jazz trumpet solo.

Musically speaking, I think that "Poor Shirley" is the weakest link on the album. But the lyrics about overcoming the pain of loneliness through the hope of love are pretty damn good. Julie mentioned the other day about how she was so shy back in middle school, especially around boys. She said to me, "You just don't understand how painful it is to be that shy during middle school." I had to admit that I didn't. But I did have a super-awesome friend in middle school that was really shy, and I tried to make damn sure that whenever he was around me that he always knew he had a friend willing to go to the mats for him. I played the clown around girls a LOT during my middle school years, and sometimes I'd do it just so that he'd be able to shed the shyness a little bit and take part in the fun. And my greatest regrets from that period of my life are the few times that I poked fun at him for being shy. I just never should have done that. Also, I should have been kinder to the shy girls in school. If I could travel back in time and do things over again, I'd try to be much less of a jackass. But honestly, I don't think I could totally eliminate my jackassishness. My excuse? I'm related to Spencer, who is the King of Jackasses, so it's got to be at least partially caused by genetics. But let's not get wrapped up in talk about The Spence's many acts of jackassery. Let's get back to the album. 

"The Light Is On" is slow groove yacht rockin' song perfect for chillin' out during a light rain storm nestled all warm and comfy on the pink couch inside the cabin of your yacht. 

"Minstrel Gigolo" is a kind of tribute song to all of the early rockers from the 50s and 60s--think Elvis, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones--that would have the girls go nuts for them on the black and white telly. What I really like about this song is the guitar solo. Yes. That IS Christopher Cross playing the guitar on this song--and the rest of the album. Most people think of him as a singer because...well, that voice is so damn distinctive...but I have to give him props for his guitar playing too. He even got Donald Fagen (of Steely Dan fame) to invite him to play guitar on an album with him. 

Which leads me to an observation about my favorite song off the album, "Ride Like the Wind." It's my favorite for a number of reasons. The orchestration with strings is mighty fine--not as good as ELO, of course, but still really good. It's also got some nice trumpet parts mixed into the orchestration. Plus, it's got bongos a-plenty! If you want to hear an example of how bongos can make a great song even better, this is it. But as good as the song is, I think it could have been even better if Christopher had let his guitar work come into the forefront at the end of the song. You can hear him jamming at the end of the song, but it's in the background covered up by Michael McDonald's back-up singing, and Christopher is not letting loose with the guitar as much as I'd like. That's right. Besides jazzy trumpet solos and bangin' bongos, I also like a little rockin' guitar solo in my yacht rock! If you're wondering what I'm talking about, here's a video of Christopher playing live at the end of "Ride Like the Wind." (Yes, the guy with the white hair is the doob Michael McDonald.)

https://youtu.be/iYofDL0QnBE?t=274

See, now THAT'S some mighty fine yacht rockin'!

Nardo

25. Zenyatta Mondatta by The Police

 25. Zenyatta Mondatta by The Police

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNIZofPB8ZM&list=OLAK5uy_mctDATS-H8mOzk3RAPT9j_S0mVgjvkJVg

This was the album that is the most closely related in my mind to the time I visited Randy during the summer of 1981 in Sand Hollow. I was there by myself that visit, for some reason, so I didn't have any family members there to boss me around, but I knew that Mom and Dad expected me to help out with the chores on Aunt Elva's dairy farm as best I could. While we did chores, sometimes Randy would take off while I was doing some job, and after I finished the job, I'd look up to find that he was gone. Then I'd just be standing there wondering what to do. Having been a farm boy for...well...my entire life, I knew that standing around doing nothing isn't what farm boys are supposed to do, especially when you're supposed to be helping out on someone else's farm. You can be lazy on your own farm at times, but when you're at someone else's farm, then you've got to represent the family well and be at the top of your game. So I'd search the farm to try to find him and help out with whatever chore he was doing. After a couple days of doing this, I started to stick to Randy like glue and not let him out of my sight. When I started doing that, he started singing "Don't Stand So Close to Me." I asked him why he was singing that song. He said it was because I was standing to close to him and being a tag-along. I took that kind of hard, as I thought Randy and I were not just cousins but friends. So after that, if he took off, I'd just do what I did on the farm back home, which was to wander around and look at stuff or find a spot to sit and watch the cows. Later on in the visit, Randy and I got into a conversation about The Police, which he liked a lot.

When I returned home after that visit, I eventually saved up my money to buy Zenyatta Mondatta, and that was when I started liking The Police too. Although there were only two hit singles off the album, "Don't Stand So Close to Me" won a Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo Or Group with Vocal. (Nice category. THANKS!) "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" didn't win anything, but "Behind My Camel" won a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. The fun fact about "Behind My Camel" is that Sting hated it so much that he refused to play bass on it. He thought it was an awful song, so I take a little bit of pleasure in knowing that it probably bothered him that it won a Grammy. (I've already talked about how "Behind My Camel" shouldn't have won over "YYZ" by Rush.) I personally think that "The Other Way of Stopping" is a better instrumental song, but that's probably because it's got the kind of upbeat tempo song that I like in running songs. Same thing with "Canary in a Coalmine"

The other songs on the album are best listened to in the same way that you'd listen to a Pink Floyd album--laying on a bed with your head perfectly positioned between the speakers. It's the kind of album that you can just listen to and space off and think about nothing and everything all at once. I ranked this album higher than Synchronicity only because of the memories it triggers of that time between 9th and 10th grade just before I started high school when my days were filled with farm work, riding motorcycles in the back 40, scout activities with the Arimo Mafia, and tubing the Portneuf River with Devon and whatever other kids we could round up for that Saturday after doing the Arimo garbage run. Also, since I had my license, I got to drive the truck all over Marsh Valley to run errands for Dad. Man! What I wouldn't give for a few days of that life again!

Nardo

26. Power Up by AC/DC

 26. Power Up by AC/DC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga5qfM2-kog&list=OLAK5uy_nE7snmTKmOsGW8oUpg3P_TcEkOHd0rxa8

AC/DC saved 2020 with their mid-November release of Power Up. I didn't think they'd come out with another album after Brian Johnson, Phil Rudd, and Cliff Williams had left the group after the 2014 release of Rock or Bust. Due to hearing problems, Brian left in the middle of the tour, and they had to finish out the tour with the lead vocals being screamed out by Axel Rose. I'd heard that AC/DC might come out with another album with Axel, but then Malcolm Young died in 2017, and I was pretty sure the band was done. 

I was wrong. Malcom's nephew Stevie Young took his place in the band, and Brian, Phil, and Cliff returned to the studio to record Power Up as a tribute to Malcolm, and this album certainly honors his memory, as it is, in my humble opinion, the best damn AC/DC album since 1980's Back in Black. 

I'm sure some AC/DC fans out there would argue with me about that, but they'd be wrong. This album has the highest consistent quality in its songs out of all the other AC/DC albums I've listened to, except for Back in Black. Sure they put out only three singles from this album, starting with "Shot in the Dark," which was released a month or so before the album to get the buzz going and drive up album sales.  "Realize" and "Demon Fire" were the other singles. But I'm not sure how important "singles" are anymore. What with the online music distribution being the primary way people get their music today, we don't even have to buy the music anymore. It's all made available for free on YouTube, and the advertisers are the ones that pay for it. But I'm sure that AC/DC gets paid for it all. They were one of the last hold-outs to digitally releasing their albums online because they thought it would cut into their profits. So if AC/DC is letting their songs get free play by the consumers now, you know that's a sing that the music industry has undergone a BIG change in how music is consumed and how artists get paid. 

I initially hesitated putting this album on the list because we'd already started the listing of albums, and I thought maybe I hadn't waited long enough to determine if my enthusiasm for it was due to its newness instead of its quality. But then I thought about how this band has been putting out pretty much the same music since they formed back in the '70s. They figured out their formula and haven't ever strayed from it. And when you put this album up against all of the others, it definitely holds its own musically and lyrically. It's definitely better than Stiff Upper Lip--the only other AC/DC album that I have listened to more than this one, as I had that album back in graduate school, and Ryan and I went to the Stiff Upper Lip AC/DC concert together in Salt Lake City. So, Stiff Upper Lip got taken off the list, and Power Up took its place. 

Will AC/DC record any more albums? Possibly. I mean, it's a minor miracle that they got together to record this album. But as long as Angus is still able to play, there will always be a chance that AC/DC has some more music coming. However, Power Up will be the last one with music and lyrics that were at least partially written by Malcolm. Angus took the best of Malcolm's song ideas that they hadn't already used and built a lot of the songs on this album from them. My guess is that the Malcolm well is now dry, and anything that might come out in the future will be 100% Angus.

Clearly, AC/DC is part of my Australian cognitive triad, the other two parts being my Dad's mission to Australia and the Paul Hogan show. Truth be told, I wasn't a big fan of AC/DC until after I went to their concert. But after seeing and hearing the band in person--and you definitely hear the band at an AC/DC concert--I decided that I actually was a fan, and that I needed to just embrace that fact. Of course, I didn't tell a lot of people that when I worked at BYU-Idaho. I once wore my AC/DC concert shirt to the store and I ran into someone from the Elder's quorum in my ward, and when he saw the shirt, he got a very shocked look on his face. He said that he didn't peg me for an AC/DC fan. I said that indeed I was, and that my shirt was from their concert. I then said that the concert wasn't the kind of concert I'd picture in hell because they don't swear in any of their lyrics, but it was definitely a telestial event. 

So, even though they sing about the devil and being on a highway to hell, I don't think we'll see AC/DC in hell in the afterlife--unless Axel Rose becomes the permanent lead singer.

Nardo

27. Pipes of Peace by Paul McCartney

 27. Pipes of Peace by Paul McCartney

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzsxOniv0fk&list=OLAK5uy_nvt35JHEIdnpHbANiyQKjgXff6CLkIS6w

As I noted in my entry for Thriller, Paul and Michael came out with the monster #1 hit "Say, Say, Say" in October of 1983. By mid-November, either Ruth or Connie or Carol had purchased the Pipes of Peace album, so I naturally assumed I could listen to it anytime I wanted, because the stereo was in my kind-of-room/basement hallway, so I had squatters rights over anything that got left in the record storage space under the turntable. And since November of 1983 is when I began to experience The Great Depression--which like the actual Great Depression lasted for about 4 years--I spent a fair amount of time lying in bed or stretching out on the basement couch staring at this album cover and listening to the songs.

For some reason, I found the music quite comforting and, at the same time, strangely relevant to what I was experiencing emotionally at the time--especially the songs "The Other Me," "Under Cover," "So Bad," "The Sweetest Little Show," "Through Our Love," and even "Tug of Peace."

Also, "Hey, Hey" was a peppy little instrumental that I liked to play while getting dressed for school or cleaning up after chores. 

Paul put out a 1993 reissue of the album that had three additional songs. All of them are worth a listen, but only about one. They just don't have the same vibes I got from the original song list. The original songs just seem to belong together, and there's an underlying theme in the album that I don't think is reflected in these other three songs, so I wouldn't say they would have been worthy of inclusion in the original album. However, I do think that "We All Stand Together" would be a video that most young kids would be delighted to see. Paul started work on that film back in 1981, but it took him a while to finish it.

Twice in a Lifetime

https://youtu.be/DMqRPjL-3GE

We All Stand Together

https://youtu.be/gVfaf43W9cM

Simple as That

https://youtu.be/klPJzmflOrc

The 2015 remastered version of Pipes of Peace had a bonus disk with some other tunes that really don't fit well with the original album's songs. And I'm not sure if they even deserve a listen, yet I feel compelled to put the links below anyway.

Ode to a Koala Bear

https://youtu.be/AoI85vQaI7A

It's Not On

https://youtu.be/594XcO9TbVk

Christian Bop

https://youtu.be/otKN-XHHmnk

But there is one song on the 2015 bonus disk that I think is worth a listen or two. That is the remix of "Say, Say, Say." It features Michael's voice a lot more with him singing a lot of parts that Paul did on the original version.

Say, Say, Say

https://youtu.be/Hq5KAdWJiWY

I definitely prefer the original version of the song. Like the vast majority of remixes, they just don't sound as good to ears that are used to hearing the original. But since I just covered Thriller, I thought it would be worth including here, as its from that same time period.

Of course, Paul and Michael did have a second duet on this album with "The Man." You might be thinking that since they had such big hits with their other two duets that they would have originally had plans to release "The Man" as a single. And you'd be right. In fact they did in some countries with different B-side recordings, but it didn't take off in them. The U.S. single of "The Man" was supposed ot have had a recording of "Blackpool" on the B-side. I've included an accoustic version of Paul singing it below. 

Blackpool

https://youtu.be/fl6P21M7mPo

But when it comes to marketing singles, timing is everything. And by the time they were considering releasing "The Man" as a single, Michael had already been on the charts with Thriller songs and "Say, Say, Say" for over a year, and there was a sense that people were getting burned out on Michael's songs. And since you don't want to follow up a duet that was a huge #1 hit with a duet that sits on the discount rack like another can of beans, they passed on releasing "The Man" as a single. So that's why the titular song "Pipes of Peace" was the only other single released from the album. And yes, I'm enjoying using the phrase "titular song" very much these days.

Now, having recently reviewed HondoJoe's #31 album Flaming Pie, I would like to make an observation about how it compares to my #27 Pipes of Peace. George Martin was a legendary music producer--there's just no doubt about that at all. He worked with some of the greatest artists on some of their greatest hits. And I think he did a fine job on Pipes of Peace. Also, he produced two very nice acoustic guitar songs on Flaming Pie with "Calico Skies" and "Great Day." But when I hear the songs produced by Jeff Lynne on Flaming Pie, I think they are simply better. I think that's because even though George did play instruments and write orchestration for many of the songs he produced, he wasn't ever the leader of his own rock band like Jeff Lynne was. And I think that gives Jeff better instincts when it comes to producing hit music. So while I do not have Flaming Pie on my Top 60 list, I really think that in terms of music production, I think that if Jeff Lynne had produced Pipes of Peace, it would be a much better album that it is. 

So as you listen to Pipes of Peace, think about how it would have sounded if Jeff Lynne had produced all the songs. When I did this little thought experiment, I first listened to a few of the songs on Flaming Pie that were produced by Jeff. Then I started listening to the song "Pipes of Peace," and I was shocked at how I immediately noticed things missing from the song that I know Jeff Lynne would have added. It was the same for all of the other non-Michael songs. 

Anyway, my point is this, I think Pipes of Peace may have made it onto the HondoJoe Top 60 album list if Jeff Lynne had produced it instead of George Martin.

Just sayin'.

Nardo

28. Thriller by Michael Jackson

 28. Thriller by Michael Jackson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi_XLOBDo_Y&list=PL135553AD7F1D0ABF

This album was released on November 30, 1982--just in time for all our junior year high school Halloween parties.

It is difficult to overstate the impact that this album had on not only the music industry in the '80s, but on the culture of the entire world. Other artists in the early '80s credit this album for their own success. That's because so many people went into the record stores to buy this album, it drove up sales for all artists across a range of musical genres. The album sold 32 million copies in its first year, making in the best selling album of 1983. But the sales didn't stop there, because it became the best-selling album in 1984 too. But even with the 32 million copies of the album playing on turntables and boom boxes around the world, this 9-song album still managed to get 7 singles to chart in the top ten, including the titular song "Thriller," which was released on November 2, 1983--just in time for all our senior year high school Halloween parties.

My sister bought this album in December of 1982, but I commandeered it away from her using my authority as the school dance DJ--a position I shared with HondoJoe but ultimately gave up in 1984 when I determined that I no longer wished to go to any school dances. During the school dances, my favorite thing to do was play "Pretty Young Thing" and turn up the volume to full blast on the two big grunts in the bridge. I played this album a lot in my basement during the two times that I fell in love during my senior year. And I played it a lot after I was rejected by both girls during my senior year. It was a form of self-torture, what with my memories of slow dancing with the girls to the Paul McCartney duo "The Girl Is Mine." (Paul, I think I told you, I'm a lover not a fighter.)

Of course, my favorite memory of this album comes from the general uproar experienced by the entire Marsh Valley religious community when the drill team performed a scary-makeup-and-hair-with-super-tight-pants routine to "Thriller" during the half-time show of a high school basketball game. I remember thinking to myself as the girls marched out onto the basketball court and before the first note of the song was even played that this dance was going to be the topic of the next homily I would hear from the Arimo church pulpit, and that I could look forward to watching our seminary teachers go into apoplectic fits on Monday as they tried in vain to decry the sexual nature of the performance without making all the boys spend the entire class thinking about how sexy the girls really were. I was not wrong in either prediction.

What about the B-sides? Did Michael release any other Thriller-era songs not on the album? Well, MCA wanted to use those single sales to drive sales of past albums from Michael (Off the Wall) or The Jacksons (Triumph). For "The Girl is Mine," which was the first single released because it featured a duet with The Walrus, and they wanted all of The Beatles fans to rush out and snap up the singles, MCA decided to rehash stuff Michael did for "The Wiz" movie. Michael and producer Quincy Jones changed the lyric "Can't get outta the game" from "The Wiz" to "Can't get outta the rain" and slapped in on the b-side. 

Can't Get Outta the Rain

https://youtu.be/QqtwXhfzIRs

You'd think that with Thriller being such a popular album that the record company would want to milk a little more out of Michael's fans by issuing some kind of re-release of it that featured some new songs that were somehow related to the original album. And you'd be right. The 2001 re-release featured two additional songs. The first is "Someone in the Dark," which is from the audiobook and soundtrack combo recording to the 1982 film "E.T. The Extra Terrestrial."

Someone in the Dark

https://youtu.be/N5Fq7COf0-0

This audiobook/soundtrack was originally released by MCA two weeks before Thriller was released, but because this pissed off some folks at Epic Records that thought it might cut into the Thriller album sales, they got it pulled off the shelves and released it later after Thriller came out, which was a really stupid move on Epic's part when you think about it because the soundtrack mostly featured music by John Williams, and this song "Someone in the Dark" is about the least danceable song Michael ever produced, so there was no way anything off the audio book/soundtrack was going to be played in dance clubs or on American Top 40. Still, it got Michael a Grammy in 1983 for Best Recording for Children. (Insert your favorite Norm McDonald Michael-Jackson joke here.) So I'm sure a few folks at MCA threw a party when that trophy got handed out. But it was probably a much smaller party than the one at Epic Records when "Thriller" won the Grammy for Album of the Year and Michael won a bunch of other Grammy's for the songs "Billie Jean," "Beat It," and "Thriller." The best part of the audiobook is when Michael narrates the scene in which E.T. dies. I've cued it up in the video below for your listening pleasure, because apparently in 1982 nothing was more pleasurable to listen to than Michael Jackson talking over movie dialogue.

https://youtu.be/VB9v_BBi6Cg?t=1495

The other Thriller wannabe song on the 2001 re-release was "Carousel," a song that had been recorded for Thriller but got replaced with "Human Nature."

Carousel

https://youtu.be/_a4qEtVi0O4

What probably kept the song from inclusion in the original album release was when Quincy sat down and thought about everything he really knew about Michael as he read these lyrics.

She's from a world

Of popcorn and candy

Pony rides for a dime

Little children laughing

I'm from a world

Of disappointments and confusions

But I want her to be mine

(Insert your second-favorite Norm McDonald Michael-Jackson joke here.)

Another Thriller era wannabe song is featured on yet another re-release in 2008 of "Thriller 25." This this song was only on the Thriller 25 albums sold in Japan.

Got the Hots

https://youtu.be/3BkQJacXnmA

Michael also recorded some other songs that were in contention for inclusion on Thriller, but they got nixed by Michael or Quincy because...well...they just weren't as good as the nine songs that made it. But they definitely have a Thriller vibe on them, versus the more disco sounds of Off the Wall era songs.

Hot Street

https://youtu.be/XJEY94VX50E

There was an earlier version of "Hot Street" called "Slapstick" which was inspired by Michael's love of The Three Stooges.

Slapstick

https://youtu.be/NPr3AlUsDYo

I think Quincy did some deep thinking once again, but this time about whether or not they were going to get a top-ten hit out of any song with lyrics like this.

Give me some Slapstick (turnin' me on)

Bring out the magic (your number one)

I want some Slapstick (makin' me high)

Because the Slapstick love, will make you smile,

(Everytime, He He, He He)

But I don't know if Quincy made the right move. I mean, everyone knows that the sophisticated women of the 80s got super turned on by watching grown men hitting each other over the head with pots and pans, slapping each other's faces, tearing out each other's hair, yanking each others' ears and noses, and poking each other's eyes out with their fingers. And Michael really showed how tuned in he was to what women liked in the '80s by recording these next two songs that I'm pretty sure are (a) about a woman that's a dominatrix and (b) another woman that calls him up every night to have phone sex. (Because sometimes a fantasy is all you need.)

She's Trouble

https://youtu.be/AA3rOYsIlzo

Nite Line

https://youtu.be/WLrQpX8bwtg

Michael wrote one song for Thriller called "Spice of Life" but then shelved it. The song got recorded and released later by Manhattan Transfer. If you listen to the song, you can hear how it sounds a little like "Baby Be Mine."

Spice of Life

https://youtu.be/VBF9AUPDa3E

There is one other #1 Michael Jackson/Paul McCartney song that was recorded before the release of Thriller that was released in 1983 on Paul McCartney's album Pipes of Peace, and it charted at the same time that "P.Y.T. Pretty Young Thing" and "Thriller" were on the charts. And that song is, of course, "Say, Say, Say."

https://youtu.be/aLEhh_XpJ-0

I could go on and on and on about this album for ages and ages and ages. There's just so much interesting trivia about it--like how "Billie Jean" was knocked out of the #1 position on the charts by Dexie's Midnight Runners' song "Come on Eileen" only for that song to be replaced at #1 a week later by "Beat It." But I'm not going to do that. Instead, I'd just like to close this entry on my Top 60 list by saying that radio stations that cut off the end of "Thriller" before Vincent Price performs his dramatic lines should not be allowed to broadcast a single song ever again. Their entire staff should be sent into exile on an uninhabited island off the coast of Antartica, the broadcasting studio should be demolished, and their radio towers should then be burned to the ground to ensure that they can never repeat such a vile musical atrocity. And after the staff loose all their limbs to frostbite and eat each other one-by-one as they slowly die of starvation, they should be judged and found to be without the soul for getting down. Then they should stand and face the hounds of hell and rot inside a corpses shell until they transform into grisly ghouls that are forced for eternity to roam the underworld in uncomfortable super-tight pants that reek of the funk of forty thousand years! Yes, that should be their ultimate fate, for no mere mortal can resist the evil of The Thriller!

Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! AAH-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Nardo

29. Tom Tom Club by Tom Tom Club

29. Tom Tom Club by Tom Tom Club

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHL8Vi8Edt4&list=OLAK5uy_ljP5f9WWsGctDUkoeJ5epIn8Ir1aVm2Os

When this album came out in 1981, I was oblivious to its existence. And I remained that way until a couple years ago when I started looking for '80s wheelhouse songs that aren't in the wheelhouse yet. That's when I stumbled upon Tom Tom Club.

Nice cover. (THANKS!)

Tom Tom Club (the band) was formed by Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, the bassist and drummer of Talking Heads fame. Originally, Tom Tom Club was a side project that had the blessing of David Byrne, the front man for Talking Heads. Then when David Byrne went into full-blown diva mode and left the band, Tom Tom Club became Tina and Chris's full-time gig.

Since I discovered this self-titled debut album, it's become my favorite of all the Tom Tom Club albums. For me, there's just something about it being a 1981 album that makes it so much more enjoyable to listen to, as it was produced in the early days of rap music. Tom Tom Club's 1983 album Closer to the Bone also makes for a fun listen, but the music is a bit more polished and synthesized. I like the rougher sounds of the 1981 album, as the sounds seem to me to be a bit more raw and, consequently, creative and innovative. I mean, it certainly doesn't sound like any of the other albums that I've heard from 1981. But their 1983 album does sound a bit more like the other albums that came out around that time. 

There have been four different versions of the Tom Tom Club album that have been released with different songs on them. Since I don't have any recollection of the original album, I'm okay with listening to all of the songs on all of the versions. The more the merrier! There is one instrumental song titled "Spooks" that was put out as a B-side to "Wordy Rappinghood." It's basically 6 minutes and 28 seconds of the same kind background music featured on "As Above So Below." But here's the link, just in case you're keen to hear it.

https://youtu.be/RIfJk36SLuY

The only other thing that I would like to mention is that Tina sings in French on some of the songs, and back in 1981 I was very interested in learning French. I even bought an English-French dictionary. I thought it would be fun to say really stupid things in French--a take off on Steve Martin's jokes about the French language. (It's like those French have a different word for everything!) The phrase I tried to translate and memorize was "I'm on my way to milk the cows." I'm sure my translation was completely wrong, but for a time, every morning and night when I went to milk the cows, I would repeat it aloud just to amuse myself. I don't remember that phrase anymore. Later on in high school I played an angry French chef in some kind of drama comedy thing that we did. I just spoke English like Inspector Jacques Clouseau, only in an angry tone. I believe there's a yearbook image of me in the chef's outfit with me trying to look like an angry French chef. It's a dumb picture of me doing something dumb, just like all of the other yearbook pictures of me. 

Anyway, there's some French lyrics on some songs that I find to be quite enjoyable to listen to, even though they aren't sung in an angry tone or include phrases about milking cows. At least, I don't think they do. I don't know for sure because...and I want to be clear about this...I don't speak French.

Comprenz vous?

Nardo

30. Synchronicity by The Police

 30. Synchronicity by The Police

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si5CSpUCDGY&list=OLAK5uy_nhJjsyfDKdb9Yeacs52DRCuIvKJ2eVC_I

If the album cover image below doesn't match the one in your memory, it's because they made 36 different covers with different combinations of images and different color sequences. 

The reason for doing this is, of course, album sales. If you don't give fans a reason to buy 36 copies of your record, they won't. But they knew that there were some people out there that would feel compelled to add all 36 versions of the album cover to their record collection. When this album came out in June of 1983, my teenage wallet was pretty thin, so I opted to just buy one cassette tape.

The main reason I bought the album was because of all the monster hits from it that I heard on the radio, including "Murder by the Numbers," "Tea in the Sahara," "Walking in Your Footsteps," "O My God," and, most of all, "Mother." Once Casey played those warm, soft sounds of "Mother" on American Top 40, I knew it was destined to become my favorite senior year slow dance song, and possibly my favorite song of all time.

I wasn't wrong. 

The many memories I have of hearing "Mother" play while I danced in a close, tender embrace with Piney Votzel--well, that's why I look back on my senior year of high school with such fondness.

But my many good memories of the album extend to my mission, where this was one of the albums that the mission president said we could listen to without guilt during those long summer days of relaxing by the lake in our swimsuits. 

And when I got home off my mission, I selected one of the 36 copies of this record that my brother-in-law had in his record collection and made another tape of it to listen to while I drove around Arimo all summer long in the new white Buick Regal. And then, of course, there was the time that summer when Piney and I drove up into the mountains and we both lost our virginity to the dulcet tones of "Miss Gredenko."

Ah, yes. Those were the days! With so many good memories, is it any wonder why this album made my Top 60 list?

Nardo

31. Escape by Journey

 31. Escape by Journey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k8craCGpgs&list=OLAK5uy_kqG2N-54Vhei1yjslqVhFrS_thC_gZJuU

Since I liked Frontiers so much, you would have thought I'd have more than one Journey album at hom to listen to during my teenage years. But I didn't. Frontiers was it. However, I certainly heard more Journey songs during my high school years, and a lot of them came from Escape. In fact, we played "Don't Stop Believin'" as a pep band song. The other charting singles included the slow-dance favorites "Open Arms," "Still They Ride," and "Who's Crying Now?" However, since the album came out in 1981--which was about two years ahead of the time I was interested in slow dancing with the girls in school, these songs don't have any especially good memories associated with them. I might remember hearing them while driving tractor, but that's about it. Consequently, when I returned home from my mission and found Escape in my brother-in-law's record collection, I didn't think that I'd want to make a tape of this album because I didn't really want to listen to all those slow dance songs. I'd just spent two years listening to overly calm music, so I wanted some rock and roll with some zip to it, and all these slow songs weren't going to fit the bill. But since this album had a pep band song on it, I decided I should give it a listen. To my astonishment and delight, I found this album had a gigantic heaping helping of delicious zip mixed in with the slow songs. "Stone in Love," "Keep on Runnin'," Escape," and, most of all, "Dead or Alive" were barn-burning rockers that had the kind of energy that makes you want to find a gravel road with lots of curves, put the hammer down, and drive like you're behind the wheel of Old Blue. Even "Mother, Father," which starts out pretty slow,  picks up the pace enough to make a respectable driving song. So this album from my early teenage years quickly became one of the most played albums of my early 20s. 

If it's been a while since you had some real fun driving like a maniac, I highly recommend buying this album, finding a gravel road, cueing up "Dead or Alive" and then punching it! If you hit the skip button for all the slow-dance songs, you'll have at least 20 minutes of driving like the Duke boys ahead of you.

Nardo

32. Third Stage by Boston

 32. Third Stage by Boston

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4mCIsmiAWc&list=OLAK5uy_mBidq4wAzrJo82dOE--ILZnAUReiP_xAA

Third Stage was released in September of 1986, at which time I was in Eskilstuna, Sweden. So I didn't become aware of this album or any of the songs on it until I got home from Sweden in 1987. Even then, I don't think I had any memories associated with any of the songs on the album until after I started dating Julie in March of 1988. But after that, it became THE album of our courtship. We listened to this album all the time while driving around in the Chevy pickup. I especially remember listening to the album on my birthday date with Julie to Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park. By then I had completely fallen in love with her, and I knew I wanted to marry her. And the themes of the album of moving onto a new stage of life and discovering what it takes to be a man really resonated with me. 

The album has two of my Top 200 songs--"We're Ready" and "The Launch/Cool the Engines." But I like all of the songs on it. Even more, I like how all the songs support each other thematically throughout the album even more. And the guitars...oh, the guitars! If you like thunderous power chords, this album has got some of the best you'll ever hear. The guitar solos are also very well done. And none of the special effect sounds on this album were made by synthesizers. They were all made with guitars and special Rockman amplifiers built by Tom Scholz, one of the founders of the band. 

The other fun memory I have of this album is how Ryan used to sing alternate lyrics to "Amanda" in honor of the sexy immortal Amanda on "The Highlander." My favorite alternate line was, "I'm gonna spank you like a man and make you call me Stan, Amanda!" 

Ah, John would be proud!

Nardo