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

33. Heartbeat City by The Cars

 33. Heartbeat City by The Cars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXpJ0bM5zbM&list=OLAK5uy_l8zCHgq3Utr7f1dAf9jqop3lbCzugN2Dc

Released in March of 1984, Heartbeat City showed up just in time for senior year track and band tour. From the moment I first heard "You Might Think," I couldn't get enough of this album. And when I went to the state track meet and ended up rooming with Darin Woolstenthume from Bear Lake High School, my former track nemesis turned into an immediate friend when he agreed with me that Heartbeat City was an excellent album. 

This album had a strong radio presence all the way through the summer into freshman year of college too, with "Magic," "Drive," and "Hello Again," keeping the album on the charts through the end of 1984. "Why Can't I Have You" also charted in January of 1985, but it didn't get into the top 20 like the other four hits. However, it did have one of the best B-side songs ever with "Breakaway," which I think would have been a top-20 hit if it had been added to the original album. 

https://youtu.be/GkBqZKMROtA

But with "Breakaway" being a B-side release, plus it having some pretty obvious references to heroin in the lyrics, it was kind of doomed to not get the radio play it deserved. Still, I think it's a better song than the title track "Heartbeat City," which apparently made it onto the low end of the charts in September of 1985, but I was in Sweden by that time, so I don't remember ever hearing it on the radio. 

Listening to this album always makes me remember that last year of running track in high school, the summer of lifeguarding after that, and my first semester at Ricks. I had sworn off dating by then, and I stuck to that oath for over a year, so this album doesn't have any associated memories of any particular girls. I was just too depressed to want to risk dating anyone again. So, the major slow-dance song "Drive" only reminds me of living in the dorms and watching MTV late at night in the foyer while most of the other guys were out on dates. Chris also went home a lot during that first semester, so I was alone on quite a few weekends at the beginning of school. But that was actually a good thing, because I needed that time to do homework. And after leaving Arimo for college, I was determined to apply that self-discipline I'd learned from running track to change my life and prepare for my future, which is exactly what I did for that whole first year of college as I prepared for my mission. So by the time I got my call to Sweden in February of 1985, I felt ready to face whatever might come my way.

Of course, I was completely wrong about that, and my first two months in Sweden nearly broke me. And it was hard. So hard to take. There's no escape without a scrape. But I kept it goin' till the sun went down. I kept it...goin'.

When I got back off my mission, Heartbreak City was one of the albums that I pirated from my brother-in-law and played while driving around in the Black step-side Chevy, so I have some good memories of the album during my summer after Sweden and my sophomore year at Ricks, too. But it's definitely an album that I mostly associate with that time around when I turned 18, which mentally wasn't the best time for me, but physically I was in the best shape of my life. Oh, how I wish I could still run a mile in under five minutes like I did back then! And when I listen to this album now, I am able to feel just a little bit of that 18-year-old long-distance runner determination to change my life and make it better. And when that happens, it makes me say to that 18-year-old that still lives inside my head, "Hello! Hello again!"

Nardo

34. Breakfast in America by Supertramp

 34. Breakfast in America by Supertramp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-nrv4iVYFQ&list=PLIqdcWWN8Sl7YO-1CZeK5VBt19kiL9QRd

Three songs from this album are in my top 200 songs list, so yeah, it was destined to be on my Top 60 albums list. 

Of all the memories that my brain could dredge up about this album, for some stupid reason, it has chosen to remember that back at the beginning of the 9th grade, Breakfast in America was Piney Votzel's favorite album. I learned this from one of those student newspaper articles filled with factoids learned from a published interview with someone in the student body that warranted special attention. And at that time it simply struck me as odd that Piney would like Supertramp so much because one of my sisters had purchased Breakfast in America shortly after it came out in March of 1979, so I had heard the album plenty over the summer, and it just didn't seem like the type of album that would end up being the absolute favorite album of a girl like Piney Votzel. I guess I expected that she would have been into rock bands that didn't have album covers featuring a big glass of orange juice.  

Just to be clear about this, I never had a crush on Piney Votzel. Ever. And I'm pretty sure she never had a crush on me, either. She probably thought I was that annoying jerk that told pickle jokes in middle school and played his trumpet way too loud in pep band. I think I may have had her in some of my classes--probably something supremely forgettable like science or math or English. But I don't ever remember even talking to her at any time in middle school or high school. Piney wasn't in band or drama or track or any other extracurricular activity that I was involved in after school. As far as I know, Piney wasn't friends with any of the girls that I had a crush on, so I wouldn't have associated with her casually in the hallway. I don't remember her ever coming to Lava Hot Springs while I was lifeguarding during the summer. I did not ever dance with Piney at a school dance. I never sat next to Piney at lunch. No group project in any class ever put me and Piney into a forced exchange of ideas. I never unexpectedly ran into Piney at any store or restaurant in Pocatello. I do not recall ever seeing Piney at the truck stop in Downey. I never sat next to Piney on any bus. I did not ever drive to school and park next to Piney's car. No Halloween party or Christmas party or any other kind of party had me and Piney playing some ridiculous game together. Piney and I had zero friends in common. When my friends and I rated girls during our summer high adventure campouts, Piney was never a source of debate among us. I never had a fight with Piney. I never had a mutual laugh over something with Piney. As far as my addled brain can recall, I simply had zero connections with Piney. In fact, I have exactly four memories related to Piney Votzel. 

My latest memory is from when she got up at the one and only high school reunion I attended about 15 years ago and made a hilarious public speech in which she apologized for everything she had done in high school and expressed affection for everyone in the room. 

Before that, I remember running into her at the grocery store in Downey during those three weeks I was living in Arimo after my mission but before the family moved to Twin Falls. She was the cashier, and while I was paying for root beer and some Fig Newtons, she asked what I'd been up to since high school, and I said that I went to a year of college and then just got back from a two-year mission in Sweden. She gave the usual wow-Sweden response that I always got from people in Marsh Valley when they saw me and asked me why they hadn't seen me in three years.

I think I may have also had some dreams in which Piney Votzel had a guest appearance. But I don't remember the particulars of any of those dreams.

And the fourth memory is, of course, that Breakfast in America by Supertramp was her favorite album in 9th grade. 

That's it. That's all the Piney I've got. There ain't no more.

So why in the hell do I think about Piney Votzel every time a Supertramp song from this album starts playing on the radio?! I do have other memories associated with this album. Sometimes I'll remember hearing the songs on the way to and from scout camp at Little Lemhi. And sometimes I remember my sisters playing the album on the stereo. And once in a while, I'll think about drinking a tall glass of orange juice for breakfast. But I ALWAYS remember that this album was Piney Votzel's favorite. I just can't stop the thought. 

There are lots of other thoughts I could have about the album. Like how for those of us that like hearing keyboards in a rock song, this album is about as good as it gets. Or how the lyrics to "The Logical Song" and "Take the Long Way Home" only get better and better the older I get--and it's pretty much the same with all the other lyrics on the album. Or how even the non-hit songs on the album are pretty damn good and have a consistently high quality in both music and lyrics. Or how the album art is so clever and fun yet still communicates a rather serious message when you put it in the context of the lyrics of the songs on the album. I think the cover symbolized the way that people from other countries (like Sweden) look at America as some land in which they'll be welcomed with a smile and all of their needs will be taken care of and they'll find all of their fantasies fulfilled, but in the end, it's all an illusion, just like how all of the breakfast items look like the New York skyline when you see them from far away out the window of a jet plane, but up close, they're pretty common and colorless. 

But all those possible thoughts about the album take a back seat to the thought that Breakfast in America was Piney Votzel's favorite album in 9th grade. So what does that say about me? Why would my brain prioritize this fact over all the other thoughts i could have about this excellent album? Is there something wrong with me? Is this a sign that I'm losing my mind? And did I start losing my mind clear back in 9th grade? Is Piney a symbol of something deep in my subconscious mind that reveals how genuinely empty my relationships were with all the girls in high school? Or is she representative of the general disconnection I feel with all of humanity? Is Piney the Stranger that, like Billy Joel says, we all have to face at some point in our lives? Is Piney simply the Stranger that I just can't say goodbye to? 

The questions run too deep. I know it sounds absurd. But please tell me who I am.

Nardo

35. Purple Rain by Prince and The Revolution

 35. Purple Rain by Prince and The Revolution

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXJhDltzYVQ&list=OLAK5uy_nZh8Bqp7b-jedaxIGOtSoNPwk_FnqtaCk

The summer between high school graduation and college was three glorious months of lifeguarding at Lava Hot Springs and driving tractor out in the fields. I didn't get to hang out with my friends as much as I wanted, but that's because we were all working on farms and making money for whatever was to come next in life. 

I remember that a lot of good music came out during that summer, but there was one album that I really found that I couldn't stand--Purple Rain. My friends and I had made fun of the Purple Pervert on his previous albums, so I was predisposed to dislike Purple Rain from the moment I first heard it. But it was impossible to go through that summer without hearing "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy." And the album had hit its full stride by the beginning of my freshman year of college with "Purple Rain," "I Would Die 4 U," and "Take Me With You" dominating the airwaves. I remember that some of the girls I met at college REALLY liked Prince, and I just didn't get why. I mean, just look at the cover of the album! This doesn't look like any of the rock and roll singers that the girls in high school liked. 

I had not seen the movie, but I heard it was pretty bad, and I kind of figured that the rest of the album besides the hit songs played on the radio must really suck, so I never listened to it all the way through. And of all the videos I saw on MTV from the movie, the one song that I liked the most was actually by Morris Day and The Time's "Jungle Love"--oh-ee-oh-eee-oh!

https://youtu.be/N2FPQvwhSDY

Purple Rain also wasn't one of the albums that I got into after my mission, even though Prince had become a much bigger deal by then with lots of other hits. And I'm not sure why, but the producers of "Batman" decided that Prince would make the ideal artist to do the soundtrack. So we all had to endure hearing "Batdance" on the radio in the summer of '89, which turned me off to Prince even more. 

But about eight years later, I went to graduate school at Utah State, and I ended up buying Purple Rain because Julie said that she liked the album, and I was trying really hard to please her during that time, so I put aside my dislike of the Purple Pervert and gave the entire Purple Rain album a listen. And I was pleasantly surprised by how good all of the other songs on the album were, with the exception of Darling Nikki, which I still hate. But the rest of the songs grew on me so much that I got to the point that I even put "Computer Blue" on my Top 200 songs list. I also like "Baby I'm a Star" very much. Because I enjoyed Purple Rain so much, I ended up getting a Prince greatest his album, and I found that I liked even more of his music. Moreover, I found that I liked the music from his Purple Pervert days much more than the tamer music he put out once he got religion and joined the Jehovah's Witnesses in 2001. 

So this is one of those rare '80s albums that I hated in high school and college but eventually grew to appreciate much later on in life. Of course, I also rented "Purple Rain" the movie, and I discovered that my instinct that it would be a truly crappy movie was...absolutely dead on. It was about as bad as a movie can get--except for the music, which was very purple and very rainish. So it just goes to show that the old saying is true--you can't judge all perverts by their color.

Daren

36. Frontiers by Journey

 36. Frontiers by Journey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LatorN4P9aA&list=OLAK5uy_kve61SToeMDTxIrG__bH39SA4QAkdy-II

Both "Separate Ways" and "Back Talk" were on my Top 200 songs list, so it is no surprise that Frontiers makes it onto my Top 60 albums list. Ruth bought it, but I basically turned it into my record, playing it whenever I wanted at full blast in the basement while lifting weights, vegging out on the couch, or laying on my bed with the stereo speakers placed on two night stands on either side, and my head placed perfectly in between them so that I got the best stereo sound I could. 

This album was just about the perfect thing to listen to whenever I felt pissed off during my senior year, which covers basically all the time between November 1983 through May 1984. Ironically, it contains two slow-dance songs that reminded me of dates with the girls that made me perpetually pissed. the album did double-duty in dredging up painful memories. I'd torture myself listening to "Send Her My Love" and "Faithfully." But then the other songs would give me the psychological salve of driving rock guitars to accompany my angry weight-lifing workouts. "Chain Reaction," "Edge of the Blade," and "Balk Talk" were especially energizing. But the rest of the songs provided plenty of acoustic fuel to keep the workouts going for a couple of hours at a time.

The 2006 reissue of the album includes four more songs. "Only the Young," "Ask the Lonely," and "Only Solutions" had been originally recorded to be included on the Frontiers album, but then the record label guys wanted to save those songs for movie soundtracks instead. These are all quality songs that I think would have made the album even better than it was. "Ask the Lonely" and "Only the Young" both hit #3 on the Billboard charts when they were released after Frontiers. If they had been included on Frontiers, the album would have had had the following Top-40 charting songs:

Separate Ways
Send Her My Love
After the Fall
Faithfully
Ask the Lonely
Only the Young

Another song titled "Liberty" was cut from consideration, and frankly, I think it was wise to leave it off the original album. 

But there you have it. Frontiers was a great album when I listened to it back at the end of high school, but it could have been even better if it had included the stuff that was rather thoughtlessly cut out just because someone thought their future would be so much better without me them. 

Nardo

37. Eliminator by ZZ Top

 37. Eliminator by ZZ Top

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae829mFAGGE&list=OLAK5uy_lNkF0KnpICFVl079NmbTulL2wPaAexiVU

Toward the end of my junior year in high school, ZZ Top entered the charts with "Gimme All Your Lovin'," and over a year later after high school graduation, the album was still on the charts in the summer of '84 with "Legs." Other charting songs off the album included "Got Me Under Pressure," "TV Dinners," and the MTV monster video hit "Sharp Dressed Man." So, yeah, this album is definitely a big part of the senior year soundtrack. 

Strangely enough, one of the reasons I think it lasted so long on the charts is that none of the songs were big hits as far as chart-topping singles. That means that people didn't tire of hearing a bunch of songs from the same album all charting at the same time. Instead of getting cooked really fast on high heat on a front burner, this album sat slowly simmering away on the back burner. 

I didn't buy this album in high school, partly because I didn't want to experience the supreme embarrassment of having my sisters and mother ask about the appropriateness of the very unsubtle lyrics on "I Got the Six." But I did get a copy of the album from my brother-in-law after returning home from Sweden. I found that while I still enjoyed listening to the hit songs the most, the other songs had a pretty consistent quality with that signature ZZ Top sound. 

In a lot of ways, ZZ Top is a lot like another of my favorite bands, ACDC. They pretty much stick with one kind of music that works for them, and they don't stray too far away from that Texas Roadhouse formula. When Eliminator came out, some people criticized the group for using synthesizers and drum machines on it. But I think the essence of the band's sound is still there. I mean, you don't hear any song off this album and think, "Hey, is this a New Wave song from some English group with androgynous costumes and strange hairdos?" No, you think, "This sounds like those two guys with long beards form ZZ Top."

It was because of this album that I decided to give other ZZ Top songs a listen whenever they came on the radio. And that's why "La Grange" ended up being the only ZZ Top song on my Top 200 song list, even though the album Tres Hombres predates Eliminator by a full decade. 

It's the combination of all of the ZZ Top hit songs together--and the fact that all of those songs remind me of my high school years--that make this a Top 60 album, whereas no single song from this album made it onto my Top 200 list. But if I had to choose one song from this album as my favorite, it would have to be "TV Dinners," what with all those clever lyrics, including the best line of all, "I even like the chicken if the sauce is not too blue." That's the kind of lyric that lets you know this band is all about having fun, even though their music tends to sound like something that you would hear while two bikers in black leather jackets get into a fistfight, and one of them pulls out a switchblade, to which the other grabs a beer bottle and breaks off the bottom on the bar counter, and then the whole place erupts into an all-out brawl, but the band never stops playing.

Nardo

38. The Game by Queen

 38. The Game by Queen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_5O-nUiZ_0&list=OLAK5uy_kkHhuEInejU2gl6gTx1ALT7nb9UrmmBpo

While I do think Queen had other albums that were better artistically, this is their best selling album with their only two #1 hits in America with "Another One Bites the Dust" and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love." But lets all face the facts--"Another One Bites the Dust" is the monster hit that made this their top-selling album. It's definitely the reason I bought this album at the beginning of 9th grade. 

This album got played a lot from 9th grade through 12th grade, but in the end I threw my copy of the album in the garbage. Why? Because although I had heard rumors that the album had backwards masking, I didn't believe it. But after Randy showed me how to play the records backwards, I discovered that on "Another One Bits the Dust" there is backwards masking that says "smoke marijuana" in the same spot where the lyrics "Another one bites the dust" is played. Because at one point in my senior year I got really mad about how Randy's marijuana smoking had basically ruined what could have been a really good relationship between the two of us. He knew he couldn't smoke around me, so he decided that I wasn't going to be his friend, even though we shared the same bedroom my whole junior year of high school. So in my fit of anger, I threw my copy of "The Game" into the burn barrel. 

But I'd already memorized all the songs on the entire album, having listened to it at least once a week for over 3 years. And eventually after my mission I got another copy of the album. I couldn't resist how it triggered memories of my youth. One of those memories is of sitting in on a planning meeting for a school dance, and some girl suggested that the theme of the dance be from a song that was over a year old. And Sean Haney--who for some inexplicable reason had been invited to take part in the meeting--said in a supremely sarcastic tone "Why don't we make 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love" the theme song?" It made the girl feel really bad, but I have to admit it was kind of a funny thing to say. Also, I admit that I would have really liked it if we had made "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" as the theme song for the dance. But the group opted for a new song that was starting to get radio play--I don't remember which one. Probably something really stupid by Air Supply. 

The one song on this album that I skipped a lot while listening to it was "Don't Try Suicide." That's because it had the problematic line "You can't be a prick teaser all of your life." That was just not something I could blast out of the speakers and not have someone else in the house hear it and report it to Mom. So, yeah, that song got skipped the most.

But I enjoyed all the other songs on the album quite a bit. There's a pretty good range of sounds from the different songs, from the Elvis Presley vibe on "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" to the new Disco sounds of "Another One Bites the Dust" to a more classical Queen sound on "Sail Away Sweet Sister." It's got solid contributions from all of the group too. They all shine at one point in at least one song. 

If they just hadn't put on that damn backwards masking, I would have enjoyed the album throughout all of high school and into college. And in the end, throwing away the album didn't do a thing to fix the broken relationship between me and Randy. It was what it was.

And the album is what it is--a solid, all-around musical performance by Queen with a gigantic monster hit.

Nardo