Songs 359-361

Violent Femmes - Blister in the Sun (1983)

Rick James - Super Freak (1981)

Vangelis - Chariots of Fire (1982)

Songs 350-352

Gap Band - You Dropped A Bomb on Me (1982)

B-52's - Love Shack (1989)

Sun Ra Arkestra - Nuclear War (1982)

Songs 347-349

George Clinton - Atomic Dog (1982)

Spinners - Cupid I've Loved You For a Long Time (1980)

Cameo - Word Up (1986)

Songs 341-343

Earth, Wind and Fire - System of Survival (1987)

Adam Ant - Goody Two Shoes (1982)

Jack Wagner - All I Need (1984)

Songs 332-334

Joe Cocker - Up Where We Belong (1982)

Chris DeBurgh - Lady In Red (1986)

Biz Markie - Just a Friend (1989)

Songs 284-286

Laura Branigan - Gloria (1982)

Juice Newton - Angel of the Morning (1981)

New Kids on the Block - You Got It (The Right Stuff (1988))

Songs 281-283

Living Colour - Cult of Personality (1988)

Don Henley - Dirty Laundry (1982)

Jan Hammer - Miami Vice Theme (1985)

Songs 269-271

Neil Diamond - Heartlight (1982)

Human League - Human (1986)

Miami Sound Machine - Conga (1985)

Songs 257-259

Today is my birthday and to celebrate I'm treating myself to some favorite songs of my youth.
Back in the day we had these things called cassette recorders. Before we even knew of such things as the interweb and piracy, we would make our own tapes of songs by recording them off of the radio. Even then the record companies felt threatened and for a brief time radio stations would play a brief ad in the middle of the song to discourage people making tapes of it. Never mind it irritated the bejeezus out of everyone listening.
But anyway, I had a cassette of songs I really enjoyed and there was a three song stretch that I particularly enjoyed and would play over and over and over and over and over. Those three songs are today's songs.
First was Eddy Grant's Electric Avenue (1982)

Next was Robert Hazard's Escalator of Life (1982). This song never got airplay where I lived so I was thrilled to have it on tape (keep in mind I was 11 and couldn't exactly run out and go shopping at the human mall and buy it).

Lastly is the greatest song of the 1980's, if not all time, Come on Eileen by Dexy's Midnight Runners:

Songs 251-253

Naked Eyes - Always Something There to Remind Me (1982)

Technotronic - Pump Up the Jam (1989)

The Jam - Town Called Malice (1982)

Songs 248-250

With this post, we're a quarter of the way through the thousand songs. Seems like a long way to go.
Commodores - Night Shift (1985)

Marvin Gaye - Sexual Healing (1982)

Buddy Miles doing Marvin Gaye's I Heard It Through the Grapevine with the California Raisins (1986)

Songs 245-247

Taking today's songs from groups mentioned in this clip of the great film High Fidelity:

Jesus and Mary Chain - Just Like Honey (1985). I don't care what Jack Black says. There is not picking up from Echo and the Bunnymen.

Stiff Little Fingers - Bits of Kids (1982)

Clash - Rock the Casbah (1982)

Songs 242-244

Fiction Factory - (Feels Like) Heaven (1984)

Stevie Nicks - Edge of Seventeen (1981)

Fleetwood Mac - Gypsy (1982)

Songs 230-232

Bow Wow Wow - I Want Candy (1982)

Elvis Costello - Veronica (1989)

Sade - Smooth Operator (1984)

Songs 227-229

Cinderella - Not Your Fool (1986)

Modern English - I Melt With You (1982)

English Beat - Mirror in the Bathroom (1980)

Songs 209-211

Breaking out songs I love today. Thomas Dolby - Blinded Me with Science (1982)

I actually bought this album on it's release date. The first time I ever did such a thing. Richard Marx - Don't Mean Nothing (1987)

Erasure - Piano Song (1989)

Songs 185-187

Falco - Rock Me Amadeus (1985)

Taco - Puttin' on the Ritz (1982)

Bad Company (or, for the purposes of today's "theme" Bad Co.) - No Smoke without a Fire (1988)

Songs 173-175

Some of my many thousands of loyal followers may be asking things like, "Really, Jon? You thought of Strawberry Switchblade before you thought of Prince?". And the answer to that is, of course not. I think of Prince almost every day. Prince is awesome. But because the idiot who structured this blog decided each artist could only be included once, well, do I really want to go the rest of the year with no potential of having Prince show up? Of course not. The possibility of Prince, in my mind, is better than having Prince included in this blog at this stage. Likewise with my all-time favorite eighties tune. It will show up eventually. Just not now. It's tough doing a blog like this and trying to keep a nice blend of songs and artists without going through the big names and tunes early. That's why you get some of the more obscure bands or genres that didn't get popular play (I feel like I've done a decent job of punk representation early on, for instance). Just thought I'd let you know what goes on in my head.
Speaking of which, let's add some more punk and get the Misfits going on here with Mommy, Can I Go Out and Kill Tonight (1982)

We'll go from one Jersey artist to another. Bruce Springsteen and Glory Days (1985)

Keep the baseball theme going with John Fogerty's Centerfield (1985)

Songs 170-172

Alan Parsons Project - Eye in the Sky (1982)

Foreigner - Waiting for a Girl Like You (1981)

Greg Kihn Band - Jeopardy (1983)

Songs 161-163

Whitesnake - Here I go Again (1982)

XTC - Dear God (1986)

Yaz - Sweet Thing (1983)