A POLL Bizarre ~~~ It's the ILM 80's R&B TRACKS POLL ~~~ RESULTS THREAD!!!

"Changes" is, like, my fifth favourite Imagination tune, but it's still perfect, like all the singles from their first two albums. I expect several of them to place yet, "Just an Illusion" might even be a top 10 contender.

https://img.discogs.com/KWuLTQim68WxLWdyQOFfndhVsDY=/fit-in/600x604/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-255893-1295454676.jpeg.jpg
239. Donna Summer - This Time I Know It's for Real
197 points, 4 votes
https://youtu.be/sJsXrYO9znQ

https://img.discogs.com/cNIitauAEwad5yqiWfhdYVArvlc=/fit-in/600x603/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-80291-1293670282.jpeg.jpg
238. Kurtis Blow - The Breaks
198 points, 5 votes
https://youtu.be/5ZDUEilS5M4

Rap was, alongside house, the other major genre I had to excise from my ballot so I could trim it down to 100. Though I guess the extended mix of "The Breaks" in particular is pretty close to funk, what with all the extra jamming towards the end.

I voted for "Let's Go All the Way". I always loved it. Saw the video for the first time today, they look as goofy as I imagined.

https://img.discogs.com/yWoh8uMylRgnX4_xSbnVyVAtN24=/fit-in/600x606/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-9086644-1474553864-4869.jpeg.jpg
237. Aretha Franklin - Get It Right
199 points, 3 votes
https://youtu.be/SsnQXghCpFg

26, Two of Hearts and Sugar Walls all TOO LOW!!

https://img.discogs.com/bZm6ju5JUUHCYY94oZn8Qot0kzU=/fit-in/483x487/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-2175411-1268395027.jpeg.jpg
236. Sharon Redd - Beat the Street
200 points, 4 votes
https://youtu.be/3fW0cf_YcBc

If You Let Me Stay = too low!

https://img.discogs.com/cuzu7zHe4Yx7v5Whv63es8agkhw=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-739107-1469614827-5803.jpeg.jpg
235. Jeffrey Osborne - Stay With Me Tonight
201 points, 6 votes
https://youtu.be/wCWYZHYIPyE

"get it right" is totally perfect, one of my favorite things luther vandross has ever written

oh and "stay with me tonight" is wayyyyy too low. ac classic

Wtf, I was expecting "Beat the Street" to be in the top 40!? One of the ten best boogie tunes, IMO. Love the evocative tone of Redd's voice, there's something transcendent about it.

i forgot to vote for 'just the two of us' :(

https://img.discogs.com/0TUd8cLNNOza5yGdc0_myC9676M=/fit-in/600x609/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-2275598-1429283920-8842.jpeg.jpg
234. Marvin Gaye - Praise
202 points, 3 votes
https://youtu.be/A0AgZ0mPRjI

"Let's Go All The Way" is one that, as I was nominated it, I paused for a sec to consider whether or not it was properly R&B. I'm glad that four others appeared to agree.

I didn't nom "The Breaks," but it seemed legit enough (even though we discussed early on that we weren't doing rap) that I voted for it.

was nominated

https://img.discogs.com/Hv1FGiA-mxbPZjeQqlLfCY07eYw=/fit-in/600x582/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-1694346-1379745906-9668.jpeg.jpg
232 (TIE). Princess - Say I'm Your Number One
202 points, 4 votes
https://youtu.be/aRK49e1Avmc

https://img.discogs.com/k_JtKWcD1fSb05hs2APD8HcqqEw=/fit-in/509x510/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-5775227-1402318679-5464.jpeg.jpg
232 (TIE). Tracie Spencer - Symptoms of True Love
202 points, 4 votes
https://youtu.be/iM4JU1CPL7A

https://img.discogs.com/Bp_Ml2xHOLpj9IwPHkK18cJlza4=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-1177431-1453029109-8044.jpeg.jpg
231. Bobby Brown - Every Little Step
202 points, 5 votes
https://youtu.be/P0FKzPfsxA4

Voted for both of them. The Tracie Spencer because of the campaigning thread, Princess is the best thing SAW ever did, just ahead of Mandy Smith's I Just Can't Wait and Mel & Kim's Respectable

Yeah, I also thought "Beat The Street" would be much higher. Such a key track at the time.

(argh! just noticed that, while I nominated "Let's Go All The Way," I actually forgot to vote for it! thanks to the five of you who picked up my slack!)

"every little step" was my highest ranking babyface/reid track, everything they do well done so sweetly and lightly

https://img.discogs.com/zcgGt3T4CBa8Mjq5MuVdkZFcRQQ=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-3218584-1451215706-8356.jpeg.jpg
230. Bobby Womack - If You Think You're Lonely Now
203 points, 5 votes
https://youtu.be/bRXnRwm-njM

Wtf at "Every Little Step" placing that low?!

wtf at "if you think you're lonely now" placing this low

a lot of my ballot getting cleared out early lol

https://img.discogs.com/NsdJ8TzP7DTGTiwnMmZ8Sq5URl0=/fit-in/600x602/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-7141064-1434740522-9094.jpeg.jpg
229. Womack & Womack - Love Wars
205 points, 4 votes
https://youtu.be/hmda4Ccyz3Q

i love this song so much

Woah, figured that would be top 50 at least.

https://img.discogs.com/aGTN8e2shp4od_HYwy71uWVmcFY=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-2555200-1291160844.jpeg.jpg
228. Billy Ocean - Caribbean Queen (No More Love on the Run)
206 points, 5 votes
https://youtu.be/9f16Fw_K45s

https://img.discogs.com/HclCSa4XOGz_OFKlX-NAlFBMVoE=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-767726-1242817673.jpeg.jpg
227. Whispers - Keep On Lovin' Me
208 points, 3 votes
https://youtu.be/d6aRvVTSC0I

'Symptoms of True Love' was #4 on my ballot. It's a tragedy that it placed so low, but if its appearance here elevates the profile of that gargantuan track, I'll take it.

Also voted for 'The Breaks'. Feel like Sugar Hill joints were often more a melange of subgenres than straight-up rap.

operation hell on earth, never forget

LOVE WARS an amazing album, all of it.

Kashif too low

https://img.discogs.com/sMorPx5DxZI4LaGHqSKS9sICvgo=/fit-in/600x606/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-1495331-1249547981.jpeg.jpg
226. Irene Cara - Flashdance... What a Feeling
208 points, 4 votes
https://youtu.be/ILWSp0m9G2U

https://img.discogs.com/CA6p4JPbSzinzrwgZFWSxBKjuXE=/fit-in/600x599/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-3430475-1338979687-3199.jpeg.jpg
225. Michael Jackson - Baby Be Mine
209 points, 3 votes
https://youtu.be/uaV4SSLaTs8

Wish more MJ followed this template...

'BABY BE MINE' TOO LOW! But I was worried about vote splitting wrt that album so I'm glad it's here at all (we probably should've just collectively agreed to give 'the complete '80s works of Prince' and 'the entire Thriller album except 'The Girl is Mine'' the top two spots and worked from there).

Old Lunch otm

https://img.discogs.com/l8NMO3qG6J4bk-4NfLDClmwIBQs=/fit-in/447x444/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-3851307-1346868752-8360.jpeg.jpg
224. Michael Jackson - Thriller
214 points, 4 votes
https://youtu.be/sOnqjkJTMaA

https://img.discogs.com/9nqaLbvNVioa-70gUbyspic17t8=/fit-in/600x607/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-1214249-1201215699.jpeg.jpg
223. George Michael - Careless Whisper
215 points, 4 votes
https://youtu.be/izGwDsrQ1eQ

Sorry, wrong link:
https://youtu.be/ui_CNb4FUtQ

https://img.discogs.com/MGrUrx3DceMIkh99RtxJN_8D2ts=/fit-in/600x598/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-2975070-1454211584-4056.jpeg.jpg
222. Teddy Pendergrass - Love T.K.O.
216 points, 4 votes
https://youtu.be/rV9VuPkIIv4

Teddy Pendergrass' beard was something else

Always feel like Thriller the song us way underrated

I don't dislike "Thriller," but I always kind of felt it existed mostly to soundtrack the video.

i guess it's appropriate that "love tko" placed this close to "love wars" since they're both womack & womack tunes but still TOO LOW

https://img.discogs.com/DkU6RpUMGsEBV2bNK3E-81WF_uI=/fit-in/600x597/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-1725802-1356529275-4514.jpeg.jpg
221. Ray Parker Jr. - Ghostbusters
216 points, 6 votes
https://youtu.be/Fe93CLbHjxQ

much as busting makes me feel good, too high

Honestly, my Jill Jones pick would be Ryuchi Sakamoto's "You Do Me"

I was the only one to vote for "Mia Bocca"?! Don't you folks like Jill Jones?

― Tuomas

I voted for Violet Blue.

This was a great poll. Thanks for all your hard work ArchCarrier.

Wa Wa Nee getting more points than Housequake????

Scanning from the bottom of the thread up, I thought that was someone's 911 song ballot!

Thanks again, ArchCarrier! This has been amazing. And OMG, I see now what you mean about the point difference between the two clear leaders and the rest of the pack!

Yes, and the voting stats of the rest of the top 10 are so close that they are practically tied. On any other day the order would have been slightly different.

The funny thing is that "Heartbeat" was sitting at number 1 until a day or two before the deadline. Only after the last five or six ballots came in it dropped to #5.

Happy with #1, though I can't lie: I prefer the '79 Prince version of the sing. It's his 2nd album's "When U Were Mine"

Heartbeat was the highest of anything from my ballot to place

So glad 'I Feel For You' won. It was one of the first singles I owned - I would have been five, saw it on Top of The Pops and had my dad get it for me. I haven't listened to it that much in the last 30 years, somehow, but finding it on shuffle when I was listening to the nominations here was such a revelation - it's just so full of perfect moments which just pile up on top of one another. I can think of quite a few perfect pieces of music, but none that are so full of stuff. And I kind of knew that it would be #1 somehow.

(The Prince original I heard for the first time, and afraid I found it a big let-down, just sounds like a very minor work, sorry)

Thanks to ArchCarrier for running this poll, and to the voters for introducing me to so much I hadn't heard before, and so much I found I had known for years without knowing its name.

nobody even nominated "Rocket 2 U," which i assume means everyone else, like me, completely forgot it existed when this poll was going on

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkTMLMICR3Y

i love this song

This is driving me insane...do any of my 80s R&B headz recognize the interpolation at the chorus where he sings the title??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SnWTW6YXbE

Several elements of the song sound like a de- and reconstruction of the Doobie Brothers' version of 'You Belong to Me':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpHnVyAyJFU

If that's not quite it, it feels like the Doobies/Michael McDonald are a good first route of inquiry. That opening synth line is all them.

The chorus backing track sounds a bit like Wham "Everything She Wants" tbh.

I was going to say the backing track sounds like “yah mo be there”

One of his recent hits interpolated Eugene Wild

I'm a little late to the Alexander O'Neal party, because I only just discovered that 'Criticize' is the best song ever written.