US #1s of 1986

roughly 20 of these are great but PSBs just over the two Madonnas.

i love 'On My Own' fwiw, esp. Labelle at the end ("this wasn't how it was supposed to eeeeeeeeeeeeend")

That video! I had forgotten the scene in the Biker Bar. Oh god yes.

oh fuck i forgot he died. :-(

So did Robert Palmer. Why couldn't God take Phil Collins or Mick Hucknall instead?

I'm kind of blown away that Boston's "Amanda" was a #1.

Heart, "These Dreams
Falco, "Rock Me Amadeus"
Prince and the Revolution, "Kiss"
Robert Palmer, "Addicted to Love"
Pet Shop Boys, "West End Girls"

This is one HELL of a run of five consecutive #1's ...

Yup! Also: "Human," "When I Think of You," "Invisible Touch," "Venus," and "Sledgehammer." I could've voted for any one of them, but I'm particularly fond of "Live To Tell" this morning.

Going through these in my head, half of them sound the same to me...

Heart, "These Dreams
Mr. Mister, "Kyrie"
Steve Winwood, "Higher Love"
Peter Cetera, "Glory of Love"
Madonna, "Live to Tell"
Cyndi Lauper, "True Colors"
Bruce Hornsby & the Range, "The Way It Is"
Simply Red, "Holding Back the Years"
Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald, "On My Own"

There's a slight spread from fast and upbeat to slow and maudlin but basically this is MOR/AOR heaven.

lots of early digital synth pads and arpeggiated marimba pattern type things

if only 'Sweet Freedom' was in this thing

I heard "On My Own" at the supermarket a couple of weeks ago; it was better than I remembered.

There are a few duds in there but overall, great year. Tracks that are absolutely essential to the fabric of the universe: "Rock Me Amadeus," "West End Girls," "Sledgehammer," "Walk Like an Egyptian."

Songs that I like a lot but which reasonable people might disagree: "The Way It Is," "Kiss," "Higher Love," "True Colors," "Human." Those aren't my favorite Madonna songs but they are not mistakes by any stretch of the imagination.

I voted for "Sledgehammer" but I suspect "West End Girls" will narrowly edge out "Kiss" for the win in this one.

"Kiss," of course.
Everyone else should fold up their penises and go home.*

* Stolen from Xgau's review of Dirty Mind.

goddam this kicks 89's ass

west end girls is the one i'd most like to hear this second, but i could easily vote for like 5 of these

This is easily my favorite year for chart music.

For real. Some of the songs that made the top ten ("Let's Go All The Way," "Sweet Freedom," "Opportunities," "Rumors") would be winners on any list.

"Walk Like an Egyptian" (even though this got hella played), "Human", "When I Think of You", "Sledgehammer", "Kiss", "West End Girls", "Live to Tell" as good or better than everything I ended up voting for from any of the polls '86 & forward.

OTM x & xxpost

Unironically, Peter Cetera. That song has been stuck in my head for months.

...not to mention Falco, "Addicted to Love" , Boston coming correct, hell, even the Mr. Mister seems awesomne through the hazy gauze of nostalgia.

ha! was going to say the peter cetera & maybe greatest love of all would be the only ones I flip stations on

I would

I even harbor a soft spot in my heart for the breakdown in "Kyrie." "These Dreams" was my older sister's favorite song for like three months; she'd take one of the stereo speakers into the bathroom with her while she was getting ready for school. The semispoken bits have a kind of majesty in retrospect.

The worst song on here is the Huey Lewis song, which is just okay compared to everything else running the gamut from good to essential.

Nah - Iceman would have punched Kelly McGillis in the mouth if she'd used "Take My Breath Away" as a "love theme."

Synths sounded horrible at the time. Really, this was DX7 Hell. But still some nice songs.

I can totally do without "That's What Friends Are For" (despite the fine Wonderian harmonica work) "Amanda" (which seems a bit like Classic Rock's incongruous lone entry), "Sara," "Stuck With You," "Invisible Touch," "Next Time I Fall," "Glory of Love," and "You Give Love a Bad Name."

"Take My Breath Away," "Holding Back the Years," and "Live to Tell" all have kinda the same interminable ploddiness to my mind; I do not love these songs (apologies for dissenting from the LtT love).

The rest are good to great, as has been amply noted.

ER WAR SUPERSTAR
ER WAR POPULAR

AMADEUS AMADEUS

yes "kiss" will win of course, because nothing else in a fair-to-middling list gets close to its orbit.

― paper plans (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, February 3, 2009 1:29 AM Bookmark

voted PSB, but Falco comes second

^^^^^

Always hated "Sledgehammer" (video even more than the song). Candidates for third place:

Prince and the Revolution, "Kiss"
Madonna, "Live to Tell"
The Bangles, "Walk Like an Egyptian"

And maybe these, too:

Heart, "These Dreams"
Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald, "On My Own"
Billy Ocean, "There'll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)"

Love Bananarama and love "Venus" (Shocking Blue version), but that cover always seemed pretty pointless to me.

AMANDA

PAPA DON'T PREACH

Pretty impossible. Eight year old me with my newly acquired boombox listening to 99.9 KISS FM all day long all summer long playing with my GI Joes and BMX bike. Those were the days. Lots of that 80's melancholy synth work in this list too. Yeah, I really can't pick.

Crap year overall, but that list makes the year look better. And I admit to underappreciating some of those at the time. And even utter dogshit like "Rock Me Amadeus" at least has the lol80's factor going for it. Ultimately it's between "Live To Tell" and "West End Girls"

Ummm...PSB take it.

What a year! This is impossible.

good lord...

i spent a lot of time in 3rd-4th grade taping songs off Casey Kasem's top 40

I started doing that in '86 as well (UK though, so Bruno Brookes etc. instead of Kasem)

lol at heart. they're probably in their early to mid 30s in that video but i thought they were old.

I fell in love with many (pretty much all) of my High School aged babysitters to songs like "What About Love." I was a real romantic.

Not sure why I capitalized High School there.

utter dogshit like "Rock Me Amadeus" at least has the lol80's factor

More like the lolGerman factor (or Austrian, or whatever), if you ask me. Plus it's a great record.

voted "Kiss" but probably Heart & Bon Jovi's most tolerable hits

take my breath away is timeless and powerful i voted for it

lol sure

Crap year overall, but that list makes the year look better.

Well there's loads of other stuff, "Bigmouth Strikes Again"? "Let's Go All The Way"? "Edge of Heaven"? Oh, and ILMlolers fave Devastatin' Dave The Turntable Slave with "Zip Zap Rap"...

And even utter dogshit like "Rock Me Amadeus" at least has the lol80's factor going for it

lol80's? These would (mostly) be great singles in any decade.

I want to give this to Simply Red, but I still return to that Human League song at least once every couple of months...

"Money'$ Too Tight to Mention" is the killer on that album.

Well, that one's good, too.

Seeing this guido-type dude (or whatever yr NW equivalent is) pull up to a cornerstore in a droptop with "Rock Me Amadeus" blasting and then proceed to enter said cornerstore while his car ran and "Rock Me Amadeus" continued blasting immeasurably improved my opinion of that song. It was pretty badass.

Dude could have proclaimed victory over the world at that moment and I wouldn't have argued.

Y'all don't make me make my SImply Red joke.

holding back the tears

http://www.rathergood.com/holding

Know why Mick Hucknall stopped holding back the ears?

Because the bunny was too tight to mention.

('Change of Heart' is much better.)

Puzzled that “sledgehammer” was a hit , just seems like a nothing song

Puzzled that “sledgehammer” was a hit , just seems like a nothing song

lol over the past 2 or 3 years, after mildly admiring it since 1986, I've converted into thinking it's among the best 5 or 10 songs of the entire decade.

“sledgehammer” is great, the coda!!

just about the only goofball Britsoul pastiche that works

wouldn't personally say I hate it but 'True Colors' was a pretty tepid single in its context as a follow-up to her first monumental + iconic album (and even as a follow-up to a song about the gahdamn Goonies).

― You Can't Have the Woogie Without a Little Boogie (Old Lunch),

this

There’s just no groove to sledgehammer imho. Rhythm is just off

a Teddy Riley remix would’ve been sweet

On board with most of Alfred's ratings except I love "Take My Breath Away" (come on, that synth bassline is everything!) and I'm sorry but Glory of Love is a great song. Sure, the production and Cetera's vocals are by the numbers but the songwriting is top notch.

The "Sledgehammer" video was huge, a mainstay of "Greatest Videos EVAH" countdowns.

xpost Yeah, I read the list to my wife, and while she sentimentally bumped a couple of songs up a level, she sent that one straight to "good to great." I don't know about that, but I think it's better than the Hague. (My personal bump went to "Higher Love.")

Re: "Sledgehammer," a good comparison might be something like "Tempted" by Squeeze, which has the same relatively slow tempo (and maybe the exact same relatively slow tempo) but is a lot more of a groove. I think the drum take in "Sledgehammer" might have been a really early take, too, with the rest of the stuff mixed and matched from other takes and experiments, which might be why for such a "groove" song the drums themselves are kind of relatively sluggish (compared to the great horn chart, or the awesome bass).

The novel demo-evolution versions Gabriel released were pretty incredible. Like, listen to how "Sledgehammer" evolved. In its own way the most basic form at the start has a great groove and this real air of menace and melancholy that goes missing in the final form.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJU_MLQc2fc

I was only 14 at the time, but I already hated the way most records sounded this year, even if the songs were OK to good. Worst of all of these is probably "Stuck With You".

“sledgehammer” ... among the best 5 or 10 songs of the entire decade.

Yup.

Bruce Hornsby and the Range – The Way It Is
Dionne and Friends – That’s What Friends Are For
Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald – On My Own
Heart – These Dreams
Robert Palmer – Addicted to Love

would upgrade all of these to "good to great" personally

"these dreams" especially, crystalline perfection

I'd upgrade "These Dreams" today

“Human” is my jam from 86, just slow it downnnnnn

I remember knowing that sledgehammer was number 1 for several weeks in a row and crossing a certain street in my hometown. ‘86!
Still not a fan of the song though. Suspect the famous video (which I’ve never seen, thank god) is part of the reason this mess rose to the top.

wrong! #1 is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B_UYYPb-Gk

Aerosaliva

4 calstars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gIO5wP6oyc

"these dreams" especially, crystalline perfection

It's a guilty pleasure

4 calstars: 📹