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

Your Love is one of my favourite records ever but I had the self imposed 'no house' rule so..

Until very late in the voting period 'Crush on You' had only two votes, with 199 points total (so you can figure out where I have it on my ballot) -- the highest point average of any song on the list.

The only Jets song better than "Crush on You" is "Curiosity"

I hope it's still a challop. Haven't noticed the reappraisal apart from those poor Patrick Bateman fans.

― gospodin simmel, Wednesday, May 10, 201

wait are you serious?

you are talking to someone who has no conception of a) how popular Hall & Oates actually were and b) how much of that support came from the R&B world

my no. 1 :(

This reminds me of the (white male) friend who was legit shocked that R&B audiences liked Joni Mitchell.

Last one for today:

https://img.discogs.com/SsrA26TafS9UIaNXnByVRwrGW0E=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-559578-1173311963.jpeg.jpg
101. DeBarge - Rhythm of the Night
371 points, 8 votes
https://youtu.be/cAQSZhazYk8

RECAP 101-250

101. DeBarge - Rhythm of the Night 371 points, 8 votes
102. The Jets - Crush on You 367 points, 5 votes, 1 number one
103. Frankie Knuckles - Your Love 367 points, 5 votes
104. Michael McDonald - I Keep Forgettin' 362 points, 6 votes
105. Force M.D.'s - Tender Love 362 points, 5 votes
106. Brenda Russell - Piano in the Dark 361 points, 6 votes
107. Bobby Brown - My Prerogative 360 points, 6 votes
108. Newcleus - Jam on It 354 points, 4 votes
109. Janet Jackson - What Have You Done for Me Lately 350 points, 9 votes
110. Yarbrough and Peoples - Don't Stop the Music 350 points, 6 votes
111. Coati Mundi - Que Pasa/Me No Pop I 350 points, 5 votes
112. Lakeside - Fantastic Voyage 349 points, 7 votes
113. Prince - Mountains 349 points, 5 votes
114. Odyssey - Going Back to My Roots 348 points, 7 votes
115. Jermaine Stewart - We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off 341 points, 5 votes
116. Morris Day and The Time - Jungle Love 340 points, 6 votes
117. Midnight Star - Freak-a-Zoid 340 points, 5 votes
118. Prince - Dirty Mind 334 points, 6 votes
119. Mary Jane Girls - In My House 332 points, 6 votes
120. Carly Simon - Why 332 points, 5 votes
121 (TIE). Kid Creole & The Coconuts - Stool Pigeon 330 points, 5 votes
121 (TIE). Scritti Politti - Absolute 330 points, 5 votes
123. Stevie Wonder - Master Blaster (Jammin') 329 points, 5 votes
124. Prince - Pop Life 327 points, 6 votes, 1 number one
125. Lipps, Inc. - Funkytown 327 points, 6 votes
126. Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam with Full Force - I Wonder if I Take You Home 325 points, 8 votes
127. Kid Creole & The Coconuts - Annie, I'm Not Your Daddy 325 points, 7 votes
128. Fonda Rae - Over Like a Fat Rat 325 points, 6 votes
129. The System - Don't Disturb This Groove 324 points, 5 votes
130. Womack & Womack - Baby I'm Scared of You 323 points, 6 votes
131. Jane Child - Don't Wanna Fall in Love 322 points, 5 votes
132. Herbie Hancock - Rockit 319 points, 7 votes
133. Change - Paradise 319 points, 6 votes, 1 number one
134. Deniece Williams - Let's Hear It for the Boy 316 points, 6 votes
135. Odyssey - Use It Up and Wear It Out 314 points, 5 votes
136. David Bowie - Let's Dance 313 points, 6 votes
137. Shalamar - A Night to Remember 312 points, 7 votes, 1 number one
138. Irene Cara - Fame 311 points, 5 votes
139 (TIE). Madonna - Like a Prayer 310 points, 6 votes
139 (TIE). Sheila E. - A Love Bizarre 310 points, 6 votes
141. The Jets - You Got It All 310 points, 4 votes
142. Central Line - Walking Into Sunshine 309 points, 5 votes
143. George Clinton - Atomic Dog 307 points, 8 votes
144. Philip Bailey & Phil Collins - Easy Lover 306 points, 6 votes
145. The S.O.S. Band - Take Your Time (Do It Right) 305 points, 7 votes
146. Rick James - Give It to Me Baby 305 points, 6 votes
147. Freeez - I.O.U. 304 points, 7 votes
148. C-Bank - One More Shot 302 points, 4 votes
149. Gregory Abbott - Shake You Down 300 points, 5 votes
150. Eddy Grant - Electric Avenue 299 points, 7 votes
151. Prince - Sign O' the Times 296 points, 7 votes
152. Whispers - Rock Steady 295 points, 5 votes
153 (TIE). George Michael - Father Figure 294 points, 5 votes
153 (TIE). Pointer Sisters - Dare Me 294 points, 5 votes
155. Isley Brothers - Between the Sheets 292 points, 6 votes
156. Rebbie Jackson - Centipede 292 points, 5 votes
157. Funky 4 Plus 1 - That's the Joint 291 points, 5 votes
158. Prince - 17 Days 286 points, 4 votes
159. Pebbles - Mercedes Boy 285 points, 5 votes
160. Janet Jackson - The Pleasure Principle 283 points, 6 votes
161. Loose Joints - Is It All Over My Face? 283 points, 5 votes
162. Gwen Guthrie - Seventh Heaven 282 points, 5 votes
163. Prince - I Would Die 4 U 281 points, 6 votes, 1 number one
164. Fatback Band - I Found Lovin' 281 points, 5 votes
165. Company B - Fascinated 280 points, 5 votes
166. Prince - Baby I'm a Star 280 points, 4 votes
167. Indeep - Last Night a D.J. Saved My Life 276 points, 7 votes
168. Mel & Kim - Showing Out (Get Fresh at the Weekend) 275 points, 5 votes
169. Fonda Rae - Touch Me (All Night Long) aka Tuch Me 269 points, 6 votes
170. Michael Jackson - Man in the Mirror 269 points, 4 votes
171 (TIE). Pointer Sisters - He's So Shy 261 points, 5 votes
171 (TIE). Whitney Houston - I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) 261 points, 5 votes
173. Tina Turner - What's Love Got to Do With It 260 points, 5 votes
174. Michael Jackson - Beat It 259 points, 6 votes
175. Colonel Abrams - Trapped 259 points, 5 votes
176. RAH Band - Clouds Across the Moon 258 points, 4 votes
177. Joe Smooth - Promised Land 256 points, 4 votes
178. Timex Social Club - Rumors 255 points, 5 votes
179. Pointer Sisters - Jump (For My Love) 253 points, 7 votes
180. Jermaine Jackson - Let's Get Serious 253 points, 6 votes
181. Alexander O'Neal - If You Were Here Tonight 253 points, 3 votes
182. Janet Jackson - Nasty 251 points, 6 votes
183. Teena Marie - Lovergirl 251 points, 5 votes
184. K.C. & the Sunshine Band - Give It Up 249 points, 6 votes
185. Babyface - It's No Crime 249 points, 3 votes
186. The Jones Girls - Nights Over Egypt 247 points, 6 votes
187. Rockwell - Somebody's Watching Me 246 points, 6 votes
188. Nick Straker Band - A Little Bit of Jazz 244 points, 4 votes
189. Paula Abdul - Straight Up 243 points, 5 votes
190. Janet Jackson - Come Back to Me 243 points, 3 votes
191. LeVert - Casanova 240 points, 6 votes
192. The Joubert Singers - Stand on the Word 240 points, 4 votes
193. Peech Boys - Don't Make Me Wait 239 points, 5 votes
194. Janet Jackson - Rhythm Nation 237 points, 5 votes
195. James Ingram & Michael McDonald - Yah Mo B There 235 points, 5 votes
196. Prince - Adore 235 points, 3 votes
197. Anita Baker - Caught Up in the Rapture 232 points, 5 votes, 1 number one
198. Dennis Edwards feat. Siedah Garrett - Don't Look Any Further 231 points, 4 votes
199. Sheila E. - The Belle of St. Mark 230 points, 4 votes
200. D-Train - Keep On 228 points, 5 votes
201. Prince - I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man 227 points, 3 votes
202. Kool & the Gang - Celebration 226 points, 5 votes
203. Chic - Rebels Are We 226 points, 3 votes
204. Stephanie Mills - Never Knew Love Like This Before 225 points, 5 votes
205. Janet Jackson - Love Will Never Do (Without You) 225 points, 4 votes
206. Tom Browne - Funkin' for Jamaica (N.Y.) 224 points, 5 votes
207. Patrice Rushen - Feels So Real (Won't Let Go) 224 points, 3 votes
208. Unlimited Touch - I Hear Music in the Streets 223 points, 4 votes
209. Hall and Oates - Out of Touch 223 points, 3 votes
210 (TIE). Neneh Cherry - Manchild 222 points, 5 votes
210 (TIE). Odyssey - Inside Out 222 points, 5 votes
212. Odyssey - (Joy) Know It 222 points, 4 votes
213 (TIE). Hot Chocolate - It Started With a Kiss 221 points, 5 votes
213 (TIE). Shannon - Give Me Tonight 221 points, 5 votes
215. Klymaxx - The Men All Pause 221 points, 3 votes
216. Madonna - Crazy for You 220 points, 3 votes
217 (TIE). Bobby Brown - On Our Own 218 points, 3 votes
217 (TIE). Jocelyn Brown - Somebody Else's Guy 218 points, 3 votes
219. George Michael - A Different Corner 217 points, 5 votes
220. Michael Jackson - Another Part of Me 217 points, 3 votes
221. Ray Parker Jr. - Ghostbusters 216 points, 6 votes
222. Teddy Pendergrass - Love T.K.O. 216 points, 4 votes
223. George Michael - Careless Whisper 215 points, 4 votes
224. Michael Jackson - Thriller 214 points, 4 votes
225. Michael Jackson - Baby Be Mine 209 points, 3 votes
226. Irene Cara - Flashdance... What a Feeling 208 points, 4 votes
227. Whispers - Keep On Lovin' Me 208 points, 3 votes
228. Billy Ocean - Caribbean Queen (No More Love on the Run) 206 points, 5 votes
229. Womack & Womack - Love Wars 205 points, 4 votes
230. Bobby Womack - If You Think You're Lonely Now 203 points, 5 votes
231. Bobby Brown - Every Little Step 202 points, 5 votes
232 (TIE). Princess - Say I'm Your Number One 202 points, 4 votes
232 (TIE). Tracie Spencer - Symptoms of True Love 202 points, 4 votes
234. Marvin Gaye - Praise 202 points, 3 votes
235. Jeffrey Osborne - Stay With Me Tonight 201 points, 6 votes
236. Sharon Redd - Beat the Street 200 points, 4 votes
237. Aretha Franklin - Get It Right 199 points, 3 votes
238. Kurtis Blow - The Breaks 198 points, 5 votes
239. Donna Summer - This Time I Know It's for Real 197 points, 4 votes
240. Stacey Q - Two of Hearts 197 points, 3 votes
241 (TIE). Imagination - Changes 196 points, 3 votes
241 (TIE). Terence Trent d'Arby - If You Let Me Stay 196 points, 3 votes
243. Sly Fox - Let's Go All the Way 194 points, 5 votes
244. Diana Ross - Chain Reaction 194 points, 3 votes
245. Cameo - Single Life 191 points, 3 votes
246. Sheena Easton - Sugar Walls 189 points, 3 votes
247. Guy - I Like 185 points, 5 votes
248. Kashif - I Just Gotta Have You (Lover Turn Me On) 185 points, 4 votes, 0 number ones
249 (TIE). Chic - 26 https://youtu.be/n_Yeu2E87b8
249 (TIE). World's Famous Supreme Team - Hey! D.J.

The arrangement makes my skin crawl, but Eldra and his siblings buoy this track. I can't think of the bridge in "Rhythm of the Night" without imagining to what degree Debarge thought the world was theirs for the taking and recoiling from the horror of Eldra's life in the last twenty years. Ugh.

I just cited ROTN in my Diane Warren list.

Awesome, there are few tunes that are more bursting with joy for living than that one.

196. Prince - Adore 235 points, 3 votes
197. Anita Baker - Caught Up in the Rapture 232 points, 5 votes, 1 number one

woah wait just a goddamn minute here

ROTN was not on my ballot. We haven't seen the Debarge song that will surely be in the top fifty at least.

that's a great top 100, can't believe rhythm of the night took no. 1

I would move Lavert up about 50 places as well

er LeVert, sorry

I would move almost every track 50 places -- that's how solid it is.

solid as a ROCK

that's not gonna place right

pretty sure "Nobody Walks in L.A." won't

I'll be pretty heartbroken if "Sugar Free" doesn't make the list.

xxp Um... I was obviously referring to critical reappraisal. The Bateman reference was probably generational/local in that I know some critics of that ilk who semi-genuinely treat Phil Collins, Whitney and H&O as peak r'n'b. Outside ilm that's the only context in which I've come across someone preferring H&O over anything else. I don't see how them being huge at the time makes a difference in this poll. We'll see I guess.

I don't want to keep arguing these points, but what I know from my own experience with R&B and fellow R&B fans going back to the seventis is that we loved H&O as much as Rene & Angela, Vandross, Stephanie Mills, Debarge, etc -- they were part of the conversation. It was white rock critics who came up during H&O's first Reagan term heyday who were like "Ew lol gross" and still had sufficient suasion to be shocked when I and other critics who came up in the early '00s embraced them. I don't see why this is complicated. The R&B community loved them going back to "She's Gone."

That's fair of course. I'm not actually influenced by the critics when it comes to 80's r'n'b since so much of it is ignored anyway. Simply coming to it as a, mostly isolated, listener. Hall & Oates just rub me wrong. They always sound like a smug and inferior take on Philly soul whereas say Debarge actually sounds like an update.

Oh I totally get not liking them. I mistakenly thought you were saying they didn't belong on this list.

I voted for four Madonna tracks, Ghostbusters and fucking Art of Noise. No purism here.

look I know there are lots of deserving songs in this poll but "Jungle Love" should be wayyyyy higher

I think I inexcusably omitted the Time from my ballot altogether. So if '777-9311' fails to place, you know who to pelt with tomatoes.

Really regret not voting for Yarbrough and Peoples. Think I accidentally culled it with Yoko Ono early on. In a just world, it would be in the top 40.

I voted for 777-9311

"Let's Here It For The Boy" and "Rhythm Of The Night" are both nightmares.

Yes, and monkeys might fly out of my butt.

I don't mind the Debarge. It's a lot better than "All Night Long." I couldn't tell if "Straight Up" upthread was a joke or not.

Anyway, I'm curious to see how high "Ain't Nobody" places. I'm also curious how many tracks on the final list feature JR Robinson on drums.

The results are more interesting with a few songs I hate, and they're way down in the 100s anyway.

omg we forgot to nominate "i can dream about you"

Every time we poll something, I feel like we should follow it up with a '___-not-___' poll for stuff that almost fits the purview of the poll but doesn't quite.

top 100 had better be front-to-back excellent considering some of the unassailable classics that failed to make the tier :(

this carly simon thing was the headscratcher from this latest batch of results for me.

i'm a little sad my favorite change song (and #1 on my ballot) seems unlikely to place considering that "paradise" has already shown up and iirc that was the only change track that placed on the disco poll. (ironically i like nearly every song from the glow of love (the album) better than "paradise".)

I've navigated a lot of head scratchers so far - Crazy For You, Careless Whisper, Ghostbusters - but Why ain't one of them. It's the last great Chic hit.

I really don't understand why people think "Ghostbusters" doesn't belong here? It's undoubtedly R&B, it's by a respected R&B artist, it has a nice, energetic performance and catchy melody, it's fun to listen... So why is it headscratcher? Okay, Parker may possibly have borrowed the bassline from Huey Lewis, but before Lewis the same bassline was used by M on "Pop Music", and even before that Donny Hathaway's "Magnificent Sanctuary Band" had a very similar riff, so who's to blame?

Ghostbusters is majestic. That cartoonish synth riff that builds up tension in the chorus is one of the best ideas in pop ever. The Huey bassline is secondary but still used better than anywhere else.

Anyway, I've read the Weisbard interview and it didn't make me reconsider adult contemporary's genre status. It passes the basic test: do you know it when you hear it?

Glow of Love was in my top 5 and I can't imagine it not placing.

Yea "Thriller" and "Ghostbusters" always felt like distant cousins (more so than "Give It To Me" or "I Want A New Drug" the two songs they were accused of plagiarizing).

At least the Ghostbusters II song, superior in every way, placed higher.

Shoot, just saw that the results are delayed until Monday.

by my estimation, tho it is governed by aesthetic genre conventions (hence us being able to know it when we hear it), adult contemporary is first and foremost a commercial/radio format. compared to proper genres, there's very little of it that's not explicitly aimed to take up room within that commercial space. in contrast, there's plenty of r&b and country music not aimed to succeed on r&b or country radio respectively. genre is a pretty complicated/nuanced topic tho so i won't pretend i have a total understanding of how it all works.

xp i would be very happy if "the glow of love" places. the one i voted as my #1 was actually "a lover's holiday" which i think is unfairly overlooked now. ironic that the one that was most popular back in the day is now basically the least popular single from that album b/c it didn't have luther vandross on it lol

A Lover's Holiday was the first tune by them I ever heard, and I still don't understand why people would rate any of the other singles above it. The others are awesome too, but that one is just the perfect disco song.

"The Glow of Love" is placing, no problem.

I feel like there is plenty of adult contemporary not aimed at that commercial space. Rock, r'n'b and country albums are filled with adult contemporary tracks that never get promoted.