The Fourth P&J Singles Poll!

http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pj82.php

Bring back Marissa.

It was a tie between 1999 and The Message, but I went for the latter. Other close contenders: Rock the Casbah, Sexual Healing, You Dropped A Bomb On Me, and to a lesser extent, I Love A Man in A Uniform.

See, Dom, now wasn't that fascinating reading?

The Message. Great memories of everyone hitting the dancefloor when this was played at summer camp.

Temptation. Would be on the shortlist for singles of the entire decade.

Never been especially fond of "The Message." It's "Temptation," "The Look of Love," "That Girl," or "Save It For Later."

If I am the only one voting for "Planet Rock," SO FUCKIN' BE IT.

"Planet Rock" is the best song, period.

And not just in this poll, either, but of all the songs ever made.

I never got the enthusiasm for Planet Rock.

it's raining men

After giving it some thought, I decided to go with "The Message." Could have easily gone with maybe a dozen others, but especially "1999," "Sex Bomb," "Planet Rock," "Pass the Dutchie" and "Rock the Casbah."

No votes for "Hold Me"?

I voted for "Hold Me"!

In '82, I would've voted for "The Message," but not long after this poll came out I tracked down a copy of "Rockin' It" (Christgau's #1), and subsequently, and for many years after, it was one of my four or five favourite rap singles of all-time (I actually way prefer it to "Planet Rock," in part because it's a just-as-great Kraftwerk rip but with much better--or anyway, more coherent--rapping. I mean, I love Arthur Baker's track, but the Soul Sonic Force never really sounded that great to me on this one. They sound better on the follow-up.)

Anyway, the Fleetwood MAc single has gotten so much airplay from me in the last few years, I went with it over all these.

"Hold Me" may be ILM/ILX's favorite single, like, ever, if the amount of praise it's received is any indication.

I honestly don't know what "Hold Me" is.

Now I've listened to it, and I swear I don't remember ever hearing it before. Was this a big hit? I definitely would not have been remotely interested in hearing new Fleetwood Mac in 1982, and apparently I managed to avoid it entirely.

It peaked at #3; it's certainly Buckingham's plushest production (three different guitar solos, those harmonies).

"Hold Me" never did that much for me. Maybe I should check it out again.

Hold Me was on MTV nearly every hour in the first year or two. Times have certainly changed.

Yeah, I remember watching it all the time back around '83 or so; it seemed kind of bland compared to all the "cool" new-wavey stuff they'd surround it with, though.

I voted for "Hold Me" here, partly cos I got into it about 2 weeks after we did this poll on Poptimists, and I felt guilty for not giving it one of my nine or so votes. I had never heard it before - wasn't much of a hit here.

I hope someone will vote for "Pass The Dutchie" though!

I know, "Pass the Dutchie" really is great; I've still got my 7" 45 of it hereabout somewhere.

I hope Mickey gets some votes. I bought that 7" at the time.

Hardest choice ever, at least until we get to '84. But I voted Marvin.

I went with "Pass The Dutchie" over "The Message" and "Mama Used to Say" and "Sex Bomb," and then I typed something long about how "Hold Me" has never seemed more than mediocre to me as Fleetwood Mac singles go and the 1982 list is notable, compared to previous P&J lists, for containing several non-great songs I don't particularly care about, but then I pressed the wrong button and my post go erased, which was probably just as well. But it's still true.

Christgau's list is more fun than the overall one:

1. The Fearless Four: "Rockin' It" (Enjoy) 2. Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five: "The Message" (Sugarhill) 3. Marvin Gaye: "Sexual Healing" (Columbia) 4. New Order: "Temptation" (Factory import) 5. Stacy Lattisaw: "Attack of the Name Game" (Cotillion) 6. Musical Youth: "Pass the Dutchie" (MCA) 7. The Pretenders: "My City Was Gone" (Sire) 8. The Weather Girls: "It's Raining Men" (Columbia) 9. Peech Boys: "Don't Make Me Wait" (West End) 10. Flipper: "Get Away"/"The Old Lady Who Swallowed the Fly!" (Subterranean)

11. P-Funk All-Stars: "Hydraulic Pump" (Hump) 12. Yazoo: "Situation" (Sire) 13. Captain Sensible: "Wot" (A&M import) 14. ABC: "The Look of Love" (Mercury) 15. Anti-Nowhere League: "So What" (WXYZ import) 16. Gang of Four: "I Love a Man in Uniform" (Warner Bros.) 17. Stripsearch: "Hey Kid"/Emily XYZ: "Who Shot Sadat?" (Vinyl Repellent) 18. Cheap Trick: "If You Want My Love" (Epic) 19. Prince: "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?" (Warner Bros.) 20. Bonnie Hayes and the Wild Combo: "Shelley's Boyfriend" (Slash)

21. Joe Piscopo: "I Love Rock n' Roll (Medley)" (Columbia) 22. A Flock of Seagulls: "I Ran" (Jive) 23. Gap Band: "You Dropped a Bomb on Me" (Total Experience) 24. Treacherous Three: "Yes We Can-Can" (Sugarhill) 25. Afrika Bambaataa & the Soul Sonic Force: "Planet Rock" (Tommy Boy) 26. Dangerous Birds: "Smile on Your Face"/"Alpha Romeo" (Propeller) 27. Eddy Grant: "California Style" (Ice import) 28. Althia & the Donazz: "Virgin Style" (Circle import) 29. Anne Waldman: "Uh-Oh Plutonium!" (Hyacinth Girls) 30. Gary U.S. Bonds: "Out of Work" (EMI America)

Two funky individual lists:

CAROL COOPER: Explainer: "Lorraine" (Sunburst); Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five: "The Message" (Sugarhill); Kurtis Blow: "Tough" (Mercury); Imagination: "Just an Illusion" (MCA); Marvin Gaye: "Sexual Healing" (Columbia); Vanity 6: "Nasty Girls" (Warner Bros.); Kid Creole & the Coconuts: "No Fish Today"/"Annie, I'm Not Your Daddy" (Sire/ZE); Sharon Redd: "Beat the Street" (Prelude); Isley Brothers: "The Real Deal" (T-Neck); Barry White: "Change" (Unlimited Gold).

RON WYNN: Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five: "The Message" (Sugarhill); Gap Band: "You Dropped a Bomb on Me" (Total Experience); Aretha Franklin: "Jump to It" (Arista); Zapp: "Dance Floor" (Warner Bros.); Afrika Bambaataa & the Soul Sonic Force: "Planet Rock" (Tommy Boy); The Weather Girls: "It's Raining Men" (Columbia); Gary U.S. Bonds: "Out of Work" (EMI America); Junior: "Mama Used to Say" (Mercury); Stevie Wonder: "Do I Do" (Tamla).

"The Message". Quite possibly my all time favorite single. But man, 1982 was a good year for singles, tho'. I like almost every song in that poll bar Peter Gabriel's and "It's Raining Men".

10. Flipper: "Get Away"/"The Old Lady Who Swallowed the Fly!" (Subterranean)

Better than the Flipper that won.

Well, "Get Away" might be.

Also, in honor of what's probably P&J's best year ever for synth-pop: "Don't You Want Me" > "Situation" > "Tained Love" > "Temptation" (which is good, but I'll never know the difference between it and all of New Order's other singles for as long as I live -- I can never even remember how any of them go unless I'm actually hearing them, well except for the "oh you've got green eyes oh you've got blue eyes" one I guess but I can never remember what that one's called) > "Shock the Monkey" (which is less good than singles he did earlier like "Games With Frontiers" but better than singles he did later like "Sledgehammer.") Good Pazz&Jop year for synth-rap, too! Pretty good year for synths in general.

Dullest song on the list: The Stevie Wonder one (at least its A-side; I haven't heard "Do I Do" for years, and remember kinda liking it at the time.)

Oops, you've got grey eyes, right? (Though I'd probably prefer if you had Bette Davis eyes.)

Actually, maybe ABC and Gang of Four and the Clash (and Marvin Gaye and Junior and Prince??) should have been in the synth-pop sweepstakes, too! But if so, they didn't seem as blatant as those other ones.

My two fave singles of 1982 are missing:

Culture Club: "Time (Clock of the Heart)" (Epic 1982)

Afrika Bambaataa & the Soul Sonic Force: “Looking For The Perfect Beat” (Tommy Boy 1982)

So I went with my next fave, "It's Raining Men," home of the greatest handclap(s) in popular music history. If you're gay, you know what I'm talking about. And yo - a gay song that blesses Mother Nature? Pure sublimity.

Other MIAs (though I could've fucked up the years):

Dexys Midnight Runners: “Come on Eileen” (Polydor 1982)
Pat Benatar: "Shadows of the Night" (Chrysalis 1982)
Wham!: "Young Guns (Go For It)" (Epic 1982)
Fab 5 Freddy/Beside: "Change The Beat" (Celluloid 1982)

But wow - I really love almost every single on that list save for "Steppin' Out" and "Shock The Monkey" which I still dig.

Would Joe Jackson have been as popular without MTV's racist programming? That "Steppin' Out" video was shown almost as much as "Hold Me" and "Gypsy." Always made me feel kinda sad, "Steppin' Out." Maybe cuz it reminds me of starting school.

the "oh you've got green eyes oh you've got blue eyes" one I guess but I can never remember what that one's called

That's "Temptation," love. (sheds tear)

Dullest song on the list: The Stevie Wonder one (at least its A-side; I haven't heard "Do I Do" for years, and remember kinda liking it at the time.)

Ah! Actually I lied above. I can't recall "That Girl" off the top of my head. But I really like "Do I Do." That's the one where he jams with Dizzy or someone, right?

In the absence of, inter alia, "Ghosts," "Party Fears Two," "Give Me Back My Heart" and "The Devil Lives In My Husband's Body" I plumped for "Planet Rock."

"Looking for the Perfect Beat" made the '83 singles list, Kevin. Not sure about the others you mention.

Althia & the Donazz: "Virgin Style" (Circle import)

Does anyone know what this is? A google search yields one result – Christgau’s list.

Althea and Donazz (he spelled it wrong, and I probably just did too) are the reggae people who did "Uptown Top Ranking," one of the greatest singles in human history, and a British hit in like 1977 or something, I believe. (Brits, please correct my year. Also, maybe it was never a hit there.) Is it possible Christgau just got the title wrong? I honestly never noticed that before -- thought he'd actually listed "Uptown Top Ranking" a few years late. (If I had the print copy of P&J handy, matter of fact, I'd go back and check and see if that was just a transcribing mistake on the website. But yeah, now I'm curious too. Did they have an album?)

[Removed Illegal Link]

"Looking for the Perfect Beat," I'm fairly sure, came out in January 1983, though it may have been recorded in 1982. (I would check my copy of the 12-inch, but apparently I don't own it anymore! Only Bambaata 12-inches on my shelf are "Zulu Nation Throw Down" Paul Winley 1980 and "Jazzy Sensation" Tommy Boy no year listed but the label's still orange so it must be early. But wait: The Perfect Beat compilation, Tommy Boy/21 Records German import 1983, lists 1983 as the copyright of "Looking For the Perfect Beat" as 1983, though, so there.)

Copyright on my Culture Club "Time (Clock of the Heart)" single (maybe my favorite song by them, by the way) does indeed say 1982, but is it possible that's a 1983 single from a 1982 album? I don't have Whitburn's book handy; when did it enter the Top 40?

For comparative purposes, the Poptimists poll results:

1. Don't You Want Me (49 votes)
2. 1999 (46 votes)
3. The Message (43 votes)
4. Temptation (37 votes)
5. The Look Of Love (36 votes)
6=. Mickey (31 votes)
6=. Sexual Healing (31 votes)
8. Planet Rock (28 votes)
9. Rock The Casbah (26 votes)
10. Pass The Dutchie (24 votes)

Mostly Brits voting here, as is probably obvious!

A % D were #1 in 1978 here - and I'm sure there was an album then at least, tho I've never heard it.

A & D, that should be.

Also, Christgau lists "Come On Eileen" in 1983, so maybe that came out a year later in the States, too?

For kicks (since nobody mentioned it on the '82 album list) here is Christgau's '82 EP ballot. (I miss my copy of that Pop-O-Pies record very much):

1. Angry Samoans: Back from Samoa (Bad Trip) 2. The Waitresses: I Could Rule the World If I Could Only Get the Parts (Polydor) 3. R.E.M.: Chronic Town (I.R.S.) 4. Oh OK: Wow Mini Album (DB) 5. Minor Threat: In My Eyes (Dischord) 6. T-Bone Burnett: Trap Door (Warner Bros.) 7. Pop-O-Pies: The White EP (415) 8. The Replacements: Stink (Twin/Tone) 9. Mofungo: "El Salvador"/"Just the Way"/"Gimme a Sarsaprailla" (Rough Trade import) 10. Steve Almaas: Beat Rodeo (Coyote)

There's this from the 8-31-82 Consumer Guide, Althea spelled with an "e" this time:

My reggae fave is Althea & the Donazz' "Virgin Style" (Circle import 12-inch), proof that you can't keep a bad girl down.

That's because it's spelled incorrectly in Xgau's essay. Should be: Althea & The Donazz. But that spelling only turns up a few more pages including a one line review in a Consumer Guide. Try an exact phrase search for "Virgin Style" with Althea. Apparently, there was an entire album of the same name credited to Althea Forrest. And Carol Cooper wrote a review of it for the Voice! See here:

http://www.nathanielturner.com/popcultureconsideredasanuphillbicyclerace.htm

I have the 12" single of "Virgin Style." It's a pretty dull track that I'm sure the lyrics would save if I could understand them.

This is the same Althea of Althea & Donna's "Uptown Top Ranking," an infinitely superior song. Don't know why it's spelled "The Donazz" for "Virgin Style," though. Anyone?

Oh shit. Missed Xhuxk's explanation above. Désolé.

Ah! But there's some new info in my post. Just to be precise, though, I have the actual Circle 12" of "Virgin Style" and it is indeed credited to "Althea & The Donazz" (I just checked). And it's a completely different song than "Uptown Top Ranking."

It's only spelled "Althia" on his 1982 P&J essay page on the internet.

Other Xgau singles I don't think I've ever heard:

17. Stripsearch: "Hey Kid" (Vinyl Repellent)
20. Bonnie Hayes and the Wild Combo: "Shelley's Boyfriend" (Slash)
27. Eddy Grant: "California Style" (Ice import)
29. Anne Waldman: "Uh-Oh Plutonium!" (Hyacinth Girls)

I did hear "Who Shot Sadat" by Emily XYZ, though (Frank Kogan taped it for me years ago), and it's great.

Anne Waldman is a poet (in the beat/New York St. Mark's Poetry Project vein). I don't know for sure whether or not she added music to that recording, but that is one of her poems.

(Of course, the fact that you haven't heard it, doesn't mean you don't know who Anne Waldman is.)

Other Xgau singles I don't think I've ever heard:

17. Stripsearch: "Hey Kid" (Vinyl Repellent)

This is on Homework #1, one of those unconscionably spotty DIY comps from Hyped 2 Death. The first half of the song sounds like punks trying to play Steve Miller. Second half speeds up to vaguely hardcore BPMs. Never heard "Who Shot Sadat?" though.

20. Bonnie Hayes and the Wild Combo: "Shelley's Boyfriend" (Slash)

You can download this for free from Hayes site here:

http://www.bonniehayes.com/files/sampletunes.htm

The cover for Good Clean Fun is one of my favorites ever.

27. Eddy Grant: "California Style" (Ice import)

Sunshiney, propulsive calypso-disco.

29. Anne Waldman: "Uh-Oh Plutonium!" (Hyacinth Girls)

I only have the video for this. She did add a kind of slinky, downtown musical backdrop to it.

who shot sadat >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> uh-oh plutonium*

*sub-ginsberg beat doggerrl w/case of laurie anderson envy (IIRC)

Dullest song on the list: The Stevie Wonder one (at least its A-side; I haven't heard "Do I Do" for years, and remember kinda liking it at the time.

You need to hear "That Girl" again, Chuck. I totally thought it was boilerplate Stevie, until the middle eight. The last minute, however, is pure genius, when all kinds of programmed percussion and harmonies swirl around him.

Copyright on my Culture Club "Time (Clock of the Heart)" single (maybe my favorite song by them, by the way) does indeed say 1982, but is it possible that's a 1983 single from a 1982 album? I don't have Whitburn's book handy; when did it enter the Top 40?

It's an early '83 single.

It was going to be either "Temptation" or "Sex Bomb," but I heard "Save It For Later" this morning and voted for it.

"Planet Rock" by a mile ... second place is "The Mssage" ... by a mile. :-)

that Bonnie Hayes d/l doesn't work for me, I just get a .php file. frustrating. any suggestions, Kevin?

"Shelley's Boyfriend"

http://www.yousendit.com/download/UVJnN3RUb0JnYU0wTVE9PQ

"Girls LIke Me"

http://download.yousendit.com/7F07F8C119218FDB

"Coverage"

http://download.yousendit.com/EF06A0F034857705

thanks!

thank you!

Really shocked by the placings of "Pass the Dutchie" and "Hold Me" (well, maybe not so much the latter).

that's a pretty off the wall tally, but not a bad one. though I'm sort of shocked that Rickey/Timi Yuro and I were the only ones to vote for Marvin.

And I was the only one who voted for Mickey

Now I wish I would have voted for "Mama Used to Say"! (I actually thought "Pass the Dutchie" needed my vote...Shows what I know.)

(Though then again, maybe it did.)

Here's Stripsearch/Emily XYZ's "Hey Kid"

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=D654113364A06A2B

thanks!

I don't really "get" Pass the Dutchie but I will say this:

Yaz: "Situation"/"Don't Go" (Sire/Mute import) 0
The Gap Band: "You Dropped A Bomb On Me" (Total Experience) 0
Junior: "Mama Used To Say" (Mercury) 0
Prince: "1999"/"How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore?" (Warner Bros.) 0
Stevie Wonder: "That Girl"/"Do I Do" (Tamla) 0

is madness.

Seconded, and...

Holy God, how did Marvin Gaye end up behind the fucking Human League? I don't think I was even aware of this poll, but for those of you who were, what the fuck? Seriously.

Yeah, "1999" not receiving even a single vote seems kind of strange. Oh well, 1984 is just around the corner = Prince will have his day of triumph!

xp

To me the weirdest thing is "New Order song that sounds like every other song New Order ever did" finishing second. But hey, what the hell do I know.

Well, that and "Hold Me."

But seriously, how "Temptation" can get 8 votes and "Situation" can get 0 is beyond my comprehension.

Good grief, xhuxk, "Temptation" is great (although it probably would have made a lot more sense on the '81 poll)!

Another big surprise for me was "Planet Rock" not totally dominating. I guess these threads don't really attract the hip hop heads, though. (what the hell is it with P&J polls and hip hop fans/critics anyway?)

though I'm sort of shocked that Rickey/Timi Yuro and I were the only ones to vote for Marvin.

I was the other MG voter. Was either that or Human League but I consider that an '81 single so choice was easy.

Many of our hip hop heads just flat-out got no love for "Planet Rock" or anything before oh say "Tha Crossroads."

Sad but probably very true.

Matt, don't be ridiculous. You know damn well that isn't even true in the slightest.

Anyways, I'm all WTFed out at the lack of Prince votes???

uh...question marks???