Thanks to my return to the workforce and my sister's wedding last week, I've hardly been online at all lately. This post is only going up first because I typed it up months ago, and only had to come back and add the intro, and make sure I didn't have any extra jokes or links to add. Those other promised posts are coming soon, though.
#75-51
75. “Love Shack,” B-52s (1989)
The first concert I ever attended was a B-52s show (also featuring The Pretenders and Royal Crown Revue, but the Love Shackers were definitely the main attraction). A notable achievement, since I can still count the number of concerts I've attended on my fingers.
74. “The Freshmen,” Verve Pipe (1997)
I heard right, surprisingly, that the freshmen felt they should be absolved of blame because "she was touching her face," but not so much when I heard their other justification--"she fell in love in the forest place."
73. “Jessie’s Girl,” Rick Springfield (1981)
I think it's safe to say that this is the top song on this list, if not ever, that uses the word "moot."
72. “Together Again,” Janet Jackson (1998)
This was my favorite song to cha-cha to in freshman social dance. I was infatuated with my teacher, who was extremely attractive, and it didn't help that she was, you know, always touching her face.
71. “Right Here Waiting,” Richard Marx (1989)
70. “What Do All The People Know,” Monroes (1982)
This is the highest ranked song on the list that I didn't recognize by its name, and I'm actually not sure if I had ever heard it before preparing this post.
69. “Because You Loved Me,” Celine Dion (1996)
68. “Tainted Love,” Soft Cell (1982)
Rihanna never looked or sounded better than in this video, which samples "Tainted Love." Then she chopped her hair off and became a superduperstar.
67. “Strong Enough,” Sheryl Crow (1995)
66. “Need You Tonight,” INXS (1987)
65. “Flashdance,” Irene Cara (1983)
64. “All Star,” Smash Mouth (1999)
63. “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing,” Aerosmith (1998)
62. “Another One Bites The Dust,” Queen (1980)
This song featured prominently (due to its supposed backmasking message urging everyone to smoke marijuana, which is decidedly less harmful than the overt lyrics about a kid who goes on a killing spree) on my favorite talk-tape of all time, "The Occult and Rock and Roll," by a man named Lynn Bryson. We listened to it all the time on my mission. I would love to have a copy, but can never find it at DI or on eBay or anything. In fact, I can barely even find a reference to it online. If anyone can help I'd be very appreciative.
61. “Kiss Me,” Sixpence None The Richer (1999)
60. “Heaven,” Bryan Adams (1985)
The techno version of this song is probably my second favorite of that entire genre. This is #1.
59. “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” Cyndi Lauper (1984)
I mentioned this a few weeks ago, but again, RIP Captain Lou Albano (Cyndi's dad in this video).
58. “We Didn’t Start The Fire,” Billey Joel (1989)
The first album I ever bought was Storm Front, and it was because I loved this song. Not as much as my 8th grade history teacher, Mr. Durfey, who based the final month of the year on the tune: he'd send us into the library with a printout of the lyrics, and we had to figure out the significance of each reference. And at least once a week, he'd play a video of Billy Joel performing it live; for some reason, we all enjoyed imitating the random hula dancer who starts running around the stage near the end of the song. My version of "Fire," using Mormon pop culture icons, is probably my most impressive parody. Some highlights include rhyming "Gerald Lund" and "Perpetual Education Fund" and replacing "Liston beats Patterson" with "Stephen E. Robinson."
57. “I’ll Be,” Edwin McCain (1998)
I knew nothing about McCain other than this song until he started popping up on those "I Love the '80s" shows on VH1, looking and sounding like he was an extra in Half Baked. It was even more jarring than when I found out Tracy Chapman was a chick.
56. “Call Me,” Blondie (1980)
55. “The Look,” Roxette (1989)
54. “The Power Of Love,” Huey Lewis & the News (1985)
As I mentioned above, I'm not much of a concertgoer, but I would love to see Huey someday. I'm sure he'll come to the state fair here sometime, and then I can see a great show while eating fried cantaloupe. Perfect.
53. “Hungry Like The Wolf,” Duran Duran (1982)
52. “All I Wanna Do,” Sheryl Crow (1994)
51. “Don’t You Want Me,” Human League (1982)
One of the best karaoke duets of all time.
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5 comments:
Will you post your Mormon We Didn't Start the Fire parody?? I'd LOVE to read that!!
Hee hee! "Together Again" was my favorite cha-cha song in Social Dance too! I liked so much I found the single at a pawn shop so that I could practice my moves at home. Great list Jeff!
Great segment! I think the only one on here that I don't like is Allstar, and that's only becuase it got waaaaaay overplayed. It was a great song for the first three weeks of its release.
One of my top 5 all-time favorite songs is The Freshman. I don't know why -- I just love it.
I can't listen to "We Didn't Start the Fire" without thinking of Durfey's class. I'm pretty sure we were in the same one. I knew most of the pop culture references and was one of the first people to finish the page. Once some of those popular kids in the class (Luke Lambourne comes to mind)started acting way nice to me so they could copy off my page. I actually made a second copy and put a bunch of wrong answers on it so they would get a bad grade when they copied it.
I'm sure I will at some point, Angela.
I can't believe you would do that to Luke, Nicole. I mean, I would understand if it was Chris McCleary. But not Luke... :-)
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