1981 Top 30 Tracks/Songs

I took a liking to these top 30 lists of late and since I am quite a music nerd I have done just another list - a top 30 trax/songs of 1981 - yes, right, 1981
(I compiled this from charts and reviews of old music mags I used to collect).

so here we go:

DAF - Der Räuber und der Prinz
Yarborough and Peoples - Don't Stop The Music
Spandau Ballet - To Cut A Long Story Short
Generation X - Dancing with Myself
OMD - Enola Gay
Throbbing Gristle - Something Came Over Me
Teardrop Explodes - Reward
Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime
Visage - Fade to Gray
Ultravox - Vienna
Blondie - Rapture
The Cure - A Forest
Visage - Mind Of A Toy
Joy Division - Love will Tear Us Apart
Tom Tom Club - Wordy Rappinghood
DAF - Der Mussolini
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Spellbound
The Specials - Ghost Town
Andreas Dorau - Fred vom Jupiter
Soft Cell - Tainted Love
Human League - Love Action
Altered Image - Happy Birthday
Depeche Mode - Just Can't Get Enough
Grace Jones - Pull Up To The Bumper
Kim Wilde - Kids in America
Kraftwerk - The Model
Laurie Anderson - O Superman
Gary Numan - Love Needs No Disguise
Kim Wilde - Cambodia
Soft Cell - Bedsitter

[Statto]

I can probably do 1981

I can probably do 1981

 Looking forward to it

[Statto]

I'm up to 27 tracks at the moment.
I'm referring to my own collection, but I don't have everything entered into discogs, so I'm having to research dates and things.

Nice one

[Statto]

ok, so...

A Certain Ratio - Forced Laugh
Art Bears - Freedom
Blurt - Cherry Blossom Polish
Cabaret Voltaire - Sluggin' fer Jesus
Clock DVA - Uncertain
Crispy Ambulance - The Presence
Defunkt - The Razor's Edge
Lizzy Mercier Descloux - Payola
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft - Tanz mit Mir
The Diagram Brothers - Postal Bargains
The Durutti Column - Danny
Eric Random - Subliminal
The Fall - Fit and Working Again
Fire Engines - New Thing in Cartons
Gang of Four - Outside the Trains Don't Run on Time (LP version)
Vivien Goldman - Launderette
Grandmaster Flash - Adventures on the Wheels of Steel
Jon Hassell - Malay
Japan - Ghosts
Liquid Liquid - Push
Ludus - Anatomy is not Destiny
Maximum Joy - Silent Street
The Passage - Devils and Angels
Public Image Ltd - The Flowers of Romance
The Raincoats - Shouting Out Loud
Section 25 - Dirty Disco
This Heat - Makeshift Swahili
23 Skidoo - The Gospel Comes to New Guinea
James Blood Ulmer - High Time
Robert Wyatt - Grass

guaranteed all released in 1981
and they're all on youtube if anyone wants to check them

 a bit less "popular" than my list - but then I always had a thing for a little bit of cheese 

[Statto]

I nearly put Spellbound in there
and I had the b-side to your first DAF single

but then a lot of yours aren't actually 1981 anyway

Not any The Police anywhere??

You're not in the uk right, shame I would recommend checking out the Top Of The Pop reruns they have on BBC Four every thurs. They just finished running through the 1981 and are onto '82.

Infact just only watched the Japan 'Ghosts' performance the other week (nb. Statto)

Was just going to complain about your inclusion of 'Tainted Love' saying I saw their other single from back then and how much better its stands up... When I spot you include it right at the bottom ha ha

8th April 1992: Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder "Ebony & Ivory"

Not any The Police anywhere??

You're not in the uk right, shame I would recommend checking out the Top Of The Pop reruns they have on BBC Four every thurs. They just finished running through the 1981 and are onto '82.

Infact just only watched the Japan 'Ghosts' performance the other week (nb. Statto)

Was just going to complain about your inclusion of 'Tainted Love' saying I saw their other single from back then and how much better its stands up... When I spot you include it right at the bottom ha ha

No I live in Austria....I don't have cable TV and only a cheap-o satellite dish, so no BBC 4

I might do more top 30 lists for other years in the near future

[Statto]

Not any The Police anywhere??

not from 1981, no
I like some of their singles... Roxanne, Can't Stand Losing You, Message in a Bottle, Walking on the Moon
but they're all quite a bit earlier

I like all those Police songs Statto.
I also like Don't Stand So Close To Me. Even though it's basically Roxanne with different lyrics.

That's true.
Ghosts In The Machine was their album of that year, and probably wasn't their high point looking back. Although I did really like "Spirits In The Material World" at the time, as a little 6 yr old!

"Invisible Sun" is probably the track that still stands out

Invisible Sun. I loved that song I liked Tainted Love too hehe.

Statto, I didn't recognise a single piece of music on your list

[Statto]

Statto, I didn't recognise a single piece of music on your list

I take that back, there was one: Grandmaster Flash - Adventures on the Wheels of Steel. 1981 must have been a very different year for you

[Statto]

mostly parochial English post punk, but there are a few Americans in there...

Defunkt - The Razor's Edge
Lizzy Mercier Descloux - Payola
Grandmaster Flash - Adventures on the Wheels of Steel
Jon Hassell - Malay
Liquid Liquid - Push
James Blood Ulmer - High Time

who you should have heard of

Why should I have?

[Statto]

because you should