The Eighties: Best Tunes

Kids these days are forever being snarky about music in the 1980s.

They can get lost.

The early 1980s had me janitoring, the middle saw me in grad school, and from 1986 to 1992 I was teaching English in Okinawa and listening to the Far East Network, a much more diverse station than the armed forces radio service in Tokyo. When I think of the 1980s, I think of these songs. 

·         Hold Me Now – Thompson Twins. Hypnotic hook.

·         Electric Avenue - Eddy Grant. Dance, I told you, Dance!

·         Sweet Dreams – Eurythmics. Dubious generalizations re human nature but compelling song.

·         White Wedding - Billy Idol. I'm told Billy was a nice guy until two hours before show time and then he'd start sneering a lot, putting on his show face.

·         Flying in a Blue Dream - Joe Satriani. Whadda hook, stay in your frickin’ head all day.

·         West End Girls - Pet Shop Boys. Languid boredom but peppy, an odd combo.

·         Kyrie - Mr. Mister. Another hypnotic hook which saves kind of a lame song. How do the English do it?

·         Everybody Have Fun Tonight - Wang Chung. Everybody up-chuck tonight! At the end of the working day by the elevators to get the hell out,  I sometimes ask people if they're going to wang chung tonight. Yeah, I get stared at.

·         Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns N' Roses. No escaping this song the year it was released.

·         She Drives Me Crazy - Fine Young Cannibals. Intense, calling to mind Motown but better.

·         Walk Like An Egyptian – Bangles. Fun.

·         Never Gonna Give You Up – Rick Astley. Never had a big problem with this groovy little tune until y’all made it so ironic and all.

·         Circle in the Sand - Belinda Carlisle. A guilty pleasure.

·         You Make Heaven a Place on Earth - Belinda Carlisle. The only artist here twice. I feel really guilty now. But there's no denying the Abba-type wall of sound

·         How Will I Know - Whitney Houston. Lotsa energy and she's so pretty too.

·         Material Girl - Madonna. She says it's the bucks but she still leaves with the poor producer Keith Carradine who wins her with a little romancing.

·         Little Lies - Fleetwood Mac. Only cuz it reminded me of Rumours.

·         Heat of the Moment – Asia. Another ditty from which there was no escape.

·         Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Tears for Fears. More dubious generalizations, but haunting. A good song to shoot baskets by.

·         Girls Just Want to Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper. In grad school, I knew a guy that looked just like the dude with the moustache and glasses. 

·         Dancing in the Dark - Bruce Springsteen. A good song to spin by nowadays.

·         Sharp Dressed Man – ZZ Top. Classic video, classic guy's song.

·         Addicted to Love - Robert Palmer. Still hear this one at least once a week somewhere.

·         Human - The Human League. Cool synth pop. Still works for me but I'm a romantic.

·         Call Me – Blondie. Early Eighties, yes? A rocker.

·         Harden My Heart - Quarterflash. Lotsa style.

·         Take On Me - a-ha. Best video ever; both leads very 1980s good-looking. So how this song became a joke is beyond me. I don’t even want to know why. I don't want to understand people who weren't around at the time!

No Duran Duran is not an oversight. So shoot me.

Xmas Toones

List of nearly forgotten Christmas songs, for your enjoyment, especially, I wonder, if you're a certain age.

Christmas Roses - Frankie Lane & Jo Stafford

Misteltoe and Holly - Jack Jones

Jingle Bells - Glenn Miller

Hello Mr Kringle - Kay Kyser

Shake Hands With Santa Claus - Louis Prima

I'm Gonna Lasso Santa Claus - Little Brenda Lee

Here Comes Santa Claus - Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters

Santa Claus Is Back In Town – Elvis and Wynona Judd

The Coventry Carol – Joan Baez

Holiday In Harlem  - Ella Fitzgerald w/ Chick Webb’s Band

Marshmallow World by Brenda Lee

God Rest ye Merry Gentleman – Barenaked Ladies
Winter Wonderland by Johnny Mathis
Hard Candy Christmas by Dolly Parton.


Jingle Bells – Les Paul and Mary Ford

Suzy Snowflake – Rosemary Clooney

Rudolf – Tiny Tim

Santa Claus is Coming to Town – Alice Cooper

Christmastime in New Orleans - Louis Armstrong

Frosty the Snowman – Cocteau Twins

Merry Christmas Baby – Bootsy Collins

Christmas in Jail – The Youngsters

Jingle Bells by The Singing Dogs
Winter Wonderland by Johnny Mathis
Christmas Time is Here - Vince Guaraldi from A Charlie Brown Christmas
Who Took the Merry Out of Christmas? by The Staple Singers. Who is this "House" guy?


Ding Dong, Ding Dong by George Harrison. OK, it's a New year's song.
Old Christmas Card by Jim Reeves
Another Year has Gone By - Celine Dion


Christmas Eve (I Wanna Be Santa Claus) by Ringo Starr
Please, Daddy (Don't Get Drunk This Christmas) - John Denver
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas ? Judy Garland.

I'll be Home for Christmas by Karen and her brother

New Music

Classical and Avant Garde Music

New Music

Philip Glass – Four Movements for Two Pianos (2008)
Steven Stucky – Piano Quartet (2005)
Roger Reynolds – Quick are the Mouths of the Earth (2012)
Paul Hembree – Nyx

Fernanda Navarro – Emptying the body

Elliott Carter – Duo for Violin and Piano (1974)

Morton Feldman – For Aaron Copland (1981)

Brian Ferneyhough – Unsichtbare Farben (1999)

John Cage – Eight Whiskus (1985)

Roger Reynolds – Thoughts, Places, Dreams (1992)

Augusta Read Thomas – Scat (2007)
Bernard Rands – Memo 1 (1997)

Lukas Foss – Capriccio (1948)

Jacob Druckman – Come Round (1992)

Heinrich Sutermeister – Capriccio (1946)
Alexina Louie – Scenes from a Jade Terrace (1987)
II. Memories in an Ancient Garden

Karklheinz Stockhausen – Der Kleine Harlekin (1977)
Alejandro Viñao –  Burritt Variations (2012)
Andrew Greenwald – Juku II (2014)
Jeffrey Stadelman – No. 9  (2013)

Elliott Carter – Figment II (2001) and  Elegy (1943)

Morton Feldman – King of Denmark (1964)

Charles Wuorinen – Praegustatum for James Levine (2005)

Charles Wuorinen – Trombone Trio (1985)

Young composers

Shuyue Cao – Winter Dreams

Elliot Grabill – Katharos

Louis Goldford – documentary

Iddo Aharony – A Stone the Size of a Dream

Ori Talmon – Learning from the Laughing Man 

Zane Merritt – Burning City

Weijun Chen – Memos

Stephen Yip – Awaiting the Dawn

Texu Kim – Shake It

Ryan Jesperson – Hebdomas Squatinae

Liliya Ugay – Nostalgia for piano and live electronics

UB-related Composers

Martin Bresnick – Bird as Prophet (2003)

Lukas Foss – Echoi (1963)

Harvey Sollberger – Hara

Charles Wuorinen – New York Notes (1982)

Martin Bresnick – A Message from the Emperor

David Felder – Canzone XXXI (1993)

Brian Ferneyhough – Bone Alphabet (1991)

Steven Stucky – Refrains (1979)

Iannis Xenakis – Okho (1989)

Unsung Heroes of Pop Music

From the end of WWII to Elvis, American pop music was hard to classify. The music below are mixes of pop, pap, rockabilly, country, etc. Nutty.

Jesse Stone: Runaway

Ella Mae Morse: The Cow-Cow Boogie

Cecil Gant: Owl Stew, and All That

Amos Milburn: The Chicken-Shack Factor

Stick McGhee: Spo-Dee-O-Dee: How to Get It, How to Use It

Roy Hall: Mule Boogie

Hardrock Gunter: Gonna Rock and Roll

Merrill Moore: Rock, Rockola

Skeets McDonald: The Tattooed Lady

The Clovers: Blue Velvet

The Dominoes: That’s What You’re Doing to Me

Jackie Brenston & Ike Tuner’s Kings of Rhythm – What Can It Be?

Jimmie Logsdon: That’s When I’ll Love You the Best

Screamin' Jay Hawkins: Little Demon

Wanda Jackson: Tongue Tied

Johnny Ace: The Clock

Louis Armstrong

Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, a biography, includes an appendix of thirty "key recordings" by Louis Armstrong, all of which figure prominently in the text of the book. Here's the list:

1. "Chimes Blues" (Gennett, 1923, with King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band)

2. "Texas Moaner Blues" (OKeh, 1924, with Sidney Bechet and Clarence Williams' Blue Five)

3. "St. Louis Blues" (Columbia, 1925, with Bessie Smith)

4. "Heebie Jeebies" (OKeh, 1926, with the Hot Five)

5. "Cornet Chop Suey" (OKeh, 1926, with the Hot Five)

6. "Potato Head Blues" (OKeh, 1927, with the Hot Seven)

7. "Hotter Than That" (OKeh, 1927, with Lonnie Johnson and the Hot Five)

8. "West End Blues" (OKeh, 1928, with Earl Hines and the Hot Five)

9. "Weather Bird" (OKeh, 1928, with Earl Hines)

10. "I Can't Give You Anything but Love" (OKeh, 1929)

11. "Ain't Misbehavin'" (OKeh, 1929)

12. "Sweethearts on Parade" (OKeh, 1930)

13. "Star Dust" (OKeh, 1931, first take)

14. "I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues" (Victor, 1933)

15. "Darling Nelly Gray" (Decca, 1937, with the Mills Brothers)

16. "Jubilee" (Decca, 1938)

17. "Struttin' With Some Barbecue" (Decca, 1938)

18. "Jeepers Creepers" (Decca, 1939, with Sid Catlett)

19. "Sleepy Time Down South" (Decca, 1941)

20. "Snafu" (Victor, 1946, with the Esquire All-American 1946 Award Winners)

21. "Back o' Town Blues" (Victor, 1947, with Jack Teagarden, Bobby Hackett, and Sid Catlett, recorded live at New York's Town Hall)

22. "Blueberry Hill" (Decca, 1949)

23. "New Orleans Function" (Decca, 1950, with Earl Hines, Jack Teagarden, and the All Stars)

24. "You Rascal You" (Decca, 1950, with Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five)

25. "Mack the Knife" (Columbia, 1955, with the All Stars)

26. "King of the Zulus" (Decca, 1957, with the All Stars, from Satchmo: A Musical Autobiography)

27. "How Long Has This Been Going On?" (Verve, 1957, with the Oscar Peterson Trio, from Louis Armstrong Meets Oscar Peterson)

28. "Black and Tan Fantasy" (Impulse, 1961, with Duke Ellington and the All Stars, from Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington)

29. "Summer Song" (Columbia, 1961, with Dave Brubeck, from The Real Ambassadors)

30. "Hello, Dolly!" (Kapp, 1963, with the All Stars)