#30-26
and the count goes on... today, we sift through another five classic singles on our way to the #1 Single Of the 80s!
30. PASSING STRANGERS - Ultravox(Cann/Cross/Currie/Ure)
Chrysalis single #2457
Chart Debut: October 18, 1980 UK
Chart Position: #57 UK
This lesser known track is a true gem, and if you haven't heard it - I suggest you email me so we can talk and I can send you one of the greatest singles of the 1980s or at least the 35th greatest single of the 1980s. Ultravox is known mostly for their "Vienna" single which though not terribly popular here in the US, was a big success in the UK, and is the song most historians choose to put on the endless new wave compilations that come out. But "Passing Strangers" is the real piece of musical genius in the Ultravox catalog. It's steamy and creepy and driven with a sense of danger. The video was one of the very first videos I ever saw on MTV and to this day the whole imagery is captured in my head forever. Anytime I hear the beginning synth I'm lost to the world of secret strangers and black and white film noir. Watch the video here.
#29. LITTLE TOO LATE - Pat Benatar(Alex Call)
Chrysalis single #03536 US
Chart Debut: March 5, 1983 US
Chart Position: #20 US
Back in the early 80s if you lived in the middle of nowhere and didn't read every music magazine every week, the only time you knew a new album or single was out was when you walked into the store and there it was in front of you. Which is exactly how I found out Pat Benatar had a new single out when "Shadows Of The Night" was staring at me. Of course I had to buy it and loved it. But I would have to wait until Christmas to get the album Get Nervous that the single and its heavy metal mania B-side "The Victim" had been pulled from.
From the minute I put my Get Nervous cassette into my new tape recorder I was in heaven. Luckily the first song was the forementioned single, but when I flipped that cassette over, something amazing hit me. "Little Too Late" with its pounding drum rhythm and keyboard backing - the sassy vocals, "Now the conquered has been back/I feel the heat of your attack/ want me to take you back/ I'm giving you the sack/ so don't waste your time..." cuz baby it's a little too little, it's a little too late.
With the drum break in the middle and Pat growling, this is the Benatar I love. And just like the Go-Gos "Vacation," I saw the MTV World Premiere video for Little Too Late with my girl in a black leather skirt and jacket and hot pink high heels. She was tough, sexy and luckily for us all it is never too late to enjoy all that is Pat - so turn it up and hiss along with the rock goddess. Watch her goddess in hot leather here!
#28. HARDEN MY HEART - Quarterflash(Marv Ross)
Geffen single #49824 (US) / #1838 (UK)
Chart Debut: November 7, 1981 (US)/ February 27, 1982 (UK)
Chart Position: #3 US / #49 UK
Oh, that saxophone, that guitar, that hard ass vocal and that leotard in the video - "Harden My Heart" has everything I look for in 80s rock. Quarterflash emerged onto the scene with this killer single and provided all the punch and attitude as some of their contemporaries - the Pretenders, Pat Benatar. Though the music was more inclined to radio friendly pop than say Chrissie Hynde and her boys, Rindy Ross and her husband Marv Ross provided enough gusto to at least make it interesting. Quarterflash would provide a few more note worthy singles - "Find Another Fool," "Take Me To Heart", "Take Another Picture" before fading away, but this little chunk of radio history still gets plenty of airplay. Watch the video here.
#27. EDGE OF SEVENTEEN (Just Like The White Winged Dove) - Stevie Nicks(Stevie Nicks)
Modern single #7401 US/ WEA single #79264 UK
Chart Debut: March 16, 1982 US
Chart Position: #11 US
Only someone in Stevie Nicks' league could pull off a five and a half minute rock song filled with unknown poetry, strange ethereal instances and a nightbird singing "come away." But since it is the Welsh witch we are talking about, we already know we are powerless against her unique blend of rock. Stevie insists the song "Edge Of Seventeen" is inspired or written because of the deaths of both her grandfather and John Lennon, but for some reason I just don't hear those references in the song. Of course with our girl it's fairly hard to decipher what she means, it's best to just sing along and enjoy the ride. This song is in my opinion Stevie's best single ever. With it's rocking guitar riff and Stevie's dead on vocals, the song weaves and bends through five minutes of strangeness - but lovable strangeness. "The clouds never expect it when it rains but the sea changes color but the sea does not change..." What? Oh well, who cares, let the girl chant on about the white winged dove and her singing, while we wonder who or what was at the edge of 17, past the stairs, down the hall; we'll never find the answer, we'll only hear the call of the nightbird singing "come away..." Watch the video here with Stevie's own commentary.
#26. KISS ME DEADLY - Lita Ford
(Mick Smiley)
RCA/Dreamland single #6866 US/ #49575 UK
Chart Debut: May 14, 1988 US / December 17, 1988 UK
Chart Position: #12 US / #75 UK
"I went to a party last Saturday night/ I didn't get laid, I got in a fight/ huh huh/ it ain't no big thing..." such is the story of my life, and the story so well told by rocking Lita Ford in this gem of a single. Full of angst, fun and melody, Lita proved the boys weren't the only ones who could handle hair metal. Though when it came to Lita, she was so much more than the Warrants, Cinderellas and Poisons.. coming from the Runaways, she had learned and studied with some of the best female rock musicians. Joan Jett, spent her time trying to mesh and mold glam rock with the fringes of hard rock while Lita went the other way meshing hard rock with pop melodies. Lucky for us, they both succeeded very well. Prior to 1988's Lita album, which "Kiss Me Deadly" is taken from, Lita's brash was showing through on two prior albums, but bring in Mike Chapman (Yes, that Mike that I love so) and he helped her create one of the best hard rock albums of the 1980s. Lita can growl, punch, sing and play her way through a melody like a mad woman, and that is something no amount of big hair or a pair of nads can compete with. Watch the video here.
And so we were passing strangers who found out it was a little too late to kiss deadly at the edge of seventeen, unless of course you have a hardened heart... what new and exciting things will we learn when we head into the top 25? You'll have to come back and see....
Labels: Lita Ford, Pat Benatar, Quarterflash, Stevie Nicks, Top singles of the 1980s, Ultravox
posted by swivek @ 5:29 PM
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