Author Archives

by

Song of the Day #4,303: ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’ – Cyndi Lauper

As I reach my 23rd featured album from 1983, I’ve come to the conclusion that it was an exceptional year for new music. My Decades series always unearths gems, ones I was familiar with and ones I wasn’t, but 1983 has offered up a true bounty.

Add another album to the list of stellar ’83 debuts: Cyndi Lauper’s She’s So Unusual. This album landed four singles in Billboard’s Top Five, making it the first debut by a female artist to do so. Anybody who was alive in the early 80s can tick them off: ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun,’ ‘Time After Time,’ ‘She Bop,’ and ‘All Through the Night.’

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #4,302: ‘Overkill’ – Men at Work

I think the world is past due for a reappreciaiton of Men at Work.

The Australian New Wave band released three albums between 1981 and 1985, honing a supremely catchy and soulful sound, before breaking up. Their debut Business as Usual spent multiple weeks at #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200, while sophomore album Cargo peaked at #3. They scored four top ten singles, including two number ones.

But outside of an 80s nostalgia channel, when’s the last time you heard one of their songs?

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #4,301: ‘In the Neighborhood’ – Tom Waits

The charms of Tom Waits have largely eluded me, though I can’t say I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure them out.

One of Waits’ most celebrated albums, Swordfishtrombones, was released in 1983. It marked a move for Waits from piano and strings toward more obscure and eclectic instrumentation, introducing the old-fashioned circus vibe for which he is now well-known.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #4,300: ‘Dear Doctor’ – The Rolling Stones

‘Dear Doctor’ is a fun country-blues track from 1968’s Beggars Banquet, The Rolling Stones’ first masterpiece.

By my count, The Stones released four albums on which I would hang that m-word. And they released them all in a row.

First up was Beggars Banquet, followed by Let it Bleed (1969), Sticky Fingers (1961), and Exile on Main St. (1972).

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #4,299: ‘Lights of Home’ – U2

The Random iTunes Fairy has a sense of humor.

In preparing my posts for the Decades 1983 series, I had just gone through a prolonged internal debate about whether to include U2’s album War. On the one hand, it was the band’s first Gold record, an important milestone for one of the greatest rock bands. On the other hand, the album isn’t very interesting (to me) beyond singles ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ and ‘New Year’s Day.’

And then there’s the fact that I know my most frequent reader is not a fan of U2. Why torture poor Dana, I figured, and during a global pandemic, no less? So I passed.

Continue reading →