Throwing back to the week of October 11, 1975, we find Neil Sedaka atop the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Bad Blood,’ a song I’m certain I’ve never heard before.
This was Sedaka’s third #1 hit, following 1962’s ‘Breaking Up is Hard to Do’ and 1974’s ‘Laughter in the Rain.’ This song remained at #1 for three weeks, becoming the biggest hit of the singer-songwriter’s career.
Concluding a countdown of my favorite albums of 1986…
#1 – Graceland – Paul Simon
Like The Smiths’ The Queen is Dead, Paul Simon’s Graceland is one of my all-time favorite albums, and it’s pretty damn high on that list.
My love for Simon’s best-selling and most-lauded album is due to its impeccable music content, of course, but it’s also rooted in nostalgia. This is the one album on my 1986 list that I listened to the year it came out. It was a staple of my childhood, an album my family learned and loved together.
Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 1986…
#2 – The Queen is Dead – The Smiths
If you’d told me The Smiths’ The Queen is Dead wouldn’t be my #1 album of the year it came out, I would have called you crazy. And yet, that’s where we stand, with one of my all-time favorite albums serving as salutatorian.
I’ve sung this album’s praises so much on the blog that all ten of its tracks have already been featured, requiring me to post a live version today. But I’ll scribble down a few more words of praise.
Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 1986…
#3 – King of America – Elvis Costello
Last week I noted that Blood & Chocolate was one of two great albums Elvis Costello released in 1986. The other, King of America, might be the best thing he’s ever done.
Costello has had a prolific and wide-ranging career, dipping his toe in every conceivable genre and teaming up with a laundry list of unlikely collaborators. But I’ll be boring and say the early to mid-80s remains the high point of his impressive catalog. My three favorite Castello albums — Get Happy!!, Imperial Bedroom, and this one — all came out during that span.
Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 1986…
#4 – Lifes Rich Pageant – R.E.M.
Few bands had as a good a run in the 80s as R.E.M. Lifes Rich Pageant was the band’s fourth album in as many years and every one was a masterpiece.
Following up the murky folk rock of Fables of the Reconstruction, Pageant found the band in full rock mode, putting the muscular sound of their live shows on record for the first time.
Meet Me In Montauk 