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Song of the Day #6,267: ‘Once in a Lifetime’ – Talking Heads

The second most underrated song of the 1980s, according to Chris Dalla Riva’s analysis, is ‘Once in a Lifetime’ by Talking Heads. This was the first single from the band’s celebrated 1980 album Remain in Light.

This song has the same jam-heavy Afrobeat aesthetic as the rest of the album, but its soaring chorus and disarming spoken-word verses made it stand out as something close to a hummable hit. It reached the top 20 in the UK upon its release despite not breaking into the Hot 100 in the United States. A live recording from the Stop Making Sense concert film did crack that list several years later.

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Song of the Day #6,266: ‘How Soon is Now?’ – The Smiths

Earlier this summer, I posted a list of the “most forgotten” musical artists of the 60s and 70s, based on an analysis by Chris Dalla Riva on his Can’t Get Much Higher substack. Well, Dalla Riva has proved to be a gift that keeps on giving, because another of his recent analyses has inspired my posts for the next two weeks.

This time he set out to compile a list of the most underrated songs of the 80s, defining “underrated” as high quality mixed with relatively low popularity. To gauge quality, he aggregated critics lists of the best 80s songs to come up with a master list. To gauge present-day popularity, he used Spotify streams.

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Song of the Day #6,265: ‘St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion)’ – John Parr

The week of August 31, 1985, was a big one for film soundtracks. Three of the top four songs atop the Hot 100 that week were from movies.

Topping the chart for the second week was Huey Lewis & the News’ ‘The Power of Love‘ from Back to the Future. In the #4 slot was Tina Turner’s ‘We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)’ from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, a movie in which she also starred.

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Song of the Day #6,264: ‘Fallin’ in Love’ – Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds

Throwing back to the week of August 30, 1975, we find Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds atop the Billboard Hot 100 with their sole chart-topping hit, ‘Fallin’ in Love.’

I often hear classic songs and have no idea who performed them. And I often learn who performed them and fail to recognize the artist’s name even a little bit. But Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds might just be the artist name with which I’ve had the least familiarity in all my life. I read it three times before registering that this was the actual band name and not some sort of coding glitch on Billboard.com.

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Song of the Day #6,263: ‘Ride to Robert’s’ – Jason Isbell

Jason Isbell’s most recent album, released earlier this year, is a solo acoustic effort recorded in the aftermath of his divorce from Amanda Shires and a new romance with Canadian artist Anna Weyant.

Like so many heartbroken artists before him, Isbell turned his breakup into meaningful, melancholy art. Even the songs about new love, like today’s SOTD, are tinged with sadness. He knows that some of his greatest love songs were written about a romance that didn’t last.

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