Continuing my look at 1984, first by counting down my own top five albums of that year.
#3. Purple Rain – Prince
Only five albums reached #1 in 1984, and one of those was Michael Jackson’s Thriller, which was released the previous year but still spent the first 15 weeks of ’84 at the top of the Billboard 200. Thriller was the top-selling album of both 1983 and 1984.
Continuing my look at 1984, first by counting down my own top five albums of that year.
#4. Like a Virgin – Madonna
Here’s an album I paid no attention at the time of its release, and an artist I actively dismissed for most of the following four decades.
It took last summer’s Madonna deep dive for me to finally appreciate the game-changing greatness of one of the 80s defining artists. And though Like a Virgin landed at #5 on my Madonna album ranking, it’s a worthy enough collection to land at #4 on this list.
What better way to kick off 2022 than by going back in time nearly 40 years to 1984 for the latest installment of my Decades series?
First, let me recover from the stunning realization that 1984, the year I turned 12, was nearly 40 years ago. Wowza.
I wasn’t very invested in popular music back then, so none of the year’s notable albums meant much to me at the time. But I have come to know and love a few of them. Over the next four weeks, I will cover those as well as a sampling of celebrated records I haven’t heard much or at all.
Closing out my three weeks on the albums of 1974 is Barry White’s Can’t Get Enough. This was White’s third album and his only one to top the Billboard 200.
Between 1973 and 1975, White released his first four albums and saw every one top the R&B chart. Six of the 10 albums he released in the 70s did so, and nine of the 10 went Gold or Platinum.
Five months ago, while writing about the latest additions to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry, I confessed that I didn’t know ‘Lady Marmalade’ was a cover (I know the song through its inclusion in the 2001 film Moulin Rouge).
In fact, it was a hit R&B song by Labelle, a band fronted by Patti LaBelle.
Well, this week Labelle makes another appearance thanks to their 1974 album Nightbirds, on which ‘Lady Marmalade’ is the opening track.
Meet Me In Montauk 