1980
40. NEVER KNEW LOVE LIKE THIS BEFORE - STEPHANIE MILLS
33. DREAMING - CLIFF RICHARD
31. TIME IS TIME - ANDY GIBB
29. I MADE IT THROUGH THE RAIN - BARRY MANILOW
28. SUDDENLY - CLIFF RICHARD & OLIVIA NEWTON JOHN
15. NEVER BE THE SAME - CHRISTOPHER CROSS
11. EVERY WOMAN IN THE WORLD - AIR SUPPLY
9. GUILTY - BARBRA STREISAND & BARRY GIBB
8. WOMAN IN LOVE - BARBRA STREISAND
6. LOVE ON THE ROCKS - NEIL DIAMOND
3. ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST- QUEEN
2. MORE THAN I CAN SAY - LEO SAYER
1. LADY - KENNY ROGERS
1980, the year popular music got stuck in the elevator.
32. I LOVE A RAINY NIGHT - EDDIE RABBITT
A nice enough song by a guy who had a lot of hits on the country charts, but this was a rare one on the pop charts as I recall.
27. THIS TIME - JOHN COUGAR
John Cougar/Mellencamp is one of those artists that there is really no in between when it comes to quality. It's legendary (The 'Scarecrow' album, Paper and Fire, and a few others) or it's crap (This song, Ain't even done with the night, Jack and Diane, and to a lesser extent, Hurts So Good, although I'm not as tired of that song as I am 'Jack and Diane'.)
20. THE TIDE IS HIGH - BLONDIE
This song, 'I Shot the Sheriff' and most of the work of the Police are examples of times where Rock mimicked Reggae, with mixed results. The Police were legendary (Best Rock Trio in my own personal opinion) and Debbie Harry did a fine job on this one. And of course another band in this genre are The Clash who are in a league of their own.
7. HUNGRY HEART - BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
'The River' had lots of hits, but I don't think it's his best collective work (although still good!) That title belongs to Born to Run with the E Street Band, or Nebraska on his own.
4. (JUST LIKE) STARTING OVER - JOHN LENNON
While I think the album might have done well had he not met his untimely demise at the hands of Mark David Chapman earlier in the month, it was the ultimate tribute to his work and the veracity of Beatles fans that this charted so high. Also despite the fact that it included a side of Yoko Ono's solo work who couldn't sing her way out of a paper bag.
3. ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST- QUEEN
One of those tunes I don't particularly mind the fact that it's overplayed because my opinion of the band as a whole is so high. I also featured this song on a Theme Songs week a while back (which is coming back after the first of the year, BTW) on Rock hits that took advantage of the Disco craze at the time (even though it would die out shortly after),