"Barracuda" is an all-time banger, and today's winner.
I don't love "Rock & Roll Never Forgets," but it's certainly far preferable to Seger's other beaten-to-death entry with "rock & roll" in its title.
"When people mock Sting as being an embarrassment compared to The Police, they're probably thinking of songs like this."
Contrarian that I so often am, I think I might prefer Sting's overall body of work as a solo artist to that of the Police. While there are certainly some Police songs that I think are stellar ("King of Pain," "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic"), there are also a few others that are universally adored that I can't stand.
And, solowise, I'll put "Fortress Around Your Heart" up against any recording from any artist in the '80s. Oh, and "Fields of Gold" is OK with me, too.
Human Wheels was a sadly underserved and overlooked Mellencamp album. The title song and "What If I Came Knocking" are further evidence that he was still capable of making some top-shelf music in the '90s, but the record/CD buying public wasn't capable of appreciating it at that moment.
As I said in the #1s poll when this song came up, "This Guy's In Love" with you is better than it has any right to be. Herb Alpert can't sing, and the song stays in the bland, low-key MOR lane, and yet something about it has always been inexplicably appealing.
I'm in. Thanks for debuting another poll for us.
So, is "Tiny Dancer" the most famous single NOT to reach the top 40? If it's not, it's got to be in the top five.
"Day After Day" is absolutely stellar, one of the most brilliant, poignant and devastating ballads of the '70s, and it takes on such added weight when you realize the story of the band and the tragedy that followed Badfinger. One of the strongest 10s of the entire decade.
"Never Been to Spain" is an absolute blast. Prime Three Dog Night, in all their humorous, give-it-their-all glory. Also a 10/10.
Keith Hernandez has immortalized "Tighten Up" as a broadcaster of New York Mets games. He refers to a player who gets tight and fails in a crucial game situation as someone who "has a case of Archie Bell & The Drells" (i.e., he "tightens up" in the clutch).
"But just as amazing, I don't remember this one at all."
My memory of the Top 40 stations I listened to in the '70s was that they played very few bubblegum hits as recurrents after they dropped off the charts. I do remember hearing "Down By The Lazy River" after it was a hit, but there were many other Osmonds and even Jackson 5 songs that were sizeable hits that didn't really get airplay after their chart run was over (i.e.: "Mama's Pearl" was a #2 song for the Jackson 5, and it has never much airplay at all in the last 50 years).
7-7-7-7
And "Down By The Lazy River" might be the best thing any configuration of Osmonds ever put their name to. It's a banger, and I do not say that ironically.
So, this will be sort of like a Knights of Columbus hall where any TNOCs veterans can go assemble.
Great work, great idea, great mt.
Why am I not surprised?
This is the only time I'll probably ever have a chance to mention it, but Sister Sledge did a remake of "My Guy" in 1982 that I liked a whole lot more than I probably had a right to.
And in this poll, Mary Wells tramples the competition with her original version of the song.
"How is it possible that I’ve heard every other Number One since the early 1970s before (and the ones in the 90s to-date many, many, many times), yet somehow have never heard this song before?"
This becomes a much more common occurrence for me in 1993 than in any year prior.
I know people are just gonna kill the Wayne Newton song in today's poll, but I gotta tell ya, I think "Sylvia's Mother" is worse, and by several lengths. I always suspected, given Dr. Hook's reputation as clowns, that "Sylvia's Mother" may have been recorded with a so-bad-it's-good intent, like some of the Turtles' songs from the '60s. But for me, bad is bad.
"Nice to Be With You" and "Where is the Love," though, are both pure 1972 joy.
"Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On" is a 10.
"Diana" is a 1.
Paul Anka's catalog of 1/10s extends far beyond the infamous "(You're) Having My Baby." Almost all his '50s and '60s stuff grates on me like nails on a damn chalkboard.
"A Whole New World" begs for a middling score like a 5 or a 6.
But Peabo Bryson did what may have been my favorite AC ballad of the '80s, "If Ever Your In My Arms Again," and that's a 10/10 all the way.
Bryson, a former DJ, also delivers the very best pitch I've ever seen/heard in one of those Time/Life music collection infomercials. Smooth as silk.
"People talk about how weird the 90s were for music but Kevin Costner was the biggest movie star in the world lol wut"
And in 1977, the most popular song in the nation was "You Light Up My Life" and the #1 TV show was Laverne & Shirley.
So every era is characterized by its own inexplicable weirdness.
"If I may borrow from ABBA (formerly a guilty pleasure, now an out-in-the-open pleasure), "Thank You For The Music", for giving it to all of us."
I didn't give "I Will Always Love You" a 10.
I might, however, give a 10 to "Thank You for the Music."
Fight me if you wish, but both "It Never Rains in Southern California" and "Go All The Way" are early '70s titans, and 10s for me. ("It Never Rains ..." is almost like a cousin to "Midnight Train to Georgia.")
"Freddie's Dead," pretty damn good, too.
""Two Princes" remains my most hated song of all time."
I underwrite your loathing of this one, though I thought "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong" was more tolerable.
It's a well-worn cliche, but I respect Whitney's version of "I Will Always Love You" way more than I like it. Her performance here is undeniable, but it's not a song I enjoy listening to, and it never has been, and, in the end, that's how we all judge music, on a strictly personal level.
"Real Love," on the other hand, is one I really do like, and I'm glad Tom included a shout out to it. For me, it's a solid 8/10.
"It had to be romantic, it had to be emotional, but it also had to be intrinsically inferior to "In Your Eyes." "
When it comes to love songs, everything is intrinsically inferior to "In Your Eyes."
While we're on the topic of '90s TV theme songs, the BoDeans got their share of airplay with "Closer to Free" from Party of Five, which actually wasn't a half bad prime-time soap at all.
"All they did was ruin the charts by making them less fun and exciting."
And, post-Soundscan, we must meet the challenge of keeping TNOCS fun and exciting in the face of this.
"Sadly, nineties Madonna is apparently off-limits to present day radio programmers, so I don't hear any of them anymore."
A remarkable phenomenon that we have touched upon before. Do researchers just not even focus-group test Madonna's '90s stuff?
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