I absolutely adore “Lost in Your Eyes.” I’m just as much of a fan of 80s AC ballads as everyone else here – that is, I largely find them terrible – but “Lost in Your Eyes” absolutely transcends the form. There are a few reasons for that.
First, Debbie isn’t over-the-top and overly serious in her singing. (Given that she named the two sides of the Electric Youth album “This Side” and “That Side,” it’s obvious she wouldn’t have a self-seriousness complex.) Instead, she sings in a calm, quiet tone, and it makes all the difference. The way Debbie delivers that first line – “I get lost in your eyes” – is simply breathtaking.
Second, the arrangement is just so joyous that I find it irresistible. I love how the guitar line rises in the first chorus. The key change being deployed in the middle of a verse rather than before one really adds to the merry feeling. But my favorite moment of the song aside from the first verse is when the handclaps finally come in near the end. It elevates the song from being a radio ballad to a stadium ballad.
9/10
I don't really agree because I think the title track has bite to it. It has very similar subject matter to today's song - "do you love me or are you just screwing with me?"
I constantly used to go to a restaurant that is now closed. It had what I like to call the "American Idol Station" playing on the speakers because no less than 7 finalists were in constant rotation - Kelly Clarkson, Katharine McPhee, Elliot Yamin, Chris Daughtry, David Cook, Adam Lambert, and Lee DeWyze.
Oddly, even though they played a number of early 90s pop songs on the station (U2's "Mysterious Ways," REM's "Man on the Moon," a completely random Tom Petty song called "A Higher Place") they didn't play anything from Paula's 2nd or 3rd albums, even though they would have fit right in.
On HBO Max there's a "Classics Curated by TCM" collection. Last time I checked I remember it had "Point Break" in it, which fits perfectly because the people who saw "Point Break" in the theater are now part of TCM's main audience.
Wasn't alive at the time so can't attest to any R&B cred she had at the time, but to me aside from the first two tracks on the album I hear basically zero R&B. There's actually more rock influence in the album.
I agree with Tom's 9. I used to listen to it all the time when I had "Now That's What I Call the 80s Volume 2" on my iPod.
The key to the song's greatness is that it's tough enough to evoke moods you wouldn't expect a dance-pop song to. I like to imagine Paula is singing the song to her boyfriend while playing poker against him, or while chasing him in a rickety car.
It's time we recognize that Forever Your Girl is a great album. All four (FOUR!) of its #1 hits, plus its other top 10, are very good to great dance songs. Who's with me?
Hey Vdog, hate to be picky here, but there's probably an error in your spreadsheet. I very highly doubt that TNOCS gave "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" a 7.1 - I know because I remember giving it an 8 in your poll and I saw the score afterward and it was a 3 point something.
Peaking at #36 the week of October 29, 1988…
Wait, #36?
It's stupid, I mean outrageous, that Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock's party-rap behemoth "It Takes Two" barely scraped the top 40 when it came out.
I wasn't born at the time, so did this song just grow over time in stature, or was it a huge party-starter even back then with its chart position being limited by radio refusing to play rap?
All I know is that "I wanna rock right now" is one of the greatest rapper entry lines ever made.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phOW-CZJWT0
Well, this is a hugely popular song (just look at the amount of views the music video has on youtube) with a wide range of opinions on it so the massive amount of comments really isn't that surprising.
I'd also guarantee it's been played on the radio more than all of Tom's other 1/10's combined.
I tried to post a comment with a certain word - one less than twice, or the movie with "Falling Slowly" - and it wouldn't let me do it any time. When I removed the word the comment went through.
The Jarhead clip and the remarks on the Hotel Transylvania clip made me wonder if Jake Gyllenhaal, star of Jarhead, has ever had a charting single.
He never has, but he did sing a parody of a previous #1 on the Corden show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImxymUSIqcs
For those curious, the "worst fans" list was:
9. Grateful Dead
8. Fall Out Boy
7. Tokio Hotel
6. Madonna
5. Dave Matthews Band
4. Boy bands in general
3. Insane Clown Posse
2. Phish
1. Skrewdriver
You gotta admit the fans of #1 are on a different plane than the others.
Tom's article today reminded me of Dustin Sussman.
Who is Dustin Sussman, you ask? He was the big music writer on the Spike TV website a decade ago, and despite him most likely being a misogynistic asshole he was a great writer - I followed his articles on Spike TV and not anyone else's. My favorite one he did was "Top 7 Worst Fanbases," in which he put Skrewdriver at #1 and said "How can you follow a band that denies the Holocaust?"
Among his many lists, he did a "Top 10 Worst #1's of All Time" list, and it was as follows:
10. Never Gonna Give You Up
9. Batdance
8. Don't Worry, Be Happy
7. I Want It That Way (UK #1, not a US #1)
6. I'm Too Sexy
5. Bad Day
4. Who Let the Dogs Out (UK #1, not a US #1)
3. Wannabe
2. Macarena
1. You're Beautiful
I heavily disagreed with the list - for one, I think Wannabe is one of the greatest #1's of all time - but I remember the Don't Worry Be Happy entry being amusing for being so straight to the point in the first sentence:
"Does anyone ever really like this song?"
Allow me to jump off on the "juxtaposition" part...
This is the first time one of Tom's 10's has been next to one of Tom's 1's in 20 virtual years.
In the 60s we got "Mr. Custer" right before "Save the Last Dance for Me," "Moody River" right after "Running Scared," "Ballad of the Green Berets" right after "These Boots are Made for Walkin'," and "Honey" right after "(Sittin' on the) Dock of the Bay." Then that phenomenon stopped until now.
Interestingly, none of Tom's 1's have blocked a song that Tom gives a 10. The closest is when Donny Osmond's version of "Go Away Little Girl" blocked Aretha's "Spanish Harlem," which Tom gave a 9.
I have two guesses, one is a Christmas movie with an absurdly overqualified cast and the other is a Nickelodeon movie that I only remember exists because YouTube constantly recommends it.
Maybe up north where you are it's different, but I don't think I've ever heard a Palmer song on the radio that wasn't "Addicted to Love." "Simply Irresistible" seems to be completely forgotten in my experience aside from its video being used as a template for the video Ingrid Michaelson made for her "Girls Chase Boys."
Bobby: I don't have a really negative reaction to this song because the backing is really inventive, so I was going to give him a 5. But then I listened to it again this morning and I couldn't really get through it, so I put it down one notch to a 4.
Grand Funk: It's a 6. At least four points better than any of the other 70s #1 covers of songs that went top 10 in the pre-British Invasion 60s.
(The others, for those wondering, are Donny Osmond's "Go Away Little Girl," Ringo Starr's "You're Sixteen," the Carpenters' "Please Mr. Postman," Tony Orlando & Dawn's "He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)," and Shaun Cassidy's "Da Doo Ron Ron.")
MFSB: It's a 7 for me. I will not say anything more because Link is probably coming to my house with a hatchet with Don Cornelius's face on it right now.
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