984. UB40, 1980-1983 (1983) The early nineteen-eighties was a good time to be dishing out gentle, reggae-influenced pop in the U.K. The band UB40 started germinating around 1978, when Ali Campbell took the compensatory award he received after enduring a … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #984 to #981
As we come upon the time when exhaustive discussion of the Winter Olympics swamps out all other topics for a couple of weeks (with the sartorial and broadcasting stylings of Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir the only aspect of the … Continue reading One for Friday — Meryn Cadell, “The Sweater”
988. Jefferson Starship, Modern Times (1981) It’s easy — and given the inferior quality of the latter iteration — to view Jefferson Starship as the inconsequential afterthought of Jefferson Airplane, but that group lasted longer and released more albums, even … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #988 – #985
I have been writing weekly College Countdown posts for many years by now. Depending on the chart — and of course the position on said chart — my commitment to listening to can deliver some rough material into my ears. … Continue reading One for Friday — The Dictators, “Next Big Thing”
These posts are about the songs that just barely failed to cross the key line of chart success, entering the Billboard Top 40. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 41. Before there was a single note of … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “That Thing You Do”
992. T Bone Burnett, Proof Through the Night (1983) In the early nineteen-eighties, T Bone Burnett was a musician of high regard who hadn’t yet broken through. A few years earlier, Burnett earned his keep as a guitar-slinger on Bob … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #992 – #989
When I arrived at the college radio station where I grew up, I discovered a strange, wonderful, boldly enlivening world. That’s hardly a new observation for me to tap out in this space, but I truly can’t repeat it enough. … Continue reading One for Friday — The Fall, “Big New Prinz”
996. Boz Scaggs, Middle Man (1980) “Say, what do you think/ Of gentlemen wearing mink?,” Boz Scaggs croons on “Jojo,” the lead track on and first single from Middle Man. That’s suitably emblematic of the affected prestige and classiness of … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #996 – #993
When I started working in commercial radio, it was at a “new rock alternative station.” For the first sixteen weeks I was gainfully employed there, a mere two songs moved through the top spot of the Billboard chart relevant to … Continue reading One for Friday — The Cranberries, “Twenty One”
1000. Falco, Einzelhaft (1982) In the early nineteen-eighties, German pop music was having a moment in the U.S. That surge in popularity was so pronounced that two different tracks sung in German — Nena’s “99 Luftballoons” and Peter Schilling’s “Major Tom” — … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — 1000 – 997
Coffee for Two 