229. Van Halen, “Jump” Eddie Van Halen wrote “Jump” on the synthesizer. Famously and even a bit notoriously, the song was a significant departure for the band the bore his name, a group that forged a fervent fan base largely through their vaunted lead guitarist’s six-string heroics. When “Jump” arrived as the lead single from Van Halen’s 1984, the divergence from the band’s typical sound was all anyone could talk about, a flurry of chatter which served the song well. Interest in the track was high, and it quickly became the most successful single the band ever released, cruising to the top … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 229 – 227

232. Gary Numan, “Cars” Officially, “Cars” is the debut single of Gary Numan. Born Gary Anthony James Webb, the musician took his stage name as the leader and chief creative force of the U.K. band Tubeway Army. According to Numan, he wanted to formally transition to a solo act fairly early on, but the label felt a band was more likely to crack the charts. Though bassist Paul Gardiner was also part of the Tubeway Army lineup through it’s entire existence, by the time they were making records in the late nineteen-seventies, it was realistically Numan under a different name. … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 232 – 230

235. U2, “Gloria” What hardly at risk of being relegated to the stations on the left end of the dial that stick with songs that praise Jesus, U2 tapped into their shared religious devotion significantly when working on their sophomore album, October. Really, it’s more accurate to describe it as largely shared devotion, since one quarter of the band’s roster wasn’t nearly as sanguine about filling their grooves with spiritually inclined material. Bassist Adam Clayton was reportedly uncomfortable with the new tack the group was taking, holding up “Gloria” as the prime example of the undesirable artistic drift. By some … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 235 – 233

238. The Jam, “Absolute Beginners” Paul Weller reclaimed the title for the The Jam’s 1981 single “Absolute Beginners” from the Colin MacInnes novel of the same name. The second book in the British author’s London Trilogy, Absolute Beginners was first published in 1958. Though already a revered work, it was experiencing a bit of a revival around the time the nineteen-seventies slipped tumultuously into the eighties, partially tied to the nostalgic interest in mod culture that followed the release of the film version of Quadrophenia, in 1979. Most of Weller’s cultural compatriots had read the book. Funny enough, Weller himself … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 238 – 236