Thanks Henrik! Not bad. Synth-pop is a tough genre because you have to weed through so much awfulness to find the good stuff. But, I've been trying over the past year.

Songs

1. Michael Jackson - Billie Jean
2. Grandmaster Flash - The Message
3. Michael Jackson - Thriller
4. Yazoo - Don't Go
5. Iron Maiden - Hallowed Be Thy Name
6. Dire Straits - Private Investigations
7. The Cure - Cold
8. Prince - 1999
9. Yazoo - Situation
10. Robert Wyatt - Shipbuilding
11. Eurythmics - Love Is a Stranger
12. The Special A.K.A. & Rhoda Dakar - The Boiler
13. Frida - There's Something Goin' On
14. Depeche Mode - My Secret Garden
15. Lustans Lakejer - Diamanter är en flickas bästa vän
16. Gregory Isaacs - Night Nurse
17. The Pointer Sisters - I'm So Excited
18. The Sisters of Mercy - Alice
19. Philip Glass - Opening
20. Survivor - Eye of the Tiger

Listening again to La Mode song that I posted recently I realized that it’s another version of the famous Pachelbel’s Canon. I can’t resist posting the incredibly funny video of Rob Paravonian I’ve seen on RateYourMusic. Enjoy it…



And don’t worry if your English is not that good. In youtube you can find the same video with subtitles in Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese.

Here is a video of Téléphone's "Cendrillon", one of the most popular French songs of the '80s.
Telephone were the French Rolling stones for about 10 years, hugely popular among teenagers (like I was in 83).

The lyrics are about Cindirella (Cendrillon in French) who gets ditched by Prince Charming, then hits the bottle, then becomes a prostitute and a junkie and dies of overdose...

Are the results on the way?

oh my... Téléphone!! remember buying a couple of their early records on vinyl from a second hand shop about ten years ago or so - because the covers looked really promising, well, say cool. then I forgot the bag at a friend's place I was visiting after. ironically, I never saw them again (neither that friend nor the records). so, how charming to notice how Téléphone actually sound...

Well they sound fresh, like an innocent imitation of the Stones or the Who (Who's Next era) on that one

Here is a review I made on Nebraska

want you near me..

Has anybody heard from Stephan in the past week? Hope everything is ok.

Stephan is on holiday in Egypt, and he reported that he won't be back until May 9th, at which time he'll probably summarize these results and post the 1983 thread.

oh, moonbeam already said it... never mind..

Yeah - everything's just swell

Oh, I must have missed that!

Good to hear everything is ok, better than ok, that sounds like an awesome trip.

Well, that wasn't me. But whoever posted that was mostly correct. I'm better than swell though, I'm great. Just had a nice sleep in my own bed for the first time in two weeks (you don't really know what you got till it's gone) and I'm gonna start compiling the master list now.

After returning from the land of sand, a few hours of a sleep and 2 more compiling (assisted and accompanies by the likes of Prince, Bruce and Michael Jackson) here's the final ranking. Unbelievably, the #1 album spot is shared by Bruce and Prince, both with 711 points. However, Bruce has 6 #1 spots and Prince only 5, so the #1 spot goes to the Boss. Springsteen, Prince, MJ, Roxy Music and The Clash all have both a song and an album in the top 10, and rest assured; Temptation easily made the cut.

Albums

1) Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
2) Michael Jackson - Thriller
3) Prince - 1999
4) Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Imperial Bedroom
5) Roxy Music - Avalon
6) The Cure - Pornography
7) The Clash - Combat Rock
Donald Fagen - The Nightfly
9) Richard & Linda Thompson - Shoot Out The Lights
10) Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast

Songs

1) Michael Jackson - Billie Jean
2) Prince - 1999
3) Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five - The Message
4) Prince - Little Red Corvette
5) New Order - Temptation
6) The Clash - Rock The Casbah
7) Robert Wyatt - Shipbuilding
Marvin Gaye - Sexual Healing
9) Bruce Springsteen - Atlantic City
10) Roxy Music - More Than This

The complete results can be viewed by clicking this:

Stephan, your jet lag is showing just a little - you meant to write that the #1 album spot is shared by Bruce and -Michael-, not Prince.

As always, thanks for doing this.

Right, obviously. Hardly any jetlag with 1 hour difference, but you're right.. lets blame the jetlag.

"The Nightfly" really made it? Yes!! (It wasn't even among my top 20, so lucky me..)

Yes, Mr. Fagen made a remarkable come back after only getting only 4 votes from the first 20-ish voters he received 10 votes from the last 13. He wasn't even close to the top 10 when I entered the ballots I received before leaving for Egypt.

Jesus, my music taste compared to others...totally idiosyncratic. ONE point in the top 10 songs...

Wow. I've actually heard every album in the top ten except Combat Rock, which I've heard the hit single from.

I'm not surprised Mission of Burma didn't make it, but I'm surprised it was so far behind.

Welcome back, Stephan! I'll greet your return by pointing out an insignificant mistake on your list, but in a friendly way.

Cell A50 of the spreadsheet has 45 additional points for Little Red Corvette. I don't know if you just saw that and used the extra points to break the tie, but regardless of those 45 points the placement of the song remains the same.

Only two people voted for Orange Juice? They need to get that album back in print so you guys can hear it! One day they will be discovered like Big Star.

Oh, I was looking at the song Wan Light. Still. At least I know that even if I put it at first it wouldn't have made the master list. Which is really too bad.

I'm glad to see Prince so well represented! He owned 1982 (and the 80s) in my opinion. Still, I wish 1999 could have stolen first place.

Ah, thank you Jonah. Updated the file.

Is Midnight Oil - 10, 9,....1 out of print too? I can't find it anywhere for reasonable price.

It took a while for me to get around to looking at the Excel spreadsheet, but I noticed an error in how my list was recorded. 25 points (so I guess a fifth place ranking) under my name went to Orange Juice's You Can't Hide Love Forever, but I didn't list that album at all. My fifth place pick was for Dexys Midnight Runners' Too-Rye-Ay, which I see under my name received no points at all. Not a big deal, since Too-Rye-Ay still wouldn't end up in the top 10 (and You Can't Hide... isn't in the top 10, either). Just thought I'd make a note for the record. Sorry I didn't catch it earlier.

Thanks, I've edited it. I have no explanation but the fact that I had seen 40 lists and entered numbers for over 600 albums/songs within a few hours at that point.

That's a perfectly good explanation, Stephan. If I'd had to collate that many lists I would have made many, many more errors than you did, that's for sure. I appreciate your doing it.

BillAdama - just move down under and you can get most Oils albums for under $10 - haha.