Forty Year Friday (1983) – THE SINGLES (PART 2) / IN CONCLUSION

It’s Forty Year Friday again. For more information on this series, please read the opening paragraph of the first post, which featured Never Surrender by Triumph.

After spending 11-1/2 months in 2013 discussing my favorite albums of 1983 each week on Facebook, on Dec. 19, 1983 I wrote a series of brief posts covering the singles I loved that year. After sharing the first seven records last week, here are the final six.

Thirty-Year Thursday Single #8: “SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER” by THE MOTELS, from their 1983 album Little Robbers. I wasn’t much of a Motels fan at the time but I kinda liked this song. I probably came around to their music after vocalist Martha Davis sang with The Tubes on their cover of “The Monkey Time” (on one of the albums I featured earlier this year). There’s something really interesting & unique about her voice, and eventually I became enough of a fan to get most of their albums. This song is hard to describe. It’s not a ballad but it’s also not a rocker. It’s upbeat & mellow at the same time. In fact, it’s a little hypnotic, which is more than I can say for the video. 

Thirty-Year Thursday Single #9: “TALKING IN YOUR SLEEP” by THE ROMANTICS, from their album In Heat (which I don’t own…I only have a best-of CD). This is still an amazing power-pop song, with the emphasis on “power,” and I love those echo-y vocals. What a great groove and perfectly over-the-top ’80s production. The Romantics will always be special to me, as they were the first band I ever saw in concert (they opened up for Cheap Trick at Madison Square Garden). At the time their debut album had just been released, featuring the now-classic “What I Like About You,” but I think “Talking In Your Sleep” is the pinnacle of their career…at least based on what I’ve heard by them. As for the video, they look like zombie hairdressers. I’m sure that was intentional, right? 

Thirty-Year Thursday Single #10: “MEMPHIS” by JOE JACKSON. One of my all-time musical heroes didn’t have a new studio album in ’83, but he did release the soundtrack to Mike’s Murder (which I still proudly own on vinyl) that included this gem, which sounds like a cross between Booker T. & The MG’s and the Peter Gunn theme. It often gets overlooked in his catalog full of amazing songs, even by me, but I immediately get in a better mood anytime I hear it…like right now as I type this. Hard to believe this is 30 years old already.

Thirty-Year Thursday Single #11: “ALLERGIES” by PAUL SIMON, from his album Hearts & Bones (a very underrated record…see my blog series on his catalog for more info). I didn’t know the album back in ’83 but I loved this song. I think it was jazz great Al DiMeola’s brilliant guitar work that won me over, but it’s a cool song even without his contributions. It holds up for me all these years later. 

Thirty-Year Thursday Single #12: “HERE COMES THE RAIN AGAIN” by EURYTHMICS, from their second album of 1983, Touch. Although I didn’t really like or dislike them when they broke through with “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This),” I couldn’t resist this stunning blend of synths & orchestration along with the amazing voice of Annie Lennox (who gets bonus points just for being Scottish). The video is simply stunning, which is unsurprising considering they were one of the most visually distinct groups of that era. I’m so glad this song (and video) has held up so well after 30 years. 

Thirty-Year Thursday Single #13: “EYES WITHOUT A FACE” by BILLY IDOL. I’ve never been much of a Billy Idol fan but I do like several of his songs. He’s a rare artist in that I don’t own any of his albums or even a best-of, although I do have a compilation of his earlier band Generation X, which is excellent. The only recording of his that I own is this single, and it’s a great one. I still remember the first time I heard it on the radio. The DJ liked it so much he played it twice in succession. This is the kind of song that could have only been made, and become a hit, in the ’80s. Love the cool drum programming blended with Steve Stevens’ biting guitar work. The video is cheesy but still pretty great. Also, it’s one of the best uses of French in a pop song. Even if the rest of his recorded output was awful (which it isn’t), he gets a lifetime pass just for this record and his appearance in The Wedding Singer. I’m happy to wrap up my Thirty-Year Thursday series on the music of 1983 with this song. [Update: I subsequently bought a copy of his 2001 Greatest Hits CD and realized how many of his songs I love, so I’m a bigger Billy Idol fan than I previously thought]

This series was a fun way to spend 2023, since 1983 remains one of my all-time favorite years of music. I’ll leave you with a list of all the albums I wrote about. How many of these releases do you like? Please let me know if you have any favorites from that year which weren’t included here.

Triumph – Never Surrender
Eric Clapton – Money And Cigarettes
U2 – War
Spandau Ballet – True
The Tubes – Outside Inside
Pink Floyd – The Final Cut
Zebra – Zebra
R.E.M. – Murmur
Men At Work – Cargo
Pete Townshend – Scoop
David Bowie – Let’s Dance
The Fixx – Reach The Beach
ZZ Top – Eliminator
Marshall Crenshaw – Field Day
Talking Heads – Speaking In Tongues
The Alarm – The Alarm (EP)
The Police – Synchronicity
The Kinks – State Of Confusion
Stevie Ray Vaughan And Double Trouble – Texas Flood
Elton John – Too Low For Zero
Robert Plant – The Principle Of Moments
Asia – Alpha
Billy Joel – An Innocent Man
The Moody Blues – The Present
Huey Lewis And The News – Sports
Genesis – Genesis (The ‘Mama’ Album)
Hall & Oates – Rock ‘N Soul Part 1 (Greatest Hits)
Bob Dylan – Infidels
Rolling Stones – Undercover
Culture Club – Colour By Numbers
Yes – 90125
U2 – Live – Under A Blood Red Sky (EP)
Marillion – Script For A Jester’s Tear
Richard Thompson – Hand Of Kindness
John Cougar Mellencamp – Uh-Huh
Tom Waits – Swordfishtrombones
Def Leppard – Pyromania
Iron Maiden – Piece Of Mind
Dio – Holy Diver
Madness – Madness
Jackson Browne – Lawyers In Love
Graham Parker – The Real Macaw
Elvis Costello And The Attractions – Punch The Clock
Big Country – The Crossing

Enjoy the holiday season and happy New Year. I’ll be back sometime in 2024.