Yesterday I complained about the reluctance to list pop hits on the 1979 poll; voters redressed the dearth the following year, and then some. Now we can get, to quote Jermaine Jackson, serious. “Miss You” might’ve made a 1978 singles chart; the squawking “Emotional Rescue” — a textbook example of awful single from an excellent album — did in 1980. “Upside Down”! “Funkytown”! Even college favorite “Turning Japanese” qualifies. The single Stevie Wonder produced and wrote for Jermaine outfunks his own. Thanks to “Kiss Kiss Kiss,” I moved “Just Like Starting Over” into Good, Great when John Lennon’s comeback rates at best a Sound, Sold on his own (Dave Edmunds was doing this sort of thing with more élan).
I’m not as crazy about these singles as I am about the albums.
The Hague
Rolling Stones – Emotional Rescue
Meh
Lipps Inc. – Funkytown
The Vapors – Turning Japanese
Sound, Solid
Bruce Springsteen – Hungry Heart
Donna Summer – The Wanderer
Bush Tetras – Too Many Creeps/Snakes Crawl
Jim Carroll Band – People Who Died
John Lennon/Yoko Ono – Just Like Starting Over/Kiss Kiss Kiss
Good to Great
Diana Ross – Upside Down
Blondie – Call Me
Kurtis Blow – The Breaks
Devo – Whip It
Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart
Jermaine Jackson – Let’s Get Serious
Pretenders – Talk Of the Town/Cuban Slide
Martha & the Muffins – Echo Beach
Split Enz – I Got You
The Clash – Train in Vain/London Calling
Pretenders – Brass in Pocket
The Jam – Going Underground
Stevie Wonder – Master Blaster
Paul Simon – Late in the Evening
Joy Division – Atmosphere/She’s Lost Control
Pylon – Cool
The Pointer Sisters – He’s So Shy
Dead Kennedys – Holiday in Cambodia
Humanizing The Vacuum 