Just wanted to thank you guys for putting all of this together for us. I know we sometimes give you grief over the choice of artists and/or songs, but this had to have been a huge effort!
Just curious... was Jesse's Girl (Rick Springfield) already included in a bracket?
You are welcome, my friend! I don't want people to pretend they agree with every choice we make, so it's good to have a discussion of what people wanted to see! I welcome it! And yeah, Jessie's Girl was back in S1, beat "Party All the Time," then lost BADLY to "The Glamorous Life" in round 2!
I did my voting before doing any actual work today, because one should have one's priorities straight! This region is a crazy mess and I love it... It has the coolest acts of the decade (George Michael as a solo artist! Blondie! INXS!) Some American icons that didn´t necessarily have a worldwide impact (Springsteen! Mellencamp!) Disco milestones (Kool & the Gang! Pet Shop Boys!), the necessary cheesiness (Chicago! Rogers!) and... Weird Al Yankovic? Seriously? No Depeche Mode - or even Paula Abdul- but Weird Al? The guy had zero global impact, but I kind of get it, since there are similar acts in different countries and they are kind of fun. Anyways, I voted for "Like a surgeon" only because I voted for "Like a virgin" in the Madonna region.
I'll take the hit on Weird Al. I pushed for him because he is still going strong and still relevant today. He just played Coachella. You cannot say that for a lot of these other acts.
Joe is taking the hit for this one, but I don't disagree on him being important to the decade...I just disagreed on the basis of top-40 hits, so he really JUST missed my list, somewhere in the high-60s overall for me.
You don't think Springsteen has a global impact? Have you ever looked up the size of the venues he plays overseas? He plays huge venues in Europe still to this day. He played a show in Berlin in 1988 that had an estimated crowd size of 500,000 (I did not accidentally add an extra 0 there).
Hey Deni, he surely is relevant and has a great fan base overseas, specially in Europe. But I don´t think he is a worlwide phenomenom like, let's say, Madonna or Phil Collins, or Coldplay or Oasis.
Hey Deni, he surely is relevant and has a great fan base overseas, specially in Europe. But I don´t think he is a worlwide phenomenom like, let's say, Madonna or Phil Collins, or Coldplay or Oasis.
Well, it was just a guideline...and I did mention that we broke the rule thrice... once for Under Pressure (lost), once for Islands in the Stream, and once for Don't Fall in Love with a Dreamer (both for Kenny, so only one could make it through...) Kenny also dueted with Sheena Easton (We've Got Tonight)...so he's kind of the 80s duets king!
For most of these I was pretty quick to pick my song, but man, Mellencamp was really hard. (But I am also extremely disappointed to see no song from Scarecrow, which I see as his seminal work) I see him as a transformational artist, I can't imagine you naming anyone but him as the #2 seed after the Boss.
I finally went with Jack and Diane, it's hard to go against one of the best examples of storytelling as song. But man, so many more songs could have gone here, Authority Song, Lonely Ol' Night, Rumble Seat, R.O.C.K in the U.S.A, Paper in Fire, etc.
I didn't vote for any of the Rick Springfield songs because I honestly have no memory of them.
By the way, you know Bruce Springsteen put out more than one album in the 80s, right? Because, um...
I am surprised to learn (I looked them up to compare) that The Boss never had a Billboard #1. Hell, Born To Run didn't make the top 20. How is that possible?
Pretty much all of Mellencamp's top 40 songs came is the 80s and Bruce's were more spread out, so Johnny Cougar (oh he hated that name) had quite a few more top 40 hits in the 80s than Springsteen.
The argument definitely could have been made to call this the Mellencamp bracket.
I can see the argument for sure. Also weird is that I have Brilliant Disguise in the playlist but I'm on Fire ended up in the ballot... I guess a typo or rather a copy/paste error. Had many others on my list, of course, but yeah...the only #1 for Springsteen is for a song he WROTE, "Blinded by the Light"
Peter Cetera era Chicago?!? Ow my ears and brain! My beleaguered kidneys won't know what to do with all the saccharine! OOOWWWW
I should have put a Petc. warning on this post! Stay hydrated!
But then, Joe is the inspiration
Stay the night man.
Just wanted to thank you guys for putting all of this together for us. I know we sometimes give you grief over the choice of artists and/or songs, but this had to have been a huge effort!
Just curious... was Jesse's Girl (Rick Springfield) already included in a bracket?
You are welcome, my friend! I don't want people to pretend they agree with every choice we make, so it's good to have a discussion of what people wanted to see! I welcome it! And yeah, Jessie's Girl was back in S1, beat "Party All the Time," then lost BADLY to "The Glamorous Life" in round 2!
It was on Side A. It was much discussed. It went up against Eddie Murphy's Party All the Time in the first round.
Really like this format. I'm not complaining, but there are many possible fun discussions about which songs made the list of four for each artist.
I've stayed silent so far, but I have to ask how Pour Some Sugar On Me did not make Def Leppard's list?
They left off any songs that were part of the main 80s-est brackets and the hair metal mini bracket.
Aaah! I probably should have known that
I did my voting before doing any actual work today, because one should have one's priorities straight! This region is a crazy mess and I love it... It has the coolest acts of the decade (George Michael as a solo artist! Blondie! INXS!) Some American icons that didn´t necessarily have a worldwide impact (Springsteen! Mellencamp!) Disco milestones (Kool & the Gang! Pet Shop Boys!), the necessary cheesiness (Chicago! Rogers!) and... Weird Al Yankovic? Seriously? No Depeche Mode - or even Paula Abdul- but Weird Al? The guy had zero global impact, but I kind of get it, since there are similar acts in different countries and they are kind of fun. Anyways, I voted for "Like a surgeon" only because I voted for "Like a virgin" in the Madonna region.
I'll take the hit on Weird Al. I pushed for him because he is still going strong and still relevant today. He just played Coachella. You cannot say that for a lot of these other acts.
Coachella! He's still going strong, then! I agree, no many acts are still that relevant
Joe is taking the hit for this one, but I don't disagree on him being important to the decade...I just disagreed on the basis of top-40 hits, so he really JUST missed my list, somewhere in the high-60s overall for me.
You don't think Springsteen has a global impact? Have you ever looked up the size of the venues he plays overseas? He plays huge venues in Europe still to this day. He played a show in Berlin in 1988 that had an estimated crowd size of 500,000 (I did not accidentally add an extra 0 there).
Hey Deni, he surely is relevant and has a great fan base overseas, specially in Europe. But I don´t think he is a worlwide phenomenom like, let's say, Madonna or Phil Collins, or Coldplay or Oasis.
Hey Deni, he surely is relevant and has a great fan base overseas, specially in Europe. But I don´t think he is a worlwide phenomenom like, let's say, Madonna or Phil Collins, or Coldplay or Oasis.
Completely disagree.
You guys broke your own rule...Islands in the Stream is a duet with Dolly Parton.
We did. It's true.
But this song was pretty undeniable. Thousands of karaoke couples would've been heartbroken if we'd left it off.
Well, it was just a guideline...and I did mention that we broke the rule thrice... once for Under Pressure (lost), once for Islands in the Stream, and once for Don't Fall in Love with a Dreamer (both for Kenny, so only one could make it through...) Kenny also dueted with Sheena Easton (We've Got Tonight)...so he's kind of the 80s duets king!
For most of these I was pretty quick to pick my song, but man, Mellencamp was really hard. (But I am also extremely disappointed to see no song from Scarecrow, which I see as his seminal work) I see him as a transformational artist, I can't imagine you naming anyone but him as the #2 seed after the Boss.
I finally went with Jack and Diane, it's hard to go against one of the best examples of storytelling as song. But man, so many more songs could have gone here, Authority Song, Lonely Ol' Night, Rumble Seat, R.O.C.K in the U.S.A, Paper in Fire, etc.
I didn't vote for any of the Rick Springfield songs because I honestly have no memory of them.
By the way, you know Bruce Springsteen put out more than one album in the 80s, right? Because, um...
Mellencamp had as many top 40 hits as Springsteen, so he almost got his own region(in my rankings, anyway!) I LOVE Scarecrow!
I am surprised to learn (I looked them up to compare) that The Boss never had a Billboard #1. Hell, Born To Run didn't make the top 20. How is that possible?
Pretty much all of Mellencamp's top 40 songs came is the 80s and Bruce's were more spread out, so Johnny Cougar (oh he hated that name) had quite a few more top 40 hits in the 80s than Springsteen.
The argument definitely could have been made to call this the Mellencamp bracket.
I can see the argument for sure. Also weird is that I have Brilliant Disguise in the playlist but I'm on Fire ended up in the ballot... I guess a typo or rather a copy/paste error. Had many others on my list, of course, but yeah...the only #1 for Springsteen is for a song he WROTE, "Blinded by the Light"
It's the math, man. This album was fucking huge and we went with the biggest hits.
Did Springfield do Jesse's Girl? If so, how is that not one of the choices? I honestly didn't know any of those songs.
Jessie's Girl (asked and answered elsewhere) appeared in Side A!
Math should never involve itself in art.