Best Song: The Korgis - Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime
There have been numerous dance versions of this over the years such as the Baby D version. Generally speaking I've liked all the dance versions I've heard. Then around 20 years ago I bought a compilation which had this on and I realised the original was pretty good too. It wasn't until I saw Erol Alkan play this at the end of a "Bugged In" set though that I realised just how good this record is.
Worst Song: Lipps Inc - Funky Town
One of the most irritating records ever. I just hate everything about it, the riff annoys me, the vocals annoy me and it probably inspired future music for the Sega Megadrive which I used to often play on mute because the music was so irritating.
Top 40 Review
Motown is back. With just a solitary disco hit for Marvin Gaye flying the flag for Motown in the late 70s charts I looked at, we have two Motown records here. Jermaine Jackson makes his debut with "Let's Get Serious" and Teena Marie makes her debut with "Behind the Groove" and they're both good records.
Disco isn't quite as dominant, but we still have more disco than any other genre in this Top 40. The only one of these records I like is technically post-disco and it's a double a-side by Change with "A Lover's Holiday/Glow Of Love". Both sides were contenders for best song.
Another contender was "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division. This was just weeks after the death of Ian Curtis and was their first time in the Top 40.
The ever reliable Electric Light Orchestra have two records in this chart, "Xanadu" and "I'm Alive" and no surprise to say they're both good. The also reliable Roxy Music are also in the charts with "Over You" which also gets the thumbs up.
We have the final Top 40 hit to date for The Sex Pistols with a cover of "(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone" but this was pretty average. Punk wise it was all about the double a-side "Simon Templar/Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps Please" by Splodgenessabounds.
The most obscure record that's worth checking out is "The Scratch" by Surface Noise. This is an instrumental jazz funk record.
1980 is similar to 1979 in a lot of ways, hardly surprising given it was only a year later. As a result we also get a similar score, just half a mark in it.
Score: 20
Table
1980 sits in 3rd place, a solid start for the decade:
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