Original Record of the Year: Tom Tom Club - Wordy Rappinghood
One of my all time favourite DJ mixes is Fabriclive 9 by Jacques Lu Cont and this influenced my pick for 1981. "Wordy Rappinghood" is on the mix and blends in well with the mostly house tunes in it.
Another Top 40 hits which appeared on the mix was "Sweet Dreams" by Eurythmics but that wasn't even a contender for the 1983 record of the year so the mix doesn't entirely sway my decision.
However if we forget the mix existed can I honestly say this was the best record of 1981?
New Record of the Year: Kool & The Gang - Summer Madness
No I can't, but there's a logical reason for that. When I was making my choice I'd never heard "Summer Madness". The way I came across it was when I was listening to double a-sides of the 80s as a way of brushing up on my music knowledge.
This was a double a-side with "Jones v Jones". Kool & The Gang are a funny one, I think of them as being from the 70s but most of their hits came in the 80s and they had a lot more hits than you'd think. They did form in the late 60s though and I've heard people say that they did some interesting funky music in the 70s but when they went mainstream they went a bit too pop.
I don't know their earlier material but their well known hits at least aren't bad but are music for the masses without any wow factor. With "Summer Madness" though it's an interesting funky number and is also an instrumental.
