"Me and some guys from school / Had a band and we tried real hard..."

[bronze_ribbons]

I wasn't really paying attention to the music meme that's been making the rounds, but then I saw cpolk's list and my fingers itched.

1. Find the top 100 songs from the year you graduated from high school.
2. Cut and paste them into your journal.
3. Bold the ones you like(d).
4. Underline your favorite.
5. Strike through the songs you loathe.
6. Italicize the songs you're pretty sure you've never heard

(I probably did hear half of the stuff in italics, but damned if I remember anything about them. And some of the stuff still in roman type I'm sure I hated, I just don't remember them enough... What I was really listening to that year? The Cars, Depeche Mode, The Smiths, the Smithereens, Marshall Crenshaw, Violent Femmes, the Replacements, Husker Du, and tons of Bach and Mozart...)

1. Walk Like An Egyptian, Bangles
2. Alone, Heart
3. Shake You Down, Gregory Abbott
4. I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me), Whitney Houston
5. Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now, Starship
6. C'est La Vie, Robbie Nevil
7. Here I Go Again, Whitesnake
8. The Way It Is, Bruce Hornsby and the Range
9. Shakedown, Bob Seger
10. Livin' On A Prayer, Bon Jovi
11. La Bamba, Los Lobos
12. Everybody Have Fun Tonight, Wang Chung
13. Don't Dream It's Over, Crowded House
14. Always, Atlantic Starr
15. With Or Without You, U2
16. Looking For A New Love, Jody Watley
17. Head To Toe, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam
18. I Think We're Alone Now, Tiffany
19. Mony Mony, Billy Idol
20. At This Moment, Billy Vera and The Beaters
21. Lady In Red, Chris De Burgh
22. Didn't We Almost Have It All, Whitney Houston
23. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, U2
24. I Want Your Sex, George Michael
25. Notorious, Duran Duran
26. Only In My Dreams, Debbie Gibson
27. (I've Had) The Time Of My Life, Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes
28. The Next Time I Fall, Peter Cetera and Amy Grant
29. Lean On Me, Club Nouveau
30. Open Your Heart, Madonna
31. Lost In Emotion, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam
32. (I Just) Died In Your Arms, Cutting Crew
33. Heart And Soul, T'pau
34. You Keep Me Hangin' On, Kim Wilde
35. Keep Your Hands To Yourself, Georgia Satellites
36. I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me), Aretha Franklin and George Michael
37. Control, Janet Jackson
38. Somewhere Out There, Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram
39. U Got The Look, Prince
40. Land Of Confusion, Genesis
41. Jacob's Ladder, Huey Lewis and The News
42. Who's That Girl, Madonna
43. You Got It All, Jets
44. Touch Me (I Want Your Body), Samantha Fox
45. I Just Can't Stop Loving You, Michael Jackson and Siedah Garrett
46. Causing A Commotion, Madonna
47. In Too Deep, Genesis
48. Let's Wait Awhile, Janet Jackson
49. Hip To Be Square, Huey Lewis and the News
50. Will You Still Love Me?, Chicago
51. Little Lies, Fleetwood Mac
52. Luka, Suzanne Vega
53. I Heard A Rumour, Bananarama
54. Don't Mean Nothing, Richard Marx
55. Songbird, Kenny G
56. Carrie, Europe
57. Don't Disturb This Groove, System
58. La Isla Bonita, Madonna
59. Bad, Michael Jackson
60. Sign 'O' The Times, Prince
61. Change Of Heart, Cyndi Lauper
62. Come Go With Me, Expose
63. Can't We Try, Dan Hill
64. To Be A Lover, Billy Idol
65. Mandolin Rain, Bruce Hornsby and the Range
66. Breakout, Swing Out Sister
67. Stand By Me, Ben E. King
68. Tonight, Tonight, Tonight, Genesis
69. Someday, Glass Tiger
70. When Smokey Sings, ABC
71. Casanova, Levert
72. Rhythm Is Gonna Get You, Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine
73. Rock Steady, Whispers
74. Wanted Dead Or Alive, Bon Jovi
75. Big Time, Peter Gabriel
76. The Finer Things, Steve Winwood
77. Let Me Be The One, Expose
78. Is This Love, Survivor
79. Diamonds, Herb Alpert
80. Point Of No Return, Expose
81. Big Love, Fleetwood Mac
82. Midnight Blue, Lou Gramm
83. Something So Strong, Crowded House
84. Heat Of The Night, Bryan Adams
85. Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You, Glenn Medeiros
86. Brilliant Disguise, Bruce Springsteen
87. Just To See Her, Smokey Robinson
88. Who Will You Run Too, Heart
89. Respect Yourself, Bruce Willis
90. Cross My Broken Heart, Jets
91. Victory, Kool and The Gang
92. Don't Get Me Wrong, Pretenders
93. Doing It All For My Baby, Huey Lewis and The News
94. Right On Track, Breakfast Club
95. Ballerina Girl, Lionel Richie
96. Meet Me Half Way, Kenny Loggins
97. I've Been In Love Before, Cutting Crew
98. (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right To Party, Beastie Boys
99. Funkytown, Pseudo Echo
100. Love You Down, Ready For The World

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

You've never heard "Bad" or "Funkytown"??? How on earth did you get so lucky?

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

Those both fall into "Maybe I did, but I don't remember thing one or three about how they go and I ain't gonna try."

[musigneus.livejournal.com]

Hah! Someone whose list contains songs I actually recognize!

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

It's triggering some odd not-quite-nostalgia moments on my part. I have this sudden itch to redye my hair purple, even though I didn't actually get around to that until I was 29.

[ky-expatriate.livejournal.com]

Didn't #38 come from that cartoon about the shetl mice who move to America? An American Tail, or something asinine like that? I think I owned the soundtrack. In fairness, I was also eight.

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

Yep. *shudder*

It's probably a fine movie, but ultraNutraSweet songs like that do *not* belong in heavy rotation.

[ky-expatriate.livejournal.com]

I just remember the one that went, "There are no cats in Amer-i-ca, and the streets are paved with cheese...." It's actually a very insightful movie about the immigrant experience, if you can look past the everyones-a-mouse thing.

[shaoliang.livejournal.com]

It's not like "Next Time I Fall" came from a movie classic. Heh.

(Oh, er, it's Jen, by the way. And I stole your meme. Fun stuff!)

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

What was, was, you know? There are better-written songs on the list, but I have pleasant memories of that year's Snowball Dance and senior prom. :-)

Besides, there's no getting around the fact that I'm the only person I know willing to admit liking that Tiffany cover.

[jlkiotw.livejournal.com]

Hey now, I still have the 45 for the Tiffany song ... it was my younger brother's, yeah, that's it ...

From the Depository of Useless Information: Song #29 was the last song played at the Senior Prom.

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

I don't think that detail ever lodged anywhere in my memory. I do remember there being way too much Kool & the Gang.

Do you remember a local (Lexington-ish) band called "Roll Over"? Every now and then the chorus of "Give Me Tonight" gets stuck in my head and makes me crazy that I lost my copy...

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, well, I can't talk, seeing as how I have Milli Vanilli on my list.

[shaoliang.livejournal.com]

Er, that was me. Sorry.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_lore/]

So...we graduated in the same year. And you're marking out songs I think I would have agreed with then and now...I'm almost fond of some of them. Damn fish-eyed lens of hindsight.

love, lore

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

Now that you mention it, it reminds me a bit of reunions -- one ends up in conversations with people who sat on the other side of the cafeteria all those years ago...

Plus, the whole limited-to-year-of-graduation thing feels inadequate anyhow. Both the reunions and the memes would revisit more of what/who had mattered to me had they included the years before and after (but, that said, that's also more time than I want to spend with the past. Greasy hair, abysmal social skills, and being good at chemistry not being the sole province of Slytherins. *rueful smile*)

the list

[agincourtgirl.livejournal.com]

I'd like to do this but how do I find the list (for 1985, just a couple years before)?

Re: the list

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

Googling "1985 top 100" will net you one (http://www.musicoutfitters.com/topsongs/1985.htm)...