This isn't my list but there's some pretty good stuff on it. If you download stuff from the internet (and who doesn't?) this might help you pick up some good stuff. www.thisisuncool.com
Great list! Just reading 1981's list is transporting me back to Danceteria... 1981 164. Do Nothing - The Specials 165. Rapture - Blondie 166. Shack Up - A Certain Ratio 167. Reward - The Teardrop Explodes 168. That's Entertainment - The Jam 169. Once In A Lifetime - Talking Heads 170. Message Of Love - The Pretenders 171. You're No Good/UFO/Moody - ESG 172. It's A Love Thing - The Whispers 173. Plan B - Dexys Midnight Runners 174. Flowers of Romance- Pil 175. (We Don't Need That) Fascist Groove Thang - Heaven 17 176. The Sound Of The Crowd - The Human League 177. Treason - The Teardrop Explodes 178. About The Weather - Magazine 179. Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag - Pigbag 180. Der Mussolini - DAF 181. Candyskin - The Fire Engines 182. Ghost Town - The Specials 183. Pull Up To The Bumper - Grace Jones 184. Wordy Rappinghood - Tom Tom Club 185. The Model - Kraftwerk 186. Girls On Film - Duran Duran 187. A Promise - Echo And The Bunnymen 188. Tainted Love - Soft Cell 189. Love Action - The Human League 190. The Sweetest Girl - Scritti Politti 191. Release The Bats - The Birthday Party 192. Everything's Gone Green - New Order 193. Wheel Me Out/Where Did Your Heart Go? - Was (Not Was) 194. The Genius Of Love - Tom Tom Club 195. Shoot The Pump - J. Walter Negro 196. Superman! - Laurie Anderson 197. Don't You Want Me? - The Human League 198. White Car In Germany - The Associates 199. Things Fall Apart - Cristina 200. Adventures On The Wheels Of Steel - Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five
I know It's from a book which if you can be bothered to spend the money(and you're into that sort of thing) has a couple of paragraphs about each song together with the sleeve art. Better still pick it off the shelves at Borders grab a cappuccino and enjoy. Pure musical porn !
If you are looking for lists of 80s-95 music, follow this link. There is a radio station in NY (on Long Island, which some of us debate as being in NY, but for the sake of brevity). It is my favorite FM radio station of all time. They play a lot of alternative music, but not the linkin park alternative crap (well, mostly not that). There is very little pop on the station, which is probably why I like it. Still, they have an amazingly diverse format. One minute it's a new song from Bush or something, the next minute it's Haircut One Hundred. My sister and I grew up listening to it in the mid-late 80s and every week they pick one song as the number 1 most requested new song of the week, the shreek of the week. We'll they've been doing this since about 82 or so, and there are some classic songs on there; some pretty obscure like "Bring Me Edelweiss". I listen to the station in the morning and invariably I'll hear a song like "Johnny and Mary" (Robert Palmer) or "Fascination" (Human League) and it brings me back to being 13 or 14 when life was simple and the only "work" I had to do involved bra straps. Anyway: http://www.wlir.com/shreeks.asp
I kid you not, I remember calling in to vote for Edelweiss as the Screemer Of The Week (I don't think they called them Shreeks until a few years later...or maybe it's viceversa). WLIR (and it's alterego WDRE) is also my favorite station of all time. When I was not playing records, it was literally on fulltime, 24-7, in my dormroom all through college. I'd wake up to Mark The Shark, listen to Donna Donna middays, Malibu Sue evenings, and fall asleep to Bob Waugh. They had a toll-free request line, and if you stayed up late enough, the ticket giveaways were insanely easy to win. They turned NYC on to an incredible amount of good music before anyone else. Thanks for that link--I had no idea it existed.
It's my favorite station of all time as well, but they seem to have gone a little Eurodisco in the last few years. I don't listen as much as I used to, but I do tune in for the '80s flashback lunch thing that they do.
They were called "screamers" in the original 'LIR days and "shreiks" in the later (temporary) 'DRE days. By the way, I thank you for voting for "Edelweiss". I love that epic of (pseudo?) German rap. It's right up there with DeeDee Ramone's "German Kid (Half American/Half German)" song that was in rotation around the time. I hope you voted for Kon Kan's "I Beg Your Pardon" as well. I know I did. . Remember Morgan aka "Morgasm"?