Buddha's ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: THE GREATEST HITS 1980-1984 [2000]

This Last week marks marked Entertainment Weekly's 24th Anniversary - the first issue was dated February 16, 1990. Your boy HERC was a charter subscriber and except for a few years, has been a regular subscriber and is now enjoying the electronic version of the magazine on his iPad. From the beginning, music has played a central role, as it should, in their editorial definition of entertainment - that first issue featured k.d. lang and Neneh Cherry on the cover in a story about that year's upcoming Grammys:

A decade after the magazine's launch, they partnered up with Buddha to issue a series of CDs, each one commemorating a single year in twelve tracks: Entertainment Weekly - The Greatest Hits.  Today, HERC features the five discs that covered 1980-1984, which were made available as a brick box set (top of post) in 2001 after being issued as stand alone titles in 2000.  There are no surprise choices and no rarities are included yet the series stands out as yet another diverse musical representation of the first half of the decade.  Compare it to Madacy's similar series, featured HERE.

BONUS PLAYLISTS

Entertainment Weekly was no stranger to the music of the 80s.  From 1994-1999, they issued at least four double disc sets chock full of the stuff.  But these 24 songs collections weren't found in any stores, no sir.  They were free to new subscribers of the magazine.  What did charter subscribers like HERC get for being there from the beginning?  A pile of back issues stacked in the corner.  No CDs.  This was one of two reasons he cancelled his subscription near the turn of the century.

or listen to a nine hour playlist 

of every song from every playlist above