This is not a traditional countdown; it is an unorthodox countdown. Each post will feature ten random songs from the bottom 190 positions of our 200 favorite songs from 1984. However, the Top 10 will be unveiled in a ranked order as the twentieth and final post of the 1984 Hideaway 200. Have fun playing along at home, Hideaway viewers!
103
For me, it's the bass line and that synth sound. The lyrics are too inane to be offensive even by in-your-face 1984 standards but this always felt like a Billy Squier song and we have always enjoyed Billy Squier's music. And a clunky Billy Squier guitar solo would have been more welcome than whatever the dissonant mess is in this track. Contrary to other fans, our favorite-sounding master of "Naughty Naughty" is on the compilation disc 18 Screamers from the 80's. Some of the other ones lose their punch about two-thirds of the way when it sounds like a wet blanket has been tossed on the speakers.
82
A quiet yet powerful anthem with synth noodles and acoustic guitar power strums aplenty. Not the rocker we've come to expect from the team of Benatar and Geraldo but it's one of several covers they've managed to put their own sonic stamp on, setting it apart. "We Belong" appears on no less than eight Benatar albums and an additional fifteen various artists compilation discs here in the HERChives but our favorite sounding version is on "the black triangle" Japanese pressing of her studio album Tropico.
77
In the grand scheme of his sprawling catalog, this track stands out for maybe all the wrong reasons yet we've loved it from the first listen. There is something relatable about a few lines in the lyric that we glommed onto in 1984 and which continues to resonate within us to this day. Maybe there shouldn't have been an extended remix - the album/single version hits just fine, thank you. "Dancing in The Dark" sounds best to our ear from the Made in Japan for the US pressing of Born In The U.S.A. on compact disc.
162
I went from a Top 40 listener to an AOR listener in the fall of 1981 when we moved to the Sonoran Desert and discovered KLPX, a brand-new rock station here. The station had introduced me to Bon Jovi via "Runaway" (which I'm sure will turn up on the 1984 Hideaway 200 at some point) so I splurged on the new band's self-titled debut album when I saw it super cheap somewhere ($4.99 @ the Base Exchange?). On the album, I discovered the power-pop lyrics (boy likes girl, girl doesn't even know he's alive) dressed up as metal-lite power ballad "She Don't Know Me". Despite Jon Bon Jovi's painful-to-hear high notes, the song has hung around on the ever-changing list of my favorite songs for forty years now so it probably isn't going anywhere. The version that sounds best to our ears can be found on two CDs: this pressing of Bon Jovi or the Netherlands-issued compilation Hits on CD Vol. 2. To our ears and on our speakers, the songs sound like the same master.
92
U2's album War had made a huge impact on me and I was still listening to it and the Under A Blood Red Sky EP a whole heck of a lot when KLPX dropped the new U2 single in September 1984. "Pride (In The Name Of Love)" proved to be elusive to find at record stores until The Unforgettable Fire showed up in their bins the following month upon its release. There are days when this song is my all-time favorite U2 song and then there are days like today when I underrated it all the way down at number 92 among my favorite songs from 1984. It is rare for me to prefer a single version of a song over the album version or even an extended remix but in the case of "Pride (In The Name Of Love)" we definitely prefer the almost extra minute that the untitled single version provides. Our favorite master of this isn't on a CD (though a slightly louder-sounding version did appear on the 25th Anniversary release of The Unforgettable Fire in 2009) but rather this mislabeled promo twelve-inch single.
65
Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher" was lyrically cut from the same cloth as John Parr's "Naughty Naughty" but it rocks a whole lot harder. From Alex Van Halen's opening drum solo salvo to his brother Eddie's impossibly nimble-fingered intro riff and David Lee Roth's spot-on take on a horny teenager, the song just rocks hard and fast. I had it bad for a teacher once. Well as bad as a pubescent seventh grader with a flakey scalp and a speech impediment can have it, I guess. Her name was Sandy. She wasn't flashy or overtly flirtatious but she had gorgeous brown eyes, a short Dorothy Hamil-style haircut, and a Southern drawl. She was not who this song was written about though sometimes memories of her pop randomly into my head when I hear this song. We were pleasantly surprised with the 2015 remastering of "Hot For Teacher" (especially after the horrible 2000 HDCD mastering) and we're looking forward to Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab's remastering of the 1984 album as part of their ongoing project of Roth-era releases. Right now for our money, the overall best-sounding place to hear "Hot For Teacher" is either from the US or Japan so-called "target" CDs.
191
We loved Jermaine Jackson's early Eighties hits "Let's Get Serious" and "Let Me Tickle Your Fancy" but we bought his Dynamite album because our girlfriend liked one of the songs and we liked our girlfriend. That song was "Do What You Do", a beautiful slow jam that should appear later on the 1984 Hideaway 200. Upon listening to the album, we discovered the title track, a funky uptempo track. Ended up buying the 12" single for "Dynamite" and, later in 1985, we re-purchased the album after one song, a duet with Pia Zadora, was added to it and it was re-titled to Jermaine Jackson. The album version of "Dynamite" runs six minutes and the remix adds almost another two minutes. They are tiring to listen to with such a high BPM going on for so long. Our favorite version of the song is the single edit found on 2014's compilation Playlist: The Very Best Of Jermaine Jackson.
141
The programmed percussion track on Laura Branigan's "Self Control" still fascinates all these years later and we love the bold, slashing guitar riffs, too. Like a few other songs from the Eighties, "Self Control" was featured in an episode of Miami Vice though it was performed by a band at a party and not by Branigan herself. (Wonder if it was a licensing issue?) To our ears, the best-sounding version of "Self Control" can be found on the 1991 Japanese release The Best Of Laura Branigan.
74
"Go Insane" features Lindsey Buckingham singing every voice and playing every instrument except bass, which was handled by Bryant Simpson. The song is one of more than a few on the 1984 Hideaway 200 that is built upon computerized rhythms and extensive use of synthesizers which I suppose dates their sound a bit. We're not complaining as while we liked the Go Insane album back in 1984, we've grown to appreciate it much more over the ensuing decades, particularly Buckingham's artistry. It's an album so dense that you have to listen to it repeatedly to unpack it with each listen unveiling something new for the listener. Our favorite-sounding master of "Go Insane" can be found on the 1995 compilation Sounds of the Eighties 1983-1985, part of Time Life Music's awkwardly named The Rolling Stone Collection Sounds of the Eighties collection.
136
We loved New Edition's Candy Girl album and had high hopes for their self-titled sophomore release which we picked up used, finding out when we got home that it was a pristine radio station promo copy complete with a press release tucked inside the sleeve. Cannot for the life of me remember when I first heard "Cool It Now" but want to say it was ahead of the album, which I picked up in October. Maybe on the radio at work? All my at-home radio listening was exclusively KLPX except on those rare weekends I'd wake up to Dad playing American Top 40. "Cool It Now" did not disappoint though I'm surprised to see it up at 136. We always thought the nearly six-minute album version took too long to get to the song so we prefer the 4:12 single version. To these old ears, the master of that single edit found on Sounds of the Eighties: The Mid-'80s sounds the best.
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Join us next time for another ten randomly selected songs as the 1984 Hideaway 200 rolls on. For those of you playing along at home, here's how your cards should look after today's post.
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