1984 Hideaway 200 (Part XIV of XX)

Hi! You're about to read the fourteenth part of the 1984 Hideaway 200. If you've missed any of the previous parts click HERE.

40

As an album closer, "Careless Whisper" is a great track. It lowers the lights and closes the door. But the truth is it would be a great track no matter where it was positioned in the track sequence. It is a love song with a twist: the confession of a man burdened with guilt and remorse. He cheated, ruined everything, and desires a mulligan when one isn't coming. The 6:29 album version was the first one we heard and we've stuck with it. Hearing the single edit just makes us long for the 1:29 intro that was unceremoniously lopped off. The best-sounding version of George Michael's "Carless Whisper" is on the 1984 Japan compact disc pressing for Europe of Make It Big.

64

After falling hard for 1983's Let's Dance, anticipation was high for a follow-up release. The expectations were tempered by Bowie's tendency to shed characters and the music they created between albums. We were disappointed when "Blue Jean" was released ahead of Tonight and though we dutifully picked up the album, none of the tracks appealed to us. Our feelings as best we remember them were Bowie was merely imitating the sound of Let's Dance but lacked three of the previous album's key ingredients: great songs, the guitar playing of Stevie Ray Vaughan, and the production skills of Nile Rodgers. It's taken decades but we've been coming around to appreciating "Blue Jean" and Tonight a little bit more with each listen. Our favorite-sounding version of David Bowie's "Blue Jean" is on the 1984 Japan pressing for the U.S. compact disc of Tonight.

42

It's a cliche I know and I've used it already a couple of times here on the 1984 Hideaway 200 but you never forget your first time. Every time I hear "How Soon Is Now", I'm whisked back to the first time I heard that distinctive riff, all droning tremolo & reverb, hypnotic & pulsating. It was like Bo Diddley sitting in with Pink Floyd. It should come as no surprise that the best-sounding version of The Smiths' "How Soon Is Now?" we have heard is DJPaulT's 2018 vinyl restoration of the 1984 U.S. specially-priced three-cut maxi-single of "How Soon Is Now?".

56

We stand alone in our love and affection for the longer than ten minutes album-length cut of ". . (and that's no lie)", the cosmic closing track to Heaven 17's How Men Are. An obvious showcase for some of their new studio toys, it sounds like a few songs stitched together in a synth-pop suite. Bought the import twelve-inch single (apparently the fourth in a series of five!) with the 6:10 ". . (And That's No Lie) (Re-mixed To Enhance Its Danceability)" yet still preferred the LP version for listening and mixtapes. As wonderful as the track sounded in 1984, it hasn't aged well, but our brain's nostalgia filter makes it all better. Our favorite-sounding version of the full-length album track ". . (and that's no lie)" is on the 1984 West German compact disc pressing for the U.K. of How Men Are.

111

It was local rock station KLPX that introduced us to Stevie Ray Vaughan's first two albums by playing multiple cuts from each and also playing each album in its entirety shortly after their respective release on the station's Sunday Six-Pack feature where they played six albums in a row. Among the cuts getting airplay from 1984's Couldn't Stand The Weather, was the shuffling "Cold Shot". Forty years later, the song is still among the most-played Stevie Ray Vaughan tracks on KLPX this year according to Mediabase. The best-sounding version of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble's "Cold Shot" here in the HERChives is the cd-layer of the 2011 U.S. Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs Super Audio Disc (SACD) of Couldn't Stand The Weather.

147

At the time of release, "Ghostbusters" was one of our favorite songs. Nowadays, we enjoy the movie much more than its pumping theme song. The wheels of Ray Parker Jr.'s hit machine seemed to fall off following the soundtrack's big splash and we lost interest in his post-1984 recorded output. But for a month or so in the summer of 1984, "Ghostbusters" was everything, and looking at the HERChives it also appears to be everywhere as we have it on three dozen different albums, easily making it one of the most licensed tracks in our collection. Out of so many possibilities, our favorite-sounding version of Ray Parker Jr.'s "Ghostbusters" is on the 1993 U.S. double-disc compilation Totally '80s from Razor & Tie.

171

Huey Lewis and the News was red-hot throughout the Eighties and into the Nineties. We attended their concert in February 1985, a week after Huey recorded his "We Are The World" verse in place of Prince who had declined to attend the recording session. We associate "If This Is It" with Billy Joel's "The Longest Time", Timothy B. Schmit's cover of "So In Love" and Greg Phillinganes's "Countdown To Love" as modern pop/rock doo-wop. We think the best-sounding version of the Huey Lewis and the News song "If This Is It" is on the 1988 U.S. Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab gold compact disc of Sports.

20

We have no memory of how "Heaven (Must Be There)" came into our lives. Our initial thought was that they were an opener at one of the concerts we had attended but could find no record of them playing in our area. We may have heard them playing in a record store and picked up the album based on the one track which was kind of our M.O. No matter how it came into our life, we have enjoyed "Heaven" for over forty years and we were able to get it in regular rotation for the two stations we used to program. The song has a lightness, an airiness to it and it sounds like nothing else. We've always considered this a spring or summer song. Our favorite-sounding version of the Eurogliders song "Heaven" is on the 1992 Australian compact disc pressing of their Greatest Hits - Maybe Only I Dream compilation.

164

She likes "No Way Out" more than I do. To my ears, it's the sound of a band transitioning away from their rock sound. There are enough rock-ish parts in "No Way Out" to keep my interest and Mickey Thomas sings the heck out of it. I waited until the album was on sale at RCA before I ordered it and soon after she was enjoying "No Way Out" on a mixtape. The best-sounding version of Jefferson Starship's "No Way Out" is on the 1991 U.S. compilation CD Greatest Hits (Ten Years And Change 1979-1991).

47

Kool and the Gang's Emergency was one of a couple dozen albums that were released in late 1984 when I wasn't doing too well financially so I didn't buy it until my account was back in the black the following year. Picked up the album primarily for two tracks: "Fresh" and "Misled". A third song "Cherish" was a favorite with the ladies so having it presented more mixtape opportunities. The guitar-laced synth-funk of "Misled" is always welcome when it comes on so we were a little disappointed they couldn't squeeze a few bars of the song into their 2024 Rock Hall of Fame performance. Our favorite version of Kool and the Gang's "Misled" is from the 2016 U.K. expanded double-disc deluxe edition of Emergency.

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The 1984 Hideaway 200 is 70% complete. There are sixty songs left to feature including the entire Top 10 in the twentieth and final post. Those of you playing along at home should have your cards filling up nicely. Verify them with the ones below and we'll see you next time.