Hello and welcome to part nineteen, the penultimate part of the 1984 Hideaway 200. Tomorrow, we tie it all up in a neat little bow and finish the dang thang off by counting down our Top 10 favorite songs from 1984.
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Back at number 182 (in part 5), we had Midnight Star's "No Parking On The Dance Floor" and stated that the song had some commonaltities with another "dance floor" song on the countdown. "Freakshow On The Dance Floor" is that other song. Several sounds and parts of the production of the Midnight Star track are incorporated in the Bar-Kays song. Apparently, that was kind of the group's M.O. as imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? Our favorite-sounding version of "Freakshow On The Dance Floor" by the Bar-Kays is on the 2019 U.K. compact disc pressing of the two-disc compilation Breakdance And Breakdance 2 (Electric Boogaloo). Yes, they are the soundtracks to the two Breakin' movies. The films were titled Breakdance in the U.K.
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Big Bam Boom was a big damn dissappointment for us, at least for the first few listens before we shelved it. The album's singles were a little off so we sought sanctuary and satisfaction in the land of the remix but did not find it. After a decade or three, we started coming around to some of the album's tracks, chief among them "Out Of Touch". More than anything, it's Hall's soulful pleading vocals that gets us each time. Is it weird that we prefer to hear "Out Of Touch" with the "Dance On Your Knees" intro? The best-sounding combo of "Dance On Your Knees" smoothly seguing into "Out Of Touch" in the HERChives is on the 1984 Japanese compact disc pressing of Big Bam Boom.
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After the climatic performance of "Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young" and the film's closing scenes, the credits roll on Streets of Fire. The song playing while the credits scroll down the screen is "Deeper and Deeper" by The Fixx. The longer version of the track is the original recording; the soundtrack version and single edit were both cut from its cloth. Originally recorded during the sessions for the group's third album Phantoms, "Deeper and Deeper" didn't make the cut yet ended up on the soundtrack and a special edition of the group's second album, Reach The Beach. And it is the b-side of a couple of singles released from Phantoms. Our favorite-sounding version of the 6:30 longer version of The Fixx's "Deeper And Deeper" is on the 2003 U.S. pressing of the 20th Anniverary Edition compact disc of Reach The Beach.
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Though it feels like the song's title is repeated more than 100 times during the song's choruses, we only counted 25 instances of body in "Body". The only other person we knew that showed Marlon Jackson's contribution to Victory any love was a perky aerobics instructor who had us record two hour-long mix CD's for her to use in class. "Body" was the requested last track on the first disc and it was the instrumental found on the B-side of the "Body" 45. The best-sounding version of "Body" by the Jacksons in our collection is on the 1984 Japanese compact disc pressing for the U.S. of Victory.
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As a music fan, there are four things I can do all day:
- Listen to great-sounding music on a high-quality system
- Make a list of albums or songs much like the 1984 Hideaway 200
- Read about music
- Make a playlist of music, either alone or in collaboration
While discussing "Sister Christian" with a fellow music fan a while back, the conversation turned to that scene in Boogie Nights at Rahad's house while he plays My Awesome Mix Tape #6 and Cosmo lights firecrackers. We hear "Sister Christian" and then the camera shows the tape deck go into Auto Reverse mode and start playing the second side, beginning with "Jessie's Girl" and followed by "99 Luftballoons". We began to speculate what other songs might have been on My Awesome Mix Tape #6 as well as the preceding tapes in the My Awesome Mix Tape series. Nothing else in the world deserving our attention. Our favorite-sounding version of Night Ranger's "Sister Christian" is on the 1989 U.S. compact disc pressing of the band's Greatest Hits.
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For all of our good intentions, we don't know how "Leave A Tender Moment Alone" landed in our pool of 1984 songs. When we acquired Billy Joel's An Innocent Man just before our senior year started, we listened to it over and over. Every song. Our girlfriend at the time was obsessed with the album. Took our equally obsessed new girlfriend to the local Innocent Man concert stop on our 18th birthday. Every song like the album is from the year 1983. "Leave A Tender Moment Alone" is sweet and underrated in our book. The best-sounding version of Billy Joel's "Leave A Tender Moment Alone" we know of is on the 2013 U.S. Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MFSL) Super Audio Compact Disc (SACD) of An Innocent Man.
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In addition to three Pointer voices and a bit of live persussion from Paulinho da Costa, the rest of this synth-dance song is synths and drum machines, played and programmed by humans. It sounds great. One of our favroite album credits we've ever seen is on the Break Out album: one of the electronic drums programmers on several tracks is listed as Reek Havoc. We've always been partial to the 4:26 album version of "Jump (For My Love)". It has more sparkle, more joy in its mix, at least to our ears. Our favorite-sounding version of the full-length album version of "Jump (For My Love)" by the Pointer Sisters is on the 1984 Japanese compact disc pressing for the U.S. of Break Out.
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It was all about the drum machine and the crunchy guitar chords on "Run Runaway" for this listener. Just as the song revs up and gets rockin' at top speed, it switches gears for a little jig before rockin' back up. There is a single edit which does away with most of the drum machine intro and a 12" version which seems to layer several tapes of the drum machine intro atop one another to extend it. To our ears, the best-sounding version of Slade's "Run Runaway" is the full-length album version on the 1998 U.S. double-disc compilation of Power Rock.
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There is no denying that Joe Jackson's "You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)" is a great song. Whether in the song's original version on the album Body and Soul or its abbreviated single-edit or Jellybean Benitez's Specially Remixed Version, the song's virtues - melodic piano, slap bass and Jackson's snazzy-sounding vocals - are on display. We prefer the Specially Remixed Version which clocks in more than a minute and a half longer than the album version though it doesn't really feel that long. The sound and the energy level is punched up. Our favorite-sounding version of the Specially Remixed Version of Joe Jackson's "You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)" is from DJPaulT's 2022 vinyl transfer & audio restoration of the 12" promo 1984 U.S. vinyl pressing of "You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)".
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"Madam Butterfly" is unlike anything else we have ever heard. The opera-loving clerks at Loco were spinning the album Fans one evening when we walked in and we were enchanted and entranced. It was strange, exotic and mesmerizing. Found out that Malcolm McLaren was listed as the artist and realized this was his follow-up to Duck Rock, another out-of-the-box fusion of genres. Got distracted and forgot about Fans for a couple of months before picking it up. It's always good to class up the joint. The best-sounding version of Malcolm McLaren's "Madam Butterfly" in the HERChives is on the 1984 West German compact disc pressing for the U.K. of Fans.
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