Billboard Top Ten May 24, 1980

It's been too long since I've done a top ten. I was just talking to a friend last week about my Reagan Dawn theory and we both agreed 1980 was a strange time in American popular culture. The 70s were dying but not dead, the dominant cultural forms of the 80s were still gestating. It's something that this top ten, coming amidst a time of economic turmoil, bears out. Now, on with the countdown.

10. Gary Numan, "Cars"

This here is the harbinger of what is to come. "Cars" still sounds great today, its New Wave synthy weirdness must have been pretty mind-blowing forty years ago. Early synth-pop still didn't sound so slick and automated. Numan used a live drummer instead of a drum machine, and fed his keyboards through guitar effects pedals. I miss that grody bleep-blorp sound.

9. Christopher Cross, "Ride Like The Wind" 

Cross is often cited as one of the main casualties of the MTV New Wave invasion. As the story goes, a plain looking chubby guy could still be a hit maker in the days before image ruled pop music. Once videos were essential, that wouldn't fly anymore. I am not sure if I buy that, but I do know that his brand of smooth music was very much in vogue in the Reagan Dawn. Not for nothing, the backing vocals were courtesy of Michael McDonald, as parodied in this amazing SCTV sketch.

8. Linda Ronstadt, "Hurt So Bad" 

Linda Ronstadt understood that the mellow, mid-tempo California cocaine rock that ruled the second half of seventies was not built for the go-go eighties. This song has a tougher edge with a bigger beat, a sound that Quarterflash would soon perfect with the immortal "Harden My Heart."

7. The Brothers Johnson, "Stomp!"

It makes me so sad to know that this supremely funky style of music was about to go by the wayside in the 80s. Latin rhythms and funky string sections were going to go the way of polyester flared trousers.

6. Ambrosia, "Biggest Part of Me"

This top ten shows that soft rock ruled the charts in 1980. And why not? The economy was crashing, gas was scarce, inflation was shooting up, and Americans were held hostage in Iran. Might as well unplug and sit back and listen to some smooth music by a band with the same name as a dessert.

5. Dr. Hook, "Sexy Eyes"

I honestly had no clue that Dr Hook managed to score a hit in the 80s. This knowledge has shaken me. Like KISS with "I Was Made For Loving You" they were a rock band using disco to cash in and unwittingly making far better music than they did when they were playing it straight. This song is living proof that the seventies were not yet over in 1980.

4. Kenny Rogers with Kim Carnes, "Don't Fall In Love With a Dreamer"

Kim Carnes would conquer the charts the next year with "Bette Davis Eyes," the song I see as truly starting the 80s radio sound. At this stage she was known for collaborating with the late and dearly departed Kenny Rogers. Her cigarette-scarred voice was the perfect counterpoint to Rogers' baritone honey.

3. Air Supply, "Lost in Love"

Was there ever a more appropriate name for a soft rock group than Air Supply? This is also the beginning of the 1980 pop culture invasion from the Antipodes.

2. Lipps, Inc, "Funktown"

If Numan was the prophet of the future, this is the sound of a rapidly disappearing past. Disco was NOT dead yet. This disco sound is more electronic and metronomic though. It would get made over as a synch song in 1987, by which time the pop culture world of 1980 was already unintelligible.

1. Blondie, "Call Me"

I recently finally saw American Gigolo, the film this song from. It plays over the opening credits of Richard Gere driving in Southern California and in that context the song sounded even better. It's the tale of a sex worker, a "call girl," yet I first heard it on the Chipmunks' Chipmunk Punk album. (I was just a little too young for pop music in 1980.) It has the thumping disco backbeat and a tempo made for cutting the rug, but also the herky-jerky New Wave nerves. No wonder this song was such a big hit in 1980. In a time of transition, it combined the pop music forms that were cresting along with those about to take over. It still sounds great today.