What's your favorite song from 1981?

[Coventina]

This was really, really hard for me. So many great songs from that year.

I'm finally going with this one:

[Glorfindel]

1. "Same Auld Lang Syne" by Dan Fogelberg.

I couldn't believe someone actually made a pop song out of the "1812 Overture"!

[kwassa]

2. Start Me Up

[kwassa]

3. From A Whisper To A Scream

[kwassa]

4. Super Freak

[kwassa]

5. Tempted

[Special Prosciuto]

6. Try this on from 1979

Nigel Olsson - Dancin Shoes

[Rhiannon12866]

7. Who could have missed this one?! Jessie's Girl - Rick Springfield

[hurl]

8. Great year in music

1981 was an amazing year for music I loved. I've heard it said that you sort of bond with music for your lifetime during your high-school years, and 1981 was my junior year. I have always been drawn a bit toward the obscure.

King Krimson - Discipline

Every incarnation of King Crimson has been amazing in some way. This one is probably my favorite.

Honorable mentions:

Laurie Anderson - O Superman

Although the album with this song didn't come out until 1982, the single came out in the UK in 1981 and got performance artist Laurie Anderson on the charts. It's rare, but sometimes quirkiness wins.

Brian Eno and David Byrne - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

Roxy Music's Brian Eno and Talking Heads' David Byrne teamed up to create a most unusual album. It featured the concept of sampling before digital technology made that process simple. The two took 'found sounds' and used analog tape loops to slice and dice them against catchy rhythms. In a digital age, this album would have been much easier to make, and much less remarkable. How well it has aged.

Psychedelic Furs - Pretty in Pink

Catchy and memorable, this captures the 80s 'new wave' sound perfectly.

[KatyMan]

9. Last reply

But all of the above and probably everything posted after this.

[FM123]

10. The Police : "Don't Stand So Close To Me"

[Dave Starsky]

11. The Mob Rules - Black Sabbath

This seems particularly pertinent today. Ronnie warned us.

[OriginalGeek]

12. now i have to change my pick

I mean, no sense in having 2 Mob Ruleses. No worries, PLENTY of good stuff from the year I graduated.

I'll go with this one

unless and until I remember something else lol...

[Dave Starsky]

13. LOTS of great stuff out that year.

Particularly for us metalheads.

But then you had everything that was going on with New Wave, etc. Just a lot of terrific material by a lot of verydifferent bands.

[OriginalGeek]

15. Yep

and I didn't even like all that other stuff then but I got over myself eventually and got hip to the many different types of music. I like or love almost every song mentioned in this thread now.

[red dog 1]

16. Hold On Tight - ELO

A truly great song!

K&R