Let’s Start the Countdown of My 300 Favorite New Wave Songs

Hi there folks! I’m back…and it’s going to be with a fiber optics cable-based blast of 25Mb/s. Modest, I know! But, you can’t stress the homeostasis of this hilljack’s system too much without shards of gray matter traveling the speed of light throughout Central Indiana. Yes, today, I joined what many of you have had since the latter part of the twentieth century. Hell, Elvis Presley and Pat Boone were just battling for the number song in the surrounding areas, that’s how far behind we are here. Okay, it’s NOT really THAT bad, but when it comes to infrastructure of any kind, we Hoosiers are lagging way behind. That is a fact.

So, enough of this bellyaching Keller, what kind of music information do ya have? Well, during this time of intermittent internet service, I have been reading, researching, and mainly sticking to my usual limited interests. On Father’s Day, I got a great autobiography of John Oates, which happened to be a signed copy, from Son #2. The book is a good, fast read. Additionally, I have been getting in touch with my youth by re-reading a compilation of my favorite comic book of the mid-70s, Howard the Duck. Sure, the 1986 movie was horrible, but the comic book was genius. And, yes, I did understand the sarcasm and parody of those books.

So, all of this lead me back to the music world of my high school/college years: New Wave! Baby boomers often look back to the music of the early-60s, the time between “The Day the Music Died” (the deaths of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens & The Big Bopper), Little Richard becoming a preacher and Elvis Presley joining the army and the arrival of The Beatles and the rest of the British Invasion. Often, I read about the genius of the Phil Spector sound, the singles of The Shangri-La’s, the budding brilliance of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, “The Twist”, Gary U.S. Bonds, the fantastic Motown sound, to list but a few. So, those of us on the early wave of Generation X got our brilliant pop hits in the form of New Wave music.

The term of New Wave music was a business term to lump this “new” sound of pop music that was based in punk’s attitude, looked back in reverence to the pop music of the early 60s, an unironic love of bubblegum music of the late 60s/early 70s, and a love of 50s & 60s kitsch art and fashion. This was a time of fun and irony during a mess of society that had been made as the industrial age came to a creaking, Tin Man-like end in the rain of unemployment. And, us teens were left with the notion that the American Dream really might not be what it was all cracked up to be. Of course, many of us went the way of debt to have a life equal to our parents. Yet, as I wrote in my high school senior year Economics paper, supply side economics was simply building a house with cards and it would crash at the turn of the century. Fortunately, due to an undeclared war at the time, the crash was delayed by seven years. But, my generation just decided to boogie to some great tunes in a futile effort to buy in to the good times were right at our finger tips.

That, unfortunately, was the theme of much of the music at the time. Yet, somehow, the words went flying over our heads as we danced into the wee hours, many people unfortunately becoming active participants in the drug culture of the 80s. Regardless, nothing takes away from the great music that came out during that decade of the 80s. And, much like the 70s, for better or worse, has been associated with disco music, then the 80s is associated with New Wave, Hair Metal or College Rock (the original name of Alternative Music). Or, are all three genres really that different from each other? I almost could accept songs by Poison, Motley Crue and Bon Jovi on this list. Still, I left them off.

Starting today, I give you my first 50 songs in My 300 Favorite New Wave Songs. Let the countdown begin!

251. The Belle Stars – “Sign of the Times” (1983)

252. Arcadia – “Election Day” (1985)

253. Translator – “Everywhere That I’m Not” (1981)

254. Yazoo – “Only You” (1982)

255. The Escape Club – “Wild Wild West” (1988)

256. The Jim Carroll Band – “People Who Died” (1980)

257. Erasure – “Victim of Love” (1985)

258. Johnny Hates Jazz – “Shattered Dreams” (1988)

259. Dead or Alive – “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)” (1985)

260. Fine Young Cannibals – “She Drives Me Crazy” (1988)

261. Re-Flex – “The Politics of Dancing” (1984)

262. Plastic Bertrand – “Ca Plane Pour Moi” (1978)

263. Peter Schilling – “Major Tom (Coming Home)” (1984)

264. Squeeze – “Black Coffee in Bed” (1982)

265. The Psychedelic Furs – “Pretty in Pink” (1981)

266. Mister – “Broken Wings” (1985)

267. Public Image Ltd. – “Rise” (1986)

268. Scandal – “Goodbye to You” (1983)

269. Total Coelo – “I Eat Cannibals” (1985)

270. The Romantics – “Talking in Your Sleep” (1984)

271. The Flirts – “Jukebox (Don’t Put Another Dime)” (1983)

272. Timbuk 3 – “The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades” (1986)

273. Heaven 17 – “(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thing” (1982)

274. Paul Hardcastle – “19” (1984)

275. The [English] Beat – “I Confess” (1982)

276. Moon Martin – “Rolene” (1979)

277. The Tubes – “White Punks on Dope” (1976)

278. Baltimora – “Tarzan Boy” (1985)

279. The Motors – Dancing the Night Away” (1978)

280. The Tubes – “She’s a Beauty” (1983)

281. Matthew Wilder – “Break My Stride” (1983)

282. Erasure – “Victim of Love” (1986)

283. Wang Chung – “Dance Hall Days” (1984)

284. EBN/OZN – “AEIOU Sometimes Y” (1983)

285. Devo – “Peek-A-Boo” (1982)

286. Dwight Twilley – “Girls” (1984)

287. Echo & the Bunnymen – “Lips like Sugar” (1986)

288. Greg Kihn Band – “Jeopardy” (1983)

289. The Motels – “Only the Lonely” (1982)

290. The Yachts – “Look Back in Love (Precis of a Friend)” (1983)

291. Laid Back – “White Horse” (1983)

292. Oingo Boingo – “Dead Man’s Party” (1985)

293. Cutting Crew – “(I Just) Died in Your Arms” (1987)

294. Bronski Beat – “Smalltown Boy” (1984)

295. Altered Images – “I Could Be Happy” (1981)

296. Yello – “Oh Yeah” (1985)

297. Golden Earring – “Twilight Zone” (1983)

298. Styx – “Mr. Roboto” (1983)

299. a-ha – “Take on Me” (1985)

300. When in Rome – “The Promise” (1988)

Yes, I did have Styx in the countdown, even though I still begrudge that song’s success since it was the death knell for the band. Also, you will find that I left out many of the biggest artists of the decade, even though I could make a case for much of their music being new wave. Hall & Oates? “You Make My Dreams”. Prince? “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man”. Michael Jackson? “Dirty Diana”. “Smooth Criminal”. “BEAT IT”!!! I decided to keep the list to those endearing artists with their great forward thinking fashion. So, I thought I would enshrine these well-deserving musical visionaries who found magic in the bottle a couple of times before disappearing.

I LOVE NEW WAVE!