I have given you the titles and artists of 280 New Wave songs that I love. While I was compiling this list, I had around 430 songs listed. After much contemplation, I decided that if I could not stretch this list to 500, then I could reduce the list to 300 songs.
Initially, I had trouble eliminating songs due to my completist tendencies. Yet, after I got through my psychosis-induced shakes, I started to remove some of the songs. Then, it became easier to eliminate songs until I reached the magic number of 300. Once I got to that arbitrary number, then I knew I was ready. Unfortunately, there are truly great songs that I marked off the list while probably keeping a few songs that really should have been left off. Oh well, such are the perils of undertaking such an endeavor.
So, let’s take a look at the bottom ten songs of My Top Twenty Favorite New Wave Songs.
20. Cheap Trick – “Surrender” (1978). This song is about that teenage moment when you realize your parents are really sexually active and actually listen to the same music as the teenagers in the house. It is a scary moment of life on both sides of the story.
19. Dexys Midnight Runners – “Come on Eileen” (1982). Unfortunately, this band was a one-hit wonder here in the States. If you delve into their catalog you will discover strong songwriting and the ability to cover a plethora of sounds, for Celtic folk to blue-eyed soul. I love this song and it really is one of the band’s best songs.
18. The Cars – “My Best Friend’s Girl” (1978). Between The Cars and Cheap Trick, we were given two New Wave artists whose sounds were smooth enough to gain airplay on AOR radio. They were the entry way into New Wave for me.
17. Peter Gabriel – “Games Without Frontiers” (1980). This haunting anti-war song immediately jumped into my consciousness and stayed there forever. Only Gabriel would be able to harness Phil Collins’ Eighties drum sound and meld it with musical instrumentation found throughout the world and make the resulting sound so commercial that his music remains vital to this very day.
16. The Police – “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” (1980). Sure, “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da” hit the Top 10 first, but this song marked that The Police were on their way to becoming one of the biggest bands in the world.
15. Duran Duran – “Hungry like the Wolf” (1982). For the teens and twenty-somethings in the Midwest, this song was our introduction to “The Beatles of the Eighties.” And, to me, what a fantastic way to learn about the “Duranies”.
14. Soft Cell – “Tainted Cell” (1982). Take an obscure ’70s soul song and give it an icy synth-pop arrangement and you get a slow-burning song on the American Pop Charts. At one time, this song had the record for most weeks spent in the Top 40 and even the Top 100 in Billboard magazine. And, have you heard Marilyn Manson’s version? Scary!
13. Talking Heads – “Once in a Lifetime” (1980). Nearly 40 years ago, I was complaining how horrible it was that the radio stations around me were not playing this classic song. But now? You can hear it anywhere, which is great now, but we are experiencing a little revisionist history. The video is a flat-out classic.
12. Elvis Costello & the Attractions – “Everyday I Write the Book” (1983). With this song, Elvis and the guys found themselves in the unlikely position of a song in the US Top 40. It was a surprise that Elvis could not duplicate until he got a little help from Sir Paul McCartney on his biggest hit song “Veronica”.
11. DEVO – “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” (1978). There I am, a Saturday night in 1978, waiting for Saturday Night Live to start, mainly because this weird band from Akron, Ohio, DEVO, was going to play. Man, did I ever get my mind blown by their performance. And, I wasn’t the only one at school. Several of my friends, most of whom were in my second-year chemistry class, so the nerds had found their rock group. And once you’ve been bitten by the DEVO bug, you will NEVER let go.
Folks! You have it! We are ready for the Top Ten. So, as always, let’s be careful out there.
If My Records Could Talk 
GREAT list Scott! Thanks for sharing! I’d love to see the list “Keller’s Cut Out Bin: 301+.” Like you said, I’m sure there were some very good titles left behind that need to be acknowledged.
I’ll tell ya, if you add some deep cut classics (Lou Reed, Roxy Music, Ramones, etc, many you already have on your list), and some of the newer alt classics (Nirvana, STP, Alice In Chains, etc.) you’d have yourself one helluva Classic Alt station. And to that point, I predict you’ll be hearing these stations pop up over the next few years as even more of the demo plants itself into THEE money demo. — Talk soon, Andy “Drew” Carey
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Thanks for the kind words Andy! I am planning to cover 21st century new wave, 80s college rock & 90s Alternative Nation in future blog entries. I LOVE the idea for Classic Alt stations but doesn’t XM have something like that? Anyway, thanks for stopping by the old blog Andy. I appreciate it! Cheers!
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Yes I do believe XM does. However, the full blown concept hasn’t hit the terrestrial masses yet…but it will. Can’t wait for the 80’s College Rock and 90’s Alt Nation. Hope all’s well! Talk with you soon.
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Just curious but is 103.3 trying this kind of format? Unfortunately their playlist is quite thin.
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(these comments were written the day after you posted this though they are only being shared now that you’ve published all 300 songs)
Cutting a list down and getting it into to shape has always been difficult for me as well but I adopted a contrary one song per artist rule that has been quite effective. (Rhino seems to have used the same rule in compiling some of their box sets as well.)
I’d really be interested in seeing a follow-up list of the songs that got cut.
(EDIT – I see the first commenter above shares my curiosity as to what tracks were cast aside. It’s unanimous so you have to do it;)
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