Pulse Rankdown: 1984 Year-End Mainstream Rock (complete)

[singingrulebritannia]

I believe this post will bring us to a new page? Anyway, if you have a craving for posthumous John Lennon, this is the set for you!

year-end position	Song	Artist	video	Peak	Weeks	chart points
222	I'm Stepping Out	John Lennon & Yoko Ono	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	34	7	100
288	Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him	John Lennon	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	52	3	18
281	Sorry Me, Sorry You	Jefferson Starship	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	50	3	23
261	Finally Found a Home	Huey Lewis & the News	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	41	5	45
247	Burning in Love	Honeymoon Suite	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	47	6	63

[singingrulebritannia]

Frankly, I'm relieved "Illegal Alien" fell short; I was not excited at the prospect of ranking that turd.

year-end position	Song	Artist	video	Peak	Weeks	chart points
251	Taking It All Too Hard	Genesis	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	41	5	60
132	Illegal Alien	Genesis	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	21	16	285
122	It's Gonna Get Better	Genesis	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	16	25	307
258	Little Bit of Love	Dwight Twilley	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	44	3	49
246	Blue Light	David Gilmour	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	35	4	65

[singingrulebritannia]

I find it funny that Bowie's Never Let Me Down album did so much better on radio than Tonight did, since the general consensus is, even though both are very bad for David's standards, NLMD is a lot worse.

year-end position	Song	Artist	video	Peak	Weeks	chart points
192	All Lovers Are Deranged	David Gilmour	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	10	6	154
231	Neighborhood Threat	David Bowie	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	40	5	85
269	Gone Too Far	Dan Fogelberg	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	31	2	35
223	One in a Million	Christine McVie	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	27	5	95
155	Love Will Show Us How	Christine McVie	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	24	10	229

[singingrulebritannia]

The rundown on these 3 Springsteen songs is:
-"Pink Cadillac" was the B-side to "Dancing in the Dark". It later became a top 5 Hot 100 hit for Natalie Cole in 1988.
-"Bobby Jean" and "No Surrender" are non-single tracks from Born In The USA. Putting these together with BITUSA's 7 singles, this means the album charted 9 out of 12 tracks on Mainstream Rock. The only songs that did not chart were "Darlington County", "Working on the Highway", and "Downbound Train" (coincidentally, these are back-to-back-to-back on the tracklisting, cuts 3-5)

year-end position	Song	Artist	video	Peak	Weeks	chart points
227	Bobby Jean	Bruce Springsteen	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	36	9	89
170	Pink Cadillac	Bruce Springsteen	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	27	14	196
109	No Surrender	Bruce Springsteen	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	29	16	349
242	She Don't Know Me	Bon Jovi	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	44	7	69
129	Shooting Shark	Blue Öyster Cult	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	16	12	287
296	Can't Get Next to You	Billy Squier	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	51	2	12
235	One Time for Old Times	.38 Special	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	17	3	80

[singingrulebritannia]

2 weeks and 5 days left to submit!

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Daryl the Beryl Red Unhinged peacebone Mirago singingrulebritannia  @humanshazam Sambalada Juanca 🇯🇲 dollybaby 🇯🇲 Ky Alex1901 wheatsquares33 jamesflame   Lordef†ones Doc Indie Party Rock American Idiot janinho thethirdcurry lyhom rgreen0625 Az Paynter craziaskowboi newpower Mic Technique Beno rowellfarm490 campbellssoup rainie CarnoTorrential Az Paynter dm2081 YotamTS aerodynamite Cody Geometrical House Lannister somelikeitwhen MoD

[gonecountry]

All three of those Scorpions tunes would've easily made my Top 50, in addition to Hurricane

[singingrulebritannia]

2 weeks and 1 day left to submit!

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Daryl the Beryl Red Unhinged peacebone Mirago singingrulebritannia  @humanshazam Sambalada Juanca 🇯🇲 dollybaby 🇯🇲 Ky Alex1901 wheatsquares33 jamesflame   Lordef†ones Doc Indie Party Rock American Idiot janinho thethirdcurry lyhom rgreen0625 Az Paynter craziaskowboi newpower Mic Technique Beno rowellfarm490 campbellssoup rainie CarnoTorrential Az Paynter dm2081 YotamTS aerodynamite Cody Geometrical House Lannister somelikeitwhen MoD

[singingrulebritannia]

Now, let's talk about bands and artists who appear multiple times in the extras and yet aren't being ranked this year. This category will knock out 22 more songs. We're starting with, yet again, another Dio robbery. Mainstream Rock radio should really be ashamed of themselves about refusing to acknowledge this legend before his untimely passing.

year-end position	Song	Artist	video	Peak	Weeks	chart points
115	The Last in Line	Dio	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	10	9	330
152	Mystery	Dio	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	20	9	244
111	The Big Crash	Eddie Money	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	17	11	342
191	I'm Movin' On	Eddie Money	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	25	7	159
130	Restless	Elton John	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	16	8	286

[singingrulebritannia]

Next up, an artlessly-named supergroup playing a Procol Harum cover, and the first (and by far biggest) of 3 Queen songs from The Works

year-end position	Song	Artist	video	Peak	Weeks	chart points
148	Who Wears These Shoes?	Elton John	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	18	7	251
171	Top of the Rock	Hagar Schon Aaronson Shrieve	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	15	6	194
214	A Whiter Shade of Pale	Hagar Schon Aaronson Shrieve	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	30	6	116
245	Missing You	Hagar Schon Aaronson Shrieve	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	37	6	66
160	Radio Ga Ga	Queen	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	22	8	218

[singingrulebritannia]

Quiet Riot is another band you'd think would have been played more on rock radio in their own time. But nope, we're only ranking "Cum on Feel the Noize" next year.

year-end position	Song	Artist	video	Peak	Weeks	chart points
304	Tear It Up	Queen	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	52	1	9
312	Hammer to Fall	Queen	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	57	1	4
123	Mama Weer All Crazee Now	Quiet Riot	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	13	11	305
188	Sign of the Times	Quiet Riot	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	28	7	166
207	Don't Wanna Let You Go	Quiet Riot	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	22	7	121

[singingrulebritannia]

Rick Springfield will debut in 1982 with "Calling All Girls"

year-end position	Song	Artist	video	Peak	Weeks	chart points
292	Catch Me I'm Falling	Real Life	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	46	2	16
226	Don't Walk Away	Rick Springfield	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	41	6	93
134	Violet and Blue	Stevie Nicks	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	19	8	280
162	Cold Shot	Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	29	8	210
182	Voodoo Child (Slight Return)	Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	26	8	180
124	Rockin' at Midnight	The Honeydrippers	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	8	18	300
287	Don't Let Go	Wang Chung	SPOILER: Click to show {Spoiler}	49	3	18

[singingrulebritannia]

Hey folks, mind sending me some more lists sometime soon? There's 1 week and 5 days left to submit and we're stuck at 3.

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Daryl the Beryl Red Unhinged peacebone Mirago singingrulebritannia  @humanshazam Sambalada Juanca 🇯🇲 dollybaby 🇯🇲 Ky Alex1901 wheatsquares33 jamesflame   Lordef†ones Doc Indie Party Rock American Idiot janinho thethirdcurry lyhom rgreen0625 Az Paynter craziaskowboi newpower Mic Technique Beno rowellfarm490 campbellssoup rainie CarnoTorrential Az Paynter dm2081 YotamTS aerodynamite Cody Geometrical House Lannister somelikeitwhen MoD

[thethirdcurry]

I'm finishing mine up right now. I'll be submitting tomorrow.

Nov 25, 2020 5:06:32 GMT -5 singingrulebritannia said:

I find it funny that Bowie's Never Let Me Down album did so much better on radio than Tonight did, since the general consensus is, even though both are very bad for David's standards, NLMD is a lot worse.

Personally, I'd chalk up Never Let Me Down's relative success to the very heritage friendly direction mainstream rock headed in during the late '80s. I believe Tonight did beat out Never Let Me Down in terms of alternative airplay. What confuses me is album rock's relative lack of hard rock. By this year, Ozzy Osbourne, Quiet Riot, Def Leppard, and Twisted Sister had shown that hard rock/metal could reach a more mainstream audience, yet (aside from Pyromania) AOR stations seemed to be oddly cautious about embracing it.

[thethirdcurry]

Just submitted my list. This is easily the strongest of the three mainstream rock rankdowns I've participated in; there are some songs in my 60-80 range here would have been top half contenders in the previous two years. The variety of music is also much greater here. My only big negative for this batch is that you can hear many of the infamous production tropes of the late '80s starting to creep in.

[gonecountry]

Dec 3, 2020 10:47:30 GMT -5 thethirdcurry said:

 there are some songs in my 60-80 range here would have been top half contenders in the previous two years. The variety of music is also much greater here. 

completely agree.  The top 50 was incredibly strong.  Lot of the songs up until 80 or so I really enjoy, there were just too many good songs, let along some of the classics that didn't even make the Top 100. 

I will go on record that I was surprised by my top 5.  I just kept going back to them again and again.

[singingrulebritannia]

1 week and 2 days left to submit. Thethurdcurry sent, but that still only gives us 4 lists. Get to ranking!

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Daryl the Beryl Red Unhinged peacebone Mirago singingrulebritannia  @humanshazam Sambalada Juanca 🇯🇲 dollybaby 🇯🇲 Ky Alex1901 wheatsquares33 jamesflame   Lordef†ones Doc Indie Party Rock American Idiot janinho lyhom rgreen0625 Az Paynter craziaskowboi newpower Mic Technique Beno rowellfarm490 campbellssoup rainie CarnoTorrential Az Paynter dm2081 YotamTS aerodynamite Cody Geometrical House Lannister somelikeitwhen MoD

[singingrulebritannia]

There have been some concerns about how close the Active deadline is to the Alt deadline. I can't really delay these reveals much, because the 2020 rankdowns are waiting on this to finish...but, what if everybody had two more days to use? Would that help? So let's say you have 1 week to submit. I will reveal with whatever I have by that day, no matter how many it is, but hopefully we can get to at least 8 ballots. And get ready for a barrage of tags, because I'll be posting reminders every day from now on

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Daryl the Beryl Red Unhinged peacebone Mirago singingrulebritannia  @humanshazam Sambalada Juanca 🇯🇲 dollybaby 🇯🇲 Ky Alex1901 wheatsquares33 jamesflame   Lordef†ones Doc Indie Party Rock American Idiot janinho lyhom rgreen0625 Az Paynter craziaskowboi newpower Mic Technique Beno rowellfarm490 campbellssoup rainie CarnoTorrential Az Paynter dm2081 YotamTS aerodynamite Cody Geometrical House Lannister somelikeitwhen MoD

[singingrulebritannia]

I wasn't kidding about "every day". 6 days to submit

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Red Unhinged peacebone Mirago singingrulebritannia  @humanshazam Sambalada Juanca 🇯🇲 dollybaby 🇯🇲 Ky Alex1901 wheatsquares33 jamesflame   Lordef†ones Doc Indie Party Rock American Idiot janinho lyhom rgreen0625 Az Paynter craziaskowboi newpower Mic Technique Beno rowellfarm490 campbellssoup rainie CarnoTorrential Az Paynter dm2081 YotamTS aerodynamite Cody Geometrical House Lannister somelikeitwhen MoD

[wheatsquares33]

I'm gonna try to get this one in

[singingrulebritannia]

It's already 1:04am on Saturday in my timezone, but I'll still call this the 5 days to submit reminder

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Red Unhinged peacebone Mirago singingrulebritannia  @humanshazam Sambalada Juanca 🇯🇲 dollybaby 🇯🇲 Ky Alex1901 wheatsquares33 jamesflame   Lordef†ones Doc Indie Party Rock American Idiot janinho lyhom rgreen0625 Az Paynter craziaskowboi newpower Mic Technique Beno rowellfarm490 campbellssoup rainie CarnoTorrential Az Paynter dm2081 YotamTS aerodynamite Cody Geometrical House Lannister somelikeitwhen MoD

[singingrulebritannia]

4 days to submit

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Red Unhinged peacebone Mirago singingrulebritannia  @humanshazam Sambalada Juanca 🇯🇲 dollybaby 🇯🇲 Ky Alex1901 wheatsquares33 jamesflame   Lordef†ones Doc Indie Party Rock American Idiot janinho lyhom rgreen0625 Az Paynter craziaskowboi newpower Mic Technique Beno rowellfarm490 campbellssoup rainie CarnoTorrential Az Paynter dm2081 YotamTS aerodynamite Cody Geometrical House Lannister somelikeitwhen MoD

[singingrulebritannia]

Still no difference in how many lists I have, and there are 3 days to submit. Doc Indie Party Rock what's up, bud? Usually your list has been in my inbox for weeks at this point. Did you just forget you haven't sent yet, or what?

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Red Unhinged peacebone Mirago singingrulebritannia  @humanshazam Sambalada Juanca 🇯🇲 dollybaby 🇯🇲 Ky Alex1901 wheatsquares33 jamesflame   Lordef†ones Doc Indie Party Rock American Idiot janinho lyhom rgreen0625 Az Paynter craziaskowboi newpower Mic Technique Beno rowellfarm490 campbellssoup rainie CarnoTorrential Az Paynter dm2081 YotamTS aerodynamite Cody Geometrical House Lannister somelikeitwhen MoD

[wheatsquares33]

Should have mine in tonight or tomorrow morning

[singingrulebritannia]

2 days to submit, number of lists staying put at 5 so far. I'm genuinely concerned bruh

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Red Unhinged peacebone Mirago singingrulebritannia  @humanshazam Sambalada Juanca 🇯🇲 dollybaby 🇯🇲 Ky Alex1901 wheatsquares33 jamesflame   Lordef†ones Doc Indie Party Rock American Idiot janinho lyhom rgreen0625 Az Paynter craziaskowboi newpower Mic Technique Beno rowellfarm490 campbellssoup rainie CarnoTorrential Az Paynter dm2081 YotamTS aerodynamite Cody Geometrical House Lannister somelikeitwhen MoD

[Daryl the Beryl]

I submitted last week so there are actually 5 submissions now.

[gonecountry]

1984 was not as incredibly awesome for mainstream as modern rock, but it was pretty damn good. Frankly, IMO, the top 75 to 80 are pretty stellar.

There is a lot of good music in here people!!

[singingrulebritannia]

Dec 14, 2020 21:22:01 GMT -5 Daryl the Beryl said:

I submitted last week so there are actually 5 submissions now.

Shit, I thought I was already counting you, sorry

[Doc Indie Party Rock]

Just submitted my fire list. Easily the best year in Rock so far. Not sure if 1983 could be better because of "Photograph" and "Something To Grab For", "Lick It Up", but 1984 was awesome. A lot of variety. I can a safely say I liked and knew 90 of these songs. I even had to put songs I charted high even top 10 in my bottom 20. That's how strong this list was. Also I'm positive I put at least two songs in my top 10 that no one else did.

Time to check out some extras:

The Wild Boys - Duran Duran
It's a shame we didn't get to rank this song on any of the Rock lists. This is clearly one of their most aggressive and harder rock vibe. Would have easily given this song a top 30 ranking.

The Reflex - Duran Duran
ANother one that would have made my top 20. I don't know what's up with these YE lists. Many times they make no sense. I remember KLOS always played this one. We better get to rank "Hungry LIke The Wolf" on one of the rock lists.

**this next list of songs are all songs I charted, but I think were rightfully left off. They better for Modern Rock or POp. I'll leave off the ones we are covering on Modern Rock, and I'll put them in order from favorite to least favorite. favorites made my top 10.



*favorites
Dance Hall Days Wang Chung
Send Me an Angel Real Life
Thriller Michael Jackson
Out of Touch Daryl Hall & John Oates
No More Words Berlin
Ghostbusters Ray Parker Jr.
Girls Just Want to Have Fun Cyndi Lauper
*Still a better song to rank on mainstream than "Time After Time"
Doctor! Doctor! Thompson Twins
Walking on a Thin Line Huey Lewis & the News


*Top 40's
Adult Education Daryl Hall & John Oates
The Politics of Dancing Re-Flex
Purple Rain Prince
She Bop Cyndi Lauper
Red Red Wine - UB40
Sea of Love The Honeydrippers
Some Guys Have All the Luck Rod Stewart
Eat It Weird Al Yankovic
99 Luftballons Nena
I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues Elton John

Now for some new material: Four of these songs made my top 10. can you guess which four?

TV Dinners -ZZ Top
I kinda dug this one. It sounded like all ZZ Top songs just maybe at a slower BPM. I had no problem with their music As long as they didn't use Modern Rock or Pop percussion. If you play hard rock stick to skins.

Love Ain't No Stranger - Whitesnake
I charted this one twice. Also in the 90's when they rereleased it. They are still doing this even today. David Coverdale really looked like a RnR God in this video. THis song slays the Whitesnake song we ranked for this year. I would have preferred to be able to put a Whitesnake song in my top 10. This is also one of their most Def Leppard sounding songs. It's all in the chorus melo.

Hot for Teacher - Van Halen
Not telling where I ranked my other Van Halen songs, but I'll tell you this. This one has become my favorite off '1984', and I would have ranked it the highest. Eddie goes to town of his guitar in this one and David is as flamboyant as ever. Those teachers. I'll tell you if that had been my teacher I'll let her take advantage of me. She would get in trouble, but that is not my problem. easily one of the most fierce van Halen songs ever. Of course it's because of the Music video too.

11 O'Clock Tick Tock - U2
I would have loved to rank this one. U2 were much better in the 80's than the 90's. This one was fierce. His vocal works are really aggressive.

I Wanna Rock - Twisted Sister
How lame is a Rock list that leaves off a song titled "I Wanna Rock" off the top 100 of the year?. In many ways a fiercer song than "We're Not Gonna Take It". Love the way the guitars sounded on early Glam Metal songs. Almost like garage rock. Very raw, and the vocals are very in your face. You really had no choice but to raise your fist and chant along.

You Take Me Up - Thompson Twins
I forgot what this sounded like. I never liked this song. No exotic sounds nor melodies, and I didn't enjoy the melody all that much except a little in the chorus. About the only saving grace was Tom's vocals

Love Somebody - Rick Springfield
This went top 10 on my charts. Comon Rick rocked. He had that AOR rock sound of Night Ranger. Hopefully we get to rank "Affair Of The Heart" or "Human Touch". I know "Jessie's Girl" went to #1 on Mainstream. "Love Somebody" would have ended high on my list. Possibly close to another Night Ranger song.

Hello Again - The Cars
I can't believe this song ended up 2 slots shy of making the top 100. It makes me so mad when I see those 10 other songs that I really didn't like. This song here with it's Club music influences also would have sounded great on Modern Rock. I would have sacrificed at least one Glam Metal song to fit this one in my top 10. This was also The Cars first 12' extended remix.

I'll conclude this post with the extended of "Hello Again". A lot of great cars sounds here.

[craziaskowboi]

I have 30 songs left to rank, and two more days off in which to rank them.

[gonecountry]

Dec 15, 2020 1:14:28 GMT -5 Doc Indie Party Rock said:

Hot for Teacher - Van Halen
Not telling where I ranked my other Van Halen songs, but I'll tell you this. This one has become my favorite off '1984', and I would have ranked it the highest. Eddie goes to town of his guitar in this one and David is as flamboyant as ever. Those teachers. I'll tell you if that had been my teacher I'll let her take advantage of me. She would get in trouble, but that is not my problem. easily one of the most fierce van Halen songs ever. Of course it's because of the Music video too.

I Wanna Rock - Twisted Sister
How lame is a Rock list that leaves off a song titled "I Wanna Rock" off the top 100 of the year?. In many ways a fiercer song than "We're Not Gonna Take It". Love the way the guitars sounded on early Glam Metal songs. Almost like garage rock. Very raw, and the vocals are very in your face. You really had no choice but to raise your fist and chant along.

I agree, these are really the far superior songs, compared to the more popular songs from the albums.   "We're Not Gonna Take It" really is the glam metal equivalent of the Beastie Boys "Fight For Your Right (To Party)" - hasn't aged as well, IMO.