My Favourite 45s of the Year: 1981 Quiz

Answer: Scritti Politti

Welsh-born art student Green Gartside put Scritti Politti together in Leeds in 1977, and the band were signed by Rough Trade in 1979. Their music was distinctly odd and experimental: fractured rhythms and sudden key changes, with Green's wonderful voice overlaying it all. Sadly Green collapsed after a gig one night, eventually being diagnosed with extreme stage fright, and during his recuperation he decided to change the direction of the band away from the ghetto of the Indy scene and towards more mainstream pop/funk/reggae. This paid dividends with the release of "The 'Sweetest Girl'", a gloriously melodic track that was listed as one of the best ten singles of the year by "The New York Times". Sadly, however, there was a ten-month delay in releasing the record and the momentum was lost.
It went to number 64 in the UK Singles Chart but didn't chart in the US. A cover version by Madness released in 1986 did better, going to number 35 in the UK Singles Chart.
I still love "The 'Sweetest Girl'", with its nagging piano, its loping beat, the touch of reggae and the truly weird ending. Green was to show just how good he was as a songwriter and singer in a few years' time...!

Answer: Laurie Anderson

If anything illustrates the power of a radio DJ then this record is it! American performance artist Laurie Anderson was little known outside her niche area when she released "O Superman" through a small indie label. However BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel heard it and starting playing it on his daily (nightly?) 10pm show, which at the time was essential listening to anyone interested in non-chart music. Within weeks it went to number two in the UK Singles Chart (although it didn't chart in the US).
The record is extraordinary. The backing is two alternating chords based on the spoken syllable "Ha" looping through a harmonizer; over this Anderson provides lyrics based upon a 'phone conversation and quotes the "Tao Te Ching". There are no instruments used until near the end of the record.
It's very much a "Marmite" record: you either love it or you hate it. Despite its high placing in the charts, respondents to a number of newspaper polls voted it their least favourite hit single of the year. I absolutely love it!

Answer: Human League

The Human League formed in Sheffield in 1977 as an electronic band, and had a number six UK chart hit in 1978 with their debut single "Being Boiled" - one of the weirdest pieces of music you'll ever hear. A long period of zero success followed, leading to the departure of two members of the band who left to form Heaven 17. Lead singer Phil Oakey replaced them with two sixth-form schoolgirls, and under the direction of producer Martin Rushent they started recording again.
One of the first results of this collaboration was "The Sound of the Crowd"; the lyrics were totally weird but the tune was great! An appearance on TV's "Top of the Pops" featuring the two young women dancing in quite an unusual style and singing back-up vocals helped push the record to number 12 in the UK Singles Chart (it wasn't released in the US).
And we all know what happened next: a couple of top ten singles followed by the massive world-wide, platinum-selling number one "Don't You Want Me". For music geeks, this latter song was the first to top the UK and US charts in which a Linn LM-1 drum machine was used.

Answer: Rolling Stones

Dedicated followers of this series of quizzes will have noted the dearth of singles by the Rolling Stones. Well, I'd gone off them since about the time of "Beggar's Banquet" - to me they represented all that was wrong about superstar band pop music.

However "Start Me Up" really got to me; I especially loved the intro and Keith's minimal guitar solo. A real return to form that got to number seven in the UK Singles Chart and to number two in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. Sadly, some critics have said that it's the last great Rolling Stones song - discuss!

Answer: The Jam

The Jam's last single was a downbeat view of working-class life in the UK as it was then (and is still?), sung over a minimalist acoustic backing track with a bit of backwards guitar thrown in. I thought it was great, and I felt badly let down when it was followed by the limp blue-eyed soul of Paul Weller's next project, the Style Council.
The song was initially available in the UK only as an import which went to number 21 in the UK Singles Chart. The official UK release didn't come until 1983, after the group had split up; this went to number 60 in the UK charts. It was also ranked at number 306 in the 2004 "Rolling Stone" list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.
The Jam went their separate ways: Rick Buckley (drums) played in various bands then took a long time out of the music business before picking up his sticks again as a member of Jam tribute band, From the Jam; Bruce Foxton (bass) played for a long time with Stiff Little Fingers before joining Buckler in From the Jam, while as mentioned Weller formed the Style Council (whom I detested!) before being deified as the Modfather.

Answer: The Psychedelic Furs

I liked the pop/punk/art rock Psychedelic Furs from the first time I heard them, and I bought their first two albums, "The Psychedelic Furs" in 1980 and "Talk Talk Talk" in 1981. It was on the second album that I first heard "Pretty in Pink", which I liked straightaway.
The lyrics of the song address an adult issue: the sexuality of young women and men, and their differing views to this. The band's song writer and lead singer Richard Butler (quoted on Songfacts) said: "The song is about a girl who sleeps around a lot and thinks that she's popular because of it. It makes her feel empowered somehow and popular, and in fact, the people that she's sleeping with are laughing about her behind her back and talking about her".
The song gave its title to the hit 1986 "Brat Pack" movie directed by Howard Deutch and starring, inter alia, Molly Ringwald and Harry Dean Stanton. The soundtrack album was also very popular.
The 1981 release of the song went to number 43 in the UK Singles Chart; the 1986 re-release went to number 18 in the UK Singles Chart and to number 41 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Answer: The Passions

The Passions were a short-lived (1978 to 1983), one-hit wonder post punk band. They were notable for the vocals of Barbara Gogan and the guitar work of Clive Timperley; the latter used a type of tape delay effect produced by a machine called an Echoplex, which became massively popular in the early 1980s. I found it quite magical, echoing and haunting.
It went to number 25 in the UK Singles Chart but wasn't released in the US. It's been covered by some notable bands, for example the Foo Fighters in 2005 and Dubstar in 2010.

Answer: Tom Tom Club

The Tom Tom Club were an offshoot of Talking Heads, featuring Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz and a loose gathering of other musicians. Their eponymous album gave rise to two excellent singles, "Wordy Rappinghood" and "Genius of Love", and the latter gets into my top ten by just a whisker from the former.
It's a great tribute to black music in particular as various black artists are named and imitated. Strangely, despite being a bass guitarist, Tina Weymouth didn't play bass on the track because of a severe attack of cramp.
It went to number 65 in the UK Singles Chart (much lower than "Wordy Rappinghood" which went to number seven in the UK) and to number 31 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart (much higher than "Wordy Rappinghood" which got to number 107 in the US). It's also one of the most sampled tracks of the 80s, with bands like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and Public Enemy using it.

Answer: Heaven 17

Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware were founder members of the Human League in 1977, but left the band in 1980 because of personal tensions and musical differences. However, while the Human League went from strength to strength Heaven 17 struggled. Their first single release, "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang" was a great dose of electro-funk, but sadly it was banned by the BBC because of a probable libel of Ronald Reagan (called a "fascist god in motion" in the song's lyrics), and a lack of exposure on Radio 1 was at that time the kiss of death. It went to number 45 in the UK Singles Chart but didn't chart in the US except on the US Dance Chart where it got to number 29.

Answer: Talking Heads

Talking Heads were by 1981 coming into their commercial and artistic prime. Their fourth album, "Remain in Light", had been released in 1980, and "Once in a Lifetime" was the first single released from that album.
David Byrne was assisted in putting the song together by Eno and Robert Palmer. The lyrics are difficult, to say the least - existential ramblings on consumerism, age - who knows? But it sounds great, with reggae and funk influences. The video was choreographed by the wonderful Toni Basil (remember "Mickey?) and gained a lot of attention.
It went to number 14 in the UK Singles Chart but only to number 103 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart; however a live version got to number 91 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1986. It was also ranked at number 28 in the 2021 "Rolling Stone" list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.
Two further things - there's a wonderful video on YouTube of Kermit the Frog singing this song while wearing David Byrne's white "big suit", and isn't it amazing that Toni Basil appeared in the film "Easy Rider" in 1969!