#20: "Greatest Hits" by Barry Manilow

#20—That's right!!!

Best song: Weekend in New England
Notable tracks: All of them
Released: 1978
Popularity: Triple Platinum

Oh Mandy, well you came, and you gave without taking, but I sent you away, oh Mandy. I'm ready to take a chance again, ready to put my love on the line with you. Been living with nothing to show for it; you get what you get when you go for it. Looks like we made it—left each other on the way to another love. But it's daybreak—if you wanna believe, it can be daybreak, ain't no time to grieve.

I can't smile without you. I can't laugh, I can't sing, I'm finding it hard to do anything. You see, I feel sad when you're sad; I feel glad when you're glad—if you only knew what I'm going through...Even now, when I have come so far, I wonder where you are, I wonder why it's still so hard without you. I've looked high, low, everywhere I possibly can, but there's no tryin' to get the feeling again. It seemed to disappear as fast as it came.

Come, come, come into my arms. Let me know the wonder of all of you...could this be the magic at last? You're my song! Music too magic to end, I'll play you over and over again. We'll just go on burning bright somewhere in the night. When will our eyes meet? When can I touch you? When will this strong yearning end? And when can I hold you again?

This one's for you, wherever you are, to say that nothing's been the same since we've been apart. This one's for all the love we once knew; like everything else I have, this one's for you. At the Copa, Copacabana, the hottest spot north of Havana, at the Copa, Copacabana, music and passion were always the fashion at the Copa...they fell in love.

I write the songs that make the whole world sing.
I write the songs of love and special things.
I write the songs that make the young girls cry.
I am music, and I write the songs.

You already know that you were singing along, right?

#21: "4" by Foreigner

#21—13th birthday gift

Best song: Waiting For a Girl Like You
Notable tracks: Urgent, Juke Box Hero, Break It Up
Released: 1981
Chart Peak: #1

Foreigner is one of those eighties bands that you hardly think of until you hear them on the radio, then you remember just how really good they were. The real genius behind the band was British guitarist Mick Jones, with American vocalist Lou Gramm fronting the band as lead singer. Their most successful album is today's #21 favorite from my LP collection.

I was turned on to Foreigner at first by the success of their first single from the album, "Urgent," which features on of the most memorable saxophone solos of the era. If memory serves me correct, I think this album was a birthday present from childhood friend Chuck Mickey. (Thanks, Chuck—I still have it!)

Of course, the real treasure on this album is the single "Waiting For a Girl Like You," which I would easily count as one of the top singles of the 1980s. It would almost certainly be in my own top 25 best singles, and I would rank it just a notch below the band's later #1 hit in 1984 (and far and away their best song) "I Wanna Know What Love Is," a tremendous song, an absolute, undisputed classic, but unfortunately not on this album.

Some interesting liner note information from this album: main synthesizers in the studio were played by "Tom Dolby," who would go on to one-hit wonder immortality with "She Blinded Me With Science." The album itself was co-produced by Mick Jones at Mutt Lange, who before he was famous as the ex-Mr. Shania Twain was the producer of Def Leppard's biggest albums of the eighties. Something tells me Def Leppard is yet to come on this little countdown...

Meanwhile, enjoy the best song from "4":

(sorry, just the song—no video available)

Hey, it's almost Christmas—the season for giving—so here's the video for "I Wanna Know What Love Is." I know it's not on this album, but it's too good of both a song and a video to pass up. You're welcome!

#22: "Rio" by Duran Duran

#22—The quintessential '80s band

Favorite Song: Save A Prayer
Notable tracks: Rio, Hungry Like The Wolf
Released: May 1982
Chart Peak: #6 (1983, U.S. Billboard 200)

Most of what I have to say about Duran Duran I already said with my inaugural post on this blog this past summer. I'm also writing later into the night tonight due to an unusually high number of things to do on a snow day that didn't include time to write my blog! In any event, this will be shorter than my previous posts. Again, if you want my full evaluation of DD, just scroll down to the first post!

This was certainly one of the first albums I bought in the eighties, and once again, this was a band introduced to me (and probably most people in the U.S.) by MTV. With their stylish good looks and slickly packaged pop songs, they were both celebrated and criticized for being the perfect style of music for cable's new Music Television.

Like I said before, the real genius of their music is how it really doesn't sound dated at all. Part of this, of course, has to do with the hyper-produced sound of pop music in 2013—the golden age of synthesizers has clearly not passed to never return again—but it also has to do with the true artistry of the group's musicians, who were talented enough to make hit records and astute enough to take advantage of the best way to get their music played and heard—and seen.

The three hit singles I've listed are probably familiar to almost any of you who are inclined to read my blog, so it's redundant to go over them. It brings back memories of freshman year and hanging out at the video arcade between the movie theater and the bowling alley, and watching MTV daily to see what new videos were coming out. I'm still here, and so are they. Not bad for 30 years, I'd say.

I'm including the video for "Rio" because I think it's really the best example of the perfect blending of visual style and musical substance that Duran Duran made famous. It's also set in a tropical locale, and since it's about 18 degrees outside right now where I live, it looks like a pretty good place to be.

See? No snow!

#23: "...and Justice for All" by Metallica

#23—"Guys, keep it down!"
(Joe Dog, Hawes House RA)

Favorite Song: One
Notable Tracks: Blackened, ...and Justice for All, Eye of the Beholder, The Shortest Straw
Released: August 1988
Top U.S. Chart position: #6 (8x Platinum)

I didn't know much about Metallica before I went to college other than they were a darker-than-midnight heavy metal band followed by a cult of devoted fans identifiable by their "Ride the Lightning" or "Master of Puppets" t-shirts. I did not hang out with these people in high school (unless it was around a beer keg; beer was the great social equalizer at Poplar Bluff Senior High School), and I certainly did not listen to that kind of music—too noisy, too angry.

Two years into college and deprogrammed from the hyper-patriotic, conservative, capitalism-is-wonderful propaganda that is like air and water in southeast Missouri, I saw Metallica's very first produced-for-MTV video for the single "One." In the twilight of Ronald Reagan's expiring term and in the dark reflection of Iran-Contra and the various governmental atrocities that critical thinking (and a journalism school still devoted to actual journalism and not kissing the feet of the wealthy and powerful) exposed, this song was a bullet of adrenaline and ephedrine right to the moral center of my brain.

The song "One" turns the whole idea of patriotic heroism through military service into a nightmare of irreparable physical loss and a futile cry for the deliverance that only death can bring. I think it was probably around the same time I read Wilfred Owen's poem "Dulce Et Decorum Est" for the first time as well, and I began to question the real purpose of warfare in our world.

I have the highest respect for all who volunteer to serve in the military; my dad and most of my uncles, not to mention several friends who served in one of the Iraq wars, are all military veterans. They all have my unequivocal support. What I detest is the men in high towers and seats of power who send them to war under less-than-honest circumstances. Turns out Metallica detests them as well, and that's what this whole album is about.

I bought the album at a record store in Columbia and listened to the whole thing. It's still not exactly what I would pick to listen to today while walking around the lake or taking the kids to visit their grandparents. But for a 20-year-old discovering that the world outside his home town was not really everything good and right and moral, it was loud, angry, and best of all, righteous. The songs are about the reality of the corruption in our nation, about how liberty, equality, justice were all nothing more than distractions and lies. It was a call for real freedom with a raised and clenched fist.

I still like the "Black Album" better than this one, but alas, that also exists only on compact disc for me. Of course, that album contains my theme song, the reason why this blog is named as it is. But ...and Justice for All is the record that introduced me to a band that still manages to challenge (and infuriate) with their music as well as their attitude. (Yeah, yeah, Lars is a pretentious jerk, that's just a given.) I've included the video for "One" below. In case you're wondering, the movie footage is from the 1971 film Johnny Got His Gun.

#24: "Standing On A Beach: The Singles" by The Cure

#24—"Thank you, Robert Smith!"
"Disintegration is the
best album ever!"

Favorite Song: In Between Days
Notable Tracks: Boys Don't Cry, Let's Go To Bed, The Lovecats, Close To Me
Released: May 1986
Earned: Double-platinum in U.S.

This is an album given to me by my sister. I was late to the party as far as The Cure are concerned. My earliest memory of them involves strange videos played late after midnight on MTV, when they played about an hour or two of Goth music. I guess they thought Goths were like vampires and only awake in darkness. My first conscious memory of liking one of their songs was their hit "Hot, Hot, Hot!" from the great album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me.

I definitely remember the moment that I became a true blue, dark eyeliner, red lipstick fan of The Cure: the first time I heard (and saw—MTV was the venue for almost all new music in the eighties and early nineties) what remains, to this day, my favorite song, "Just LIke Heaven." And what I mean is that "Just Like Heaven" is my favorite song of all time by any band, ever, ever, ever.

And then came Wish in 1992, which if I had on vinyl instead of CD would be #1 on this little countdown. There are three CDs I cannot live without: Wish, The Sensual World by Kate Bush, and R.E.M.'s Automatic for the People. I also named The Cure as one of the five acts I've never seen play live that I wish I could. If you've never listened to Wish, it's one of the most brilliant albums I've ever heard.

So this album is basically my excuse to talk about how much I love The Cure. However, the songs I've mentioned above are all fantastic, especially my top pick, "In Between Days," which is playing on my turntable even as I type these words. It's got everything that makes The Cure great—a blend of acoustic and electric guitar, soaring synthesizers, crackling drums, and Robert Smith's marvelous tenor voice above it all. These songs capture the early brilliance of the band and was prophetic of the heights they would reach in their later albums.

Here's "In Between Days" from last summer's Lollapalooza festival in Chicago, which I could have gone to except that I couldn't get off work, didn't have the money, couldn't fly to Chicago, and didn't have a place to stay. Details, details...

#25: "Freeze Frame," J. Geils Band

#25—just made the cut.

Best song: Centerfold

Other notable tracks: Freeze Frame, Rage in the Cage, Angel in Blue"

Released: 1981

Chart peak: #1 (Feb. 1982 for four weeks)

You actually had to be alive in 1981 to understand just how awesome (and completely ubiquitous) their biggest single of the J. Geils Band's career, "Centerfold," really was. The single was in constant rotation on MTV and on Top 40 radio, where it was #1 for six weeks. It really was one of those songs that grabbed you from first hearing and never went away. It's a testament to how good the song is that I never tired of hearing it, and it's still just as good in 2013 as it was in 1981.

One thing that does bear noting—"Centerfold" was considered quite risqué in its time. The lyrics talked about a young man's high school sweetheart posing as a "centerfold" for, as the lyrics say, a "girlie magazine," leaving many a hyper-hormonal teenage boy to consider which of his female classmates he'd like to see in just such a way. The video was likewise revealing, with a bevy of pretty models dancing in black and pink teddies.

Now compare all that to 2013. "Playboy" magazine was a rare and difficult-to-acquire treasure for those aforementioned hormone-crazed boys in 1981. Today, the Internet and its nonstop stream of pornography makes "Playboy" look almost innocent by comparison. Likewise, what networks and cable get away with showing in prime time (not to mention what they say regarding sex) make the models in the video look almost virginal. For a song about lost innocence, it sure says a lot about how far we've come (or how far we've descended, depending on your point of view).

It's also interesting to note that the eponymous J. Geils was the guitarist for the band, not the lead singer, who's name was Peter Wolf. Go figure.

Counting Down to the New Year

So a couple of months ago my friend Steve L. passed along one of those fun little "do this, tag me" surveys that are always floating around on Facebook. In this one, I was given an artist and an album, and I had to name best track, worst track, favorite lyric, favorite memory of the album. I passed it along a few times and played four or five different times, and it got me thinking about my own vinyl collection.

It won't cost much...
just your soul!

I usually got my records through the old Columbia and BMG Record clubs. For any of you youngsters out there in cyberspace, this was before you could just listen to your favorite song on YouTube. The way it worked for me was that I heard a song on the radio, then watched the song's video on MTV (yes, they actually played nothing else but music videos at one time), then I would order the album through the record club.

The record clubs were great on the front end, lousy in the fine print. You got 12 albums for about five dollars in shipping, but then you had to order at least two or three at regular club prices, which usually meant 20 bucks with shipping, which was a fortune to a teen in the eighties. So a lot of these came to me in that way.

Original countdown?
Top 12 Apostles.

My collection is eclectic—pop, rock, comedy, movie soundtracks, new wave, a little heavy metal, all of it from the '80s and early '90s—and almost all of it is stuff I never bothered to buy on CD once vinyl became an endangered species. What I'm going to do for the next 25 days, starting tomorrow, Dec. 7, is count down my top 25 favorite albums from my collection. Twenty-five albums in 25 days will take us to number one on New Year's Eve—counting down to the New Year, just like Casey Kasem used to do (look it up on Wikipedia, kids).

Like I tell my writing students, criteria are always the most important part of any "best of" or "favorites" list, so here are mine. First, the albums must have multiple "classic" singles—no one-hit wonders allowed. Second, no duplicates on bands; I've got six Rush albums, but I only get to pick one, my favorite of the

Favorite Rush memory: Listening to Rush song on the
radio, youngest daughter Chloe asks, "Who's that old
lady singing?" She's lucky I have a sense of humor.

bunch. Third, I have to have some kind of personal connection, some specific memory of the album that makes it significant.

Don't bother telling me that my order sucks, or some other album in that artist's collection is better. If that's what you think, fine, but if you've really got a problem with my picks, well...get your own blog. They're free right here at blogger.com. I'll throw in with some album art and maybe a YouTube video or two for fun.

Picking my top 25 was a fun diversion on a snow day when I didn't feel like spending all day working. There's a physical connection with the size of a 12-inch vinyl album—that thin, square cardboard jacket, the liner notes protecting the vinyl, the magic of that two-sided piece of plastic to take you back into a past that always seems either better or worse than you really remember it to be. I hope you have fun counting down with me. Tune in tomorrow for #25!