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Top 100 Songs of 1981: Slicing Up Eyeballs’ Best of the ’80s Redux — Part 2
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Posted date: 2015-04-13 13:55:40
Pardon our (more than) slight delay, but we’re back, after copious number-crunching, with the second installment in our new Best of the ’80s Redux series, the Slicing Up Eyeballs readers poll that has now determined our collective ranking of the Top 100 songs of 1981.
RELATED: Top 100 Songs of 1981 Spotify playlist
Following our Best of the ’80s album polls in 2013, we decided to change formats for this year’s song polls, so, instead of giving you a pre-selected menu of tracks to choose from, we’re going with pure open, anything-goes voting. And for the ’81 poll, we upped the ballot from 10 to 25 slots.
For this 1981 poll, there were 9,082 total votes cast, which was only a slight increase over the 1980 results, despite each participant being able to vote for significantly more songs.
So far fewer people voted this time around.
As you can see below, Depeche Mode’s “Just Can’t Get Enough” took the No. 1 spot, followed closely by Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love” at No. 2 and The Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me” at No. 3.
There is still some confusion over the rules, with people voting for songs that were singles in 1981, yet already had been released on albums in 1980. Songs that made the Top 100 of 1980, such as The Clash’s “The Magnificent Seven” or Blondie’s ”Rapture,” garnered a lot of votes this time around, as well.
So thank you all for voting and sharing your thoughts. Take a look at the Top 100 list below — and feel free to offer your own take on the results, good or bad, in the comments below.
SLICING UP EYEBALLS READERS POLL: TOP 100 SONGS OF 1981
RELEASE: Single; appears on Speak & Spell
SONGWRITER: Vince Clarke
PRODUCERS: Depeche Mode, Daniel Miller
BUY IT: Amazon.com, iTunes
RELEASE: Single; appears on Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret
SONGWRITER: Ed Cobb
PRODUCERS: Dave Ball, Daniel Miller, Mike Thorne
BUY IT: Amazon.com, iTunes
RELEASE: Single; appears on Dare
SONGWRITERS: Philip Oakey, Jo Callis, Philip Adrian Wright
PRODUCER: Martin Rushent
BUY IT: Amazon.com, iTunes
RELEASE: Single; appears on Duran Duran
SONGWRITERS: Duran Duran
PRODUCER: Colin Thurston
BUY IT: Amazon.com, iTunes
RELEASE: Single; appears on Juju
SONGWRITERS: Siouxsie and the Banshees
PRODUCERS: Nigel Gray, Siouxsie and the Banshees
BUY IT: Amazon.com, iTunes
RELEASE: Single
SONGWRITERS: Ian Curtis, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris, Bernard Sumner
PRODUCERS: Martin Hannett, New Order
BUY IT: Amazon.com, iTunes
RELEASE: Single; appears on Faith
SONGWRITER: Robert Smith
PRODUCERS: Mike Hedges, Robert Smith
BUY IT: Amazon.com, iTunes
RELEASE: Single; appears on East Side Story
SONGWRITERS: Glenn Tilbrook, Chris Difford
PRODUCERS: Roger Bechirian, Elvis Costello
BUY IT: Amazon.com, iTunes
RELEASE: Single; appears on Prince Charming
SONGWRITERS: Adam Ant, Marco Pirroni
PRODUCER: Chris Hughes
BUY IT: Amazon.com, iTunes
RELEASE: Single; appears on Hot Space
SONGWRITERS: Queen and David Bowie
PRODUCERS: Queen and David Bowie
BUY IT: Amazon.com, iTunes
11. Duran Duran, “Planet Earth”
12. Tom Tom Club, “Genius of Love”
13. The Go-Go’s, “Our Lips Are Sealed”
14. The Psychedelic Furs, “Pretty in Pink”
15. The Specials, “Ghost Town”
16. U2, “Gloria”
17. The Cure, “Charlotte Sometimes”
18. The Clash, “This Is Radio Clash”
19. R.E.M., “Radio Free Europe”
20. Romeo Void, “Never Say Never”
21. The Police, “Spirits in the Material World”
22. Phil Collins, “In the Air Tonight”
23. Ramones, “The KKK Took My Baby Away”
24. The Go-Go’s, “We Got the Beat”
25. Echo & The Bunnymen, “A Promise”
26. Kraftwerk, “Computer Love”
27. The Pretenders, “Talk of the Town”
28. The Church, “The Unguarded Moment”
29. The Stranglers, “Golden Brown”
30. Simple Minds, “Love Song”
31. New Order, “Everything’s Gone Green”
32. Billy Idol, “Dancing With Myself”
33. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, “Souvenir”
34. Bauhaus, “Kick in the Eye”
35. The Police, “Invisible Sun”
36. Siouxsie and the Banshees, “Arabian Knights”
37. Heaven 17, “(We Don’t Need This) Facist Groove Thang”
38. New Order, “Dreams Never End”
39. Japan, “Ghosts’
40. Pete Shelley, “Homosapien”
41. Laurie Anderson, “O Superman”
42. Depeche Mode, “New Life”
43. Bauhaus, “The Passion of Lovers”
44. Black Flag, “T.V. Party”
45. The Cars, “Shake It Up”
46. The Human League, “Love Action (I Believe In Love)”
47. Rush, “Tom Sawyer”
48. Prince, “Controversy”
49. Grace Jones, “Pull Up to the Bumper”
50. The Cure, “All Cats Are Grey”
51. Men at Work, “Down Under”
52. Altered Images, “I Could Be Happy”
53. Kim Wilde, “Kids in America”
54. Devo, “Beautiful World”
55. The Pretenders, “Message of Love”
56. R.E.M., “Sitting Still”
55. Squeeze, “Labelled With Love”
58. Soft Cell, “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye”
59. Kim Carnes, “Bette Davis Eyes”
60. Altered Images, “Happy Birthday”
61. Mission of Burma, “That’s When I Reach For My Revolver”
62. Depeche Mode, “Dreaming of Me”
63. Soft Cell, “Sex Dwarf”
64. Rick James, “Super Freak”
65. Men at Work, “Who Can It Be Now?”
66. The Cure, “Faith”
67. Devo, “Working in a Coalmine”
68. Stray Cats, “Rock This Town”
69. X, “White Girl”
70. The Waitresses, “Christmas Wrapping”
71. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, “Joan of Arc”
72. Kraftwerk, “Pocket Calculator”
73. Japan, “Visions of China”
74. Public Image Ltd., “The Flowers of Romance”
75. Dead Kennedys, “Too Drunk to Fuck”
76. Stevie Nicks, “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around”
77. Elvis Costello and the Attractions, “From a Whisper to a Scream”
78. Ultravox, “The Voice”
79. The Rolling Stones, “Start Me Up”
80. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll”
81. The Psychedelic Furs, “Into You Like a Train”
82. The Beat, “Doors Of Your Heart”
83. Duran Duran, “Careless Memories”
84. Devo, “Through Being Cool”
85. Black Flag, “Rise Above”
86. Adam and the Ants, “Prince Charming”
87. Split Enz, “One Step Ahead”
88. Rick Springfield, “Jessie’s Girl”
89. Killing Joke, “Follow the Leaders”
90. Kate Bush, “Sat In Your Lap”
91. The Human League, “Seconds”
92. The Cure, “The Funeral Party”
93. The Cars, “Since You’re Gone”
94. Spandau Ballet, “Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On)”
95. Kraftwerk, “Computer World”
96. Echo & The Bunnymen, “Over the Wall”
97. Tom Tom Club, “Wordy Rappinghood”
98. New Order, “Procession”
99. Ramones, “We Want the Airwaves”
100. Depeche Mode, “Photographic”
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