Back to the 80's once again, and I have been sprucing up my 80's music collection (especially the dance hits lately) and always finding new (to me) great 80's dance music. Looking to do some 80's DJ work here soon, but that put aside we are at #59 of the countdown, and the song is....Who's Johnny, by American R&B/pop music falsetto singer El Debarge. Now if this song doesn't have that classic 80's synth-pop sound then I don't know what does. Eldra Patrick "El" DeBarge came out of Grand Rapids, Michigan andwas the lead singer and focal point of the family group called Debarge throughout the early to mid 1980's. El Debarge is best known for Who's Johnny which appeared as track #1 on his self-titled album which was released in 1986 and would eventually reach Gold status. The record was released under Gordy Records, which was a sub-label of Motown Records, which also carried 80's African American artists Michael Jackson and Rockwell. Who's Johnny also appeared as a single on the classic 80's robot movie Short Circuit soundtrack, which was quite fitting seeing that the robot's name in the film was Johhny-5. The song reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #1 on the Hot R&B Singles chart that same year. The song brings back memories of being a kid and watching Short Circuit, who I reckon was way cooler than that new Wall-E character/film and clear Johnny-5 rip-off they came up with (although it was pretty good too).
And #64 is....Chains of Love,by English synth-pop duoErasure. Erasure consists of songwriter and keyboardist Vince Clarke and vocalist Andy Bell, and formed originally back in 1985. Vince Clarke was one of the founding members of another well-known synth-band from the 80's by the name of Depeche Mode, and he was the writer of their first three singles, including their breakthrough top ten hit Just Can't Get Enough. Clarke left Depeche Mode in 1981 and started up with another successful group called Yazoo (aka Yaz in the USA), after two hit albums with Yazoo Clarke produced a top four hit in the UK called Never Never. He then went on to form Erasure with Andy Bell, which went on to produce 34 Top 40 Hits in the UK between the years of 1985-2007, and they have sold somewhere around 25 million albums in that time. Clarke and Bell have been labeled as "the definitive synthpop superstars," according to their wikipedia page. Chains of Love was the 4th track on their May 1988 release album The Innocents. Chains of Love was Erasure's 6th consecutive Top 20 Hit on the UK Singles Chart, and it became their first mainstream breakthrough on the USA Billboard Hot 100 Charts at #12, and to this day remains their highest charting pop hit in the United States. Check out their wikipedia page for more info, and break those chains!
Its that time again, this time its #66, and the song is...Sex Dwarfby British synth-pop duo Soft Cell. Soft Cell consisted of vocalist Marc Almond and instrumentalist David Ball and was originally from Leeds, England. Sex Dwarf came off of their 1981 release album titled Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, which also contained their major 80's hit song which they are best known and renowned for, (and definitely is one of those songs that gets stuck in one's head way too easily) Tainted Love. This was also Soft Cell's first album. The duo became quite big right during the ecstasy club-scene of the early 80's in New York, and this song had a controversial S&M video which was banned in the UK for explicit content at the time. The duo was known for having drug abuse issues and like so many other successful 80's groups were constantly using drugs (according to wikipedia). In the UK Soft Cell achieved Ten Top 40 Hits, and 4 Top 20 albums between 1981-1984. They initially split in 1984, but then reformed in the early 2000's and made a new album in 2002. The song is a bit racy, but if you can handle it, it has a great dance beat and definitely hits an 80's mark that not many others do.
