With the record selection and the mirror's affection...

Well about a year ago today I was in New York for my birthday and popped into the Virgin Megastore in Times Square. After I got a couple things and sauntered up to the cash register there was a bin of import box sets. For 19.99. OMFG. Of course I gave in to the gods of impulse buying and dove in like Greg Louganis in 1984 at Los Angeles (and no, not like your thinking...). I did enough to control myself to just allow myself one. And of course the 80's won out. The 80's always win out. Nothing speaks of my coming of somewhat-adulthood like the crazily-coiffed bands of England. And with 108 songs, how can I go wrong? I looked at the tracklisting. One-hit wonders, check. UK songs I could never find here, check. Jaki Graham (I'll get to her in a bit), check. I'm sold.

EMI gold's The Best Of The Eighties is a six-CD hodgepodge of tracks which hit at least the top100 on the UK chart (most are top 10, but a smattering of lesser hits are there). As with a lot of English compilations, there seems to be more or less no real coherency on how songs were chosen, though each of the disc has a skeletal theme. The set goes through most of the genres of music at the time, well at the for the UK, since rap, country, and soft rock are pretty much left alone. Also as with a lot of UK "supermarket" hits CDs, there's a lot of major artists, but not with the songs you think. There are your standby defaults, like Toni Basil's "Mickey", J. Geils' "Centerfold", Kim Carnes' "Bette Davis Eyes" and the corker, Thomas Dolby's "She Blinded Me With Science" (which seem to be on every set I seem to find). But there are surprises. For Dexy's Midnight Runners, no "Come On Eileen", but "Geno" (which did hit #1 there). For Human League not "Don't You Want Me", but "Mirror Man". For Duran Duran, not "Hungry Like The Wolf", but "Planet Earth". You get the picture. And it's actually a good thing. There's just enough familiar stuff to make it representative, but enough more obtuse choices to make it interesting. There is a few duds on here, but they're dotted around the set.

The first CD is basically your nerdy proto-alt-rock section. You've got XTC, Public Image Limited, and even a couple Talking Heads tunes (why would you put the same artist twice on the same CD of a box set? Especially "Wild Wild Life", in my opinion one of their worst songs? It seems strange, but then they probably don't care what I think). Anchoring the flow of the disc is Blondie's "Call Me", with Billy Idol's "Dancing With Myself", Sinead O'Connor's "Mandinka", and the Vapors' "Turning Japanese" being the best track on here. Surprising gem on this disc is Public Image Ltd.'s "Rise", being quite melodic for a Johnny Rotten track.

Disc two is more the American crossover of the bunch. There's Pat Benatar ("Love Is A Battlefield"), Belinda Carlisle ("Heaven Is A Place On Earth"), Kim Carnes ("Bette Davis Eyes"), and Stevie Nicks ("Rooms On Fire", which I've really never seen on a compilation before). There's also Americanized UK or UK-based acts like John Waite ("Missing You") and Katrina & The Waves ("Walking On Sunshine"). Even UK acts that rock radio at the time would consider touching are here like Kim Wilde ("Kids In America") and Go West's Wham!-like "We Close Our Eyes". But then oddly enough there's two Whitesnake songs (and neither not their most known). But all and all this disc will remind you the most of US radio of the six.

The third disc is more new wave/New Romantic of them all. Starting with Culture Club's groundbreaking "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" and Duran Duran's "Planet Earth" displaying the beginning of the 2nd British Invasion, this CD has classic tracks like Talk Talk's grand "It's My Life" (one of my fave 80s songs ever), Japan's arty "Ghosts", and Ultravox's apocalyptic "Dancing With Tears In My Eyes". A couple obvious choices are here like Dolby's "Blinded Me WIth Science" and Spandau Ballet's "True". (sidebar: I, and a boatload of other people, love this song. But can anyone tell me what the lyrics are about? I mean really?) Hidden loves on this include Marc Almond's sweet duet with the great 60s singer Gene Pitney with "Something's Got A Hold Of My Heart" and Midge Ure's dramatic "If I Was".

Disc four is all over the place, with some soul songs (Freddie Jackson's sexy "Rock Me Tonight", Loose Ends' groovy "Hanging On A String") with some whitish rockish numbers (Julian Lennon's "Too Late For Goodbyes", Cutting Crew's "Died In Your Arms"). Making a welcome appearance is Danny Wilson's "Mary's Prayer", made more famous now by the movie There's Something About Mary, and the breezy duet of Jaki Graham and David Grant of the Spinners' classic "Could It Be I'm Falling In Love". Though it is a shock the disc starts off with such a great funky band, Hot Chocolate (the "You Sexy Thing" Hot Chocolate) with the blandest, most unsoulful of their or anybody's songs "It Started With a Kiss".

The next CD is commissioned apparently for all the dance songs, and makes it the most fun of the set. From the kickoff classic "Pump Up The Jam" (which still sounds fresh today), this set mines more lesser-known songs like house music diva Adeva's remake of Aretha's "Respect", gay-disco hi-energy star Hazell Dean's "Searchin' (I've Got To Find A Man)", Jaki Graham smooth English-disco hit "Round And Round", and the funky, well, whiteness of "Living In A Box". And even a couple songs from the closing days of classic disco, the Whispers' "And The Beat Goes On" and the BBQ Band's Chic-ish "On The Beat", are on here. Even new-wave dance makes an appearance, with Re-Flex's "The Politics Of Dancing" and Paul Hardcastle's almost quaint dance ode to the Vietnam war, "19".

The last disc is pretty much split between ska and reggae cuts like the Special AKA's "Free Nelson Mandela" and nondescript 80s songs like Toni Basil's "Mickey". You get Soul II Soul's breakthrough hit "Keep On Moving" (which would've made sense on the fifth disc, but is still welcome), Limahl's uber-gay one-two punch of "Too Shy" (with Kajagoogoo) and "Neverending Story" (by himself) back-to-back, and Sheena Easton's AM-radio staple "Morning Train (Nine To Five)". They even slip in a couple goodies like Sly Fox's one-hit-wonder "Let's Go All The Way" and the Specials' "Ghost Town". I wish I would've gotten a better Bananarama song than the "AInt What You Do" bimbo-fest that's here.

But all in all, The Best Of The Eighties doesn't really pretend to give you "the best of the eighties". It does give you a good flashback though to radio in the UK in the decade though, and is a good find, if you can find it.

Grade: B
Best Cuts: Sinead O'Connor's "Mandinka", Blondie's "Call Me", Kim Carnes' "Bette Davis Eyes", Kim Wilde's "Kids In America", Talk Talk's "It's My Life', Spandau Ballet's "True", Japan's "Ghosts", Freddie Jackson's "Rock Me Tonight", Technotronic's "Pump Up The Jam", Adeva's "Respect", Hazell Dean's "Searchin'", Mel & Kim's "Showing Out", Jaki Graham's "Round And Round", Living In A Box's "Living In A Box", The Whispers' "And The Beat Goes On", Special AKA's "Free Nelson Mandela", Soul II Soul's "Keep On Moving", Toni Basil's "Mickey"
Weakest Links: Department S's "Is Vic There?", Talking Heads' "Wild Wild Life", Hot Chocolate's "It Started With A Kiss", Fun Boy Three & Bananarama's "It Ain't What You Do It's The Way That You Do It", Toto Coelo's "I Eat Cannibals"

This set is hard to find but you can search half-com or Virgin's store for it.

And here to brighten up your cloudy summer day is the best example of a protest-message song I've ever heard, Special AKA's sublime "Free Nelson Mandela". Click here to download to listen (right click to bring it up in a new window)

and I had said I would say more about Jaki Graham. I had first heard Jaki on one of those "Now That's What I Call Music" tapes imported from England I used to buy at the local mall record store. The "Now" series exposed me to such great music, and the UK series now in its 64th volume, so kicks the US version's ass. You can't go wrong picking up a copy to hear what's going on in the UK pop music scene. Here's Jaki Graham's video for her classic "Round and Round".