Last Saturday there was a great article in the Guardian by Peter ‘Popjustice‘ Robinson about the Now That’s What I Call Music! series. Amongst other truth-nuggets he points out that your favourite Now! album is going to be the one that came out closest to your 10th birthday. But as the Now! series didn’t start until I was nearly twelve, I was cruelly excluded from testing this theory.
So of course the only thing to do was to compile my own notional Now! compilation, that I would have got for my 10th birthday in March 1982. And here it is on Spotify. Only songs that were in the Top 40 between December 1981 and February 1982 were eligible, but fortunately THIS IS SOME OF THE BEST MUSIC EVER MADE. And when I realised that my favourite pop song of all time (It is Kim Wilde’s Cambodia) would be on the LP, I was happy to count the theory as proved.
If you’re as old as me I hope this playlist will be wonderfully nostalgic. If you’re younger than me, then there are riches (RICHES!) here to be discovered. Oh and if you ARE around my age, and can listen to the massive comedown that is Side 4, when it’s dark, after a little too much to drink, without feeling a bit weepy, then you’re a bolder and harder person than I am. That’s not some sort of challenge. That’s just the way things are.
This post kicks off “1982 Week” on the Sarcophagus! (NB it might not actually be a week)
Side 1
Haircut 100 – Love Plus One
Altered Images – I Could Be Happy
Shakin’ Stevens – Oh Julie
Madness – It Must Be Love
Abba – One Of Us
Bucks Fizz – The Land Of Make Believe
Side 2
Tight Fit – The Lion Sleeps Tonight
Fun Boy Three – The Lunatics (Have Taken Over The Asylum)
The Human League – Being Boiled
Dollar – Mirror Mirror
Kraftwerk – Showroom Dummies
Side 3
Toni Basil – Mickey
Foreigner – Waiting For A Girl LIke You
Daryl Hall & John Oates – I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)
George Benson – Never Give Up On A Good Thing
Modern Romance – Ay Ay Ay Ay Moosey
Side 4
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – Maid Of Orleans
Soft Cell – Bedsitter
Jon & Vangelis – I’ll Find My Way Home
Christopher Cross – Arthur’s Theme
Electric Light Orchestra – Ticket To The Moon
Kim Wilde – Cambodia
