The 1960-1979 Page is up:

http://digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best_ ... -1979.html

Good points.

Here's my first draft of the 1980s. Obviously some of these aren't that big, but that's how it goes. Please let me know if I'm missing someone who belongs here. (Go ahead and give me suggestions even if there's a good chance I'll say, no, I checked, they had a single out the year before or whatever.) And of course let me know if anyone is ineligible in that year.

(Bruce, do I need to find pics for the number one artist of each year? If so, let me know what the rules are etc.)

I will try to get through the 90s over the next week or so--after that I'll be with my fiancee and won't have as much time for these projects for a while.

On the list already up, I'm seeing some sources (including Wikipedia and discogs) that indicate that Silver (Bird) Convention had "Save Me" and/or "There Is Always Another Girl" out in 1974. Not sure that's correct, so if you've already looked into it, no objections, but I thought it was worth mentioning. I'm also skeptical of Bad Company or CSN as new artists....

1980

1. SOS Band
2. Zapp
3. Sheena Easton
4. Treacherous Three
5. Stars On 45

1981

1. Duran Duran
2. REM
3. Luther Vandross
4. The Time
5. The Replacements


1982

1. Yaz (aka Yazoo)
2. Culture Club
3. Jennifer Holliday
4. Kajagoogoo
5. Naked Eyes

1983

1. Metallica
2. Run-DMC
3. New Edition
4. Tracey Ullman
5. Corey Hart

1984

1. Sade
2. Sheila E.
3. Jack Wagner
4. Red Hot Chili Peppers
5. The Art Of Noise

1985

1. LL Cool J
2. Simply Red
3. Dream Academy
4. The Jets
5. 'Til Tuesday

1986

1. Bruce Hornsby & The Range
2. Timex Social Club/Club Nouveau
3. Glass Tiger
4. Poison
5. Eric B & Rakim


1987

1. Public Enemy
2. Richard Marx
3. Rick Astley
4. Tiffany
5. Debbie Gibson

1988

1. Paula Abdul
2. Big Daddy Kane
3. Tracy Chapman
4. Slick Rick
5. Jeff Healey Band

1989

1. Technotronic
2. Warrant
3. Nine Inch Nails
4. Skid Row
5. Young MC

You can if you want, or you can let Lew do it. The only things I request is that you use color pictures, and that you don't use any straight album covers, but rather just a picture. Try to find a picture from around the year that they are listed in. Once I went from black and white (1961) to color (1962) the rest were all color.



You're not even married yet and she's already in charge?



RYM has their first single as Jan 1975. Maybe Trance knows.

He was around already by like 1976 - just went by "Luther" then.

http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/luther_vandross

What about "Soft Cell" for 1981? They had 4-5 singles and their first album that year. "Tainted Love" was at one time the record holder for the most weeks on the Billboard singles chart.

They actually had several records out in 1980--an indie EP, a track on a compilation, and two singles.

That's OK, though. I can add Kim Wilde to the list for '81.

Okay, I see the EP, but the comp and all of the singles are listed as 1981 on RYM.

This looks like your strongest year in the 80s with two hall of fame acts and a strong #3 act.

Well, in terms of the whole of their careers, yes. In terms of the criteria for this list, though, no. Run-DMC only had the one single out in '83, but it was influential enough to reach number two on this list. 1987 does much better in the criteria--Public Enemy was a hugely important debut, and the other four were all really big commercially. 1990 will be even bigger--Mariah Carey, C&C Music Factory, The Black Crowes, and Wilson Phillips all had really big debuts. (And I've realized that C&C ought to be on the Debut Albums list.)

I discovered that Vanilla Ice had the indie version of his debut album (including "Ice Ice Baby") out in 1989, so I'll add him in that year at number two.

Good point, there's a big difference between the strength of the act's entire career and the strength of their first calendar year.

On the years I did here are the best first years:

CHUCK BERRY - 1955
Two huge R&B chart hits including one (Maybellene) that was top five pop and #1 R&B for 11 weeks. Incredible impact and influence of that song on the style of rock and roll from that point on. A third R&B chart hit on the flip of "Maybellene." A song like this making the top 5 of the pop chart then and clobbering all cover attempts was a monumental achievement.

BO DIDDLEY - 1955
Greatest doubled sided debut single ever (Bo Diddley / I'm A Man) plus two other R&B chart hits (Pretty Thing - Diddley Daddy) and a 5th song that became a standard done by many UK groups (Bring It To Jerome). Incredible influence of these early songs. Could easily rate higher than Chuck for 1955 but was nosed out because of failure to make pop chart.

RICKY NELSON - 1957
Four singles that made the top 5 on the pop charts.
Two other singles that made the top 20
One other single that made the top 30
A number one album - The first #1 rock album aside from Elvis.
A number one EP from that number one album

DEL SHANNON - 1961
Two top 5 singles including one that was #1.
Two other top 40 singles.
Even bigger in the UK with a third top ten single
Decent amount of influence

FOUR SEASONS - 1962
Two number one singles that were each #1 for 5 weeks.
One other single that made the top 25
A top ten album that was on the charts for 6 months

LESLEY GORE - 1963
Four top 5 singles and a top 25 album

ANIMALS - 1964
Four chart singles in the USA including an influential #1 song
A top ten album in the USA that was on the charts for 6 months
A second top ten single in the UK
Album was top ten in the UK also, on the charts for 5 months

MONKEES - 1966
Two number one singles, including one for 7 weeks
A third top 20 single
A number one album for 13 weeks and on the charts for over a year
Album was also #1 in the UK
One single was also #1 in the UK
Of course the TV show

DOORS - 1967
Four classic singles including a #1 chart hit
Two albums that were both top 3 and combined for over 180 weeks on the charts.
Tons of impact and influence from the two albums

LED ZEPPELIN - 1969
Two classic albums that combined for almost 200 weeks on the charts. One of them was #1 for 7 weeks
A top ten single
In the UK the two albums combined for OVER 200 weeks on a smaller chart
Tons of impact and influence from the two albums

BOSTON - 1976
At the time they had the biggest selling debut album ever. Was #1 for 15 weeks and on the charts for 2 and 1/2 years. By 1996 it was 15X Platinum.
Three hit singles

VAN HALEN - 1978
Hugely influential album that was 10X platinum by 1996.

Was seeing if I could find anyone you missed for 1980 and found that Christopher Cross's huge album came out in 1979 and it was his debut year.

So the 1979 list is now:

1. The Knack
2. Christopher Cross
3. Sugarhill Gang
4. Pretenders
5. Madness

Good call.

1982

1. Yaz (aka Yazoo)
2. Culture Club


I'm thinking these two should be reversed. The Yaz stuff was not all that big in the USA while Culture Club was huge here and in the UK. That first CC album has three huge records, including "Time (Clock Of The Heart)" which is not on the UK version of the album, but counts here because it was released somewhere in 1982. "Time" is on the R&R Hall Of Fame list of essential songs too. Yaz's 1982 stuff could be more influential than the CC's 1982 stuff, but the Culture Club were an international sensation when they debuted, with Boy George's androgynous look being well discussed and made fun of too.

What do you guys think?