Rhythm Pop Pick 9

Way back when I made the other eight Rhythm Pop Picks. I had enough to make a couple more, but I kinda stopped. I thought it might be enough. I went back to my working folder and decided I was wrong. I still had more to post. So here is the next volume of the pick. Many of these have cool remixes of the songs that you might not have heard, but if you know these bands, you might have. I have to talk about one band. Until December. They didn't get that much attention. They deserved more. But they turned into Consolidated where they got a littl bit of traction (and changed their whole sound), but still not enough. This was their Rhythm Pop phaze. Very Danceable, Very pop. 

Rhythm Pop Pick 9

136 Siouxsie & The Banshees - Kiss Them For Me (Youth Mix)

137 Vitamin Z - Burning Flame

138 Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Secret

139 Martini Ranch - Hot Dog (12 Inch Remix)

140 When In Rome - The Promise (Coliseum Mix)

141 Cetu Javu - Situations (Extended)

142 Yello - The Race (Razormaid Remix)

143 Camouflage - The Great Commandment (Extended Dance Remix)

144 Kon Kan - I Beg Your Pardon (Special K Mix)

145 Yazoo - Don't Go (12'' Version)

146 Until December - Heaven

147 Trans-X - Living On Video (Original Album Version)

148 Peter Murphy - Cuts you up

149 Cure - Just Like Heaven

Rhythm Pop Pick 8

This is the last of the Rhythm Pop Pick series (so far). This last one is special because on top of all the other requirements, this compilation had to also match one more criteria. It had to be a cover. New wave danceable pop covers. Some were not hits, some are way worse than the originals. But a few are amazingly great. No one but me seems to love Yoko Ono , but the B-52's covering her is just amazingly good. So Rhythm Wave, so Rhythm Pop. If you are not sure who did the original of each of these songs ask in the comments and someone will come to rescue you and answer. Remember that this is the last one of this series, although this goes hand in hand with Handcuff Dancing and soon to be posted: New Romantics. Make sure to check them out!

Rhythm Pop Pick 8

01 Love & Rockets - Ball Of Confusion

02 Devo - I Can't Get No (Satisfaction)

03 The Cure - Purple Haze

04 Frankie Goes To Hollywood - War

05 Billy Idol - Don't You Forget About Me

06 The Jesus And Mary Chain - My Girl

07 Tom Tom Club - Under the Boardwalk

08 Bow Wow Wow - Like A Virgin

09 Colourfield - Can't Get Enough Of You Baby

10 Echo & The Bunnymen - Ticket To Ride

11 Wall Of Voodoo - Ring Of Fire

12 Nina Hagen - My Sweet Lord

13 Heaven 17 - Don't Fear The Reaper

14 The B-52's - Don't Worry

15 Tuxedomoon - 19th Nervous Breakdown

16 Sisters Of Mercy - Emma

17 Cabaret Voltaire - No Escape

18 The Fixx - These Boots are Made for Walking

Rhythm Pop Pick 7

Coming on the last couple of these. You probably noticed the covers have all slightly changed in color. It made it easy to figure out when they were CD's that I played at gigs. Always time for a new wave pick. Rhythm Pop was sort of new wave, sort of pop. I always liked Vince Clarke. Good in Depeche Mode, Erasure, Yazoo (or Yaz) and also was The Assembly. If you didn't know, now you do why it all sounds so good. Another offshoot from a band is Banderas, which featured members from Bronski Beat/The Communards, New Order and The Smiths. My favorite is the one on here which has a great message and is also very danceable. Pop and Rhythm. Goes well together.

Rhythm Pop Pick 7

01 The Assembly - Never Never (extended version)

02 Cure - Close To Me

03 Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Walking On Your Hands

04 Haysi Fantayzee - Shiny Shiny

05 Banderas - This Is Your Life

06 Icicle Works - Whisper To A Scream (Birds Fly)

07 A Certain Ratio - Shack Up (radio edit)

08 I Start Counting - Lose Him

09 Vicious Pink - Cccan't You See (Extended)

10 Talk Talk - It's My Life

11 Gene Loves Jezebel - Desire

12 Mission UK - Wasteland

13 Bronski Beat - Smalltown Boy

14 The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary

15 Specimen - Stand Up Stand Out

16 The Danse Society - Somewhere

17 Lene Lovich - Lucky Number

Rhythm Pop Pick 6

I can make these all day, I had so many favorites of this type. Mostly 80's new wave with a few outliers that meet my feeling of Rhythm Pop. So today's pick has a couple I want to talk about. First is the Dave Ball side project of English Boy On The Loveranch. Dave Ball from Soft Cell fame, he did several solo projects and worked with a bunch of people. I will have to post one of my family picks of his sometime in the future. Well this project only managed a couple of EP's or long singles, but they match perfectly for this series. Very danceable. Tin-Tin or Stephen Duffy had a few iterations of himself and each managed at least one good song that would fit in here. I liked Kiss Me a lot. BTW, he was a really nice guy. I met him and kinda just hung out. Good guy. I have to now mention the Blow Monkeys. On the air, the first time I played them, just for fun, I stretched out the name to Blooooooow Moooonkeeeeys! And for some reason it caught on. I would get requests every shift for them. So it became something attached to me. And if I didn't exaggerate the name, I would get calls, asking if I was okay. I am. A few more volumes and then it's done.

Rhythm Pop Pick 6

01 Billy Idol - Eyes Without A Face

02 Cure - Killing An Arab

03 Bauhaus - Harry

04 Squeeze - Tempted

05 Blow Monkeys - Digging Your Scene

06 Men At Work - Down Under

07 Hipsway - The Honeythief

08 Naked Eyes - Promises, Promises

09 Inxs - What You Need

10 ABC - The Look Of Love (Ultimix 12'' Inch Remix Extended)

11 Stephen Tin-Tin Duffy - Kiss Me

12 English Boy On The Loveranch - The Man In Your Life

13 Talk Talk - Talk Talk

14 New Order - Love Vigilantes

15 Le Tigre - Tko

16 Bronski Beat - Hit That Perfect Beat

17 Lene Lovich - New Toy

18 Spandau Ballet - Gold

Rhythm Pop Pick 5

The series continues with volume five. These danceable 80's pop picks are all sort of new wave. I do not think that there is any overlap with the previously posted Handcuff Dancing pick, but check it out for yourself. Today's pick includes Weird Al doing one of the best covers ever. Anything made into Brady Bunch has to be good. Also, the first song in all German to top the charts from Falco (who also wrote "Der Kommissar" which ended up being a hit for After The Fire and not so much Falco). Public Image which got played in all sorts of places. Tones on Tail which soon after turned into Love And Rockets. And one of my other favorite "joke" songs "Wanna Be A Cowboy" which ended up getting played all over in clubs. What a fun song from a band that never did much else after that. Too bad.

Rhythm Pop Pick 5

01 Falco - Rock Me Amadeus

02 Device - Hanging On A Heart Attack

03 Simple Minds - All The Things She Said

04 Weird Al Yankovic - The Brady Bunch

05 Scritti Politti - Perfect Way

06 New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle

07 Spandau Ballet - Chant No. 1 (I Don't Need This Pressure On)

08 Psychedelic Furs - Love My Way

09 Public Image Ltd - This Is Not A Love Song

10 Cure - Let's Go To Bed

11 Wang Chung - Everybody Have Fun Tonight

12 Fingerprintz - The Beat Escape

13 Tones On Tail - Ok This Is The Pops

14 Alphaville - Forever Young

15 Bronski Beat - Why

16 Boys Don't Cry - Wanna Be A Cowboy

17 Devo - Through Being Cool

18 Heaven 17 - (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thing

Rhythm Pop Pick 4

Part of the reason I like this pick (the whole series) is because it covers a lot while being in such a small genre. The 80's were a good time for music. New instruments, new formats, lots of college radio. Whatever didn't get airplay on "regular" main stream radio, colleges were playing. MTV was busy and they were playing a tight format. Different, but tight. Some bands got little to no airplay and others oversaturated stations. All of them cool in their own way. Specimen has the longest pause at end. Stops cold and then fades. Ministry used to be pop? Martha and the Muffins were such a great band, this was later, still cool. Early Depeche Mode and middle Echo & the Bunnymen. Pete Shelley and Odds right next to each other (where they belong). And the start of the Cure being pop had already started, but this cemented it in.

Rhythm Pop Pick 4

01 A Ha - Take On Me

02 Animotion - Obsession

03 Ministry - Everyday Is Halloween

04 Specimen - Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

05 Gary Myrick & The Figures - She Talks In Stereo

06 Martha & the Muffins - Black Stations-White Stations

07 Blancmange - Don't Tell Me

08 Simple Minds - New Gold Dream

09 Yello - I Love You

10 Depeche Mode - Just Can't Get Enough

11 Echo & The Bunnymen - Lips Like Sugar

12 Pete Shelley - Telephone Operator

13 Odds - Heterosexual Man

14 Soft Cell - Tainted Love-Where Did Our Love Go

15 The Nails - 88 Lines About 44 Women

16 Cure - Boys Don't Cry

Rhythm Pop Pick 3

Volume three of this pick is kind of cool in several ways. First, as always, I liked all these songs and bands. I won a prize in Hawaii in some bar for knowing The B-52's, so I will always remember that, but several of these songs were just not big hits around my part of town and yet they were such cool songs. I knew the Soft Boys, of course, and when the Egyptians album came out and Robyn started singing Heaven, I knew I was going to love it. The Bongos, Kissing The Pink, Vicious Pink and The Dealers were all personal favorites of mine. The medley from OMD was a 12 inch single. And around that time one of the DJ trick mixes was INXS and FYC. A buddy of mine and I went into the studio and put together a great mix so that anyone could replicate it. One of the first real mashups! Listen to how it weaves in and out of each other. It's actually better than what you could do live on turntables. It's a great example of what you can do with a multi-track editor.

Rhythm Pop Pick 3

01 Romeo Void - Never Say Never

02 The B-52's - Rock Lobster

03 Tears For Fears - Shout

04 Bongos - The Beat Hotel

05 Kissing The Pink - Big Man Restless

06 CCCP - American Soviets

07 INXS vs Fine Young Cannibals - She Needs You To Drive Me Crazy Tonight (Helms at the Helm Mix)

08 Wham! - Everything She Wants

09 Book Of Love - Boy

10 The Dealers - Don't Keep Me Waiting

11 Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Brides Of Frankenstein

12 Yello - Oh Yeah (12 inch Mix)

13 Vicious Pink - Spooky

14 Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians - Heaven

Rhythm Pop Pick 2

This pick has a lot of volumes in it. Probably because I like so much of the music in this genre. Which admittedly is a made up genre. I don't care, because for me it makes a lot of sense. Several different mixes from the "hit" versions on the radio. But definitely some of these were played at clubs and gigs around that time. If not by everyone, for sure by me. I'm not even sure if all of these were ever on an album or not (maybe you know?). Anyway I love these. Very danceable. The cover mixes are my favorites and work great (T-Rex wears Sunglasses at Night on Route 66.) This is before the official mashup craze, but probably led to it. If you have a favorite mashup of songs from this era, leave it in the comments. The order isn't in strict BPM order, but they do kind of go together.

Rhythm Pop Pick 2

01 A Flock Of Seagulls - Space Age Love Song (I Ran Mix)

02 Lightning Seeds - Pure

03 Robert Palmer - Addicted To Love

04 Scritti Politti - Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)

05 Pet Shop Boys - West End-Sunglasses

06 Power Station - Get It On

07 Ebn-Ozn - AEIOU Sometimes Y

08 Depeche Mode - Behind The Wheel-Route 66 (Mega Single Mix)

09 New Order - Blue Monday

10 INXS - Original Sin

11 Pete Shelley - Homosapien

12 Vicious Pink - Fetish

13 Soft Cell - It's A Mugs Game

14 Dominatrix - The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight

15 The B-52's - Dance This Mess Around

Rhythm Pop Pick 1

Several volumes in this pick. Named somewhat because of a couple of songs (you'll see) and partially because the college radio station I was manager and DJ at for years played a format they called Rhythm Wave. I didn't want to just copy and it was slightly different. So it became Rhythm Pop. All danceable pop muzik. Poppy New Wave. Much was played on the station and some only by me on that station, Enjoy this first of several volumes. Tell me which songs you like and which ones you don't, but wait to give suggestions since there are many more coming.

Rhythm Pop Pick 1

01 Scritti Politti - Hypnotize

02 Men Without Hats - Safety Dance

03 M - Pop Muzik

04 Hugh Grant - Pop! Goes My Heart

05 Murray Head - One Night In Bangkok

06 Wham! - Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go

07 Baltimora - Tarzan Boy

08 Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants To Rule The World

09 M.A.R.R.S. - Pump Up The Volume (12 inch Mix)

10 Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Relax

11 Comateens - Don't Come Back

12 Roman Holliday - One Foot Back In Your Door

13 Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - If You Leave

14 Graham Parker - You Hit The Spot

15 Will Powers - Kissing With Confidence (Extended)

16 Haircut 100 - Love Plus One

17 Blue Clocks Green - Hemingway (12 Version)

18 The Fixx - One Thing Leads To Another

19 Squeeze - Cool For Cats