Top-10 by year...

[Frau_Blucher]

I just tried a ridiculous excercise - to pick the top 10 songs by year during the classic '78-'86 new wave period. Not necessarily my absolute favorites but also standard classics. It's sick how many songs one has to leave off though. I tried to stick closely to 10 songs but sometimes it's just impossible - 1982 completely blew my budget with so many iconic songs that can't be left off. Anyway, here's the list for your perusal, comment, or edits. Year discrepancies may be caused by singles vs. LP release dates...

1978
Dreaming, Blondie
Radio Radio, Elvis Costello
I See Red, Finn/Split Enz
Hit Me With Your Rythm Stick, Ian Drury
Public Image, Public Image Ltd.
Take Me To the River, Talking Heads
Good Times Roll, The Cars
Warm Leatherette, The Normal
Roxanne, The Police
I Wanna Be Sedated, The Ramones

1979
Girl of My Dreams, Bram Tchaikovsky
Pop Muzik, M
Boys Don't Cry, The Cure
Bela Lugosi's Dead, Bauhaus
Yellow Pills, 20/20
Making Plans For Nigel, XTC
Rock Lobster, The B-52s
London Calling, The Clash
Cars, Gary Numan
Peace Love and Understanding, Elvis Costello

1980
Ant Music, Adam Ant
Ashes to Ashes, David Bowie
Whip It, Devo
Love will tear us apart, Joy Division
Enola Gay, OMD
Once In A Lifetime, Talking Heads
Video Killed The Radio Star, The Buggles
Mirror In The Bathroom, The English Beat
Zero Hour, The Plimsouls
Rock 'n' Roll High School, The Ramones
Turning Japanese, The Vapors

1981
Nowhere Girl, B-Movie
Right To Know, D-Day
Girls On Film, Duran Duran
We Got The Beat, Go-Go's
Seconds, Human League
Kids In America, Kim Wilde
Pocket Calculator, Kraftwerk
Homosapien, Pete Shelley
Radio Free Europe, REM
Never Say Never, Romeo Void
Spring In Fialta, Slow Children
Tainted Love-Where Did Our Love Go, Soft Cell
Ghost Town, The Specials

1982
Space Age Love Song, A Flock of Seagulls
The Look Of Love, ABC
I Could Be Happy, Altered Images
Oblivious, Aztec Camera
Dancing With Myself, Billy Idol
Do you really want to hurt me?, Culture Club
Come On Eileen, Dexy's Midnight Runners
Save a Prayer, Duran Duran
Love Plus One, Haircut 100
Let Me Go, Heaven 17
The Safety Dance, Men Without Hats
Destination Unknown, Missing Persons
Melt With You, Modern English
More Than This, Roxy Music
Someone Somewhere In Summertime, Simple Minds
Stand or Fall, The Fixx
Town Called Malice, The Jam
Only The Lonely, The Motels
She Blinded Me With Science, Thomas Dolby
Everywhere That I'm Not, Translator
The Hungry Wolf, X
Situation , Yaz

1983
Beat Box, Art of Noise
In a Big Country, Big Country
Living on the ceiling, Blancmange
Why?, Bronski Beat
Get the Balance Right, Depeche Mode
The Killing Moon, Echo and the Bunnymen
Relax, Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Doot Doot, Freur
Buffalo Girls, Malcolm Mclaren
Blue Monday, New Order
True , Spandau Ballet
Pale Shelter, Tears For Fears
Gone Daddy Gone, Violent Femmes

1984
Big In Japan, Alphaville
Birds Fly (Whisper To A Scream), Icicle Works
99 Luftballons, Nena
West End Girls, Pet Shop Boys
Sixty Eight Guns, The Alarm
88 Lines About 44 Women, The Nails
Ghost In You, The Psychedelic Furs
How soon is now?, The Smiths
Ever Changing Moods, The Style Council
Pride (In The Name Of Love), U2

1985
Take On Me, A-Ha
E=MC2, Big Audio Dynamite
Anything, Anything, Dramarama
Eighties, Killing Joke
Something About You, Level 42
Love Vigilantes, New Order
Secret, OMD
Nemesis, Shriekback
In Between Days, The Cure
The Love Parade, The Dream Academy
What's Gone Wrong, The Untouchables
Voices carry, Til Tuesday

1986
Digging Your Scene, Blow Monkeys
Desire, Gene Loves Jezebel
Blood And Roses, The Smithereens
Love Missile F-11, Sigue Sigue Sputnik
Don Quichotte, Magazine 60
No Promises, Icehouse
Cities in The Dust, Siouxsie & the Banshees
Superman, REM
There is a light that never goes out, The Smiths
Bizarre Love Triangle, New Order

[Sean]

Hey, that's a cool listing. I love Slow Children's "Spring In Fialta".

Sean

[2Nu]

Looks like another Sterling 'drivetime' compilation playlist![:D][:D][:D]

[Dave]

Where can I buy this compilation? Awesome list! Agree about '82 - I wouldn't be able to pick 10 out of those entries either.

Looks like you (almost) limited to one song per band. Cool.

[Frau_Blucher]

Boy, that was an old forgotten post! I must have been running out of ideas for '86...freakin Blow Monkeys?!!! New Wave had obviously "jumped the shark" for me by then [;)]. Let's try '86 again...

Desire by Gene Loves Jezebel
No Promises by Icehouse
B

[acetone]

Hey myirwin;
Hello and thank you for the greatest compliment a person could ever receive. Josh Harris here (AKA Acetone)...I'm a former member of The Untouchables (U.T.'s)...I wrote and sang "What's Gone Wrong" among other songs with the band. I'm honore

[Frau_Blucher]

Duuuuuuuude! YOU'RE honored?! Call me pretty damned stoked to be talking with someone associated with my beloved purple LP. It's great to "hear" from you. I saw you guys at the Golden Bear in HB back in '84 or '85 I think...my memory fails. Keyboards righ

[acetone]

Yeah, keyboards...how'd you know?
Re: Repoman?
We did three scenes, my friend...
scene number 1) we're riding our scoots back home to Chuckie's mom's house...The other UT's were hogging the camera, so you see me ( in the background) on my old lamby 175

[Frau_Blucher]

Man, I'm gonna have to fire up Repo Man...again! But I can't recall why I remember the keyboard part. I think it may have had something to do with a good UC-Irvine friend at the time who was a huge UT fan as well as a scooter fanatic. He may have just poi

[clublos]

I want to thank you for your "ridicuous excercise." I thought it would be a fun challenge to locate all the songs you've included and create a quasi-new wave collection. It certainly was a challenge. The cool thing is I'm almost complete, lacking only

[Frau_Blucher]

Just send me an email - they're all in my collection.

[scramjet]

Good list. Not too different from what I would have done. The difficulty you run into is that the competition thins out as you get to '85 and '86. For example, U2 not showing up until '84 and The Smiths until '86 seems odd when their best stuff was ear