Revisiting Classic Rewind’s 1981 Countdown

A few years ago, SiriusXM’s Classic Rewind counted down its 40 Cassettes Turning 40 from 1981. Now those albums are turning 45, so I thought it would be fun to revisit their countdown.

I did something similar with their 1986 countdown (Classic Rewind’s 1986 Countdown: What They Got Right, What They Missed), and that sent me down a rabbit hole looking at albums that didn’t make their Top 40. I figured I would do the same thing with 1981.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

First, I want to say that I think this was one of Classic Rewind’s strongest countdowns. There are a lot of really good albums on this list. In fact, out of the 40, there are only five that I would seriously reconsider.

Three of those are because of the type of album. Rush’s Exit…Stage Left and Billy Joel’s Songs in the Attic are both live albums that offered little or nothing new, while The Best of Blondie is a greatest-hits collection with nothing new on it. As a family, we owned all three of these albums.

Exit…Stage Left technically did contain something new. Alex Lifeson’s “Broon’s Bane” was a short classical-guitar piece that served as an introduction to “The Trees.” At only about a minute and a half, though, that’s not enough for me to put a live album ahead of some of the new studio albums that didn’t make the countdown.

Songs in the Attic is a great live album. It didn’t offer any new songs, but the live recordings themselves mattered. “She’s Got a Way,” for example, became a single from the album and reached No. 23 on the Hot 100. I would argue it’s the definitive version. It’s simply that when you’re choosing only 40 albums to represent 1981, I would rather use the spot for a genuinely new album.

As for The Best of Blondie, the closest it comes to having anything new is three special mixes of previously released songs and “Call Me” from the American Gigolo soundtrack from 1980. “Rapture” did chart in 1981, but it originally appeared on Autoamerican, which was released in 1980.

Then there’s U2’s October. Admittedly, I am looking at this album from today’s perspective. I didn’t own it, and when October was released, the only U2 song I knew was “I Will Follow.” I love that song. Looking back, October didn’t have the same appeal that War did, which was my first U2 album.

Business as Usual is an interesting case. It was first released in Australia on November 9, 1981, but this wasn’t a worldwide release. The album didn’t reach the United States, Canada, the UK, and other international markets until 1982. So while it is technically a 1981 album based on its first release, American listeners experienced Business as Usual as a 1982 album. On a U.S. countdown celebrating albums from 1981, I probably would have left it off.

That’s five albums out of 40. Not bad.

Before I get into what they left out, I wanted to go back and look at what actually made the countdown.

A Few Things About the Countdown

I should point out that I’m not against live albums or greatest-hits collections being included. There were four live albums and two greatest-hits collections in the countdown. The difference for me is whether they brought something new to 1981.

Bob Seger’s Nine Tonight did, with his cover of “Tryin’ to Live My Life Without You.” Journey’s Captured included “The Party’s Over (Hopelessly in Love).” Queen’s Greatest Hits included the then-new “Under Pressure” with David Bowie.

Those are easier for me to justify in a countdown representing 1981.

Which Songs Would I Play?

As I went through the countdown, I also started looking at the songs Classic Rewind chose to represent each album. Sometimes I agreed with them. Sometimes I would have gone in a different direction.

That’s why I’ve added a “My Pick” column to the countdown. I’m not changing their albums or their rankings. I’m simply choosing the song I would use to represent each album if I were putting together the playlist today. As it turns out, I agreed with Classic Rewind more often than I disagreed.

For most of the countdown, Classic Rewind played one song from each album. For the Top 4, they played two. I’ve left their original selections intact so you can see exactly what they played.

A few of the picks that I would change fell into three categories.

1. Choices that make the album more relevant to 1981

For Journey’s Captured, “The Party’s Over (Hopelessly in Love)” makes much more sense to me because it was actually new material. “Just the Same Way” was a new live recording, but the song itself had already appeared on Evolution in 1979.

Same with Seger. “Tryin’ to Live My Life Without You” was new to Seger’s catalog, whereas “Hollywood Nights” dated to Stranger in Town in 1978.

With Queen, the original 1981 U.S./Canadian version of Greatest Hits included “Under Pressure” but did not contain “Don’t Stop Me Now.” “Under Pressure” was actually new in 1981.

2. Pure personal preference

“Magic Power” over “Fight the Good Fight”: both great, I simply like “Magic Power” better.

“Unchained” over “Mean Street”: same thing.

“The Waiting” over “A Woman in Love”: I just think “The Waiting” is one of those classic Tom Petty songs.

3. Choices with a personal story

.38 Special: “Hold On Loosely” is probably the obvious selection, but “Fantasy Girl” was my sister’s favorite .38 Special song, so it means more to me personally.

Rolling Stones: “Start Me Up” is the obvious choice, but everybody has heard it a million times. I went with “Little T&A” over “Hang Fire” because of Keith Richards’ vocals, and you don’t get to hear this great song very often. “Waiting on a Friend” would actually be my second choice, with “Hang Fire” third.

Here is Classic Rewind’s original countdown, along with what I would play.

Classic Rewind’s 40 Cassettes Turning 40: 1981

#	Artist	Album	Song(s) Classic Rewind Played	My Pick
40	The Kinks	Give the People What They Want	“Destroyer”	Same
39	Triumph	Allied Forces	“Fight the Good Fight”	“Magic Power”
38	The Who	Face Dances	“You Better You Bet”	Same
37	Santana	Zebop!	“Winning”	Same
36	Eric Clapton	Another Ticket	“I Can’t Stand It”	Same
35	The Pretenders	Pretenders II	“Talk of the Town”	“Message of Love”
34	Sammy Hagar	Standing Hampton	“There’s Only One Way to Rock”	Same
33	The Moody Blues	Long Distance Voyager	“The Voice”	Same
32	Joe Walsh	There Goes the Neighborhood	“A Life of Illusion”	Same
31	Rush	Exit…Stage Left	“Closer to the Heart”	Same
30	Blondie	The Best of Blondie	“Dreaming”	“Call Me”
29	Blue Öyster Cult	Fire of Unknown Origin	“Burnin’ for You”	Same
28	ZZ Top	El Loco	“Pearl Necklace”	Same
27	U2	October	“Gloria”	Same
26	Billy Squier	Don’t Say No	“My Kinda Lover”	“Lonely Is the Night”
25	Journey	Captured	“Just the Same Way”	“The Party’s Over (Hopelessly in Love)”
24	Billy Joel	Songs in the Attic	“The Ballad of Billy the Kid”	“She’s Got a Way”
23	Pat Benatar	Precious Time	“Promises in the Dark”	Same
22	Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band	Nine Tonight	“Hollywood Nights”	“Tryin’ to Live My Life Without You”
21	Men at Work	Business as Usual	“Down Under”	Same
20	Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers	Hard Promises	“A Woman in Love (It’s Not Me)”	“The Waiting”
19	.38 Special	Wild-Eyed Southern Boys	“Hold On Loosely”	“Fantasy Girl”
18	Def Leppard	High ‘n’ Dry	“Bringin’ On the Heartbreak”	Same
17	Stevie Nicks	Bella Donna	“Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around”	Same
16	Ozzy Osbourne	Diary of a Madman	“Over the Mountain”	Same
15	Phil Collins	Face Value	“I Missed Again”	Same
14	Van Halen	Fair Warning	“Mean Street”	“Unchained”
13	The J. Geils Band	Freeze-Frame	“Centerfold”	Same
12	Loverboy	Get Lucky	“When It’s Over”	Same
11	The Police	Ghost in the Machine	“Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”	Same
10	Joan Jett & the Blackhearts	I Love Rock ‘n Roll	“Crimson and Clover”	“I Love Rock ‘n Roll”
9	Genesis	Abacab	“No Reply at All”	Same
8	The Rolling Stones	Tattoo You	“Hang Fire”	“Little T&A”
7	Styx	Paradise Theatre	“Rockin’ the Paradise”	“Too Much Time on My Hands”
6	Queen	Greatest Hits	“Don’t Stop Me Now”	“Under Pressure”
5	AC/DC	For Those About to Rock We Salute You	“Let’s Get It Up”	Same
4	The Cars	Shake It Up	“Shake It Up” and “Since You’re Gone”	Same
3	Rush	Moving Pictures	“Limelight” and “YYZ”	“Tom Sawyer” and “Limelight”
2	Foreigner	4	“Juke Box Hero” and “Waiting for a Girl Like You”	“Juke Box Hero” and “Urgent”
1	Journey	Escape	“Don’t Stop Believin’” and “Who’s Crying Now”	Same

Looking Back at Their 40

Looking back at the entire countdown, I still think Classic Rewind put together a pretty strong list. There are only five albums I would seriously reconsider, and as you can see, there are quite a few cases where I agreed with the song they played, too.

But I’m not interested in rebuilding their countdown five years later.

Their 40 are their 40.

What interested me more was what wasn’t there.

What Did They Miss?

That’s when I made the mistake of looking.

Before long, I had found about 100 more albums from 1981 that I could make at least some argument for.

Obviously, they couldn’t all make a Top 40.

But these albums aren’t turning 40 anymore.

They’re turning 45.

So maybe there’s room for five more.

In Part 2, I’ll narrow those 100 albums down to 20 and then choose five to add to Classic Rewind’s original countdown.

Coming next: 45 at 45: Five More Albums for Classic Rewind’s 1981 Countdown