Classic Rock Bottom

In this post I will be offering some stats and a couple of brief thoughts regarding 25 albums from 1984. This is not meant to be a Top 25 list of that year, it is just twenty-five albums from 1984 that I pulled out to listen to.  I will offer my personal ranking of the 25 albums as well and I encourage you to follow along and do the same...if you want.  I will be ranking as I go and shuffling as needed.  I will start here and add each successive album in the comments.  As a disclaimer, all of the Billboard charting and RIAA type info is pulled from Wikipedia so I don’t even know if it’s accurate.

Album Title: The Blitz

Artist: Krokus

Release Date: 8/22/84

Billboard: 31

RIAA Certification: Gold

Charting Singles: Midnite Maniac #71

Notable Deep Cuts:

Our Love
Rock The Nation
Hot Stuff

Brief Thoughts: Fair album. Our Love is a really good song, even though it did not chart in the US. Midnite Maniac and the cover of Ballroom Blitz are both pretty good.

Ranking:

1. The Blitz

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Yep it is a great album!

Album Title: W.A.S.P.

Artist: W.A.S.P.

Release Date: 8/17/84

Billboard: 74

RIAA Certification: Gold

Charting Singles:

None

Notable Deep Cuts:

The Flame
Hellion
Sleeping In The Fire
On Your Knees
Tormentor
The Torture Never Stops

Brief Thoughts: Needless to say, the general buying public that boosts albums up the chart doesn’t respond well to this “shock” music. But this is a killer album. I wanna Be Somebody and L.O.V.E. Machine are fairly well known I think, but there really isn’t a bad song to be found. I think the band came right out of the starting blocks at the pinnacle and never equaled this offering, although they do have other good albums. Just an opinion of course.

Ranking:

1. Born In The U.S.A.
2. Out Of The Cellar
3. Reckless
4. No Brakes
5. Vital Signs
6. Street Talk
7. W.A.S.P.
8. Honeymoon Suite
9. VOA
10. Agent Provocateur
11. Building The Perfect Beast
12. Desert Moon
13. Slide It In
14. Sign In Please
15. The Blitz

I love the early W.A.S.P. stuff!

So my list would now be:

My list would now be:

1. Vital Signs

2. Street Talk

3. No Brakes

4. Reckless

5. Born In The U.S.A.

6. W.A.S.P.

7. Slide It In

8. Out of the Cellar

9. Building The Perfect Beast

10. Honeymoon Suite

11. Sign In Please

Album Title: Couldn’t Stand The Weather

Artist: Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble

Release Date: 5/15/84

Billboard: 31

RIAA Certification: 2 X Platinum

Charting Singles:

None

Notable Deep Cuts:

Scuttle Buttin’
Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)

Brief Thoughts: I don’t remember even thinking about SRV back when this was released. I wasn’t really into the blues. But over the years I have certainly grown an appreciation for this style of music. This was my first ever listen to this album but I really enjoyed it. The guitar playing is phenomenal as one would expect. Now I must listen to more of his catalog.

Ranking:

1. Born In The U.S.A.
2. Out Of The Cellar
3. Reckless
4. No Brakes
5. Vital Signs
6. Street Talk
7. W.A.S.P.
8. Honeymoon Suite
9. VOA
10. Agent Provocateur
11. Building The Perfect Beast
12. Desert Moon
13. Slide It In
14. Couldn’t Stand The Weather
15. Sign In Please
16. The Blitz

I haven't listened to this one though I'm sure I've heard individual tracks from the album.

Album Title: Perfect Strangers

Artist: Deep Purple

Release Date: 10/29/84

Billboard: 17

RIAA Certification: Platinum

Charting Singles:

Knocking At Your Back Door #61

Notable Deep Cuts:

A Gypsy’s Kiss

Brief Thoughts: Deep Purple has been around forever. They have released a lot of solid albums and this is one of them. It is an easy listen from start to finish although there isn’t really anything here that begs me to listen to it multiple times.

Ranking:

1. Born In The U.S.A.
2. Out Of The Cellar
3. Reckless
4. No Brakes
5. Vital Signs
6. Street Talk
7. W.A.S.P.
8. Honeymoon Suite
9. VOA
10. Agent Provocateur
11. Building The Perfect Beast
12. Desert Moon
13. Slide It In
14. Couldn’t Stand The Weather
15. Perfect Strangers
16. Sign In Please
17. The Blitz

Album Title: Tooth And Nail

Artist: Dokken

Release Date: 9/3/84

Billboard: 49

RIAA Certification: Platinum

Charting Singles:

Alone Again #64

Notable Deep Cuts:

Tooth And Nail
Heartless Heart
Don’t Close Your Eyes
When Heaven Comes Down
Bullets To Spare


Brief Thoughts: I really like this album. It is packed full of good songs. To me it is a big improvement over their previous album. From the singles that did not chart (Just Got Lucky and Into The Fire) to the deep cuts listed above, this album rocks. Alone Again is also one of my favorite hair ballads. Still fun to listen to.

Ranking:

1. Born In The U.S.A.
2. Out Of The Cellar
3. Reckless
4. No Brakes
5. Vital Signs
6. Street Talk
7. W.A.S.P.
8. Tooth And Nail
9. Honeymoon Suite
10. VOA
11. Agent Provocateur
12. Building The Perfect Beast
13. Desert Moon
14. Slide It In
15. Couldn’t Stand The Weather
16. Perfect Strangers
17. Sign In Please
18. The Blitz

Album Title: Stay Hungry

Artist: Twisted Sister

Release Date: 5/10/84

Billboard: 15

RIAA Certification: 3 X Platinum

Charting Singles:

We’re Not Gonna Take It #21
I Wanna Rock #68

Notable Deep Cuts:

The Price

Brief Thoughts: Can’t say I was a fan of TS back then. I mean, the two hits from this album were just okay to me. There’s just something about the band that never appealed to me. I will say that after buying several of their albums and listening to them that this is probably the best one. But other than The Price, which is an excellent song, this is the last album out of everything covered so far that I would reach for.

Ranking:

1. Born In The U.S.A.
2. Out Of The Cellar
3. Reckless
4. No Brakes
5. Vital Signs
6. Street Talk
7. W.A.S.P.
8. Tooth And Nail
9. Honeymoon Suite
10. VOA
11. Agent Provocateur
12. Building The Perfect Beast
13. Desert Moon
14. Slide It In
15. Couldn’t Stand The Weather
16. Perfect Strangers
17. Sign In Please
18. The Blitz
19. Stay Hungry

I haven't listened to the Deep Purple album. The Tooth and Nail album is good and I love the Twisted Sister album, I even wrote about it for The Cassette Chronicles.

My list would now be:

1. Vital Signs

2. Street Talk

3. Stay Hungry

4. No Brakes

5. Reckless

6. Born In The U.S.A.

7. W.A.S.P.

8. Slide It In

9. Out of the Cellar

10. Building The Perfect Beast

11. Tooth and Nail

12. Honeymoon Suite

13. Sign In Please

Album Title: The Unforgettable Fire

Artist: U2

Release Date: 10/1/84

Billboard: 12

RIAA Certification: 3 X Platinum

Billboard Charting Singles:

Pride (In The Name Of Love) #33

Notable Deep Cuts:

A Sort Of Homecoming
The Unforgettable Fire
Bad

Brief Thoughts: So I have been a fan of War and The Joshua Tree for many years. The Unforgettable Fire was sandwiched between those row and today is the first time I have ever listened to it. The only song I was familiar with is Pride (In The Name Of Love) and of course, it is terrific. I enjoyed the album through the song Bad, but it fell off a bit over the last three songs. But Edge is a great, although not flashy guitar player. I call his playing moody and I now want to listen to this through headphones.

Ranking:

1. Born In The U.S.A.
2. Out Of The Cellar
3. Reckless
4. No Brakes
5. Vital Signs
6. Street Talk
7. W.A.S.P.
8. Tooth And Nail
9. Honeymoon Suite
10. VOA
11. Agent Provocateur
12. Building The Perfect Beast
13. Desert Moon
14. Slide It In
15. Couldn’t Stand The Weather
16. Perfect Strangers
17. The Unforgettable Fire
18. Sign In Please
19. The Blitz
20. Stay Hungry

Album Title: 1984

Artist: Van Halen

Release Date: 1/9/84

Billboard: 2

RIAA Certification: Diamond

Billboard Charting Singles:

Jump #1
I’ll Wait #13
Panama #13
Hot For Teacher #56

Notable Deep Cuts:

1984
Top Jimmy
Drop Dead Legs
Girl Gone Bad
House Of Pain

Brief Thoughts: I would likely rank this as my fourth favorite Van Halen album, but even with that every single song is notable. And awesome. I really enjoyed spinning this today. Sadly, Eddie Van Halen has moved on, but luckily his music still belongs to us. Rest peacefully to the GOAT.

Ranking:

1. 1984
2. Born In The U.S.A.
3. Out Of The Cellar
4. Reckless
5. No Brakes
6. Vital Signs
7. Street Talk
8. W.A.S.P.
9. Tooth And Nail
10. Honeymoon Suite
11. VOA
12. Agent Provocateur
13. Building The Perfect Beast
14. Desert Moon
15. Slide It In
16. Couldn’t Stand The Weather
17. Perfect Strangers
18. The Unforgettable Fire
19. Sign In Please
20. The Blitz
21. Stay Hungry

I like The Unforgettable Fire but for the most part it is based off of the "Pride (In The Name of Love)" song. The album as a whole isn't one I listen to a lot.

I love the 1984 album but against previous albums you've listed, it doesn't rank quite so high in my own list:

My list would now be:

1. Vital Signs

2. Street Talk

3. Stay Hungry

4. No Brakes

5. 1984

6. Reckless

7. Born In The U.S.A.

8. W.A.S.P.

9. Slide It In

10. Out of the Cellar

11. Building The Perfect Beast

12. The Unforgettable Fire

13. Tooth and Nail

14. Honeymoon Suite

15. Sign In Please

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Norma Jean Fox
(11/30/1945-9/7/2010)

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