The second to last K-Tel album I ever bought new was The Beat - Sound Wave of the 80's - in late 1982. Personally, it is probably in my Top 5 K-Tel albums of all time and it has more than a few of my favorite songs on it. I'd say that there are only two songs out the fourteen on the album that I have never really cared for: the one by Graham Parker and the one by OMD. The first three songs on Side One are my jams and actually, Side One is top heavy with favorites of mine making Side Two look a little lame by comparison. I know enough about these songs to confidently say that not many hit the Top 40 and probably none of them crossed over to either the AC or R&B charts. I'm hoping they make a strong showing on the rock chart and there is a distinct possibility a few migrated onto the dance floor and made the disco chart.
The Beat is available on album, cassette and 8-track. My research yielded no Canadian release. My man Brandon has posted a rip of his copy of the album and you can listen to it below.
The K-Tel Scale has been activated and as I suspected, the results are disappointing, possibly the lowest score EVER and a full twenty points below the average K-Tel Scale Score after 64 albums. Only bright spot if you can call it that is the eighteen crossovers on the disco and rock charts which is kind of odd when you think about it as those two charts are almost never mentioned in the same breath let alone the same sentence. The score has been redacted below to protect The Beat's reputation as well as my fond memories of the album.
THE BEAT [1982]
| X.XX | ||||||
| Billboard Top 40s | |||||||
| Pop | R&B | DISCO | Rock | AC | CB | ||
| I Ran (So Far Away) | A Flock Of Seagulls | 9 | 8 | 3 | 14 | ||
| Kids In America | Kim Wilde | 25 | 29 | 20 | |||
| Love Plus One | Haircut One Hundred | 37 | 8 | 18 | (49) | ||
| I Predict | Sparks | (60) | (77) | ||||
| I Got You | Split Enz | (53) | (82) | (50) | |||
| You Hit The Spot | Graham Parker | (42) | |||||
| I Know What Boys Like | The Waitresses | (62) | 23 | (74) | |||
| We Got The Beat | The Go-Go's | 2 | 35 | 7 | 2 | ||
| I Want Candy | Bow Wow Wow | (62) | 36 | 22 | (61) | ||
| Girls On Film | Duran Duran | 26 | 19 | ||||
| In The Name Of Love | Thompson Twins | 1 | |||||
| Dreaming Of Me | Depeche Mode | (47) | |||||
| Joan Of Arc | Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark | ||||||
| Hot In The City | Billy Idol | 23 | 31 | 27 | |||
Next time out, we'll be listening to The Best Of Today's Great Love Songs:
Censorship is un-American! Give the public the K-tel score!
ReplyDeleteOn the SRK scale, this compilation rates a 64 out of 100.