80s Soul Genius (part one)

Lest anyone try and pretend otherwise: be in no doubt, from one who was there at the time, the 80s were shite. Clothes were shocking, the country went down the tubes (courtesy of one M. Thatcher), people collectively thought that purple hairspray was acceptable, and pop music (the true mark of a decade, if you ask me) was on the whole pretty appalling. But just as every rose bush has 200 thorns for every flower, if you look hard enough, you can find one or two gold nuggets among the dross. And having spent an interesting night a few weeks back at the Starlight Lounge in San Francisco, apparently specialists in this sort of thing, I was reminded of a few stone-cold soul classics which hail from the decade that style forgot...

Luther Vandross - Never Too Much (1980; above)

The song reminds me of Friday nights spent bounding around the Bullingdon Arms in Oxford with a huge smile on my face. Perhaps the sort of grin sported by our Luther here when he realises his girl is hiding in his house after all. One from the era before they worked out what to do in pop videos besides show the singer singing (in this case, with a massive set of 'cans').

The Style Council - You're The Best Thing (1984)

A shout out to my man Paul here, fellow Woking native/suffererer, from the days when he had stopped playing spiky new wave tunes with the Jam, and was going through something of an experimental phase. A lot of the Style Council's output was conceptual wine-bar bollocks, but when it all clicked, as it did in one or two of their singles, they were the bollocks. This is, I think, a paean to the then Mrs Weller, one of his backing singers, and it is so good and such a lovely song, I thought for the longest time it was by someone else.

George Benson - Give Me The Night (1980)

It was a toss-up between this, another bound-around-Friday-night classic, and Lady Love Me, for the Benson representative in this list. This one wins for George's mastering of the challenging feat of rollerskating backwards whilst playing guitar and not looking like a tool - which, as Cliff Richard later found, is a very tricky thing indeed.

Patrice Rushen - Forget Me Nots (1983)

A wicked slap bassline, a tune you definitely know (as ripped off by Will Smith), and commendably danceable in a post-disco stylee. Love it. The video shows a suspiciously curvy bellboy and some typically amusing period costume (pastel aquamarine jacket dress combo in polyester).

Grace Jones - Pull Up To The Bumper (1985)

A very 80s figure, our Grace. And she was responsible for some tremendously funky chowns in her time (which seems to have been about two weeks in 1985). This one, I think, is my favourite with its killer bass, kicking beat, metallic guitar fills and absolutely filthy lyrics. Several YouTube clips showcase Ms Jones's signature dancing style, in case you've never seen it... I recommend hunting them down.