From: Hastie, John Subject: Audities Ranks the 80's - The winner is... Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 11:09:20 -0800 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Well we had to reopen the voting booth to allow our fine fellow lister from Florida to cast his vote and his vote mainly affirmed the previous voting (although his vote did push Sam Phillips into the top 100!). And the winner is... But first, some information about the vote itself. Forty two people managed to find time to submit a vote for their favorites - about 10% of the Audities family (and a little less than the percentage that voted in the recent national election). So take that factor into consideration. Then consider that the 42 voters managed to submit votes on 494 DIFFERENT recordings! Of this total, 362 had votes by ONE person, 71 had votes by TWO people and 36 had votes by THREE people. Add that up and it's obvious that 464 of the 494 (93%) had very little support (not enough advertising I suppose). SO that leaves us with roughly 30 albums that struck the fancy 10% or more of our admittedly small voting populous. I just had to run some analyses on the data and found the following: Many artists received votes on one or two recordings, but fourteen artists had THREE recordings nominated (Smithereens, Van Halen, Richard Thompson, Todd, Split Enz, Jam, X, Cheap Trick, M Crenshaw, Game Theory, Queen, Robyn Hitchcock, Husker Du, and Paul Kelly!). Four groups placed FOUR recordings on the list (Shoes, dbs, Replacements, Utopia). Two artists had FIVE recordings on the list (Prince & the Smiths). Two artists had SIX recordings nominated (Elvis Costello & XTC). And one group placed SEVEN on the list (R.E.M.!). Apparently the most popular label in the 80's was Warner Bros (they had 34 of the 494). A&M placed second with 32. Third place was a tie between Geffen, Columbia, Elektra & Sire with 24 each! And our voters spread their votes across the decade. No year had less than 40 nominations and the most was 56. So, back to the point. The winner is... 1) XTC - Skylarking (Geffen, 1986) 100 points, 13 votes 2) Elvis Costello & Attractions - Imperial Bedroom (Columbia, 1982) 60.5 points, 9 votes 3) R.E.M. - Murmur (IRS, 1983) 53 points, 8 votes 4) Marshall Crenshaw - s/t (Warner Bros, 1982) 49 points, 8 votes 5) The Replacements - Let It Be (TwinTone, 1984) 46 points, 7 votes 6) The Smithereens - Especially for You (Enigma, 1986) 44 points, 8 votes 7) Tommy Keene - Songs from the Film (Geffen, 1986) 37 points, 5 votes 8) Roxy Music - Avalon (Reprise, 1982) 35 points, 6 votes 9) The Pretenders - s/t (Sire, 1980) 33 points, 6 votes 10) XTC - Oranges & Lemons (Geffen, 1989) 32 points, 5 votes 11) Crowded House - s/t (Capitol, 1986) 29 points, 4 votes 12) Squeeze - Argybargy (A&M, 1980) 29 points, 5 votes 13) R.E.M. - Reckoning (IRS, 1984) 28 points, 5 votes 14) The Connells - Boylan Heights (TVT, 1987) 28 points, 3 votes 15) Squeeze - East Side Story (A&M, 1980) 27.5 points, 6 votes 16) Elvis Costello & Attractions - Get Happy! (Columbia, 1980) 27 points, 3 votes 17) Peter Gabriel - 3 (Geffen, 1980) 27 points, 4 votes 18) The db's - Reprecussion (Albion/Line, 1982) 27 points, 5 votes 19) The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms (A&M, 1980) 27 points, 4 votes 20) The Three O'Clock - 16 Tambourines (Frontier, 1983) 27 points, 5 votes 21) U2 - The Joshua Tree (Island, 1987) 26 points, 6 votes 22) Pixies - Doolittle (4AD, 1989) 25 points, 6 votes 23) The db's - Like This (Bearsville, 1985) 25 points, 3 votes 24) The Smiths - The Queen is Dead (Sire, 1986) 25 points, 3 votes 25) Utopia - s/t (Network, 1982) 25 points, 4 votes 26) Marshall Crenshaw - Field Day (Warner Bros, 1983) 24 points, 4 votes 27) Crowded House - Temple of Low Men (Capitol, 1988) 23 points, 3 votes 28) Hoodoo Gurus - Stoneage Romeos (Big Time, 1984) 23 points, 3 votes 29) The Bangles - All Over the Place (Columbia, 1984) 23 points, 4 votes 30) Prince - Sign O'the Times (Warner Bros, 1987) 22 points, 4 votes Number 31 -40 includes db's - Stands for Decibels, Go-Betweens - 16 Lovers Lane, Plimsouls - Everywhere at Once, TPOH - Love Junk, Vapors - New Clear Days, Go Gos - Beauty & the Beat, Replacements - Pleased to Meet Me, U2 - War, Graham Parker - Mona Lisa's Sister, and Shoes - Boomerang After that it gets to the point where if two people really liked an album it would rank in the 40's. However, if anyone is interested in these rankings as well as the other 400+, send me an email and I will send the entire Excel spreadsheet to you. So anyway, that wraps up Audities Ranks the 80's. I would have liked a little more participation, but I had enough trouble keeping up with the 42 votes I did receive! -- Lee Elliott