#151 Don't Dream It's Over – Crowded House (1987)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9gKyRmic20

 

Ariana Grande and Miley Cyrus knew what they were doing when they performed this one together at the recent One Love Manchester concert; it’s one of the most beautiful and well-crafted songs of all time, with the unforgettable chorus, the great lyrics in the verses, and that organ at the beginning of the bridge. Listening again to the second part of the chorus, you have to wonder whether Neil Finn had a premonition of what the state of the world would be like 30 years later:

 

They come, they come

To build a wall between us

We know they won't win.

#150 Morse Code Of Love – The Capris (1982)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz_9r1APwM4

 

New York doo-woppers The Capris had a huge hit in 1961 with “There’s A Moon Out Tonight”, so I could never figure out why their “Morse Code Of Love”, which is also widely recognized as one of the classic doo-wop songs of all time and still gets plenty of airplay on the few remaining radio stations to cover that era, never charted back in the day. (The Manhattan Transfer did get to #83 with a cover version in 1985.) It turns out that timing is everything; although “Morse Code Of Love” sounds exactly like something from the late 50s or early 60s, it wasn’t written or recorded (by a re-formed version of the group) until 20 years later. 1982 wound up being a great year hit-wise for the likes of Joan Jett (“I Love Rock ‘N Roll”), The J. Geils Band (“Centerfold”), and Survivor (“Eye Of The Tiger”). For aging doo-wop groups, not so much.

#149 Hazy Shade Of Winter – The Bangles (1987)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxrwImCJCqk

 

I’m pretty sure that the original version of this song is the only Simon & Garfunkel single I ever bought, and it remains one of my favorite songs by the duo. The Bangles, however, made it their own 21 years later with a version that, after a slow teaser intro, rocks several orders of magnitude harder than its predecessor. I can even forgive them for dropping half of the lines from the bridge.