Hi everyone, Just a little survey. I was wondering if anyone would like to comment on what is their favourite compilation/various artists LP, (yes - LP!) from 1980 to 1989. For me, my favourite came out when I was in year 6, and it is "Turn It Up '85". Reasons being the following: Live It Up (Mentals), Walls Come Tumblin' Down (Style Council), Everybody wants to rule.. (Tears4Fears), Lover Come Back to Me (Dead or Alive), All My Love (R.Geyer), Shall We Go (Dropbears)& Wide Boy (N.Kershaw).. I should think that's enough reasons! And that album cover is so 1985, it's not funny!! 1982 Out of the Blue and 1982 Up in Lights, plus Summer '87 must rate a special mention too !!

Tough one but going with 1982..with a bullet

All gems except the final track

Track listing
01 Centerfold - THE J GEILS BAND
02 Just Can't Get Enough - DEPECHE MODE
03 Homosapien - PETE SHELLY
04 Make A Move On Me - OLIVIA NEWTON JOHN
05 My Own Way - DURAN DURAN
06 Dirty Creature - SPLIT ENZ
07 Almost With You - THE CHURCH
08 Why Do Fools Fall in Love - DIANNA ROSS
09 The Lion Sleeps Tonight - TIGHT FIT
10 What About Me? - MOVING PICTURES
11 Cambodia - KIM WILDE
12 Beserk Warriors - MENTAL AS ANYTHING
13 Golden Brown - THE STRANGLERS
14 Let's Hang On - BARRY MANILOW
15 Mickey - TONI BASIL
16 Come Back Suzanne - BILL WYMAN
17 Body And Soul - JO KENNEDY
18 Daddy's Home - CLIFF RICHARD

Top 5

1. CHOOSE 1985
2. THRU THE ROOF '83
3. 1983 SUMMER BREAKS
4. H'ITS HUGE '84
5. 1984..SHAKIN'

Probably 'Smash Hits '87':

Side A:

1. Respectable - Mel and Kim
2. Witch queen - The Chatoozies
3. He's gonna step on you again - The Party Boys
4. Nothing's gonna stop us now - Samantha Fox
5. He's just no good for you - Mental As Anything
6. Locomotion - Kylie Minogue
7. The final countdown - Europe
8. We gotta get out of this place - The Angels

Side B:

1. I heard a rumour - Bananarama
2. Love and devotion - Michael Bow
3. Walk like an Egyptian - The Bangles
4. Take me back - Noiseworks
5. Funky town - Pseudo Echo
6. Slice of heaven - Dave Dobbyn
7. Sugar free - Wa Wa Nee
8. Suddenly - Angry Anderson



or 'Summer '89':

Side A:

1. Two strong hearts - John Farnham
2. The only way is up - Yazz
3. Never tear us apart - INXS
4. Bad medicine - Bon Jovi
5. Sexy girl - Sabrina
6. Wild, wild west - The Escape Club
7. Hold on to me - The Black Sorrows
8. So excellent - Kylie Mole
9. Oh Yeah - Yello

Side B:

1. A groovy kind of love - Phil Collins
2. You came - Kim Wilde
3. Sweet child o'mine - Guns 'n' Roses
4. As the days go by - Daryl Braithwaite
5. Fallen angel - Poison
6. I quit - Bros
7. Touch - Noiseworks
8. I want your love - Transvision Vamp
9. If I Could - 1927

There were some fantastic compilations, and a few ordinary ones, but the ones from this series that I used to play a lot were:

1 1982 Out Of The Blue
2 1981 Rocks On
3 1984 Shakin'
4 1985 Comes Alive
5 1987 Right On Track
6 Heaps Of Hits '85
7 1980 The Summer
8 1982 With A Bullet
9 Let's Go 1985
10 H'Its Huge '84
11 1982 Up In Lights
12 Throbbin'84
13 Choose 1985
14 H'Its Hot 84/85
15 Hitwave '81
16 (1981) In The Bag
17 1982 The Winners
18 1985 Hottest On Record
19 1981 Over The Top
20 H'Its Awesome '86

Others in rough order included:
Turn It Up '85
1986 Out Now
1984 The Music
All The Hits 1986
The Breakers '83
Rocktrip '82
Go For It 1983
1987 Into The Groove
Hit Wave '82
1984 The Beat
'87 Hots Up
1982...In The Sun
1981 The Sound
1986 Way To Go
Summer '87
1983 The Hot Ones
Heartbeat '86
1987 Let's Party
1986 Just For Kicks
1983 Summer Breaks
Hit City 1987
1980 The Music
Thru The Roof '83

Although not really from this series I loved the double LP Chart Attack which came out around Christmas '84

My faves are...

1980 The Summer
Hitwave '81
1981 Over The Top
1982 In The Sun
1982 With A Bullet
Thru the Roof '83
Throbbin' '84
1987 Into The Groove
'87 Right On Track
'87 Hots Up

just behind them are...

Squeezed Out
Gone Troppo
1980 The Music
Hitwave '82
Rocktrip '82
1982 Out Of The Blue
Raiders Of The Pop Charts
The Breakers '83
1984 Shakin'
H'its Huge '84
1987 Let's Party
'87 Hits Out
Celebrate '88

That's an impressive list there Guru. I have most of those on vinyl or cassette. Am looking to purchase a a usb cassette deck to transfer tapes to CD.

Jase
I have all them on LP but I also have about 30 on cassette. I should convert mine to CD as well so I can play them in the car. Apart from my computer I don't have a CD burner but I can actually hook up my Record player to my DVD recorder and make copies so I guess I could then make an audio copy of that. A couple of clips that I made up for YouTube such as Dear Enemy - Stay, Beargarden - Drink Drink Drink, No Nonsense - Simple Needs and Camras In Paris - Vision Of You are actually recorded directly from vinyl.

Many of those compilation LPs I played so often that whenever I hear Dear Enemy - Computer One, I then expect it to be followed by Kids In The Kitchen - Change In Mood and Real Life - Catch Me I'm Falling as that was the order of the songs on 1984 Shakin'. Since it also had Pseudo Echo, QED, Little Heroes, Tim Finn and Venetians on it I just think that was one of the stand out releases.

I only listed some of the ones from that particular series. There were also the K-Tel compilations such as Gone Troppo, Squeezed Out etc that John mentioned and the various themed releases such as Bop Girls, Party Tapes. All up I would have about 150 different compilations.

Some of my favourites have been a group of releases between 1983-85 by Telmak Records such as Chartbusters '84, Street Beat '84, Dance Club '84 etc. On the back cover down the bottom it would have in small print "(Not Recorded By Original Artists)". They are so bad that they are good. I love the virtual covers of songs they have created for some of them as it sounds like a different mix and many of them are actually surprisingly good. The cover they do for Hazell Dean - Searchin' is just brilliant, others can make you cringe.

Yes, I remember well in 1985 saving up my hard earned 20 bucks, or $19.99 as it were to buy a "Ton of Hits". It was a six or eight? cassette pack. On the front cover was a Ghetto Blaster. I couldn't wait to get home to have these "100 Hits" played through my ghetto blaster, when all of a sudden I realised I had been dudded big time, it was all covers from some tinny studio mob and sounded pathetic. I ended up covering the little holes on the top of the tapes and just recording something else straight over them.....

'1982 In The Sun' & '1982 Out Of The Blue'...actually all of the comps. from '82 - that year in music rocks!

I was reading in the Melbourne paper 'Herald Sun' the 'Hit' section and they had an article on best selling albums and singles. They mentioned that the highest selling compilation from the 80's was 'Choose 1985'. Interesting, cause I think it's OK, but it's not great.

I burnt all my 80's comps onto CD about 2 years ago and did all the artwork, took me about 6 months to get it all done. They look fantastic!...hey John & Jason?

Hi Michael!
No disputing your efforts with the artwork,but quite frankly,I think as far as best selling 80's comp's concerned,the Herald Sun's telling porky's!

I did that very thing a while back, hookeed up my Dolby tape deck, and converted all to cd, as well as the vinyl good enough to convert [alot of scratches], but i do find the old cassettes convert really well, with noise reduction, takes away the hiss but without losing any quality.

Now that i have an iRiver, that plugs ditectly to the tape deck, records, then dunp onto computer for a quick edit & clean up, ready to go.

Some of my faves:

1982...Out Of The Blue
1982 With A Bullet
Rocktrip '82
1982 Up In Lights
1984 Shakin'

Suprised about Choose 1985 (released 3/12/84) being the best selling? I would have thought that was pipped by Summer '87? Also, do people remember that Choose was avail. with a white & black cover in it's initial release, and then later issues where pink and black. Also it was the very first compilation album in this series available on video also!

I've managed to pick up a couple of those compilation videos,but I'd love to find a few more,though they're quite hard to find

I've got Hits of '89 Vol 2 VHS. Anyone here want it? I'll give it to you for the cost of postage (or will trade).

I'm after 1988 What's Hot VHS.

I would really like a copy of the video comp. 'Hits Of '89 Vol.2' Can you burn it onto disc for me? In return, I will burn the video comp.'1988 Wot's Hot' for you.
I also have:

Hit City 1987
Celebrate '88
Hit Pix '88
Hit Pix '88 Vol.2

Hi Nathan!
Just spotted Michael's offer and I'm wondering are you going to be help him out first before me or have you already posted the Hits Of 89 Vol 2 video?

I have a few of these compilation videos:

Choose 1985 (3 copies would you believe, I hope one is in good condition)
Hit City 1987
Let's Party 1987
Celebrate '88
Hit Pix '88
Hit Pix '88 Vol 2
1988 Whats Hot
Smash Hits 1988
Hit Songwords (1989)
Hits Of '89 Vol 1
Hits Of '89 Vol 3
Hits Of 1990 Vol 1

I don't have Hits Of '89 Vol 2 but I do have the videos for Vol 1 and Vol 3.

Vol 1
Proclaimers - I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)
Melissa Ethridge - Like The Way I Do
K Minogue & J Donovan - Especially For You
Toni Childs - Don't Walk Away
Johnny Diesel & The Injectors - Soul Revival
U2 - Angel Of Harlem
Neneh Cherry - Buffalo Stance
UB40 - Where Did I Go Wrong
Jimmy Barnes - Last Frontier
Roy Orbison - You Got It
Ian Moss - Tuckers Daughter
Paul Kelly & The Coloured Girls - Dumb Things
Robert Palmer - She Makes My Day
Womack & Womack - Teardrops
Bryan Ferry - Let's Stick Together
The Cockroaches - Permanently Single

Vol 3
Ian Moss - Telephone Booth
Roxette - Dressed For Success
Sam Brown - Can I Get A Witness
Kate Ceberane - Love Dimension
James Reyne - One More River
Paul Kelly & The Messengers - Sweet Guy
Stevie Nicks - Rooms On Fire
U2 - All I Want Is You
Johnny Diesel & The Injectors - Lookin' For Love
Easterhouse - Come Out Fighting
Nick Barker & The Reptiles - (Sure Beats) Going To Pieces
Thirty Eight Special - Second Chance
Queen - I Want It All
Natalie Cole - Miss You Like Crazy
Soul II Soul - Back To Life
Tone Loc - Funky Cold Medina

Those 2 Hits Of '89 videos look just like an episode of Rage from '89. They probably just whacked in one of those videos and let it play.

Wonder when this weeks playlist for rage will appear, hopefully before dinner time. Those Robot Chicken guys will have to be great comedians to top Amanda Palmer's effort last week.

Hi Guru Bob!
Have you copied Choose 1985,Let's Party 1987 and Hits Of 89 Vol 3 onto DVD?

Michael, email me at the email address linked to this message and we can work something out.

I used to have a great 80s compilation CD and I would like to find it again. I know it included the following tracks, among others:-

Road to Nowhere - Talking Heads
Vienna - Ultravox
Whole of the Moon - Waterboys

Can anyone help me identify it?

Backing up these compilations for a regular play is an excellent idea. I have the tapes but find that in being very old they are at risk of getting damaged. The padding under tape detaches or worse the tape sticks to heads. With vinyl you always have scratches. I had the cover only to "U Touch This" hits compilation in 1990. I collected all the MP3's from my PC and created a CD. When I get time I will create a CD version of my favourites like "Screamer" and "Rocka" from 1975. "1982 Out Of The Blue" and "Breakers 82" which will be my first picks.

I burnt 99% of all the 80's compilations onto CD from vinyl about 5 years ago. Photocopied the covers in colour and laminated them, did CD spines and track listing on the back in the same style of the record. Now, that my singles collection has grown, there's a handful of 80's comps that I have all the songs on CD or MP3 and will create them again. Not a big fan of the vinyl sound on CD. Recently I just re did 'Hits Awesome '86' and '1986 Just For Kicks' as I had all the tracks.

Michael, I've done four out of the six countdowns for you, going to do the other two soon.

I'm just wondering, how have you done your vinyl rips? Are they straight vinyl to digital rips, with no noise reduction, and no declicking?. If so, I'd be very interested to grab a copy of 1985 Let's go off you. Though I've got a mint condition of this record, my turntable is out of wack at the moment (belt and needle need replacing), and studio computer is in the process of being replaced.

I've been able to reconstruct most of my 80s comps from my CD and FLAC collection, but 1985 Let's go is a real tough one, with many of the tracks never released to CD, and finding clean 45s are next to impossible. 45s have better dynamics and sound over compilations, as they are microgrooved with low volume.

Hi Mark, I use use "Kickass Torrents" for my MP3's. With the hard to find stuff I go to "YouTube" and download the sound only file.

Hi Frank, thanks for the heads up on the mp3s, but unfortunately I'm not a fan of mp3 (or any other lossy format for that matter) and I avoid all such formats.

My entire library is wave rips either from CDs, Flacs from torrent sites (like kickass torrents - I know good site:) ), or waves ripped from vinyl. I rather a vinyl rip any day over an aac or mp3.

I hope I haven't offended, and appreciate your well intended lead. I have no problem with those who like to listen to mp3s - that's their prerogative, but personally I can't stand them.

I have pretty much every decent compilation from the 80s on cassette or vinyl.

Although they haven't been played in probably 2 decades now.

Hi Mark, thanks for getting onto those Countdown eps so quickly.

In regards to your question, most of that technical stuff is way over my head. I purchased a CD/Record burner back in 2006 (before I owned a computer LoL) and just recorded it straight from vinyl. The blank CD's used are digital audio recordable discs. I can do you a copy if you're happy with that format?

Hi Michael, that would be awesome.

I've got one more DVD to do, and I'll have them sent out when I get your address details?

I haven't got your email yet, so assuming you haven't sent your address yet.

To save you time, don't worry about indexing all the tracks, just transfer the entire album, or each side as one track, and I'll re-rip it and break the tracks up at this end.

I'm assuming you have one of those CD recorders from the 90's, the ones that look like an ordinary CD player, but just with the ability to record?

If you can do 1985 Let's go, I'd be so greatful - This compilation has been a real pain to reconstruct losslessly.

Hi Mark, you opinion is appreciated on the MP3's and I'm not offended. I understand that they are a compressed format and they skip at around 10 seconds before the track ends when you play them on the SD card player.
You appear to be someone who knows his stuff. I see you use the same strategy like me with the DVD recorder. You dub all the Countdowns to DVD discs. Sadly nowadays there are less recorders in the shops compared to PVR's. People in general prefer songs and movies stored on hard drives. I had a play with a Humax base model that was very slick. You could back up the files on an external hard drive and play them on your PC. However you couldn't A-B erase or divide titles. This means that for editing purposes you would have to investigate suitable software and determine whether it produces a decent DVD. Prior to this what level of quality are the MPEG4 TS files it produces?
I still find my two Sony DVD recorders (HX710 and HX890) do the best job.

Some of my faves...

1985 Comes Alive
Choose 1985
1982 Out Of The Blue
1984 The Beat
1985 On Fire
Hits Hot 84/85
1986 Just For Kicks
Summer '87
1982 With A Bullet
1986 Out Now
and many others, not keen on some of the K-Tel type ones.

I want to get hold of them all again eventually on CD/DVD, used to have the majority on vinyl.

Frank, I use the top encoding setting for recording, I think this is about 10mbs, possibly higher. In record mode, I can choose ELP (very ordinary), LP, EP (extended play) SP (short play), and XSP (X super play) which is the recorders best quality. I use XSP for every thing, even when taping the video's off rage.

When it comes to my compilation of the 80s though, this would be a very difficult decision to make, though out of the EMI ones from the late 80s like (Hit Pix 88 Vol 2), and (1989 Be happy) were pretty ordinary.

If i had to choose my favorites, then roughly in this order:

1. Rocktrip 82 (CBS 1982
2. Thru the Roof '83 (CBS) 1983
3. The Breakers (Warner) 1983
4. Keep on Dancing (EMI) 1983
5. Throbbin 84 (Polystar) 1984
6. Heaps of hits 84 85 (CBS) 1984
7. 1984 The Beat (EMI) 1984
8. Just Hits 85 86 (CBS) 1985
9. Turn It Up 85 (CBS) 1985
10. 1985 Hottest on Record (EMI) 1985
11. Squeezed out (K Tel) 1980
12. Instant replay (K Tel) 1979
13. Howlin' for Hits (Concept) 1984
14. 1987 Let's Party (EMI) 1986
15. Explosive Hits 78 (EMI)
16. Summer 87 (Polystar) 1986
17. Gone Troppo (K Tel) 1980
18. 1982 The Winners (Polystar) 1982
19. Turbo Charged Hits (Concept) 1986
20. Starcall hits (Starcall / RCA) 1980
21. Hitwave 82 (Polystar) 1982
22. Choose 85 (EMI) 1984
23. 1986 Way to go (EMI) 1986
24. Straight Ahead (K Tel) 1982
25. Hungry for Hits (Concept) 1987
26. 1986 Just for Kix (EMI) 1986
27. 87 Hots Up (Polystar) 1987
28. 88 Just for Kicks (Polystar) 1988
29. 1985 Let's Go (Starcall) 1985
30. 1980 the Music (EMI) 1980
31. 1981 Over the Top (EMI) 1981
32. Solid R O C K (Concept) 1985
33. Let's do it (WEA) 1990
34. 87 Right on Track (CBS) 1987
35. Summer 88 (WEA) 1987
36. 88 The Winners (WEA) 1988
37. 1989 The Right Stuff (RCA) 1989
38. Hit Pix 88 Vol 1 (EMI) 1987
39. Hits of 89 Vol 2 (EMI) 1989
40. Breakin it up (Concept) 1984

Hi Mark, I did email you last week. I think it was Saturday. Email me and I'll give you my address details and you can give me yours.

I'll do the CD for you ASAP. I don't have a CD recorder from the 90's. Mine was actually purchased brand new back in 2006. It's like a little stereo system with a lift up wooden lid to put the record on the turntable and has speakers on the side with the CD player/burner etc in the middle with controls etc. including the radio. I actually bought it on the fact that the guy at Dick Smith told me that I would be able to burn the radio onto disc. Which it doesn't. I paid about $400 for it back then.

Re the disc, I can either burn it again from the record or burn the disc I did for myself. If I burnt my disc of it, it will have the track breaks or if I recorded it again from vinyl, I'm more than happy to break up the tracks, I just hit the track increment button between each track or I can set it up that when there is silence for a couple of seconds, it automatically puts the breaks in. Let me know what you prefer. I'll also provide the artwork!

Hi Michael, yep, I did get your email, it got lost in the amount of spam that I get.

That all sounds cool, I'll get the discs off within the next few days. If you just do a copy of your disc, that will be fine.

Thanks

Hi guys. Just wondering if anyone is willing to provide copies of some of these CD compilations for me? Please email me if it's a possibility and if there's anything I can help you with in exchange.

Touche xxxx
New Romantic K TEL record. The first compilation I owned on cassette in 1982