The Rock of Life: 1982
In the Rock of Life series I will be recounting my music listening history throughout the years. Each year, starting with 1982, I will describe what I was listening to at the time and then pick my “Album of the Year”. Some (arbitrary) rules: the album will have been released in that year, although some could be from late in the prior year. It must be an album I actually listened to back then, not an album I discovered later. It can’t be a “greatest hits” album.
In 1982 most of my music listening occurred on my little Radio Shack transistor radio1. It was powered by a 9-volt battery and had one of those little white single ear buds. Both the radio and the earbud sounded pretty terrible.
I enjoyed flipping between AM/FM and spinning to various stations to find “good songs”.
I would listen to this radio all the time, especially at night. Being only 11 at the time, I’d be put to bed with the intention of going to sleep, but I would dig out my radio and listen via the earbud until I got sleepy.
That all changed for my birthday in September when I got my first “walkman”. Technically it was a Sanyo portable cassette player and not a real Sony Walkman, but I didn’t care. I could now play my own music with stereo headphones!
In 1982, most radio stations I could get played pop music. Fortunately back then rock was still part of the pop charts, so I was able to hear it more than you can today. Some of the songs I really liked back then include:
Quarterflash - Harden My Heart & Find Another Fool (from their debut album)
Journey - Open Arms (from Escape, released in 1981 but still popular in 82)
Rick Springfield - Don’t Talk to Strangers (from Success Hasn’t Spoiled Me Yet)
.38 Special - Caught Up in You (from Special Forces)
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - I Love Rock N Roll (from the album of the same name released in November 1981)
Note: I’m including some 1981 stuff here because I technically got that transistor radio for Christmas in 1981 and many songs from albums released in 1981 were still being played in 1982.
At the time I got my “walkman”, I also got my first cassette: Success Hasn’t Spoiled Me Yet by Rick Springfield, which makes it a great candidate for album of the year. But for Christmas 1982, my grandmother got me a cassette: Records by Foreigner. I had never heard of Foreigner, but this quickly became one of my favorite cassettes. I asked her once what caused her to pick it out for me and she said that she asked a worker at the record store what a 12-year old boy might like and it was what he recommended. So, thank you, random record store worker from 1982!
Alas, being a greatest hits album, Records is not eligible for this first award.
So my pick of album of 1982 goes to Success Hasn’t Spoiled Me Yet by Rick Springfield. This is a great album with several tracks that I love, including: I Get Excited, Kristina, What Kind of Fool am I, and Don’t Talk to Strangers, of course.
It peaked at #2 on the Billboard 200 and went platinum in the US (1 million copies sold).
The Rock of Life list so far:
1982: Success Hasn’t Spoiled Me Yet by Rick Springfield
I also made use of my Dad’s Soundesign stereo system. It had an 8-track player, record player, radio and bigger speakers. It was nothing fancy, but I liked it. My Dad had a few 8-track tapes I would play on occasion. And early on I would purchase a few 45 singles, but that mostly stopped once I got into cassettes.