Musical Promotion

Suppose you're a song, and you live on my ipod. And suppose you're the type of song that would like to be as highly rated as you can be. In other words, you're an over achiever of the mp3 community. How do you get that coveted 5-star rating?

If you ever give me cill bumps, that will get you there. If you've been in the rotation for 25 years and I'm still not tired of you, you have a pretty good chance too.

Today, I decided to promote Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher" from four to five stars. It might just have the sickest intro in the history of Rock and Roll.

And who amongst my age-group peers doesn't remember the video fondly?

How good was the year 1984 for new music? There are 7 albums released that year that I still listen to to this day. Two of these are definitely in my list of top 20 albums of all time. You can tell me which two.

• 1984, Van Halen
• Born in the USA, Springsteen
• Purple Rain, Prince
• The Unforgettable Fire, U2
• Like a Virgin, Madonna
• Reckless, Bryan Adams
• Private Dancer, Tina Turner

No wonder it seems like music quality has gone downhill ever since.

You might contend that I took a step down with those last two, but I just listened to Reckless from start to finish while on a road trip a couple of weeks ago, and it's better than you remember.