By: David Smay

The B-52s’ “Dance This Mess Around” — a cargo cult for Bubblegum music.

By: Tor Aarestad

Oingo Boingo’s “Little Girls”: Swiftian, or adolescent Hitler skit?

By: Deb Chachra

Rough Trade’s HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL. It still sounds dangerous.

By: Adam McGovern

Lene Lovich’s “Lucky Number” — squeaky, staccato, pioneering.

By: Ingrid Schorr

Ian Dury’s “Clevor Trever” — “Got no right to make a clot — out of Trever.”

By: Tim Carmody

Talking Heads’ “Life During Wartime” — a mantra for our paranoid days.

By: Mimi Lipson

Dolly Mixture’s “How Come You’re Such A Hit With The Boys, Jane?” — a rebuke to phonies.

By: Lucy Sante

The Normal’s WARM LEATHERETTE — JG Ballard’s method, inscribed on the head of a pin.

By: Anthony Miller

The Nails’ “88 Lines About 44 Women” — one of the great list songs.

By: Molly Wright Steenson

Watching “Words” by Missing Persons — it felt like the future.

By: Joshua Glenn

Tim Curry’s “I Do the Rock” — “I do the only thing that still/Makes sense to me.”.

By: Jonathan Lethem

The Blue Nile’s “I Love This Life” — dancing and singing, caring and careless.

By: Adrienne Crew

QUIRK YOUR ENTHUSIASM (9): D-Day’s “Too Young to Date” —  a quasi-feminist anthem.

By: Gordon Dahlquist

XTC’s “Respectable Street”: a very English anthem of Ah, Go Fuck Yourself.

By: Greg Rowland

Jilted John’s “JIlted John” : parodic yet profound.