Artist	Song
Spinal Tap	(Tonight I'm Gonna) Rock You Tonight
Twisted Sister	We're Not Gonna Take It
Quiet Riot	Bang Your Head (Metal Health)
Ratt	Round and Round
Bon Jovi	Runaway
Whitesnake	Love Ain't No Stranger
Night Ranger	Sister Christian
Prince and the Revolution	Let's Go Crazy
Queen	Hammer To Fall
Deep Purple	Perfect Strangers
Van Halen	Panama
Sammy Hagar	I Can't Drive 55
Krokus	Midnite Maniac
Twisted Sister	I Wanna Rock
Spinal Tap	Sex Farm
Ratt	Back for More
Scorpions	Rock You Like a Hurricane
Van Halen	Jump

Comment:

The best, or at least the most popular, hard rock and metal of 1984. Volume 5 of the Butt-Rock Canon.

"1984." Just saying the number evokes images of Big Brother watching you, David Lee Roth lusting after Teacher, and Prince dry-humping a First Avenue speaker cluster. What a solid year. Even Ratt (who remembers Ratt?!) turned out two fantastic tracks this year. I did cheat a little -- Spinal Tap made the cut, even though they didn't actually release singles in real life. But they go up to 11, so I let it slide.

(Incidentally, why did Twisted Sister ever make it big? Why is Dee Snyder still always on VH1? Seriously. Along with Quiet Riot, they managed to combine the brains of metal with the technical proficiency of punk, which never sounded like a winning combination to me.)

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