1. Lou Reed, "I Love You, Suzanne." Lou has made some interesting music in the last 20+ years, but the deterioration in his vocals means we will probably never again hear a decent pop song from Lou Reed. Despite his greatness as a rock poet of darkness, Lou Reed is also capable of pop brilliance. On this track, you get his always-exquisite rhythm guitar work, perfect drumming from Fred Maher, and the usual from Fernando Saunders, one of the most recognizable bass players ever.

2. Time Zone, "World Destruction." This is not a pop song. Wikipedia claims this was the first "rapcore" song, coming three years before "Walk This Way." Not sure about that designation, but it's certainly true that there was some fertile artist collaboration going on: Africa Bambaataa meets Johnny Rotten.

3. Chaka Khan, "I Feel for You." Speaking of artist collaboration … Chaka Khan sings a Prince song with harmonica accompaniment by Stevie Wonder and rapping from Melle Mel. I'm sure I'm forgetting something obvious, but this has to be the best superstar production ever, in terms of the end result. Too many such get-togethers suck, but this is an iconic song of its time, a terrific track to this day, with a lineup of artists to rival the Million Dollar Quartet. I mean, Traveling Wilburys have nothing on these folks. (The video link offers up a slightly different superstar get-together.)

4. Frankie Goes to Hollywood, "Relax." We went to Europe for the first time in 1984, and while we were in London, all the young people seemed to be wearing t-shirts that read "Frankie Say Relax." I had no idea what it meant. I eventually found out. The video (see the top of the list) ain't exactly the Village People.

5. Bronski Beat, "Smalltown Boy." Sometimes you just have to tip your cap to Shuffle Play. The (banned) video for "Relax" still makes your jaw drop … the video for this song still makes you cry.

6. Eurythmics, "Sex Crime (Nineteen Eighty-Four)." Long before Prince's Batman, Eurythmics created a movie soundtrack that didn't seem to please the filmmakers. As great a pop song as "I Love You, Suzanne," but with a different topical approach, to be sure. Give it up one more time for Shuffle Play. (My primary extracurricular activity in high school was drama. 1984 was the last thing I ever did … I played Winston Smith, and I guess some people found that appropriate at the time.)

7. The Pretenders, "My City Was Gone." A slight cheat, this was released as a single in 1983 but was on an album in '84. One of the great post-modern ironies was that Rush Limbaugh used this as his theme song … Rush has good taste in music, the song has a great instrumental lead-in … somehow, I don't think his listeners appreciate the lyrics. Here's a question for you: why do rock critics tend to prefer Chrissie Hynde to Annie Lennox?

8. Cyndi Lauper, "Time After Time." For one year, at least, Cyndi was more popular than Annie and Chrissie combined. I mean, my daughter never wanted an Annie Lennox or Chrissie Hynde hairdo. I blame Captain Lou Albano for her decline.

9. Prince, "Erotic City." Prince has written a lot of songs over the years that use his special brand of spelling, but this is the only time I've heard "funk" spelled with a c. (I can't speak for anyone else, but I find the video link kinda disturbing.)

10. Hüsker Dü, "Turn on the News." OK, so Shuffle Play ain't perfect. I'm always glad to listen to Hüsker Dü, though. I really loved this band. Let me say that again: I REALLY loved this band. They were the best American punk band … yes, I loved the Ramones too, but I can't lie. They should have been gigantic stars … they should have been as popular as Nirvana, at the least. On the other hand, my wife pretty much couldn't stand them, at least the noisy songs (of which there were many, including "Turn on the News") because of Bob Mould's penchant for turning up the volume so high on his guitar and playing such incessantly powerful chords that even when he wasn't playing for a moment, you could still hear the damn thing. Meanwhile, looking over this list, it might be the Random Ten with the most connection to gay male culture of any so far. (The video link doesn't include "Turn on the News," but neither does any other video I could hunt down. The sound mix is atrocious, but longtime fans will appreciate how appropriate that is. And Bob's guitar is always making noise.)