When talking about Martha and the Muffins, we usually start with "Echo Beach". "Echo Beach" was a major Cancon hit in 1980 and Martha and the Muffins' definitive single. "Echo Beach" actually cracked the top 10 in the UK, making it an international success.
In 1984, I remember well the video for Martha and the Muffins' "Black Stations/White Stations". 16 26 years later, I'm grateful they took some of the guesswork out of the "when was that song released?" game by slapping the year of release in the lyrics.
Black faces white faces, break down the door, stand up and face the music, this is 1984.
Declare the year of release in your lyrics, songwriters! Here's that video from 1984.
Can anyone name another song that tells you what year it is in the lyrics? I'm not referring to a song like "Summer of '69" which was released in the 80s, but a song that comes out and says "this is 1984" when it is in fact 1984.
Update: Now that I think of it, this is rather popular with rap songs. I've got Public Enemy, NWA and a whole bunch of artists rapping about what year it is. Let's take rap out of this little contest and see if we can name non-rap songs that reference the year of release.
