Living In Oblivion : The 80's Greatest Hits, Vol. 3

Living In Oblivion (Series) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 22, 1994)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B000002TNH
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #80,349 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. (Keep Feeling) Fascination

2. Perfect Way

3. Cruel Summer

4. Life in a Northern Town

5. Election Day

6. Shattered Dreams

7. Sunglasses at Night

8. The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades

9. Make a Circuit With Me

10. Rock This Town

11. Sidewalk Talk

12. It's My Life

13. (I Just) Died in Your Arms

14. Hanging on a Heart Attack

15. Poison Arrow

16. Aeiou Sometimes Y

17. Are You Sure

18. The Way You Are [#]

19. What Do All the People Know

Editorial Reviews

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome compilation of non-typical hits from the 1980's!, November 30, 2005

By 

Get What We Give (Georgia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Living In Oblivion : The 80's Greatest Hits, Vol. 3 (Audio CD)

The Living In Oblivion series of CD compilations does something that many similar compilations do NOT do: they give us some great variety of "hits".

There is no doubt that "Mickey" by Toni Basil was a huge hit. There's also no doubt that "Our Lips are Sealed" was a break out hit for the Go Go's, but the Funboy Three version wasn't. But what about "Living in a Box"? It only hit the Billboard top 100 at #89 in 1987. So why is it here? Why are a large number of these songs? They're not top 10 hits, right?

Wrong!

I'm sick to death of so many compilations relying on top 40 hits from the 80's. The U.S. music tastes are typically very different from those of Europe. Just because a song doesn't make the U.S. Billboard top 40 doesn't mean that it isn't a hit in other countries. And although I'm an American, my music tastes have always run more in line with those of Europe.

I'm delighted that the Living in Oblivion series (and the Pop and Wave series) have incorporated a variety of hits from the U.S. and Europe.

I also like that some of the more obscure groups and their songs are available on these compilations. There are several songs on these albums that never were released on CD (as they hadn't come into being at the time of the groups' albums initial releases), so albums such as these are the only place where you can find these hits. The Boys Don't Cry song "I Wanna Be a Cowboy" hit the Billboard charts at #12 in 1986, but the group disappeared soon thereafter. Then all of a sudden a dance version of that same song came out in the early 2000's and rocketed up the dance charts.

Don't be misled, the Living in Oblivion series is one of the absolutely best series for a variety of music from the 80's. If you want to hear run of the mill, top 40 only hits from the 80's, well, then you'll just have to look elsewhere.

Also, the liner notes and pictures of the groups included in the jewel box are really clever. You get to find out what the chart position was for the songs in the compilation and see what the groups looked like at the time of the song's release. My only issue with these liner notes is that the author of them seems to be disparaging the very music which these albums are espousing. Apparently many believe that the music from the 80's was vacuous and devoid of emotion. One need only listen to the song "The Promise" by the group "When in Rome" (Living in Oblivion Volume 5) to know that such a statement is false. While that group only had this one hit and then faded into obscurity, "The Promise" made the Billboard Top 100 at #11 and the Billboard Dance Chart at #1.

Anyway... I can't recommend this album and its entire series any more! It's simply awesome! Before believing those who would disparage this series of albums, please check the Billboard charts and you'll see that these songs were in fact hits.

GET IT!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant from Start to Finish, April 13, 2002

By 

Danaphile "music lover" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Living In Oblivion : The 80's Greatest Hits, Vol. 3 (Audio CD)

Despite the complaints below, there are great songs here that, in fact, are hard to find elsewhere: AEIOU Sometimes Y, Hanging On a Heart Attack, Sidewalk Talk, Make a Circuit with Me, and Shattered Dreams. And that reviewer assumes that you already have the same discs as he does. Um, OK.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best of the Living in Oblivion Series, November 12, 2004

By 

Mary E. Liro (Tampa, Florida United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Living In Oblivion : The 80's Greatest Hits, Vol. 3 (Audio CD)

I own all five Living In Oblivion discs and this one is the one I listen to the most. Just like all compilations, there are some songs that you can find on just about any '80s retrospective CD, but there are many good songs that are not on those other discs. These songs include the fantastic "It's My Life" by Talk Talk, "Hanging on a Heart Attack" by Device, "Are You Sure" by So, "What Do All the People Know" by The Monroes, and my personal favorite, "Life in a Northern Town" by The Dream Academy.
Every fan of the 1980s will find one disc more to their liking, but chances are that most of you who love 80s music will find several songs on this disc that you will like.