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The Police: Zenyatta Mondatta
A&M Records releases Zenyatta Mondatta, the third album by The Police, featuring the singles “Don’t Stand So Close To Me” and “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da”.
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Alan Parsons Project: Turn Of A Friendly…
The Alan Parsons Project releases its fifth album, The Turn Of A Friendly Card, including the hit singles “Time” and “Games People Play”.
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Christmas In The Stars
RSO Records, the label responsible for releasing the Star Wars movie soundtracks to date, releases the Star Wars novelty tie-in album Christmas In The Stars. Produced by Meco Menardo (of Star Wars disco cover fame), the album not only answers the age-old question of what to get a Wookiee for Christmas when he already has a comb, but is the first credited studio session work of future rock god Jon Bon Jovi (credited on the LP under his given name, Jon Bongiovi).
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Flash Gordon soundtrack
Elektra Records releases an album of rock group Queen‘s soundtrack from the cult science fiction classic Flash Gordon. The album, which omits Howard Blake’s orchestral score and leads off with the single “Flash’s Theme”, is a European chart-topper (and gets a surprising amount of airplay elsewhere for a mostly-instrumental soundtrack album).
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Steve Winwood: Arc Of A Diver
Island Records releases Steve Winwood‘s second solo album, Arc Of A Diver, on New Years’ Eve. Featuring the singles “While You See A Chance” and “Arc Of A Diver” and “Night Train”, the album is performed and produced entirely by Winwood, working in his home studio.
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Split Enz: Corroboree/Waiata
A Split Enz album with identity issues, the group’s sixth studio album is released as Corroboree in Australia and New Zealand, and as Waiata in all other territories. Again produced by David Tickle, this album continues with the punchier True Colours sound and yields the international hit “History Never Repeats”, whose video becomes one of the very first ever played by a new American music video channel, MTV.
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Moody Blues: Long Distance Voyager
Decca Records releases the tenth Moody Blues album, Long Distance Voyager, featuring the singles “Gemini Dream” and “The Voice”.
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Raiders Of The Lost Soundtrack
Columbia Records releases an album of John Williams‘ soundtrack from Raiders Of The Lost Ark in advance of the movie’s theatrical premiere.
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Electric Light Orchestra – Time
Electric Light Orchestra‘s ninth album, the science fiction/time travel concept album Time, is released, featuring the singles “Hold On Tight”, “Here Is The News” and “Twilight”. For the first time, almost all of the album’s string parts are played on keyboards.
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MTV
MTV (Music Television), a New York City-based cable channel, goes on the air at one minute after midnight, premiering with the Buggles’ music video “Video Killed The Radio Star”. This heralds the beginning of the dominance of music videos in the music industry, though at first MTV’s format is to concentrate heavily on mainstream rock, new wave and semi-obscure acts (Split Enz features twice within the first 30 videos played). MTV quickly comes in for criticism that black artists are sorely underrepresented in its rotation. In later years, MTV uses its influence with younger viewers to raise political awareness, though it will eventually replace much of its music-related programming with game shows, reality shows, and other programming, until the “music” of “Music Television” becomes somewhat misleading.
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Genesis: Abacab
Charisma Records and Atlantic Records release the 11th album by Genesis, Abacab, featuring the singles “No Reply At All”, “Abacab” and “Man On The Corner”.
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Pac-Man Fever
A musical ode to video gaming starts climbing the charts as Buckner & Garcia issue their single Pac-Man Fever (a full album, filled out with other video game tribute songs, will follow in 1982). Shortly before the album’s release, the “Pac-Man Fever” single peaks in the Billboard Hot 100 at #9, having sold over a million copies.
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The Police: Ghost In The Machine
A&M Records releases the fourth album by The Police, Ghost In The Machine, featuring the singles “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” and “Spirits In The Material World”.
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Lindsey Buckingham: Law & Order
Decca Records releases the first solo album by Lindsey Buckingham, Long Distance Voyager, featuring the single “Trouble”.
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Depeche Mode: Speak & Spell
Mute Records releases the first Depeche Mode album, Speak & Spell, featuring the singles “New Life”, “Dreaming Of Me” and “Just Can’t Get Enough”.
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Pac-Man Fever
CBS unleashes a particularly virulent strain of Pac-Man Fever into record stores, courtesy of rock group Buckner & Garcia, and there is no cure in sight. With musical odes to the arcade games Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Defender, Frogger, Asteroids, Berzerk, Centipede, and even the relatively obscure coin-op Mouse Trap, this album’s release probably marks the high point of the video game industry “boom” – the apex at which public awareness of video games is at the saturation point, having seeped into the rest of pop culture.
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Pac-Man Fever on the charts
Buckner & Garcia’s hit single Pac-Man Fever reaches its peak on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching #9 on the chart. Over a million copies of the single (backed with an instrumental version of the same song) have sold.
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Split Enz: Time + Tide
The seventh album from Split Enz, Time + Tide, is released to a strong start, going gold within two weeks in Australia alone. With most of the songs written by Tim Finn, the album is surprisingly autobiographical. The album’s lead single, the sea-shanty-styled “Six Months In A Leaky Boat”, is chased off the airwaves by radio program directors when it’s interpreted as a commentary on the Falkland Islands War (despite the fact that the song was written and recorded months before the conflict ever took place).
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Duran Duran: Rio
Capitol Records releases the second Duran Duran album, Rio, featuring the singles “Rio”, “Hungry Like The Wolf”, “Save A Prayer” and “My Own Way”.
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Steve Miller Band: Abracadabra
Capitol Records releases the 12th album by The Steve Miller Band, Abracadabra, featuring the singles “Abracadabra” and “Cool Magic”.
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Star Trek II soundtrack
Atlantic Records releases an album of selections from James Horner‘s soundtrack to Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan.
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Fleetwood Mac: Mirage
Warner Bros. Records releases the 13th Fleetwood Mac album, Mirage, the band’s first studio recording since 1979. With the hits “Hold Me”, “Gypsy”, “Can’t Go Back” and “Love In Store”, the album climbs the charts quickly, but the band quickly disperses to solo careers again, not recording any further new material until 1987’s Tango In The Night.
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Steve Winwood: Talking Back To The Night
Island Records releases the second solo album by Steve Winwood, Talking Back To The Night, featuring the singles “Still In The Game” and “Valerie”.
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Wall Of Voodoo: Call Of The West
IRS Records releases the second Wall Of Voodoo album, Call Of The West, featuring the single “Mexican Radio”.
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Peter Gabriel: Security
Geffen Records releases the fourth self-titled Peter Gabriel album, though it’s given a subtitle of Security to avoid confusion with Gabriel’s three previous self-titled albums. The album includes the hit single “Shock The Monkey”.
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Depeche Mode: A Broken Frame
Mute Records releases the second album by Depeche Mode, A Broken Frame, featuring the singles “See You” and “The Meaning Of Love”.
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Donald Fagen: The Nightfly
Warner Bros. Records releases the first solo album by Donald Fagen, The Nightfly, featuring the singles “I.G.Y.” and “New Frontier”.
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Journey: Frontiers
Columbia Records releases the Journey album Frontiers, featuring the singles “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)”, “Send Her My Love” and “Faithfully”.
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Exporting the Compact Disc
For the first time, Compact Disc players and pre-recorded CDs appear in the English-speaking world (having been available in Japan since late 1982. The first label to embrace the new digital format is CBS Records, which publishes 16 existing titles on CD ranging from classical to rock. The technology has been developed jointly by Philips and Sony since the 1970s.
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Kelly Groucutt: Kelly
Electric Light Orchestra bassist and vocalist Kelly Groucutt goes solo, releasing an album of distinctly ELO-esque tunes on the Polygram label. Virtually all of Groucutt’s bandmates appear on his first album, with the notable exception of ELO frontman Jeff Lynne.