There is a post, which will come later (much later) in which one or more Monkeys will explain how we know each other. But I should not forget to mention that I know Monkey David because of music, and I own several albums in my collection either directly or indirectly because of my relationships with Monkeys Brad and David.

Don't get the wrong idea. As Fingers liked to say when we were roommates, "We are not presently lovers."

Anyway, there are two major factors at play here - what albums fairly represent the best of 80's music, and which of those albums you would place in the hands of an impressionable student at a Christian school. This is difficult - it would have been easier when I was younger and didn't have kids. Now I'm a grouchy old codger who won't let his daughters watch most Nickelodeon programs because they're so disrespectful to adults. (Except Spongebob. He's the coolest. Thank God for TiVo.)

Also, I've got to make something of an artistic compromise here. Although I usually prefer to recommend albums that are NOT compilations, if you're trying to introduce a 21st Century Schizoid Youth to music that was likely made before they were born, you can't afford to be an ideologue. Give them a good compilation, preferably one that was put together by the band OR that follows a "rule" such as "only A-sides" or something similar. Record label assembled compilations usually suck.

So, I will start my post with ten single CD's that will show a young person what was good about 80's rock, followed by an "extended remix" of great individual albums by 80's bands that will be a good list for them to collect after they're "hooked".