Lists of the number one and top·ranked Album Rock Songs of 1981
| Title | Artist | Weeks at #1 | Starting Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| I Can't Stand It | Eric Clapton | 2 weeks | 1981-03-21 |
| You Better You Bet | The Who | 5 weeks | 1981-04-04 |
| The Waiting | Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers | 6 weeks | 1981-05-09 |
| A Life Of Illusion | Joe Walsh | 1 week | 1981-06-20 |
| The Voice | The Moody Blues | 4 weeks | 1981-06-27 |
| Urgent | Foreigner | 4 weeks | 1981-07-25 |
| Burning For You | Blue Oyster Cult | 2 weeks | 1981-08-22 |
| Start Me Up | The Rolling Stones | 13 weeks | 1981-09-05 |
| Waiting For A Girl Like You | Foreigner | 1 week | 1981-12-05 |
| Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic | The Police | 2 weeks | 1981-12-12 |
| Harden My Heart | Quarterflash | 3 weeks (1 week(s) in 1981) | 1981-12-26 |
| 11 Total | |||
Billboard Magazine didn't publish a year · end countdown for their Album Rock Tracks chart until 1985. I HAD to do something about this for Radio Underground, so...
This chart ranks the top 40 Album Rock tracks for 1981, based on chart data from Billboard Magazine's Album Rock Tracks Chart, using my "point system". By assigning a specific number of points for each track (view the point system here), based on their rank for each week, and using the "magic" of some PHP programming, I came up with a year·end ranking for 1981! In case of a tie in points, I use the "Joel Whitburn" method (see the next chart below this one) to break the tie.
This countdown surveys the Album Rock Tracks Chart from the first week of the calendar year to the last week of the calendar year.
| Rank | Title | Artist | Peak | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | The Voice | The Moody Blues | # 1 | 1529 |
| 2. | Start Me Up | The Rolling Stones | # 1 | 1373 |
| 3. | Urgent | Foreigner | # 1 | 1283 |
| 4. | In The Air Tonight | Phil Collins | # 2 | 1208 |
| 5. | Fire And Ice | Pat Benatar | # 2 | 1169 |
| 6. | Stop Draggin' My Heart Around | Stevie Nicks with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers | # 2 | 1130 |
| 7. | In The Dark | Billy Squier | # 7 | 1118 |
| 8. | Burning For You | Blue Oyster Cult | # 1 | 1073 |
| 9. | The Stroke | Billy Squier | # 3 | 1073 |
| 10. | Juke Box Hero | Foreigner | # 3 | 1049 |
| 11. | A Woman In Love | Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers | # 5 | 1033 |
| 12. | Tom Sawyer | Rush | # 8 | 1012 |
| 13. | The Waiting | Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers | # 1 | 1006 |
| 14. | Winning | Santana | # 2 | 987 |
| 15. | The Break·Up Song | The Greg Kihn Band | # 5 | 986 |
| 16. | You Better You Bet | The Who | # 1 | 910 |
| 17. | Waiting For A Girl Like You | Foreigner | # 1 | 909 |
| 18. | A Life Of Illusion | Joe Walsh | # 1 | 879 |
| 19. | Who's Crying Now | Journey | # 4 | 857 |
| 20. | Edge Of Seventeen | Stevie Nicks | # 4 | 855 |
| 21. | Heavy Metal | Don Felder | # 5 | 795 |
| 22. | Tryin' To Live My Life Without You | Bob Seger | # 2 | 781 |
| 23. | Too Much Time On My Hands | Styx | # 2 | 776 |
| 24. | No Reply At All | Genesis | # 2 | 767 |
| 25. | Don't Stop Believing | Journey | # 8 | 767 |
| 26. | Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap | AC/DC | # 4 | 764 |
| 27. | Jesse's Girl | Rick Springfield | # 10 | 763 |
| 28. | Tempted | Squeeze | # 8 | 759 |
| 29. | Crazy Train | Ozzy Osbourne | # 9 | 756 |
| 30. | Hangfire | The Rolling Stones | # 2 | 740 |
| 31. | Another Tricky Day | The Who | # 6 | 715 |
| 32. | Destroyer | The Kinks | # 3 | 706 |
| 33. | Hold On Loosely | 38 Special | # 3 | 698 |
| 34. | Talk To You Later | The Tubes | # 7 | 687 |
| 35. | Tubesnake Boogie | Z.Z. Top | # 4 | 674 |
| 36. | Find Your Way Back | Jefferson Starship | # 3 | 672 |
| 37. | I Can't Stand It | Eric Clapton | # 1 | 669 |
| 38. | Limelight | Rush | # 4 | 648 |
| 39. | Stone In Love | Journey | # 13 | 639 |
| 40. | This Little Girl | Gary U.S. Bonds | # 5 | 635 |
Next Year's Radio Underground Point System Year End Chart >>
Joel Whitburn was an author, writer of many books listing and archiving songs that charted on Billboard Magazine's various charts over the past few decades, mostly 1955 and later. In his books related to the Hot 100 chart, Whitburn ranks the top 25 songs for each decade. The method he uses starts with all of the songs that reached number one, then ranks them according to weeks spent at number one (the more weeks, the higher the ranking), then weeks spent in the top 10 (also the more weeks, the higher the ranking), then weeks spent in the top 40 (see previous two).
It's unclear from his books whether Mr. Whitburn devised this method for ranking songs, or someone else did, but this is the method used in his books. The following ranking, again through the use of a PHP program, uses this method for ranking Billboard's top 40 Album Rock Tracks for 1981.
Like the chart above, this countdown also surveys the Album Rock Tracks Chart from the first week of the calendar year to the last week of the calendar year.
| Rank | Title | Artist | Peak* | Wks@Pk | WksTop10 | WksTop40 | WksOnCht |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Start Me Up | The Rolling Stones | # 1 | 13 | 18 | 19 | ` 19 |
| 2. | The Waiting | Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers | # 1 | 6 | 10 | 16 | ` 23 |
| 3. | You Better You Bet | The Who | # 1 | 5 | 10 | 15 | ` 15 |
| 4. | The Voice | The Moody Blues | # 1 | 4 | 17 | 26 | ` 27 |
| 5. | Urgent | Foreigner | # 1 | 4 | 17 | 21 | ` 22 |
| 6. | Burning For You | Blue Oyster Cult | # 1 | 2 | 10 | 20 | ` 23 |
| 7. | I Can't Stand It | Eric Clapton | # 1 | 2 | 7 | 11 | ` 12 |
| 8. | Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic | The Police | # 1 | 2 | 6 | 13 | ` 14 |
| 9. | A Life Of Illusion | Joe Walsh | # 1 | 1 | 10 | 14 | ` 14 |
| 10. | Waiting For A Girl Like You | Foreigner | # 1 | 1 | 4 | 20 | ` 22 |
| 11. | Harden My Heart | Quarterflash | # 1 | 1 | 3 | 7 | ` 9 |
| 12. | Fire And Ice | Pat Benatar | # 2 | 4 | 12 | 20 | ` 21 |
| 13. | Tryin' To Live My Life Without You | Bob Seger | # 2 | 4 | 9 | 12 | ` 16 |
| 14. | Hangfire | The Rolling Stones | # 2 | 3 | 10 | 12 | ` 14 |
| 15. | Winning | Santana | # 2 | 2 | 12 | 17 | ` 18 |
| 16. | In The Air Tonight | Phil Collins | # 2 | 2 | 11 | 22 | ` 24 |
| 17. | No Reply At All | Genesis | # 2 | 2 | 9 | 13 | ` 14 |
| 18. | While You See A Chance | Steve Winwood | # 2 | 2 | 7 | 10 | ` 12 |
| 19. | Stop Draggin' My Heart Around | Stevie Nicks with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers | # 2 | 1 | 15 | 19 | ` 22 |
| 20. | Too Much Time On My Hands | Styx | # 2 | 1 | 6 | 16 | ` 17 |
| 21. | The Party's Over | Journey | # 2 | 1 | 5 | 8 | ` 10 |
| 22. | Hold On Tight | Electric Light Orchestra | # 2 | 1 | 4 | 14 | ` 16 |
| 23. | Centerfold | The J. Geils Band | # 2 | 1 | 4 | 6 | ` 7 |
| 24. | Find Your Way Back | Jefferson Starship | # 3 | 3 | 7 | 12 | ` 15 |
| 25. | Juke Box Hero | Foreigner | # 3 | 2 | 9 | 18 | ` 23 |
| 26. | Destroyer | The Kinks | # 3 | 1 | 10 | 12 | ` 13 |
| 27. | The Stroke | Billy Squier | # 3 | 1 | 9 | 20 | ` 26 |
| 28. | Hold On Loosely | 38 Special | # 3 | 1 | 5 | 7 | ` 14 |
| 29. | Flying High | Ozzy Osbourne | # 3 | 1 | 2 | 6 | ` 7 |
| 30. | Who's Crying Now | Journey | # 4 | 2 | 8 | 18 | ` 20 |
| 31. | Limelight | Rush | # 4 | 2 | 6 | 14 | ` 15 |
| 32. | Edge Of Seventeen | Stevie Nicks | # 4 | 1 | 9 | 17 | ` 21 |
| 33. | Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap | AC/DC | # 4 | 1 | 7 | 16 | ` 17 |
| 34. | Abacab | Genesis | # 4 | 1 | 6 | 9 | ` 11 |
| 35. | Tubesnake Boogie | Z.Z. Top | # 4 | 1 | 5 | 15 | ` 17 |
| 36. | Shake It Up | The Cars | # 4 | 1 | 2 | 5 | ` 5 |
| 37. | A Woman In Love | Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers | # 5 | 2 | 8 | 21 | ` 26 |
| 38. | This Little Girl | Gary U.S. Bonds | # 5 | 2 | 5 | 13 | ` 14 |
| 39. | The Break·Up Song | The Greg Kihn Band | # 5 | 1 | 9 | 21 | ` 21 |
| 40. | Heavy Metal | Don Felder | # 5 | 1 | 5 | 16 | ` 17 |