If you follow me on Facebook, you know I do a lot of "Released On This Day" album posts. Sometimes there are a lot of cool releases that fall on the same day and recently while catching up on some releases that I didn't have time to post, I realized that August during the 1980's was an amazing time for record releases. Particularly the second week of August seems to be a big one.

I thought I'd do a quick recap of some essential releases that came out on August 15th during the decade of the 1980's. 

August 15, 1980 - The Cars: Panorama is released.

This is a bit of a dark horse release in The Cars short but amazing catalog of records. It followed their near perfect debut album, and that debut’s equally as good follow-up Candy - O. Both of those records were stacked with hits and remain radio staples decades later.

Panorama is a bit more sparse sounding and experimental and didn't quite capture the ear of the record-buying public like the albums that came before it.

With that said, it is one of my favorites from the band. I think it's their most "new wave" sounding album.

Check out "Touch and Go," "Gimme Some Slack," "Misfit Kid," "Down Boys" and "Running To You."

Check out this clip of the band performing “Touch and Go” on the late night comedy show Friday’s.

August 15, 1981 - The Kinks: Give The People What They Want is released.

This is a fantastic album from The Kinks and possibly my favorite.

The Kinks were in the midst of their "Arena Rock" era that included six albums for Arista Records. This new energized era of The Kinks started with 1977's Sleepwalker and continued through 1984's Word Of Mouth.

All of the "Arena Rock" albums are pretty great but Give the People What They Want is magic start to finish. The Kinks sound new wavey, punky and power poppy on this record. 

It's tough to pick a standout track because they are all high quality.. 

"Around The Dial,” "Give The People What They Want," "Predictable," "Add It Up," "Destroyer" and "Yo - Yo" are all top-shelf Kinks but the best of the lot may be the very last track on the album, "Better Things."  Such a great tune. 

If you only own one Kinks record, it should be this one. You should own them all though..…

August 15, 1981 - Pretenders: Pretenders II is released.

Released on the same day as The Kinks Give The People What They Want, The Pretenders followed up their fantastic debut album with an album that is equally as good and possibly better.

The Pretenders II continued the formula of their debut with big rocking tunes like "The Adultress," "Message Of Love," "Talk Of The Town," "Day After Day," "Pack It Up" and others. It also contained some quieter moments with songs like "Birds Of Paradise" and maybe my favorite Pretenders ballad "I Go To Sleep."

Sadly the Pretenders would not make another album with their original line up after the death of guitarist James Honeyman-Scott in 1982, followed by the death of bassist Pete Farndon in 1983.

The band would continue to make some great records but nothing that matched the first two.

August 15, 1983 - Cheap Trick: Next Position Please is released.

After achieving major success in the mid to late-70's, Cheap Trick entered the 1980's trying to figure out where they fit in. Cheap Trick never really fit into a box, they weren't heavy enough to be Heavy Metal and they were too rocking to be New Wave. They were just Cheap Trick. Eventually they would fall into the "Power Pop" camp but during those days I don't remember the term "Power Pop" being thrown around much.

Next Position Please is the second album the band recorded after the departure of original bassist Tom Petersson and is without doubt the best of the four albums the band made with new bass player Jon Brant.

Some think the album is hindered by the quirky production style of Todd Rundgren but I've always thought that it fit the material pretty well.

I'd call this Cheap Trick at their 1980's Power Pop best with a New Wave twist.

The album opens with the great one-two punch of "I Can't Take It" and "Borderline." The rest of the album is full of excellent tunes including "Next Position Please," "Younger Girls," "Don't Make Our Love A Crime," "3-D," "You Talk Too Much," "Heaven's Falling" and "Invaders Of The Heart."

Best Cheap Trick album of the 80's, go grab a copy.

August 15, 1983 - AC/DC - Flick of the Switch is released.

It's a pretty tough job to follow up a trifecta of albums like Highway to Hell, Back In Black and For Those About To Rock but AC/DC managed to release an album that has become a fan favorite.

Sales-wise Flick Of The Switch was considered a failure even though it went platinum. Their three previous had garnered multi-platinum status and even the archival release Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap had sold over 5 million copies. 

I think Flick Of The Switch is way more consistent than the album that came before it and is probably the heaviest record the band ever did.

Favorite tracks from this album include "This House Is On Fire," "Nervous Shakedown," "Guns For Hire," "Deep In The Hole," "Bedlam In Belgium" and "Badlands."

The Bon Scott years will always be my favorite era of AC/DC but if I reach for a Brian Johnson era album, it's gonna be Flick Of The Switch. Back In Black is probably the best one they made with Brian but I've heard that album so many times, I never really need to hear it again. Flick Of The Switch always sounds fresh to my ears.

Other notable albums released on the 15th day of August during the 80's include DIO's Sacred Heart (1985)) and The Stray Cats Rant 'N Rave (1983).

Scott Carr is a guitarist who plays in the Columbus, OH  bands Radio Tramps and Returning April.  Scott is also an avid collector of vinyl records and works at Lost Weekend Records. So...if you are looking for Scott....you'll either find him in a dimly lit bar playing his guitar or in a record store digging for the holy grail.