[gamel]

In an attempt to compile the best-sounding "hit" versions of US 1980s hits, I've done a lot of comparisons among CDs. Many of the best-sounding tracks come from four '80s pop compilations put out by Razor & Tie and mastered by our host, Steve Hoffman. These four compilations are especially useful for grabbing the most amount of US-chart-topping, great-sounding pop, all in one place, with no duplication among the collections. I'm listing the tracks for these four collections below.A smiley face indicates that this is the best-sounding "hit" version of the song that I could find, out of all the CDs in my rather large '80s-music collection. I rated them based primarily on compression (if it's compressed/maximized/squashed, it's not worth hearing), levels (avoid clipping where possible) and EQ. Tape hiss isn't much of an issue for '80s tracks.