Social Themes Dominate Top Midyear Pop Picks

How good has it been so far this year for pop singles?

Consider this: The Pet Shop Boys made two almost perfect pop records and still ended up with no better than a fourth-place finish on today’s midyear 10-best list.

The Boys’ records, “Always on My Mind” and “What Have I Done to Deserve This,” are wonderful demonstrations of the energy and charm of pop music--good enough most years to give them a best single salute.

This, however, was no ordinary six months.

Though largely obscured in the parade of faceless, music that dominates most radio station playlists (see the Faceless Parade below), there have been some unusually sensitive and intimate works--pieces that move beyond the simply inviting pop textures of the Pet Shop Boys’ singles to offer us compelling themes.

Three of those singles--by newcomer Tracy Chapman and pop-rock veterans Michael Jackson and Bruce Springsteen--head my look at the most distinguished and/or entertaining singles of the first half of 1988.

As in past years, the midyear competition is limited to singles that made Billboard magazine Top 100 sales chart at least once during the past six months.

1. Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” (Elektra)--The first three choices are virtually interchangeable, but Chapman gets the nod because her record offers the most distinctive pop vision. The single, with its soothing folk strains, is a masterful chronicle of a woman--trapped in a poverty cycle--struggling with obligations and fantasies.

Chapman’s lyrics and vocal inflection enable you to share the rush of excitement when she pictures a way out of her inner-city trap. “You got a fast car / I want a ticket to anywhere,” she sings with a breathless sensuality. But the new life proves just as imprisoning, and the optimism in her voice gradually turns to resolve as she realizes she has to go beyond the fast car fantasies if she is to get her life together.

2. Bruce Springsteen’s “One Step Up” (Columbia)--Even before the news about Springsteen’s marital problems, this was a hauntingly affecting tale of romantic infighting. Listening to it now, however, is almost chilling. Despite the song’s comforting country melody, “One Step Up” is one of the most finely woven and disheartening hits ever written about a breakup. Sample line:

It’s the same thing night on night

Who’s wrong baby, who’s right

Another fight and I slam the door

Another battle in our little war

When I look at myself, I don’t see

The man I wanted to be.

3. Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror” (Columbia)--The socially conscious song (by Siedah Garrett and Glen Ballard) is an ideal vehicle for Jackson’s dramatic pop instincts, but it’s Jackson’s impassioned, gospel-edged vocal that is the real showpiece. It’s easy in all the celebration of Jackson’s dancing to forget how brilliant a singer he can be. He doesn’t always come up with worthy material, but he does here and the results are dazzling.

4. Pet Shop Boys’ “Always on My Mind” (EMI-America)--Sam Phillips, the Memphis record producer who discovered Elvis Presley and helped develop his talent, once outlined his recipe for a pop hit: Take a sad song and put a happy melody to it. Demonstrating the effectiveness of that recipe, the Pet Shop Boys took this old country song--a tale of romantic regret first recorded by Presley--and dressed it up with a deliciously hyperactive pulse.

5. Prince’s “Alphabet St.” (Paisley Park)--The most consistent and inventive pop hit maker of the ‘80s comes up with another novel twist: a folky-funk exercise that mixes his spiritual doctrine in a dizzy, dance-floor setting so smoothly, it’s hard to tell where the sermon ends and the fun begins.

6. D. J. Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince’s “Parents Just Don’t Understand” (Jive)--This story-conscious rapathon about teen complaints by these clean-cut alternatives to the Beastie Boys recalls the disarming playfulness of the classic Coasters hits.

7. John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Check It Out” (PolyGram)--Mellencamp has not only infused his post-”Scarecrow” music with a sort of engaging rural, country-fried spirit, but the themes also have a convincing Everyman ring. Beneath the simple exterior, however, “Check It Out” is deftly designed musically and the message--about living without learning--is imaginatively framed.

8. The Pet Shop Boys’ “What Have I Done to Deserve This” (EMI-America)--Though released last year by the savvy British duo, the single--featuring a seductive guest vocal by Dusty Springfield--didn’t break into the Top 10 until this year. Like “Always,” another case of a sad song bathed in bright, upbeat music.

9. Terence Trent D’Arby’s “Wishing Well” (Columbia)--A sinuous tale of romantic daydreaming, highlighted by an engaging, acrobatic vocal.

10. Depeche Mode’s “Behind the Wheel” / “Route 66” (Sire)--These Englishmen step outside their sometime dark, philosophical cloak for a sexy, straightforward piece of electro-pop that recalls the enticing pulse of some of producer Giorgio Moroder’s best moments on record.

THE FACELESS PARADE: Here is a sample of some of the undistinguishable recordmakers who have cluttered the airwaves this year:

setaylordaynesamanthafoxrickastleypatrickswayzehall&oatesmiamisoundmachine;

tleyericcarmenbillyoceannushoozjodywatleymichaelboltonwhitesnakebillyocean staceyqheartlaurabraniganmenwithouthatscuttingcrew-europe.

MORE CHOICES: Here, in order, are colleague Dennis Hunt’s nominations for the best singles so far in 1988--Johnny Kemp’s “Just Got Paid”; Prince’s “Alphabet St.”; D. J. Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince’s “Parents Just Don’t Understand”; Kool Moe Dee’s “Wild Wild West”; Prince’s “Hot Thing”; the Pet Shop Boys’ “Always on My Mind”; Vanessa Williams’ “The Right Stuff”; Brenda Russell’s “Piano in the Dark”; Johnny Hates Jazz’s “Shattered Dreams,” and INXS’s “New Sensation.”

MAYFAIR OPENING: Cord Keller, a TV and video director, thinks Los Angeles needs a new, intimate concert venue and he hopes to fill that need with a series of shows at the 335-seat Mayfair Theatre in Santa Monica. The series, which was scheduled to kick off Friday night with Jesse Colin Young, will be eclectic, presenting artists from from jazz, blues, pop and R&B; to pop. Among acts already booked: the Chambers Brothers (tonight), Alex DeGrassi (next Friday), Dan Hicks (July 16), David Bromberg and Jerry Jeff Walker (July 22) and Billy Preston (July 23). The coup, however, is the signing of Laura Nyro, whose Aug. 12-13 engagement will be her first local appearances in years.

LIVE ACTION: The Divinyls will be at the Roxy on July 26, while K.D. Lang is booked the same night at the Coach House. . . . X will be at the John Anson Ford Theatre on July 28 . . . . Camper Van Beethoven will be at the Coach House on July 29 and the John Anson Ford Theatre on July 30. . . . Ian Hunter and ex-Bowie guitarist Mick Ronson will be at the Coach House on Oct. 11. . . . Coming to Bogart’s in Long Beach: ex-Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek with poet Michael McClure on July 20, EIEIO on July 21, the Mekons on July 23 and the reformed Marshall Tucker Band on Aug. 13.