Editing 1981 in music (section)

===August===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Day
!Album
!Artist
!Notes
|-
| rowspan="1" style="text-align:center;"|7
| ''[[Pretenders II]]'' || [[The Pretenders]] ||<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bpi.co.uk/award/5205-1896-2|title=BPI}}</ref>
|-
| style="text-align:center;"|10
| ''[[Friday Night in San Francisco]]'' || [[Al Di Meola]], [[John McLaughlin (musician)|John McLaughlin]] and [[Paco de Lucía]] || Live
|-
| rowspan="2" style="text-align:center;"|12
| ''[[Shot of Love]]'' || [[Bob Dylan]] ||-
|-
| ''[[Never Too Much (album)|Never Too Much]]'' || [[Luther Vandross]] || Debut
|-
| style="text-align:center;"|18
| ''[[Dark Continent (album)|Dark Continent]]'' || [[Wall of Voodoo]] || -
|-
| style="text-align:center;"|20
| ''[[Love All the Hurt Away]]'' || [[Aretha Franklin]] ||-
|-
| style="text-align:center;"|21
| ''[[Sleep No More (The Comsat Angels album)|Sleep No More]]'' || [[The Comsat Angels]] ||-
|-
| style="text-align:center;"|24
| ''[[Tattoo You]]'' || [[The Rolling Stones]] ||-
|-
| rowspan="2" style="text-align:center;"|25
| ''[[Scissors Cut]]'' || [[Art Garfunkel]] ||-
|-
| ''[[Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash]]'' || [[The Replacements (band)|The Replacements]] || Debut
|-
| rowspan="2" style="text-align:center;"|26
| ''[[Dead Set (album)|Dead Set]]'' || [[Grateful Dead]] || Live
|-
| ''[[New Traditionalists]]'' || [[Devo]] ||-
|-
| rowspan="2" style="text-align:center;" |28
| ''[[Alive Alone]]'' || [[Mickey Thomas (singer)|Mickey Thomas]] ||-
|-
| ''[[The Spirit's in It]]'' || [[Patti LaBelle]] ||-
|-
| style="text-align:center;"|31
| ''[[Fire of Love (album)|Fire of Love]]'' || [[The Gun Club]] ||-
|-
| rowspan="16" style="text-align:center;"|?
| ''[[Brothers of the Road (album)|Brothers of the Road]]'' || [[The Allman Brothers Band]] ||-
|-
| ''[[Signals, Calls, and Marches]]'' || [[Mission of Burma]] || EP
|-
| ''[[Torch (Carly Simon album)|Torch]]'' || [[Carly Simon]] ||-
|-
| ''[[Give the People What They Want (The Kinks album)|Give the People What They Want]]'' || [[The Kinks]] ||-
|-
| ''[[Heartbreak Radio]]'' || [[Rita Coolidge]] ||-
|-
| ''[[The Innocent Age]]'' || [[Dan Fogelberg]] ||-
|-
| ''[[Joy (EP)|Joy]]'' || [[The Minutemen (band)|The Minutemen]] || EP
|-
| ''[[King Cool]]'' || [[Donnie Iris]] ||-
|-
| ''[[Level 42 (album)|Level 42]]'' || [[Level 42]] ||-
|-
| ''[[The Pressure Is On]]'' || [[Hank Williams, Jr.]] ||-
|-
| ''[[Short Back 'n' Sides]]'' || [[Ian Hunter (singer)|Ian Hunter]] ||-
|-
| ''[[Simplicity (Tim Curry album)|Simplicity]]'' || [[Tim Curry]] ||-
|-
| ''[[Sons and Fascination/Sister Feelings Call]]'' || [[Simple Minds]] ||-
|-
| ''[[There's No Gettin' Over Me (album)|There's No Gettin' Over Me]]'' || [[Ronnie Milsap]] ||-
|-
| ''[[Time Exposure (Little River Band album)|Time Exposure]]'' || [[Little River Band]] ||-
|-
| ''[[Whitford/St. Holmes]]'' || [[Brad Whitford]] and [[Derek St. Holmes]] ||-
|}