The 1980s offered a wide range of musical styles. Blondie’s “The Tide is High” has a reggae vibe. Hall & Oates “Private Eye” has a catchy pop-rock sound. Olivia New-John’s “Magic” was recorded for the soundtrack to the 1980 musical fantasy film Xanadu, which starred Newton-John and Gene Kelly. The J. Geils Band’s “Centerfold” makes it on both #1 Hits of the ’80s and American Bandstand’s Greatest Hits of the Century: 80s along with “The Power of Love” by Huey Lewis and The News. #1 Hits of the the ’80s does a nice job including many of the 1980s most popular songs: Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love” (great music video, too!), Kenny Loggins’s “Footloose,” Kim Carnes’s enigmatic “Bette Davis Eyes,” and the Fine Young Cannibals’s “She Drives Me Crazy.”
American Bandstand’s Greatest Hits of the Century: 80s includes some disco with “Love Come Down” by Evelyn “Champagne” King and Taylor Dayne’s “Don’t Rush Me.” I still love “Jessie’s Girl” by Rick Springfield and “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” by Cyndi Lauper and “867-5309 / Jenny” by Tommy Tutone. Do you remember these hits from the 1980s? Any favorites here? GRADE: B+ (for both)
TRACK LIST:
| 1 | Robert Palmer– | Addicted To Love | 4:25 |
| 2 | Huey Lewis & The News– | The Power Of Love | 3:55 |
| 3 | Kenny Loggins– | Footloose | 3:47 |
| 4 | Duran Duran– | The Reflex | 4:24 |
| 5 | Daryl Hall & John Oates– | Private Eye | 3:28 |
| 6 | The J. Geils Band– | Centerfold | 3:37 |
| 7 | The Human League– | Don’t You Want Me | 3:59 |
| 8 | Kim Carnes– | Bette Davis Eyes | 3:46 |
| 9 | Culture Club– | Karma Chameleon | 4:13 |
| 10 | Blondie– | The Tide Is High | 4:41 |
| 11 | Sheena Easton– | Morning Train (Nine To Five) | 3:22 |
| 12 | Olivia Newton-John– | Magic | 4:30 |
| 13 | John Waite– | Missing You | 4:29 |
| 14 | Terence Trent D’Arby– | Wishing Well | 3:32 |
| 15 | Paula Abdul– | Straight Up | 3:51 |
| 16 | Fine Young Cannibals– | She Drivers Me Crazy | 3:32 |
| 17 | Cutting Crew– | (I Just) Died In Your Arms | 4:37 |
TRACK LIST:
| 1-1 | Evelyn “Champagne” King*– | Love Come Down |
| 1-2 | Billy Ocean– | Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run) |
| 1-3 | Pointer Sisters– | Jump (For My Love) |
| 1-4 | Eurythmics– | Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) |
| 1-5 | Starship (2)– | We Built This City |
| 1-6 | The J. Geils Band– | Centerfold |
| 1-7 | Toni Basil– | Mickey |
| 1-8 | Rick Springfield– | Jessie’s Girl |
| 1-9 | The Romantics– | Talking In Your Sleep |
| 1-10 | Thomas Dolby– | She Blinded Me With Science |
| 1-11 | Mr. Mister– | Broken Wings |
| 1-12 | Kajagoogoo– | Too Shy |
| 1-13 | Ray Parker Jr.– | Ghostbusters |
| 1-14 | Taylor Dayne– | Don’t Rush Me |
| 1-15 | A Flock Of Seagulls– | I Ran (So Far Away) |
| 2-1 | Wham!– | Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go |
| 2-3 | REO Speedwagon– | Keep On Loving You |
| 2-4 | Cyndi Lauper– | Girls Just Want To Have Fun |
| 2-5 | Bonnie Tyler– | Total Eclipse Of The Heart |
| 2-6 | Bangles– | Walk Like An Egyptian |
| 2-7 | Huey Lewis & The News– | The Power Of Love |
| 2-8 | The Romantics– | What I Like About You |
| 2-9 | Toto– | Rosanna |
| 2-10 | Men At Work– | Who Can It Be Now? |
| 2-11 | Paul Young– | Everytime You Go Away |
| 2-12 | ‘Til Tuesday– | Voices Carry |
| 2-13 | Tommy Tutone– | 867-5309 / Jenny |
| 2-14 | Nena– | 99 Red Balloons |
| 2-15 | Mike Reno & Ann Wilson– | Almost Paradise (Love Theme From “Footloose”) |
I remember some of these songs but have to admit I wasn’t too big a fan of tmost of hem. There just wasn’t the Rock or Blues feeling.
OT:
Did you know that “99 Luftballons” originally was a German song written by Nena’s band members after they saw those balloons rising at a Rolling Stones concert in West Berlin in the year 1982. It’s a clear anti-war song.
Indeed, the English lyrics (at least) make that very clear…assume the original lyrics did as well.
Wolf, “Luftballons” was a surprise hit song in America. I have a copy of it around here somewhere…
Love so many of these…and I probably wouldn’t change the radio dial for any of them. Real eighties time capsules!
Deb, like you I’m a fan of the music of the 1980s. These two compilation CDs are fun to listen to!
There are a couple I would sing along to if they came on the radio today, but most of them I don’t recognize. I was too busy doing other, more important, things in the 80s — probably folding laundry, or something.
Jerry, in the Kelley Household, Diane does the laundry folding (she claims I’m not precise enough) and I do the snow blowing. We were hit with five inches of fresh snow overnight so I’ll be firing up Big Orange ofter Breakfast. The temperature is 15 degrees (feels like 3 degrees with the wind chill).
We’re having a “cold spell” in South Florida too, though it is all relative. Their cold in mid-60s. They are predicting 45 overnight tonight and a Wind Chill in the 30s tomorrow morning.
Jeff, the weather-guessers here in Western NY are calling for even colder weather for us in the beginning of next week! Wind chills of 0 degrees are No Fun!
Snow is predicted for southern Louisiana over the weekend and next. Exactly the same time (MLK Day and beyond) as last year’s blizzard.
Deb, most schools are closed today and the students (and teachers!) are celebrating the Snow Day. If we get more snow and the schools close tomorrow, the students and teachers will have a 5 DAY WEEKEND with Martin Luther King Day already a day off in addition to the Weekend and Snow Days.
Lots of good ones. The 60s was really my favorite music era, with the British invasion but I also liked 70s and 80s.
I listened to a Lot of ’60s music (particularly jazz, but also rock, blues, country, modern classical, folk and more) in the ’80s as well…catalog albums at the decade’s beginning tended to be dirt cheap new…though you did have to watch out for those where the major-label folks Didn’t throw away the dusty ones on top of the stack while slipping them into sleeves, too often at CBS and WEA without liners. No little ’70s, beyond what I grew up hearing, as well. My parents had a good record collection themselves from their late ’50s/’60s youngish adulthood but inexplicably listened entirely too consistently to muzak radio in the ’70s.
Maggie, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of love for the music of the 1990s.
I was acutely aware of radio and video by this period (as well as what wasn’t getting too much if any play) in my latter teens and early to mid 20s, and there are a number I liked then (there are much better songs by the Bangles, Blondie, the Pointer Sisters, and others) and a number I would prefer never to hear again (or ever to have heard) by Kajagoogoo, Bonnie Tyler, and others…two songs by the Romantics on the AB album is six too many.
Todd, I remember the music of the 1980s was heavily influenced by MTV and VH-1. Music videos spurred radio play around here.
American Bandstand, growing up in Philly, holds a special place in my heart. Even songs long past my years rushing home to catch it.
Patti, I ran home to watch AMERICAN BANDSTAND after school, too! My sisters would imitate the dance moves of those gorgeous girls in Philly!
Pretty good playlists. Between rush-hour-commute radio and having two kids entering their teens in the late 80s, I know most of these. I find it hard to parse out Mr. Mister from Spandau Ballet from A-Ha from the Thompson Twins–they all sound alike to me–but they’re better than today’s whining male singers and groups, who sound like they’ve ingested a cocktail of sominex and novocaine.
Dick Clark still lives! The Golden Globes broadcast the other night was a Dick Clark Production.
Umm, I should have said “Dick Clark still lives metaphorically,” knowing the man if not his entertainment corporation passed away in 2012, but you know what I mean.
Not a big fan of the ’80s musically, but the second one has some good ones:
Total Eclipse of the Heart
Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Ghostbusters
In the first one:
Don’t You Want Me ( “The cookie song” to Jackie, after they used it in an ad for Chips Ahoy)
Jump (For My Live) – think Love Actually
Anything but Starship, in fact.
Jeff, Starship breathed its Last Gasp in the 1980s. My favorite Jefferson Starship song is “Miracles” which still gets some airplay on Sirius/XM Radio.
Miracles is also my favorite Jefferson airplane song
Maggie,”Miracles” is a song written by Marty Balin and originally recorded by Jefferson Starship, appearing on its 1975 album Red Octopus.
“Miracles” peaked at number 3 for three weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the highest-charting single the band ever recorded under the name Jefferson Starship or its previous incarnation Jefferson Airplane.” THANK YOU WIKIPEDIA!
Starship (2)– We Built This City
These days i hear a lot of these good oldies in most unfortunate places — commercials. Many writers / performers having sold off some or all of their catalogs.
The Starship song shows up in a commercial that repeats and repeats just one lyric from the song: “We Built This City”. But they replace ‘Built’ with ‘Quilt’.
It’s an ad for toilet paper. 🙁
Jee Jay, once you sell your rights to your work (including songs) you’ve lost control. The result is becoming backup music in a toilet paper commercial. Life can be cruel…
There are some good tunes in there but they’re far from the greatest of the 20th Century!
Bob, Dick Clark was prone to hyperbole.