28 thoughts on “FORGOTTEN MUSIC #87: 80’s POP HITS [3-CD Set]”

1. Steve Oerkfitz October 25, 2018 at 2:06 am

   Lot more garbage here than good stuff. I like Sexual Healing by Marvin Gaye , Love My Way by Psychedelic Furs, Girls Just Want to Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper, Voices Carry by Til Tuesday and a couple others. But to get to them you have to wade through crap like Wham, New Kids on the Block, Eddie Money, Toto, Europe, Kenny Loggins, Philip Bailey, Reo Speedwagon, Mathew Wilder, Loverboy, Dan Fogelberg, Outfield and a host of others. About a ratio of about 1 good song to 5 bad ones. I would give this about a D-.

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   1. george Post authorOctober 25, 2018 at 7:58 am

      Steve, but this is what the 1980s sounded like!

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      1. Steve Oerkfitz October 25, 2018 at 8:13 am

         Not to me. The 80’s for me was Springsteen, The Clash, Talking Heads, Tom Petty, The Cure, Elvis Costello, Robyn Hitchcock, The Pretenders.
      2. george Post authorOctober 25, 2018 at 8:25 am

         Steve, for me the 1980s was Big Hair and Heavy Metal.
      3. Todd Mason November 1, 2018 at 6:39 am

         Sorry you suffered thus, George!
      4. george Post authorNovember 1, 2018 at 7:04 am

         Todd, I know a lot of these songs are duds, but they brought back some good memories of those years.
2. Deb October 25, 2018 at 5:34 am

   It will come as no surprise that a former Disco Dolly and Reagan-era Go-Go Girl like yours truly knows almost every song in this collection—although I must concur with Steve that there’s a lot of dross amongst the gold here (if I never have to hear “Key Largo” or “Leader of the Band” again, it will not trouble me unduly). My favorite song here is “Love My Way” by the Psychedelic Furs. I also like “Der Kommissar”, although I think the version by Falco (one of the song’s writers) was superior. Also, if you ever want to get lost down the rabbit hole, take a look at what happened to Terrence Trent D’Arby (“Wishing Well”) after fame and fortune passed him by.

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   1. george Post authorOctober 25, 2018 at 8:00 am

      Deb, you’re right about Terrence Trent D’Arby’s sad fate. I admit this 3-CD set is a hodgepodge of songs, but it does capture aspects of 1980s music I had forgotten.

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3. Prashant C. Trikannad October 25, 2018 at 6:15 am

   George, the entire eighties had the best pop music, including the 1984 Grammy Awards. I have listened to many of these 40 songs including “Every Time You Go Away” by Paul Young, who was rather popular in my group.

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   1. george Post authorOctober 25, 2018 at 8:01 am

      Prashant, I never understood why Paul Young wasn’t more successful in America. I enjoyed his music a lot.

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4. Jeff Meyerson October 25, 2018 at 7:01 am

   I hate Every Time You Go Away. I change the channel whenever it comes on, like Upside Down or Baby, I Love Your Way. Snore inducing. Also hate Michael Bolton, who makes me gag. – and a lot of the 80s music in general (sorry, Deb). I like the Marvin Gaye and Cyndi Lauper, of course, and will never get tired of hearing Bonnie Tyler sing this or anything else, but I have to admit there are a bunch of these I wouldn’t recognize if I tripped over them in the street.

   And get off my lawn!

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   1. george Post authorOctober 25, 2018 at 8:04 am

      Jeff, I gave into temptation to buy this 3-CD set because of the $12 price. There are enough songs here to make the purchase worth it, but I do skip around a lot!

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   2. Rick Robinson October 25, 2018 at 11:12 am

      Wow, a lot of HATE going on there, Jeff. You’re starting to sound like Cap’n Bob and Steve. Oh my.

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      1. Jeff Meyerson October 25, 2018 at 12:56 pm

         Who knew you were a Michael Bolton lover, Rick.

         To each his own, I guess.
      2. Rick Robinson October 25, 2018 at 3:50 pm

         Didn’t say I was!
5. patti Abbott October 25, 2018 at 8:13 am

   It reminds me of what I heard in my house at the time. So I love or like most of them. And most of them are as good as what I heard in A STAR IS BORN,.

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   1. Jeff Meyerson October 25, 2018 at 8:19 am

      Well, that’s no endorsement!

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   2. george Post authorOctober 25, 2018 at 8:24 am

      Patti, I listened to a lot more music in the 1980s than I do now. Most of contemporary music doesn’t interest me. I play a lot of old music CDs (even though Patrick and Katie make fun of me for doing so). I’m just not a Pandora, Spotify, or iTunes type of guy.

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6. Rick Robinson October 25, 2018 at 11:15 am

   I counted 14 that I know just by title, but if I heard them there would probably be more. I liked many of the ones I recognized. I’d probably download the songs I like to the iMac and file the CDs to that dusty box in the basement.

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   1. george Post authorOctober 25, 2018 at 1:21 pm

      Rick, I’m sure you’d recognize a lot of these songs if you heard them. But, as Steve, Deb, and Jeff have pointed out there’s a lot weak songs on these CDs.

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7. Robert Napier October 26, 2018 at 4:27 pm

   I wouldn’t pollute my ears with most of that crap!

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8. Jeff Smith October 29, 2018 at 1:07 am

   I still buy cds and play them constantly. I’ve been playing all my Cyndi Lauper cds over the past couple months and have been surprised at how much I still enjoy them. All seven of them. I like all kinds of stuff, from avant-garde to pop. (Right now, Brian Wilson is singing “Be My Baby.”) My favorite band remains Yes, who had their biggest hit in the 80s, “Owner of a Lonely Heart.” There’s a bunch of stuff on this set that I don’t know, but of what I do know, I can probably enjoy more of it than many people here.

   I just love listening to music. I play the classical music station on the tv and the cds in my stereo for four-to-ten hours a day. (Now playing: probably my favorite song from the Emmylou Harris/Dolly Parton/Linda Ronstadt recording sessions, Linda Thompson’s “Telling Me Lies.”) (And while I was typing that sentence, that song ended and now it’s the title song from Joan Baez’s new album, “Whistling Down the Wind” — with a saw providing the whistling sound.) (Now Stevie Wonder’s playing harmonica on a Cyndi Lauper track.)

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   1. george Post authorOctober 29, 2018 at 7:34 am

      Jeff, I listen to CDs every day. I still have a vehicle that has a CD player in it (most new cars have eliminated CD players) and listen to music as I run my errands. And, I have hundreds of CDs I haven’t listened to yet. And, on top of that, I have dozens of audio books waiting for me to listen to them, too!

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      1. Jeff Smith October 29, 2018 at 10:45 am

         My car has a CD player, though I only use it when I have something I specifically want to hear. I would generally put six of my weekly “new to me” cds in the car each month, and play them in rotation. (Only one cd from a multi-cd set, which is how I get more than 6 cds a month.) Now I put the six cds on a flash drive — no skipping when I hit a bump, no fumbling with changing discs. Getting to be time to reload it.
      2. george Post authorOctober 29, 2018 at 4:16 pm

         Jeff, I may end up transferring music to flash drives, too. Most new cars come with Bluetooth and no CD player (an expensive option if available at all).
9. Todd Mason November 1, 2018 at 6:50 am

   I, too, know essentially all of these, and like only some…Aimee Mann, the key member of ‘Til Tuesday, has certainly continued to do a Lot of good work (I like her early punk band before TT, as well); the Bangles’ worst hit is what they choose…ah, well. (“In Your Room” is at least up-tempo. The Bangles’ own often brilliant compositions downplayed by CBS, which held them in something like contempt).

   ’80s for me was a lot of jazz, a fair amount of folk and bluegrass and some Hawaiian, a lot of punk and ’60s rock and ’70s funk and a fair amount of new wave, and not a little classical music…with doses of blues and a bit of country. DJ’d to some extent or another on three radio stations.

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   1. george Post authorNovember 1, 2018 at 7:08 am

      Todd, you’re right about the 1980s being a mis-mash of styles and groups. I remember a lot of Big Hair and Heavy Metal.

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      1. Todd Mason November 1, 2018 at 9:57 am

         Oh, I sought out music…certainly didn’t depend on commercial radio. Nor even the video shows, though I did enjoy them to a limited extent…NIGHT FLIGHT and all that.