I’m not sure these particular “20 Huge Hits” define the 1980s but I’m guessing most of you recognize a majority of these songs. The outlier for me is Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit.”
Who doesn’t like Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” and David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance”? My main complaint about these twenty songs is that only three of them are sung by women. Many female groups and solo artists rocked the 80s, but they’re not represented here.
Do these songs bring back the 1980s for you? Any favorites here? GRADE: B+
TRACK LIST:
| 1. | “Billie Jean“ | Michael Jackson (1983) | 4:52 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2. | “Uptown Girl“ | Billy Joel (1983) | 3:13 |
| 3. | “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go“ | Wham! (1984) | 3:50 |
| 4. | “Girls Just Want to Have Fun“ | Cyndi Lauper (1984) | 3:48 |
| 5. | “Hungry Like the Wolf“ | Duran Duran (1983) | 3:24 |
| 6. | “Don’t You (Forget About Me)“ | Simple Minds (1985) | 6:31 |
| 7. | “One Thing Leads to Another“ | The Fixx (1983) | 3:14 |
| 8. | “Abracadabra“ | Steve Miller (1982) | 3:38 |
| 9. | “Shakedown“ | Bob Seger (1986) | 4:00 |
| 10. | “Every Breath You Take“ | The Police (1983) | 4:12 |
| 11. | “Here I Go Again“ | Whitesnake (1987) | 4:32 |
| 12. | “Eye of the Tiger“ | Survivor (1982) | 4:02 |
| 13. | “Rockit“ | Herbie Hancock (1983) | 3:38 |
| 14. | “Let’s Dance“ | David Bowie (1983) | 4:06 |
| 15. | “Who Can It Be Now?“ | Men at Work (1982) | 3:20 |
| 16. | “Everybody Wants to Rule the World“ | Tears for Fears (1985) | 4:06 |
| 17. | “Jessie’s Girl“ | Rick Springfield (1981) | 3:12 |
| 18. | “Heaven“ | Bryan Adams (1985) | 4:02 |
| 19. | “What About Love“ | Heart (1985) | 3:39 |
| 20. | “Total Eclipse of the Heart“ | Bonnie Tyler (1983) | 4:25 |
None are particular favorites, but it’s nice to see The Fixx and Tears for Fears here: there’s generally little love for New Wave acts in the compilation world. I also like “Uptown Girl”—I think it’s Billy Joel’s best song.
Debe, my favorite Billy Joel album is AN INNOCENT MAN (1983) which is full of great songs like “Uptown Girl” and “Keeping the Faith.”
Jackie likes “Uptown Girl” but I never really have. I do prefer “An Innocent Man” from that album. And “The Longest Time.”
Jeff, you have excellent taste in Billy Joel music! AN INNOCENT MAN has a Fifties music vibe that I love!
If I were President, I’d replace “Hail to the Chief” with Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.”
That’s my platform, I hope I canvcount on your vote in November.
Dan, as you well know, boys just wanna have fun, too.
But we are the comparatively fortunate ones.
I either never heard or don’t remember the tracks by Hancock and Wham, but all the others are at least OK, which makes this a pretty rare compilation. But there’s a clear difference between music I’d buy and music just heard on the radio. Of the artists here, I have albums from only Bowie, Billy Joel, and Bob Seger.
Michael, looks like you prefer the “Bs”: Bowie, Billy, and Bob! Yes, plenty of these songs lived long lives on the radio. Now, they can only be heard on CD or on an Oldies radio station.
because my kids were playing all of these songs I know them pretty well. It’s the seventies I missed. And the 2000s.
Patti, I was driving around a lot during the 1980s working two, sometimes three, jobs so I listened to a lot these songs while traveling from one campus to another.
I know most of these, of course, though not many are what I would call favorites. #1 would be Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” a classic. I love Bob Seger but wouldn’t pick that song , maybe Night Moves or Against the Wind. Yes to the Lauper. Never liked Duran Duran or Men at Work. When I do listen to the radio, the songs I’m most like to hear are by Lauper, Wham, Rick Springfield, Michael Jackson, Men at Work, Steve Miller, Survivor.
Jeff, I assume some of these song choices were made on the basis of cost of the song. “Night Moves” or “Against the Wind” may have be priced higher than “Shakedown.”
Jeff-the seger songs you mentioned are from the 70’s. Shakedown is not one of his best. Hate hate hate the horrible Wham song. Also dislike Survivor, Whitesnake, Herbie Hancock and Michael Jackson. The rest are okay but nothing I would call a favorite.
To me the 80’s were dominated by U2, REM , Elvis Costello and Bruce Springsteen.
Steve, I agree. Where are the U2, REM, Elvis Costello, and Springsteen songs? Too pricey is my guess. I read that the most successful rock tour by U2 (ccording to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, The Joshua Tree Tours 2017 and 2019 grossed a total of $390.8 million and sold 3.3 million tickets over 65 shows around the world) has been superseded by the latest Ed Sheeran tour: according to Billboard, Sheeran’s tour has grossed $551.8 million and sold 6,209,122 tickets across 201 dates reported so far, from 16 March 2017 to 31 October 2018.
Is Michael Jackson a male or female in your estimation?
Bob, I consider Michael Jackson androgynous.
“Rockit” an outlier in the sense you don’t remember it? I thought it catchy and pleasant enough, and something that would tend to fund Hancock’s more, well, serious music.
My rock bands in the ’80s ran to the Go-Go’s, the Bangles, the Pretenders, Blondie, Gil Scott-Heron (to the degree that he was a fusion artist), that decade’s version of King Crimson, the Roches, the Police, Men at Work, the two-tone/ska revival, bands such as Klymaxx, Salt “N” Pepa, Human Sexual Response and Berlin to some extent, Husker Du, and my serious return to punk rock, thanks in large part to my (now ex) Donna’s love for it but I was hardly uninterested, particularly as the music scene in the DC area was blowing the doors off, and the punk scene not the least part of that. Most of the artists included above were more properly NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL THE ’70S…
Rarely have I had so sharp a divergence with Jeff as with the notion of loving Bonnie Tyler’s work and dismissing Men at Work, as light as the latter could be. And as overproduced, among other things, as the former. And, as you might note as well, the women musicians tended to get my attention as well. Though I was spending more of my time listening to jazz and nearly as much time with various sorts of classical, and some exploration of folk (where the Roches came from, along with country) and bluegrass, and some rap and house music…and initially just a bit of go-go, DC’s own improvisational funk dance music. Hard to take Steve Miller or Tears for Fears at all seriously…Smug Rock.
Todd-I should have mentioned The Pretenders, one of my all-time favorites. I also liked the ska revival bands but thought that was more prevalent in the 70’s. Colin Hay of Men At Work has had a very good solo career. He plays decent size venues here. Mainly at the Royal Oak Music Theater about 4 blocks from my apt. Agree with you on Bonnie Tyler. Sort of a female version of Meatloaf.
Yes, though even Tyler’s voice is better than “Meatloaf”‘s. The Specials and most of their peers did get started in the ’70s, but the likes of Operation Ivy were much more a 1980s phenomenon, and eventually the frat-ska bands, from The Mighty Mighty Bosstones on out, had their day.
Todd, “Rockit” didn’t get much airplay on Western NY radio stations. And, nationally, “Rockit” wasn’t a big hit.
“Rockit” *was* a big hit. May not’ve gotten a lot of play on the stations you were listening to, since it was an instrumental, and rigid formats wouldn’t’ve liked that much (and there was No Lack of rigid commercial radio formats in the ’80s, much as today…part of why College Radio became so exploitable for the record industry in that decade). I certainly heard it a Lot in the DC area.
Weekly charts
Chart (1983) Peak
position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[8] 72
Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)[9] 7
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)[10] 4
France (IFOP)[11] 9
Germany (Official German Charts)[12] 6
Ireland (IRMA)[13] 13
Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)[14] 8
Netherlands (Single Top 100)[15] 7
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[16] 7
Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)[17] 10
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[18] 4
UK Singles (OCC)[19] 8
US Billboard Hot 100[20] 71
US Billboard Hot Black Singles[20] 6
US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play[20] 1
US Cash Box[21] 64
Chart (1984) Peak position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[8] 16
Canada Top Singles (RPM)[22] 9
Year-end charts
Chart (1983) Position
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)[23] 67
Chart (1984) Position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[24] 71
Canada Top Singles (RPM)[25] 77
France (IFOP)[26] 47
Certifications
Certifications and sales for “Rockit”
Region Certification Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)[27] Gold 50,000^
France — 336,000[28]
United States (RIAA)[29] Gold 500,000^
Todd, as far as I know, “Rockit” wasn’t played by any of the local Top 40 radio stations. Maybe the college stations played it, but their audience was minuscule.
Exactly. See “rigid formats” comment above…”we don’t care if it’s a chart-topper, it’s an INSTRUMENTAL”
Todd, the Sixties featured plenty of instrumental hits. Even the Seventies had Booker T. and Vangelis and Van McCoy (love “The Hustle”!).
Likewise, it wouldn’t be on the disc if it wasn’t a chart hit.
Todd, the question is: where was it on the Chart…and which Chart was it on. BILLBOARD proliferated a ton of Charts for an increasingly fragmented musical market.
The Eighties was the only decade when I heard a lot of English songs. Surprised to see Stevie Wonder and Lionel Ritchie not being featured. No sign of Fast Car and Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You too.
I suspect George is right about the price for some of those songs, Neeru, and it’s even more likely that these on this particular series (“NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL…”) is produced by someone out of the same corporate cluster as most of the labels that released these songs, or what happened to those labels…and not so much others. Your citing Tracy Chapman reminds me of how I finally really caught up with Joan Armatrading in that decade.
Neeru, you’re right about the impact of English groups in the 1980s. It was the second English Wave (the first Wave in the 1960s brought us The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, etc.). U2 made a big impact as did David Bowie. The 1990s saw music trends changing.