The 1980s was a decade of change. The impact of MTV cannot be over-estimated. Katrina and the Waves’ “Talking on Sunshine” became used in TV commercials for 40 years–it makes about a million dollars per year.
Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “Relax” still gets airplay on our local Oldies radio station. And, so does Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is.” I never hear the Miami Vice Theme anymore. But I do hear one of Trump’s favorite songs: “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” by Tears for Fears.
I’m a big fan of The Honeydrippers’ “Sea of Love.” Do you remember these songs from the mid-Eighties? Any favorites here? GRADE: B+
TRACK LIST:
| 1 | a-ha– | Take On Me Written-By – Mags (2), Harket*, Waaktaar* | 3:50 |
| 2 | Starship (2)– | We Built This City Written-By – Taupin*, Lambert*, Page*, Wolf* | 4:56 |
| 3 | ZZ Top– | Sleeping Bag Written-By – Gibbons*, Hill*, Beard* | 4:05 |
| 4 | The Power Station– | Some Like It Hot Written-By – Taylor*, Taylor*, Palmer* | 3:44 |
| 5 | Paul Young– | Everytime You Go Away Written-By – Daryl Hall | 4:30 |
| 6 | Katrina And The Waves– | Walking On Sunshine Written-By – Kimberley Rew | 3:58 |
| 7 | Frankie Goes To Hollywood– | Relax Written-By – Johnson*, O’Toole*, Gill* | 3:57 |
| 8 | The Honeydrippers– | Sea Of Love Written-By – Khoury*, Baptiste* | 3:05 |
| 9 | Foreigner– | I Want To Know What Love Is Written-By – Mick Jones (2) | 5:01 |
| 10 | Jan Hammer– | Miami Vice Theme Written-By – Jan Hammer | 2:29 |
| 11 | Glenn Frey– | The Heat Is On Written-By – Faltermeyer*, Forsey* | 3:47 |
| 12 | David Lee Roth– | California Girls Written-By – Brian Wilson | 2:48 |
| 13 | John Parr– | St. Elmo’s Fire (Man In Motion) Written-By – Foster*, Parr* | 4:11 |
| 14 | Tears For Fears– | Everybody Wants To Rule The World Written-By – Hughes*, Stanley*, Orzabal* | 4:12 |
| 15 | Mr. Mister– | Broken Wings Written-By – Lang*, Page*, George* | 4:44 |
| 16 | ‘Til Tuesday– | Voices Carry Written-By – Mann*, Pesce*, Hausmann*, Holmes* | 4:24 |
| 17 | Aretha Franklin– | Freeway Of Love Written-By – Cohen*, Walden* | 5:51 |
| 18 | Commodores– | Nightshift Written-By – Lambert*, Golde*, Orange* | 4:20 |
This will surprise everyone here, I’m sure, but I know all of these songs. My favorites are “Freeway of Love” (with saxophone provided by Clarence “Big Man” Clemons), “Relax”, and the aforementioned “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” (check out Harry Styles recent rendition).
Deb, somehow I knew you would be familiar with all these songs! I will check out the Harry Styles rendition of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.”
Yawn. I really wasn’t listening to music in the Eighties. I sure there are some very good songs here, but I don’t care
Jerry, I heard all of these songs on the car radio while I was driving my kids around to gymnastic classes, violin lessons, and flute lessons.
Well, Jerry, even among the ’80s hits on rock and “alternate” charts, there were much better songs than the vast majority of these…ranging from the good-to-best work of the Go-Go’s to King Crimson to the B-52s to the Bangles to Klymaxx to REM to Prince and the Revolution to Chaka Khan to Husker Du to the Pixies to Jawbox to the Police to just a whole lot of others…and that isn’t touching on bluegrass or country or blues or jazz et al.
Todd, a nice litany of groups and singers!
And those off the top of mind….bought a lot of vinyl, tape and CDs in that decade. And a whole lot of that classical and the other genres along with the rock.
Todd, as soon as music CDs were in the stores in the early 1980s, I jettisoned my vinyl records and replaced them with CDs.
Well…some CDs fade, and some were badly remastered (and some music wasnever reissued thus, though happily only some). I’ve lugged all the formars around…even have a few (very few) of my parents’ open-reel tapes (a very fragile format).
Todd, just about the time I jettisoned my vinyl album collection, I also stopped buying cassette tapes. I never liked tape because it always broke on me…
My typing is really off (too many distractions, including cats)…and I had to remind myself Blondie was a few years defunct by ’85…and that was a pretty good decade (perhaps not year) for the Kinks–I see they had albums out in ’84 and ’86. And Queen Latifah, Salt-N-Pepa, De La Soul and others, though I was never deeply engaged with rap, and Operation Ivy along with the UK ska revivalists caught my ears then.
Todd, the musical trends started to change in 1985 with an emphasis on music videos for MTV and increased touring.
Cassettes always broke and stretched on everyone! Particularly if you played them in a car (only cheap dubbed home-taping for that purpose).
Todd, I remember when cars came with cassette players. Now, the auto manufacturers have removed the CD players from their vehicles. If you want to listen to music on a trip, Sirius XM radio is your best option.
Yes, I know most of them, but doesn’t mean they are favorites. I prefer the original 1959 “Sea of Love” by Phil Phillips (of course). I do like “Walking on Sunshine” and “Take On Me” and dislike “We Built This City.”
Jeff, a lot of people dislike “We Built This City” but it made a lot of money for Jefferson Starship.
George, I’d say I like the simple majority of these enough to not change the station when they came on–though Aretha Franklin and Jefferson Airplane/J Starship/Starship did much better work, even if that _was_ the best track I remember from the Commodres, while Lionel Richie was piling up the royalties with inane solo-career songs. Don’t remember one or two by title.
Todd, 1985 was still an era when songs were designed for radio play. That all changed by the 1990s.
My drive time soundtrack from the Reagan era of male groups that tended to sound alike (Mr Mister, a-ha, Thompson Twins, Spandau Ballet). I despise Roth’s needless cover of California Girls, but Nightshift is the only Commodores song I like.
Fred, I’m a big fan of the Thompson Twins music!
Though I prefer the 60s music the 70s and 80s had good ones, though I didn’t recognize all of them by name. I mercifully missed David Lee Roth’s version of California girls. I think miracles by the starship would be one of my all time favorites.
Maggie, I’m with you on “Miracles.” A classic song!
Not a bad collection. If/when I compile my Music of 1985 playlist, maybe a third of these will be on it.
I recently compiled Music of 1970, which turned out to be 95 songs, 7 hours. And I’m sure there are others that belong in there that I missed.
Jeff, if you’re compiling music year by year, it many take you some time to get to 1985!
I agree with Jeff on Sea of Love and Fred on California Girls! I’ve heard most of these songs and the best I can say is they aren’t rap!
Bob, I love “Sea of Love” no matter who does it!
Best here: “Voices Carry”; “Walking on Sunshine” and “Nightshift” vie for second.
Todd, “Voices Carry” deserves more love…and airplay!