Favorite 80s' Songs
 

What are your favorite songs from the 1980s'?

Mine would be in no specific order I listed my top 15 which would be my picks of best of the 1980s in music:

Eye of The Tiger-Survivor
Everybody Wants To Rule The World-Tears From Fears
Beat It-Michael Jackson w/ Van Halen
Don't Stop Believin'-Journey
Separate Ways-Journey
Take On Me-Aha
Land Down Under-Men At Work
We Didn't Start The Fire-Billy Joel
Tell Her About It-Billy Joel
Don't You Forget About Me-Simple Minds
Power of Love- Huey Lewis & The News
Wonderful Christmas Time- Paul McCartney
You're The Inspiration-Chicago
Time After Time-Cyndi Lauper
Centerfield- John Fogerty

I'll name 15 as well.

The Number of the Beast - Iron Maiden
The Trooper - Iron Maiden
Rime of the Ancient Mariner - Iron Maiden
Moonchild - Iron Maiden
Turbo Lover - Judas Priest
Desert Plains - Judas Priest
Pain and Pleasure - Judas Priest
Heavy metal - Judas Priest
The Four Horsemen - Metallica
Metal Militia - Metallica
Thriller - Michael Jackson
Dance in the Memories - Dance in the Memories
Angel of Death - Slayer
Amadeus - Falco
What You Need - INXS

The song in this clip really says how I feel about the 1980s! I am so gonna be Rodney Dangerfield's character in my 50s!!!

If I may I would like to bump it up to 18 and add:
Boys of Summer-Don Henley
Livin' On A Prayer-Bon Jovi
Always Something There To Remind Me-Naked Eyes

Oooh, this is tough. I'll do 20, just because there are SOOO many to choose from.

Take On Me- Aha (This is actually my #1!)
Livin' On A Prayer- Bon Jovi
Glory of Love- Peter Cetera
Power of Love- Huey Lewis
You're the Inspiration- Chicago (this one is a close #2)
I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight- Cutting Crew
Piano Man- Billy Joel
I Want To Know What Love Is- Foreigner
Summer of 69- Bryan Adams
We Built This city- Jefferson starship
Tell Her About It- Billy Joel
Just Like A Prayer- Madonna
Thriller- Michael Jackson
You Might Think- The Cars
Africa- Toto
The Warrior- Patty Smythe and Scandal
Don't Dream It's Over- Crowded House
The Air Tonight- Genesis
Holding Out For A Hero- Bonnie Tyler
Hungry Eyes- Eric Carmen


There are MANY more, but I'd better stop here!

We have such a similar list between the 18 I listed and 20 you did. Great choices. I know all of those. Jefferson Starship is an underrated band. The Warrior I wondered why it was not a enternace theme for The Ultimate Warrior.

Heh, I'm an 80's gal, through and through. Believe me, there were SOOO many more, but I tried to keep it down to JUST the ones I listen to the most.

Others on my list-

Safety Dance- Men Without Hats
Come On Eileen- Dexy's Midnight Runners
One Night In Bangkok- Chess
I Wear My Sunglasses At Night- Corey Hart
Paradise City- Guns N' Roses
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road- Elton John
Midnight Train- Journey
Open Arms- Journey
Hotel California- Eagles
All Night Long- Lionel Richie
La Isla Bonita- Madonna


and on and on....

Hotel California was released in 1976. Its still a great song. Just not of the 80s'. Reads like you are listing your iPod selections.

you really got great taste in music, most of them are my favourites too, number one would be Come on Eileen, its such a funny song which makes you kind of happy :D

I'm not into much of what would be considered iconic 80's music. My favorite song's of the 80's are largely obscure or underground, like English punk & Japanese jazz. The more prominent stuff would be from NWA & Pink Floyd, I guess.

867-5309 by Tommy Tutone
Mr. Roboto by Styx
Tonight, Tonight, Tonight by Genesis
The Final Countdown by Europe
St. Elmo's Fire by John Parr

That's all I can think of for now.

Funny you should say that, because that's the year I was born. It wasn't released in the 80's, but was still big all through that decade due to Eagles still being very popular then. A lot of people forget that music groups back then typically had more staying power than current bands tend to do. So I heard that song played all through the 80's, right along with all the others listed.

Also, most of those songs ARE on my phone and mp3 playlists, not to mention my music library on my PC. Because that's the music era I usually listen to.



Yeah, it's a great song! I almost put it on my original list.

Any Iron Maiden song.

Apart from some of the more obvious ones already named... oh, this could be an interesting list, given I'm an obvious child of the 80s, and I've got a wealth of obscure singles to call upon :lol:

*tips hit to MsMD for mentioning One Night In Bangkok and Come On Eileen*

(didn't realise the latter had actually made it to the US)

Dexys Midnight Runner - Geno
XTC - Senses Working Overtime
Yazoo - Only You
Aneka - Japanese Boy
Madness - Embarrassment
Pet Shop Boys - Heart
Fine Young Cannibals - Suspicious Minds (definition of a cover better than the original)
Bronski Beat - Smalltown Boy (you may not know the song, but you'll recognise the samples other modern songs have used!)
Talking Heads - Road to Nowhere
Nik Kershaw - The Riddle
Jonah Louie - Stop the Cavalry
Kim Carnes - Bette Davis Eyes
Ultravox - Vienna
Queen - I Want To Break Free
Alphaville - Big in Japan
Peter Schilling - A Different Story
New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle
The Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams
Pat Benetar - Love is a Battlefield
Roxette - The Look
The Stranglers - Golden Brown
The Clash - Rock the Casbah
Motorhead - Ace of Spades
OMD - Enola Gay
Fleetwood Mac - Little Lies
Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Two Tribes
Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill
Tears For Fears - Mad World
Dead Or Alive - You Spin Me Round
The Vapors - Turning Japanese
Baltimora - Tarzan Boy
Yello - Oh Yeah
Boomtown Rats - I Don't Like Mondays
The Bangles - Manic Monday
Level 42 - Lessons in Love
Buckner and Garcia - Pac-Man Fever :P

Obscure alright. I only recognize two names on your list.

Anyone from my era would have grown up listening to those heh... out of interest, which two had you heard of? I'm guessing The Bangles is one...

I will take a crack at it. I know 5. I know Suspicious Minds, but only Elvis'version. Also know Fine Young Cannibals who redid it,but only for their signature song She Drives Me Crazy. Aside from that...Manic Monday, Mad World, Little Lies, I Want To Break Free ( Mercury is creppy in drag), Bette Davis's Eyes, Pac-Man Fever (thanks to YouTube) , and Sweet Dreams. All are interesting tunes except Sweet Dreams IMHO. I cannot get past the line "some of them want to be abused".

Virtually none of that is obscure...

Hence the use of the word "could" heh... a couple of them probably are (no one I know remembers XTC or Peter Schilling), but as said, if you grew up here in the 80s, most of those should be known.

Queen and Motörhead.

I'm a 24 year old from the states & even I know most of it. :tlol: I'm a music guy, sure, but besides Motorhead & The Clash it's not material I sought out. I just happened to hear it/hear of it in my lifetime.

Yeah, I've heard of probably 2/3 of those, if not the song, at least the band, or vice-versa. Some of them were pretty big hits, if only briefly. And British and Aussie bands were big in the 80's anyway.

Have just discovered the delights of the "general discussion" section, so this seems like a good place to start.
Couldn't possibly keep my list to just 15 though. In fact I had trouble stopping here. I even imposed a rule of only one song per artist too!

I also have most of these on 12 inch vinyl!

Stranglers - Always the Sun
Limahl - The Neverending Story
Yazz & the Plastic Population - The only way is up
The Communards - Don't leave me this way
Bon Jovi - Living on a Prayer
Europe - The Final Countdown
The Housemartins - Happy Hour
Huey Lewis & The News - Power of Love
Aha - Take On Me
Michael Jackson - Thriller
Run DMC & Aerosmith - Walk This Way
Madonna - Like a Prayer
Dr and the Medics - Spirit In the Sky
Peter Gabriel - Sldegehammer
Sisters of Mercy - This Corrosion
The Mission - Tower of Strength
Pet Shop Boys - Always on my Mind
New Order - True faith
Queen - Flash
Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf
Def Leppard - Animal
The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary
Mike & the Mechanics - The Living Years
Human League - Don't You Want Me
S Express - Theme from S Express
808 State - Pacific State
Happy Mondays - Hallelujah
Adam and the Ants - Stand and Deliver
Ray Parker Jr - Ghostbusters
Ultravox - Vienna
MARRS - Pump Up The Volume
Starship - Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now
The Timelords/The KLF/ The Jamms - Doctorin the Tardis
Yello - The Race
Public Image Limited - Rise
Tom Jones & Art of Noise - Kiss
Giorgio Moroder & Phil Oakey - Together in Electric Dreams

And for a slight change of subject, my nomination for WORST 80s song (and there's a lot of them!) goes to: MC Miker and DJ Sven - Holiday Rap

Not completely au fait with the Stranglers song there, but the rest, yeah heh.

Notable for Aardman Animation (iirc) doing the claymation work for the video, and a blink and miss moment for (as then unknown) Phil Jupitus right at the start when the lads enter the pub (because he used to do warm up comedy for the Housemartins when on tour).

9.95 by Spunkadelic :lol:

Cartoon Intros.

TMNT
Ducktales
Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers

I didn't really listen to music when I was little besides from cartoons and a few other stuff.

Buckner & Garcia - "Do the Donkey Kong"

Seconding the TMNT and DuckTales themes

and also the theme to to "Heathcliff & the Catallac Cats"

I thought that Eighties by Killing Joke would be very appropriate for this thread. And well, it really is one of my favorite 1980s songs from one of my favorite 1980s bands as it's also one of their songs that got me into them. :tsmile:

Art Of Noise
Love,aka (Moments In Love Beaten), aka Quiet Storm Version (1983)
(Three Fingers Of) Love (1983)
Beat Box - Diversion One (1983)
A Time For Fear (Who's Afraid) (1984)
Donna (1983)
Legs (1986)
Camilla (1986)
Close To The Edit (1984)
I thought I'd share my love for the english music act Art Of Noise who probably are most known for their funky, goofy and danceable cover versions such as Kiss (with Tom Jones) and Dragnet, or as the "backing band" of record label ZZT (which were founded by Art Of Noise members Trevor Horn and Paul Morley). Throughout the 80s they contributed some of the biggest hits in the 80s for artists such as Frankie Goes To Hollywood, ABC, Dollar, Propaganda and Grace Jones but back in the early days they were putting out groundbreaking material which still today holds up very well and seems to be as highly influental as ever, especially within the Rap/Hip-hop community that has tons of cover versions or samples, but also with several Pop acts, such as Katy Perry and her 2014 hit Dark Horse that sounds very familiar with Moments In Love but in a good way.
I fell in love with Art Of Noise after purchasing their album compilation Daft (1986) that contains their debut album Who's Afraid of The Art of Noise? (1984) and portains of the famous Moments In Love LP (1983) and Into Battle With The Art Of Noise (1983).
What I always enjoy are their great talent for creating everything from nightmarish or funky, upbeat instrumentals to just sit back and relax to some of the most beautiful and calming sounds ever recorded.

Livin' on a prayer- Bon jovi
Separate ways- journey
Iron man- black sabbath
Jessie's girl- Rick Springfield
Don't stop believen'- journey
Bohemian rhapsody- queen

Talk Talk
were always a classy act that within a few years went on from being labeled by critics as yet another poor man's Duran Duran to become one of the biggest hitmakers in the mid 80s selling millions of records. But the band soon grew tired and went way off the pop charts radar by creating music that was not "commercially satisfactory", and in return they got sued by their own record label. Thankfully Talk Talk never gave in, but it did take a lot of energy to fight for their cause and by 1991, after putting out great records for almost a decade, one of the finest bands to come out of the 80s called it a day.
Talk Talk - 1982
Today - 1982
Candy - 1982
Have you heard the News? - 1982
Renée - 1984
Dum Dum Girl - 1984
It's My Life - 1984
Living In Another World - 1986
Give It Up - 1986
Time It's Time - 1986
The Rainbow - 1988
I Believe In You - 1988
Wealth - 1988

Anything from the Clash
Some Billy idol stuff
Most of Depeche Mode stuff
A lot of Cindi Lauper andMadonna
Early Ministry, Early Pixies, 80's Michael Jackson
Almost anything from the Cure, Tears for Fears
Motorhead and Metallica, Iron Maiden, Dio...
Man I don't have a favorite set of songs I just love 80's music in general. Mostly New wave, 80's Metal and like Goth Rock I guess. was never a huge fan of Glam rock but I enjoy some of it.

"The things you do, to stop the truth from hurting you"
When Love Breaks Down

I'll never get tired of the beautiful, lush and dreamy sounds from Prefab Sprout's haunting classic Steve McQueen (1985), brilliantly produced by Thomas Dolby and together with Paddy's sharp lyrics it might just be one of the finest achievements of the 80s.

Thomas Dolby
One of the great pioneers of the synth-pop/electronic movement in the late 70s and early 80s, who started up as an talented session musician working with the likes of Lene Lovich (for whom he wrote the hit single New Toy (1981)) and Foreigner (who seemed to enjoy Dolby's contribution on their 1981 album 4, for which Dolby helped to create the chilling yet catchy synth sound, especially on songs like Urgent (1981) and Waiting For A Girl Like You (1981)).
But it was his quirky synth classic She Blinded Me With Science which helped to establish him as one of the new stars within the synth-pop genre, and beside releasing new music as an solo artist Dolby continued to work both as a session musician as well as record producer for acts such as Prefab Sprout and Joni Mitchell. His successful collaboration with Prefab Sprout have over the years given him the nickname as the "fifth" Sprout.
Dolby would later on record the soundtrack to Howard The Duck (1986) along with Leah Thompson and John Barry, and I guess I'm one of very few who thinks that both the film and the soundtrack are highly underrated.
Anyway, beside his 2011 release A Map of the Floating City, the name Thomas Dolby seems to be popping up frequently along with Steampunk. I have no clue what that is, but if it does sound anything like Dolby's music then I guess it's not a bad thing.

What happens when you throw Roxy Music, The Velvet Underground, David Bowie and The Sex Pistols all together into a huge blender? You will probably end up with the legendary sounds of The Psychedelic Furs

There`s just too many good ones. I am a '90s kid, but I grew listening to a lot of '80s tunes. Here are some of my favorites:

Bon Jovi - "Living on a Prayer" - a childhood favorite.

Peter Gabriel - A cross between "Sledgehammer" and "In Your Eyes."

Pink Floyd - "Comfortably Numb" (I know it was recorded at the end of the '70s, but it still feels like an '80s song).

Journey - A cross between "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" and "Faithfully."

Phil Collins - "In the Air Tonight."

Oingo Boingo - "Dead Man's Party."

Billy Joel - "We Didn't Start the Fire."

Queen - "Radio Ga Ga."

Don Henley - "The Boys of Summer."

Heart - "Alone" or "Never."

Michael Jackson - A cross between "Billie Jean" and "Beat It."

The Police - "Every Breath You Take."

Asia - "Heat of the Moment."

Ray Parker Jr. - "Ghostbusters." (Too bad he ripped off Huey Lewis).

Jodi Benson - "Part of Your World." - Little Mermaid is one of my favorite Disney films.

Madonna - "Live to Tell."

Def Leppard - "Pour Some Sugar on Me."

Pat Benatar - "Shadows of the Night."

Martika - "Toy Soldiers."

U2 - "Where the Streets Have No Name."

Aerosmith - "Rag Doll."

Fleetwood Mac - A cross between "Little Lies" and "Seven Wonders."

Moody Blues - "I Know You're Out There Somewhere."

Tom Petty - "Don't Come Around Here No More."

Eric Clapton - "It's in the Way That You Use It."

Van Halen - "Jump."

There's just way too many. I can't list them all.