Only the best 80's music

[italic]Oh baby pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease, give a little respecttttttttt, toooooooooo meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee![/italic]

Fate, up against your will...

1985

I have know idea when it was released, buy about the 80s. Great song.

1984

1984

1980

Best song of the 80s, r7. I still play it today.

Gets me every single time, R8

I’M NOT IN LOVE, DAMN IT!

Donny Osmond does a good version, surprisingly.

Perhaps the best video. (For the period).

1989

1980

My favorite song from 1980:

My favorite song from 1981:

My favorite song from 1982:

My favorite song from 1983:

My favorite song from 1984:

My favorite song from 1985:

My favorite song from 1986:

My favorite song from 1987:

My favorite song from 1988:

My favorite song from 1989:

I’ve always liked Avalon (1982).

Ultravox 1980.

Graceland - the whole album

Unsung

Grace

Was not was

Never a fan, but always liked this song a lot.

Cory Hart - Never Surrender 1985

....

"Let the Music Play" - Shannon

The Police

Prince

Prefab Sprout

Where is the time machine please? I want to go back to the 80s

Bond fans?

I miss this guy so much

so 80s

This!

Yes, this was released in 1980

I'm still crying

who remember this now? 1987

This was kept from #1 in the UK by paedophile Michael Jackson

Still so good

This song epitomizes the late '80s in my mind

1984

1981

Dis not aged

The real Queen of the 80s

That magical song

Slave to love

Golden Brown

Level 42

take me back in the 80s and please, please leave me there forever

Scorpions

Heard that he changed his name and he don't want to remember from his past

The Style Council

his best song

Listen up, bitches

Let Me Go

1983 - Mad World

I'm still in love with this song. Take me back at that time

crying rn

iMHO one of the best voices of the 80's.

Depeche Mode - A Question of Lust

Golden Earring - Twilight Zone

Eternal flame

arrff... that song

I Need You Tonight.

Cameo - Word Up

Go West - We Close Our Eyes

Master Blaster

that French was something back in the 80s in Europe

Jackson Browne - Somebody's Baby

My fav

New Years Eve-Dan Fogelberg

The best in the 80s

dope!

Still the best

Some Australian vibes

this is art

Pat Benatar - Here's My Heart [Metropolis Soundtrack]

Very vert 80s

Oh OP I feel you

Ha!

Real 80s vibe

OK Academy Awards 1985 Best Song...all are really 80's classics.

Winner "I Just Called to Say I Love You" from "The Woman in Red".... Stevie Wonder

"Take a Look at Me Now" from "Against All Odds"... Phil Collins

"Let's Hear It for the Boy" from "Footloose"...Tom Snow, Dean Pitchford

"Ghostbusters" from "Ghostbusters" ...Ray Parker Jr.

and

"Footloose" from "Footloose"...Kenny Loggins (music), Dean Pitchford (lyric)

STOP!

Pretty in Pink

Classic

Every song in this thread, with the exception of Karma Chameleon, is an absolute gem. The 80s really were the best. Someone make a Spotify playlist with all of these songs! x

Tempted

1989, A masterpiece

Violent Femmes

Another masterpiece released in 1982

masterpiece released in 1986

Faith, 1987

Melissa Manchester - "You Should Hear How She Talks About You" - 1982

Jeez...

Don't you forget about me, don't don't

Sandra (ouch!)

"I'm So Excited" - The Pointer Sisters - 1982. Re-released in 1984 and went to #9 on the Billboard charts. Still one of the best party songs of all time.

That was a hit in Europe hahaha 😁

Vanessa Paradis when she was 14 yo too was a huge star, 1987

Patti LaBelle - Stir It Up Beverly Hills Cop - Soundtrack

Tina Turner - What's Love Got To Do With It

Donna Summe - She Works Hard For The Money

R107 Is it not she we have to blame for the odious Rilly Lose Schlepp?

Run DMC

House

Anita Baker

The best thread EVAH!

1982 The Clash

Owner of a Lonely Heart

Run To You

Dire Straits - Skateaway

I loved the video too.

Everyday I Write The Book

Howard Jones - What Is Love

Steppin ‘Out

(Great video too)

The Jesus and Mary Chain.

1985.

It took me two weeks to find this “album” in the US.

Johnny and Mary in 1980

Ahem - excuse me!

Toto - Africa

The most 80's song I can think of.

I can't believe no one's mentioned ME yet.

A favorite album for many years, beginning in 1984. Thanks, Mark & Tom.

The last year 1989

This song stopped me in my tracks

Joan Armatrading

The early 80s had some of the best MOR or yacht rock

New Order

Jesus and Mary Chain

Glass Tiger - Don't Forget Me When I'm Gone

From 1983 Thompson Twins with Hold Me Now

Rosanne Cash - I Don't Know Why (You Don't Want Me)

These love songs make me miss my ex from the 80s. He was an asshole though.

Debuted at the end of 1980.

Martika - Toy Soldiers from 1988

I still love this song immensely.

and since we went to Karl Wallinger (World Party), he's playing the piano in a tune that I forgot about the awesomeness of.......

"How Soon Is Now?" - the Smiths

"Running Up That Hill" - Kate Bush

Ok, now I'm done......

Ok ok ok, NOW I'm done

Ok ok ok, NOW I'm done

Dream Academy - Life in a Northern Town.

sorry for the double post

"This Town Is Our Town" - the Go-Gos

and only cuz he truly was dreamy AF and the song is epic....

and because, you know what I'm saying don't make me say it

From an iconic movie, Say Anything. In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel.

"Crazy He Calls Me" - Linda Ronstadt. It took me years to acclimate myself to her Nelson Riddle albums—I'd adored, cherished, and revered everything from [italic]Heart like a Wheel[/italic] to [italic]Get Closer[/italic]—but they're now my standards of the standards. I so wish she'd gotten to do my favorite, "The Way You Look Tonight."

love this song

Too soon?

Op here

More from me:

Another from the OP

The best Madonna song ever

Cute song that's gets me in a very happy mood

For my Spanish speaking peeps.

This was huge in Spain and all over Latin America

Featuring a 15 year old Penelope Cruz

Basia - Time and Tide

Otra de Mecano.

Ok guys thanks for the list. I have sufficient.

So underrated

Shalamar

Berlin, No More Words, 1984

Animotion, Obsession, 1984

I loved the piano in this song as a kid.

1989

I know the thread is "closed", but the 80's can't be appreciated without some Replacements... pop and punk and heartbreak enough for a lifetime.

Closed, you say???

It ain’t over until these two ladies sing!!!

Juice Newton

EWF

"Strut" - Sheena Easton

"Stand Back" - Stevie Nicks

"Automatic" - The Pointer Sisters

I believe this what the kids today call a "bop":

"Gloria" - Laura Branigan

C'est La Vie - Robbie Nevil

Don't Disturb This Groove - The System

I revisit this every Halloween. It has a spooky vibe and a very 80s video!

Al B. Sure - Nite & Day

"Meeting in the Ladies Room" - Klymaxx

Swing Out Sister - "Break Out"

"Showing Out (Get Fresh at the Weekend)" - Mel and Kim

Pet Shop Boys - What Have I Done To Deserve This

Blondie - Call Me

Bruce Springsteen - Dancing In the Dark

Dan Hartman - I Can Dream About You - Streets Of Fire Soundtrack

For some reason, Mel and Kim fascinate me. The music is SAW garbage at it's finest, but I just stare at their videos. How big were they in the UK? I just don't recall ever seeing them on MTV. They're like....Milli Vanilli or something.

From 1983

Brenda Russell- Piano in the Dark

Love it. The return of Grace Slick to Jefferson Starship in 1981.

Shalamar - "Dead Giveaway"

Love the video - KISS goes POP! And goodbye to Peter Criss - the catman.

Probably my favorite Santana song- the beautiful "Hold On."

Mel & Kim were stuck in the 'dance' (read: gay) music category here. They were perfectly of their moment and it is a real downer of a story (cancer at 21 six months into their run).

Kim released one of their early demos last year that sounds nothing like them, but is pretty blah.

and thank you for the Shalamar & Kid Creole tunes, which not enough folks in the States know.

and this is too good not to post (and was EVERYTHING to me for a couple of weeks in late '83.....

and I cannot understate how truly boss this was when it first gurgled up its octave interval beeps......

and I cannot understate how truly boss this was when it first gurgled up its octave interval beeps......

The King of Pain - The Police

Toni Basil "Hey Mickey" C'mon you can't not sing along no matter how many times you've heard it.

Our anthem to kick off the 80s

Crappy video but I always loved this one hit wonder.

R206 General Public we’re far from a one hot wonder and Dave was a hot cutie. Please ignore the Threesome movie shots in this video....

Speaking of two-hit wonders, I've always preferred Cutting Crew's "I've Been in Love Before," which peaked at #10, over their #1 hit "(I Just) Died in Your Arms."

This one played heavy rotation on my Walkman mixtape.

I'm SOOO thin.

Peter Gabriel - Lay Your Hands On Me

From the late 80s.

Siouxsie & The Banshees, Cities in Dust

"Borderline" - Madonna

"Maniac" - Michael Sembello

10,000 Maniacs - Like The Weather

YES. A thousand times YES R208. I recently re-discovered that song via "I want my 80s" on VH1.

From the best group of the 1980s, The Smiths. There is a Light that Never Goes Out.

R218 The documentation of MJ's pedophilia has changed how I hear his music. Morrisey's fascism has changed how I hear his music. Maybe the music should stand apart from the personal context. For now, for me, it doesn't. The Smiths were a great, great band with an astonishingly new and unique sound. Morrisey is monumental prick. The latter sullies the former.

It's very easy for me to separate Michael Jackson's music from his persona. Anything up to Thriller is a completely different Michael Jackson than the pale sad person in that trial. To me Michael Jackson died in 1984.

Debra Laws

"Magic" - Olivia Newton-John

"Only the Lonely" - The Motels

one of the best Talking Heads covers ever........

R224 Agreed. I still have it on a 12 inch single.

So nice, let's play it twice.

"Our Lips Are Sealed" - the Go-Gos

Prince "Uptown"

"Get it Up" The Time

Madonna - Everybody

WILL NEVER get tired of 80s Madonna (FTW)

Live Aid performance

ELO - All Over The World Xanadu soundtrack

Yazoo - Only you

…. Joey, honey, I've got some money... if you're somewhere passed out on the floor, Oh Joey, I'm not angry anymore..." Concrete Blonde

Some quiet storm. Juicy - Sugar Free

Rebbie Jackson - Centipede

"The Warrior" - Scandal featuring Patty Smyth

"The Glamorous Life" - Sheila E.

Scandal/Patty Smyth - Hands Tied

Love THIS song

quarterflash - harden my heart

Scandal--Say What You Will

"Pieces of Ice," Diana Ross

Wouldn't It Be Good - Nik Kershaw

Icehouse - Icehouse

"We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off" - Jermaine Stewart

"Walking in L.A." - Missing Persons

Tripping on mushrooms, furniture pushed against the wall in my college apartment and the whole gang dancing like whirling dervishes. We all loved this song.

Great Madonna album track

Last song on the last ABBA album

Welcome to the Pleasuredome

Great early 80s lost hit

Fishbone

Laurie Anderson

Kate

Sade

Teena Marie

George Clinton

Huey Lewis and the News

Subtle innuendoes follow: must be something inside.

Freestyle-- The Cover Girls

One of my favorite Elton John/Bernie Taupin compositions, and one of my favorite ONJ songs.

Few people know it because she found out she had breast cancer at the start of the publicity tour, and so the album fizzled.

Jody Watley

The Hooters, And We Danced

Whoops, Jody Watley

David and David

Get your facts straight , R260. Olivia was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992. The Rumour came out in 1988. The album tanked because the material was bad, just like Soul Kiss.

What an unpleasant asshole you are, r265.

BLOCKED

"Baby Love" - Regina

This song was offered to Madonna, but she turned it down. Regina, who co-wrote the song, recorded it and it became a Top-10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.

"In My House" - Mary Jane Girls

"Could've Been" - Tiffany

John Waite-Missing You

Waite--Change

The Jets--Cross My Broken Heart

Don't make a fool of yourself--Stacey Q

Lulu - I Could Never Miss You

The Psychedelic Furs, "The Ghost In You".

Icicle Works, "Whisper To A Scream".

The Lotus Eaters - "The First Picture Of You" from TOTP. The singer was a cutie.

Claude Bolling - Blue Kiss From Brazil

(from the album Jazz à la française - 1984)

Let's Active-Room with a View, 1983

"Bela Lugosi's Dead" is the first song that Bauhaus ever recorded and was released in late '79 but didn't really register until it played in the opening credits of The Hunger in '83. It was a constant among my Goth friends back then.

One of my favorite Siouxsies, 1980's "Israel"

No 80s thread is complete without a ton of Duran Duran

Duran Duran:

Duran Duran

Duran Curan

Tears for Fears

Depeche Mode

Thomas Dolby

This Mortal Coil's "Sixteen Days/Gathering Dust" to offset the deluge of Duran Duran and other MTV stuff that inundated us back then

New Order

So cheesy, yet so exhilarating...

The Human League - Don't You Want Me (Special Ext Dance Mix)

Patrice Rushen - Forget Me Nots

Change - A Lover's Holiday [12" Extended Mix]

Brothers Johnson ~ Stomp! 1980 Disco Purrfection Version

Karyn White - Secret Rendezvous - After Hour Mix 1988

Yarbrough & Peoples ~ Don't Stop The Music 1980 Disco Purrfection Version

Dancing In The Sheets (Extended 12" Remix)

David Bowie ~ Let's Dance 1983 Funky Purrfection Version

Blondie ~ Rapture 1981 Super Extended Purrfection Version

Cheri ~ Murphy's Law 1982 Disco Purrfection Version

Lindsey Buckingham ~ Trouble 1981 Disco Purrfection Version

Information Society - What's On Your Mind (Pure Energy)

Change - Paradise 1981

When In Rome - The Promise

Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (if you've ever been "rickrolled" you'll know this song)

S.O.S. Band - Take Your Time (Do It Right)

Sharon Redd - Never Give You Up

(RIP)

Lipps Inc. - Funkytown

Dead Can Dance - Persephone

Eurogliders, Heaven (Must Be There), 1984

The Other Ones, Holiday, 1987

The Parachute Club, Rise Up, 1983

The Gap Band - "You Dropped A Bomb On Me"

Queen - "I Want To Break Free"

Funky Town was actually 70s

'Funkytown' was released and hit #1 on the US charts in 1980.

The Specials - "Ghost Town"

"Abracadabra" - Steve Miller Band

"Who's That Girl" - Madonna

The Blow Monkeys - "Digging Your Scene"

The Style Council - "Have You Ever Had It Blue"

Bowie--Modern Love

I know that he "hated" the Let's Dance album BUT it served its purpose. That's how a Black kid from Texas became a fan.

Time --Culture Club

STILL knocks

Culture Club - "Church Of The Poison Mind"

Roman Holliday - "Stand By"

502 Bad Gateway keeps coming up in this list, a song I don’t recall?

This song still rocks my world!

This song still rocks my world!

Noel

"Far from Over" - Frank Stallone

"Endless Love" - Diana Ross and Lionel Richie

(This is the original studio recording, with video from the Academy Awards and clips from the movie.)

This song was written by Lionel Richie and was meant to be a solo recording for him. At the last minute, Motown decided it should be a duet and brought in Diana Ross. True to her reputation, Miss Ross refused to sing her part of the song, and insisted on singing Richie's part. This caused some drama and tension, as some of the lyrics had to be changed. But it all worked out in the end, as the song became a huge hit, spending 9 weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Billboard ranks this as the #1 duet in pop music history.

Has this been posted before?

And the Lionel Richie ¨choreography¨ songs.

Even tho Michael Jackson, Janet, etc. got the famous choreography videos, personally I think Lionel Richie's are the best.

Starting with Running with the Night

Then this one

I specially love the choreography and fashions starting from 3:30 to 4:40

And last but not least this one

Has this been posted? It must have been , because it's one of the best of the decade. The videoclip is gorgeous.

The moment at 4:07 is everything.

DM--But Not Tonight

Shannon--Give Me Tonight

Love me some Jimmy Fallon. The ads are annoying but it's worth it.

THE '80s song, and one that is so good that it doesn't sound dated in an '80s kind of way. Bizarre Love Triangle would be a hit today with the indie kids and the pop crowd. There's also an acoustic cover of it by a little-known group called Frente, it sounds completely different yet somehow retains the beauty of the song.

Live version of another one of my '80s faves, DM's Just Can't Get Enough

Rex Smith - Rachel Sweet - Everlasting Love

Released March 28, 1985; if I only could go back for a day!

1984! From the great Dan Hartman. We lost a good guy far too soon!

1985!

When we get above 300, it is helpful—[bold]very[/bold] helpful, in fact—to type the name of the song and the artist as well as posting the link. It takes longer for the video to appear when we get into the high numbers, and sometimes people don't wait long enough to know which song you've posted.

IOW, don't just post "1985," or "Released March 28, 1985." It may not get your song listened to.

Won't one of you elder whores make a spotify or youtube list for us working whores?

R346 Dan Hartman sang the song live on Late Night with David Letterman. He and the band were excellent.

Master tapes much if not all Dan Hartman's music was reportedly destroyed in that 2008 Universal Studios fire.

Dan Hartman released "Relight My Fire" in 1979, but am still going with 1980's because it was still a huge hit in clubs/bars.

1982

Van Morrison Dweller on the Threshold from Beautiful Vision

1981

Rickie Lee Jones

Woody & Dutch on the Slow Train to Peking

from Pirates

Pirates is still tremendous 38 years later. Her best album.

1983 Will Powers Kissing with Confidence

Psychedelic Furs, Pretty In Pink, 1981

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, If You Leave, 1986

The Downtown Lights - by The Blue Nile

"Heart and Soul" by T'Paul 1987

"Wild Wild West" - by The Escape Club 1988

"99 Luftballons" - by Nena, 1983

"Say It, Say It" - E. G. Daily

"Sidewalk Talk" - Jellybean

Written by Madonna. Background vocals by Madonna.

Lead vocals by Catherine Buchanan.

"Twist of Fate" - Olivia Newton-John

Sidewalk Talk is a textbook example of bad 80s music.

R366 Gated reverb drums - like a wet towel was on the drum.

1981 Tom Tom Club Genius of Love

Does anyone remember this? They actually used to play it in the Haymarket, a real trashy gay club in the old Boston Combat Zone...

Talking Heads Speaking in Tongues Girlfriend is Better 1983

I love that song, r364. I always thought Madonna did all the vocals on it. I had no idea the lead vocals were done by another woman.

"Fascinated" - Company B

"The Lover in Me" - Sheena Easton

"Crush on You" - The Jets

R374 That video is SO 80s - the music, the clothes, the set, the lasers. If someone ever asks you what the 80s were like, just show them this.

Those Jets kids could really move, by the way.

The B-52's

Wig

Bouncing Off the Satellites

1986

Rickie Lee Jones

Rodeo Girl

Flying Cowboys

1989

Tom Waits

Walking Spanish

Raindogs

1985

Prefab Sprout

Cars and Girls

From Langley Park to Memphis

1988

Grace Jones

Pull Up to the Bumper

NIghtclubbing

1981

Prefab Sprout

The King of Rock'N' Roll

From Langley Park to Memphis

1988

Tom Waits and Crystal Gayle

Picking Up After You

from Francis Ford Coppola's One From The Heart

1982

Suzanne Vega

Left of Center

1986

from the soundtrack of Pretty in Pink

The B-52's

Ain't It a Shame

Bouncing Off the Satellites

1986

Steely Dan

Time Out of Mind

Gaucho

1980

R115 fuck yeah!!!! Best thread ever!!!