The 80′s were a great period to grow up in. There was still the hangover of those great 60′s and 70′s bands as well as plenty of new influences like disco and synth pop. Along with the typical pop flavors however came a few unforgettable melodies that have stood the test of time. They had the adrenaline feel of rock, the simplicity of pop and the beauty of new age music and set benchmarks of their own. This list of 15 songs below are typified by their expansive but simple sound, buoyant energy and underlying feel of optimism. They are all great songs to start the day with. Feel free to have your say on any I’ve missed as well as any that shouldn’t be here!
15. Simple minds Don’t You (Forget About Me)
14. Toto Africa
13. Alan Parsons Project Eye In The Sky
12. Simple Minds Belfast Child
11. Thompson Twins Hold Me Now
10. Kim Carnes Bette Davis Eyes
9. Madonna Cherish
8. Tears for Fears Woman in chains
7. Pat Benetar We Belong
6. Depeche Mode Enjoy The Silence
5. Tears for Fears Head over heels
4. Pat Benatar Love Is A Battlefield
3. Simple Minds Alive And Kicking
2. George Michael Freedom! ’90
1. Simple Minds Let there be love
Contributor: heavybison
Mystern: I feel ya, I was born in/around ’85/’86 also.
Randall: Just be glad that we recognize and appreciate who these artists are.
ok. no afros. jheri-curl then?
so how close to london does this list maker live? seems to be a little brit-centered.
Jerry curl was definately 80′s-one of my fav scenes ever in a movie was in “Coming to America” when there’s the family who own a jerry curl gel empire, and they’re sitting on a couch-and they all get up together and there is a perfect jerry curl residue outline on the wall.
Mystern; you are but a baby, and I couldn’t tell, this is a compliment.
I was born in 1962,,,just missed being a hippie
My oldest son was born in 1986 and he sings along with me on the stones, ac/dc,billy idol etc, but unfortunately he also listens to repetitive rap crap
Mom424: Thanks for the compliment. I think I am one of the few people who reads profiles.
Mom:
My oldest daughter (born 1994) has taken after her father in many ways, most especially in regards to musical taste. She’s into a lot of stuff contemporary (The Killers, Strokes, White Stripes) and various 90s artists (she loves PJ Harvey and Sarah Mclachlan, and Green Day) and original Punk is her special love… she’s listened to her ***** Pistols, Ramones, and Clash CDs so many times, I’m surprised they still work… but when it comes to the 80s, she’s intensely picky. As we drive along in the car, an 80s tune may come on… and more often than not her reaction is swift and terrible:
“Eighties pop drivel,” she’ll sneer derisively, and change the station.
Like Mystern and toolnut, I was also a child of the 90′s. It’s a bit peculiar how our generation is obsessed with “80′s music.” In college, it felt like EVERY week there was another 80′s party to go to. I think generally we love 80′s music because it’s so wacky and upbeat, filled with handclaps and falsetto-filled choruses. Plus, we didn’t have to hear these songs a thousand times a day on the radio growing up.
Anyway, I really like the songs on the list here but I would add “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” by Queen, “Mint Car” by the Cure, and “Melt With You” by Modern English. I actually have a morning playlist and it’s mostly 80′s music, Beatles, and A Tribe Called Quest.
Satori: “This Charming Man” by the Smiths is a GREAT song. I almost can’t get dressed without listening to it.
Great list, love me some 80′s. I’d add Baltimora’s “Tarzan Boy” to the list – Whooa-WoAoAo-AoAo-A-Wa-oA!
And sorry, can’t resist:
Gentlemen, allow me to demonstrate the awesome lethality of the Alan Parsons Project. Fire the laser!
Here’s a few good ones you missed….
1. Aha – Take on Me
2. Billy Idol – White Wedding
3. Bruce Hornsby – The Way It Is
4. Cutting Crew – I Just Died In Your Arms
5. David Bowie/Queen – Under pressure
6. Dexy’s Midnight Runners – Come On Eileen
7. Falco – Rock Me Amadeus
8. Huey Lewis & The News – The Power of Love
9. Mr. Mister – Take These Broken Wings
10. Peter Gabriel – In Your Eyes
11. Tears for Fears – Everybody Wants To Rule The World
12. Wang Chung – Everybody Have Fun Tonight
13. Yes – Owner Of A Lonely Heart….
……to name a few.
The Talking Heads’ “And She Was” always puts me in a happy mood.
Borg:
You’ve hit a nail right on its head here.
The fact is that there was a TON of great music in the 90s–Alternative music, that is–top 40 in the 90s was mostly godawful, which has been true of every decade, actually, since the 60s. (The 60s was the last time when everything top 40 was almost universally great). The great bands of the 90s are too numerous to mention. But there’s a difference between the way music was disseminated, produced, and marketed in the 80s vs. the 90s, and a difference in what the two decades were about, when it came to music.
What your generation is reacting to, in loving 80s New Wave, is similar to the reaction all of have had to 60s pop. 60s pop was fun, danceable, vital and hugely memorable. (Unfortunately you can’t say the same for 60s hippie music, which was, with only a few exceptions, ponderous, dull, and totally forgettable). The key word is, 60s pop was FUN. There were countless one-hit wonders, and that tells you right there–what mattered in the 60s was the individual 3 minute pop song.
Then all that fun pop got morphed for a time into “ROCK,” by the hippies and their 70s successors, and a lot of the fun was drained out of it. It was bloated and self-important. Then the Punk rockers reacted against that, and voila–in the 80s we had the return of meaningless, FUN, danceable, energetic music. Tons of one-hit wonders. Nobody cared who the bands were. All that mattered was the hit song with the great synth beat and the swirling guitars and memorable melody.
Some of that carried over into the 90s for a while, but the difference with 90s music—while I love a LOT of it—is that it wasn’t “fun” the way 80s New Wave was. It wasn’t just innocent lets-go-dance-and-party music anymore. The 90s were great…. but different.
This is a terrible list. JMHO.
Simple minds? Please.
Worst
List
Ever.
Under pressure by bowie and mercury, should no matter what, be on that list
Rocknopera: awww, I totally forgot about Peter Gabriel. One of my favorites by far. Although I would have to say “Sledgehammer” rather than “In Your Eyes”
I never realized how ambivalent I was about music from the Eighties. I’m looking at my 250 CDs right now and can only find Elvis Costello, Dire Straits, The Stranglers, The Pixies, Graham Parker, and X.
Here in America, many of us are eagerly anticipating the arrival of spring and the opening day for baseball. How about John Fogerty’s, CENTERFIELD to boost our spirits in the morning?
Oh good! I just found another great morning song from the Eighties, MANDINKA, by Sinead O’Connor.
Absolutely, Randall. I feel, however, that I can only appreciate the simplicity of that type of music because I didn’t have to listen to it every day. I’m sure if I had been born 10 years earlier, I would have been listening to the Replacements, the Pixies, the Smiths, the Clash, instead. 80′s music makes great morning and party music, but I can’t listen to it very long before I get bored.
Rocknopera;
awesome list, i’m with toolnut on the peter gabriel, and I would definitely replace most of the simple minds and the depeche mode and the pat benatar tune “we belong” with anything from your list. Good choices! (I don’t recognize 3 or 4, probably just because I’m old, or they didn’t play it on the radio where I lived)
Simple Minds were never that great even IN the 80s.. now they have 4 spots on this list… yuck.
Borg:
Absolutely. I was *there* and I definitely preferred the Replacements, Smiths, Pixies, etc. etc. See… there was also, back then, a dividing line between what was popular and what was “college music.” College radio was playing stuff that was inventive, cool, hip, intelligent… and yet a lot of it was still fun. Whereas top 40 80s music–especially after 1985–was filled with drek.
We got bored with New Wave after a while, just as you say–and after all, New Wave more or less started around 1978 or 79… and was good and listenable until… say, 1985. That’s 6 or 7 years, a long time for a “style” to last. Not bad. After that the cool bands went more underground, into college radio, and the crap filled the top 40 playlists.
If you notice, the huge New Wave groups had a great slacking off of hits after 85 or so… Culture Club and Duran Duran for instance. The form became stale.
You learned to hear it condensed down into the hits… which is great, that’s how it should be now. But back then, yeah…. you got sick of hearing the pop stuff after a while.
Borg:
Also, you make another fantastic point about 80s music:
“80’s music makes great morning and party music, but I can’t listen to it very long before I get bored.”
Well said, kid. That’s exactly what I was getting at… 80s music is party music, it’s get-pumped up and excited and have fun music. But that can also get boring when you want a little more density and substance in what you’re listening to.
BUT, it’s got its place.
Randall; your kid likes the same contemporary music I do. I love the white stripes, Jolene by them kinda sends willies up my back….
I’m not fond of the Killers, cuz they can’t sing in real life, not that the radio versions aren’t catchy, and I like the ramones, and the clash, and green day’s kinda cool
i don’t know how old your daughter is but I also like Hank III, punkabilly, lots of swearing but if she’s old enough get her to give it a try, he also sings old style country which is beautiful….
what about dj jazzy jeff and the fresh prince “parents just don’t understand”?
Mom:
My daughter swears like a sailor. No problem there.
Randall:
And it sure beats the modern day equivalent of dance music: mainstream rap. Just as mindless, but more about posturing than fun. I much prefer electronic.
#88: Lol!
That was meant for Randall’s daughter!!
I’m a child of the 90s, and I’m not really familiar with the songs on this list. However, I do like “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”, which I first heard in one of Futurama’s rather emotional episodes, “The Luck of the Fryish”.
Anyway, I think “Maniac” by Michael Sembello and “Flashdance” by Irene Cara are also great songs for the mornings
#80: I do agree with Borg and i’m more of a rock and metal fan but more often than not this list reminds me of just how beautiful and simple life can be sometimes..
And i’m surprised…i thought there were more TFS fans out there..
There are just so many great 80s songs to get you going, that writing this list is like commenting on 15 special fish in the sea. Well done another cool list!!
@Byaskal: I was waiting for someone to say “Take on me”! My favorite 80s song! Excellent inclusion of Men at Work.
Has to be Black Box and ‘Ride on Time’. That’ll get you out of bed pretty sharpish.
Good List. Lots of good songs and more in the comments. My vote is for cheesetastic “Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler!!! As a child of the 80s, I love these reminders of my youth. I really do love the 80s!!!
You didn’t just leave out “I’m Gonna Be (500 miles)” by the Proclaimers. For shame!
I’m a little proud and somehow slightly depressed by the fact that I’m only 20 and I know all these songs…
Hello! Ok, time for some Depeche Mode snobbery.
Enjoy The Silence was released in 1990. Thanks all!
ohh… Pat Benetar! she rocks! but… no Patty Smith? no Men at Work? c’mon now…
um.. cool(?)
What’s with the Simple Minds favoritism? They aren’t that good.
’80s Tunes that are overlooked
1) Androgynous–Replacements
2) Trouble Waiting to Happen–Warren Zevon
3) She Bangs the Drum–Stone Roses
’80s Tunes that are overlooked
1) Birth, School, Work, Death–The Godfathers
2) Trouble Waiting to Happen–Warren Zevon
3) She Bangs the Drum–Stone Roses
4) I Ain’t Ever Satisfied–Steve Earle
5) Come Dancing–Teh Kinks
6) People Who Died–Jim Carroll
7) Tomorrow Night–The Shoes
8) Rise–Public Image Limited
9) A Million Miles Away–Plimsouls
10) Lake of Fire–Meat Puppets
11) Memphis, Egypt–The Mekons
12) Love Vigilantes–New Order
13) Pay to Cum–Bad Brains
14) Home of the Brave–The Nails
15) That’s Entertainment–The Jam
None of which got any time on MTV, save The Kinks
“Come Dancing” and of course this doesn’t include stuff by Husker Du, The Smiths, Naked Raygun, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, or The Replacements because there are too many awesome songs to choose
nu shooz i cant wait
swing out sister breakout
and seriously NOT ONE mention for anything by INXS?!? like “new sensation” or “mystify”
I hear this stuff all day at work, on a Golden Oldies FM station. I was more into The Clash, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Tom Petty, The Pretenders, UB40, Fine Young Cannibals about then.
Men at Work are the guys that sang “Land Down Under” weren’t the?
but really a list like this is just impossible, there was just way too much pop music in the 80′s.
i’ve seen no mentions for phil collins, eurythmics,
cyndi lauper, motley crue, rem, nowhere near enough love for duran duran, and the song “dont you want me baby” by human league
“blister in the sun” Violent femmes
This should have been done the same way the jokes were done. islanderbst has a good point.
Islanderbst: Great additions! How about some Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam????
jocsboss: Golden Oldies, huh? Wow. . . now I do feel old!
Blondie, Loverboy, 4 Non Blondes and especially the Divinyls with “I Touch Myself”
Where’s the love for ABBA!!! Dancing Queen!!!
Well the really sad part of the Golden Oldies for me is that I remember music for twenty years before that. I got hooked when the Rolling Stones and Sonny and Cher were hot.
ABBA! Yeah and the banana song, Chiquita!
I know, it’s Chidita or something like that but I always thought of bananas.
Born in the 70s, formative years in the 80s. I have a very soft spot for all things 80s. Big hair, banana clips, neon pink, hair metal, etc. Not that I have big hair now or anything, really. . .
Night Ranger, Sister Christian!!!
definitely angelina on the lisa lisa and cult jam
“head to toe” outstanding
What about White Snake and “Here We go Again”