Everyone knows the 80s as the decade of greed and silly fashions, of Reaganites and Thatcherites… and above all, of the decade of New Wave and Post-Punk music. Music with lots of synth and drum machines, jangly guitars and House beats. Party music, dance music. Fun music. Both the decade and the music are near to my heart, since I was there as an adult to appreciate it. I was 15 in 1980 and so had lived through my childhood and first half of adolescence in the 70s, a decade of malaise and atrocious fashions and godawful music (but not all bad, since the 70s had Bubblegum, Punk, and early New Wave) and so my generation was ready for a big change, OUR chance to overturn the flabby hippie aesthetic that had run for too long and was worn out, old, and charmless. So we chopped and moussed our hair into spikes and slashed shapes, adapted early late 50s/early 60s clothes to our needs, took on a cheesy, the-future-is-neon-bizarro attitude, put on our skinny ties and wayfairers, and went out to mock the world and DANCE.
And so our music became the soundtrack of a party… silly, upbeat, and ultimately disposable. The appropriate response to a Cold War world that was surely doomed.
But such music isn’t what you think of when you think “beautiful.” And yet… there were some beautiful songs in the 80s. So many, in fact, that this list was very hard to write. Odd at first glance because we also remember the 80s as a decade of truly atrocious ballads and “power-ballads” produced by hair bands and past-their-prime types… I have gleefully ignored these as beneath contempt, and instead have largely eschewed the ballad for simple, straightforward songs. Some are balladic, some are nothing of the sort. But all of them, in my opinion, are “beautiful” in one way or another—whether it’s the melody or simply the overall feel of the song.
This list is really in no particular order until the very end. I DO think my last 4 picks ARE truly the most beautiful songs from the 80s… the others you can take as you like. And please remember, this is not a list of the BEST songs of the 80s… merely the most beautiful.
Any why is it so long? Well first because I’m a long-winded jerk. Second because I couldn’t bear to trim the list down – it was originally at 50, but I couldn’t cut it anymore. Thirdly because that’s how good the music from the 80s was.
20. Just Like Heaven The Cure
OH YES. So, in 1986 I’m in my third year of college and have known about the Cure for years… since back in high school, when they did “Boys Don’t Cry.” But one day this girl I knew came running up to me (I swear, I remember this, it really did happen) and is all excited and insists I listen to the new Cure LP, “Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me” with her. I was unnerved when I saw it was a double album—a rarity in the 80s. But an hour or so later, I was amazed. Almost the greatest f**kin’ album I’d heard up until then. And this was the best song on it.
19. Head Over Heels Tears for Fears
This song holds no particular memories for me, though I loved it when it came out. To me it’s just a great and really lovely song.
18. Here’s Where the Story Ends The Sundays
It was the tail end of the 80s (1989) but then out came this gem, my pick for one of the most beautiful songs of the entire decade, and for the 90s as well, in fact. (It carried on the college radio charts well into 92 I think). Harriet was one of the prettiest singers in Alternative music, too… had a huge crush on her.
17. Life in a Northern Town Dream Academy
As I recall, the only hit they had in the US, but a great one. In a strange way, one of the last English New Wave songs to hit these shores… I distinctly remember that just about this time things were starting to turn—jangle-pop was starting to take over, and post-punk music was moving underground again, to become “alternative.”
16. Pearly Dew Drops Cocteau Twins
Another band where it’s hard to pick a single “beautiful” song, since Cocteau Twins were masters of the haunting, chant-like melody. But for me this is their best. Ethereal, vaguely Celtic, the song sweeps you along like a dream.
15. I Melt With You Modern English
I’m pretty sure this song would be tops on my list of the Best Songs of the 80s, and I’m even sure I’d place it near the top list of Best Songs of All Time. You all know it, you can all sing along. But it’s not just a great, rocking tune, it’s gorgeous as well. In its construction, arrangement, riffs and vocals, it’s damn near perfect. Also, a hell of a date song. And a hell of a song to dance to, with all its kinetic energy and drama.
14. Inside Out Mighty Lemon Drops
A lesser-known group (at least in the States) from the late 80s, these guys were just fantastic. Just groove along to this song. If it doesn’t infect you, you’re dead.
13. Hold Me Now Thompson Twins
One of the very top New Wave songs from the early 80s… I can’t say enough about this song. The vocal is fantastic, delivered with an effortless poignancy… the beat is great, the chorus is sweepingly beautiful. First heard it in college, in a ratty old pub just off-campus where, in keeping with the times, the management had stuck an incongruous TV up on a shelf overlooking the tables… tuned permanently to MTV.
12. There is Always Something There to Remind Me Naked Eyes
Yup, the ultimate post-break-up song. I’ve been there. Beautiful little tune. Pinnacle of New Wave.
11. In Your Eyes Peter Gabriel
Everyone knows this one from “Say Anything,” with John Cusack. I had to include it, though I was tempted to give the space to Gabriel’s “Solsbury Hill”—but “In Your Eyes” is really the more beautiful song, and one of the best and most memorable of the 80s.
10. It Must Be Love Madness
Okay…. Not so much beautiful as touchingly charming, I had to include a Madness tune, and I chose this one. Strangely enough I’d totally forgotten this song, and then years later, in the late 90s, I was dating a woman from the UK, and she gave me a homemade tape with a lot of love songs on it, and this one was one of them… so it’s also here as a tip to my personal memories.
9. Voices Carry Til Tuesday
Aimee Mann back in the day. Great song, great video. Love how she breaks free at the end.
8. Smalltown Boy Bronski Beat
Fantastic vocal, great synths… like the background music to a dream… riding and flowing along in a way that reminds you of being half-awake on a long journey.
7. Cath The Bluebells
This song just can’t help making you smile. The harmonica, the wind-up chorus, all catchy and bouncy… hell of a song.
6. Don’t Dream it’s Over Crowded House
This one’s for Jamie, though it’s not a token Kiwi inclusion. What a pretty song. It just floats along, carrying you with it. I loved Split Enz when I was in college and was happy, at the time, to know that the Finns had carried on. This is one of their best and certainly one of their prettiest.
5. Our Lips are Sealed Go Gos
Okay… so you might be thinking, “this is a beautiful song?” But it is. Listen to it. Listen to the lyric. Think about it. When I was 18, I had this great girlfriend, all dark hair and beautiful brown eyes, and this was a shared favorite. We’d request it from club DJs, and then head out to spin around on the dance floor together, and no matter how crowded the place was, it was just us. One of the best relationship songs ever.
4. Ghost in You The Psychedelic Furs
Now we’re getting serious. From one of my absolute most favorite groups from the 80s, a song that made my jaw drop the first time I heard it. The song that made me drive out immediately to a local record store so I could buy the album, which I then proceeded to wear out. If you don’t agree that this is one of the prettiest songs you’ve ever heard… well, I don’t know what’s wrong with you.
Unfortunately this one also cuts out at the end.
3. Lay Me Down Connells
Sing to me sweetley as I turn sour
Lay me down, remembering
That the wind and the rain
Played a part in that dreadful hour
And so as I pass, I too feel the power
Laying here under the trees
Where three days before
I danced in a summer shower
Chorus:
And she said “There, look through the trees,
The sun always shines, always on time,
Dare, rest on your knees
And in a prayer, follow me there.”
Softly I slumber as I turn to powder
Blowing out over the sea
The wind and the rain billow me
Though I’m no longer fire
A bird is alone as the wind takes me higher
Now I don’t know where I am
The bird can’t hear me
As I shout out even louder
Sadly, this song seems to be unavailable on YouTube or any place similar. I’ll therefore send Jamie an MP3 to post here tomorrow. In it’s place, the lyrics. Trust me, when you hear the lyrics coupled with the music, you’ll know why this song is here.
The Connells were a North Carolina band similar to REM, in the jangle pop mode… they’re still together, but hit their peak in the 80s and early 90s. Known for their big college radio hit “74/75.” But this song… whoa. An amazing ballad that bowls me over everytime I hear it.
2. True Spandau Ballet
Well we all know this one. Absolutely, unquestionably gorgeous tune from a band that… I never much cared for otherwise. Along with Duran Duran and a few others like ABC, these guys formed the brief “New Romantic” subset of New Wave. What that was is hard to put into words. It was part the smooth, vaguely jazzy R&B thing, part the look, part the production. But in any case, these guys never did better than this, their huge smash.
Personal memory for me—the aforementioned dark-haired girlfriend from college—this was “our” song. (Twee, I know, but we were 18, come on). I also associate this song with snow—as I recall it charted big in the winter of 83.
1. Time after Time Cyndi Lauper
This is it. In my humble opinion, this is one of the most beautiful ballads ever written, and without question the most beautiful song from the 1980s. Touching, sad, emotional without being manipulative—I think this song is absolutely perfect and I have never heard a cover version that matches up to Cyndi’s original. This was her apex.
Contributor: Randall
Who’s Gonna Drive Drive You Home Tonight by the Cars. It brings back memories of warm summer nights and you and your date dodging sprinklers in deserted parks at 2:00am. Times when the titluar question could really make a difference in a teens existence…
If you leave – by OMD
Liverboy:
FINALLY… someone brought “Drive” up. It IS a pretty song. I considered it.
It doesn’t spark the same memories for me…. in the end I had to leave it off. But it’s a definite “honorable mention.”
A coupla songs that just came to mind:
Owner of a lonely heart
In the army now.
OK this doesn’t really count…but Frente’s 94 acoustic cover of Bizarre Love Triangle (86) is just beautiful.
113 Randall: Well written. *applause* I agree with most of the points that you made. I don’t believe, however, that the original punk bands really gave a rat’s ass about getting back to the roots of rock and roll. My belief is that they felt they had a message to deliver, music was the vehicle, and however incompetent a musician you were was irrelevant. From this we get bands that progressed as you described. Totally agree with you on the aesthetics of punk. Punks were against hippies because hippies promulgated a selfish drop-out attitude. Punks wanted the entire world to be a better place. This manifested itself as two, almost diametrically opposed stands. Those who believed that we should continue to rail against the machine, and those who do nothing more than point out how the world has gone for *****. I always considered the Stones more of a precursor to this as some of their music displayed a social conscience, as opposed to the Beatles (excluding Revolution) who seemed to be more concerned with personal issues, silliness and flaunting their fame. I don’t mean to offend the many Beatles fans, and I am not denying that they eventually did become talented and influential, but they always struck me as the Original Boy Band, a la Bay City Rollers, Back Street Boys, et al ad nauseum.
But I digress from the point of this list. I think, at least, there should be an honourable mention to Chrissy Hynd and the Pretenders for I’ll Stand By You. Pretty sure that it was an eighties song.
Ti Amo
But for the life of me, can’t remember the women’s name who sang it…ACK!
As a fellow graying punker, I’m disappointed that 2 personal favorite “post-punk” songs didn’t make it: “History Lesson, Part II”, by The Minutemen, and “Please Come Back to Me”, by X. To be fair, both of these are atypical of the rest of your list, which is synth-oriented.
For me, the 80′s were less about “good-time”, dance, synth-y crap (which turns my stomach today as it did then), but more about realizing that punk was not just a reaction to the excesses of, say, Foghat and their ilk. No doubt, it was reactionary, and that was part of it’s charm. But it was really more just the natural direction for edgy music to take. In that sense, they were following in the foot steps of Hasil Atkins, or the Stooges, or the Velvet Underground…
Fun list, though. Randall, can you put a list together of the 20 best punk songs? That might start a ruckus.
Oh, and I would have gone with “Solsbury Hill”
Most of the songs were my dad’s favorite…When I heared the songs, my memories is when he take the whole family for vacation he used to play those songs in the car…I miss that time.
I’ve never heard of any of them, save time after time.
It’s a list of the most obscure “hits” of the 80s.
Here’s a clue, the 80s didn’t end in 1984 and X-ers always seem to either forget this or ignore this. The rest of the decade still happened, and there was some great music back then: REO Speedwagon, Bon Jovi, Jackson’s work in the mid-80s, all of “The Joshua Tree,” Whitney Houston, and Richard Marx made music which was amazing to listen to.
is it possible to have a rap/hip hop song on this list? you just don’t usually hear that adjective with that genre of music.
I can’t believe the Talking Heads didn’t make it onto this list…
This is a great list…
…but it’s missing “Somebody” by Depeche Mode, and “The Promise” by When in Rome.
This list just had to make me review my iTunes and visit cough*limewire*cough and get what I’ve forgotten to add to me iPod. hee hee.
In the air tonight is a good song but i think against all odds is better suited for this list. it is one of the most beautiful songs i have ever heard.
The Police with:
Wrapped Around your Finger
Every Little Thing She Does is Magic
Message In A Bottle
Every Breath You Take
Don’t Stand So Close To Me ’86 version
mitchsn:
I TOTALLY agree. Beautiful version.
jocboss:
“I don’t believe, however, that the original punk bands really gave a rat’s ass about getting back to the roots of rock and roll.”
Sorry, jocboss, then you just haven’t listened to what those very people said, not only in contemporary interviews but back then as well. The Clash were saying this very thing back in 77–that they wanted to bring music back to its roots. Johnny Rotten agreed, though he made a show of putting up a nihilistic front, because that’s what the Pistols were about. The Ramones gave an interview in 76 where they echoed these thoughts. Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye said the same thing. David Byrne said that what punk was about was getting amateurs back on stage, because the immediacy and energy of being able to play 3 chords was being lost, and they wanted to save it.
Sorry joc–the evidence is firmly on my side on this one.
Your statements about the Beatles are ludicrous—I’ve heard this “boy band” nonsense from someone else here on this site once… and sorry, but to make a dumbass statement like that, you clearly aren’t aware of the historical turning point that the Beatles were and how totally different their music was from the VERY BEGINNING. To call them a “boy band” of the day is downright *****ing silly.
Realize that the world hasn’t always been the way it’s been during your life, and you might begin to understand why you’re wrong about the Beatles.
As for the Stones being more in the “punk vein”… no, I don’t agree. The bands that were really in the punk vein in the 60s were the garage bands and their ilk, and the Velvet Underground. MC5 and the Stooges later.
I couldn’t resist Bad News’s request to Randall , and altho this forum seems to be very american is make up , as an Irishman, brought up in Mancherster and living in South africa i thought i would have a crack at the best 20 Punk Songs Ever , it will probally be very anglo orientated but lets give it a bash.
20 – Playground Twist – Siouxsie & the Banshees
19 – Bloody Revolutions – crass
18 – No More Heroes – The Stranglers
17 – Alternative Ulster – Stiff Little Fingers
16 – i’m so bored with the usa – The Clash
17 – I’m Stranded – The Saints
16 – Ca Plane Pour Moi – Plastic Betrand
17 – Last Rockers – Vice squad
16 – 5 Minutes – The Stranglers
15 – Holiday In Cambodia – The Dead Kennedys
14 – Boredom – Buzzcocks
13 – i’m a posuer – Xray Spex
12 – Fan Mail – The Dickies
11 – Submission – ***** Pistols
10 – White Man In Hammersmith Palais – The Clash
09 – Trumpton Riots – Halfman Halfbiscuit
08 – Hong Kong Garden – Siouxsie & the Banshees
07 – Blitzkrieg Bop – The ramones
06 – Lust For Life – Iggy Pop
05 – Road Runner – Johnathan Richman & The modern Lovers
04 – Teenage Kicks- The Undertones
03 – Blank Generation – Richard Hell & The Voidoids
02 – Anarchy In The Uk – ***** Pistols
01 – Life – ATV
right thats it my only ever contribution to the list verse (list wise anyhow) so in the words of Nigel from Halfman Half Biscuit – “dance dance dance in your Joy Divison oven gloves”
Ta
Bad News:
That is a fantastic idea… though I’m afraid I’d offend even MORE people. But hell, why not?
ianzap:
BRILLIANT. I love it. I certainly couldn’t do better.
Alternative choice:
The Radiators From Space -TV Tube (wasn’t that the name of it? Now I can’t remember..)
and SOMETHING from the Ramones. Anything. “Blitzkrieg Bop”…. any of their songs.
Matt:
Sorry, but your head’s up your ass. Some of these were HUGE hits. Some were huge hits in the UK, and minor successes here. ALL are EXTREMELY well-known to anyone who knows anything about 80s music.
You, on the other hand, have wasted your time with godawful drek like REO Speedwagon and Richard Marx… which is…. laughable.
Unless your posting was an ironic joke. Which is plausible, since you brought up THOSE two horrific examples.
Good lord.
thanks man , the ramones are at no 7 , and i had a lot more american stuff – oh crap i forgot the tubes “white punks on dope” well nobodys perfect , except my missus that is
ianzap:
Sorry, I missed the Ramones, I was reading too fast.
As for the Tubes, there’s always gonna be something else we wish we could put on a list…
Time After Time was co-written by Lauper and Rob Hyman of The Hooters. She is the original recording artist.
You’re a brave man to take on the challenge. I applaud you. I’d never even venture it. I think your list is great. I also think it’s going to make me delve into my college tapes, all waiting transfer to MP3 format when I have… oh… about 700 hours free.
The list of songs that COULD be on here, of course, is just too endless. Be happy with capturing a slice. It’s funny to think, though, that the ’70s were vilified once for being terrible in every way. Yet, I hear music from then now and my God was that a brilliant decade. And the gems are emerging from the ’80s too. It just takes time for the weeds to fall away.
The ’90s were great in lots of ways already (because so much of it went back to roots), but I couldn’t believe today when I saw a “you know you grew up in the ’90s” sentimental list online today… wow. Hell, these kids don’t even know what an LP is.
Randall: I’ll bet you think that Elvis Presley was a great innovator as well.
Where is the Cure’s “Love Song”? Whenever I’m alone with you… My most favorite!
You should have included Alphaville’s “Forever Young” and When In Rome’s “The Promise”.
ianzap:
Holy crap! You nailed it.
Thank you for including The Sundays. This is without doubt one of the most beautiful songs ever. Her voice is mesmerizing. It’s definitely sunny day drift off music
I’ve been listening to Just Like Heaven a lot lately.
god all these accolades , cheers Bad news , so JD when are we having a list of great new wave , indie , americana songs – none of this sentimental 80′s pap – however i must say my guilty pleasure is “the day before you came ” by Abba , every bone in my body screams NO NO NO , but still i love it – i think it may be age , can you still be a punk at 41 ???
in response to —146. jocsboss – February 8th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Randall: I’ll bet you think that Elvis Presley was a great innovator as well.
the only answer is thus , had Gene Vincent got there first then we would all be visiting “Be Bop A Lula Land’ and we would not of had to endure all those horrible films – still a “fat” gene vincent stage replete with cape would of been a sight indeed
152 ianzap: of course you can be a punk at 41, and beyond!! I do feel a bit out of place at Van’s Warped Tour, but I still go. I like the experience.
jocboss:
“I’ll bet you think that Elvis Presley was a great innovator as well.”
Great comeback there, twit.
ianzap:
My original thought WAS to do a list of greatest New Wave tunes…. but it was too daunting. You’d really have to be ruthless.
155 Randall: It was hardly a comeback. It was simply a …. never mind. I am so sorry. I have obviously given you more credit than you deserve. You are beneath a discussion. Take your insults and bullying somewhere else. I will not respond.
Randall , give me a few hours and i will try my best , i lost a lot of the american stuff purely because of bands like the knack & the cars , but going back there were a few great tunes. and before anybody slags me off my defintion of new wave is the stuff that came after the 76 – 78 period and we in blighty refered to it as post punk.
Joc boss , thanks for the affirmation there , i still run run indie/alt music evenings in south africa everything from the pistols and anti nowhere league to the artic monkeys and arcade fire and everything inbetween.
Johannesburg had an amazing indie scence from 82 onwards, mainly due the kids of the british immigrants starting their own clubs because there was nowhere to go to . i still remember playing “free nelson mandela” by the specials aka around 86 and being raided by the police !!! awesome memory
anyway back the new wave list hmmmmm where to start?
The Top 20 New Wave / Post Punks Songs Ever
20 : Blister in the Sun – Violent Femmes
19 : Everybodies Happy Nowadays – The Buzzcocks
18 : Top Of The Pops – The rezillos
17 : Into The Valley – The Skids
16 : Physcho Killer – Talking Heads
15 : Are Friends electric – Tubeway Army
14 : Another Girl Another Planet – The only ones
13 : Bela Lugosi’s dead – Bauhaus
12 : Mongoloid – Devo
11 : A Promise – Echo & the Bunny men
10 : Treason – The teardrop Explodes
09 : Transmission – Joy Division
07 : Radio Free Europe – REM
06 : Killing A Arab – The Cure
05 : Going Underground – The Jam
04 : Public Image – Public Image Limited
03 : Shot By Both Sides – Magazine
02 : Spellbound – Sioxsie & The Banshees
01 :Love Will Tear Us Apart – Joy Division
this was a toughie , new wave (urgh) is a very subjective genre and it means different things in different areas – the cars are considered new wave , i think they are pop/rock and many people consider tyhe banshees goth – it’s open to debate
ianzap: good list. you have some stuff that i have never heard of so got to go check that out. your definition of new wave covers a lot of ground. what did you mean when you said “i still run run indie/alt music evenings”?
i run nightclub evenings under the banner “Le Club Reunion Parties” Le Club wasn’t the first indie club in SA but it was the most succesful .If you go to facebook (south african network) and type in one the following names – le club , subway , dirtbox , dv8 or decadance , you can check the old (and new) indie scene. Plus the current scence is very healthy with places like the cellerdoor and rockford doing very well.
it’s a mission i have to enlighten the young un’s that music didn’t start with Nirvana and that emo is a very very bad thing really lol
jocboss:
Don’t get sanctimonious with me. You commented that the original punkers weren’t interested in returning rock to its roots. I corrected you and that was that, and you had no answer. Mighta been nice to admit you were wrong or that for once you learned something.
You also made an asinine statement about the Beatles, and after my reply to that, you toss out a ridiculous throw-off insult at me.
Then you have the nerve to pull this crap about ME being unworthy of your further communication.
Puh-leeze.
ianzap:
Fantastic list… though again (and this is why I’d never attempt such a list) you could subjectively say there’s a lot missing. But also, yes–depends on how you define New Wave. Actually (in concurrence with you) I remember the term “New Wave” being used almost at the same time as “punk.” But in practical terms New Wave always seemed to begin in 1978, when the original punk movement had died down (and the Pistols had disbanded). I felt it then carried on into about 1985. The entire period from 77-87 (roughly) was what WE called post-punk, until college radio (here in the States) became more assertive, and it morphed into “Alternative.”
But in the UK, New Wave even kinda preceded punk, didn’t it? Bands like Eggs Over Easy, Rockpile, The Teardrop Explodes, Bees Make Honey… and of course even here… one could just easily have called The Modern Lovers “new wave” instead of punk.
Anyway, I truly miss bands like The Rezillos/Revillos… that whole feeling is gone from music… and there’s nobody around like Gary Numan these days or Lene Lovich or Stiv Bators.
I might have added Echo and the Bunnymen to your list, and B-52s… and certainly Pere Ubu. Wire, The Fall, Mekons (I loved them) and The Dickies even. Hoodoo Guru? Husker Du? XTC?
It just goes on and on. There was a *****load of great music from that decade (76/77-87) that only a few of us even know about anymore.
hi Randall , the new wave stuff followed punk but around 78 – about 83 there was a burst of outstanding music that came from totally different angles , we had thetwo/tone ska movement , the whole synth movement , new romantics and the start of the guitar power pop manchester/scottish thing as well.
i did the list purely from what i could remember that moved me (i had people staring at me whilst i was nodding to the music in my head) bands like the Fall , wah! , hoodoos (they came much later) i wouldn’t know where to place them in the great scheme of things. Rockpile by the way were started after Nick lowe had given up on Brinsley Shwartz (i can’t spell sorry) and Dave Edmumds had given up on a solo carrear. they belong to the pub rock Dr Feelgood era of the mid 70′s.
looking back i forgot Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson who both came thru new wave , but thankfully evolved and got much much better.
i’m starting to loose my thread here but we had post punk and you had college radio and thank god for that because we would never of got Big Star, REM (when they were still original) and the awesome but forgotten Db’s. Bands like Pere Ubu,Fall,Wire
ianzap:
It’s great to re-live this stuff with you (and by the way, you’re not telling me anything I didn’t already know–I was there too (I’m 42 years old) and was a rabid fan of all this music from the get-go. And I know about Brinsely Schwarz (I think that’s the correct spelling) and the pub rock seen… what I was saying was that some of the pub rock bands *were* referred to as New Wave in hindsight, and some of them lasted long enough to actually be part of the movement in 78.
Anyway, all those styles–the ska revival, the new romantics–all that–that, as far as I’ve ever known, were all considered part of “New Wave”–it was an all-encompassing term. But maybe that’s just how we thought of it in the States.
Again, Postpunk to us was everything simply *after* punk, until the music came to be called “Alternative” in the late 80s. “College Radio” was just a phase within that evolution.
And we share a love for the Db’s man. God help me I loved them.
good lord, I wrote “pub rock seen” instead of “scene.” Must be the medication.
My personal picks for beautiful songs of the 1980s include:
Love will tear us apart/Joy Division
Atmosphere/Joy Division
This Charming Man/The Smiths
Promises Promises/Naked Eyes
Here comes the rain again/Eurythmics
Lie to me/Depeche Mode
Love Comes Quickly/Pet Shop Boys
King’s Cross/Pet Shop Boys
True Faith/New Order
Dream Attack/New Order
1963/New Order
If you leave/OMD
Tainted Love/Soft Cell
Pacific/808 State
I get teary eyed everytime I hear Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper.
Randall: When is the second half you promised us going to hit??
SocialButterfly:
Good question. I was meaning to ask Jamie when he was planning on putting it up…he’s had it all along.
Jamie?
Thank you for the list, now I will crawl under my blanket and cry for the rest of the afternoon
I don’t know…I really don’t like any of these. I pretty much missed the 80′s because I was born in the 80′s and by the time I was old enough to appreciate music it was the 90′s. So I’m afraid I’m not a big fan of most 80′s music. Exceptions: Material Girl, Centerfold Angel and a few I can’t think of at the moment. I love 70′s music, so explain that. :/
Great blog, I love it, because I didn’t grow up in the 80s, but I am finding the songs much better then the 90′s LOL, especially the ones that are 80′s remakes (ex M.Mason’s version of Sweet Dreams by Eurythmics…bleech!
)
Anyhow I am hoping you are anyone remember these songs. I got them off the radio during an 80′s music marathon…but I don’t know the names and the lyrics do not appear on any Internet search engines.
first song lyrics (from what I remember)
http://www.zshare.net/audio/6652840492e713/
There is no one coming home to me
Won’t you, won’t you come back some day
I sit a lone pretending I’m okay.
But I pray for you and I dream, and then suddenly,
there’s no one coming home to me
So we could ride on a heartbreak lullabye
We said ten thousands good byes through our tears and side
second song lyrics (from what I remember)
http://www.zshare.net/audio/665292250863f1/
the flag of greed unfurls
and too many people just fall on their faith,
releases all hope, they’ve lost their heart
and they stare in vain at a hand they can never hold.
I’d throw it all away, just to hear you say
I love you, I do
If anyone knows these songs, they would be true 80′s MUSIC GODS/GODDESSES!
(>^_^
Cassandra:
I’m stumped at the moment… but the second song sounds vaguely familiar. I’ll work on this and get back to you. Check back here from time to time.
Thanks…it’s like stuck in my head LOL and it’s sooo annoying not knowing their names.
Thanks,every1 here,your taught me tremendous glitter thoghts.
thank you all your again;although im born at 80′s,however,its
not problem we sharing this beautiful songs together
Randall, I’m impressed with your inclusion of the Cocteau Twins. One of my favorite bands of all time…Heaven or Las Vegas, Sugar Hiccup, etc. Are you a Leonard Cohen fan as well?
just like heaven oh thank you that guitarrs wow
OOOH! The Mighty Lemon Drops! The very first time I heard this song, I was enraptured. It is truly gorgeous and I have never tired of it. The video is charming too. Kudos for picking this little gem!