'80s MusicMusic 

Another great band from Australia. 👍
Solid Lifters
Hey, great tips on the songs. I think I've got them all covered now.

Thanks for your help! 👍
Glad I can help. I've done my share of 80's song hunting, too. There were so many songs that I used to listen to as a kid, but didn't know who the artist was, because I didn't speak English back then.

A few more I remembered:
Asia - Heat of the Moment
.38 Special
The Beach Boys - Kokomo
Babyface
Martika
 
a6m5
Another great band from Australia. 👍

Glad I can help. I've done my share of 80's song hunting, too. There were so many songs that I used to listen to as a kid, but didn't know who the artist was, because I didn't speak English back then.

A few more I remembered:
Asia - Heat of the Moment
.38 Special
The Beach Boys - Kokomo
Babyface
Martika

Again, I already have some of these songs. I never thought to put them in.

I have Kokomo, and a parody of that song called "Camel Toe" and it's hilarious. If you have MSN, I'll share it with you.

Thanks again for the help!
 
Sweet! I should make an mp3 CD for my car with these... :D

I glanced through your list and one important addition popped into my head --

New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle
 
  • Billy Ocean - Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car
  • Cheap Trick - Mighty Wings (From Top Gun…?)
  • Huey Lewis & The News - If This Is It
  • Huey Lewis & The News - The Power Of Love
  • INXS - Beautiful Girl
  • INXS - New Sensation
  • Roxette - Dangerous
  • Roxette - Listen To Your Heart (This is a complete chick song, but goddamn it’s catchy.)
  • Squeeze - Tempted
  • Van Halen - Can't Stop Loving You
  • Wham! - Careless Whisper
  • Wham! - Wake Me Up Before You Go Go (Gasoline fight from Zoolander.)

Oh, and Forever Young by Alphaville.
 
tabs
  • Billy Ocean - Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car
  • Cheap Trick - Mighty Wings (From Top Gun…?)
  • Huey Lewis & The News - If This Is It
  • Huey Lewis & The News - The Power Of Love
  • INXS - Beautiful Girl
  • INXS - New Sensation
  • Roxette - Dangerous
  • Roxette - Listen To Your Heart (This is a complete chick song, but goddamn it’s catchy.)
  • Squeeze - Tempted
  • Van Halen - Can't Stop Loving You
  • Wham! - Careless Whisper
  • Wham! - Wake Me Up Before You Go Go (Gasoline fight from Zoolander.)

Oh, and Forever Young by Alphaville.
Entire Top Gun soundtrack is good. Great choices, but for Roxette, I'd have included "Dressed For Success" and for INXS, "Devil Inside", "Never Tear Us A Part". I also like "Forever Young", but by Rod Stewart.
 
tabs
  • Billy Ocean - Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car
  • Cheap Trick - Mighty Wings (From Top Gun…?)
  • Huey Lewis & The News - If This Is It
  • Huey Lewis & The News - The Power Of Love
  • INXS - Beautiful Girl
  • INXS - New Sensation
  • Roxette - Dangerous
  • Roxette - Listen To Your Heart (This is a complete chick song, but goddamn it’s catchy.)
  • Squeeze - Tempted
  • Van Halen - Can't Stop Loving You
  • Wham! - Careless Whisper
  • Wham! - Wake Me Up Before You Go Go (Gasoline fight from Zoolander.)

Oh, and Forever Young by Alphaville.

Again, I already had some of those, but two I didn't. Some I don't want.

Gotta find the cheapest place to get those two now that all my freebies are all up.

Thanks for the suggestions! 👍
 
Solid Lifters
Again, I already had some of those, but two I didn't. Some I don't want.

It was a little hard, because most of my favorites have already been mentioned (I mean, hell, you even had the Ghostbusters theme!).

Just curious, which two?
 
tabs
It was a little hard, because most of my favorites have already been mentioned (I mean, hell, you even had the Ghostbusters theme!).

Just curious, which two?

It was the Squeeze and the Alphaville.

The Ghostbusters Theme was on a '80s music CD (2 set) I bought a long time ago. That's were a lot of the singles come from. The groups I have multiple songs for are from CDs for that particular group.
 
VH1 Classic aired the top rated '80s songs of all time. Did anybody catch it? Good, but I cannot believe they were missing some really classic '80s bands.

My list contains every song but a few that I don't care for. Like, INXS - "I Need You Tonight" and a song called "Fight The Power."
 
Now that I'm older, I find myself enjoying 80's groups that I never cared for when I was a kid. I've been listening to a lot of Wang Chung and Hall and Oates.

"Need You Tonight" is one of my favorite songs from "Kick" album, but I could never remember it(it's that other song). The other three being "New Sensation", "Devil Inside", and "Never Tear Us Apart", of course. :)
 
a song called "Fight The Power."
As in Public Enemy? Never cared for them much either myself, but quite a funny lyric about Elvis Presley in there...

I only got back into 80's music mainly as a result of GTA: Vice City, and in particular, Emotion 98.3... but I agree, alot of 80's music is seriously underrated, usually because of the instrumentation used, many really well-crafted songs got slightly hidden behind the flim-flam of the bands image or over-used of keyboards etc. - but even a cursory flick through the Vice City soundtrack reveals many a classic song.

Was never a massive fan of INXS, not least because I felt like a dunce for calling them (Inkses) for ages... although 'Kick' was a great album IMO.
 
Vice City did get me into Foreigner. Never cared for them during the 80's. I was missing out.
 
As in Public Enemy? Never cared for them much either myself, but quite a funny lyric about Elvis Presley in there...

I only got back into 80's music mainly as a result of GTA: Vice City, and in particular, Emotion 98.3... but I agree, alot of 80's music is seriously underrated, usually because of the instrumentation used, many really well-crafted songs got slightly hidden behind the flim-flam of the bands image or over-used of keyboards etc. - but even a cursory flick through the Vice City soundtrack reveals many a classic song.

Was never a massive fan of INXS, not least because I felt like a dunce for calling them (Inkses) for ages... although 'Kick' was a great album IMO.

Public Enemy, that's it. Didn't care for the song then, or now. It's just ignorant crap.

I cannot believe The Cult "She Sells Sanctuary" didn't even make the list. That song was a huge hit in the '80s and today.
 
the clash -rock the casbah
should i stay or should i go:sly:

I already have both.


still doing your list?

dont see any bonnie tyler (total eclipse of the heart)
or meatloaf??

Yeah; I'm still doing it. In fact, I already had that Bonnie Tyler song, but on a CD. However, I never thought to add it to my '80s list until now. Thanks for the suggestion.
 
Did you consider Social Distortion, Soul Asylum, Dinosaur Jr. or The Bouncing Souls? All bands were kind of previews of what was going to happen with rock and punk in the 90s, but they got their feet planted in the 80s. Definitely some good music came from these and similar bands in that era.

BTW - the Fight the Power song you mentioned earlier was played by a little number called Public Enemy.
 
That song has class. I don't know of many other rock pieces that have that same effect.

Check out the tracks Dear Lover and Don't Take Me for Granted too. Social D also had some respectable covers. Great band 👍
 
Damn. Lost my list somehow. I'll try again.

Some of that stuff is outside of the '80s, definitely, but as long as you recognize it... Dread Zeppelin, despite ruling the musical earth, are mos' def' a '90s band. The Pistols were 1976-78 before they imploded.

Here are some more definite must-have '80s songs:

Adam Ant - Desperate (But Not Serious)
Adam Ant - Goody Two Shoes
Bauhaus - Slice Of Life
Camper Van Beethoven - Take The Skinheads Bowling
Camper Van Beethoven - Club Med Sucks
Dead Milkmen - Bitchin' Camaro
Dead Milkmen - Punk Rock Girl
Echo & The Bunnymen - Never Stop
Elvis Costello - Every Day I Write The Book
EMF - Unbelievable (barely squeaks into the '80s)
George Thorogood & The Destroyers - Bad To The Bone (not his best work by far, but very '80s)
Haircut 100 - Boy Meets Girl
INXS - I Need You Tonight
Jesus & Mary Chain - Nine Million Rainy Days
Jesus & Mary Chain - Darklands
Jesus & Mary Chain - Happy When It Rains
Kronos Quartet - Purple Haze
Love & Rockets - No New Tale To Tell
New Order - Blue Monday
New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle
New Order - State Of The Nation
REM - Radio Free Europe
REM - Superman
REM - Fire/This One Goes Out To The One I Love (I forget the actual title)
REM - End Of The World
Soup Dragons - Free
Talk Talk - Life's What You Make It
Tears For Fears - Mad World
Tears For Fears - Change
They Might Be Giants - Don't Let's Start
They Might Be Giants - Anna Ng
 
I totally forgot about They Might Be Giants, they're one of my favorite bands, but I guess I just forgot to mention them. Then again, their overall sound doesn't have that much of an 80s feel to it. But if you are going to include them, you can't really leave out the track Birdhouse in your Soul, probably their most-known song.
 
I totally forgot about They Might Be Giants, they're one of my favorite bands, but I guess I just forgot to mention them. Then again, their overall sound doesn't have that much of an 80s feel to it. But if you are going to include them, you can't really leave out the track Birdhouse in your Soul, probably their most-known song.
I picked the two songs I did because they were released on TMBG (aka 'The Pink Album') in 1986 and Lincoln in 1988, respectively. Birdhouse didn't appear until Flood, which was their major-label debut in late 1990.
 
Aaaaaaaaaah gotcha.

Like I mentioned, many bands of that less-pop section got started in the 80s, but gained mainstream popularity in the 90s, so their music tends to stradle the decade switch. I listen daily to a one-hour radio program that plays music of that type, so Birdhouse... gets airplay alongside songs from the 80s as well.

Either way, it's good music.
 

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