The first in a three part decades list of some of my favourite songs from three different era's. Even though i was not born in the 80's i really appreciate the music from that decade and all that decade has done for films, tv,music and all other media's moving forward to today.
What went down in the groovy 80's? Mt St Helen's erupted, a dingo took a baby, Lennon dies, Pac Man was born, mtv was born, do they know it's Christmas was released, titanic wreck discovered, Chernobyl reactor explosion, Simpsons debut, bye Berlin wall, we had so many great movies, TV shows and music and i will leave it there.
1980-1989 is the song limit for this list. One song per band or artist. Any genre's are allowed. I will be picking songs i like and have memories with. This list is not definitive i change my order of fave songs all the time.
10) The Bangels - Walk Like An Egyptian - Kicking off my list we must go further back in time to ancient Egypt to walk like an Egyptian. This is very fun and catchy and i remember doing the dance and whistling along to this song many times as a kid and i still do it every now and then today. It was a million-selling single and became Billboard's number-one song of 1987. Music producer Liam Sternberg wrote the song after seeing people on a ferry walking awkwardly to keep their balance. Their poses reminded him of figures in some Ancient Egyptian paintings.
9) Cyndi Lauper - Girl's Just Want To Have Fun - A lot of songs on my lists are guilty pleasure ones i enjoy them as i heard them as a kid and they were fun and catchy and just lively so yeah i enjoy this. It was the first major single released by Lauper as a solo artist and the lead single from her debut studio album She's So Unusual (1983). Lauper’s version gained recognition as a feminist anthem and was promoted by a Grammy-winning music video. It has been covered, either as a studio recording or in a live performance, by over 30 other artists. The single was Lauper's breakthrough hit, reaching number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and becoming a worldwide hit throughout late 1983 and early 1984. It remains one of Lauper's signature songs and was a widely popular song during the era of its release, the 1980s. The "Rolling Stone & MTV: '100 Greatest Pop Songs': 1-50", "Rolling Stone: "The 100 Top Music Videos"" and the "VH1: 100 Greatest Videos" lists ranked the song at No. 22, No. 39 and No. 45, respectively. The song was written by Robert Hazard, who recorded only a demo of it in 1979. He wrote it from a male point of view which was later changed by Lauper.
8) Paul Simon - You Can Call Me Al - This hit is a smash and a favourite of mine and many of my friends. Written by Simon, its lyrics follow an individual seemingly experiencing a midlife crisis. Its lyrics were partially inspired by Simon's trip to South Africa and experience with its culture. Released in September 1986, "You Can Call Me Al" became Simon's biggest solo hit, reaching the top five in seven countries. The names in the song came from an incident at a party that Simon went to with his then-wife Peggy Harper. French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez, who was attending the same party, mistakenly referred to Paul as "Al" and to Peggy as "Betty", inspiring Simon to write a song.
7) Matthew Wilder - Break My Stride - This song makes me feel so happy it's a cheery confidence boosting track i feel and catchy and just great. Included on his 1983 album, I Don't Speak the Language, the single went to number five on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number four in the UK in January/February 1984. On the US Cash Box chart, Wilder's single reached the number two position, where it remained for two weeks in early February. A remix version reached the top 20 on the dance chart, and the song additionally hit the Billboard Hot Black Singles chart, staying there for four weeks. Though "Break My Stride" was Matthew Wilder's only UK hit, he also reached the US pop chart with his next two singles, "The Kid's American" (#33) and "Bouncing Off the Walls" (#52), before turning to behind-the-scenes work on other artists' recordings.
6) The B-52's - Love Shack - Released in 1989 from their album Cosmic Thing, the single was the band's biggest hit song and first million-copy seller. The song's inspiration was "a cabin around Athens, Georgia", complete with tin roof, where the band conceived "Rock Lobster", a single from their first album; it is often said to have been located off "the Atlanta Highway", as the first verse implies. B-52's singer Kate Pierson lived in the cabin in the 1970s, and the cabin existed until 2004, when it burned down. "Tin roof...rusted," wailed by lead singer Cindy Wilson, was originally an outtake added to the track, and is perhaps the song's most memorable line. Fred Schneider also provides some memorable lines, including his notable boast of having "a Chrysler as big as a whale" and "seats about twenty". It has come to mean many things to different listeners.
5) Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up - NO YOU HAVE NOT BEEN RICK ROLL'D! It's a great classic track that never gives you up. The song was a worldwide number-one hit, initially in the singer's native United Kingdom in 1987, where it stayed at the top of the chart for five weeks and was the best-selling single of that year. It eventually topped the charts in 25 countries. The music video for the song has become the basis for the "Rickrolling" Internet meme. In 2008, Rick Astley won the MTV Europe Music Award for Best Act Ever with the song, as a result of collective voting from thousands of people on the internet, due to the popular phenomenon of Rickrolling. It was also featured as a downloadable track for the Rock Band series.
4) The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star - I first heard this song on GTA Vice City and it got me hooked i love it. The track was recorded and mixed in 1979, released as their debut single on 7 September 1979 by Island Records, and included on their first album The Age of Plastic. The backing track was recorded at Virgin's Town House in West London, and mixing and vocal recording would later take place at Sarm East Studios. Like all the other tracks from the LP, "Video"'s theme was promotion of technology while worrying about its effects. This song relates to concerns about mixed attitudes towards 20th-century inventions and machines for the media arts. Musically, the song performs like an extended jingle and the composition plays in the key of D-flat major in common time at a tempo of 132 beats per minute. The track has been positively received, with reviewers praising its unusual musical pop elements. Although the song includes several common pop characteristics and six basic chords are used in its structure, Downes and writer Timothy Warner described the piece as musically complicated, due to its use of suspended and minor ninth chords for enhancement that gave the song a "slightly different feel." Commercially, "Video Killed the Radio Star" was also a success.
3) A-ha - Take On Me - An absolute classic! Thatt's all i can say besides do you want to do the Halo/Dark Souls dance? "Take On Me" is a song by Norwegian synthpop band A-ha. The self-composed original version was produced by Tony Mansfield, and remixed by John Ratcliff. The second version was produced by Alan Tarney for the group's debut studio album Hunting High and Low (1985). The song combines synthpop with a varied instrumentation that includes acoustic guitars, keyboards and drums. The original "Take On Me" was recorded in 1984 and it took two versions and three releases to finally chart in the United Kingdom, reaching number two on the UK Singles Chart in October 1985. In the United States in October 1985, the song became the only A-ha song to reach the top position of the Billboard Hot 100, due in no small part to the wide exposure on MTV of its innovative music video, directed by Steve Barron. The video features the band in a pencil-sketch animation method called rotoscoping, combined with live action. The video won six awards and was nominated for two others at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards.
2) Men At Work - Down Under - Classic song just the tune of the bottles being hit let alone will trigger me to sing and grove to it. The early version of "Down Under" has a slightly different tempo and arrangement from the later Columbia release. The most well known version was then released on Columbia in October 1981 as the third single from their debut album Business as Usual (1981). The hit song went to number one in their home country of Australia in December 1981, and then topped the New Zealand charts in February 1982. Released in North America in mid-1982, the song topped the Canadian charts in October. In the United States, the song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 on 6 November 1982 at No. 79, and reached No. 1 in January 1983 where it spent four non-consecutive weeks. It eventually sold over two million copies in the US alone. Billboard ranked it at No. 4 for 1983. In the UK, the song topped the charts in January and February 1983, and is the only Men at Work song to make the UK top 20.
1) Micheal Jackson - Beat It - It was so hard to pick just one Jacko song and he just had to be on the list and here he is at number one with Beat It. I think this was the first song i ever heard from him and i was like "omg this is amazing!" and i was hooked and i heard thriller and billy jean and all his other classics that would be on this list too but i limit it for one artist/band for a good reason to make sure i have variety in the list. The song is also notable for its famous video, which featured Jackson bringing two gangs together through the power of music and dance. "Beat It" received the 1984 Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, as well as two American Music Awards. It was inducted into the Music Video Producers Hall of Fame. The single, along with its music video, helped propel Thriller into becoming the best-selling album of all time. The single was certified platinum in the United States in 1989. Rolling Stone placed "Beat It" on the 344th spot of its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". The song was also ranked number 81 on Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time".
It's been a fun but hard list to compile but i hope you have enjoyed this list and all the songs featured. If you have a suggestion for a list do let me know.
That's all from me, have a shiny day!
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