THE BEST MUSIC EVER!
Music from the ‘80s has remained popular with people of all ages since the ‘80s. Surpassing other decades, the popular songs of the ‘80s feature a unique quality and a remarkable variety of music styles.
Since the ‘80s, music has gradually become more and more corporate and standardized, which is why the incredible music of the ‘80s eclipses and transcends popular music today. Furthermore, music is now categorized into genres to such an extreme degree that people are rarely exposed to different styles of music anymore.
This website focuses on the songs from the ‘80s that are still popular today, as well as the ‘80s songs that were not “popular” back then, but have become beloved classics: Check out the 100 songs on this list: THE BEST SONGS THAT WERE NOT POPULAR IN THE ‘80S.
‘80S PLAYLISTS ON SPOTIFY
Music from the ‘80s is much more than just the popular songs! For a comprehensive list of all the best ‘80s songs from all music genres, check out...
2,000 SONGS FROM ALL GENRES:
Rock
Hip-Hop
Country
Metal
R&B
New Wave
Reggae
Dance
New Age
Funk
Jazz
Ambient
Gangsta Rap
Blues
Folk
Inspirational
Soul
Electronic
Orchestral
Punk
Adult Contemporary
Showtunes
The ‘80s had the best music in all categories!!
This playlist features songs by all noteworthy ‘80s artists, including artists you may not be as familiar with, such as Iron Maiden, Enya, Eric B. & Rakim, The Smiths, Tracy Chapman, 10,000 Maniacs, New Order, De La Soul, The Clash, Willie Nelson, Indigo Girls, Luther Vandross, Metallica, Orchestral Manoeuvres In the Dark, Reba McEntire, The Cure, Ice-T, Depeche Mode, Black Sabbath, Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, Jungle Brothers, Erasure, Jane’s Addiction, and The Stone Roses (just to name a few).
And, of course this playlist also includes songs from the most popular artists, including Madonna, Prince, Journey, Tina Turner, Bruce Springsteen, Def Leppard, Whitney Houston, Duran Duran, Van Halen, Elton John, Richard Marx, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder, Mötley Crüe, U2, Dolly Parton, Tears For Fears, AC/DC, Daryl Hall & John Oates, The Police, Pink Floyd, Patti LaBelle, Eurythmics, Donna Summer, Cyndi Lauper, Pat Benatar, George Michael, Bryan Adams, R.E.M., Queen, Michael Jackson, and many more—all of the best artists from this decade of amazing music!
To listen to 2,000 of the best songs from the ‘80s (in a fun “custom order”), check out THE BEST ‘80S PLAYLIST EVER!
HOW WERE THESE SONGS RANKED?
To compile this list of THE TOP 500 POPULAR SONGS OF THE 1980S, what I primarily wanted to measure was staying power: Which songs have sustained in popularity since the ‘80s?
First, I had to establish the criteria for inclusion on the list, or there would have been well over 10,000 songs from the ‘80s to narrow to 500. For a song to be eligible for inclusion on this list of THE TOP 500 POPULAR SONGS OF THE 1980S, it must have entered the United States Billboard Top 40 between January 5, 1980 and November 30, 1989. (For the January 5, 1980 chart, all songs that were already on the chart and ascending were eligible. Songs that entered the U.S. Billboard Top 40 in a December are considered songs from the subsequent year).
THE U.S. BILLBOARD TOP 40
The “Top 40” comes from the Billboard Hot 100 chart, which is the music industry standard by which a song’s popularity is assessed in the United States. The Hot 100 has been published weekly by Billboard magazine since 1958. In the ‘80s, the Hot 100 was determined by radio airplay and retail sales data. Today the Hot 100 is determined using both retail and digital sales data, plus radio airplay data, and streaming activity data provided by online music platforms.
AMERICAN TOP 40
American Top 40 is a weekly radio program that airs internationally and features an ascending countdown of the Top 40 songs on the Hot 100 chart. American Top 40 was created by American disc jockey and radio host Casey Kasem, who hosted the program from its inauguration on July 4, 1970 until August 6, 1988.
Casey Kasem left American Top 40 to host a new syndicated radio music program called Casey's Top 40, which debuted on the weekend of January 21, 1989. He hosted that show for nine years, and then returned to American Top 40 on March 28, 1998, and hosted that show again until January 10, 2004. Casey Kasem passed away in 2014.
In the ‘80s, every week I and millions of people all over the world listened to Casey Kasem count down the most popular songs in the United States from 40 to 1.
20 CRITERIA FOR 2,196 SONGS
In the ‘80s, there were 2,208 songs that entered the American Top 40 chart. Twelve of those songs are not eligible to be included on this list of THE TOP 500 POPULAR SONGS OF THE 1980S because even though they charted on American Top 40 in the ‘80s, these songs were originally released in the ‘60s or ‘70s, and are therefore not ‘80s songs.
Eight of these 12 songs are ineligible because they were descending the first chart of 1980 after reaching their peak popularity in 1979. These are songs from the ‘70s that were decreasing in popularity on the January 5, 1980 chart:
Babe — Styx
Half the Way — Crystal Gayle
Heartache Tonight — Eagles
No More Tears (Enough Is Enough) —
Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer
Pop Muzik — M
Still — The Commodores
Take the Long Way Home — Supertramp
You’re Only Lonely — J.D. Souther
(Click on a song title to play it on Spotify.)
Four of these 12 ineligible songs entered the American Top 40 chart in the ‘80s, but because they had been American Top 40 hits in the ‘60s, they were deemed ineligible for inclusion on this list of THE TOP 500 POPULAR SONGS OF THE 1980S. These songs from the ‘60s are the exact same recordings that had been hits previously, not remakes or re-recordings:
Do You Love Me — The Contours
(an American Top 40 hit in 1962 and again in 1988)
Stand By Me — Ben E. King
(an American Top 40 hit in 1961 and again in 1986)
Twist and Shout — The Beatles
(an American Top 40 hit in 1964 and again in 1986)
What a Wonderful World — Louis Armstrong
(an American Top 40 hit in 1967 and again in 1988)
Excluding these 12 ineligible songs leaves 2,196 eligible songs for this list of THE TOP 500 POPULAR SONGS OF THE 1980S.
The 2,196 songs were scored and ranked based on the following 20 categories, using United States data gathered through December 31, 2023:
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Retail Sales
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Digital Sales
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Radio Airplay
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Online Streaming
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Awards and Nominations
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Music Critics’ Lists
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Music Industry “Best Of” Lists
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Rankings On ‘80s Music Charts
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Rankings On Music Charts Since the ‘80s
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Uses and References In ‘80s Media
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Uses and References In Media Since the ‘80s
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Social Media Tracking of Song References
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Web Monitoring of Song References
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Video Hosting Website Views
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Cover Versions
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Attested Influence On Other Artists
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Music Video Plays
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Karaoke Demand
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Concert Performances
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Backlash (This category represents negative points for songs that decreased in popularity.)
Each song was scored based on these criteria, and that is how they were ranked, which is why you can be sure that this is the definitive list of ‘80s pop music.
BEST ‘80S SONGS THAT WERE NOT POPULAR IN THE ‘80S IN THE U.S.
Unfortunately, due to the criteria established (explained in the HOW WERE THESE SONGS RANKED? section), many beloved ‘80s songs were not eligible for inclusion on this list of THE TOP 500 POPULAR SONGS OF THE 1980S. These 100 songs have become some of the most popular and iconic ‘80s songs. They are not on the list of the TOP 500 POP SONGS OF THE 1980S because they did not enter the American Top 40 chart.
This Spotify playlist ranks 100 enduring ‘80s classics that were not “popular” in the ‘80s in the United States. (Please note that even though some of the songs on this list are featured on albums that were released in the ‘70s, these songs were released as singles in 1980, and are therefore ‘80s songs.)
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Three Little Birds — Bob Marley & The Wailers
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Should I Stay Or Should I Go — The Clash
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Last Christmas — Wham!
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Comfortably Numb — Pink Floyd
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Crazy Train — Ozzy Osbourne
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Boys Don’t Cry — The Cure
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Blue Monday — New Order
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It’s Raining Men — The Weather Girls
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About a Girl – Nirvana
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Into the Groove — Madonna
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It’s the End Of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) — R.E.M.
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Master Of Puppets — Metallica
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I Want Candy — Bow Wow Wow
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Straight Outta Compton — N.W.A.
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Sharp Dressed Man — ZZ Top
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Sunday Bloody Sunday — U2
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Rebel Yell — Billy Idol
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Just Can’t Get Enough — Depeche Mode
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Tom Sawyer — Rush
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Fight the Power — Public Enemy
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I Want To Break Free — Queen
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Forever Young — Alphaville
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Baby Can I Hold You — Tracy Chapman
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Still Loving You — Scorpions
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Could You Be Loved — Bob Marley & The Wailers
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Hey You — Pink Floyd
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The Trooper — Iron Maiden
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Love Will Tear Us Apart — Joy Division
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What I Like About You — The Romantics
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Blister In the Sun — Violent Femmes
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How Soon Is Now? — The Smiths
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Once In a Lifetime — Talking Heads
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Jane Says — Jane’s Addiction
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It’s Tricky — Run–D.M.C.
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Home Sweet Home — Mötley Crüe
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I Wanna Be Sedated — Ramones
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Talkin’ Bout a Revolution — Tracy Chapman
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I Wanna Rock — Twisted Sister
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Mad World — Tears For Fears
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London Calling — The Clash
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No One Like You — Scorpions
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Here Comes Your Man — Pixies
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End Of the Line — Traveling Wilburys
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Hallelujah — Leonard Cohen
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There She Goes — The La’s
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Tempted — Squeeze
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Closer To Fine — Indigo Girls
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Rockin’ In the Free World — Neil Young
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New Year’s Day — U2
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I Melt With You — Modern English
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Redemption Song — Bob Marley & The Wailers
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Dancing With Myself — Billy Idol
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Through the Fire — Chaka Khan
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Hot For Teacher — Van Halen
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Handle With Care — The Traveling Wilburys
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Trouble Me — 10,000 Maniacs
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She Sells Sanctuary — The Cult
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Situation — Yazoo [Note: Yazoo is known as Yaz in the U.S.]
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And She Was — Talking Heads
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I Am What I Am — Gloria Gaynor
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Burning Up — Madonna
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Peek-a-Boo — Siouxsie and the Banshees
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I Don’t Like Mondays — The Boomtown Rats
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Bad Reputation — Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
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Wouldn’t It Be Good — Nik Kershaw
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Learning To Fly — Pink Floyd
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Apache — The Sugarhill Gang
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Orange Crush — R.E.M.
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Meeting In the Ladies Room — Klymaxx
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Goodbye To You — Scandal
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Lunatic Fringe — Red Rider
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Shakin’ — Eddie Money
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Rockit — Herbie Hancock
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Fire Woman — The Cult
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Ain’t Nothin’ Goin’ On But the Rent — Gwen Guthrie
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Watermark — Enya
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Like the Weather — 10,000 Maniacs
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The Killing Moon — Echo & the Bunnymen
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Head Like a Hole — Nine Inch Nails
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Straight To Hell — Drivin N Cryin
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Mr. Brownstone — Guns N’ Roses
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If You Say My Eyes Are Beautiful — Jermaine Jackson & Whitney Houston
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Teen Age Riot — Sonic Youth
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Girls On Film — Duran Duran
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All At Once — Whitney Houston
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Bizarre Love Triangle — New Order
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White Lines (Don’t Do It) — Grandmaster Melle Mel
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Dear God — XTC
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Fire and Desire — Rick James and Teena Marie
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This Woman’s Work — Kate Bush
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Just Like Honey — The Jesus and Mary Chain
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So Many Men, So Little Time — Miquel Brown
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Crash — The Primitives
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Goodbye Horses — Q Lazzarus
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Strokin – Clarence Carter
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Enola Gay – Orchestral Manoeuvres In the Dark
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Let the River Run — Carly Simon
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Don’t Go — Yazoo [Note: Yazoo is known as Yaz in the U.S.]
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Run To the Hills — Iron Maiden
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Super Trouper — ABBA
CRUCIALLY ICONIC ‘80S SONGS
Fight the Power by Public Enemy
This song by American hip-hop group Public Enemy was released in 1989 at the request of American film director Spike Lee, to serve at the musical theme for his film Do the Right Thing. This song has become an enduring anthem about opposition to abusive authority, especially as it pertains to the civil rights of African-Americans, and the United States’ ongoing struggle with systemic racism.
Fight the Power is Public Enemy’s best-known song, and is highly regarded as one of the greatest songs of all-time. Public Enemy (now called Public Enemy Radio) is known for socially-conscious, harsh critiques that reflect the frustrations of the African-American community with the government, the media, and other power structures.
I Want Candy by Bow Wow Wow
This song by English new wave group Bow Wow Wow is a 1982 remake of a 1965 song by American band The Strangeloves (click here). Both versions are well-known for using the Bo Diddley beat, popularized by American musician Bo Diddley, who influenced the integration of the blues with rock and roll music in the ‘60s. The Bo Diddley beat is a syncopated musical rhythm that combines elements of Afro-Cuban and Latin music into a dynamic rock beat, making the music sound more energetic.
Bow Wow Wow’s version of I Want Candy was the first and only single from their debut EP The Last of the Mohicans (a reference to their Mohawk hairstyles). The video was played in heavy rotation on American television channel MTV, which launched in 1981, but the song did not enter the American Top 40 chart, and peaked at #62. The song was a hit in the U.K., peaking at #9, and was also a hit in Belgium, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and the Netherlands.
Bow Wow Wow formed in 1980, comprising former members of English post-punk band Adam and the Ants and 13-year-old Annabella Lwin on vocals. The band became popular for a danceable new wave sound, slightly risqué lyrics, and the unique banshee squeals of the teenage vocalist. In 2012, the band members split from Annabella Lwin, found a new singer, and continued to perform as Bow Wow Wow, all of which was done without the consent of Annabella Lwin. Since then, she has performed as Annabella Lwin of the original Bow Wow Wow.
WHY AREN’T THESE SONGS IN THE TOP 500?!
Fight the Power and I Want Candy are not on the list of THE TOP 500 POPULAR SONGS OF THE 1980S because they did not enter the American Top 40 chart, and are therefore ineligible for inclusion on that list (explained in the HOW WERE THESE SONGS RANKED? section).
However, because these songs have become enduring ‘80s classics, they are included on separate list: THE BEST SONGS THAT WERE NOT POPULAR IN THE ‘80S (above). On this list, Fight the Power is song #21, and I Want Candy is songs #13. The 100 (ranked) songs on this list are some of the most beloved ‘80s songs, despite the fact that they were not “popular” in the 1980s.
ARTISTS WHO HAVE THE MOST SONGS ON THE LIST OF THE TOP 500 POPULAR SONGS OF THE 1980S
1. MICHAEL JACKSON* – 14 songs
Billie Jean (#3), Beat It (#31), Thriller (#55), Man In the Mirror (#81), The Way You Make Me Feel (#171), Rock With You (#214), Smooth Criminal (#217), Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ (#241), Human Nature (#315), Bad (#322), P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) (#347), Dirty Diana (#438), and Say Say Say (#455) with Paul McCartney; plus Rockwell’s Somebody’s Watching Me (#402), on which he performs vocals
2. MADONNA – 13 songs
Like a Prayer (#27), Like a Virgin (#47), Material Girl (#56), La Isla Bonita (#141), Holiday (#168), Crazy For You (#228), Papa Don’t Preach (#235), Live To Tell (#276), Borderline (#280), Open Your Heart (#371), Express Yourself (#412), Lucky Star (#436), and Cherish (#489)
3. PRINCE – 12 songs
Kiss (#23), When Doves Cry (#28), Purple Rain (#30), Let’s Go Crazy (#95), 1999 (#113), Little Red Corvette (#117), Raspberry Beret (#135), I Would Die 4 U (#330), U Got the Look (#399), and Sign O’ the Times (#486); plus Stevie Nicks’ Stand Back (#253), on which he plays synthesizers; and Sheila E.’s The Glamorous Life (#447), a song that Prince wrote on which he provides backing vocals and plays the synthesizer and drum machine [but not including two songs on the list that Prince wrote, which are performed by other artists: The Bangles’ Manic Monday (#128) and Chaka Khan’s I Feel for You (#153)]
4. PHIL COLLINS** – 9 songs
In the Air Tonight (#48), Easy Lover (#183) with Philip Bailey, Against All Odds (#189), Another Day In Paradise (#216), and Sussudio (#383); plus two songs with Genesis: Invisible Touch (#169) and That’s All (#199); and songs on which he performs backing vocals and drums: Howard Jones’ No One Is To Blame (#363) and Frida’s I Know There’s Something Going On (#494)
5. GEORGE MICHAEL** – 7 songs
Careless Whisper (#29) [credited to Wham! featuring George Michael], Faith (#51), Father Figure (#174), I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me) (#281) with Aretha Franklin, and One More Try (#304); plus two songs with Wham!: Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go (#42) and Everything She Wants (#296)
6. RICHARD MARX – 7 songs
Right Here Waiting (#59) and Hold On To the Nights (#311); plus three songs on which he performs backing vocals: John Parr’s St. Elmo’s Fire (Man In Motion) (#133), and two of Lionel Richie’s songs: All Night Long (All Night) (#68) and You Are (#471); plus two of Whitney Houston’s songs on which he performs backing vocals and guitar: Saving All My Love For You (#120) and Greatest Love Of All (#138)
7. LIONEL RICHIE* – 7 songs
All Night Long (All Night) (#68), Endless Love (#91) with Diana Ross, Hello (#179), Say You, Say Me (#201), Stuck On You (#306), Truly (#368), and You Are (#471)
8. WHITNEY HOUSTON – 6 songs
I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) (#12), Saving All My Love For You (#120), How Will I Know (#125), Greatest Love Of All (#138), One Moment In Time (#258), and So Emotional (#344)
9. DEF LEPPARD – 6 songs
Pour Some Sugar On Me (#16), Photograph (#99), Rock Of Ages (#157), Hysteria (#275), Love Bites (#288), and Animal (#500)
10. TOTO – 6 songs
Africa (#19) and Rosanna (#297); plus songs on which most members of the band perform: Michael Jackson’s Beat It (#31), John Parr’s St. Elmo’s Fire (Man In Motion) (#133), Michael Jackson’s Human Nature (#315), and Michael McDonald’s I Keep Forgettin’ (#319)
11. STEVIE WONDER* – 6 songs
I Just Called To Say I Love You (#80), Part-Time Lover (#233); and Ebony and Ivory (#397) with Paul McCartney; plus Dionne and Friends’ That’s What Friends Are For (#178); and songs on which he plays harmonica: Chaka Khan’s I Feel For You (#153) and Elton John’s I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues (#247)
12. STEVIE NICKS – 6 songs
Edge Of Seventeen (#84) and Stand Back (#253); plus four songs with Fleetwood Mac: Gypsy (#289), Little Lies (#339), Everywhere (#389), and Sara (#413)
13. DARYL HALL AND JOHN OATES* – 6 songs
You Make My Dreams (#86), I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do) (#112), Maneater (#159), Out Of Touch (#192), Kiss On My List (#226), and Private Eyes (#310)
14. ELTON JOHN – 6 songs
I’m Still Standing (#131), I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues (#247), Sad Songs (Say So Much) (#396), Little Jeannie (#408), and Candle In the Wind (Live 1986) (#476); plus Dionne and Friends’ That’s What Friends Are For) (#178)
15. STEVE PERRY* – 6 songs
Oh Sherrie (#285); plus five songs with Journey: Don’t Stop Believin’ (#1), Faithfully (#104), Any Way You Want It (#127), Open Arms (#151), and Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) (#155)
16. JOURNEY – 5 songs
Don’t Stop Believin’ (#1), Faithfully (#104), Any Way You Want It (#127) Open Arms (#151), and Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) (#155)
17. BON JOVI – 5 songs
Livin’ On a Prayer (#2), You Give Love a Bad Name (#24), Wanted Dead Or Alive (#110), Bad Medicine (#313), and I’ll Be There For You (#364)
18. CYNDI LAUPER* – 5 songs
Time After Time (#10), Girls Just Want To Have Fun (#14), True Colors (#210), All Through the Night (#267), and She Bop (#497)
19. U2** – 5 songs
With Or Without You (#22), Pride (In the Name Of Love) (#94), I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For (#111), Where the Streets Have No Name (#137), and Desire (#349)
20. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN* – 5 songs
Dancing In the Dark (#49), Born In the U.S.A. (#64), I’m On Fire (#165), Glory Days (#225), and Hungry Heart (#332)
21. BELINDA CARLISLE – 5 songs
Heaven Is a Place On Earth (#66) and Mad About You (#470); plus three songs with The Go-Go’s: We Got the Beat (#227), Our Lips Are Sealed (#373), and Vacation (#418)
22. PETER CETERA – 5 songs
Glory Of Love (#251) and The Next Time I Fall (#409) with Amy Grant; plus three songs with Chicago: Hard To Say I’m Sorry / Get Away (#221), You’re the Inspiration (#248), and Hard Habit To Break (#451)
23. QUEEN – 4 songs
Another One Bites the Dust (#5), Under Pressure (#41) with David Bowie, Crazy Little Thing Called Love (#44), and Radio Ga Ga (#495)
24. THE POLICE – 4 songs
Every Breath You Take (#6), Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic (#147), Don’t Stand So Close To Me (#282), and King Of Pain (#317)
25. GUNS N’ ROSES – 4 songs
Sweet Child O’ Mine (#8), Welcome To the Jungle, (#32), Paradise City (#96), and Patience (#204)
26. TEARS FOR FEARS – 4 songs
Everybody Wants To Rule the World (#9), Head Over Heels (#162), Shout (#254), and Sowing the Seeds Of Love (#422)
27. BRYAN ADAMS – 4 songs
Summer of ’69 (#20), Heaven (#40), Run To You (#249), and Straight From the Heart (#354)
28. JOHN (COUGAR) MELLENCAMP – 4 songs
Jack & Diane (#46), Hurts So Good (#101), Pink Houses (#144), and Small Town (#329)
29. TOM PETTY – 4 songs
Free Fallin’ (#69), I Won’t Back Down (#187), and Don’t Come Around Here No More (#380) with the Heartbreakers; plus Roy Orbison’s You Got It (#334), on which he performs backing vocals and acoustic guitar
30. DURAN DURAN** – 4 songs
Hungry Like the Wolf (#74), Rio (#382), A View To a Kill (#411), and The Reflex (#419)
31. TINA TURNER* – 4 songs
What’s Love Got To Do With It (#77), Private Dancer (#448), We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome) (#477), and Better Be Good To Me (#490)
32. PAT BENATAR – 4 songs
Love Is a Battlefield (#100), Hit Me With Your Best Shot (#106), We Belong (#123), and Heartbreaker (#161)
33. HUEY LEWIS AND THE NEWS* – 4 songs
The Power Of Love (#170), Stuck With You (#407), Do You Believe In Love (#417), and I Want a New Drug (#430)
34. BILLY JOEL* – 4 songs
Uptown Girl (#207), It’s Still Rock and Roll To Me (#220), We Didn’t Start the Fire (#260), and The Longest Time (#333)
35. CHICAGO – 4 songs
Hard To Say I’m Sorry / Get Away (#221), You’re the Inspiration (#248), Hard Habit To Break (#451), and Look Away (#464)
36. AEROSMITH – 4 songs
Dude (Looks Like a Lady) (#237), Love In an Elevator (#395), and Angel (#444); plus Walk This Way (#45) with Run-D.M.C. [Note: Aerosmith bandmembers Steven Tyler and Joe Perry perform with Run-D.M.C on this remake of Aerosmith’s original Walk This Way, which was an American Top 40 hit in 1977.]
37. MICHAEL MCDONALD – 4 songs
On My Own (#279) with Patti LaBelle, and I Keep Forgettin’ (#319); plus two songs on which he performs backing vocals: Christopher Cross’ Ride Like the Wind (#164), and James Ingram and Patti Austin’s Baby, Come To Me (#283)
38. FLEETWOOD MAC – 4 songs
Gypsy (#289), Little Lies (#339), Everywhere (#389), and Sara (#413)
39. JANET JACKSON – 4 songs
Nasty (#290), When I Think of You (#316), What Have You Done For Me Lately (#403), and Miss You Much (#466)
40. WHAM! – 3 songs
Careless Whisper (#29) [credited to Wham! featuring George Michael], Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go (#42), and Everything She Wants (#296)
41. VAN HALEN – 3 songs
Jump (#34), Panama (#62), and Why Can’t This Be Love? (#303)
42. EURYTHMICS – 3 songs
Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) (#36), Here Comes the Rain Again (#255), and Would I Lie To You? (#491)
43. DAVID BOWIE – 3 songs
Under Pressure (#41) with Queen, Let’s Dance (#93), and Modern Love (#114)
44. CULTURE CLUB** – 3 songs
Karma Chameleon (#50), Do You Really Want To Hurt Me (#152), and Time (Clock Of the Heart) (#472)
45. BLONDIE – 3 songs
Call Me (#53), The Tide Is High (#252), and Rapture (#453)
46. KOOL & THE GANG** – 3 songs
Celebration (#54), Cherish (#307), and Get Down On It (#440)
47. KENNY LOGGINS* – 3 songs
Footloose (#60), Danger Zone (#182), and I’m Alright (Theme From “Caddyshack”) (#434)
48. REO SPEEDWAGON – 3 songs
Keep On Loving You (#61), Can’t Fight This Feeling (#85), and Take It On the Run (#156)
49. POISON – 3 songs
Every Rose Has Its Thorn (#73), Nothin’ But a Good Time (#270), and Talk Dirty To Me (#336)
50. THE BANGLES – 3 songs
Walk Like an Egyptian (#75), Manic Monday (#128), and Eternal Flame (#305)
51. INXS – 3 songs
Need You Tonight / Mediate (#87), Never Tear Us Apart (#188), and What You Need (#482)
52. THE CARS – 3 songs
Drive (#90), You Might Think (#378), and Shake It Up (#478)
53. DIANA ROSS* – 3 songs
Endless Love (#91) with Lionel Richie, I’m Coming Out (#158), and Upside Down (#242)
54. THE POINTER SISTERS* – 3 songs
I’m So Excited (#92), Jump (For My Love) (#324), and Slow Hand (#473)
55. DON HENLEY – 3 songs
The Boys of Summer (#116) and Dirty Laundry (#414); plus I Can’t Tell You Why (#427) with the Eagles
56. HEART – 3 songs
Alone (#121), These Dreams (#143), and Never (#479)
57. DIRE STRAITS – 3 songs
Money For Nothing (#150), Walk Of Life (#381), and Tina Turner’s Private Dancer (#448)
58. CHAKA KHAN – 3 songs
I Feel For You (#153); plus Ain’t Nobody (#197) with Rufus; and Steve Winwood’s Higher Love (#130), on which she performs vocals
59. THE PRETENDERS – 3 songs
Brass In Pocket (I’m Special) (#186), Back On the Chain Gang (#377), and Don’t Get Me Wrong (#384)
60. CHRISTOPHER CROSS – 3 songs
Ride Like the Wind (#164), Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do) (#177), and Sailing (#245)
61. BILLY IDOL – 3 songs
White Wedding (#160), Eyes Without a Face (#166), and Mony Mony (Live) (#401)
62. AIR SUPPLY – 3 songs
All Out Of Love (#180), Making Love Out Of Nothing At All (#295), and Lost In Love (#369)
63. PHILIP BAILEY – 3 songs
Easy Lover (#183) with Phil Collins; plus Let’s Groove (#172) with Earth, Wind & Fire; and Stevie Wonder’s Part-Time Lover (#233), on which he performs backing vocals
64. KENNY ROGERS* – 3 songs
Islands In the Stream (#212) with Dolly Parton, Lady (#362), and Coward Of the County (#498)
65. THE GO-GO’S – 3 songs
We Got the Beat (#227), Our Lips Are Sealed (#373), and Vacation (#418)
66. THOMAS DOLBY – 3 songs
She Blinded Me With Science (#342); plus Belinda Carlisle’s Heaven Is a Place On Earth (#66), on which he performs keyboards; and Foreigner’s Waiting For a Girl Like You (#240), on which he performs synthesizers
67. GLENN FREY – 3 songs
The Heat Is On (#367); plus I Can’t Tell You Why (#427) with the Eagles; and Bob Seger’s Against the Wind (#346), on which he performs harmony vocals
* These artists were a part of We Are the World (#203) by USA For Africa, which is not included in these song totals.
** These artists were a part of Do They Know It’s Christmas? (#236) by Band Aid, which is not included in these song totals.
The ranking of the artists with the same number of songs is based on which artist has the highest-ranking song on the list of the THE TOP 500 POPULAR SONGS OF THE 1980S.
ARTISTS WHO HAVE TWO SONGS ON THE LIST
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Simple Minds: Don’t You (Forget About Me) (#4) and Alive and Kicking (#456)
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AC/DC: Back In Black (#11) and You Shook Me All Night Long (#17)
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Joan Jett & the Blackhearts: I Love Rock ‘n Roll (#25) and I Hate Myself For Loving You (#385)
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Irene Cara: Flashdance...What a Feeling (#26) and Fame (#431)
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Foreigner: I Want To Know What Love Is (#35) and Waiting For a Girl Like You (#240)
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The Human League: Don’t You Want Me (#39) and Human (#404)
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Men At Work: Down Under (#65) and Who Can It Be Now? (#211)
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Dolly Parton: 9 To 5 (#76) and Islands In the Stream (#212) with Kenny Rogers
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Jennifer Warnes: (I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life (#78) with Bill Medley, and Up Where We Belong (#229) with Joe Cocker
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J. Geils Band: Centerfold (#79) and Freeze-Frame (#492)
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Starship: Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now (#82) and We Built This City (#266)
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Rick James: Super Freak (#88) and Give It To Me Baby (#338)
-
Roxette: Listen To Your Heart (#97) and The Look (#341)
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Laura Branigan: Gloria (#108) and Self Control (#435)
-
Asia: Heat Of the Moment (#109) and Only Time Will Tell (#499)
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The Cure: Just Like Heaven (#115) and Lovesong (#205)
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Mr. Mister: Broken Wings (#126) and Kyrie (#277)
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Steve Winwood: Higher Love (#130) and Roll With It (#454)
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Eddie Money: Take Me Home Tonight (#140) and Kenny Loggins’ I’m Alright (Theme From “Caddyshack”) (#434)
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Pet Shop Boys: West End Girls (#142) and Always On My Mind (#459)
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The Clash: Rock the Casbah (#163) and Train In Vain (Stand By Me) (#393)
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Mötley Crüe: Kickstart My Heart (#167) and Dr. Feelgood (#193)
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Genesis: Invisible Touch (#169) and That’s All (#199)
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Frida: The Winner Takes It All (#173) with ABBA, and I Know There’s Something Going On (#494)
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Peter Gabriel: Sledgehammer (#190) and In Your Eyes (#379)
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Donna Summer: She Works Hard For the Money (#208) and On the Radio (#388)
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Sade: Smooth Operator (#215) and The Sweetest Taboo (#340)
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Paula Abdul: Straight Up (#222) and Cold Hearted (#428)
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Bananarama**: Cruel Summer (#250) and Venus (#351)
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Bette Midler*: The Rose (#273) and Wind Beneath My Wings (#465)
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Patti LaBelle: On My Own (#279) with Michael McDonald, and New Attitude (#484)
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Aretha Franklin: I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me) (#281) with George Michael, and Freeway Of Love (#376)
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James Ingram*: Baby, Come To Me (#283) with Patti Austin, and Michael Jackson’s P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) (#347)
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George Harrison: Got My Mind Set On You (#291) and Tom Petty’s I Won’t Back Down (#187)
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Paul Simon*: You Can Call Me Al (#294) and Late In the Evening (#437)
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The Alan Parsons Project: Sirius / Eye In the Sky (#302)
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Boy Meets Girl: Waiting For a Star To Fall (#321) and Deniece Williams’ Let’s Hear It For the Boy (#337)
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Kim Wilde: You Keep Me Hangin’ On (#323) and Kids In America (#432)
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Bob Seger: Against the Wind (#346) with the Silver Bullet Band, and Shakedown (#468)
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Dan Hartman: I Can Dream About You (#350) and James Brown’s Living In America (#312)
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Sheena Easton: Morning Train (Nine To Five) (#365) and Prince’s U Got the Look (#399)
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John Lennon: Woman (#366) and (Just Like) Starting Over (#462)
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Juice Newton: Angel Of the Morning (#370) and Queen Of Hearts (#372)
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Wang Chung: Dance Hall Days (#374) and Everybody Have Fun Tonight (#416)
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Pete Townshend: Let My Love Open the Door (#375) and You Better, You Bet (#487) with The Who
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Bobby Brown: My Prerogative (#390) and Every Little Step (#458)
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Paul McCartney: Ebony and Ivory (#397) with Stevie Wonder, and Say Say Say (#455) with Michael Jackson
* These artists were a part of We Are the World (#203) by USA For Africa, which is not included in these song totals.
** These artists were a part of Do They Know It’s Christmas? (#236) by Band Aid, which is not included in these song totals.
The ranking of the artists with the same number of songs is based on which artist has the highest-ranking song on the list of the THE TOP 500 POPULAR SONGS OF THE 1980S.
INCREDIBLE VARIETY
On this list of THE TOP 500 POPULAR SONGS OF THE 1980S, not only will you find the popular artists you expect, such as Michael Jackson, Prince, and Madonna, but you will also find artists you might not expect (listed below), who also had American Top 40 hits in the ‘80s. You’ll find this kind of variety in popular music only in the ‘80s.
Led Zeppelin
Enya
James Brown
Beastie Boys
The Kinks
Kenny Rogers
Diana Ross
Metallica
Tracy Chapman
Erasure
Mötley Crüe
Roy Orbison
Guns N’ Roses
Eagles
The Sugarhill Gang
Steely Dan
Dolly Parton
Depeche Mode
Anita Baker
R.E.M.
Grateful Dead
Rick James
Paul Simon
Sade
The Rolling Stones
Salt-N-Peppa
The Beach Boys
New Order
Cher
Yes
The Clash
Edie Brickell & New Bohemians
AC/DC
Willie Nelson
Pink Floyd
Marvin Gaye
Aretha Franklin
John Lennon
Blue Öyster Cult
Ratt
Bette Midler
Bob Seger
Neil Diamond
Styx
Los Lobos
Jackson Browne
ZZ Top
Tom Tom Club
Earth, Wind & Fire
Suzanne Vega
Steve Miller Band
Whitesnake
Midnight Oil
The Cure
Juice Newton
Run-D.M.C.
Adam Ant
Talking Heads
Dionne Warwick
Joe Cocker
Van Halen
Kate Bush
The Who
Crosby, Stills, & Nash
SONG TOTALS BY YEAR
Here is the breakdown of the number of songs from each year that are on the list of THE TOP 500 POPULAR SONGS OF THE 1980S:
1984 – 66 songs (13.2%)
1985 – 62 songs (12.2%)
1983 – 58 songs (11.8%)
1982 – 53 songs (10.8%)
1986 – 49 songs (9.6%)
1987 – 47 songs (9.4%)
1981 – 42 songs (8.4%)
1980 – 42 songs (8.4%)
1988 – 41 songs (8.2%)
1989 – 40 songs (8.0%)
SONGS 501 TO 700: THE 200 SONGS THAT ALMOST MADE THE LIST
Here are the 200 songs (ranked from 501 to 700) that almost made the list of THE TOP 500 POPULAR SONGS OF THE 1980S.
Click HERE to play THE TOP 500 POPULAR SONGS OF THE 1980S plus these 200 songs on Spotify!
It’s noteworthy to mention the artists who have three or more songs among songs 501 to 700:
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Phil Collins has an additional six songs (including three songs with Genesis).
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Tom Petty has five additional songs (including four songs with the Heartbreakers and one of those with Stevie Nicks).
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The following artists have three additional songs among songs 501 to 700: Don Henley (including one song with the Eagles), Huey Lewis and the News, Duran Duran, Stevie Wonder, Kool & the Gang, Madonna, Bryan Adams, John (Cougar) Mellencamp, Whitney Houston, and Def Leppard.
501. Talking In Your Sleep – The Romantics
502. Land Of Confusion – Genesis
503. Stand — R.E.M.
504. Gimme All Your Lovin’ – ZZ Top
505. What Have I Done To Deserve This? —
Pet Shop Boys with Dusty Springfield
506. The Long Run – Eagles
507. Hip To Be Square – Huey Lewis and the News
508. Save a Prayer — Duran Duran
509. Me Myself and I — De La Soul
510. I.G.Y. (What a Beautiful World) – Donald Fagen
511. On the Road Again – Willie Nelson
512. Secret Lovers — Atlantic Starr
513. Burning Heart – Survivor
514. Together Forever – Rick Astley
515. If You Don’t Know Me By Now – Simply Red
516. Refugee – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
517. Do That To Me One More Time – Captain & Tennille
518. Runaway – Bon Jovi
519. We Don’t Have To Take Our Clothes Off –
Jermaine Stewart
520. 18 and Life – Skid Row
521. A Little Respect – Erasure
522. Lean On Me — Club Nouveau
523. Master Blaster (Jammin’) – Stevie Wonder
524. When I See You Smile – Bad English
525. C’est La Vie — Robbie Nevil
526. Give It Up – KC and the Sunshine Band
527. Woman In Love – Barbra Streisand
528. Poison – Alice Cooper
529. Hold On Loosely - .38 Special
530. Shattered Dreams – Johnny Hates Jazz
531. Cruisin’ – Smokey Robinson
532. Is This Love – Whitesnake
533. Watching the Wheels – John Lennon
534. Brilliant Disguise – Bruce Springsteen
535. Never Say Goodbye – Bon Jovi
536. Magic – Olivia Newton-John
537. Being With You – Smokey Robinson
538. Big Log – Robert Plant
539. Obsession – Animotion
540. Automatic – The Pointer Sisters
541. Don’t Talk To Strangers – Rick Springfield
542. On the Wings Of Love – Jeffrey Osborne
543. Once Bitten Twice Shy – Great White
544. Dress You Up – Madonna
545. Cherry Bomb – John (Cougar) Mellencamp
546. Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car – Billy Ocean
547. Wrapped Around Your Finger – The Police
548. You Give Good Love – Whitney Houston
549. Rhythm Is Gonna Get You –
Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine
550. In Too Deep – Genesis
551. If Ever You’re In My Arms Again – Peabo Bryson
552. Sign Your Name – Terence Trent D’Arby
553. Who’s Crying Now – Journey
554. Please Don’t Go – KC and the Sunshine Band
555. Shining Star – The Manhattans
556. Close My Eyes Forever – Lita Ford and Ozzy Osbourne
557. Too Hot – Kool & the Gang
558. Amanda – Boston
559. Lost In Your Eyes – Debbie Gibson
560. She’s a Bad Mama Jama – Carl Carlton
561. Love Song – Tesla
562. Never Knew Love Like This Before – Stephanie Mills
563. Don’t Do Me Like That –
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
564. While You See a Chance – Steve Winwood
565. Endless Summer Nights – Richard Marx
566. Say It Isn’t So – Daryl Hall and John Oates
567. Ladies’ Night – Kool & the Gang
568. Never Too Much – Luther Vandross
569. I Need Love – LL Cool J
570. Union Of the Snake – Duran Duran
571. Blame It On the Rain – Milli Vanelli
572. Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves –
Eurythmics and Aretha Franklin
573. Don’t Know Much – Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville
574. Too Late For Goodbyes – Julian Lennon
575. Tarzan Boy – Tarzan Boy
576. Tonight I Celebrate My Love –
Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack
577. When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going –
Billy Ocean
578. When I’m With You – Sheriff
579. Juke Box Hero – Foreigner
580. The Search Is Over – Survivor
581. Good Thing – Fine Young Cannibals
582. I Can’t Drive 55 – Sammy Hagar
583. Heart and Soul – T’Pau
584. Shadows Of the Night – Pat Benatar
585. Guilty – Barbra Streisand & Barry Gibb
586. Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone) – Cinderella
587. Under the Milky Way – The Church
588. Foolin’ – Def Leppard
589. Kiss Me Deadly – Lita Ford
590. When the Children Cry – White Lion
591. The Breakup Song – The Greg Kihn Band
592. If You Love Somebody Set Them Free – Sting
593. Point Of No Return – Exposé
594. The Best – Tina Turner
595. Wild Wild Life – Talking Heads
596. I’ve Got a Rock N’ Roll Heart – Eric Clapton
597. Sara – Starship
598. You Are My Lady – Freddie Jackson
599. Tonight, Tonight, Tonight – Genesis
600. Solid – Ashford & Simpson
601. He’s So Shy – The Pointer Sisters
602. Joanna – Kool & the Gang
603. Things Can Only Get Better – Howard Jones
604. Spirits In the Material World – The Police
605. All I Need Is a Miracle – Mike + the Mechanics
606. You Can’t Hurry Love – Phil Collins
607. Runnin’ Down a Dream – Tom Petty
608. Take Your Time (Do It Right) – The S.O.S. Band
609. Girls, Girls, Girls – Mötley Crüe
610. You Got It All – The Jets
611. New Sensation – INXS
612. Biggest Part Of Me – Ambrosia
613. Carrie – Europe
614. Dancing On the Ceiling – Lionel Richie
615. Songbird – Kenny G
616. I Love a Rainy Night – Eddie Rabbitt
617. Everybody Wants You – Billy Squier
618. What About Love? – Heart
619. The End Of the Innocence – Don Henley
620. Do I Do – Stevie Wonder
621. Seventeen – Winger
622. Just Once – Quincy Jones
623. Longer – Dan Fogelberg
624. Don’t Make Me Over – Sybil
625. I Remember You – Skid Row
626. I Wonder If I Take You Home –
Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam with Full Force
627. It’s a Sin – Pet Shop Boys
628. It’s Only Love – Bryan Adams and Tina Turner
629. Saturday Love – Cherrelle
630. Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around – Stevie Nicks
and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
631. Let’s Go All the Way – Sly Fox
632. Ain’t Even Done With the Night –
John (Cougar) Mellencamp
633. Who’s That Girl – Madonna
634. Only the Lonely – The Motels
635. Urgent – Foreigner
636. Stray Cat Strut – Stray Cats
637. Tell Her About It – Billy Joel
638. I Won’t Forget You – Poison
639. Metal Health (Bang Your Head) – Quiet Riot
640. Leader Of the Band – Dan Fogelberg
641. Oh Sheila – Ready For the World
642. She’s a Beauty – The Tubes
643. Tomorrow People –
Ziggy Marley and The Melody Makers
644. Devil Inside – INXS
645. Giving You the Best That I Got – Anita Baker
646. Everyday I Write the Book – Elvis Costello
647. R.O.C.K. In the U.S.A. – John (Cougar) Mellencamp
648. The Heart Of Rock and Roll –
Huey Lewis and the News
649. Piano In the Dark – Brenda Russell
650. That Girl – Stevie Wonder
651. Heaven – Warrant
652. Armageddon It – Def Leppard
653. Hands To Heaven – Breathe
654. I Love You – Climax Blues Band
655. Coming Around Again – Carly Simon
656. Notorious – Duran Duran
657. Tuff Enuff – The Fabulous Thunderbirds
658. The Warrior – Scandal
659. Hazy Shade Of Winter – The Bangles
660. Nikita – Elton John
661. Games People Play – The Alan Parsons Project
662. Turn Up the Radio – Autograph
663. Didn’t We Almost Have It All – Whitney Houston
664. All She Wants To Do Is Dance – Don Henley
665. Forever Young – Rod Stewart
666. Heart and Soul – Huey Lewis and the News
667. Rock Steady – The Whispers
668. Never Surrender – Corey Hart
669. Lay Your Hands On Me – Thompson Twins
670. Fallen Angel – Poison
671. Take Me Home – Phil Collins
672. Heartbreaker – Dionne Warwick
673. All Those Years Ago – George Harrison
674. Don’t Forget Me (When I’m Gone) – Glass Tiger
675. In a Big Country – Big Country
676. Cuts Like a Knife – Bryan Adams
677. One More Night – Phil Collins
678. Here and Now – Luther Vandross
679. Never Gonna Let You Go – Sergio Mendes
680. Foolish Beat – Debbie Gibson
681. We’ve Got Tonight –
Kenny Rogers and Sheena Easton
682. Rocket – Def Leppard
683. Where Do Broken Hearts Go – Whitney Houston
684. Your Wildest Dreams – The Moody Blues
685. I Wanna Be Your Lover – Prince
686. You May Be Right – Billy Joel
687. Always – Atlantic Starr
688. Cool Change – Little River Band
689. Keep On Movin’ – Soul II Soul
690. NeverEnding Story – Limahl
691. True Blue – Madonna
692. Xanadu – Olivia Newton-John and
Electric Light Orchestra
693. Somebody – Bryan Adams
694. Tusk – Fleetwood Mac
695. What’s On Your Mind (Pure Energy) –
Information Society
696. The Waiting – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
697. Jane – Jefferson Starship
698. Toy Soldiers – Martika
699. 19 – Paul Hardcastle
700. Don’t Mean Nothing – Richard Marx
SONG DESCRIPTIONS
Below is an alphabetical listing of THE TOP 500 POPULAR SONGS OF THE 1980S. Song descriptions are added periodically.
1999 by Prince — Song #113
867-5309/Jenny by Tommy Tutone — Song #224
9 To 5 by Dolly Parton — Song #76
99 Luftballoons by Nena — Song #243
Abracadabra by Steve Miller Band — Song #175
Addicted To Love by Robert Palmer — Song #184
Africa by Toto
Song #19
Right now, this song is playing on a never-ending loop somewhere in Africa. In 2019, a sound installation powered by solar batteries was set up by Namibian artist Max Siedentopf, in an undisclosed location in the Namib Desert (the world’s oldest desert, roughly 55 to 80 million years old), to play the song for eternity. Africa is a timeless pop staple that surged in popularity in the late-2010s and early-2020s. If this list of THE TOP 500 POPULAR SONGS OF THE 1980S measured popularity only since 2017, this song would probably be #1! Africa is the subject of many internet memes, entire Reddit pages, and relentless millennial pop culture references. It is one of the most streamed and digitally downloaded songs of the past few years. According to Billboard magazine, “Internet culture has kind of taken it and really shot it into the stratosphere...people started bonding over their love of this song.” Many recent pop culture moments (detailed below) have spiked Africa’s popularity to an astonishing degree.
When asked why the song is experiencing such a wild resurgence, Toto guitarist Steve Lukather said, “I haven’t a f*cking clue and you can quote me on that, but it’s got a great groove. I mean it’s a happy thing. The message of the song doesn’t have anything to do with, ‘Oo baby I love you,’ so there’s no depression there. It’s not political, so there’s no depression there. It’s a fantasy song. It’s like a Disneyland song or whatever. We just went in there and had fun and made this record... People latch onto it. It’s kitschy enough and the lyrics are weird enough that people will remember it.”
Africa was recorded by American rock band Toto, and is featured on the band’s fourth studio album Toto IV. Released as the album’s third single, Africa hit #1 on the American Top 40 chart in 1983, displacing Australian rock band Men at Work’s Down Under (song #65 on this list), another ode to a continent. Africa was a major hit in Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Finland, New Zealand, Italy, Germany, South Africa, and Switzerland.
Toto formed in 1977. The band broke up in 2008, but then got back together in 2010, and disbanded again in 2019. Toto’s musical style combines elements of pop, jazz, soul, R&B, and rock. The original six members were reputable session musicians, hired for recording sessions and live performances for a variety of artists, which is how they met and decided to form their own band. Members of Toto worked with American jazz rock band Steely Dan (whose Hey Nineteen is song #298 on this list), American soft rock duo Seals and Crofts, American pop duo Sonny and Cher (Cher’s If I Could Turn Back Time is song #196 on this list), and American blue-eyed soul singer Boz Scaggs. Four of the Toto guys are featured on Michael Jackson’s Thriller album, including two songs on this list: Human Nature, song #315 [see the description of that song for details] and Beat It, song #31. Toto band members also perform on English singer John Parr’s St. Elmo’s Fire (Man In Motion), song #133; American rock band Chicago’s Hard to Say I’m Sorry / Get Away, song #221; and American blue-eyed soul musician Michael McDonald’s I Keep Forgettin’, song #319.
The six original Toto members were David Paich (keyboards and vocals); brothers Jeff Porcaro (drums) and Steve Porcaro (keyboards and vocals); Steve Lukather (guitars and vocals); David Hungate (bass guitar); and Bobby Kimball (lead vocals). Mike Porcaro (bass guitar) joined his brothers’ band in 1982. Six additional members were added over the years, as members left and re-joined, and a few of them died. Why the band is named “Toto” depends on which members of the band you ask. In the early ‘80s, some of them said that the band was named after Toto the dog from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. But Jeff Porcaro apparently wrote the word “Toto” on the band’s first demo tapes, in order to distinguish them from other bands who worked in the same studio. And some band members say that “Toto” came from the Latin phrase in toto, which means “all-encompassing” or “in total,” with the significance being that the band members brought together many different styles of music from their extensive experience with other musicians.
Africa was written by David Paich (who performs lead vocals on the song) and Jeff Porcaro, neither of whom had ever been to Africa when they wrote the song. According to Jeff Porcaro, the song is about “a white boy...trying to write a song on Africa, but since he’s never been there, he can only tell what he’s seen on TV or remembers in the past.” David Paich said, “At the beginning of the ‘80s I watched a late-night documentary on TV about all the terrible death and suffering of the people in Africa. It both moved and appalled me and the pictures just wouldn’t leave my head. I tried to imagine how I’d feel about if I [were] there and what I’d do.” Because he’d never been to the continent himself, he based the song’s landscape descriptions on an article in venerable American magazine National Geographic: “I was a big reader of National Geographic. I’ve just always kind of been fascinated with Africa. I just kind of romanticized this story about a social worker that was over there, that falls in love and...is having kind of a paradox, trying to tear himself away from Africa to actually have a life.” David Paich attended Catholic school as a child, where several of his teachers did missionary work in Africa. Their missionary work became the inspiration behind the famous line, “I bless the rains down in Africa.”
But some of the Toto guys were not fans of the song originally. Steve Lukather said, “I thought it was the worst song on the album. It didn’t fit, the lyrics made no sense, and I swore that if it was a hit record, I’d run naked down Hollywood Boulevard! That’s how good I am at picking singles! I mean, I love the song now but, to be honest with you, at the time I thought it was really the oddball song on the album. It almost didn’t make the record, and it was a #1 worldwide single, and still gets played everywhere today. No matter where I go in the world, people know that song. It’s bizarre!” Steve Porcaro described the song as a dumb experiment with goofy lyrics that were just temporary placeholders, particularly the line about the Serengeti: “As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti.” Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa, located in Tanzania. The Serengeti is an ecosystem, a geographical region in Africa that spans both Tanzania and Kenya. The Serengeti and Mount Kilimanjaro are both located in the northern part of Tanzania, but you can’t actually see Kilimanjaro from the Serengeti, which is about 200 miles (320 km) away.
Toto has released 14 studio albums, seven live albums, one soundtrack album (for the 1984 film Dune, written and directed by David Lynch), 19 compilation albums, and 65 singles. Only 10 of those singles entered the American Top 40 chart, and all except one of those 10 are from the ‘80s. Africa is featured on Toto IV, the band’s fourth (and most commercially and critically successful) album, released in 1982. Rosanna (which is song #297 on this list), was the lead single from Toto IV, and peaked at #2 on the American Top 40 chart. The second single was Make Believe, which peaked at #30. Africa was the third single, and the final single released from Toto IV was I Won’t Hold You Back, which peaked at #10 on the American Top 40 chart. Toto’s other hit songs in the United States are 1978’s Hold the Line, 1980’s 99, 1984’s Stranger In Town, 1986’s I’ll Be Over You, 1986’s Without Your Love, and 1988’s Pamela.
Toto IV was the final album with the original Toto lineup, and it received seven Grammy nominations in 1983, winning five of them, including Album of the Year. The other nominees for Album of the Year were American rock musician John (Cougar) Mellencamp’s American Fool, which features two songs on this list: Jack & Diane at #46 and Hurts So Good at #101; American pop musician Billy Joel’s The Nylon Curtain; American jazz/rock musician Donald Fagen’s The Nightfly; and English pop musician Paul McCartney’s Tug of War, which features his duet with American R&B/pop musician Stevie Wonder, Ebony and Ivory, song #397 on this list. Toto also won 1983’s Record of the Year (which is awarded to the artist, producer, and others who were involved in the actual recording of the song), but not for Africa—The winner of Record of the Year was Rosanna. The other nominees were English jazz/pop musician Joe Jackson’s Steppin’ Out, song #429 on this list; Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder’s Ebony and Ivory; American country singer/guitarist Willie Nelson’s Always on My Mind, song #450; and Greek composer Vangelis’ Chariots of Fire, song #314. Rosanna was also nominated for Song of the Year (which is awarded to the songwriters), but lost to Willie Nelson’s Always on My Mind. The other nominees were Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder’s Ebony and Ivory, American rock band Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger, song #13 on this list; and Donald Fagen’s I.G.Y. (What a Beautiful World), which did not make this list, but came close at #510. Toto was nominated for a Grammy for Best New Artist in 1979, but lost to American disco group A Taste of Honey.
Africa has been covered by many artists. The most well-known cover is by American alternative rock band Weezer in 2018, after a teenager’s viral Twitter campaign (@WeezerAfrica) implored the band to do the cover for nearly six months with tweets like, “It’s about time you bless the rains down in Africa,” and the hashtag #WeezerCoverAfrica. Before covering Africa, Weezer covered Toto’s Rosanna (click here) as a way of trolling fans clamoring for Africa. Ultimately, the band gave in to fans’ demand, and Weezer’s version of Africa (click here) peaked at #1 on the U.S. Billboard Alternative Songs chart. Weezer’s video for Africa is a mirror-image parody of their 1994 debut single Undone – The Sweater Song. The parody features American musical comedian “Weird Al” Yankovic as Weezer’s frontman Rivers Cuomo, with his band members replacing Weezer. “Weird Al” is known for his lampoons of hit songs. On January 1, 2019, Weezer performed Africa live on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve (click here). In response to Weezer’s cover of Africa, Toto did a cover of Weezer’s 2001 song Hash Pipe (click here for Toto’s version).
Other artists who have covered Africa include experimental collaboration Zo! and Tigallo (featuring American rapper Phonte) in 2008 (click here); American musician Scott Bradlee’s jazz-oriented collective Postmodern Jukebox in 2011 (click here); American Christian rock band Relient K in 2011 (click here); English comedy lounge band The Lounge Kittens in 2016 (click here); American musical comedy duo Ninja Sex Party in 2017 (click here); American soul musician CeeLo Green in 2018 (click here); and jazz vocalist Robyn Adele Anderson, who did a bluegrass version in 2019 (click here).
The following songs contain samples or interpolations of Africa:
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1992’s Steady Me by German pop singer Sandra
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1999’s New World by American rapper Nas
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1999’s Tempo Critico by Italian rap group Sacre Scuole
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2002’s Heart of Man by American rapper Xzibit
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2003’s Murder Reigns by American rapper Ja Rule
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2007’s Anything by American pop singer JoJo
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2008’s Africa by Lebanese-Canadian pop singer Karl Wolf featuring Culture
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2009’s The 12 Days of Christmas by American a cappella group Straight No Chaser (which became one of the very first viral videos and made the group famous)
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2010’s Huey Newton by American rapper Wiz Khalifa featuring Curren$y
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2010’s vaporwave-genre song A1 by experimental electronic musician Chuck Person, aka Oneohtrix Point Never
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2011’s Fight for You by American pop singer Jason Derulo
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2011’s How I Feel by American rapper Lil B
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2012’s Keep Ballin by American rapper Red Café
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2013’s Reloaded by American rapper Rich Homie Quan
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2016’s Africa by Swedish production duo Bacall & Malo featuring Nigerian singer Prince Osito
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2017’s Be Right Back! by American rapper Ezri
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2018’s Ocean To Ocean by American rapper Pitbull featuring Rhea
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2019’s Selfish by Belgian DJ and record producer Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, with Kosovo-Albanian singer Era Istrefi
Africa has been featured in quite a few television shows, including the very first episode of Stranger Things; Scrubs (click here); Family Guy (click here); Community (with American actress Betty White: click here); and South Park (in two episodes of its 20th season: click here and here). In 2013, American pop singer Justin Timberlake and American talk show host Jimmy Fallon performed it in a sketch on The Tonight Show (click here). In 2013, Africa was used by CBS during coverage of the funeral of South African president Nelson Mandela, which even the Toto guys thought was inappropriate: David Paich stated publicly that CBS should have used actual South African music instead.
Ain’t Nobody by Rufus featuring Chaka Khan
Song #197
Michael Jackson almost recorded this song for the Thriller album! Producer Quincy Jones wanted Ain’t Nobody, and he almost got it. Rufus keyboardist David Wolinski wrote the song, and the other members of the group didn’t like it, but they recorded it anyway, to be included as a bonus track on the band’s 1983 live album Stompin’ at the Savoy, which was to be the group’s final album because the band members had decided to split up. David Wolinski wanted the song to be released as the album’s first single, and threatened to pull the song from the album and give it to Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson if the band did not agree. Executives at Warner Bros. Records and the band ultimately agreed, and Ain’t Nobody was released in November 1983; it reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard R&B chart and #22 on the American Top 40 chart. The song was also included on the soundtrack for the 1984 breakdancing film Breakin’, and is featured in a sequence in the film (click here).
Rufus was an American funk band that formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1970. Rufus had 10 American Top 40 hits, including 1974’s Tell Me Something Good (written by Stevie Wonder) and 1975’s Sweet Thing. Chaka Khan joined as lead vocalist in 1972, and quickly became the focus of the band’s image. Chaka Khan became so popular that Rufus became “Rufus featuring Chaka Khan,” one of the most influential funk bands of the 1970s, with four consecutive #1 albums on the U.S. Billboard R&B album chart, and five #1 songs on the R&B singles chart. Chaka Khan signed a solo contract with Warner Bros. Records in 1978, but she remained part of the band until 1982. Chaka Khan’s real name is Yvette Marie Stevens. At the age of 14, she joined the Black Panthers, one of the most influential political organization of the 1960s. Known as the Queen of Funk, Chaka Khan has won 10 Grammy Awards, including two as a member of Rufus—both in the category of Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals: Tell Me Something Good and Ain’t Nobody.
Ain’t Nobody has been covered several times, and some of these versions became dance hits around the world. Examples include British singer Jaki Graham’s 1994 version (click here); Jamaican singer/songwriter Diana King’s 1995 version (click here); a 1996 interpolation of the song (click here) for the soundtrack of the film Beavis and Butt–Head Do America by American rapper LL Cool J; Richard X vs. Liberty X’s 2003 song Being Nobody, which combines the lyrics of Ain’t Nobody with the music of Being Boiled by The Human League (whose Human and Don’t You Want Me are songs #404 at #39, on this list, respectively); and the most successful cover of the song, German DJ Felix Jaehn’s 2015 worldwide hit Ain’t Nobody (Loves Me Better) featuring vocals by English singer Jasmine Thompson.
In 2018, Ain’t Nobody was adopted by fans of Nottingham Forest Football Club (a professional football club based in Nottinghamshire, England), and the song has previously been used by supporters of Arsenal Football Club, Wales national football team, and West Ham United Football Club. Chaka Khan has two more songs on this list of THE TOP 500 POP SONGS OF THE 1980S: Her biggest solo hit I Feel For You (written by Prince and featuring Stevie Wonder on harmonica), is song #153, and she sings with Steve Winwood on Higher Love, song #130.
Alive and Kicking by Simple Minds – Song #456
All Night Long by Lionel Richie — Song #68
All Out Of Love by Air Supply — Song #180
All Through the Night by Cyndi Lauper — Song #267
Alone by Heart — Song #121
Always On My Mind by Willie Nelson — Song #450
Always On My Mind by Pet Shop Boys – Song #459
Always Something There To Remind Me by Naked Eyes — Song #134
America by Neil Diamond — Song #475
Angel by Aerosmith — Song #444
Angel Of the Morning by Juice Newton — Song #370
Animal by Def Leppard — Song #500
Another Brick In the Wall (Part II) by Pink Floyd — Song #15
Another Day In Paradise by Phil Collins — Song #216
Another One Bites the Dust by Queen
Song #5
This song is Queen’s biggest hit in the United States, even though its funky disco sound was a major departure in style for this British hard rock band. Another One Bites the Dust actually led to a dwindling of Queen’s popularity in the U.S., as a part of the backlash toward disco in that genre’s dying days. Another One Bites the Dust hit #1 on the American Top 40 chart in 1980, and was a surprise crossover hit, peaking at #2 on two other U.S. Billboard charts: the Hot R&B/Soul Singles chart and the Hot Dance/Disco Club Play chart. Fans of the song who didn’t know the band thought that the singer was a black guy. The song was also a hit in Belgium, Ireland, Germany, Canada, Austria, South Africa, Australia, Spain, Israel, Sweden, Switzerland, France, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and the U.K. Another One Bites the Dust is the highest ranking of four Queen songs on this list of THE TOP 500 POPULAR SONGS OF THE 1980S, and three of those songs are in the Top 50. The other songs are Under Pressure with English singer/songwriter David Bowie at #41, Crazy Little Thing Called Love at #44, and Radio Ga Ga at #495.
Queen is a British rock band that formed in London in 1970. The band’s music is difficult to classify. Queen’s earliest work is oriented toward hard rock and heavy metal, but the band’s sound evolved dramatically over the years, incorporating elements of symphonic rock, glam rock, operatic pop, arena rock, dance/disco, and rockabilly. The band is known for complex multi-layered vocal harmonies and elaborate, orchestral production values. The original lineup was Brian May (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Roger Taylor (drums, guitar, keyboards, vocals), Freddie Mercury (lead vocals, keyboards, piano, guitar), and John Deacon (bass, guitar, keyboards). Before forming Queen, Brian May and Roger Taylor were in the band Smile, which formed in 1968 and disbanded in 1970. They met Freddie Mercury, who suggested forming a new band. John Deacon join the band in 1971. Freddie Mercury and Brian May wrote the bulk of the band’s material, but all four contributed to the songwriting. In 1991, at the age of 45, Freddie Mercury died of bronchopneumonia, a complication of HIV/AIDS. John Deacon retired from music in 1997. Brian May and Roger Taylor have continued to tour as Queen, with English-Canadian singer Paul Rodgers from 2004 to 2009, and American singer Adam Lambert from 2011 to present.
Another One Bites the Dust was written and composed by John Deacon. He plays most of the instruments: bass, lead and rhythm guitars, reversed piano, and extra percussion. “I listened to a lot of soul music when I was in school, and I’ve always been interested in that sort of music,” he told Bassist & Bass Techniques in 1996. “I’d been wanting to do a track like Another One Bites the Dust for a while, but originally all I had was the line and the bass riff. Gradually I filled it in and the band added ideas. I could hear it as a song for dancing but had no idea it would become as big as it did. The song got picked up off our album and some of the black radio stations in the U.S. started playing it...” Brian May contributed some of the sound effects, running his guitar through an Eventide Harmonizer processor. No synthesizers were used when the song was recorded. All of the effects were created with piano, electric guitars, and drums. Sound effects were run through the harmonizer for extra processing. Subsequent tape playback of some of the sounds in reverse and at various speeds added to the song’s unique sound. And of course, Freddie Mercury’s vocals are over-the-top and irresistible. About Freddie Mercury’s vocals, Brian May said, “A fantastic bit of work from Freddie really... Fred just went in there and hammered and hammered until his throat bled... He really was inspired by it and took it to a new height, I think.”
According to Brian May, “John Deacon, being totally in his own world, came up with this thing, which was nothing like what we were doing. We were going for the big drum sound: you know, quite pompous in our usual way. And Deakey says, ‘No, I want this to be totally different: It’s going to be a very tight drum sound.’ It was originally done to a drum loop. This was before the days of drum machines. Roger did a loop, kind of under protest, because he didn’t like the sound of the drums recorded that way. And then Deakey put this groove down. Immediately Freddie became violently enthusiastic and said, ‘This is big! This is important! I’m going to spend a lot of time on this.’ It was the beginning of something quite big for us, because it was the first time that one of our records crossed over to the black community. We had no control over that; it just happened. Suddenly we were forced to put out this single because so many stations in New York were playing it. It changed that album from being a million-seller to being a three-million seller in a matter of three weeks or so.”
John Deacon’s bassline in Another One Bites the Dust was inspired by R&B group Chic’s #1 1979 hit song Good Times. In an interview with the New Musical Express, Chic bass player Bernard Edwards said, “Well, that Queen record came about because that bass player spent some time hanging out with us at our studio. But that’s okay. What isn’t okay is that the press started saying that we had ripped them off! Can you believe that? Good Times came out more than a year before, but it was inconceivable to these people that black musicians could possibly be innovative like that. It was just these dumb disco guys ripping off this rock ‘n roll song.” In 2014, Chic guitarist Nile Rodgers told The Guardian, “John Deacon was with me in the studio when I wrote the damn thing.” Good Times was one of the biggest hits of the summer of 1979. The Sugar Hill Gang’s landmark hip-hop song Rapper’s Delight (song #195 on this list) also uses the bassline of Good Times (Chic members Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards received songwriting credits). Interestingly, when Another One Bites the Dust hit #1 in the U.S., it replaced Diana Ross’ Upside Down (song #160 on this list), which was written and produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards.
Queen was reluctant to release Another One Bites the Dust as a single. It was the King of Pop himself Michael Jackson who convinced them that it would be a hit. After attending a Queen concert in Los Angeles, Michael Jackson came backstage. “I remember Michael and some of his brothers in the dressing room going on and on about Another One Bites the Dust. They kept saying we must release it as a single,” Roger Taylor told the magazine Q in 2009. Freddie Mercury said, “Credit for the song should go to Michael Jackson in many ways. He was a fan and friend of ours and kept telling me, ‘Freddie, you need a song the cats can dance to.’ John [Deacon] introduced this riff to us during rehearsal that we all immediately thought of disco, which was very popular at the time. We worked it out and once it was ready, played it for Michael. I knew we had a hit as he bobbed his head up and down. ‘That’s it, that’s the gravy. Release it and it will top the charts,’ he said. So we did, and it did.”
Another One Bites the Dust is notable for other reasons. In the early-‘80s, it was one of the main songs that Christian evangelists alleged contained secret subliminal messages through a technique called backmasking. They claimed that the chorus, when played in reverse, is heard as, “It’s fun to smoke marijuana.” Listen for yourself here. Another One Bites the Dust is also known for its use in the ‘80s as part of the training for medical professionals to provide the correct number of chest compressions per minute while performing CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation). The song was chosen because the bassline has close to 110 beats per minute, and 100 to 120 chest compressions per minute is the recommendation of the British Heart Foundation.
During an interview on In the Studio with Redbeard, Brian May said, “I always thought there was an instant where we were the biggest thing in the world. Another One Bites the Dust sort of clinched it because it suddenly crossed over to the black/R&B market. Suddenly instead of a million albums, we were [selling] three or four million albums. And at that time, that was about as much as anyone had ever done...” Another One Bites the Dust won an American Music Award for Favorite Rock Single of 1981, beating nominees Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall (Part II) (song #15 on this list of THE TOP 500 POPULAR SONGS OF THE 1980S), and Diana Ross’s Upside Down (song #242). Another One Bites the Dust was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, but lost to Bob Seger’s Against the Wind (song #346). The other nominees were Blondie’s Call Me (song #53), The Pretenders’ Brass in Pocket (song #161), and the Pink Floyd album The Wall, which features Another Brick in the Wall (Part II).
Another One Bites the Dust has been sampled and interpolated by many musicians, primarily comedic artists and rappers. The song is sampled in the following songs:
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American musician Jam Master Jay’s 1980 song We Are People Too
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American hip-hop group Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five’s 1981 song The Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels Of Steel
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American hip-hop and R&B recording artist MC Shan’s 1987 song Down By Law
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French musician Mr. Oizo’s 2008 song Positif
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American rapper Flying Lotus’ 2014 song Dead Man’s Tetris
Another One Bites the Dust is interpolated in the following songs:
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American comedy musician “Weird Al” Yankovic’s 1981 parody Another One Rides the Bus
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American rapper B-Legit’s 1995 song Gotta Buy Your Dope From Us
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American rappers JAY-Z and Sauce Money’s 1997 song Face Off
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Italian comedy rock band Elio e le Storie Tese’s 1999 song Bacio
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American singer Gwen Stefani’s huge 2005 hit Hollaback Girl
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German rapper Nate57’s 2017 song Bei Uns
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American rapper U-God’s 2018 song Bit da Dust
Another One Bites the Dust has been covered by the following artists:
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German Eurodance group Captain Jack for the Queen tribute compilation album Queen Dance Traxx in 1996 (click here)
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Haitian rapper Wyclef Jean in 1998 (click here)
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Argentine music duo Illya Kuryaki and the Valderramas in 2001 (click here)
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The cast of American TV show Glee in 2010 (click here)
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Underground group Hidden Citizens in 2016 (click here)
Another One Bites the Dust was used in a preliminary cut of the 1982 film Rocky III, in a pivotal scene in which Rocky is training for a fight, but because the producers could not get permission to use the song in the film, it was ultimately replaced with Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger (song #13 on this list of THE TOP 500 POPULAR SONGS OF THE 1980S. Another One Bites the Dust is featured in the following movies: 1981’s Modern Romance, 1989’s Sea of Love, 1998’s Small Soldiers, 1999’s 200 Cigarettes, 2000’s Circus, 2001’s The Fast and the Furious, 2010’s Iron Man 2, 2011’s Skateland, 2016’s Everybody Wants Some!!, and of course, the 2018 Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. Another One Bites the Dust has been featured on many TV shows as well, including WKRP in Cincinnati, Fame, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Everybody Hates Chris, American Dad!, My Name is Earl, Cold Case, Family Guy, Lucifer, American Crime Story, and numerous sporting events and reality competition shows.
Queen is one of the world’s best-selling bands, with 73 singles, 15 studio albums, 10 live albums, two soundtrack albums, 16 compilation albums, and 11 box sets. Thirteen of Queen’s songs were American Top 40 hits (although two pairs of those songs were “double side” singles, explained below). Queen’s first hit song in the U.K. was Seven Seas of Rhye, which peaked at #10 on the U.K. Singles Chart in 1974, but the band’s first hit in the U.S. and worldwide was 1974’s Killer Queen, which peaked at #12 on the American Top 40 chart.
Queen’s biggest worldwide hit is the six-minute rock epic Bohemian Rhapsody, which peaked at #9 in the U.S. in 1975; 16 years later, it re-entered the Billboard chart and peaked at #2, after its use in the 1992 film Wayne’s World (watch the film clip here). In 2018, Bohemian Rhapsody was an American Top 40 hit for a third time and peaked at #33, due to the release of the film Bohemian Rhapsody (American actor Rami Malek won an Oscar for portraying Freddie Mercury in the film). For its original release, the song Bohemian Rhapsody stayed at #1 in the U.K. for nine weeks, from November 1975 to January 1976, and then hit #1 again for another five weeks after Freddie Mercury died in 1991. Bohemian Rhapsody is one of the most popular and best-selling songs of all time, and is widely considered one of the greatest rock songs, which is why it’s odd that originally, it only got as high at #9 on the American Top 40 chart. Similarly, Journey’s 1981 song Don’t Stop Believin’, which is the #1 song on this list of THE TOP 500 POPULAR SONGS OF THE 1980S, also peaked at #9. Two of the most popular songs of all time barely entered the Top 10 in the U.S. when they were originally released.
Queen’s next U.S. hits were 1976’s You’re My Best Friend and 1976’s Somebody To Love, both of which peaked at #16 on the American Top 40 chart. In 1977, We Are the Champions and We Will Rock You together peaked at #3. We Are the Champions was the intended hit song, with We Will Rock You as the B-side of the single. During the time of vinyl records, songs were released as singles, issued as seven-inch discs that played at 45 revolutions per minute on a record player (they were called “45 rpm singles”). The singles were double-sided, but usually, the A-side was the intended side to be played on the radio. In this case, We Are the Champions was the A-side, and We Will Rock You was the B-side. But radio stations played both sides of the single (often one after the other) and both songs became huge hits, which led to them sometimes being referred to as a double A-side single. In 1978, Queen released Fat Bottomed Girls / Bicycle Race as a double A-side single, because both sides were designated A-sides, with no B-side; which meant that both songs were prospective hits and that neither song would be promoted over the other. Fat Bottomed Girls / Bicycle Race peaked at #24 on the American Top 40 chart.
Queen’s next hit was the band’s first #1 song in the U.S., Crazy Little Thing Called Love (song #44 on this list of THE TOP 500 POPULAR SONGS OF THE 1980S), which was not like anything Queen had recorded before: a catchy, ‘50s-style, rockabilly-flavored song in the vein of Elvis Presley. Crazy Little Thing Called Love was the first single released from the band’s eighth studio album The Game, which is Queen’s best-selling album in the U.S. and the band’s only album to reach #1 in the U.S. In October 1980, Queen hit #1 in the U.S. a second and final time with Another One Bites the Dust, also from The Game. After the huge success of the Another One Bites the Dust, Queen made a noticeable shift in music style, adding synthesizers and incorporating elements of disco, R&B, dance, and pop music on the band’s 1982 album Hot Space, in contrast to the traditional hard rock style that fans associated with the band. In fact, Queen had been well-known for a “no synths” rule, and Hot Space was the first Queen album to include synthesizers.
Under Pressure (song #44 on this list), was the band’s next hit, an impromptu jam session collaboration with English singer/songwriter David Bowie, who has two more songs on this list: Let’s Dance at #93 and Modern Love at #114. Under Pressure is featured on Hot Space, but it was released as a single seven months before the album was released; the song was a separate project and was recorded before the album and before the controversy over Queen’s new disco-oriented sound. Surprisingly, Under Pressure was not a big hit in the U.S., peaking at #29 on the American Top 40 chart (of course, since the ‘80s, Under Pressure has become one of the most popular songs of that decade). Queen’s next U.S. hit was also from Hot Space: Body Language peaked at #11, but because of its dance/pop sound and more synthetic direction, Hot Space is widely considered by both fans and critics to be a disappointing album. In 1989, Brian May lamented, “We got heavily into funk and it was quite similar to what Michael Jackson did on Thriller. But the timing was wrong. Disco was a dirty word.”
According to AllMusic, the success of Another One Bites the Dust was responsible for a drastic change in the band’s musical style, because it “pushed the members of Queen into some questionable musical decisions in the near future. The most blatant and negative of these was their decision to commit the bulk of their next effort, 1982’s Hot Space, to experimental, dancey funk and electrified soul—a catastrophic move which alienated many longtime fans and effectively killed the band’s career in America. Lucky for them, the rest of the world wasn’t as unforgiving and quickly embraced Queen once again when they retreated to somewhat more familiar (though no less eclectic) hard rock territory with 1984’s The Works.”
Queen’s final hit in the U.S. was from The Works: Radio Ga Ga, which peaked at #16 on the American Top 40 chart, and is song #495 on this list of THE TOP 500 POPULAR SONGS OF THE 1980S). A notable song from this album that was not popular in the U.S. but was popular around the world is I Want To Break Free, which is the #21 song on a separate list on this website: THE BEST ‘80S SONGS THAT WERE NOT POPULAR IN THE ‘80S IN THE U.S. The songs on this list are now some of the most beloved ‘80s songs, despite the fact that they were not “popular” in the 1980s. I Want To Break Free was a big hit in the U.K. and several countries, but why wasn’t it a hit in the U.S.? American television channel MTV banned the video of the song because it features bandmembers dressed in drag, as a parody of the popular British soap opera Coronation Street. According to Brian May in a 2010 interview with National Public Radio, the video was understood as a lampoon in the U.K., but the U.S. audience didn’t get the soap-opera connection and probably interpreted the video as an affirmation of transvestism and Freddie Mercury’s sexual orientation.
In 1985, Queen performed at Live Aid, a benefit concert that raised funds for the people of Ethiopia during a devastating famine. The event was held simultaneously in London and in Philadelphia on July 13, 1985. Queen’s 21-minute performance is ranked among the greatest in rock history by various publications and music industry entities. The band’s six-song set includes abbreviated versions of Bohemian Rhapsody, Radio Ga Ga, Hammer To Fall, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, We Will Rock You, and We Are the Champions (but not Another One Bites the Dust!). Watch Queen’s full Live Aid performance here. The climax of the 2018 Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody depicts the Live Aid performance. Watch a side-by-side comparison of the actual Queen performance and the one in the film here.
Queen had many more hit songs that were not popular in the United States, including 1979’s Don’t Stop Me Now, 1980’s Play the Game, 1980’s Flash, 1986’s A Kind Of Magic, 1989’s I Want It All, 1991’s Innuendo, and 1995’s Heaven For Everyone, which was released four years after Freddie Mercury’s death and features vocals he had recorded in 1987.
Even though Queen’s popularity in the United States dwindled in the late-‘80s, the band sustained its popularity around the world. The renewal of Queen’s popularity in the U.S. began after Freddie Mercury’s death in 1991, prompted by the inclusion of Bohemian Rhapsody in the popular 1992 film Wayne’s World. Queen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. In 2003, Queen became the first band to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame. Brian May and Roger Taylor toured the U.S. as Queen in 2005/2006 (with Paul Rodgers) and again in 2014 (with Adam Lambert). In 2018, Queen was presented a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Any Way You Want It by Journey — Song #211
Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do) by Christopher Cross — Song #177
Baby, Come To Me by Patti Austin and James Ingram — Song #283
Baby, I Love Your Way / Freebird Medley
by Will To Power
Song #284
This song combines two rock songs from the 1970s: English-American rock musician Peter Frampton’s Baby, I Love Your Way (which peaked at #12 on the American Top 40 chart in 1976) and American Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird (which peaked at #19 in 1975; a live version peaked at #38 in 1977). Will To Power is known for dance-pop and freestyle music, which originated in South Florida in the ‘80s. The group’s name comes from a prominent concept of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, first mentioned in his 1883 novel Thus Spake Zarathustra, in which Nietzsche describes the will to power as the unexhausted procreative will of life. Although Nietzsche never precisely defines the concept of the will to power in his work, leaving it open to subjective interpretation, the concept applies to the primary driving force of all life to transcend the self through creative power.
Baby, I Love Your Way / Freebird Medley hit #1 in December 1988, and Billboard ranked it the #9 song of 1989. Although sometimes considered a one-hit wonder, Will To Power had another hit song: a remake of 10cc’s I’m Not in Love, which peaked at #9 on the American Top 40 chart in 1990; they also had three hits on the U.S. Billboard Dance Club chart, all of them in the ‘80s: Dreamin’, Say It’s Gonna Rain, and Fading Away.
Peter Frampton’s Baby, I Love Your Way first appeared on his 1975 album Frampton. A live version of the song (click here) was included on his 1976 multi-platinum album Frampton Comes Alive!, which is the version that became popular.
Lynyrd Skynyrd’s classic rock anthem Free Bird is often considered the band’s signature song. It is consistently played as the finale of their live performances, and it is their longest song, sometimes surpassing 14 minutes in length when played live. Free Bird was first featured on the band’s 1973 debut album (Pronounced ‘Lĕh–’nérd ‘Skin–’nérd). Free Bird is ranked #3 on Guitar World’s 100 Greatest Guitar Solos. Free Bird is included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll, and it is ranked #193 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 2009, it was named the 26th best hard rock song of all time by VH1. Free Bird has been featured in numerous video games, television shows, and movies. Some of the movies are Soylent Green, The Towering Inferno, Sid and Nancy, This Is Spinal Tap, Time Bandits, Spaceballs, Wayne’s World, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, High Fidelity, Speed, Lethal Weapon 4, The Doors, The Last Boy Scout, Forrest Gump, Blood Diamond, Dude, Where’s My Car?, The Full Monty, Napoleon Dynamite, Toy Story 3, and Mad Max: Fury Road. In the Will To Power song, the Freebird lyrics are slightly different: The original line “and the bird you cannot change” was changed to “and this bird will never change.”
Back In Black by AC/DC — Song #11
Back On the Chain Gang by The Pretenders — Song #377
Back To Life (However Do You Want Me)
by Soul II Soul
Song #268
This song peaked at #4 on the American Top 40 chart in 1989, and peaked at #1 for four weeks in the U.K. the same year. The British R&B group Soul II Soul has had over a dozen members over the years; DJ and producer Jazzie B is the only member who has been with the group since its inception in 1988. He said, “Everything about this single was magic. We weren’t trying to follow any trend or fit into any category. We were just doing our own thing... Its shuffling beats were a cross between reggae and what was to become known as hip-hop: breakbeats and electronic sound... [T]his was a moment that put British music back on the map. It also came out at a special time in the industry’s history—just before digital took over and everything seemed to fall apart.” The lead vocals on Back To Life (However Do You Want Me) are provided by guest singer Caron Wheeler, who embarked on a solo career the following year. The song also features the Reggae Philharmonic Orchestra.
Soul II Soul’s first hit was Keep On Movin’, which peaked at #11 on the American Top 40 chart in September 1989, but did not make this list. The beat for Back To Life (However Do You Want Me) (which is also used in Keep On Movin’) is based on hip-hop duo Eric B. & Rakim’s 1987 song Paid In Full. Several versions of Back To Life (However Do You Want Me) exist: the original album version is a capella (click here), the first single version adds instrumentation, and the second single version, which is the one that became popular (click here) includes new lyrics and the chorus. There are also various extended remixes and a club mix (click here).
Back to Life (However Do You Want Me) has been performed, covered, and sampled many times. In 1991, English pop singer George Michael performed the song with American singer Lynn Mabry at the Rock in Rio 2 music festival (click here), and he continued to perform it throughout his 1991 Cover to Cover tour; and a version of his hit song Freedom! ‘90 (Back to Reality Mix) features an interpolation of the song. Panamanian-American DJ Clue? produced a version featuring American R&B singer Mary J. Blige and American rapper Jadakiss, Back to Life 2001. The song is sampled in American rapper The Game’s However Do You Want It, and American rapper Big Boi’s Shutterbugg. In 2000, VH1 ranked Back to Life (However Do You Want Me) 50th on their list of the 100 Greatest Dance Songs. In 2006, Slant magazine ranked the song 57th on a list of the 100 Greatest Dance Songs. The song won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1990. Soul II Soul has been nominated for five BRIT Awards—twice for Best British Group. Billboard magazine ranked Back To Life (However Do You Want Me) the 42nd most popular song of 1989.
Bad by Michael Jackson
Song #322
This song was originally conceived as a duet between Michael Jackson and Prince by legendary producer Quincy Jones (who produced Michael Jackson’s albums Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad, as well as USA For Africa’s We Are the World, which is song #203 on this list). Quincy Jones said that he had pictured the pair battling it out in the video, but Prince declined and said that the song would be a hit without him. In 1997, Prince said, “The first line in that song is, ‘Your butt is mine,’ so I was saying, ‘Who gonna sing that to whom? Because you sure ain’t singing it to me, and I sure ain’t singing it to you.’ So right there we got a problem.”
Michael Jackson stated that Bad was based on a true story about a young man living in poverty who went to a private school hoping improve his life, but was murdered by his former friends when he returned home for Thanksgiving break. In his 1988 autobiography Moonwalk, he said, “Bad is a song about the street. It’s about this kid from a bad neighborhood who gets to go away to a private school. He comes back to the old neighborhood when he’s on a break from school and the kids from the neighborhood start giving him trouble. He sings, ‘I’m bad, you’re bad, who’s bad, who’s the best?’ He’s saying when you’re strong and good, then you’re bad.” The Bad video/short film, which is over 18 minutes long, was directed by Martin Scorsese (the renowned director of Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, The Departed, The Wolf Of Wall Street, and many more). It first aired on the CBS prime time TV special Michael Jackson: The Magic Returns in 1987. In the video, Michael Jackson’s mother is played by American soul singer Roberta Flack. In one of his first roles, American actor Wesley Snipes (who would later star in White Men Can’t Jump and the Blade film trilogy) plays the rival gang leader. In 2017, Wesley Snipes told Conan O’Brien that his role was intended for Prince, but that after Michael saw Wesley’s Snipes’ audition, he changed his mind; he said, “I blew Prince out of the water. Michael had told Prince that he had the role, and then he met me and kicked Prince to the curb. Imagine that.”
Martin Scorsese said that the video was a different directing experience for him: “Shooting the big dance scene was the allure of it. Michael was never a person who was overly enthusiastic. He was quiet. Accepting. How should I put it? He was very precise about what he wanted in the choreography. He was concerned, like with any great dancer-—they like to be seen full figure. But that wasn’t the case because I’d planned other things. The use of close-ups, and tracking him. Eventually he understood that. There was never any resistance, but questions. He was open to everything.” The video has similarities to the 1961 film West Side Story. According to dancer/choreographer Toni Basil (whose Mickey is song #405 on this list), “If you look at Bad, that’s taken straight out of West Side Story. If you interview any of those choreographers, you’ll see that Michael looked at West Side Story over and over and over again. If you put the song Cool from West Side Story up against that, you’ll see hunks taken. Not that it wasn’t great, but Michael would never say where he was inspired from.” To see the undeniable similarities, check out Cool from West Side Story here. At the 1988 MTV Video Music Awards, the Bad video was nominated for Best Choreography, as was Michael Jackson’s The Way You Make Me Feel (song #171 on this list), but the winner was his sister Janet Jackson’s video for The Pleasure Principle (which did not make this list, but came close). Watch Janet’s video