A while back I made a list of my top 90 songs of the ’90s, the immediate result of which was regret at nearly every choice I’d made. But over the long run, the positive outcome has been a list of great ’90s songs that — especially when combined with my husband Josh’s list — has become essential house listening. It’s also been a surprisingly durable and fun conversation topic, with questions like “Hey, was “Two Princes” on your ’90s list?” coming up pretty regularly. So we’ve both had it on our to-do lists to tackle the ’80s, with hopes of similarly good results. (Edit: Here’s the link to Josh’s ’80s list.)
Keeping with the structure of the previous exercise, I’m now down to ’80 songs, which surprisingly wasn’t that big a deal. Combing through my various Spotify playlists and other listening outlets, I’m forced to conclude that the ’80s may be my least favorite decade of what I consider the classic pop era.1 Perhaps the reason is that ’80s are the decade I came to last. I grew up listening to the music of the ’60s and ’70s, because that’s what my parents liked. And I was a teen in the ’90s, so I experienced many of those songs in real time. But when it comes to the ’80s, I didn’t hear much of this music until I was well into my 20s and 30s, and that just gives it a different feel.
For one thing, there’s very little here that I’d consider non-canon, and that disappoints me. A large percentage of this list is clearly influenced by my extensive watching of VH1 Classic’s 120 Minutes reboot, so while there are a generous handful of hit-hits on the order of “Love Shack,” there are a lot more of the type of classic alternative tracks that recently seem to have become of the soundtrack of every coffee house and hipster gift shop in the U.S. And those songs are good. I like them and, when it comes down to it, they’re what I listen to — that’s why I picked them. But I do like that my ’90s list has a lot more songs on it that I honestly think that no one I know is even familiar with.2
Still, there’s plenty here that’s uniquely me. I ended up loving my top ten, which feels like the perfect representation of my interests. We’ve got XTC’s “Mayor of Simpleton,” which, with its classic Beatlesque pop, has almost nothing to do with popular conceptions of the ’80s sound. I could say that same about “I.G.Y.,” with its out-of-time blend of ’70s disco and ’50s sci-fi dreaming, or The Who’s surprisingly wholesome middle-aged sex ode, “You Better You Bet.” We do have some ’80s exemplars like OMD, Echo, and the Pet Shop Boys (with Dusty!), all of whom back up their more synth-heavy sonics with excellent melody writing. And cannot say how much I adore the juxtaposition of “Ask” and “Free World” in the top five, both featuring Johnny Marr and Kirsty MacColl, two absolute heroes of the ’80s who never get enough credit (with apologies to Morrissey whose solid representation here should speak for itself).
Also well represented in the top ten and throughout my list is the dark horse sub-genre that’s earned and kept my affections these past few years: sophisti-pop. Swing Out Sister’s “Breakout” is a wonderful example of the form and the problems with explaining it. This song came to my attention a few years ago with its unshakeable melody, buoying lyrics, and jaunty horn section. It’s the perfect song for when some cute and confident lady is walking down the street in a romantic comedy. But when I played it on my now-defunct radio show, Josh was like, “I can’t believe you played that song! It’s so adult contemporary.” And yes, sophisti-pop is adult contemporary. It’s slick, it’s got lots of synths and horn and string arrangements, and it’s not edgy in any way. But it’s good adult contemporary. I can’t really explain it beyond that, but take a listen to “Breakout,” “The Look of Love,” “Mary’s Prayer,” “The Promise,” “So In Love,” “Appetite,” or “Shattered Dreams,” and you’ll see what I mean.
The biggest challenge I found in making this list was balancing rankings between songs on the rise and songs on the decline. I found there was a particular category of song — examples include “Just Like Heaven” and “Here Comes Your Man” — that I once loved, but for some reason have not kept my interest. These songs are excellent and I’ve listened to them more times than many other choices on the list. I’m just not that excited about them anymore. Should I rate them based on my current lack of interest or on their historical value to me? In the end, I’ve erred on the side of current excitement levels, meaning I’ve ranked something like the “Mary’s Prayer”, a more recent favorite, higher simply because the bloom is still on. Fair? I think so — especially when you consider how many times I’ve heard something like “You Better You Bet” with literally no degradation in enjoyment.
Finally, it’s worth repeating a few points from my ’90s post about the general impossibility of doing a ranking like this. Choose any two adjacent songs — say “Raspberry Beret” and “True” — and compare them. Is “True” really better? Maybe today it is, but the distinctions are really subtle. Still, I’d say overall the list does go in a generally upward trajectory, culminating in some of the songs from the ’80s I most deeply love. In that respect, I aim to take some measure of satisfaction in a task when can never be satisfactorily achieved. So without further ado…
My top 80 of the ’80s
You can listen on Spotify or hear the top ten on Mixcloud.
80. Bonnie Tyler — “Total Eclipse of the Heart”
79. Bobby Brown — “My Prerogative”
78. The Kinks — “Destroyer”
77. Squeeze — “Black Coffee in Bed”
76. John Fogerty — “Rock and Roll Girls”
75. B-52s — “Song for a Future Generation”
74. The Psychedelic Furs — “Heartbreak Beat”
73. Kylie Minogue — “Hand on Your Heart”
72. The Jam — “That’s Entertainment”
71. Run-D.M.C. — “It’s Tricky”
70. Paul McCartney — “My Brave Face”
69. Elvis Costello & the Attractions — “Everyday I Write the Book”
68. Steely Dan — “Hey Nineteen”
67. Queen — “I Want to Break Free”
66. The Specials — “Ghost Town”
65. Biz Markie — “Just a Friend”
64. Echo & the Bunnymen — “The Cutter”
63. Daryl Hall and John Oates — “I Can’t Go for That”
62. Tracy Ullman — “You Broke My Heart in Seventeen Places”
61. Culture Club — “Church of the Poison Mind”
60. The Bongos — “Mambo Sun”
59. Paul Simon — “I Know What I Know”
58. The Pretenders — “Mystery Achievement”
57. The Housemartins — “Happy Hour”
56. The B-52s — “Love Shack”
55. Katrina and the Waves — “Walking on Sunshine”
54. The dB’s — “Bad Reputation”
53. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts — “Bad Reputation”
52. Janet Jackson — “Miss You Much”
51. Johnny Hates Jazz — “Shattered Dreams”
50. Flesh for Lulu — “Postcards from Paradise”
49. Michael Penn — “No Myth”
48. Prince — “Raspberry Beret”
47. Spandau Ballet — “True”
46. Kirsty MacColl — “A New England”
45. Elaine Page and Barbara Dickson — “I Know Him So Well”
44. New Order — “Bizarre Love Triangle”
43. Wham! — “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”
42. The Dukes of Stratosphear — “Brainiac’s Daughter”
41. Love and Rockets — “It Could Be Sunshine”
40. The Waterboys — “The Whole of the Moon”
39. The Jam — “Beat Surrender”
38. Tears for Fears — “Head Over Heels”
37. Rod Stewart — “Downtown Train”
36. The Cure — “Just Like Heaven”
35. Daryl Hall and John Oates — “Diddy Doo Wop (I Hear the Voices)”
34. Crowded House — “Better Be Home Soon”
33. Chaka Khan — “I Feel for You”
32. Romeo Void — “Never Say Never”
31 .Violent Femmes — “Add It Up”
30. The Go-Betweens — “Right Here”
29. Prefab Sprout — “Appetite”
28. The Stone Roses — “She Bangs the Drums”
27. Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark — “So In Love”
26. XTC — “Senses Working Overtime”
25. Erasure — “A Little Respect”
24. Pixies — “Here Comes Your Man”
23. When in Rome — “The Promise”
22. Madonna — “Holiday”
21. They Might Be Giants — “She’s an Angel”
20. The Psychedelic Furs — “Pretty in Pink”
19. Aztec Camera — “Oblivious”
18. The Replacements — “Alex Chilton”
17. The Jam — “Going Underground”
16. The Smiths — “The Boy with the Thorn in His Side”
15. Dire Straits — “Tunnel of Love”
14. Morrissey — “The Last of the Famous International Playboys”
13 .Tracy Chapman — “Fast Car”
12. Danny Wilson — “Mary’s Prayer”
11. They Might be Giants — “Anna Ng”
10. The Who – “You Better You Bet”
9. ABC — “The Look of Love”
8. Pet Shop Boys ft. Dusty Springfield — “What I Have I Done to Deserve This?”
7. Echo & the Bunnymen — “Bring on the Dancing Horses”
6. Swing Out Sister — “Breakout”
5. Kirsty MacColl — “Free World”
4. The Smiths — “Ask”
3. Donald Fagen — “I.G.Y.”
2. Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark — “Enola Gay”
1. XTC — “Mayor of Simpleton”