20 Best Songs of the 80s – #13
Fine Young Cannibals isn’t a one-hit wonder, but a one-album wonder. Several songs off their 1988 album The Raw and the Cooked charted, including #1 positions for today’s song and the jaunty ‘Good Thing.’ The album also featured such gems as ‘Don’t Look Back,’ ‘Ever Fallen in Love,’ ‘I’m Not the Man I Used to Be’ and ‘As Hard As It Is.’
20 Best Songs of the 80s – #14
Cyndi Lauper is one of the few artists on this list who went on to do great things after the 80s — at least creatively. Unfortunately she never again achieved commercial success anywhere close to her peak in that decade.
But in the 80s, she was the bomb. ‘Girls Just Want To Have Fun,’ ‘She Bop,’ ‘All Through the Night,’ ‘True Colors’ and today’s song were ubiquitous and her quirky fashion sense and cutesy demeanor made her an MTV favorite.
20 Best Songs of the 80s – #15
Of all the songs on this countdown, this is the one that seems the most ridiculous today in contrast to how cool and interesting I found it back in the day. I remember finding Nancy Wilson very attractive and getting that whole close-your-eyes-and-sway thing going on while contemplating the deep meaning of the music and lyrics.
Man, I was a tool.
20 Best Songs of the 80s – #16
Here’s an example of an 80s song that didn’t make much of an impression on me at the time of release (after all, I was only 9 in 1981 when it came out) but has muscled its way into my brain as a quintessential 80s song in the years since. ‘Tainted Love’ so typifies that 80s sound that, coming out as early as ’81, I suppose it really should be credited with creating that sound.
And that makes it all the more surprising that this is actually a cover of a 1964 song recorded by Gloria Jones. I had no idea this song wasn’t an original. Somehow that takes away from what Soft Cell accomplished. I mean, doesn’t that make them even less than a one-hit wonder? Sort of a half-hit wonder? I don’t know, maybe not. Here’s the Gloria Jones version if you’d like to compare.
20 Best Songs of the 80s – #17
Here’s an example of a song and an artist that transcend the 80s… George Michael’s next album, Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1, came out in the early 90s and was even better than this one. That album represented his creative peak, however, and what followed was many years of silence and then a very public fall from grace.
And the wonderful Faith album holds up to this day, not as an 80s relic but as an involving, passionate work. If I were arranging this list strictly by the quality of these songs, this one would be near the top. But ‘Faith’ does crack my list of 80s favorites because I have strong memories of Michael’s transition from Wham! fairy to solo sex symbol.
Meet Me In Montauk 