Tag Archives: 80s

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Song of the Day #384: ‘Eye of the Tiger’ – Survivor

survivor20 Best Songs of the 80s – #18

1982 brought Rocky III, at the time just about the best movie ever. I remember the thrill of hearing the Rocky theme music kicking in over the United Artists logo as I sat in the 167th Street theater in North Miami.

Rocky III had Mr. T as Clubber Lang and Hulk Hogan as Thunderlips. It had the death of Mickey and the evolution of Apollo Creed from enemy to friend and trainer. It had that great Talia Shire motivational speech (“not for money or me”) followed by the training montage to end all training montages.

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Song of the Day #383: ‘Relax’ – Frankie Goes to Hollywood

frankie20 Best Songs of the 80s – #19

1984’s ‘Relax’ by Frankie Goes to Hollywood has to be the dirtiest record to ever get non-stop popular airplay. It’s certainly the gayest. In fact, the video for this song (embedded below) was banned by both the BBC and MTV due to its mature content. Compared to the stuff MTV plays today (when it actually plays music videos) this is pretty tame, but I wonder if the gay themes would still get it into hot water even today.

It wasn’t just the video for ‘Relax’ that was banned by the BBC. The song itself was blacklisted after a DJ took a little time to actually read the lyrics. As always, the ban just made the song more popular and it rocketed to #1 on the charts as people rushed out to buy what they were told they shouldn’t listen to.

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Song of the Day #382: ‘Don’t You Want Me’ – The Human League

humanleague20 Best Songs of the 80s – #20

Over the next four weeks I’ll count down my twenty favorite songs of my most formative decade, the 1980s. I’ll do five per week, breaking on the weekends for the usual Motown classics.

First, allow me to lay out some ground rules. These songs are not necessarily my favorite songs released in the 80s… they are my favorite 80s songs. Yes, there is a difference. Plenty of my favorite artists released music in the 80s, so this list could easily consist of tunes by Elvis Costello, R.E.M., Lyle Lovett, Talking Heads and so on. That’s not what I’m after here. I’m looking for songs that typify the musical style of the 80s and, more important, trigger my memories of that era.

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