Songs 80-82

I realized after posting yesterday that just because I couldn't include King of Wishful Thinking, I couldn't include Go West. Today I will include Go West with We Close Our Eyes (1985)

Closing eyes makes me think of Lita Ford and Ozzy Osbourne with Close My Eyes Forever (1988). I'm counting this as Lita Ford since it was on her album

Which in turn allows me to include a song by Ozzy, Bark at the Moon (1983)

Songs 77-79

After putting up some St. Elmo's Fire songs yesterday, I have other eighties movies songs in my head this morning. Were the eighties the peak of movie songs?

We'll begin with Go West doing King of Wishful Thinking from the Pretty Woman soundtrack. No we won't. 1990. I could have sworn I watched that movie in high school. Oh well.

Survivor - Eye of the Tiger (1982) which ended up the theme song for Rocky III

I'm Alright (1980) by Kenny Loggins from the movie Caddyshack (we called it the Go-go Gopher song back in the day). I think I could have found a few Loggins movie songs. Danger Zone from Top Gun. Footloose. I expect there's more

Since I brought up Footloose, let's add Let's Hear It For the Boy by Deniece Williams (1984)


Bonus video clip. Seeing how Deniece Williams spells her name made me think of a Key and Peele bit:

Songs 74-76

Level 42 - Lessons in Love (1987)

Oh, hearing that bass line made me instantly think of the fabulous Man in Motion by John Parr (1985)

And you can't have a song from St. Elmo's Fire without the love song from St. Elmo's Fire by David Foster (1985)

Songs 71-73

Electric Light Orchestra - Hold on Tight (1981)

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - If You Leave (1986)

Grateful Dead - Touch of Grey (1987)

Songs 68-70

Should have saved this post for October but what can you do? Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by The Damned (1981)

I'm cheating a bit with this one. Until December's cover of Bauhaus's Bela Lugosi's Dead (1986 of 1979 original)

I was a Teenage Werewolf by The Cramps (1980)

Songs 65-67

Today, I just want to dance, dance, dance.

Do a little Flashdance to start (Irene Cara's What a Feeling (1983):

You might think flashing is a little dirty so we'll have some dirty dancing. Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes with (I've Had) The Time of My Life (1987):

Flashing...dancing dirty...this might be a little too much. Need to tone it back some. Maybe some Safety Dance from Men Without Hats (1982)

Songs 62-64

Echo and the Bunnymen - Killing Moon (1984)

Toad the Wet Sprocket - One Little Girl (1989)

New Edition - Candy Girl (1983)

Songs 59-61

Going with a Latin American feel today beginning with Soda Stereo and Persiana Americana (1986):

Santana with Winning (1981)

Los Lobos and La Bamba (1987)

Songs 56-58

Madness - Our House (1982)

Julian Lennon - Too Late for Goodbyes (1984)

Fat Boys and Chubby Checker - The Twist (1988)

Songs 53-55

Thompson Twins - Hold Me Now (1984)

Scorpions - Rock You Like a Hurricane (1984)

Kajagoogoo - Too Shy (1983)

Songs 50-52

Friends by Whodini (1984)

Straight Edge by Minor Threat (1981)

Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl) by Haircut 100 (1982)

Songs 47-49

EU - Da Butt (1988)

Amy Grant - Lead Me On (1988)

Buster Poindexter - Hot Hot Hot (1987)

Songs 44-46

Chaka Khan - I Feel For You (1984)

Siouxsie and the Banshees - The Last Beat of My Heart (1988)

The Innocence Mission - Wonder of Birds (1989)

Songs 41-43

When I started this, I never intended to have themes for each day yet songs seem to come to me as the result of connections or things I see/hear/read. Like today. In honor of Playboy going non-nude, three eighties performers who appeared nude in Playboy.

Madonna with Lucky Star (1983)

Tiffany - I Think We're Alone Now (1987)

and Samantha Fox with Love House (1988)

Songs 38-40

Sportswriter Keith Law linked to this one yesterday in celebration of Valentine's Day so it's been in my head. Public Image Ltd's (This is not a) Love Song (1983):

How about we add Dead or Alive doing You Spin Me Round (like a record) (1985)

Let's grab a classic song from a classic movie. Joe Esposito's You're the Best (1984) from The Karate Kid

Songs 35-37

Early morning post today as I came across an article today on Digg about the song Let's Ram It (1986) by the Los Angeles Rams. This made me want to do an all football post. First, the Rams:

The Chicago Bears doing the Super Bowl Shuffle (1985)

And who from the Philadelphia area can ever forget Buddy's Watchin' You (1988)

Songs 32-34

My first thought today was Oingo Boingo which led me to choosing groups that have an alliterative nature to their name. First Dead Man's Party (1985)

Next is Hoodoo Gurus with What's My Scene (1987)

Conclude with Mister Mister and Kyrie (1985)

Songs 29-31

The song that first came to mind today was Alphaville's Big in Japan (1984)

Which prompted me to think Asian songs which naturally led to none other than Asia and Heat of the Moment (1982)

And since he passed recently, we'll add Mr. David Bowie and China Girl (1983)

Songs 26-28

Songs off of the first two cassette tapes I ever bought: Jack and Diane by John Cougar (1982)

Allentown by Billy Joel (1982)

and for the heck of it Melle Mel with White Lines (Don't Don't Do It) (1983)

Songs 23-25

Queen - Radio Gaga (1984)


The Kinks - Around the Dial (1981 (our first 1981 song!))

Wall of Voodoo - Mexican Radio (1982)

Songs 20-22

Here are the songs for today. We'll start with The Outfield's Your Love (1986):


Eric Clapton's It's In the Way That You Use It (1986):


Wrap up with Steve Perry singing Oh Sherrie (1984)

Songs 17-19

First song that came to mind today was Belinda Carlisle's Heaven is a Place on Earth (1987)


which led me to a heaven theme. Dokken's Heaven Sent (1987)


and then Bryan Adams' Heaven (1984)

Songs 14-16

One of my favorite 80's songs. Baltimora's Tarzan Boy (1985):

Flock of Seagulls I Ran (1982)

Cheap Trick's The Flame (1988)

Songs 11-13

Jazz tunes were in my head this morning. We'll begin with Spyro Gyra's (1987) Cayo Hueso:

I'm going to cheat a bit with this one which was released in the seventies but I heard it in the eighties and it appeared on his Best of album in 1980. Maynard Ferguson's Birdland:

Then George Benson came to mind and while I would love to add On Broadway, Did You Hear Thunder (1986) came to mind first.

Songs 8-10

A thousand songs may be a challenge after all. This feels hard already. Men at Work came to mind today. So many to choose from but I'm going with Overkill (1983):

I'm choosing this one in part because I always enjoyed Colin Hay's appearance on Scrubs doing this song.

Since we're going Australian, we'll add Midnight Oil's Beds are Burning (1987):

And another group with so many to choose from but I'll choose one that never appeared on a major album of theirs. INXS with I'm Coming (Home) (1987):

Songs 5-7

We'll begin today's songs with a song with tremendous cross-generational appeal, Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up (1987):

Then, the best song by an Astley, Jane's Getting Serious by Jon Astley (1987):

And I'll wrap up with my favorite redhead of the eighties, Cathy Dennis's Just Another Dream...ooh, this is interesting. This song was released multiple times and didn't become popular until a re-release in the nineties which is probably when I heard it. BUT, there is evidence it existed in the 80's and a guy who sounds like Rick Astley sang background (D-Mob) which makes this a good all-around Astley post. So I'm keeping it and calling it (1989).

Songs 2-4

I may write stuff about these songs but then again, maybe I won't. Today's songs are Walk the Dinosaur by Was (not Was) (1988):



Toto's Africa (1982):


and Kim Wilde's You Keep Me Hangin' On (1986):

Introduction

Hi there!

My name is Jon and my childhood was spent mostly in the 1980's. In my old age, I find that I still enjoy and appreciate the songs from that era.

I am employed as a statistician and at the end of January, I realized that on Groundhog Day, there would be 333 days remaining in the year. That in turn made me think about recruiting my peers Jason from Los Angeles and Steve from Chicago, with whom I e-mail regularly to start a blog about songs from the eighties. The idea would be that each of us would choose a song from the eighties each day for the rest of the year. Three times 333 gives us 999 and we would throw in a song to make it an even 1,000. To make it interesting and challenging, I suggested we have a restriction that no artist could appear twice over the course of the year.

I proposed the idea to Steve and Jason and it did not go over well. Steve does not share my love for the era (he is actually much more fond of the 1880's). Jason was game if we expanded it to cover all eras and also include multiple songs by each artist because he couldn't limit his love for Liz Phair to a single song.

So I did what anyone would do faced with such a situation. I took my songs and went home. I'm going to do this my way (Frank Sinatra was an eighties artist, right?) and I'm going to do a blog, damn it, because blogs are dead (and I love that Blogger underlines blog and Blogger as misspelled words). It is my hope that people enjoy this in their RSS feeds.

Some other points to make before I put up the first song. I'm not getting ahead of myself. I'm not making lists of songs to add, I'm not posting posts in advance. I'm not purchasing I Love the 80's compilations looking for ideas. Each day I will come up with three songs. I'm winging this (hey! that gives me an idea for the first song!). Songs may or not may be popular but most will probably be because that is how I heard of them. I will include jazz and new age music because I listened to that when I was a kid. I will not take requests. That's about it. So without further ado, we will start with Winger's Seventeen (1988):