In the United States, Hall & Oates were number one on the Billboard chart with Kiss On My List.

In the United States, the song on top of the Billboard charts for this week in 1980 was Blondie with Call Me.  The disco vibe was still going strong in the charts on both sides of the ocean.

In the United States, Michael Jackson had the Billboard chart dominated with his Man In The Mirror.

In the 80′s you couldn’t have a big film without having a big song that went along with that film. That probably had a lot to do with the popularity of music videos. If the song’s video could be packed full of scenes from the film then every time it got played on MTV it was a free advertisement.

The marketing ploy worked because even to this day there are some 80′s songs that I simply can not hear without having scenes from the corresponding movie popping up in my head. Here are five examples of 80′s songs that are, for me,  forever linked to an 80′s movie.

Don’t You Forget About Me – Simple Minds

If there is one film that screams ’80′s music soundtrack’ then it has to be Don’t You Forget About Me by Simple Minds.  There can’t be many children of the 80′s that don’t have their mind flooded with images from The Breakfast Club dancing through their head.

Literally dancing probably because that image of Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson and crew doing the dance along the railing of the school library is the first to appear.  Proof of the power of the music video though because that scene in The Breakfast Club doesn’t actually include that song. It shows up on the TV monitors behind Jim Kerr in the music video for Don’t You Forget About Me.

Glory Of Love – Peter Cetera

Ah, the power ballad. The first Karate Kid had its own song with the You’re The Best by Joe Esposito but for me the Karate Kid song that is most welded to one of the movies actually comes from Karate Kid II.  Whenever the airy sounds of Peter Cetera singing  Glory of Love come across the airways,  Mr. Miyagi and Daniel are back in Japan. Even upon the first note of the song, I see Daniel breaking the stacks of ice in a strange Japanese bar.

The Power of Love – Huey Lewis and the News

Pushing aside glory, we now have The Power of Love by Huey Lewis and the News. I am not at all afraid to admit that I listened to my cassette tape version of their album Fore so often as a kid that the writing on the front was totally worn off. As easy as Huey Lewis is to mock these days, it was proper good fun music for me back then.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one that liked them because when a soundtrack was being selected for Back to the Future somebody obviously thought they would make the perfect music to risk your life to as you skateboarded while clinging onto the back bumpers of moving cars. Good times! Just the opening synth notes have to play before I am seeing a denim clad Michael J Fox making his way through those streets.

True – Spandau Ballet

Being all of eight years old when Sixteen Candles came out, it went a long way to shaping my image of what a high school dance would be like.  As far as I was concerned, the most romantic thing that could ever happen at any dance would be asked to dance while Spandau Ballet’s True was playing.

When moving to the UK, where Spandau Ballet were one of the most successful bands of the 80′s, I found myself to be pretty much the only person  I knew here that was unable to  listen to True without images of Molly Ringwald and pals hanging out on school bleachers  at a dance launching in the brain.  I think this possibly could because it was such a proper hit on its own here that it isn’t so linked to the film.  However, I know that amongst my fellow American 80′s children this song is always about Jake Ryan.

The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough – Cyndi Lauper

Okay, this one may be slightly cheating because it does have the actual name of the movie in the song title. Plus, at various points on the song you hear ‘Goonies, Goonies’ going in the background.  Still, it counts for me because I can’t hear the song or see the film without associating one with the other. Plus, it does sound a lot like the song already existed and then they added the Goonies bit onto the tittle and the song.

The older I get, the more that I enjoy looking back on Cyndi Lauper videos because she was almost too tongue in cheek with her ‘act’ for the kids of the time to fully appreciate. What a great sense of humour and a great voice hidden under that orange hair! The use of so many of of the professional wrestlers of the day in her videos and as her body guards was just so much fun. Dare I say it, I like her way better than Madonna.

In the United States, the number one song on the Billboard music chart was Club Nouveau and Lean On Me.  A song which proved very popular that year in the United States and ended up being covered widely.  I clearly remember Tammy Faye Baker and her daughter doing a duet version of the song. Some things you can’t shake from your brain no matter how hard you try.

On the same week in the United States, Mr. Mister were number one in the Billboard chart with Kyrie.

When MTV launched in the United States in 1981,cable television wasn’t even close to being in everybody’s home and those that did have cable might be using a provider that didn’t carry MTV in their package.

So, MTV went launched the viral ‘I want my MTV!’ campaign that had youth across the land using the phrase to demand their cable providers add MTV.  The phrase became such a part of the language of the time that Dire Straits even included it (sung by Sting) in their Money For Nothing song.

As part of this campaign, MTV called in some hip and happening music stars of the time.  Even well into the 80′s when most people had managed to get their MTV, the station kept the tradition of getting the music stars of the time do these commercials for the station. Check out these clips from the I Want My MTV campaign and see just which 80′s music start were getting in on the act.

This is the first ever image shown on MTV and ever since then the image of the man planting an MTV  flag on the moon has become linked with the station’s identity. The MTV music award is modelled after the image.

Then we had Cindy Lauper, Sting, Billy Idol, David Bowie and Boy George get involved for this hyper neon attack on the senses. If Billy Idol said too much was never enough and David Bowie wanted his MTV then who on earth was going to argue?

Sting was back again for this “I want my MTV!” commercial that mainly featured The Police cut in (for some reason) with a bit of Pat Benetar.

Of  course you couldn’t have MTV in the 1980′s without Madonna getting into the act. This was one of her very own MTV commercials in the height of her Material Girl period.

This version of the “I want my MTV” commercial was a real mix of 80′s music talent. In this one 30 second slot they managed to squeeze in Pete Townsend, Pat Benetar and Billy Joel.

This one is nearly the same as before but with the music doing most of the talking apart from Pat Benetar at the end putting on the ‘call your cable company’ pressure.

This format of the commercial must have worked for them because they repeated it often but with a different mix of 80′s music stars. This one heavily features Michael Jackson (you will notice the first non-white face to show in these commercials) and David Bowie.

Watching all of these commercials brings back how exciting it was to watch MTV back then. It makes me want to ring up MTV and yell “I want my OLD MTV back!”

In the United States, it was Wham! that were sitting pretty on top of the Billboard charts with Careless Whisper. A song with paved the way for George Michael’s success as a solo artist in the United States.

Fashion disasters from the 80′s weren’t  just evident in the clothing of the time.  Nope, 80′s bad fashion went from head to toe starting with the hair. In some ways, it is good to know that even the most talented of 80′s musicians fell just as much (if not more) victim to bad 80′s hair.

Even those that put out some pretty great tunes still managed to rock the mic while sporting hair that bordered on circus freak.

Hold back the giggles and check out these  fine examples of good  80′s bands with bad 80′s hair.

Thompson Twins – We Are Detective

The Thompson Twins are such a good example of bad 80′s hair because they give us not only one bad 80′s hairstyle but three. Which exact dodgy style they are sporting in their 80′s music videos changes with each song.

I picked We Are Detective to show off their 80′s hair disasters mostly because of the hair that Alannah Currie has going on. It is actually fairly impressive how she has managed to keep her had on and still have that puff of fluffy permed bleached blonde hair dominate her look.

Bon Jovi – Living On A Prayer

Is this not 1980′s male poodle hair in the finest form? Yes, it is a good song and a karoke classic but when I think of Bon Jovi’s Living On A Prayer I can’t stop the visions of that fluffy helmet of hair flashing in my head. It has to be said, not helped by the fringey coat.

What is even more amazing about this poodle-do from the 80′s is that when Bon Jovi were sporting the look it was considered manly!

Twisted Sister – We’re Not Gonna Take It

One of my earliest memories of music videos comes in the form of We’re Not Going To Take It from Twisted Sister.  All of the slightly older kids were so very into the song when it came out and even more enthralled by the the video. Not all that many people actually had MTV at that time but yet everybody had seen the video.

Ever since those days, it has been hard to shake the shock horror that came with Dee Snider’s hair.  At least he gets some credit for it being obviously theatrical.  Not nearly as bad as when years later Christina Aguilera borrowed the same hair style for the Moulin Rouge video.

On a useless trivia side note, the teenager in this video is a young Jermey Sisto. Six Feet Under fans will know him as the actor that played Billy though he has been in numerous other shows.

A Flock Of Seagulls – Space Age Love Song

I love love love this song!  It doesn’t excuse the A Flock Of Seagulls hair though!  Anybody with any memory of the outrageous hairstyles amongst 80′s bands had to know that A Flock Of Seagulls would show up near the top of this list.

Perhaps the worse thing about the band having such silly haircuts is that it managed to mask the fact that they were actually a darn good band.  Try to watch the video and see for yourself how difficult it is to fully listen to the song itself without being distracted by the car crash hair.

You have to wonder if the bad 80′s hair that got them so much attention was actually somewhat responsible for their lack of staying power.

The words of The Undertones there from their ranting romp My Perfect Cousin demonstrating perfectly the snideness often directed at The Human League in the 80′s music scene.  The Human League were considered by some  at the time as not being ‘real’ musicians because of their heavy use of synths. Those of us that love syth and electronic music know that to be a rubbish claim but anything new does tend to be met with derision upon arrival.

The Human League nonetheless managed to find their fame and fortune by putting out a few crowd pleasing tunes. Most notable of the successful tunes for  The Human League was,of course, Don’t You Want Me. A song which will, no doubt, live on forever in the rotation on stations such as VH1 Classics.

Foolish would be the person that claimed that Don’t You Want Me wasn’t a well produced and all around enjoyable tune.   Yet, I can’t stand hearing it any more simply due to how over played it has been over the years.

The overwhelming success of Don’t You Want Me has resulted in it highly overshadowing the rest of the The Human League back catalogue. Thanks to the ability of most 30 somethings to sing the opening refrain from the song,   there are many folks around that will think the band only struck gold the once.

A shame on many levels because there are so many quality songs to be found from The Human League.  Not only are they as good as ‘the waitress song’ but often down right better than it.

Here are my top five examples of The Human League songs that are superior to any songs involving cocktail waitresses.

5.  The Sound Of The Crowd

You just have to love that beat in this song. Okay, so the lyrics aren’t going to win any awards but The Sound Of The Crowd is just meant to sound good and it does! Released in 1981 as part of their short-lived plan to released colour coded ‘red’ and ‘blue’ singles. The Sound Of The Crowd was a red single which was suppose to label it a dance song. Songs that were labelled as blue were suppose to be the more poppy songs from The Human League.  An interesting marketing idea, if nothing else.

4. The Lebanon

Alright, so nobody is going to turn to The Human League for direction on their political views. Some even argued that the band had no place in making comment on the Lebanese civil war but I always thought it was a gutsy song.  Not only on the list merely to give the band a pat on the head, I out rightly like the guitar bit. It could sit safely at home on a song by The Cure.  Which, is never a bad thing.

3. Mirror Man

What happens when Motown meets synthpop? Mirror Man!   The stomping pace of this song from The Human League could easily be at home in a Smokey Robinson song but the synths and the tell tale Phil Oakey song mark it firmly as their own. There isn’t a song around that sounds anything like it.

2. (Keep Feeling) Fascination

Another one of The Human League’s red singles, (Keep Feeling) Fascination hit number 2 in the UK Charts back in 1983. Though the concept of the red and blue singles may not have lasted, it is clear that those red songs were some of their finest work.  (Keep Feeling) Fascination has such a fresh feel to it and is one of those songs that crosses the divide of musical taste. More than one hip hop focused friend has commented on how much they love this song from The Human League.

On a side note, it proved nearly impossible to find a version of this song on Youtube where embedding was allowed. There were no problems with any other songs from The Human League but every version of this song I found had been limited to not allow embedding. Strange.

1. Louise

Perhaps not the choice many would have expected at the top of a list of songs from The Human League and for certain not the best music video they did! However, the reasons this song works are numerous.

Phil Oakey shows off the emotional depth of his voice in a way only equalled in his solo song, Together In Electric Dreams. His voice was allowed to shine and properly lead the song with the girl’s kept as incidental voices in the song. This allows him to paint a proper story with his voice. Right from the start there is such a mellow vibe in the song that you are left feeling everybody involved is close to tears.

A true work of synth pop art !