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.

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!”