I think I said in a few other posts that this was my favorite 80s song. While I’m not sure if that’s still true (because there are some other songs on this list I love just as much), it’s still an amazing song. The main synth riff is one everybody can recognize, and the chorus has such a great, soaring melody and some pretty impressive high notes. The lyrics don’t really make sense when you look at them (what does “take on me” even mean?), but who cares when the rest of the song is so good? Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention “Mine Diamonds”, the Minecraft parody which might be even better than the original because it’s hilarious. At the very least, it’s more ear-splitting than the original.
#2. “Come On Eileen” by Dexys Midnight Runners
The 80s had a lot of bands who were one-hit wonders, and this is one of them. My mom and I like to joke they’re a one-hit wonder because you can’t understand anything the guy is saying other than “come on Eileen”, “you mean everything”, and “you wore that dress”. But I still love this song even if I don’t know what the words are. It’s just so upbeat and happy! I think it’s more of a folk-sounding song than a lot of what was popular in the 80s, which makes it stand out. The big sing-along at the end is amazing. And of course, I have to share my favorite memory of this song. My family and I were driving to a relative’s house for Easter, listening to it in the car. The people in the car in front of us were also listening to it, and we could tell because they were bobbing their heads perfectly in time to it. That’s one of my favorite memories with my family.
#3. “Time After Time” by Cyndi LauperI always find it amusing how the person who made “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”, which might be my least favorite 80s song, also made “Time After Time”, which is one of my favorites. This is a pretty ballad and it has some beautiful harmonies. I’m also pretty sure there’s a male vocalist doing backing vocals, so it’s basically a male-female duet. Everything about it just screams my mom, which makes sense considering she’s the one who introduced it to me. My mom and I don’t always like the same music, but I think this is a gorgeous 80s classic. I can just listen to it and feel cozy.
#4. “Africa” by Toto
How could I NOT include this song? It’s one of those songs that’s a little cheesy but everybody knows and loves. I have a ton of positive memories with this song. I first heard it in fourth grade in some weird rain-dance video, and I liked it right away. I also remember singing it in biology when my teacher told us about how his brother or somebody would pronounce it as “Afarica”. It became a meme recently, and it’s one of those meme songs that also happens to be really good. The chorus is so catchy, uplifting, and dare I say beautiful. It’s one of those songs that can make me happy every time I hear it.
#5. “Your Love” by The OutfieldHonestly, I don’t have much to say about this one. I barely know the words. I don’t know any other songs from this band. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve only heard it in full a few times. But every time I hear “Josie’s on a vacation far away...”, my immediate response is “OH MY GOD I LOVE THIS SONG.” You can probably blame my parents for that, especially my mom. When I go driving with my dad, we often have baseball games on in the car. For a while, one of the players’ walk-up music was this song, and I could hear it faintly sometimes. Literally every time I heard it, I felt the need to point out that I loved the song. It’s just got a really nice melody.
#6. “Jessie’s Girl” by Rick Springfield
This song has been such a constant in my life to the point where I can’t remember a time where I didn’t know about it. One sort of silly but cute story from my childhood is that I played with Barbie dolls a lot and one of them was named Jessie. My little brother would pretend Jessie was his girlfriend and we would sing this song all the time. Even though it didn’t make sense in that context, because in the song, Jessie is the narrator’s (male) friend and in our situation, Jessie was the girl. It’s still a pretty cute memory, and it makes me like the song even more. Side note: one of my friends went to see Rick Springfield live with her mom, and she said he did a mashup of “Jessie’s Girl”, “Stacy’s Mom”, and “867-5309/Jenny”. I should try to find a video of that, because it sounds awesome.
#7. “Stone In Love” by Journey
Journey are one of my parents’ favorite bands, and I grew up with their music playing in the house and in the car. Hell, my parents even went to a Journey concert when Mom was pregnant with me, and Mom said I would kick her belly because I liked the music so much! Because Journey has been such an omnipresent band during my childhood, I could have put ten Journey songs here, but I decided to stick to just one. I could have chosen their biggest hit, the ever-popular “Don’t Stop Believin’”, but I think that song is pretty overplayed and overrated. (Thanks, Glee.) Instead, I went with a lesser-known song, “Stone In Love”. This is my mom’s favorite Journey song, and even after years of claiming “Separate Ways” was my favorite, I think it’s mine, too. I think I just like it so much because it reminds me of my mom, although it is a pretty great song in its own right. The chorus is great to sing along to and I love the guitar solo part at the end.
#8. “You Give Love A Bad Name” by Bon Jovi
Similar to Journey, there are quite a few Bon Jovi songs I could have chosen for this list. “Livin’ On A Prayer”, “Wanted Dead Or Alive”, “Little Runaway” or whatever that song is called, I like all of those songs. Yet it’s “You Give Love A Bad Name” I like best. The reason why is mainly because of pep band. I think this is the only song I’ve played all three years of my pep band experience (so far) and it’s one of those songs you can’t get tired of. The chorus of “SHOT THROUGH THE HEART! AND YOU’RE TO BLAME! DARLING, YOU GIVE LOVE A BAD NAME!” is so much fun to scream along to. Plus the guitar riff is pretty awesome. When we play it for pep band, we have the trumpets do it and it sounds really cool.
#9. “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley
I actually didn’t hear this song much when I was really young, and I was way too young to experience the Rickroll phenomenon at its peak in 2008. I found this song on Just Dance 4, and I liked it because it was catchy and the dance was goofy. I think I was singing it around my parents and my dad told me about Rickrolling. Honestly, I think the meme is the only reason why I like the song, because this is pretty cheesy even by 80s standards. There was a period of time in 2015 where I would rickroll my friends daily, and they ended up memorizing the URL so my joke wouldn’t be funny anymore. Also, I need to share the video of Rick Astley’s appearance at the Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2008, because it is GOLD.
#10. “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes
Similar to “Never Gonna Give You Up”, I didn’t really remember hearing this song much when I was really young. I was introduced to it from Just Dance 4, but it’s famous because it was in the movie Dirty Dancing. I actually haven’t seen Dirty Dancing before (nor have I seen a ton of other classic 80s movies), but I feel like both the movie and the song are so iconically 80s. The song is pretty cheesy in that signature 80s way, but it is a pretty nice duet. I like the way the two singers play off each other and the melodies are really nice. I remember this song was sampled in a Black Eyed Peas song from when I was in elementary school, but I greatly prefer the original.
#11. “You Can Call Me Al” by Paul Simon
I chose this one because it’s sentimental to me. You may be thinking, “Stellar, how is a song from 30 years ago about a guy going through a mid-life crisis meaningful to you?” To which I answer in two little words: PEP BAND. This isn’t just a song we play for pep band, it is the song we play. When the band and I go to local sporting events, this is the song everybody gets excited to hear us play. As soon as we start playing it, the grown-ups clap and nod their heads and the little kids start dancing. I bet that for a lot of people in my town, they hear the words “pep band” and immediately hear “DA-da-da-duh, DA-da-da-DA”. It’s also kind of bittersweet for me, as it was my late band director’s number one favorite pep band song, and listening to it makes me think of him. May he rest in peace.
#12. “Where The Streets Have No Name” by U2
I feel like U2 are one of the biggest bands ever, to the point where everybody knows at least five of their songs. They have quite a few songs that I always listen to whenever they come on the radio and I’m in the car with my family. I almost chose “With Or Without You”, but “Where The Streets Have No Name” is ultimately my family’s favorite. The reason why is mainly because it’s the walk-in song for our favorite college football team. Honestly, this song is a fantastic choice for that. The intro is nothing but this pretty, transcendent-sounding guitar and it keeps getting bigger and louder until the song actually starts. It feels larger than life and truly epic.
#13. “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses
Guns N’ Roses are one more band my parents really liked, so I ended up listening to them a lot as a kid. “Welcome to the Jungle”, “Paradise City”, “November Rain”, all of those songs get played a ton when we’re in the car. However, my favorite is, of course, their most famous song, “Sweet Child O’ Mine”. The guitar riff in this one is legendary, like one of the most famous riffs of all time (I think? I have no idea what I’m talking about when it comes to old music). It’s also fun to sing along to. I have distinct memories of this one kid in my middle school class singing “SHE’S GOT A SMILE THAT IT SEEMS TO ME, REMINDS ME OF CHILDHOOD MEMORIES” in a joking-whiny tone. I think it’s because he was in choir and they were doing that song at that point in time.
#14. “Here I Go Again” by Whitesnake
This might be the most quintessentially 80s song ever written. It’s big, cheesy yet unironically epic, and it was probably performed by a bunch of people with really big hair. I don’t know much else about this band, other than my mom said that the rest of their music was a lot heavier and it caught people off-guard. They would buy one of their albums or go to a concert expecting everything else to sound like “Here I Go Again”, and yet it apparently sounds like none of their other songs! I find that pretty funny. Even if this song is a little cheesy, it’s still a good one and it’s still pretty well-known to this day. You might recognize it from a Walmart commercial from a few years ago.
#15. “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” by Simple Minds
We end with another 80s movie theme, specifically the theme for the iconic film The Breakfast Club. That’s another movie I haven’t seen, but I really want to because I can tell that I would absolutely love it. I did, however, see the Victorious homage episode called “The Breakfast Bunch”, which is one of my favorite episodes of the show. The cast did a cover of “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”, and it’s actually how I first I heard the song. Despite the fact that Ariana Grande sings backup on the cover version, I prefer the original. It’s one of those songs that is recognizably 80s yet timeless. From what I can tell, it’s the perfect theme for The Breakfast Club, because to me it sums up the coming-of-age themes of the movie pretty well. This song also appears in Pitch Perfect, and the use of it there is pretty much flawless.
Okay, so that's all I have for now. Next week, I'm actually going to keep my promise and do the review of Sweetener, Ariana Grande's new album. I'm too excited for it to not review it. That will be on Wednesday. On Thursday, I'll also have a post, because it's my one-year anniversary on Blogger. I'm still not sure of what I'm doing for it, but I will at least post something for the occasion. I'm Stellar in Neverland, and I'll see you next Wednesday. Peace!
Stellar
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