101 Greatest Non-Rap Singles Of The 80s

Since I'm still waiting for a new movie to come along and not make me want to throw a brick at the screen, here's a list of old eighties songs that I either dug at the time, discovered much later on, but bump today, regardless. Remarkably hasn't changed much since its initial incarnation from nearly three years ago, submitted over at the old comments section at The Martorialist's blog. Having your own blog, it's less of a headache worrying over character limits and formating in a miniscule comments section window. Kept doubting whether I had indeed done an eighties singles list or just imagined it.

A few issues compiling this list (see below), but otherwise, this was far less of a headache than the 101 Best Non-Rap Singles Of The 90s list I had done prior to this.

AC/DC - Back In Black (1980)

Blondie - Call Me (1980)

Diana Ross - Upside Down (1980)

Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train (1980)

Iron Maiden - Phantom of the Opera (1980)

Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart (1980)

Motörhead - Ace of Spades (1980)

Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime (1980)

Zapp - More Bounce To The Ounce (1980)

Adam & The Ants - Stand & Deliver (1981)

Kraftwerk - The Model (1981)

Rick James - Give It To Me Baby (1981)

Grace Jones - Pull Up to the Bumper (1981)

Romeo Void - Never Say Never (1981)

Tom Tom Club - Genius Of Love (1981)

Luther Vandross - Never Too Much (1981)

The Stranglers - Golden Brown (1981)

Soft Cell - Tainted Love (1981)

Sue Saad - Looker (1981)

The Human League - Don't You Want Me (1981)

The Specials - Ghost Town (1981)

Survivor - Eye of the Tiger (1982)

A Flock of Seagulls - I Ran (So Far Away) (1982)

The Clash - Rock The Casbah (1982)

Darry Hall & John Oates - I Can't Go For That (No Can Do) (1982)

George Clinton - Atomic Dog (1982)

George Thorogood & The Destroyers - Bad to the Bone (1982)

Marvin Gaye - Sexual Healing (1982)

Eddy Grant - Electric Avenue (1982)

Billy Idol - White Wedding (1982)

Indeep - Last Night A D.J. Saved My Life (1982)

Evelyn "Champagne" King - Love Come Down (1982)

Material - Don't Lose Control (Remix) (1982)

Michael Jackson - Thriller (1982)

Patrice Rushen - Forget Me Nots (1982)

Sister Nancy - Bam Bam (1982)

Tears For Fears - Mad World (1982)

Yazoo - Don't Go (1982)

Bananarama - Cruel Summer (1983)

Dio - Rainbow in the Dark (1983)

Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) (1983)

The Fixx - One Thing Leads To Another (1983)

Hashim - Al-Naafiysh (The Soul) (1983)

Herbie Hancock - Rockit (1983)

Madonna - Holiday (1983)

Mary Jane Girls - All Night Long (1983)

Michael Sembello - Maniac (1983)

Mtume - Juicy Fruit (1983)

New Order - Blue Monday (1983)

Oliver Cheatham - Get Down Saturday Night (1983)

Rockwell - Somebody's Watching Me (1983)

Rufus and Chaka Khan - Ain't Nobody (1983)

Shannon - Let The Music Play (1983)

Siouxsie & The Banshees - Dear Prudence (1983)

Philip Bailey & Phil Collins - Easy Lover (1984)

Harold Faltermeyer - Axel F (1984)

Barrington Levy - Under Mi Sensi (1984)

Metallica - For Whom The Bell Tolls (1984)

Sade - Smooth Operator (1984)

Tahnee Cain & Tryanglz - Burning in the Third Degree (1984)

Tangerine Dream - Love On A Real Train (1984)

Art of Noise - Moments In Love (1985)

Cameo - Word Up (1985)

Paul Hardcastle - 19 (1985)

Nu Shooz - I Can't Wait (1985)

Robert Palmer - Addicted to Love (1985)

Stevie Wonder - Part-Time Lover (1985)

The Smiths - How Soon Is Now (1985)

Tenor Saw - Ring the Alarm (1985)

Yello - Oh Yeah (1985)

Duran Duran - Save A Prayer (1985)

The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary (1985)

Anita Baker - Sweet Love (1986)

The Flowerpot Men - Beat City (1986)

Janet Jackson - Nasty (1986)

Sigue Sigue Sputnik - Love Missile F1-11 (1986)

Robert Tepper - No Easy Way Out (1986)

XTC - Dear God (1986)

Gerard McMann - Cry Little Sister (Theme from The Lost Boys) (1987)

Alexander O'Neal - Criticize (1987)

LeVert - Casanova (1987)

Guns N' Roses - Welcome To The Jungle (1987)

Pet Shop Boys - It's A Sin (1987)

Prince - Sign "O" The Times (1987)

A Guy Called Gerald - Voodoo Ray (1988)

Bobby Brown - My Prerogative (1988)

Bomb The Bass - Don't Make Me Wait / Megablast (1988)

The Primitives - Crash (1988)

Danzig - Mother (1988)

Inner City - Good Life (1988)

Slayer - South of Heaven (1988)

The La's - There She Goes (1988)

Transvision Vamp - I Want Your Love (1988)

Adventures of Stevie V. - Dirty Cash (1989)

The Cure - Lullaby (1989)

Faith No More - Epic (1989)

Fuzzbox - International Rescue (1989)

Mantronix - Got To Have Your Love (1989)

Pixies - Here Comes Your Man (1989)

Soul II Soul featuring Caron Wheeler - Back To Life (However Do You Want Me) (1989)

The Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored (1989)

 

Might have technically cheated with Kraftwerk's The Model, but the English language version (which I prefer) was released the following decade after the original German version.

EDIT: Original pic was from '78; changed it to something more eighties. Moved Grim Reaper's See You In Hell to '83. Francis Monkman's The Long Good Friday Theme has multiple inconsistent dates, thus I'm using the earliest that coincides with the film's release. Similarly, moved John Carpenter and Alan Howarth's The Duke Arrives - Barricade to '81, to fit with the film as well. Made a few song replacements Tenebre, Burning In The Third Degree and Blade Runner End Titles were omissions that dawned on me soon afterwards and needed to be corrected. Been in denile with Cybotron's Clear as a non-rap song, so substituted it with Burn Rubber on Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me). Switched the Faith No More song, too.