Home Music Essential Retro Tunes
Essential Retro Tunes

Essential Retro Tunes

0
0

Essential Eighties Tunes

Get ready to take a trip down music memory lane as we bring you ten of the most important, loved and best selling singles from the 80s and early 90s! Everything from Madonna to Blondie, Cyndi to Aerosmith, we have something for everyone – unless you weren’t born in the 80s or 90s or lived through either decade…in which case you probably won’t know these songs! (Now we feel old!)

All of the tracks included in our list are available on ITunes to download! So don’t just steal them…that’s wrong! Support the 80s and 90s!

Blondie – Atomic (1980)

The music video depicts the band performing on stage at a nightclub, in what looks like a post nuclear world and Debbie Harry is wearing her famous bin liner as part of a ‘futuristic’ costume. The song developed as a mixture of new wave and disco which had proven to be so successful in previous single, Heart of Glass. It was also featured on the soundtrack for GTA: Vice City.

A-ha – Take on Me (1985)

Watch the band come to life from a comic book in this ground breaking video. Will the hero escape his world and get the girl or be stopped by the bad guys? The video won six of the eight awards it was nominated for at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards.

Madonna – Like a Virgin (1985)

Arguably one of Madonna’s most controversial videos, this was shot mostly in Venice. It stars Madonna is one of her more memorable outfits, a white wedding dress. The song is constantly reinvented on Madonna’s tours and was her first of twelve number one hits. It has been covered countless times, most memorably in the movie Moulin Rouge.

Deee-lite – Groove is In the Heart (1990)

This video has to be one of the most psychedelic videos to ever exist. The band is superimposed over various mesmerising backgrounds in costumes straight out of the 70s. The very end is often cut off on TV where Bootsy Collins declares “I just wanted you to know that groove is in the heart, and Deee-Lite have definitely been known to smoke… on stage, that is!” Whatever you say Boots!

Eurhythmics – Sweet Dreams (1983)

Who can forget Annie Lennox’s androgynous image in this video? Her gender-bending clothes and close cropped haircut made her a household name and was also considered a statement of defiance in the male-dominated era. The song was famously covered by Marilyn Manson in 1996 and introduced a new generation to the classic.

The B-52’s – Love Shack (1989)

Love Shack is definitely a classic song for any self respecting karaoke connoisseur. The video sees the band heading to the funky Shaque D’amour full of big hair and bright colours! Singer Kate Pierson actually lived in the cabin where the video was filmed in the 1970s. We’d say some good times were had!

Journey – Don’t Stop Believin’ (1980)

Show us a person who hasn’t heard the story of a ‘small town girl, livin’ in a lonely world’. Without question, the biggest song to see a revival from the 80s, Don’t Stop believin’ after being used in the final ever scene of HBO’s The Sopranos. More recently, it was the recorded by the cast of Glee and achieved over 500,000 digital sales alone.

Cyndi Lauper – Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (1984)

We’ve mentioned this video in episode three of the web show, but it deserves a place on this list. It was made for under €35,000 due to a largely volunteer cast and the loan of the best video equipment of the time. Did you know, Cyndi’s mother in the video is actually her real mother Catrine?

Run-D.M.C. /Aerosmith – Walk This Way (1986)

A ground-breaking video for our list, Walk This Way was originally a song written in 1975 by Aerosmith. The re-released version with Run-D.M.C was a landmark that paved the way for the Rap Rock genre and also bought Aerosmith into the mainstream. The video begins with the two bands locked in a musical duel and ends up with Steven Tyler symbolically breaking through the wall between the two.

Michael Jackson – Thriller (1984)

Of course this song has to be on the list! The video stars Michael as an impressive singing and dancing zombie. The soliloquy is narrated by horror legend Vincent Price. It terrified audiences at the time, but won many awards with the likes of MTV listing it as the music video as being the “Greatest Music Video Ever Made” in 1999.

Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Instagram
SOCIALICON