Category: Back to the 80s

Before the three of us started the Back to the 80s website, we hosted a weekly ’80s show on WXUT, 88.3 FM, the college radio station of the University of Toledo in Toledo, Ohio in the mid-90s. After each show, we would drop the playlist into a database, which we then fed into a script…

In the beginning, there was David Bowie’s 1969 hit “Space Oddity,” the tale of Major Tom, an astronaut left stranded in space. Bowie followed with “Ashes to Ashes,” a sequel of sorts in which Major Tom’s vices are exposed. In late 1983, German pop star Peter Schilling cemented Major Tom’s pop culture status with “Major Tom (Coming…

Here are the top 100 one-hit wonders of the ’80s based on Billboard’s Top 40 chart peak. We’ve excluded people who had one solo hit but a lot of hits with a band (Bill Medley, Philip Bailey, Ric Ocasek, etc.), but otherwise, we just used the rule that if they had just one Top 40…

Her chart career was too substantial for one-hit wonder status (ten top-40 songs, including three in the top 10), but Kim Carnes will always be best remembered for one spectacular effort: “Bette Davis Eyes.” Carnes, a vocalist from the Rod Stewart and Bonnie Tyler school of raspiness, is only partially responsible for the massive success of this…

Chart debut: 12/01/1979 • B-side: “Sleazy” • Written by: Jacques Moralli • […]

It did not make many headlines when Wall of Voodoo co-founder, songwriter and guitarist Marc Moreland died of liver failure at the age of 44 on March 13, 2002. But Moreland and vocalist Stan Ridgway are secure in ’80s history, as their song “Mexican Radio” remains one of the songs people reference when they try to define…

Rock of the ’80s compilations mix nostalgia, humor It is the year 2066. As I lift my grandson to my knee, he looks at me and asks, “Grandpa Michael, what was the music of the 1980s like?” I reflect for a moment, and misty-eyed, I begin to reminisce. “Back in the ’80s,” I say slowly,…

During the 1970s, progressive rock powerhouse Yes had gone through six different lineups and three different keyboardists. Although Yes was perhaps as famous for their numerous personnel changes as for their music, their 1980 lineup was by far the strangest. Having fired founding vocalist Jon Anderson and accepted the resignation of longtime keyboardist Rick Wakeman,…

I have a confession to make. When I was a young boy growing up in rural Virginia, my family, like all of our neighbors, got only three televisions stations: Channel 7 (CBS), Channel 10 (NBC) and Channel 13 (ABC.) Sometimes, when the weather was just right, we could also make out the sound, and at…