Top 80 movie songs of the '80s: 61-80
Fire up the iTunes and go home early from work. Here comes a list that will have you downloading tunes til dawn. Our "Top 80 movie songs of the '80s" is finally ready for unveiling.
Here's how we came up with the list. We wanted songs that immediately conjured up memories of the movies in which they appear. We asked for reader suggestions -- and we received a ton. Songs with the same title as the movie got no extra points. Cover songs lost points. And lastly, theme songs and orchestrations were omitted altogether. (Hey, another day, another list.)
Today's big winners: Neil, Pat, Paul, Dolly, Glenn, Roy, k.d., Stephen, Lindsey and Cyndi -- because I don't think we'll be seeing them again as this list marches on.
TOP MOVIE SONGS OF THE '80s: Nos. 61-80
(Click the artist names to hear the song)
80. America - Neil Diamond (The Jazz Singer)
79. I la-la-la Love You - Pat Travers (Valley Girl)
78. Glory Of Love - Peter Cetera (Karate Kid II)
77. Positively Lost Me - The Rave-Ups (Pretty In Pink)
76. Wild Sex - Oingo Boingo (Sixteen Candles)
75. Bela Lugosi's Dead - Bauhaus (The Hunger)
74. 9 to 5 - Dolly Parton (9 to 5)
73. No More Lonely Nights - Paul McCartney (Give My Regards to Broadstreet)
72. Back In Time - Huey Lewis & The News (Back To The Future)
71. Is Your Love Strong Enough - Bryan Ferry (Legend)
70. If Anybody Had A Heart - John Waite (About Last Night)
69. Best Man In The World - Ann Wilson (Golden Child)
68. The Heat Is On - Glenn Frey (Beverly Hills Cop)
67. Lunatic Fringe - Red Rider (Vision Quest)
66. Crying - Roy Orbison and k.d. lang (Hiding Out)
65. It Might Be You - Stephen Bishop (Tootsie)
64. Meet Me Halfway - Kenny Loggins (Over the Top)
63. Holiday Road - Lindsey Buckingham (National Lampoon's Vacation)
62. Are You Ready For The Sex Girls? - Gleaming Spires (Revenge of the Nerds)
61. The Goonies 'R' Good Enough - Cyndi Lauper (The Goonies)
Sneak preview of tomorrow's list: Don't be a maniac, it doesn't take a real genius to look for love in all the wrong places.
Relive the music, movies and culture of the greatest decade ever with Times online editor Steve Spears. A teen during the decade, Steve is obsessed with everything from Duran Duran to Journey, John Hughes to John Cusack, and parachute pants to Reaganomics.
E-mail Steve Spears:
Personally...#1 should have been Prince's When Doves Cry or Footloose!!!!
Posted by: RJ Banowetz | November 02, 2008 at 08:38 AM
OK...you get major points for including The Rave-Ups, but, seriously...dropping "The Heat is On" and "It Might Be You" into the 61-80 realm?!?!?!
Dude, what gives!?
Posted by: Chris Pastrick | October 22, 2008 at 10:15 PM
"If you were here" from Sixteen Candles
Posted by: | October 16, 2008 at 10:19 AM
What about Love Rules by Don Henley from Fast Times at Ridgemont High?
Come ON. Sing along and impress me.
Posted by: kate | October 15, 2008 at 04:46 PM
I went bonkers looking for 'Is Your Love Strong Enough'. I love, love, love that song.
Posted by: angie | October 14, 2008 at 09:14 PM
what totally sucks is that you can't get glory of love or next time i fall from peter cetera on itunes... i love both of those songs and i have a feeling they would quickly reach my top 10 most played songs.
Posted by: julie in nc | October 14, 2008 at 09:20 AM
nice to see you included Bela Lugosi's Dead by Bauhaus, obviously I would have ranked it higher, personally.
Posted by: Dennis | October 13, 2008 at 03:38 PM
For some reason I thought Neil Diamond was a 1970s dude.
Posted by: Rash | October 12, 2008 at 02:06 PM
Both Wild Sex and Bela Lugosy`s Dead could be much higher on the list,and actually i prefer Back in Time than The Power Of Love that will come on the list in the future.
I`ll wait to see what comes next.
Posted by: Miguel | October 10, 2008 at 09:02 PM
i just looked it up, there are six of the 10 on vision quest, that were originally released on the groups own records. just saying, dont know what the qualifications are.
Posted by: CHAD | October 10, 2008 at 07:05 PM
ok, what are the qualifications for these songs? are they supposed to be tunes written for a movie, or just appear in a movie. lunatic fringe was on a red rider record before it was on the visionquest soundtrack. in fact, a good number of the tunes on that soundtrack were on regular records before its release.
Posted by: CHAD | October 10, 2008 at 07:01 PM
I LOVE that song Lunatic Fringe ... "uh, uhhhhhh, uh, uh, uh" ...
Posted by: chase | October 10, 2008 at 04:48 PM
To be honest, pretty much anything on this list of 80 songs could be on some one's top 10 list. I really mean that.
And John Waite's song is a perfect example. You know I love Waite's entire catalog, and "About Last Night" is easily one of my favorite 80s flicks. Amazing we haven't done a podcast on it yet.
Posted by: Spears | October 10, 2008 at 04:10 PM
Numbers 67 to 77 all deserve to be higher on the list than number 65. Come on Steve, show some love to John Waite.
Posted by: Bassnote | October 10, 2008 at 03:55 PM
Knowing how much you LOVE The Goonies I am surprised to see that it's theme song made it but not the Thompson Twin's If You Were Here from Sixteen Candles. Hmmm... I can't wait to see the next list.
Posted by: specialkness | October 10, 2008 at 03:41 PM
I don't think there's a comma in the title "Are You Ready For The Sex Girls?"
A simple change to be sure but it does change the meaning a bit.
Posted by: Brad | October 10, 2008 at 01:45 PM
Because there are so many great songs on the Vison Quest soundtrack, I had almost forgotten about Lunatic Fringe.
Inspired choice.
Posted by: Jeff in Cuba | October 10, 2008 at 12:30 PM
I remember going on vacation when I was a kid and we would stay at a hotel that would have cable. Growing up in certain parts of Chicago we didn't get cable so it was very exciting for me. But I remember going on a trip and the only movie they kept showing was "The Jazz Singer" I had to sit through that crappy movie, several times.
Posted by: Neil | October 10, 2008 at 12:21 PM