10 Best Songs of the 1980s

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With the 1980s, there’s a bit of a sheen or polish to the decade’s music which might've once been looked down upon, but then naysayers seemed to come around to the decade again, 20 to 30 years later. Especially if you do a little digging beyond just the songs that topped charts, there really is a lot to love. Even with songs that were popular, there’s still a lot to love. Pop music’s not bad because it’s popular, and there is indeed both good and bad pop.

Quite a few pop songs below, too, by the way. Maybe some of these were considered alternative, back in the ‘80s, but have now become staples of the decade to the point where there probably won’t be too many surprises, regarding what’s included here. If there is anything to be surprised by, it'll be the inevitable omissions, yet that’s unavoidable when there are so many great songs to choose from, for inclusion in a ranking like this. Also, to maintain a little variety, this rundown of the best songs of the 1980s will have a limit of one track per artist.

10 "Just Like Heaven" (1987)

The Cure

“Just Like Heaven” comes from what might be The Cure’s messiest 1980s album, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me. “Messy” isn't bad, though; it’s more just that it’s eclectic to the point of being a little inconsistent, which is something that’s harder to say about the band’s other (shorter and snappier) 1980s albums, and also hard to say about Disintegration (1989), which is a similarly lengthy listen, but it’s remarkably consistent.

Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me is still good, and even if it weren’t, it would still have value for housing “Just Like Heaven.” Singling out a best song by The Cure is hard, because you’ve got perfect pop songs like “In Between Days” competing with hugely emotional and epic-length songs like “Pictures of You,” but “Just Like Heaven” is too irresistible for its immediacy and energy. The Cure at their moodiest are great, and there’s been good moody Cure releases as recently as 2024, with Songs of a Lost World, but “Just Like Heaven” is really just like heaven. How someone even writes and records a song this great, and that feels this good… who knows?

9 "Ashes to Ashes" (1980)

David Bowie

A few years before David Bowie released his most popular album of the 1980s, or possibly ever, with 1983’s Let’s Dance, he made the darker and overall more interesting Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). Let’s Dance is still very good, and better than some Bowie purists might have you believe, but Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) is of comparable quality to many of his 1970s releases, and that was Bowie’s most eclectic, compelling, and influential decade by far.

The highlight of Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) is “Ashes to Ashes,” which feels, lyrically, like Bowie working through some of his personal demons, mostly relating to addiction, which David Bowie experienced most intensely (and infamously) during the recording of Station to Station. “Ashes to Ashes” is powerful beyond the lyrics, in terms of how it sounds, and also for the fact that it serves as something of a sequel song to “Space Oddity,” since both reference a Major Tom, who is also (possibly seen) in the music video for one of Bowie’s final songs, “Blackstar.” What all the connections add up to is still a bit of a mystery, or at least enigmatic… qualities found in so many David Bowie songs, and regarding his whole persona (or, more accurately, personas).

8 "With or Without You" (1987)

U2

U2 is one of a handful of great 1980s bands that are easy to dislike, honestly. You can like their music, and then see people talking about the band’s sense of self-importance, or their lesser albums released more recently, and such points can be hard to argue against. Even in the 1980s, there were warning signs, as anyone who’s watched the strange (and honestly fascinating) documentary Rattle and Hum can attest to.

But at the end of the day, U2 did release some incredible music, especially in the 1980s. The Joshua Tree houses a handful of remarkable songs, with “With or Without You” being perhaps the most remarkable of the bunch. It’s a grand and sweeping ballad that’s lyrically about exactly what you'd expect, but it just works. And then instrumentally, few songs from the decade sound as good as “With or Without You,” with that gradual build throughout, and that sense of immense release at about the 3:00 mark (you know, the part where Bono’s all “WOOOAH OH OHH OHHHHHH!”)

7 "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (1983)

Bonnie Tyler

This is one of the biggest songs of all time. It makes “With or Without You” sound like a track from Nick Drake’s Pink Moon, in comparison. Bonnie Tyler’s vocals are instrumental, of course, in making “Total Eclipse of the Heart” sound so bombastic and epic, but equally important is Jim Steinman being the songwriter and producer, with his style being distinct enough that there’s an obligation to mention him alongside the artists he wrote songs for.

Like, “Total Eclipse of the Heart” is almost a Jim Steinman song, much in the same way that the songs on Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell are almost Jim Steinman songs more than they are Meat Loaf songs. Again, though, like with Tyler, his vocals were still enormously important in selling the ridiculousness of what Steinman wrote. Returning to “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” you can try to resist it if you really want, but the cheese and grandeur feel like the point, and not a byproduct of bad/overly broad songwriting and producing. It’s perfect for what it is, and honestly brilliant for how it’s so silly and so moving at the exact same time.

6 "Purple Rain" (1984)

Prince

Perhaps more than any other artist here, singling out just one Prince song from the 1980s as his best is tough. He might well have had the best run throughout the decade in terms of albums, since you’ve got the likes of 1999, Purple Rain, and Sign o' the Times, with those three being among the best albums not just of the decade, but maybe even all time. And then the comparatively “lesser” Prince albums of the 1980s are still immense (see Dirty Mind, Around the World in a Day, and Parade).

It’s an all-timer of a ballad, has an incredible guitar solo, and serves as the perfect closing track on what would have to be Prince’s most perfect album.

All those albums have at least several amazing tracks on them, so picking one… um… “Purple Rain?” Yeah, “Purple Rain.” This is one of his longest songs, so it is kind of like “the most” Prince within a single song, so it does a great job at condensing so much of what made him such a great artist within a single song. It’s an all-timer of a ballad, has an incredible guitar solo, and serves as the perfect closing track on what would have to be Prince’s most perfect album: 1984’s Purple Rain.

5 "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" (1986)

The Smiths

Like with so many songs by The Smiths, “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out” feels concerned with death, and inevitably some sadness, but it’s still relatively upbeat by the standards of The Smiths. Well, at least there’s an undeniable romance here, and it’s more bittersweet than outright soul-crushing. If you want soul-crushing, you’ve always got the likes of “I Know It's Over,” “Reel Around the Fountain,” and “How Soon Is Now?”

With “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out,” there’s just a sleekness and a strangely thrilling quality to it… maybe it’s anthemic, almost? All these adjectives are usable when you're comparing it to other songs by The Smiths. The chorus is about dying next to someone you're in love with, lessening the supposed bleakness of life ending because of that love. Perhaps it’s sarcastic and darkly funny, to some extent, but the fact that there’s at least a hint of sincerity and romance to it, making it more than just sarcastic and/or darkly funny, is probably what makes the track special. It means different things, and inspires different feelings, depending on where you're at emotionally, and in life generally, when you listen to it.

4 "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)" (1983)

Talking Heads

“This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)” is not really reflective of most of the greatest Talking Heads songs. The band’s first five albums are the strongest, with the album that this song appears on, Speaking in Tongues, marking the shift toward a slightly poppier and mellower sound, at least compared to the relatively anxious and high-energy music that dominated the band’s first four albums (of them, their fourth, Remain in Light, is probably the strongest, unless you want the live album Stop Making Sense to be in the conversation, since that one's also phenomenal).

This track is a sincere love song, and far more lyrically direct than most Talking Heads songs had been up until that point. Importantly, though, “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)” doesn’t feel like a regression, nor does it indicate Talking Heads selling out and betraying their original sound. It feels like the band saying, “Yeah, we can write nice songs that won’t make you feel kinda nervous, too, when we want to,” and here, they wanted to. And they succeeded. It is, to put it as directly as possible, easily one of the best and most heartwarming love songs of the entire decade.

3 "Running Up That Hill" (1985)

Kate Bush

There are plenty of Kate Bush songs that aren’t “Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)” that are very much worth listening to, but you can kind of see why (or hear why) it’s her signature song. Well, it’s this one or “Wuthering Heights,” in terms of the most iconic Kate Bush song of all time. Thankfully, for present purposes, that one was released in the 1970s, so they don’t have to effectively compete here.

“Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)” just sounds incredible, being remarkably cinematic for what’s technically a pop song. It’s pop in the sense that it’s immediate and not at all hard to appreciate, but there is something a little offbeat, or maybe even a little dark/sinister, about it, and that serves to give it some degree of edge, and help it stand out. It’s the kind of song that’s so good, if it marks the first time you’ve ever heard something by Kate Bush, it might well make you an instant fan of hers, in (literally) less than five minutes.

2 "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" (1985)

Tears for Fears

Jury’s out on whether everyone really does want to rule the world, but it seems pretty safe to say that pretty much everyone loves “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” This Tears for Fears song was massively popular, topping the chart in some territories (including the U.S.) and reaching #2 in other places (like Australia and the U.K.). It is one of the more popular songs here, and also, it’s one of the most aggressively '80s-sounding, if that makes sense.

Like, you listen to “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” and almost straight away, it’s like, “Yeah, there really isn't another decade other than the ‘80s during which this song could've come out.” Sure, there was a lot of music in the 2010s that harkened back to ‘80s sounds, yet no one could sound quite so authentically 1980s. Beyond the sound, what it’s dealing with lyrically also feels tied to the decade, having been referred to as a “Cold War anthem,” yet thankfully not one just tied to that period in history. It does endure, even though it’s musically and somewhat lyrically tied to the time. That pretty much has to be a sign of overall greatness.

1 "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (1980)

Joy Division

Joy Division was a short-lived band, since its lead singer, Ian Curtis, took his life in 1980, but the band’s two studio albums and some additional singles proved more than enough to give Joy Division a legacy. And that legacy would be there, even if the remaining members of Joy Division hadn’t remained together and formed a new group called New Order. For what it’s worth, lots of New Order sounds “more” 1980s than the last of the Joy Division songs that were released at the decade’s start, like “Love Will Tear Us Apart.”

The likes of “Blue Monday” and “Bizarre Love Triangle” would belong here if this were more than a top 10. They're amazing songs, as are a fair few other New Order tracks. But there’s something too special about “Love Will Tear Us Apart” to leave it off from a ranking like this. It’s sad and deeply moving, even before taking into account it being a posthumous release for Curtis, yet it’s also a beautiful song alongside being a despair-filled one, and it manages to have that energy and beauty while being so downbeat. It’s almost a contrast between music and lyrics, but not directly, since there’s an energy with the instrumental stuff, even while it feels emotionally drained. Call it an odd miracle of a song, and potentially call it the very best single track of the entire 1980s, while you're at it.