I'm nominating "Big Country Dreams" as the song I most want to die.

I heard an acoustic version of "Always SOmething there to Remind Me" the other day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZBbcrcRgMA

Oh, God, I would welcome "Always Something There to Remind Me." My grocery store seems fixated on the feel-good pop ballad.

My husband is genuinely creepy about this ... one day I came home ranting about "that horrible whiny '80s song, not 'Leader of the Band,' but that other one..." He immediately said, "Take/these broken wings/? That one?" Without a single word of the lyrics or any description beyond horrible and whiny, he nailed it. I was trying all afternoon to remember it and couldn't. Just now I walked downstairs and said, "Remember that time I came home from the store and they'd been playing that horrible whiny song and you identified it?" Mind you, this was like last year that this happened. And he said, "Take/these broken wings/? Yep. Mister Mister." [The same guy who can't remember his parents' phone number....]

That song would be candidate number 2.

And what kind of a fucking band name is "Mister Mister" anyway?

I'd have to say Amanda by Boston is one mf my most hated songs of all time. With it's faux power ballad tempo and facile lyrics, it has to be one of the worst big hits of the 80's. It just drips with forced sentiment and the rhyme schemes are almost as embarassing as Anthony Kiedis' rapping.

See if you don't agree with me.

Amanda, by Boston


Special Mention: More Than Words, by Extreme...I really thought those dudes (?) were going to kiss each other in the video.

This won't die because I won't let it


First, when there's nothing but a slow glowing dream
That your fear seems to hide deep inside your mind
All alone I have cried silent tears full of pride
In a world made of steel, made of stone

Well I hear the music, close my eyes, feel the rhythm
Wrap around, take a hold of my heart

[Chorus:]
What a feeling, bein's believin'
I can't have it all, now I'm dancin' for my life
Take your passion, and make it happen
Pictures come alive, you can dance right through your life

[Solo]

Now I hear the music, close my eyes, I am rhythm
In a flash it takes hold of my heart

[chorus (with ... "now I'm dancing through my life")]

What a feeling

What a feeling (I am music now), bein's believin' (I am rhythm now)
Pictures come alive, you can dance right through your life
What a feeling (I can really have it all)
What a feeling (Pictures come alive when I call)
I can have it all (I can really have it all)
Have it all (Pictures come alive when I call)
(call, call, call, call, what a feeling) I can have it all
(Bein's believin') bein's believin'
(Take your passion, make it happen) make it happen
(What a feeling) what a feeling... [to fade]

Maybe these songs won't die because 80's music rocks!

Really? Mister Mister rocks?

I love '80s music. I'm delighted when store muzak comes out with Pet Shop Boys, Blondie, B-52s ("Deadbeat Club" was playing in Staples the other day), or, all too rarely, Talking Heads. [See the "title" under my name? It's an homage to David Byrne.]

But not these songs. These are the songs that need to die.

Blondie was primarily a 70s band, but I guess "Call Me" was 1980.

Van Halen, Aerosmith, REO, Journey, Styx, RUSH!, Queen, ZZ Top, The Cars, and even Yes had popularity in the 80s but all of them did their best stuff in the 70s and really started sucking in the 80s

For me Stevie Ray Vaughan was the only "good" music from the 80s.

In fact so many of these bands are defined today by their most popular songs that really aren't consistent with their body of work. For example, ZZ Top's stuff like "Sharp Dressed Man" is not the Texas Blues Based rock that was their Bread & Butter for more than a decade before they became "popular". The Cars being remembered by things like "You Might Think" or their most successful song "Drive" amazes me when compared to their core pseudo-punk, New Wave stuff like "Just what I Needed". I take it almost personally that Areosmith, RUSH!, and Yes might be remembered by more people for the crap that they put out in the 80s rather than their "real" sound as defined in the 70s

In high school I worked as a telemarketer and called somebody with the last name "Mister". My buddy worked at the station next to mine and when that name popped up, I immediately nudged him and pointed at my screen. I made it about 10 seconds past, "Hello, may I please speak to Mr. Mister..." before we were both cracking up and I got hung up on.

Looking back, that story is neither funny nor worthy of being retold.

Granted, Blondie was mainly 70s. And I know what you mean that bands get remembered for monster hits that are virtually nothing like their core sound. At least when the B-52s became a so-called one-hit wonder, it was with a song that was truly their signature sound. Ironic that the Pet Shop Boys are remembered for a song about girls.

As a side note, they worked wonders with a remake of "Always on My Mind." With the simple act of cutting a line in the middle, a la sampling, they uncovered the real meaning of the song, something that I think both Elvis and Willie Nelson had missed, and maybe even the songwriters themselves. They cut the line "maybe I didn't love you quite as often as I should have" to "maybe I didn't love you," and that's what ends the song. Brilliant.

You know he's got Spandau Ballet and Tears for Fears and A-ha and Mister Mister all over his Walkman.

I lol'd.

Makes me think of one thing I hate in the workplace: People who say Mr. followed by your first name.

"Yes, Mr. Jeff, i can get this rate for you on copy paper, not a problem!"
"Fuck you, arsehole"

Rock Lobster would like some stern words with you

At the rate this thread is going, I don't think we're going to get to 80 songs any time soon.

Maybe you should have set the bar lower?

Some of my favorite albums ever were made in the 80's.

You don't count, you actually have GOOD taste in music.

oh

"any way you want it", "don't stop believin'" or pretty much any song by journey ( to which I include like all those crappy late 70's arena rock bands that sound just like journey)

C'mon Eileen

It sticks in your head forever.

In fact, some of you will have it in your head as you go to bed tonight.

Actually, I'm moving that odious Mister Mister song up to number 1 of songs I want to die. "Big Country Dreams" is fucking Shakespeare next to it.

Also, anything by Billy Joel, but most of all his insipid hooky 80s stuff. Gets stuck in your head forever, especially when you don't like the song to begin with, and makes you want claw your brain out through your ear and stomp on it.

Hblask reminded me, because the hookiest songs are always the ones I most hate.

I like Only the good die young by billy joel, and some of his 70's stuff is okay, but the 80's he got fairly brutal.


I'll tell you an 80's song I can't get enough of.. 99 red balloons

The first 80's song to pop into my mind was "Love is a Battlefield."

But that doesnt really work, because that song fucking rocks.

Agree (or is it disagree?) with the 99 balloons, I was in West Germany when it came out as 99 Sclhuffballoons or somethin' like that.

I don't understand the hate for that Broken Wings song. I mean, it's not in the top 100 of all time or anything, but it seems pretty un-hateworthy.

Oh Ricky, you're so fine
You're so fine you blow my mind
Hey Ricky.
Hey Ricky.

Now that's hate material.

Men Without Hats - Safety Dance

I'm from their hometown and I still they they can suck a big one for putting out that piece of garbage.

it's "mickey"

well that's the superior version, obv. It sounds so exotic and magical.



"Working for the weekend" is a song that needs to die.

Holy crap I'm getting senile.

How do you hate on this song?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMw-1us6HvA

I've hated the "dont stop believin" resurgence ever since they played it on the Sopranos finale.

On the contrary, my FAVORITE 80's song that just wont die has to be "Your Love" by The Outfield. LOVE that song, and I hear it all over the place it seems the last couple years.

QTF

Just spent the last 45 min. watching the various 99 red balloons videos. I think I like the German version better. Very sexy.

Getting paid to watch Youtube.

Priceless

I don't know where to start my response to this thread, but this seemed the most logical.....

VH, although I <3 sammy hagar, i thought they were better with DLR. But i was an Eddie fan, so it didn't really matter as long as he was still sexy. The music of vanhagar wasn't as good as van halen, but not so bad that i would stop being a fan.

For me rush could record the national anthem played on an acordian and i would probably love it. I'm a big rush fan. It's true, they did progress closer to "mainstream" through the 80's and even into the 90's, but their idea of "typical" is still pretty much their own unique sound. They just have that quality.

The only time i think aerosmith really lost it, was the whole remix into rap thing they did with RunDMC. Although i have to say, i really did like 80's rap "walk this way" didn't really work for me. But they did have some good power ballad hits in the era. And i did say i like 80's rap, it was my generation, it was new and i'm sure i still have a few old school CD's in the car.

I found the 80's had a ton of "one hit wonder" bands and most of them produced pretty big chart toppers at the time. I remember Broken Wings being a huge song when it came out and i don't mind hearing it now and again today. But..i can understand, the radio station at work constantly plays "manic monday" by the Bangles.....after hearing it every hour on the hour, i kinda start to wish it would go away.

Because of my age, i sometimes have trouble distinguishing late 70's music from that of the early 80's, so to me it's all one big era. I do feel the same way about U2 as you do about the bands you mentioned. Their early 80's stuff was way better than their later 80's and beyond. They made the transition to mainstream around the "joshua tree" and although some of their stuff is still really good, the stuff they did before it was waaaaaaaaaay better. But i think it all has to do with how you came to like it, U2 fans today probably prefer the "new" stuff better. It's just the style of music they are accustomed to.