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You have reached BackToThe80s.com, dedicated to the decade of big hair and great pop music.
Click on a link to the left or take a look at one of our ’80s song profiles below.
We haven't added a new profile in two years, so be sure to check back often!
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Latest profiles:
Peter Schilling: “Major Tom (Coming Home)”
Posted: 01/14/2003
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The music begins with the synth pulse of a passing satellite, but almost immediately dissolves into a chaotic keyboard intro that finally takes hold with a burst of percussion and electronic guitar. The rhythm bed is the synthesizer equivalent of a choogling Credence Clearwater Revival backbeat of bass and syncopated guitar. Listen closely during the choruses, and you’ll hear drums that mimic an... (more)
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Kim Carnes: “Bette Davis Eyes”
Posted: 09/20/2002
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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.”... (more)
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The Village People: “Ready for the ’80s”
Posted: 09/20/2002
Wall of Voodoo: “Mexican Radio”
Posted: 09/18/2002
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The song is famous for its post-bridge refrain, “I wish I was in Tiujana/Eating barbecued iguana,” but its smartest lyric is “I hear the rhythms of the music/I buy the product but never use it,” the slyest take on commercialism since the Stones sniffed at the man with the clean, white shirts but the wrong cigarettes in “Satisfaction.”... (more)
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“Rock of the ’80s (Volumes 1, 2 & 3)”
Posted: 09/05/2002
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“The set would have been more accurately titled ‘The Best of Pop Music’s One-Hit Wonders,’” I say, setting down a glass of Budweiser Youth Drink. “With a few exceptions, such as Duran Duran (“Is There Something I Should Know?”) and Squeeze (“Tempted”), these groups disappeared before you could say ‘MTV Heavy Rotation.’”... (more)
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Artist Profile: Yes in the 1980s
Posted: 09/04/2002
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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... (more)
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Dire Straits: “Money For Nothing”
Posted: 08/30/2002
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As the story goes, Dire Straits singer/songwriter/guitarist Mark Knopfler was in an electronics store when he heard an employee mocking the pretty boys on MTV... (more)
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Billy Joel: “Pressure”
Posted: 08/29/2002
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Starting off with (real) drums and the most insistent bassline this side of “The Eye Of The Tiger,” the song almost immediately launches into that unforgettable keyboard riff that sounds like something Beethoven might have dreamed up... (more)
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Ray Parker, Jr.: “I Still Can’t Get Over Loving You”
Posted: 08/26/2002
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With that smooth, distinctive voice, you could always tell when Ray Parker, Jr. was singing on a record. Whether he was begging for a spanking (“Bad Boy”) or grabbin’ his guitar and playing with it all night long (“The Other Woman”), it was hard not to smile when you heard ol’ Ray on the radio... (more)
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The Police: “Every Breath You Take”
Posted: 08/25/2002
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If there is such a thing as a perfect Pop song, this is it. As critic Dave Marsh wrote, “‘Every Breath You Take’ belongs in that category of singles that announce themselves as classics from the first time you hear them.”... (more)
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Michael Jackson: “Beat It”
Posted: 08/24/2002
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“Beat It” was unlike any Michael Jackson single the world had heard. For one thing, it had guitars. And not just a lightly-strummed acoustic guitar in the background. This song had a hard-driving rock and roll guitar hook, and even a blistering guitar solo by none other than Eddie Van Halen. This was about as different from “The Girl Is Mine” as you could get... (more)
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