My wife and I coach an Odyssey of the Mind team through our kids’ school. Odyssey of the Mind is a creative problem solving program focused on teamwork and kid-only solutions of challenged they work on all through the school year. (I coached Destination Imagination back in Massachusetts for several years, and it is very similar).
Our team this year has a problem they are solving, and their solution has led them to events that happened in 1985, and as such they have been looking at the popular culture ‘way back then’. We have plenty of music from the 80’s in our record, tape and CD collections, but I came across a bargain ‘Billboard Top 100 of 1985’ collection when we were shopping, so I grabbed it and ripped it onto my iPod. Now each time the team meets we shuffle up some 80’s music … and they say things like ‘fer shure’ and ‘neo maxie-zoom dweebie …’. So what were the hits of 1985? Read on for a list and a few top videos for the year!
Here are the Top 50 Songs of 1985:
1. “Careless Whisper”…..Wham!
2. “Say You, Say Me”…..Lionel Richie
3. “Separate Lives”…..Phil Collins & Marilyn Martin
4. “I Want To Know What Love Is”…..Foreigner
5. “Money For Nothing”…..Dire Straits
6. “We Are The World”…..USA for Africa
7. “Broken Wings”…..Mr. Mister
8. “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”…..Tears for Fears
9. “The Power Of Love”…..Huey Lewis & The News
10. “We Built This City”…..Starship
11. “St. Elmo’s Fire”…..John Parr
12. “Can’t Fight This Feeling”…..REO Speedwagon
13. “Crazy For You”…..Madonna
14. “Easy Lover”…..Phillip Bailey & Phil Collins
15. “Everytime You Go Away”…..Paul Young
16. “Don’t You (Forget About Me):…..Simple Minds
17. “Take On Me”…..a-ha
18. “Party All The Time”…..Eddie Murphy
19. “Everything She Wants”…..Wham!
20. “Shout”…..Tears for Fears
21. “Alive and Kicking”…..Simple Minds
22. “I Miss You”…..Klymaxx
23. “Sea Of Love”…..Honeydrippers
24. “Cool It Now”…..New Edition
25. “Part-Time Lover”…..Stevie Wonder
26. “Saving All My Love For You”…..Whitney Houston
27. “Sussudio”…..Phil Collins
28. “Oh Sheila”…..Ready for the World”
29. “A View To A Kill”…..Duran Duran
30. “One More Night”…..Phil Collins
31. “Cherish”…..Kool & The Gang
32. “Heaven”…..Bryan Adams
33. “The Heat Is On”…..Glenn Frey
34. “Raspberry Beret”…..Prince & The Revolution
35. “You’re The Inspiration”…..Chicago
36. “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free”…..Sting
37. “Miami Vice Theme”…..Jan Hammer
38. “Freeway Of Love”…..Aretha Franklin
39. “Don’t Lose My Number”…..Phil Collins
40. “Never”…..Heart
41. “Things Can Only Get Better”…..Howard Jones
42. “The Boys Of Summer”…..Don Henley
43. “Rhythm Of The Night”…..DeBarge
44. “We Don’t Need Another Hero”…..Tina Turner
45. “We Belong”…..Pat Benatar
46. “Loverboy”…..Billy Ocean
47. “All I Need”…..Jack Wagner
48. “One Night In Bangkok”…..Murray Head
49. “Never Surrender”…..Corey Hart
50. “Lovergirl”…..Teena Marie
Pretty interesting mix of stuff – seeing 70’s superpowers like Freigner and Heart and Starship alongside 80’s icons like Tears for Fears; solo breakouts like Don Henley (Eagles) and Phil Collins (Genesis) having mega-hits; and loads of folks we have never heard from again. Also interesting is the presence of two instrumental hits in the tio 100 (Miami Vice in the top 50, Axel F from Beverly Hills Cop in the bottom half).