The biggest radio hit the year you graduated high school: ’80s edition
If you graduated from high school during the 1980s, one song was unavoidable that spring. Synth-driven, guitar-fueled, and occasionally absurd, the decade’s biggest hits have a way of sending you right back. Here is the one that owned the radio the year you got your diploma.
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Class of 1980: “Call Me” by Blondie
Blondie’s “Call Me” spent six weeks at No. 1 and finished as the best-selling single of 1980. Written for the film American Gigolo by Giorgio Moroder, with lyrics by Debbie Harry, it arrived at the exact moment new wave was crossing into the mainstream.
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Class of 1981: “Bette Davis Eyes” by Kim Carnes
Kim Carnes spent nine weeks at No. 1, more than any other song that year, and Billboard named it the biggest hit of 1981. Bette Davis was 73 when the song hit No. 1 and wrote to thank Carnes for making her part of modern times.
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Class of 1982: “Ebony and Ivory” by Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder
McCartney and Wonder spent seven weeks at No. 1 with this duet, recorded together on the island of Montserrat. It was the biggest chart hit of Wonder’s entire career and the only McCartney solo song ever to reach No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B chart.
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Class of 1983: “Flashdance… What a Feeling” by Irene Cara
Irene Cara spent six weeks at No. 1 with the Flashdance theme, the longest run at the top by a female artist that year. She wrote the lyrics on a car ride to the studio. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
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Class of 1984: “When Doves Cry” by Prince
Prince spent five weeks at No. 1, and Billboard named it the biggest hit of 1984. He recorded it with no bass line at all, a deliberate gamble. It kept Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” at No. 2 for four consecutive weeks.
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Class of 1985: “Say You, Say Me” by Lionel Richie
Lionel Richie spent four weeks at No. 1, and Billboard named it the year-end chart-topper for 1985. Written for the film White Nights, it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and made Richie the dominant songwriter of 1985.
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Class of 1986: “That’s What Friends Are For” by Dionne Warwick & Friends
Dionne and Friends spent four weeks at No. 1, and Billboard named it the biggest hit of 1986. Recorded to raise money for AIDS research, it raised over $500,000 for AmFAR. The Grammy for Song of the Year it won was Elton John’s first.
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Class of 1987: “Walk Like an Egyptian” by The Bangles
The Bangles spent four weeks at No. 1, and Billboard named it the No. 1 song of 1987. Songwriter Liam Sternberg got the idea watching passengers stumble on a ferry, their outstretched arms reminding him of figures in ancient Egyptian tomb paintings.
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Class of 1988: “Faith” by George Michael
George Michael spent four weeks at No. 1, and Billboard named it the biggest single of 1988. It made Michael the first artist since the Beatles to claim two Billboard year-end No. 1 singles, having topped the chart with “Careless Whisper” in 1985.
Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.
Class of 1989: “Miss You Much” by Janet Jackson
Janet Jackson spent four weeks at No. 1 with the lead single from Rhythm Nation 1814, the longest run at the top of any single that year. It launched a streak: her next 17 Hot 100 entries all reached the top 10, a nine-year run no other artist has equaled.
Wrap up
Ten graduating classes, ten songs. The decade never settled on one sound, and neither did the radio.
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