1980 Songs
The biggest songs of 1980 included Michael Jackson's "Rock with You", Blondie's "Call Me", Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" and Olivia Newton-John's "Magic". It was the hinge year of the decade: disco was fading into post-disco funk, British new wave and 2 Tone ska were crossing over, and AC/DC's Back in Black became hard rock's defining album.
The last disco songs, the first new wave hits
1980 was the hinge between two sounds. Michael Jackson's "Rock with You", carried over from 1979's Off the Wall, went to No. 1 in January, and Blondie's Giorgio Moroder collaboration "Call Me" spent six weeks at No. 1 that spring, Billboard's biggest hit of the year. Start with our best 80s songs guide for the whole decade; this page covers 1980 song by song.
Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust", built on a bass line inspired by Chic, became an unlikely rock-disco crossover and the band's only US No. 1. Lipps Inc.'s "Funkytown" and Kool & the Gang's "Celebration" carried the dance floor into the new decade even as the word "disco" itself became radio poison.
KC and the Sunshine Band closed out disco's chart dominance with "Please Don't Go", a No. 1 in January, and by year's end the sound had all but vanished from pop radio, chased off by rock, new wave and MTV's rise a year later.
Rock veterans learn new tricks
Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", a rockabilly pastiche Freddie Mercury wrote in the bath, gave the band its first US No. 1, and Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2", built on a disco-adjacent groove and a children's choir, became their only US and UK No. 1 too, straight off The Wall.
The Rolling Stones' "Emotional Rescue" found Mick Jagger singing falsetto over a stripped-down, dance-leaning groove on the title track of an album critics found bewildering at the time. Kenny Rogers crossed from country into pop twice in 1980, with the storytelling hit "Coward of the County" following "Lady" up the chart.
Britain sends new wave and 2 Tone across the Atlantic
The Specials, Madness and The English Beat brought ska's rhythm back through 2 Tone, a British scene built on Black and white musicians sharing the same stage. The Specials' "Too Much Too Young" went to No. 1 in the UK in January, and Madness followed with "Baggy Trousers" that autumn.
The Jam's Paul Weller wrote two UK No. 1s in one year, "Going Underground" and "Start!", while XTC and Dexys Midnight Runners kept new wave's guitar side alive against the era's rising tide of synthesizers. Almost none of these songs charted high in the US in 1980; American new wave radio was still a college-station phenomenon.
Post-punk turns into goth
Joy Division's singer Ian Curtis died in May, days before the band's first American tour was due to start. "Love Will Tear Us Apart", released as a single the following month, became their best-known song and a template for the moodier, echo-laden sound the surviving members carried into New Order. Their album Closer, finished just before Curtis's death, is where songs like "Isolation" come from.
Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus and The Cure spent 1980 turning post-punk's austerity into what would soon be called goth: minor keys, drum machines and reverb standing in for punk's speed. U2, a much sunnier Dublin band shaped by the same scene, released their debut album Boy in October.
R&B, funk and the first rap records
Funk kept its identity through 1980 even as disco collapsed, with Cameo, the Gap Band, the S.O.S. Band and Maze featuring Frankie Beverly all releasing club and radio staples. Kurtis Blow's self-titled debut made him the first rap artist signed to a major label, and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's early singles turned rap from a live DJ art into records people bought.
Diana Ross's "Upside Down" and Barbra Streisand's Bee Gees-produced "Woman in Love" both went to No. 1, and Dolly Parton crossed from country radio to the top of the pop chart with "9 to 5", the theme from her first film.
Stevie Wonder's reggae tribute to Bob Marley, "Master Blaster (Jammin')", and George Benson's Quincy Jones-produced "Give Me the Night" both became No. 1 R&B hits that crossed well into the pop chart, and the Pointer Sisters' "He's So Shy" gave the group its first top-ten pop hit in years.
Two ex-Beatles, and a shocking end to the year
Paul McCartney released "Coming Up", a jittery, sped-up solo recording, in the spring; a live version by his band Wings became the US hit. John Lennon, five years into a self-imposed retirement from music, returned that November with Double Fantasy, an album made with Yoko Ono.
"(Just Like) Starting Over" was climbing the chart when Lennon was shot and killed outside his New York apartment on December 8. It went to No. 1 the following month, a bittersweet postscript to both his career and the decade's opening year.
The hits you already know, and 24 more
The year's biggest hits, from "Call Me" and "Rock with You" to "Back in Black" and "Hit Me with Your Best Shot", open the player above. Each one is written up elsewhere on the site, or discussed above. The 24 songs below are the rest of the story: 2 Tone and post-punk imports, deep funk and rap's first records, and the arena rock and yacht rock filling out FM radio.
Songs are filed by release year, so a hit that charted into early 1981 but came out in 1980 may be on this page, while one that charted late but was actually a 1981 release sits on the 1981 songs page instead. Every pick follows our song selection rules.
The Songs
Baggy Trousers — Madness
A cartoonish look back at schooldays, complete with catapults and conker fights, set to the ska beat Madness made their own. The Dave Robinson-directed video, with the band appearing to fly over a playground, became one of the most-repeated clips on British TV that autumn.
Too Much Too Young — The Specials
Recorded live and released as the lead track of a stopgap EP, this fast, furious song about teenage parenthood gave The Specials a UK No. 1 in January 1980. Terry Hall's deadpan delivery over Jerry Dammers' clattering ska arrangement is 2 Tone at its sharpest.
Going Underground — The Jam
Paul Weller's protest against a government that ignores its people entered the UK chart at No. 1, the first single to do so in years. A pressing mix-up meant shops sold it as a double A-side with "Dreams of Children", and both songs still hold up as some of the Jam's angriest work.
Generals and Majors — XTC
Andy Partridge's satirical march against warmongers, from XTC's Black Sea album, dresses an anti-war message in a bright, whistling melody. It captures the band's move from spiky new wave toward the more melodic songwriting of their later records.
Geno — Dexys Midnight Runners
Kevin Rowland wrote this tribute to Geno Washington, the American soul singer he'd idolised as a teenage mod, as a horn-driven stomp that went to No. 1 in the UK in April 1980. It was the band's first hit, years before "Come On Eileen" made them stars in America.
I Will Follow — U2
The opening track of U2's debut album, Boy, is built on The Edge's ringing, delay-drenched guitar and Bono singing about his mother, who died when he was fourteen. It became a fixture of U2's live shows and an early sign of the sound the band would spend the decade perfecting.
Play for Today — The Cure
From Seventeen Seconds, the album where The Cure traded punk energy for cold, minimal atmosphere, this song's simple bassline and Robert Smith's detached vocal helped set the template for the gloomier British bands that followed.
Terror Couple Kill Colonel — Bauhaus
Bauhaus took their sound, on this early single, from art-school theatrics: a tense bassline, scratchy guitar and Peter Murphy's theatrical baritone reading like a strange news bulletin. It's one of the founding documents of goth rock.
Isolation — Joy Division
From Closer, the album Joy Division finished days before singer Ian Curtis's death in May 1980, this song trades guitars for synthesizer and drum machine, pointing toward the sound bassist Peter Hook and the rest of the band would carry into New Order.
Happy House — Siouxsie and the Banshees
Siouxsie Sioux sings about suburban conformity in a bright, chiming voice that undercuts the song's unease. From the Kaleidoscope album, it reached the UK top twenty and pushed the Banshees from post-punk curiosity toward pop success without softening their strangeness.
Shake Your Pants — Cameo
Cameo's horn-and-synth funk was built for the dance floor, and this club favourite from the group's early, larger lineup shows why. Larry Blackmon's shouted vocal sits over a tight, elastic groove, years before the band slimmed down and found its biggest pop crossovers.
Burn Rubber on Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me) — The Gap Band
The Gap Band, led by brothers Charlie, Ronnie and Robert Wilson, built this driving funk single around a tight synth-bass riff and a rhythm section as sharp as anything on the radio that year. It became one of 1980's biggest R&B hits and a lasting sample source for hip-hop producers.
Joy and Pain — Maze ft. Frankie Beverly
Frankie Beverly's smooth, pleading voice carries this slow-building funk song about love's contradictions, one of Maze's best-loved records. It became a staple of Black radio in 1980 and has stayed a favourite at cookouts and family reunions ever since.
Take Your Time (Do It Right) — The S.O.S. Band
Produced with a slow-burning, extended album mix, this laid-back funk song became a No. 1 R&B hit and crossed into the pop top ten. The S.O.S. Band, from Atlanta, built a whole career on this unhurried, seductive groove.
Hard Times — Kurtis Blow
From the self-titled album that made Kurtis Blow the first rap artist signed to a major label, this song turns economic hardship into a driving, socially conscious rhyme over a hard funk beat. Run-D.M.C. later recorded their own version, a nod to Blow's place as one of hip-hop's founding fathers.
Birthday Party — Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
Recorded for the independent Enjoy Records before the group's bigger Sugar Hill hits, this early single captures rap as a party-starting live art, built for call-and-response over a stripped-down groove.
Shoot to Thrill — AC/DC
The second track on Back in Black, the album AC/DC made after singer Bon Scott's death, opens with a slow, coiled riff before exploding into one of Brian Johnson's most ferocious performances. It's long been a fan and live favourite.
Fool for Your Loving — Whitesnake
David Coverdale's post-Deep Purple band had its first real American chart entry with this bluesy, mid-tempo rock song from Ready an' Willing. It's a world away from the polished power ballads Whitesnake used to crack MTV later in the decade, closer to the blues-rock Coverdale started out playing.
Don't Let Him Go — REO Speedwagon
REO Speedwagon's Hi Infidelity turned the Champaign, Illinois band from journeyman rockers into one of 1980's biggest acts, and this mid-album track shows the tight, radio-ready sound Kevin Cronin and the band had spent a decade working toward. The album spent fifteen weeks at No. 1.
Misunderstanding — Genesis
The first single from Genesis's Duke album, written and sung by drummer Phil Collins, is a bouncy, keyboard-driven pop song that became the band's first American top twenty hit. It arrived just as Collins's marriage was ending, the same heartbreak that would soon fuel his solo career.
You Make My Dreams — Daryl Hall & John Oates
Built on a clipped, funky guitar riff and a chorus that sounds happier than almost anything else on the radio in 1980, this Voices album track became a fixture of Hall & Oates's live shows and, decades later, a favourite for movies and commercials that need instant good cheer.
Late in the Evening — Paul Simon
Paul Simon's horn-driven, autobiographical song traces a life through music, from a childhood radio to a street corner where he first heard the sound that would define his career. It reached the US top ten and remains one of his most purely joyful singles.
Babylon Sisters — Steely Dan
Walter Becker and Donald Fagen's Gaucho album took years and a famously steep studio budget to finish, and this smooth, unsettling song about a man well past the age for the company he's keeping shows why: the arrangement is immaculate, and the lyric is anything but comfortable.
Drivin' My Life Away — Eddie Rabbitt
Eddie Rabbitt co-wrote this trucker's-eye view of the highway for the film Roadie, and its crossover between country and pop radio helped define the "urban cowboy" sound that dominated country music at the start of the decade. It reached No. 1 on the country chart and the US top five.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the No. 1 song of 1980?
Blondie's "Call Me", written with producer Giorgio Moroder for the film American Gigolo, was Billboard's No. 1 single of 1980 on the year-end Hot 100. It spent six weeks at No. 1 that spring. It plays in the player above.
What were the most popular songs in 1980?
The best-remembered 1980 hits include "Call Me", "Rock with You", "Another One Bites the Dust", "Funkytown", "Magic", "Sailing", "Upside Down", "Woman in Love", "Lady" and "9 to 5". All of them play in the player at the top of this page.
What albums came out in 1980?
1980 brought AC/DC's Back in Black, Pink Floyd's The Wall, The Police's Zenyatta Mondatta, Joy Division's Closer, U2's Boy, Genesis's Duke, Billy Joel's Glass Houses, Steely Dan's Gaucho, The Rolling Stones' Emotional Rescue and John Lennon's Double Fantasy, alongside the singles still coming from Michael Jackson's Off the Wall.
Is "Rock with You" a 1979 or 1980 song?
Michael Jackson released "Rock with You" in late 1979 from his Off the Wall album, and it spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 starting in January 1980. Because its chart run belongs to 1980, it's covered on this page and plays in the player above.
What was 2 Tone?
2 Tone was a British record label and scene, led by The Specials' Jerry Dammers, that mixed punk energy with Jamaican ska and put Black and white musicians on the same bill and often in the same band. The Specials, Madness and The English Beat all had UK hits through 2 Tone in 1980, some of which play in the player above.
What was John Lennon's last song?
"(Just Like) Starting Over", the lead single from Double Fantasy, was John Lennon's last single released in his lifetime. It was climbing the Hot 100 when he was shot and killed in New York on December 8, 1980, and it went to No. 1 the following month. It plays in the player above.
Last updated: September 28, 2026