1981 Songs

The year the 80s began

The calendar said 1980, but the sound of the 80s really started in 1981. Synthesizers moved from art school to the top of the charts, and a new cable channel changed how people found music. This page covers the year song by song; for the whole decade, start with our best 80s songs guide.

The year opened in mourning. John Lennon had been shot in New York on December 8, 1980, and his "(Just Like) Starting Over" and "Woman" were among the first big hits of 1981.

MTV goes on the air

MTV launched at 12:01 a.m. on August 1, 1981, with The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star". Few homes could watch it at first, but the channel needed videos around the clock. British bands already made them, so British bands got played.

That is why the Human League, Duran Duran and Soft Cell broke through in America over the next two years. "Tainted Love" spent 43 weeks on the Hot 100, a record at the time.

Big ballads and arena rock

On the radio, 1981 belonged to big voices and big bands. "Bette Davis Eyes" spent nine weeks at No. 1, and "Endless Love" matched it. "Physical" arrived in November and stayed at the top for ten weeks. REO Speedwagon's Hi Infidelity was the year's best-selling album.

Journey's Escape and Foreigner's 4 both went to No. 1 on the album chart. "Waiting for a Girl Like You" spent ten weeks at No. 2, and "Don't Stop Believin'" became the decade's most lasting rock song.

New sounds from the edges

Hip-hop was still a New York sound, but it was starting to travel. Blondie took rap to No. 1 with "Rapture". In Britain, the Human League's Dare and Depeche Mode's first album proved that a band could be all synthesizers.

Country crossed over after the Urban Cowboy boom of 1980. Eddie Rabbitt, Alabama and Dolly Parton, whose "9 to 5" hit No. 1 in February, all had hits on the Hot 100.

The hits you already know, and 22 more

The year's biggest hits, from "Jessie's Girl" and "Private Eyes" to "Super Freak" and "In the Air Tonight", open the player above. Each one is written up elsewhere on the site. The 22 songs below are the rest of the story: more No. 1s, the soundtrack hits and the new sounds that shaped the decade.

Songs are filed by release year, so hits from late 1980, such as "9 to 5" and "Keep On Loving You", don't appear here. Every pick follows our song selection rules. When you're done here, move on to the 1982 songs.

The Songs

1. Rapture — Blondie

   Debbie Harry raps the second half of this song, name-checking Fab 5 Freddy and Grandmaster Flash from the New York scene. When it went to No. 1 in March 1981, it became the first chart-topping single in America to feature rap. For millions of listeners it was the first rap they had heard.

2. The One That You Love — Air Supply

   Air Supply had a run of soft-rock hits in the early 80s, but this was their only No. 1. Graham Russell wrote it, and Russell Hitchcock's high, clear tenor took it to the top in July 1981. It is the soft-rock ballad at its most polished.

3. Stop Draggin' My Heart Around — Stevie Nicks & Tom Petty

   Tom Petty and guitarist Mike Campbell wrote this song, and producer Jimmy Iovine gave it to Stevie Nicks for her first solo album, Bella Donna. Petty sings the duet with her, and the Heartbreakers play on it. It reached No. 3 and the album went to No. 1.

4. A Woman Needs Love (Just Like You Do) — Raydio

   Ray Parker Jr. led Raydio before he went solo and wrote "Ghostbusters". This smooth warning to men who take their partners for granted went to No. 1 on the R&B chart and No. 4 on the Hot 100 in 1981. It was the group's biggest hit.

5. For Your Eyes Only — Sheena Easton

   Sheena Easton is still the only singer to appear in the opening titles of a James Bond film. Bill Conti and Michael Leeson wrote the song for the 1981 film, and it reached No. 4 in the US and earned an Academy Award nomination. It was her second big hit of the year.

6. Why Do Fools Fall in Love — Diana Ross

   Diana Ross left Motown for RCA in 1981, and her first album there took its title from this cover of the 1956 Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers hit. Her version reached No. 7. It kept her on pop radio in the same year "Endless Love" ruled the chart.

7. Hello Again — Neil Diamond

   Neil Diamond starred in the film The Jazz Singer and wrote its songs. This tender ballad reached No. 6 early in 1981, and "America" from the same soundtrack also made the Top 10. The film was a flop, but the soundtrack sold millions.

8. Step by Step — Eddie Rabbitt

   Eddie Rabbitt was one of the country singers who crossed over to pop after the Urban Cowboy boom. This song about courting a woman one step at a time reached No. 5 on the Hot 100 and No. 1 on the country chart.

9. 867-5309/Jenny — Tommy Tutone

   A man finds a phone number on a wall and can't stop thinking about the girl it belongs to. Released late in 1981, it reached No. 4 in the spring of 1982. People all over America dialled the number, and the owners of real 867-5309 lines got calls for years.

10. Hard to Say — Dan Fogelberg

    Dan Fogelberg's double album The Innocent Age was his most ambitious record. This gentle song about losing someone reached No. 7, and "Leader of the Band", written for his father, followed it into the Top 10. He was one of the biggest soft-rock singers of the time.

11. Girls on Film — Duran Duran

    Duran Duran's third single reached No. 5 in the UK. Godley & Creme directed a racy video that had to be cut down for MTV, and the full version made headlines. It showed how much a video could sell a band, and Duran Duran became the video age's first great pin-ups.

12. Love Action (I Believe in Love) — The Human League

    Before "Don't You Want Me", The Human League reached No. 3 in the UK with this song from Dare. Producer Martin Rushent built it from synthesizers and drum machines. Philip Oakey sings it like a confession, and it set up the album that made the band stars.

13. Souvenir — Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

    OMD's Paul Humphreys sings this dreamy song from Architecture & Morality. The choir sounds come from a Mellotron, a tape-based keyboard. It reached No. 3 in the UK, and the album sold millions across Europe and made the band one of synth-pop's biggest names.

14. Tempted — Squeeze

    Keyboard player Paul Carrack sings lead on this Squeeze song, one of only a few the band ever let someone else sing. Elvis Costello co-produced the album East Side Story. It only reached No. 49 in the US, but radio has played it ever since.

15. It Must Be Love — Madness

    Madness turned Labi Siffre's 1971 love song into a cheerful singalong, and it reached No. 4 in the UK in 1981. In the video the band plays underwater. The song reached No. 33 in America in 1983, and it is still a British wedding favourite.

16. Tom Sawyer — Rush

    Neil Peart wrote the words with poet Pye Dubois, about a modern rebel who thinks for himself. Geddy Lee's growling synthesizer was new for a rock band. It only reached No. 44 on the Hot 100, but it became Rush's signature song, and Moving Pictures reached No. 3.

17. Controversy — Prince

    Prince asks the questions people were asking about him: "Am I black or white? Am I straight or gay?" The title song of his fourth album reached No. 3 on the R&B chart. That October he opened for the Rolling Stones in Los Angeles and was booed off. A year later he made 1999.

18. Pretty in Pink — The Psychedelic Furs

    Richard Butler's sneering song about a girl everyone uses came from the band's second album, Talk Talk Talk. Director John Hughes loved it so much he named his 1986 film after it, and the band re-recorded it for the soundtrack. That version finally brought the song to America.

19. Ceremony — New Order

    Joy Division wrote this song and played it live before Ian Curtis died in May 1980. The three remaining members became New Order and released it as their first single in 1981. It is a bridge between the two bands, and a sign of the synth-pop to come.

20. It's Nasty (Genius of Love) — Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five

    The Furious Five rap over the groove from Tom Tom Club's "Genius of Love", released earlier the same year. It shows how quickly hip-hop turned the newest records into new songs. A year later the group made "The Message" and changed what rap could say.

21. Feels So Right — Alabama

    Alabama were the biggest country band of the 80s, with a run of more than 20 straight country No. 1s. This slow love song was one of them, and it also reached No. 20 on the Hot 100. It was the title song of the album that made them stars.

22. Working in the Coal Mine — Devo

    Devo turned Lee Dorsey's 1966 soul song into jerky robot pop for the animated film Heavy Metal. It reached No. 43 in the US in 1981, the year after "Whip It". Few bands could make an old song sound so strange and so catchy at the same time.