1983 Songs

The year of Thriller

Thriller was released at the end of 1982, but 1983 is the year it took over the world. "Billie Jean" and "Beat It" both went to No. 1, and the album produced seven Top 10 singles in all. This page covers 1983 song by song; for the decade as a whole, see our guide to the best 80s songs.

MTV had barely played Black artists before "Billie Jean". Once it did, the channel and the album fed each other. Then on May 16, the Motown 25 TV special showed Michael Jackson moonwalking for the first time, and 47 million viewers watched. By December, the 14-minute "Thriller" video had turned a music clip into a movie premiere.

The second British invasion

For the first time since the Beatles, British acts filled the American chart. Duran Duran, Culture Club, Eurythmics, the Police, Def Leppard, Naked Eyes and a dozen others rode MTV into American homes. Their videos were ready-made, and American radio followed where the channel led.

Synthesizers made the new sound possible. MIDI, a standard way for electronic instruments to talk to each other, was introduced in January 1983, and Yamaha's DX7 went on sale later that year. Follow that side of the story on our 80s new wave page.

Rock, rap and the new format

Quiet Riot's Metal Health became the first heavy metal album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in November, and Def Leppard's Pyromania was close behind. Hair metal had arrived. In New York, Run-D.M.C. released their first single, and hip-hop began moving from party records toward something harder.

The compact disc went on sale in the US in March 1983. Few people owned a player yet, but the clean digital shine of the decade's later records started here.

The hits you already know, and 22 more

The year's biggest hits, from "Every Breath You Take" and "Total Eclipse of the Heart" to "Islands in the Stream" and "Karma Chameleon", open the player above, and each one has its own write-up elsewhere on the site. The 22 songs below fill in the rest of 1983: more No. 1s, UK hits, heartland rock, country and the first steps of rap's new school.

Songs are filed by release year, so "Come On Eileen", released in 1982 and No. 1 in America in April 1983, is covered with the 80s one-hit wonders. Every pick follows our song selection rules. When you're done here, move on to the 1984 songs.

The Songs

1. Let's Dance — David Bowie

   Bowie hired Nile Rodgers of Chic to make him a hit, and Rodgers delivered a sleek dance-rock groove with a horn section and a stinging solo by the then-unknown Stevie Ray Vaughan. "Let's Dance" went to No. 1 in both the US and the UK, the biggest hit of Bowie's career.

2. Tell Her About It — Billy Joel

   Billy Joel's album An Innocent Man paid tribute to the pop of his teenage years, and this bouncy single borrowed the sound of the Motown girl groups. It went to No. 1 in September 1983. The video recreates an early-60s TV variety show, with a cameo from Rodney Dangerfield.

3. Electric Avenue — Eddy Grant

   Guyana-born Eddy Grant wrote this song about Electric Avenue in Brixton, London, after riots there in 1981. He played almost everything on the record himself. Its reggae-meets-synth-pop groove reached No. 2 in the US and No. 2 in the UK.

4. Little Red Corvette — Prince

   Prince's first Top 10 hit is a car-as-metaphor song with a slow-burning verse and a huge chorus. It reached No. 6 in 1983, and MTV played the video in heavy rotation, putting Prince in front of a mainstream audience a year before Purple Rain.

5. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' — Michael Jackson

   The opening track on Thriller is six minutes of restless, polyrhythmic funk. The famous closing chant, "Mama-say, mama-sa, ma-ma-ko-ssa", comes from Manu Dibango's 1972 hit "Soul Makossa". It was the fourth single from Thriller and reached No. 5.

6. King of Pain — The Police

   Sting wrote it in Jamaica after his marriage broke up, piling up images of suffering from a butterfly to a black spot on the sun. It reached No. 3 in the US and helped Synchronicity spend 17 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

7. Heart and Soul — Huey Lewis and the News

   Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn wrote it, and the band Exile recorded it first in 1981, but Huey Lewis and the News made it a hit. The chunky, mid-tempo groove and Lewis' everyman voice took it to No. 8, the first single from Sports, the album that made them stars.

8. Is There Something I Should Know? — Duran Duran

   Duran Duran released this as a stand-alone single in March 1983, and it entered the UK chart at No. 1. It reached No. 4 in America, where MTV was playing the band's videos non-stop. The line about "Please, please tell me now" was everywhere.

9. Church of the Poison Mind — Culture Club

   Helen Terry's gospel-powered backing vocal almost steals the song from Boy George. With its Motown beat and harmonica, it reached No. 2 in the UK and No. 10 in the US, a few months before "Karma Chameleon" made Culture Club one of the biggest bands in the world.

10. Always Something There to Remind Me — Naked Eyes

    Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote this song in the 60s. Naked Eyes, a duo from Bath, England, rebuilt it around a synthesizer and church bells. It reached No. 8 in the US and No. 8 in the UK.

11. Overkill — Men at Work

    Colin Hay wrote this song about sleepless nights and anxiety. It's quieter than "Down Under" and "Who Can It Be Now?", with a sad saxophone line from Greg Ham. It reached No. 3 in the US in 1983.

12. Straight from the Heart — Bryan Adams

    The Canadian rocker's first US Top 10 hit is a piano-led ballad that he wrote as a teenager. It reached No. 10 in 1983, from the album Cuts Like a Knife. A year later Reckless would make him a superstar.

13. That's All — Genesis

    Phil Collins and the band wanted a simple, Beatles-style song, and this laid-back shuffle became Genesis' first US Top 10 hit, reaching No. 6 early in 1984. It marked the moment the old progressive rock band became a pop act.

14. Pink Houses — John Mellencamp

    Released under the name John Cougar Mellencamp, "Pink Houses" is an honest look at small-town America, with its good and its bad. People often sing along to "Ain't that America" as if it's simple flag-waving. It reached No. 8 on the Hot 100.

15. Temptation — Heaven 17

    Heaven 17 grew out of the first Human League line-up, and this dramatic single paired Glenn Gregory with singer Carol Kenyon in a full-blown duet backed by an orchestra. It reached No. 2 in the UK in 1983 and is still their signature song.

16. Everything Counts — Depeche Mode

    With this single Depeche Mode found their darker side. The sampled sounds and a sour lyric about corporate greed pointed the way toward their later work. It reached No. 6 in the UK and became one of their most-played live songs.

17. The Lovecats — The Cure

    Robert Smith took a break from gloom to write this jazzy, finger-snapping song. It became The Cure's first UK Top 10 hit, reaching No. 7 in 1983, and showed how playful the band could be when it wanted to.

18. Sunday Bloody Sunday — U2

    The opening track on War marches in with Larry Mullen Jr.'s military drums and a lyric about the 1972 Bloody Sunday killings in Northern Ireland. The version filmed at Red Rocks, Colorado, in June 1983 made U2 famous for their live shows. War became their first UK No. 1 album.

19. Sucker M.C.'s (Krush-Groove 1) — Run-D.M.C.

    This B-side to "It's Like That" has no melody at all, just a drum machine and two voices trading lines. That bare sound was a revolution in 1983. It turned the page on the disco-based rap of the early 80s and started hip-hop's new school.

20. Looking for the Perfect Beat — Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force

    Arthur Baker and John Robie produced this follow-up to "Planet Rock", with the same electronic drums and even more synthesizers. Its title became a mission statement for DJs and producers, and electro's influence spread from the Bronx to Detroit and beyond.

21. Big Log — Robert Plant

    Led Zeppelin's singer went soft and moody on his second solo album, with a drum machine and a gentle, Spanish-flavoured guitar line. "Big Log" reached No. 11 in the UK and No. 20 in the US, his biggest solo hit to that point.

22. The Closer You Get — Alabama

    Alabama were the biggest band in country music in 1983, and this love song, the title track of their album, went to No. 1 on the country chart. The band's smooth harmonies over a soft-rock beat helped country cross over to pop fans.