My Top 50 Alternative Singles of the 1980s
Every time I've made genre lists for the last few decades, I've used "rock/alternative" as my awkward umbrella term for everything rock and everything that was considered "alternative" but wasn't necessarily guitar-based. The '80s were the one time when there was kind of a identifiable line between mainstream rock and things that had a punk or new wave lineage, though, so I decided to make two separate lists this one time. It's still blurry here and there and I had to make some editorial decisions: Tom Petty and Cheap Trick fall on the "mainstream rock" side, and The Police and U2 are on the "alterative" side. That's partly down to the Transatlantic cultural divide: only 18 of these 50 songs are by fully American acts, with the rest mostly from England and sometimes Ireland or Scotland or Australia or New Zealand.
1. Violent Femmes - "Blister In The Sun" (1983)
Ever since I realized that the debuts by Violent Femmes and R.E.M. were both released in April 1983, it's felt like that's the unofficial starting point of the golden age of "college rock," the era when college radio stations started to create a real groundswell for alternative rock that hadn't yet broken into commercial radio. Violent Femmes finally went platinum in 1991, and for most of the '90s four different songs were in steady rotation on alternative radio. Nowadays, only the biggest of those songs, "Blister In The Sun," still really lingers, but it always feels like a welcome vestige of a singular moment, an acoustic punk record from Wisconsin that seemed to come from nowhere and remains an outlier on a list full of distortion pedals and synths.
2. The Cure - "Just Like Heaven" (1987)
Back when rock was a more commercially dominant genre, a band could get away waiting almost a minute until bringing the vocals in if the instrumental intro was compelling enough. Sometimes that means something really flashy like the "Sweet Child o' Mine" lead guitar, but The Cure had a knack for slowly layering instruments to build the mood before Robert Smith would say a word. And all 49 seconds of "Just Like Heaven" before Smith sings are perfectly paced, one indelible instrumental hook after another, like the cast of your favorite TV show walking in the room, one at a time. Fittingly, there's a radio show named after "Just Like Heaven" that centers on alternative rock of the '80s and '90s. Bafflingly, there's a music festival named after "Just Like Heaven" that centers on alternative rock of the early 2000s.
3. Talking Heads - "Once In A Lifetime" (1981)
A kaleidoscopic and polyrhythmic move away from their rock quartet origins, Remain In Light probably could've been the bad career move that pushed Talking Heads further away from the mainstream after making major inroads on their first 3 albums. But they shot an unforgettable video for Remain's catchiest song mere months before the debut of MTV, directed by fellow early MTV darling Toni Basil, and it became a signature song for the band, one of the tracks that made their feature film stardom in Stop Making Sense possible. A couple years ago I was listening to the live version of "Once In A Lifetime" on The Name of This Band is Talking Heads in my car and I thought "what if I turned off the CD and this song was on the radio right now?" and I did, and it was.
4. R.E.M. - "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" (1987)
There were several times in R.E.M.'s career when they punctured their Southern gothic mystique with big, bright hooks and sometimes silly lyrics that could've derailed their fairly flawless ascent to becoming one of the most respected bands in America and role models for models for how a band can go mainstream and still be considered "alternative." "The One I Love" probably had to hit first for "It's The End Of The World" to not turn them into a goofy one hit wonder, but I really do love this absurdly wordy anthem.
5. Kate Bush - "Running Up That Hill" (1985)
I didn't hear "Running Up That Hill" on the radio regularly until 2022, but it was already a genuine classic and the biggest hit by the queen of art rock before that, and I'm glad it feels more like a no-brainer to rank it here than it would've pre-"Stranger Things."
6. Jane's Addiction - "Mountain Song" (1988)
I don't know if we'd remember Jane's Addiction as such a pivotal band in the rise of alternative rock in the late '80s and early '90s if someone besides Perry Farrell had come up with the Lollapalooza festival. But their enshrined place in that era feels right, because Jane's had a bit of hair metal in their DNA along with the goth punk weirdo constituency, and it all comes together in such a magnificent roar on "Mountain Song."
7. Devo - "Whip It" (1980)
Devo were as much an idea as a band, and they made pamphlets and a short film, and even attracted the attention of people like David Bowie and Neil Young, before they'd made an album. I can see where there may have been doubts early on that they could be a proper rock band that sold records -- Richard Branson, whose Virgin Records distributed Devo's debut album in Europe, actually attempted to install John Lydon as Devo's frontman after the breakup of the Sex Pistols. But Devo quickly became an amazing band, and those first three records in particular are just monsters, culminating in Freedom of Choice, and "Whip It" becoming a genuine hit single before anyone knew it would be the band's breakout song. By the way, John Cena does a really impressive dick-themed cover of "Whip It" in the new movie Ricky Stanicky, highly recommended.
8. The Human League - "Don't You Want Me" (1982)
The "Second British Invasion," in which "Don't You Want Me" was the first in an avalanche of American #1 hits by British groups in the early '80s, was I think the butterfly effect of punk being a much bigger mainstream phenomenon in the UK in 1977 than it ever was in the U.S., leading to new wave and post-punk and eventually even very arch synth pop like the Human League, which I don't think I would've clocked as "alternative" when I was a kid and that mostly meant loud guitars.
9. Modern English - "I Melt With You" (1983)
The weirdest thing about "I Melt With You" is that it actually reached its highest chart peak in the '90s, when one of the most '80s-sounding songs was re-released in 1990. The second weirdest thing about "I Melt With You" is that I picture Fred Durst, not the members of Modern English, when I hear it.
10. U2 - "New Year's Day" (1983)
I usually repeat artists here and there in these top 50 lists when certain acts were major figures in the period/genre I'm covering, but there was just so much ground to cover here that I couldn't bring myself to. And it's pretty tough picking one top '80s U2 song, but War really feels like their biggest growth spurt, a moment where they really became U2 and all four members were suddenly really good at their roles in the group.
11. They Might Be Giants – “Don’t Let’s Start” (1987)
I feel like my selections near the top of this list have sort of unintentionally highlighted this divide in '80s new wave and alternative, which consisted of some extremely cool, brooding romantic people in the UK, and some of the goofiest nerds you've ever seen in the U.S. Early They Might Be Giants had some of the coolest, most detailed drum machine programming of '80s alt-rock, it was always really dynamic and more like the parts a live drummer would come up with.
12. INXS - "Don't Change" (1982)
So many of INXS's hits are impossibly sleek and groove driven songs with lots of saxophone, but I also come back a lot to this surging anthem, which beats a lot of the best bands of the '80s at their own game.
13. Soft Cell - "Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go?" (1981)
Gloria Jones's "Tainted Love" flopped in the '60s, was championed as a beloved obscurity by British 'Northern soul' clubbers in the '70s, and refracted through the synth pop cabaret sound of Soft Cell as a worldwide hit in the '80s, a fascinating arc.
14. The B-52s - "Love Shack" (1989)
I was born in '82, and "Love Shack" is more or less the only song on this list that I can remember hearing when it was new. I fucking loved it as a little 7 or 8-year-old, and I probably love it even more now, as a song and within the entirety of the B-52's catalog.
15. Pet Shop Boys - "West End Girls" (1986)
I didn't set out to put three of the most outwardly queer acts on the list right in a row like this, but after I realized it, I decided to let it stay (and it shouldn't surprise me as much as it did to see that Neil Tennant and Fred Schneider didn't officially "come out" until the '90s, because I remember how horribly homophobic the '80s were).
16. Sonic Youth - "Teen Age Riot" (1988)
"Teen Age Riot" scraped the lower reaches of Billboard's Modern Rock chart shortly after it was introduced in 1988, but as the opening song of perhaps the greatest rock album of the '80s, Daydream Nation, the song holds a certain power far beyond its pop culture footprint.
17. Tears For Fears - "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" (1985)
Although "Head Over Heels" hooked me first, I have no problem with "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" being the Tears For Fears songs that remains ubiquitous year after year. I got to interview Roland Orzabal and Curtis Smith a couple years ago, after listening to their music for practically my entire life, and that was pretty cool, they're nice guys.
18. Eurythmics - "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)" (1983)
Just as Orzabal and Smith played in a mod revival band called Graduate before getting keyboards and starting Tears For Fears, Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart made three rock albums with The Tourists before they got a synth and became a duo that would top the charts. "Sweet Dreams" is so overplayed that some days I don't want to hear it at all, but when it hits, it hits.
19. The Clash - "Rock The Casbah" (1982)
"Rock The Casbah" is another one of those songs that is so overplayed that I wasn't sure I loved it enough to include, but there's some incredibly cool stuff going on in the mix. And I love that it's such a collaborative effort -- most of the music created by Topper Headon during a slow day in the studio, Joe Strummer verses, and a Mick Jones chorus. There are a handful of bands where I wish I could go back and keep their classic lineup together for a few years, just to see what else they might have accomplished, and The Clash are definitely high on that list, imagine if Jones and Headon hadn't been pushed out and they created a true follow-up to Combat Rock instead of Cut The Crap.
20. Billy Idol - "Dancing With Myself" (1981)
Lots of first wave punk rockers eventually became pop stars in some fashion, but Billy Idol, who was a member of Chelsea and Generation X in 1976 as well as part of the original core Sex Pistols following, spent the '80s as kind of a cartoon character Elvis Presley version of a punk rocker and a Top 40 chart mainstay. I think his music and his whole goofy persona is pretty awesome, especially on "Dancing With Myself," the Generation X song that launched his solo career.
21. Dexys Midnight Runners - "Come On Eileen" (1983)
The song that was #1 in America between "Billie Jean" and "Beat It" is the kind of everything-at-once celtic punk folk soul anthem that, like some of the other songs on this list, might feel too huge and ubiquitous to be really considered "alternative," but is one of those strange pop music triumphs that was only made possible with the doors opened by punk.
22. Suicidal Tendencies - "Institutionalized" (1984)
Supposedly the first hardcore song to be played on MTV and a staple on the trailblazing L.A. alternative station KROQ, "Institutionalized" is both hilariously quotable ("all I want is a Pepsi!") and a harrowing little one act play.
23. The Dead Milkmen - "Punk Rock Girl" (1989)
'80s college radio was a hotbed for novelty songs that had some kind of darkness or underground cachet to them, from Camper Van Beethoven's "Take The Skinheads Bowling" to The Nails' "88 Lines About 44 Women." And The Dead Milkmen were truly the kings of college radio novelty hits, from "Bitchin' Camaro" to "Punk Rock Girl," one of several songs on here like "Institutionalized" that I associate with the "Beavis and Butthead" commentary on the video.
24. The Cult - "She Sells Sanctuary" (1985)
The Cult had goth and post-punk roots, but by the time they made most of their well-known singles, I feel like they were pretty much just a straight-ahead riff rock band that happened to look pretty goth. Billboard began publishing a Dance Club Songs chart in 1976, and it's fascinating that songs like "She Sells Sanctuary" appeared on it in those years after the disco boom and before people stopped dancing to rock music. I've often wondered where she sells sanctuary. By the seashore, perhaps? Maybe not, it's hard to imagine these guys anywhere near a beach.
25. Squeeze - "Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)" (1980)
There are Squeeze fans that hate "Tempted," but not me, I think it's one of the handful of absolutely perfect songs that Chris Difford and Glen Tilbrook wrote. But if I have to pick their very best, I have to go with one of those more typical Squeeze tracks with Tilbrook singing lead.
26. Wang Chung - "Dance Hall Days" (1984)
Even when I was a little kid, "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" just seemed like an oppressively stupid, simple pop song. So I was pleasantly surprised when I grew up and realized that just a couple years earlier the same band made an incredibly smooth and suave song I'd savor every time I heard it. A group of white guys calling themselves Wang Chung -- definitely something you probably couldn't get away with today.
27. The Replacements - "Alex Chilton" (1987)
The Replacements are kind of the classic case study of a great band thriving at an indie level and then wilting a little once they reach the major label level and are expected to deliver something palatable for the mainstream, which happened a lot pre-Nirvana and only slightly less often post-Nirvana. But nearly all of the Replacements' major label singles, and really most of their major label songs, are pretty great, and "Alex Chilton" managed to be both a snappy radio-friendly song and a salute to the original frustrated cult hero rock star, Big Star's Alex Chilton.
28. A-ha - "Take On Me" (1985)
Another song that I might have ranked higher when I was younger, before my enthusiasm was dimmed by decades of bad covers and karaoke renditions. But I think my respect for the durability of "Take On Me" has strengthened a little by two of the biggest songs of the last five years, The Weeknd's "Blinding Lights" and Harry Styles's "As It Was," both using it as a clear template.
29. The Police - "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" (1981)
Most Police songs are all about the interplay between the three members, the way Stewart Copeland puts a spring in the step of Sting's melodies and Andy Summer sprinkles bright textures over them. But "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" is one of my favorites because of the way Jean Alain Roussel's piano takes center stage, while the core trio still plays brilliantly around and beneath it.
30. Big Country - "In A Big Country" (1983)
The idea that a Scottish band's guitars sort of sound like bagpipes is a cute signature, but as someone who adores the sound of bagpipes and also adores "In A Big Country," I kind of wish it had opened up a whole lot more guitar exploration in that direction, and there's so much other cool shit going on with this song, that big slapping drum sound and the little breakdowns.
31. The Pretenders - "Back On The Chain Gang" (1983)
The Pretenders' original quartet recorded two incredible albums in 1980 and 1981, and by the end of 1983, drugs had killed two members of the band. Moving on from that is hard to imagine. But Chrissie Hynde, who was three months pregnant, went into the studio with Martin Chambers after James Honeyman-Scott's death and before Pete Farndon's death, and recorded two incredible songs, "Back On The Chain Gang" and "My City Was Gone," with Big Country's Tony Butler on bass, that would help launch The Pterenders' unlikely second act.
32. Wall Of Voodoo - "Mexican Radio" (1983)
I always loved this song and meant to check out more Wall Of Voodoo, so I'm listening to Call Of The West right now and it's a pretty awesome album, I should have done this sooner, I love the whole combination of drum machines and synths with harmonicas and mystical southwestern vibes. Another alternative rock classic, Concrete Blonde's 1990 single "Joey," was written about Johnette Napolitano's relationship with Wall of Voodoo guitarist Marc Moreland.
33. Crowded House - "Don't Dream It's Over" (1987)
I think Neil Finn's one of the greatest songwriters in the world, and "Don't Dream It's Over" is just about the only time (along with, to a lesser extent, "I Got You" by Split Enz) that America really recognized his genius.
34. Depeche Mode – “People Are People” (1984)
It's funny to think that Depeche Mode are embarrassed by "People Are People" and haven't performed it in 35 years, but they still regularly do "Just Can't Get Enough." It's all bubblegum relative to the rest of their catalog, I suppose, but I like both songs.
35. General Public - "Tenderness" (1984)
On paper, General Public look like the most promising supergroup of the mid-'80s, boasting members of The (English) Beat, Dexys Midnight Runners, The Specials and The Clash (Mick Jones left the group pretty early on, but plays guitar on some tracks including "Tenderness").
36. The Pixies - "Here Comes Your Man"
For a couple years I had a stupid habit of buying CD singles and EPs to sort of test out bands I was curious about, and in the mid-'90s when every cool band was namechecking The Pixies, I bought the "Here Comes Your Man" single and was totally underwhelmed by this bright, goofy song. A couple years later, I heard Come On Pilgrim and got on board with what The Pixies actually sounded like, though, and now I appreciate "Here Comes Your Man"'s place in the band's catalog.
37. The Ramones - "We Want The Airwaves" (1981)
I remember being surprised to hear that The Ramones were frustrated by years of trying and failing to land a big mainstream hit -- why would the ultimate punk band, with a loyal worldwide cult, care about such things? Now, though, I get it -- by the early '80s, so many of the Ramones' CBGBs contemporaries and UK acolytes had scored big hit singles on the pop charts, and there's so much bubblegum pop in the Ramones' musical DNA that they had a right to feel like they had a shot. And of course, it eventually happened to the point that I hear "I Wanna Be Sedated" and "Blitzkrieg Bop" on the radio regularly, but in '81, they were pissed, they wanted the airwaves, baby!
38. Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - "Bad Reputation" (1981)
With all the punk bands that got on mainstream radio in the '80s, often with more quirky pop styles like Blondie and Talking Heads, it feels notable that "Bad Reputation" is one of the only songs that actually sounds like a hard-charging punk song in the mold of the Ramones' debut that broke through on that level.
39. The Smiths - "How Soon Is Now?" (1985)
Music history is full of B-sides that upstaged A-sides, and I love how it illustrates the unpredictability of success. "How Soon Is Now?" just sounds so massive within the Smiths catalog that it still baffles me a little that they initially hit it on the B-side of "William, It Was Really Nothing," but within a year it triumphed.
40. Oingo Boingo - "Dead Man's Party" (1986)
Anytime I do a list looking back on music of past decades, there's a minefield of disgraced stars, but '80s alternative is relatively light on those kinds of stories. So I felt really massively disappointed in Danny Elfman when a couple of sexual harassment and assault lawsuits went public last year, he's made so much music I've enjoyed, and "Dead Man's Party" was one of my favorite '80s oldies that I was exposed to by WHFS in the '90s. But if I've got a shithead like Morrissey on here, I dunno, I guess Elfman can stay, but I'll still note that they apparently suck as people.
41. The Waterboys - "The Whole Of The Moon" (1986)
"Fisherman's Blues" was the song that got me into The Waterboys but I think now I prefer their other signature song, but both are amazing. Rest in peace to Karl Wallinger, who just passed away last month.
42. Fine Young Cannibals - "Good Thing" (1989)
I love that Fine Young Cannibals went to Baltimore and played "Good Thing" in Barry Levinson's Tin Men two years before the song topped the Hot 100. Great movie, by the way, check it out if you haven't.
43. Madness - "Our House" (1983)
The first time I heard this song was watching reruns of "The Young Ones," and when I heard "Our House," I still picture Madness throwing down their instruments and getting caught up in a brawl in the middle of the song.
44. The Waitresses - "Christmas Wrapping" (1981)
This song probably wouldn't exist without Blondie inventing white girl rap on "Rapture" a year earlier, but I prefer "Christmas Wrapping," it's one of my favorite holiday songs ever. Last year both Mars Williams, who played saxophone on "Christmas Wrapping," passed away just a few weeks before Christmas, as did Shane MacGowan, who wrote the other '80s alternative Christmas classic, "Fairytale Of New York."
45. Sinead O'Connor - "Mandinka" (1987)
I didn't hear much of Sinead O'Connor's first album when she was super famous in the '90s, but man, that record holds up, I wish she made a few more like that one.
46. David Bowie - "Ashes To Ashes" (1980)
"Ashes To Ashes" was sort of a blockbuster sequel to "Space Oddity" revisiting the Major Tom character, and it was treated as an event in the UK, where it went to #1, and had the most expensive music video ever made in the pre-MTV era. It's a genuinely strange-sounding song, though, especially that insane flanged piano riff, so I'm not surprised it missed the charts in America.
47. Peter Gabriel - "Games Without Frontiers" (1980)
Peter Gabriel was, along with Bowie, one of the few established rock stars that seemed to remain beloved and respected by the post-punk new wave crowd in the early '80s. And I can understand that, especially with Gabriel's third solo album, made when he was the first musician in the UK with a Fairlight CMI. A lot of '70s prog rockers got synths and tried to stay contemporary in the '80s, but Gabriel is one guy who didn't seem like he was just playing catch up but was actually ahead of the curve.
48. The Hooters - "And We Danced" (1985)
Another song kind of on the border between new wave and mainstream rock that I decided to include here just because I love it. The melodica doesn't get enough respect, I say.
49. New Order - "Bizarre Love Triangle" (1986)
Again, I have to show how much I'm a child of the '90s in that I knew Frente's cover of "Bizarre Love Triangle" before the original, but on some level I think hearing the lyric in a more delicate context endeared me to how hard the New Order version goes.
50. Simple Minds - "Don't You (Forget About Me)" (1985)
I roll my eyes when someone does a John Hughes homage with a "Don't You (Forget About Me)" needledrop in a movie or TV show every few months for the last couple decades, but now and again I remember how good this extremely overexposed song is.
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