I would nominate “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” except for its one single failing - no sax solo. I would argue that THE defining sound of the 80s was the sax solo. Once you start listening for it, it’s in everything from that time.
That’s because it doesn’t exist, no matter what you say.
Hmm, sax solos eh? In that case I nominate David Bowie’s “Modern Love”.
And very little synth.
Here are some:
“Politics of Dancing” by Re-Flex
“Whip It” Devo
It’s funny because 1980s music was diverse, but I guarantee this thread could turn into 500 pages and no one will mention artists like Anita Baker or songs such as “Lady in Red” by Chris DeBurgh or “Time of My Life” by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes, “Just the Two of Us” by Bill Withers.
And it took some two pages to mention big hair bands. But yes people associate synth, new wave, pop songs as “80’s”.
Huh, is this a whoosh or something?
That’s the first one that I thought of, too.
Wasn’t “I Think We’re Alone Now” a cover of a 60’s song? I only ever got “retro” out of it, rather than it screaming 1980’s.
“Heat is On” Glen Frey
“Love Shack” or better yet from 1980 “Private Idaho” B-52s
“Bette David Eyes” Kim Carnes
“Whisper to A Scream” Icicle Works
So many to be honest.
While made famous, and I daresay, overused in the 80s, the sax solo in pop music was rooted in the 1978 Gerry Rafferty hit “Baker Street”. Remember that one?
From Wikipedia:
[Raphael] Ravenscroft, a session musician, was in the studio to record a brief soprano saxophone part and suggested that he record the now-famous break using the alto saxophone he had in his car. The part led to what became known as “the ‘Baker Street’ phenomenon”, a resurgence in the sales of saxophones and their use in mainstream pop music and television advertising.
We can once again blame the 70s for something.
OP is right that it is 80’s which it is, but not the most 80s one. However it is a good example of a circa 1987 song, though not for the entire decade. Yes it was originally done by Tommy James and the Shondells.
Speaking of covers, how about “Tainted Love” by Soft Cell and “Always Something There to Remind Me” by Naked Eyes?
I mentioned it in post 46, but it was embedded within a spoiler box as the answer to a joke.
80s Country too, then
Keeny Rogers and Dolly: Islands In the Stream (1983?)
Randy Travis: Forever and Ever, Amen (1986?)
I’m guessing on the exact dates, but I know these were 80s. I think Barbara Mandrell’s I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool might just slip in at the beginning of the decade.
Please don’t make me visualize Billy Joel impressing his friends by wearing a Halston dress.
Don’t You Forget About Me and Beat It are good selections. I would throw Van Halen’s Jump in there as well.
“We Built This City (On Rock n’ Roll)”
“We’re Not Gonna Take it”.
Confession: most songs mentioned are on my iPod. 
Yes, I mentioned this in post #44.
I did kind of cheat and look up popular 80’s songs, and this one (which I have never heard of before) popped up as #1. I gave it a listen and nominated it.
Except that in Baker Street’s case, adding a sax solo was the perfect finishing touch to an already great song.
Something similar happened with Jacques Dutronc’s Il Est Cinq Heures Paris S’Eveille (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyNng8st5kU). The song was finished and recorded but he was unsatisfied with it. In another studio, flutist Roger Bourdin had just finished a recording session. He dropped by and added complex but totally improvised solos between each verses. They made the song: all of a sudden, you could see Paris slowly waking up in the early morning.
(Sorry for the hijack as it’s a 60s song but these are the two best examples I know of chance meetings that turned excellent songs into classics).
I guess I should have read all the lyrics… :smack:
Like U2, Michael Jackson had his own distinct sound. While he was bigger than practically anyone in the 1980s, he doesn’t really define an '80s sound, just his own. So I’d exclude MJ.
And J. Geils’ “Centerfold” would have fit in perfectly well if it had come out in, say, 1975.
I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned “Man in Motion” yet. Another '80s song from an '80s movie (St. Elmo’s Fire).
Never heard that one before. I’m gonna grin like a banshee the next time I hear that song on the radio.
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To be honest I first heard that song in the the early 2000s so I associate it with that era. It was in a Saturn commercial…
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And don’t forget it was in Napoleon Dynamite, too. It took me a while to realize that movie was not set in the 80s.
If you avoid synth pop, there’s always How Soon Is Now? by the Smiths, Can’t Hardly Wait by the Replacements, and Steppin’ Out by Joe Jackson. Something by Springsteen has to be on the list. Glory Days probably.