Don’t You Want Me - The Human League
Sometimes - Erasure
Embarassment - Madness
I Want To Know What Love Is - Foreigner
And my all time favourite…
It Must Be Love - Madness
cowgirl, I’m pretty sure Alive and Kicking was sung by Simple Minds, but I could be wrong.
I gotta weigh in on this one.
People Who Died- The Jim Carroll Band
Red Rain- Peter Gabriel
Pretty in PinkPsychedelic Furs
I Confess- English Beat
Clampdown- The Clash
yeah, I know, i’m a real cheery person.
I’m assuming you’re talking about songs we actually like, not just songs that take us back to high school, right? Because most of the songs that instantly take me back to the 80’s take me back to places I don’t wanna go. (e.g. Karma Chameleon). But if it’s songs I still kind of like:
My five favorites:
Songs that really evoke the eighties for me would be those by Eurythmics, Duran Duran, Human League, Depeche Mode, etc.
I was a teen at the end of the 80s. It was mostly in the last year of that decade that I started to develop my own musical identity. Here are my five favs:
Siouxsie & The Banshees - Last Beat Of My Heart
Nine Inch Nails - Something I Can Never Have
Jane’s Addiction - Mountain Song
Ministry - So What
Nirvana - Love Buzz
Okie lady,
Hazy Shade of Winter- Bangles, was a cover song from Simon and Garfunkel.
If I go the metal/hardcore route, there are a lot of others.
Necromantical Screams - Celtic Frost
Reign in Blood - Slayer (late 80’s)
That Vampire song on the Rage to Order (can’t remember the name)- Queensryche
Second for “Kill the Poor” - The Dead Kennedys. (That and the Pol Pot song)
London Dungeon - Misfits
And too many others to list.
Pour Some Sugar On Me - Def Leppard
Sweet Child O’ Mine - G N F’n Roses
Karma Kameleon - Culture Club
Blister in the Sun - Violent Femmes
The Wall (whole album) - Pink Floyd
I know it’s a 70’s song/album, but in terms of the movie, it’s 80’s
Sex Dwarf - Soft Cell
There is a light that never goes out - The Smiths
Love Missile F1-11 - Sigue Sigue Sputnik
Enola Gay - OMD
Take on Me - A-HA
Hard to cover a lot of bases with only five songs … but let’s see:
Kyrie - Mister Mister
The Breakup Song (They Don’t Write 'em) - Greg Kihn Band
Hot for Teacher - Van Halen
TV Party - Black Flag
It Takes Two - Rob Base
Don’t forget Der Kommisar from Falco.
How about five that fit that “80’s sound”?
JOY DIVISION - Love Will Tear Us Apart
THE PRETENDERS - My City Was Gone
PAUL YOUNG - I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS - I’m An Adult Now
THE REPLACEMENTS - Alex Chilton
And five that don’t but were released in the 80’s…
ZEBRA - Take Your Fingers From My Hair
JOHN FOGERTY - Mr Greed
JOE WALSH - The Confessor
KBC BAND - America
ROBBIE ROBERTSON - Somewhere Down The Crazy River
A mixed bag -
If You Leave - Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark …memories of watching my high school crush dancing to this song
Girls on Film - Duran Duran …memories of spending our lunchbreaks poring over our Duran Duran scrapbooks. Ooh! Roger Taylor!
Fast Car - Tracy Chapman …memories of me coming out to my best friend
Livin’ on a Prayer - Bon Jovi …memories of bad poodle hair
I’ve Had the Time of My Life - Jennifer Warnes and erm, I forgot …memories of riding the bus to school past my crush’s house, hoping she’d get on it and sit next to me.
Sigh…I’m all wistful now.
That should be Jennifer Warnes and Bill Medley.
And I will also throw in -
Opportunities - Pet Shop Boys
Let’s Dance - David Bowie
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper
Cruel Summer - Bananarama
The Perfect Way - Scritti Politti (ooh, remember them?)
Jeopardy - Greg Kihn
And We Danced - The Hooters
Run Runaway - Slade
Rock Me Amadeus - Falco
Relax - Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Syl - child of the 80’s (and has the vinyl and cassette collection to prove it)
You know - there are some really great songs posted on this thread. It was very hard to limit it down to the top 5.
Thanks! 
The The Talking Heads did Burning Down the House
Mmmm… Journey Good choice.
Thank you so much! I just couldn’t think of it. All I could think of was David Byrne!
Depeche Mode- Shake the Disease
The Smiths- There is a Light and it never goes out
Joy Division- Transmission
New Order- True Faith
Front242- Masterhit