The Awesome ’80s Party All Memorial Day Weekend Starts Friday
The Awesome '80s Party All Memorial Day weekend starts Friday at 2:00pm with Sarah Sullivan and continues through Memorial Day Monday until 7:00pm when the Night Shift airs with Craig Allen.
Here are the Top 10 Artist of the '80s according to Billboard data assembled by Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles book:
Women of the '80s:
#10 Donna Summer. After riding high in the '70s we get “She Works Hard for The Money” in the '80s
#9 Kim Carnes. “Bette Davis Eyes” was big enough to get her #9 on the list.
#8 Tina Turner. The 80’s was her 3rd decade in a row with hits. “What’s Love Got To Do With It” and “Better Be Good To Me” were some of her biggest.
#7 Cyndi Lauper. Her new east coast sound brought us “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and “Time after Time”
#6 Pat Benatar. Pat had her own look with bandana and “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”
#5 Olivia Newton-John. After movie success of “Grease” Olivia gave a great work out video to her “Physical” song.
#4 Sheena Easton. It didn’t hurt that she dated Prince for a while in the '80s. She debuted with Morning Train 9 to 5 and gets theme song for a Bond film “For Your Eyes Only.”
#3 Diana Ross. 3 decade of hits for her too after being huge with the Supremes in the '60s. “Upside Down” and “I’m Coming Out” two of her biggest and of course the duet with Lionel Richie.
#2 Whitney Houston. Talent runs in her family. And Whitney gave us so many #1’s in the '80s including “Saving All My Love For You”, “So Emotional” and “I Wanna Dance With Somebody”, but her biggest a remake of a Dolly Parton song “I Will Always Love You” happened in the '90s.
#1 Madonna. Talk about a trend setter – her look in “Desperately Seeking Susan” is still copied today. And the hits…”Like A Virgin”, “Lucky Star”, “Into The Groove” and more.
Male Artists of the '80s:
#10 Kenny Rogers. Kenny had Lionel Richie (also in the Top 10) to thank for some of his success with “Lady” and Dolly Parton for “Islands In The Stream”
#9 Stevie Wonder. Third decade of hits for Stevie too. “Ebony & Ivory” duet with Paul McCartney was one of his biggest this decade.
#8 John Cougar Mellencamp. He changed his name and still made the top 10. John is one of the most played Male artists on the radio too. “Jack & Diane” and “Hurts So Good” are anthems.
#7 Phil Collins. Phil made it as solo artist and doesn’t include all his hits for Genesis too. “In The Air Tonight” with his drums stands the test of time.
#6 Lionel Richie. He helped write songs for Kenny Rogers and did duets with Diana Ross “Endless Love”. Lionel was flying high in the '80s well before American Idol with hits like “All Night Long”, “Say You Say Me” and “Hello.”
#5 Elton John. Another artists with hits for 2 decade in a row. His first big hit of the '80s was “Little Jeanie” and one of his biggest “That’s What Friends Are For” with Dion & friends.
#4 Billy Joel. Another late '70s icon that had big hits into the '80s. “Uptown Girl” about Christie Brinkley and closing out the decade with “We Didn’t Start The Fire”
#3 George Michael. After hits as Wham in the early '80s, George did well as solo artist with “Faith” and “Father Figure.”
#2 Prince. Purple power did very well in the '80s starting with “1999” and ending the decade with “Bat Dance”
#1 Michael Jackson. His first #1 of the '80s was “Billie Jean” to “Beat It” to “Say Say Say” with Paul McCartney and ending the decade with #7 “Smooth Criminal.”
Groups and Duos of the '80s:
#10 Air Supply. This soft rock started off the decade with “Lost in Love”, “All Out of Love”, “Every Woman In The World” and “The One That You Love.”
#9 Bon Jovi. This Jersey Boy had several #1’s including “You Give Love A Bad Name” “Livin’ On A Prayer” and “Bad Medicine” to name a few.
#8 Jefferson Starship. Who knew that “We Built This City” would go so far?
#7 Chicago. Peter Cetera propelled this band in the '80s to several power ballads including “Hard To Say I’m Sorry” and “Hard Habit To Break.”
#6 Pointer Sisters. They start the decade with a pair of #2’s with “He’s So Shy” and “Slow Hand” and their last top 10 was “Neutron Dance” from Beverly Hills Cop.
#5 Duran Duran. The band so good you had to name it twice. They one of the 1st bands to benefit from a new music outlet called MTV. “Hungry Like The Wolf” got it started and then hit #1 with “The Reflex” and “A View To A Kill” from James Bond Movie.
#4 Journey. For radio airplay the #1 most play song of the '80s on the radio is the anthem “Don’t Stop Believin’” which believe it or not only hit #9 on the charts?
#3 Huey Lewis & The News. Second band in a row from the San Francisco Bay Area. Huey’s first #1 in the '80s was “The Power of Love” in 1985 and their last #1 was “Jacob’s Ladder.”
#2 Kool & The Gang. “Celebration” took the band to new heights in the '80s and is still played at every wedding reception today.
#1 Hall & Oates. This Philly duo continued their '70s success into the '80s with their first #1 “Kiss On My List” followed by “Private Eyes”, “I Can’t Go For That”, “Maneater” and “Out of Touch”