Readers' Poll: The 10 Worst Songs of the 1980s

rolling stone ^ | 10/6/2011 | Andy Greene

[SoFloFreeper]

A few weeks ago we asked our readers to vote for their least favorite songs from the 1990s, so it was the obvious next move to dial it back 10 years and see what you guys hated in the 1980s. The results are sure to infuriate a lot of people. For the record, I personally disagree with most of these selections. In fact, I love a lot of these songs...

10. Rick Astley - 'Never Gonna Give You Up'...

9. Taco - 'Puttin' On The Ritz'...

8. Toni Basil - 'Mickey'...

7. Bobby McFerrin - 'Don't Worry Be Happy'...

6. Falco - 'Rock Me Amadeus'...

5. Men Without Hats - 'The Safety Dance'...

4. Wham! - 'Wake Me Up (Before You Go Go)'....

3. Chris de Burgh - 'Lady In Red'....

2. Europe - 'The Final Countdown'...

1. Starship - 'We Built This City'...

[dfwgator]

Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder

I like the Sinatra version better.



You are black and I am white
You are blind as a bat
And I have sight.
Side by side, you are my amigo,
Negro, let's not fiiiiiiiight!

[Calvin Locke]

10. Rick Astley - 'Never Gonna Give You Up'... Don't remember it

You managed to avoid being Rick-rolled twenty years later?

[Governor Dinwiddie]

Tears For Fears - "Everybody Wants To Rule The World"

Drives me up the wall.

[Alberta's Child]

I like quite a few tunes from the 1980s, but I agree with you general sentiment.

This might be an exception, though ...

Probably the most underrated tune of the 1980s -- with a fantastic set of guitar lines for any era:

Def Leppard: Hysteria

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Rick Astley’s song wasn’t so bad, but the choreography of the video was hilarious. He gave white guys dancing a bad name.

[Flag_This]

I heard the director of that video called it “Ode to an armpit.”

[dfwgator]

Tawny Kitaan is the hot actress who danced on the car throughout the video.

She was also in "Bachelor Party" as Tom Hanks' fiancée.

[mellow velo]

Safety Dance used to pack the dance floors in the mid-80s at the Jersey shore meat markets .. I mean dance clubs! It was tolerable for that reason only.

If I never hear Come On Eileen again, it'll be too soon.

[Chode]

sorry, it wasn't Starship's best work, but it was FAR from the top ten worst out of ten years...

[Fido969]

Oh, come on. No Steve Miller? “Keep on a rocking me baby?” John Mellonhead - “Jack and Diane”? There is so much crappy pop music from the 80s.

It’s a bottomless pit of bad music.

[EEGator]

The chick that dances on the Jaguars...Tawny Kitaen!

[Alberta's Child]

You could put together a list of at least 50 songs that were OK — even great — on their own but were ruined for eternity by awful videos. LOL.

[dfwgator]

[Still Thinking]

Despise Puttin on the Ritz. Actually kinda like Don’t Worry be Happy. If I never heard Careless Whisper again, you woudn’t hear me complaining. Not a big fan of what I called “black, girl music”, because the performers were all black females and because the music was targeted to females. Tons of artists had pretty indistinguishable styles and it was girl music to boot, so not real appealing.

[BenLurkin]

[dfwgator]

4. Wham! - 'Wake Me Up (Before You Go Go)'....

Knew right away after watching that video for the first time that George Michael was a poofter.

[guitar Josh]

I didn't think it was that bad. Lyrically, including the traffic report, it is horrible, but the music and melody weren't bad.

[Still Thinking]

Yeah, that was pretty bad.

[dfwgator]

What makes it worse is considering that for the most part these were the same guys that did “White Rabbit”, “Somebody to Love” and “Miracles”.

How do you go from those songs to THAT?

[chuckee]

Anything by Stevie Wonder, George Michael or Michael Jackson.