The Best 80s Movie Soundtrack Songs

Ten songs that outlived the movies they were written to sell.

Entries
10
Category
Music
Updated
  1. A welding mask and leg warmers hanging on a chair in a steel mill, sparks flying behind.

    10. Flashdance... What a Feeling

    Irene Cara · 1983

    Music by Giorgio Moroder, lyrics by Cara and Keith Forsey, six weeks at No. 1 and the Oscar for Best Original Song. Cara had already sung the Fame theme. She remains the only person to make welding look like a career path for dancers.

  2. A barn dance floor in a small town with stacked hay bales, a red pair of sneakers and a single mirror ball.

    09. Footloose

    Kenny Loggins · 1984

    Loggins and screenwriter Dean Pitchford wrote it for a movie about a town that bans dancing, and it went to No. 1 for three weeks and got an Oscar nomination. Every wedding since has been a protest against a ban that ended in 1984.

  3. A boombox held up on a lawn outside a suburban house at night, one upstairs window lit.

    08. In Your Eyes

    Peter Gabriel · 1989

    A track off Gabriel's 1986 album So, made immortal three years later when John Cusack holds a boombox over his head outside Ione Skye's window in Say Anything. Re-released, it charted again. Romance has since involved a lot more speakers.

  4. A summer camp ballroom with a lake outside, a dance floor empty under paper lanterns and a watermelon on a chair.

    07. (I've Had) The Time of My Life

    Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes · 1987

    The Dirty Dancing finale, sung by a Righteous Brother and Jennifer Warnes, won the Oscar, the Golden Globe and a Grammy, and went to No. 1. A song released in 1987 for a movie set in 1963. Nobody in the Catskills minded the anachronism. Nobody at all.

  5. A sports car with gull-wing doors outside a small-town clock tower, a guitar amplifier sitting in the street.

    06. The Power of Love

    Huey Lewis and the News · 1985

    Written for Back to the Future, it became the band's first No. 1 and got an Oscar nod. In the film, Huey cameos as a judge who rejects Marty's band for playing too loud, and the song they're playing is this one. A man turning down his own hit, on purpose.

  6. Red boxing gloves hanging from a ringpost in an empty boxing ring, a single heavy bag swinging in the gym behind.

    05. Eye of the Tiger

    Survivor · 1982

    Queen wouldn't let Stallone use Another One Bites the Dust for Rocky III, so he asked Survivor, then at risk of being dropped, for something that hit like punches. Six weeks at No. 1 and a Grammy. Survivor have since spent decades suing politicians who play it.

  7. A fighter jet parked in a hangar at sunset, with a motorcycle and a pair of aviator sunglasses on the tarmac.

    04. Take My Breath Away

    Berlin · 1986

    Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock wrote it for Top Gun's love scenes, and a synth-pop band from Los Angeles took it to No. 1. It won the Oscar and the Golden Globe for Best Original Song. Volleyball, by contrast, got Kenny Loggins and no awards at all.

  8. A red rotary phone ringing on the desk of an old firehouse, a proton-pack-style backpack leaning on the wall.

    03. Ghostbusters

    Ray Parker Jr. · 1984

    Written in a few days, its call-and-response hook came from a late-night TV ad. Three weeks at No. 1 and an Oscar nomination. Huey Lewis sued over the resemblance to I Want a New Drug and settled out of court in 1985. You know who he was gonna call.

  9. A purple motorcycle parked by a bathtub full of rose petals with two white doves on the rim.

    02. When Doves Cry

    Prince · 1984

    The lead single from Purple Rain has no bass line, because Prince pulled it out at the last minute. It still spent five weeks at No. 1 and was Billboard's biggest single of 1984. The most famous missing instrument in pop history, and nobody noticed until he told them.

  10. A school library on a Saturday with chairs on tables, a detention sign-in sheet on the front desk and a wall clock.

    01. Don't You (Forget About Me)

    Simple Minds · 1985

    Keith Forsey wrote it for The Breakfast Club; Bryan Ferry, Billy Idol and Corey Hart all passed. Simple Minds refused too, until Jim Kerr's wife Chrissie Hynde talked him into it. It hit No. 1 in the US. A band that that didn't care about American teens, adopted by all of them.

Honorable mentions

  • A fighter jet catapulting off an aircraft carrier deck at dusk, steam rising from the deck.

    Danger Zone

    Kenny Loggins · 1986

    Another Moroder and Whitlock job for Top Gun, sung by the decade's soundtrack go-to over jets taking off a carrier deck. It went to No. 2 and has played over every fighter-jet montage since. Loggins had so many 80s soundtrack hits he gets a mention here too.

Dishonorable mentions

  • A tropical bar with a bottle-flipping counter, cocktail shakers and a paper umbrella drink overlooking a palm-lined beach.

    Kokomo

    The Beach Boys · 1988

    Written for Cocktail, it gave the Beach Boys their first No. 1 in 22 years, without Brian Wilson singing on it. The chorus lists real Caribbean places and one invented one. Cocktail won the Razzie for Worst Picture. Tropical drinks have never fully recovered.

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