My Favorite Album From Each Year of My Life #2: The Awesome 80s!
Including what may possibly be the best Spotify playlist ever
Just about anyone who knows my musical tastes probably knows that the 1980s is my favorite decade for music. I talk about it a lot, I write about it a lot, and I drive my wife and our cat crazy with all of the 80s music that I constantly play in our home.
Because of my deep love of music from then, choosing one favorite album from each year of the 1980s was not an easy task. I spent a lot of time making very long lists of my favorites from each year. I then narrowed each list down to six albums, choosing one favorite and five runners-up/honorable mentions.
I then changed my mind several times. Over and over again.
I tried to avoid repeating artists for “the top spots” and also tried to avoid any ties. I did okay with not repeating artists, but I did up end with a couple of ties toward the end of the decade.
I’m going to shut my mouth here (for the most part) and let the music do the talking. I’m going to highlight two great songs from each of my favorite albums: one “hit” and one less popular song that people may not know unless they’re already familiar with the album it came from.
Songs from the honorable mentions (and many other albums from the 1980s that I love) are included in the Spotify playlist at the end of this article.
NOTE: As I wrote in Part #1 of this series, in which I chose my favorites from the 1960s and 1970s, I’m not trying here to represent the “best” albums according to critics, album sales, Grammy awards, etc. These are simply my own personal favorites that I love and still listen to regularly.
I was actually a little surprised by some of my choices for my favorites from each year. For example, when I sat down to write this, I thought for sure that Jackson Browne’s Hold Out would be my choice for 1980 and Asia’s Asia would be my choice for 1982 — but they weren’t, even though I deeply love both of them. The same thing happened to me with albums from two or three other years from the decade. My “sure things” changed for them too.
The reason for this is because I decided to make my main deciding factor be this: go with the albums that I return to more frequently than any of the others. I told myself to not base my decisions on how I felt about them in the 80s or how often I played them back then — but on how I feel about them now and how often I play them now.
I may love all of the other albums too, but how often do I actually still listen to them? I told myself to choose the ones that I listen to the most in this current period of my life.
And that’s what I did.
So, let’s go!
1980: Voices — Daryl Hall and John Oates
Honorable Mentions: Pretenders by Pretenders, Glass Houses by Billy Joel, Hold Out by Jackson Browne, Kings of The Wild Frontier by Adam and the Ants, and Hi Infidelity by REO Speedwagon.
1981: Working Class Dog — Rick Springfield
Honorable Mentions: Beauty and the Beat by The Go-Go’s, Bad for Good by Jim Steinman, Escape by Journey, Songs In the Attic by Billy Joel, and I Love Rock ‘N Roll by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts.
1982: High Adventure — Kenny Loggins
Honorable Mentions: Asia by Asia, Tug of War by Paul McCartney, Friend or Foe by Adam Ant, All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes by Pete Townshend, H2O by Daryl Hall and John Oates.
1983: She’s So Unusual — Cyndi Lauper
Honorable Mentions: Frontiers by Journey, Strip by Adam Ant, Faster Than The Speed of Night by Bonnie Tyler, Alpha by Asia, and Living In Oz by Rick Springfield.
1984: 1984 — Van Halen
Honorable Mentions: The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking by Roger Waters, Big Bam Boom by Daryl Hall and John Oates, Footloose (Soundtrack), Vulture Culture by The Alan Parson Project, All Over The Place by The Bangles, and Diamond Life by Sade.
1985: Invasion of Privacy — Ratt
Honorable Mentions: Tao by Rick Springfield, That’s Why I’m Here by James Taylor, Play Deep by The Outfield, Under A Raging Moon by Roger Daltrey, and White City: A Novel by Pete Townshend.
1986: Raised on Radio — Journey
Honorable Mentions: Fore by Huey Lewis and The News, Look What The Cat Dragged In by Poison, Lives In The Balance by Jackson Browne, Dancin’ Undercover by Ratt, Balance of Power by Electric Light Orchestra.
1987: Tango in the Night — Fleetwood Mac
Honorable Mentions: …Nothing Like The Sun by Sting, Faith by George Michael, The Lost Boys (Soundtrack), A Momentary Lapse of Reason by Pink Floyd, Kick by INXS.
1988: A Tie!
The Traveling Wilburys — The Traveling Wilburys
And…
New Jersey — Bon Jovi
Honorable Mentions: Soul Searchin’ by Glenn Frey, Rock of Life by Rick Springfield, American Dream by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Forever Your Girl, and Never Die Young by James Taylor
1989: Another tie!
Cosmic Thing — The B-52’s
And…
The Other Side of the Mirror — Stevie Nicks
Honorable Mentions: The Seeds of Love by Tears for Fears, Cycles by The Doobie Brothers, Full Moon Fever by Tom Petty, Def, Bumb, & Blonde by Debbie Harry, and Can’t Fight Fate by Taylor Dayne
And here’s my Spotify playlist of songs from my favorite albums from the 1980s. As I said above, this includes music from the albums I’ve already mentioned in the article, but also from many other albums that I love from the 80s.
If you plan on listening to this, give yourself a little time. It features 400 songs and is over 28 hours long.
Enjoy!
Thank you to Paul Combs for creating this great writing challenge for music lovers!
If you’re a music lover and you’re interested in doing it too, check out Paul’s original article about it:
And here are my choices from the same period:
Thank you for reading! If you’d like to connect with me outside of Medium, you can also find me on X, Substack, YouTube, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, and Goodreads. I’m also the host of the GOTTA POP podcast. Links to all of those things can be found here.
