Blue Monday
1983
A die-cut sleeve modelled on a floppy disk, an Oberheim drum machine, and the best-selling twelve-inch single ever pressed.
★ 8.4
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1983
Showing 42 songs from 1983
Every Breath You Take
1983 · From Synchronicity
Sting woke at Fleming's Goldeneye with the melody; Summers cut that arpeggio in one take and made surveillance sound tender.
★ 8.2
Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
1983
Recorded on a secondhand eight-track in a Chalk Farm attic, and an American number one by September.
★ 7.9
This Charming Man
1983
Marr stacked roughly fifteen guitar tracks and dropped a knife on the strings; Morrissey lifted a line from Sleuth.
★ 7.8
Girls Just Want to Have Fun
1983
Robert Hazard wrote it in 1979 from a man's point of view, and Lauper flipped it into female solidarity.
★ 7.7
Let's Dance
1983 · From Let's Dance
Nile Rodgers on rhythm guitar, an unknown Stevie Ray Vaughan on lead, and Bowie's biggest-selling single by a distance.
★ 7.7
Sucker MC's
1983 · From Run-D.M.C.
An Oberheim drum machine, a few scratches, and two voices. Everything before it suddenly sounded old school.
★ 7.6
Sunday Bloody Sunday
1983 · From War
Mullen's marching snare was cut at the foot of a Windmill Lane stairwell, and Bono insisted it was no rebel song.
★ 7.6
White LinesGrandmaster Flash
White Lines
1983
Doug Wimbish replayed Liquid Liquid's Cavern bassline, Melle Mel wrote the warning, and Flash's name went on the label anyway.
★ 7.3
Burning Down the House
1983 · From Speaking in Tongues
Frantz came home from a Parliament-Funkadelic show chanting it, and Byrne built the band's only American top ten.
★ 7.3
Blister in the Sun
1983
Busking outside a Milwaukee theatre got them discovered by the Pretenders, and Gano's riff has been filling dancefloors ever since.
★ 6.8
Ain't NobodyChaka Khan
Ain't Nobody
1983
Wolinski's synth loop, his threat to hand the song to Quincy Jones instead, and Khan sailing clean over it.
★ 6.8
Amarillo By Morning
1983
Stafford's idea, Fraser's overnight lyric, and a fiddle arrangement that rodeo crowds took for their own.
★ 6.8
New Year's Day
1983 · From War
A bass line Clayton stumbled on while decoding Visage's Fade to Grey, then Bono aimed the words at Poland's Solidarity.
★ 6.8
Between the Sheets
1983
Chris Jasper's keyboards and drum machine, Ronald Isley at his silkiest, and the loop under "Big Poppa".
★ 6.6
All Night Long (All Night)
1983
Those African-sounding chants are invented gibberish; Richie had no time for a translator and no reason to care.
★ 6.5
Pancho and Lefty
1983 · From Pancho & Lefty
Nelson cut his part after midnight, fetched Haggard from his bus, and kept the one take Haggard wanted redone.
★ 6.5
Holiday (Madonna)Madonna
Holiday (Madonna)
1983 · From Madonna
Mary Wilson and Phyllis Hyman turned it down; Benitez cut it at Sigma Sound in a week, cowbell included.
★ 6.2
Against All Odds
1983
A Face Value outtake with new lyrics for Taylor Hackford's film, and Collins's first American number one.
★ 6.0
Pink Houses
1983 · From Uh-Huh
Mellencamp waved at a man sitting outside a pink shotgun house near the highway, and wrote America's most misread chorus.
★ 5.9
Separate Ways
1983
Cain and Perry wrote it backstage during the Escape tour, melody one evening and lyrics the next afternoon.
★ 5.9
99 LuftballonsNena
99 Luftballons
1983
Karges saw balloons released at a 1982 Rolling Stones show in Berlin and imagined them crossing the Wall.
★ 5.8
Cruel SummerBananarama
Cruel Summer
1983
Jolley and Swain built it around oppressive heat, and The Karate Kid carried it into the American top ten.
★ 5.7
Love is a Battlefield
1983
Holly Knight and Mike Chapman wrote it as a ballad; Neil Giraldo's drum machines turned it into dance-rock.
★ 5.7
Flashdance...What a Feeling
1983
Cara and Forsey wrote most of the lyric in a cab to the studio; six weeks at number one followed.
★ 5.6
Lucky Star
1983 · From Madonna
Written on a Casiotone the DJ Mark Kamins gave her, finished by Jellybean Benitez, and Madonna's first top five.
★ 5.5
Footloose
1983
Pitchford wrote the screenplay first, then the lyrics; Loggins supplied the tune and his only number one.
★ 5.5
Karma Chameleon
1983
Judd Lander's harmonica, six weeks at number one in Britain, and Boy George singing about pleasing everybody.
★ 5.1
Uptown Girl
1983 · From An Innocent Man
Joel chasing Frankie Valli's falsetto and the Four Seasons' bounce; five weeks at number one, his only UK chart-topper.
★ 5.1
Jump (For My Love)
1983
Marti Sharron said the writers jumped around at the playback and named it for that; June Pointer does the rest.
★ 4.8
Fascination
1983 · From Fascination!
Martin Rushent's last Human League production for seven years, with four band members trading lines over a restless synth hook.
★ 4.7
Red Red Wine
1983
UB40 knew only Tony Tribe's reggae cover, saw "N Diamond" on the label, and guessed a Jamaican singer.
★ 4.5
Hold Me NowThompson Twins
Hold Me Now
1983
Three days at RAK Studios in London, a row patched up, and marimbas in place of the usual dance-floor sheen.
★ 4.5
Candy Girl
1983
Maurice Starr built New Edition as an answer to the Jackson 5, and this hit number one in Britain.
★ 4.2
Always Something There to Remind MeNaked Eyes
Always Something There to Remind Me
1983
Bacharach and David's 1964 ballad rebuilt in synthesizers at Abbey Road, and by Byrne's account the vocal took one take.
★ 4.2
Mr. RobotoStyx
Mr. Roboto
1983
DeYoung wrote it for a rock opera about outlawed music; Stan Winston designed the suit, the vocoder did the rest.
★ 4.1
Safety DanceMen Without Hats
Safety Dance
1983
Doroschuk wrote it after a bouncer threw him out for pogo dancing, and Tim Pope filmed maypoles in Wiltshire.
★ 4.1
Maniac
1983
A slasher-film joke rewritten on Phil Ramone's orders into Flashdance's training montage, and two weeks at number one.
★ 4.0
One Thing Leads to Another
1983
Curnin called it an indictment of dishonest politicians, Rupert Hine produced it, and America took it to number four.
★ 3.8