Born in the USA
1984 · From Born in the USA
Take four, April 1982, a Yamaha synth from Roy Bittan, and the most misheard chorus in American rock.
★ 8.7
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1984
Showing 42 songs from 1984
Like a Virgin
1984 · From Like a Virgin
A Steinberg and Kelly demo Rodgers disliked at first, six weeks at number one, and a seventeen-foot wedding cake.
★ 7.7
What's Love Got To Do With It
1984 · From Private Dancer
Cliff Richard turned it down, Bucks Fizz shelved it, and Turner at forty-four took it to number one.
★ 7.7
Careless Whisper
George Michael and Wham!
1984
Written at seventeen on a bus, scrapped at Muscle Shoals, saved by Steve Gregory's saxophone in one breath.
★ 7.5
Pride (In the Name of Love)
1984 · From The Unforgettable Fire
The Edge's chords came out of a soundcheck in Japan; Bono fixed the third verse's timeline on record only in 2023.
★ 7.3
The Boys of SummerDon Henley
The Boys of Summer
1984
Campbell built the track on a LinnDrum, Petty passed, and Henley wrote middle age onto somebody else's demo.
★ 7.3
Time After Time
1984
Lauper lifted the title from a TV Guide film listing, and Rob Hyman's harmony makes the chorus ache.
★ 7.2
Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
1984
Marr's melody came from a New York hotel room, the title from Sandie Shaw, and misery never sounded so cheerful.
★ 7.2
It's My Life (Talk Talk)
1984
A Tim Pope video with no lip-syncing, BBC wildlife footage, and Talk Talk's only American top forty.
★ 6.3
Everything She Wants
1984
Michael programmed the LinnDrum in an evening, wrote the vocal next morning, and turned marital dread into a groove.
★ 6.1
I Want to Break Free
1984 · From Greatest Hits
Deacon's song, Fred Mandel's Jupiter-8 solo in a single take, and a video of Queen in Coronation Street drag.
★ 6.0
Summer of 69
1984
A twelve-string riff swapped for six and doubled for thickness, then a chorus about a summer Adams never actually had.
★ 5.9
Hello
1984
Richie thought the opening line corny until Carmichael told him to finish it; six weeks at UK number one followed.
★ 5.9
You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)
1984
Seventeen weeks climbing to a UK number one, the first for Stock Aitken Waterman, and Burns devours it.
★ 5.8
HighwaymanWillie Nelson
Highwayman
1984 · From Highwayman
Jimmy Webb woke from a dream with four verses about one soul; Nelson, Kristofferson, Jennings and Cash took one each.
★ 5.8
Forever Young (Alphaville)Alphaville
Forever Young (Alphaville)
1984
Two days on a dance version, scrapped for synth pads and a Cold War fear of growing old.
★ 5.7
Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go
1984
Ridgeley scrawled a note to his parents, doubled a word by mistake, and George Michael built a number one on it.
★ 5.7
The Longest Time
1984 · From An Innocent Man
Every voice on the record is Joel's, stacked over Doug Stegmeyer's bass; doo-wop rebuilt by one man.
★ 5.6
I Want to Know What Love Is
1984
Jones wrote it alone at three in the morning, and the New Jersey Mass Choir carries the final chorus skyward.
★ 5.6
We're Not Gonna Take It
1984
Snider hung the melody on "O Come, All Ye Faithful," and the PMRC filed it under filth anyway.
★ 5.5
Roxanne, RoxanneUTFO
Roxanne, Roxanne
1984
Released as a B-side, produced by Full Force, and Roxanne rejecting all three MCs set off dozens of answer records.
★ 5.3
Self ControlLaura Branigan
Self Control
1984
Raf's Italo-disco original topped Italy's chart first; Friedkin directed Branigan's video and MTV demanded cuts before airing.
★ 5.3
Greatest Love Of All
1984 · From Whitney Houston
Linda Creed wrote the words while ill with cancer, and died weeks before Houston's version reached number one.
★ 5.2
Out of Touch
1984
A chorus Oates stumbled into on a synthesizer he could barely operate, and the duo's sixth and last number one.
★ 5.1
Run to You
1984
Blue Oyster Cult passed, .38 Special passed, and Adams kept the riff; the first full take made the record.
★ 4.8
I Just Called to Say I Love YouStevie Wonder
I Just Called to Say I Love You
1984 · From The Woman in Red
Wonder played every part himself, won the Oscar, and handed Motown its biggest-selling UK single.
★ 4.8
Cool It Now
1984
A LinnDrum, five Boston teenagers, and a spoken bridge calling out Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky and Mike by name.
★ 4.4
Somebody's Watching Me
1984
Berry Gordy's son signed to Motown without telling him, then got Michael Jackson to sing the chorus uncredited.
★ 4.4
Missing You
1984
Waite heard a guitar melody on cassette and improvised the first verse on the spot; its chorus is pure denial.
★ 4.3
Sister Christian
1984
Drummer Kelly Keagy wrote it about his kid sister Christy; Jack Blades misheard the name and Christian stuck.
★ 4.2
Round and Round
1984
Three writers bouncing riffs between cassettes in a Hollywood apartment, and Milton Berle in the video that broke them.
★ 4.0
Heaven
1984
Written on tour opening for Journey, buried on a movie soundtrack first, and number one nearly two years later.
★ 4.0
Perfect Strangers
1984 · From Perfect Strangers
Stowe, Vermont, a mobile studio, the Mark II lineup back after eleven years, and Lord's organ doing the heavy lifting.
★ 3.7
Let's Hear It For The Boy
1984
An Oscar nominee from the Footloose soundtrack, George Duke producing, and Williams audibly grinning through every chorus.
★ 3.6
Can't Fight This Feeling
1984
Cronin sat on the verses for years before finishing them in Hawaii, and three weeks at number one followed.
★ 3.5
Ghostbusters
1984
Parker had days to write it and found the hook in a late-night TV ad for a local service.
★ 3.4
The Heat Is OnGlenn Frey
The Heat Is On
1984
David Woodford's sax on the record, a different player miming in the video, and Frey's biggest solo hit.
★ 3.3
One More Night (Phil Collins)
1984
A DX7 electric piano, a drum machine, and Don Myrick's saxophone taking a number one out quietly.
★ 3.1