There is a Light that Never Goes OutThe Smiths
There is a Light that Never Goes Out
1986 · From The Queen is Dead
Marr faked the strings on an Emulator, credited them to the Hated Salford Ensemble, and Britain waited six years.
★ 8.3
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1986
Showing 44 songs from 1986
Walk This Way
1986 · From Raising Hell
Rubin had to talk Run-DMC into it; Tyler smashed through the video's wall and Aerosmith got a career back.
★ 7.6
Sledgehammer
1986 · From So
Gabriel wanted real brass, hired the Memphis Horns' Wayne Jackson, then knocked his old band Genesis off number one.
★ 7.5
GracelandPaul Simon
Graceland
1986 · From Graceland
Bakithi Kumalo's fretless bass and a Nigerian pedal steel carry it, with the Everly Brothers singing behind Simon.
★ 7.3
In Your Eyes
1986 · From So
Youssou N'Dour improvising in Wolof, and a bassline so deep it had to move up the vinyl.
★ 7.3
You Can Call Me Al
1986 · From Graceland
Kumalo cut one descending bass measure, Halee reversed the tape for the break, and Chevy Chase mimed it on MTV.
★ 7.3
Eric B. is President
1986 · From Paid in Full
By Eric B.'s account he paid Marley Marl to engineer it in Queensbridge; Rakim arrived rapping like nobody before.
★ 7.3
Livin' on a Prayer
1986 · From Slippery When Wet
The band laughed at Sambora's talk box until it opened the record. The last chorus climbs a minor third.
★ 7.1
Nasty
1986
Jackson answered street harassers by demanding respect over a factory preset Jimmy Jam found on an Ensoniq Mirage.
★ 7.0
Don't Dream It's Over
1986
Froom's Hammond solo does the heavy lifting, and Finn wrote the rest as an exhortation to himself.
★ 7.0
South BronxBoogie Down Productions
South Bronx
1986 · From Criminal Minded
James Brown horns looped, an answer to MC Shan's The Bridge, and hip hop's birthplace claimed for the Bronx.
★ 6.7
True Colors
1986
Anne Murray turned it down, so Lauper took Steinberg and Kelly's gospel ballad and stripped it to almost nothing.
★ 6.7
You Gotta Fight For Your Right To Party
1986 · From Licensed to Ill
Conceived as a satire of party songs, it became the band's only top ten hit, the joke unnoticed.
★ 6.5
No Sleep Till Brooklyn
1986 · From Licensed to Ill
Slayer's Kerry King plays the solo, the title bends Motorhead's, and Rubin welds rap to metal without apology.
★ 6.5
You Give Love a Bad Name
1986 · From Slippery When Wet
A Bonnie Tyler chorus that went nowhere, rewritten by Desmond Child, and suddenly Bon Jovi's first number one.
★ 6.5
Peter Piper
1986 · From Raising Hell
Bells lifted from a Bob James record, nursery-rhyme characters conscripted, and Jam Master Jay finally getting his own showcase.
★ 6.3
Addicted to Love
1986
Chaka Khan's label blocked her from the duet, so Palmer sang it alone over Tony Thompson's drum intro.
★ 6.3
Higher Love
1986
Chaka Khan's backing vocals lift Winwood's first solo number one, and the Grammy for Record of the Year followed.
★ 6.2
The Final Countdown
1986
One synth riff, written years earlier on a Korg Polysix borrowed from Michaeli, went to number one in twenty-five countries.
★ 6.2
The Way It Is
1986
Hornsby wrote the words first in a Van Nuys garage; that piano figure later became the spine of Tupac's Changes.
★ 6.2
Fall On Me
1986
Conceived as an acid rain protest, the melody rewritten before release; Stipe called it a general oppression song.
★ 6.0
Live to Tell
1986 · From True Blue
Leonard wrote it as a film instrumental that Paramount passed on; Madonna added the words and kept her demo vocal.
★ 6.0
Hold It Now, Hit It
1986 · From Licensed to Ill
Rubin piled samples where everyone else looped one, and the title itself comes from Kurtis Blow's Christmas Rappin'.
★ 5.8
Ego Trippin'Ultramagnetic MC's
Ego Trippin'
1986 · From Critical Beatdown
First record to lift the Synthetic Substitution break, which hip hop never stopped using, with Kool Keith rhyming deliberately off-beat.
★ 5.8
Brass Monkey
1986 · From Licensed to Ill
Rick Rubin looped Wild Sugar's "Bring It Here" under an 808, and a cocktail's name became a chant.
★ 5.5
If You Leave
1986
John Hughes reshot Pretty in Pink's ending and asked for 120 BPM; OMD turned it around in a day or two.
★ 5.2
Open Your Heart
1986 · From True Blue
Written as a rock song for Cyndi Lauper, then rebuilt with Patrick Leonard into Madonna's fifth American number one.
★ 5.0
Walk Like an Egyptian
1986
A tape loop, a LinnDrum, and a whistled hook: David Kahne built it while three Bangles split the verses.
★ 4.8
Your Love (The Outfield)
1986
Guitarist John Spinks wrote it, Tony Lewis sang it, and producer William Wittman pushed the band past their softer demo.
★ 4.8
Human
1986 · From Crash
Jam and Lewis wrote it in Minneapolis, and Oakey called that vocal the best he ever gave.
★ 4.8
Notorious
1986 · From Notorious
Nile Rodgers brought the riff and the Borneo Horns; the band, down to three, answered its own bad press.
★ 4.7
Take Me Home Tonight
1986
Told it was impossible, Money phoned Ronnie Spector himself, and she sings her 1963 hook right back.
★ 4.4
(I Just) Died In Your ArmsCutting Crew
(I Just) Died In Your Arms
1986
Van Eede scribbled the title down the night it occurred to him; Terry Brown drummed it on Neil Peart's snare.
★ 4.2
Take My Breath Away
1986
Whitlock met Moroder by fixing his Ferrari, then wrote the lyric driving home; Nunn took it to number one.
★ 4.2
Danger Zone
1986
Four acts turned it down before Loggins said yes, and Moroder's synth roar stalled at two behind "Sledgehammer."
★ 4.2
I Can't Wait
1986
Every major label passed, then a copy reached the Netherlands, came back as Peter Slaghuis's Dutch Mix, and charted top three.
★ 2.9
The Glory of LovePeter Cetera
The Glory of Love
1986
Rejected as the Rocky IV end title, rerouted to The Karate Kid Part II, and two weeks at number one.
★ 2.9
Stuck with You
1986
Three weeks at number one, a Bahamas video, and Hayes and Lewis making long-term commitment sound like a holiday.
★ 2.7