Top Songs by Year

Top Songs — 1984

⭐ Appears on Top 750 Songs of All Time

▶ Spotify Playlist

In the mid-80s, my parents attempted to launch an annual summer vacation tradition. The results were ... mixed. We'd pile into the car for two weeks on the road, operating on a strict budget. Along the way, I became familiar with the full spectrum of cheap American motel chains — starting at the bottom with the grim Econo Lodge, stepping up through the more tolerable Super 8 and Motel 6, and peaking with the Days Inn, which to me might as well have been the Ritz-Carlton.

We traveled in a 1975 Pontiac Ventura — basically a knockoff Chevy Nova — proudly coated in a shade best described as Shit Brown. The car's state-of-the-art audio system? An AM-only analog radio.

To fill the sonic void, my sister and I brought along a SoundDesign 4366 portable cassette recorder, a device known for delivering sound that was flat and tinny. But the real issue was the depth of our road-trip music library: four cassettes. Just four. Madonna's debut album, Wham! - Make It Big, Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A., and Led Zeppelin IV. Four albums. Two weeks.

This experience taught me the value of a well-stocked music library. Soon after, we joined the Columbia House subscription club (12 albums for a penny!) and eventually I got a Walkman, now free to curate a collection that reflected my own tastes and curiosity.

1.⭐ Prince — When Doves Cry
2.⭐ The Smiths — How Soon Is Now?
3.⭐ The Chills — Pink Frost
4.⭐ Cocteau Twins — Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops
5.⭐ Band Aid — Do They Know It's Christmas?
6.⭐ Alphaville — Forever Young
7.⭐ Hüsker Dü — Chartered Trips
8.⭐ Prince — Let's Go Crazy
9.⭐ Cocteau Twins — Lorelei
10.⭐ Bruce Springsteen — I'm Goin' Down
11.⭐ Hüsker Dü — Pink Turns to Blue
12.⭐ The Replacements — Answering Machine
13.⭐ The Go-Go's — Head Over Heels
14.⭐ Rush — Distant Early Warning
15.⭐ R.E.M. — So. Central Rain
16.U2 — Bad
17.Minutemen — Corona
18.Bryan Adams — Summer Of '69
19.Bon Jovi — Runaway
20.Hunters & Collectors — Throw Your Arms Around Me
21.Dead Or Alive — You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)
22.Wham! — Everything She Wants
23.Twisted Sister — We're Not Gonna Take It
24.Animotion — Obsession
25.The Replacements — Unsatisfied
26.Bruce Springsteen — No Surrender
27.R.E.M. — Harborcoat
28.Elton John — Sad Songs (Say So Much)
29.The Smiths — William It Was Really Nothing
30.Bruce Springsteen — Dancing In the Dark
31.Metallica — For Whom The Bell Tolls
32.U2 — Elvis Presley And America
33.R.E.M. — (Don't Go Back To) Rockville
34.Don Henley — The Boys Of Summer
35.Bryan Adams — Heaven
36.The Replacements — I Will Dare
37.Split Enz — Message To My Girl
38.Wham! — Freedom
39.Felt — Sunlight Bathed the Golden Glow
40.Scandal, Patty Smyth — The Warrior
41.The Replacements — Seen Your Video
42.Bruce Springsteen — Glory Days
43.Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark — Tesla Girls
44.The Cure — The Caterpillar
45.Pat Benatar — We Belong
46.Strawberry Switchblade — Since Yesterday
47.R.E.M. — 7 Chinese Bros.
48.Hoodoo Gurus — I Want You Back
49.Salem 66 — Seven Steps Down
50.New Order — Lonesome Tonight
51.Deniece Williams — Let's Hear It for the Boy
52.The Smiths — Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
53.The Cars — You Might Think
54.Queen — Radio Ga Ga
55.Madonna — Like a Virgin
56.Duran Duran — The Wild Boys
57.Depeche Mode — People Are People
58.Prince — I Would Die 4 U
59.Madonna — Dress You Up
60.U2 — A Sort Of Homecoming
61.The Psychedelic Furs — Heaven
62.Van Halen — Jump
63.Phil Collins — Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)
64.U2 — Pride (In The Name Of Love)
65.Van Halen — Panama
66.New Order — Thieves like Us
67.Moving Pictures — Never
68.The Bangles, Susanna Hoffs — Hero Takes a Fall
69.The Cars — Drive
70.Paul McCartney — No More Lonely Nights
71.R.E.M. — Pretty Persuasion
72.Talk Talk — It's My Life
73.Wham! — Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go
74.Alphaville — Big in Japan
75.Bryan Adams — Run To You
76.Pretenders — Middle of the Road
77.John Lennon — Nobody Told Me
78.Daryl Hall & John Oates — Out of Touch
79.Bruce Springsteen — Cover Me
80.Run-D.M.C. — Rock Box
81.The Smiths — What Difference Does It Make?
82.Scorpions — Rock You Like A Hurricane
83.Steve Perry — Oh Sherrie
84.The Smiths — Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want
85.Teena Marie — Lovergirl
86.Echo & the Bunnymen — The Killing Moon
87.Madonna — Material Girl
88.U2 — Indian Summer Sky
89.Hüsker Dü — Never Talking to You Again
90.Bruce Springsteen — Born in the U.S.A.
91.Kenny Loggins — Footloose
92.The Smiths — Girl Afraid
93.Van Halen — I'll Wait
94.Rush — Red Sector A
95.The Raincoats — No One's Little Girl
96.Tears For Fears — Shout
97.Ozzy Osbourne — Bark at the Moon
98.Prince — Take Me with U
99.Minutemen — History Lesson Part 2
100.Tones On Tail — Go!