1980s

Peter Gabriel | Sledgehammer

“Peter Gabriel is one of the great sonic explorers of pop-music history, a classic restless spirt whose wanderings have always demanded attention,” (Stereogum). “Gabriel has a decades-long history of big, bold gestures. He was early on all sorts of things — art-rock theatricality, massive drum-sound reverberations, the pop-music embrace of various different forms of African music. He championed worthy global political causes and worthy global musicians, exposing them to people who would’ve never otherwise known much about them. Few artists have had as much effect on the texture of pop music, on the way that you can turn songs into complete sonic environments. So naturally, the one time Peter Gabriel hit #1 in the US, he did it with a janky, digital white-soul song about his dick. That’s pop music for you.

(1986’s) ‘Sledgehammer,’ Peter Gabriel’s big hit, is one of the many, many songs that owes a great deal of its success to its music video. That’s another thing that Peter Gabriel embraced early: The warping, convulsive possibilities of music videos as an art form. Gabriel’s ‘Sledgehammer’ video is one of the all-time masterpieces of the medium … By some estimates, ‘Sledgehammer’ is the most-played video in the entire history of MTV.

… Gabriel’s early singles did pretty well on the UK charts. In the US, Gabriel was less of a presence. A couple of tracks charted: 1977’s ‘Solsbury Hill’ at #68, 1980’s ‘Games Without Frontiers’ at #48. But Gabriel was more of a culty, esoteric figure until the advent of MTV made him harder to ignore. 1982’s ‘Shock The Monkey’ reached #29, largely on the strength of its memorably freaked-out video. Still, a song like “Sledgehammer” represented a real and self-conscious turn towards the pop mainstream … Gabriel has acknowledged that ‘Sledgehammer’ owes much of its pop success to the video … But on its own, ‘Sledgehammer’ is a charmingly goofy dance-pop song with production that makes it sound fucking huge, like a spaceship taking off. Even without the video, it would’ve been a hit. Even without the video, it’s a lot of fun.”

After an intro in Eb minor, the verse shifts to Eb major (with the major third prominently placed as the vocal melody’s opening note) at 0:52. At 3:11, there’s a return to the original key for an interlude, with the vocal re-joining the mix at 3:41 for the bridge.

Lords of the New Church | Live For Today

“Formed in 1981, the Lords of the New Church had a formidable intercontinental punk rock pedigree. Singer Stiv Bators and guitarist Brian James were founding members of Cleveland’s Dead Boys and London’s The Damned, respectively, both successful and influential punk pioneers (Qobuz) … But while the Lords’ music had elements of punk, it was more melodic, better-produced, and played with a higher degree of professionalism. This alienated some of the hardcore punk audience, but brought the Lords a much wider and more diverse fan base.”

LOTNC’s 1983 cover of The Grass Roots’ 1967 hit single “Live for Today” features several key changes absent from the original. Built primarily in B minor, the track shifts briefly downward to A minor for an instrumental verse at 1:47; at 2:12, the tonality climbs up two whole steps to C# minor for the balance of the tune.

Toto | Rosanna

“Each member of Toto played a part in bringing ‘Rosanna’ to fruition. Vocalist Bobby Kimball and guitarist Steve Lukather transposed the musical key so the verse and chorus could be traded between them as a duet,” (LouderSound). “(Keyboardists) Steve Porcaro and David Paich ironed out the keyboard solo at five o’clock in the morning. Late drummer Jeff Porcaro laid down a masterful shuffle inspired by John Bonham.

‘Jeff was really into Led Zeppelin,’ Lukather told Classic Rock, ‘and for ‘Rosanna’ he morphed ‘Fool In the Rain’ [from Zep’s 1979 album In Through The Out Door] with a Bernard Purdie drum groove [a renowned session drummer, Purdie invented the Purdie Shuffle]. And we took it from there.’ As former session musicians to a man, it was little surprise that Toto bottled ‘Rosanna’ fast in the studio. ‘In one afternoon we did the basic rhythm track,’ Lukather said. ‘And that first guitar solo was made up on the spot the first time we played it.'”

All the hard work certainly paid off: upon its release in the summer of 1982, the track reached US #2 and UK #12. Starting in G major, the key shifts down to F major for the second half of the verse. But the downward motion in key is muted by a rising melodic range (up a minor seventh) as the lead vocal shifts from Lukather to Kimball at 0:36.

Barbra Streisand | Woman in Love

After the popularity of disco waned, so did album sales for the Bee Gees — widely considered standard bearers for genre. “… And yet Bee Gees songs still hit huge in the US (in the early 1980s); they just did it without the words ‘Bee Gees’ on the record cover,” (Stereogum). “Consider Barbra Streisand’s 1980 LP Guilty. Barry Gibb produced the album with his regular Bee Gees collaborators Karl Richardson and Albhy Galuten. Gibb also wrote or co-wrote every song on the LP. He sang, played guitar, and did the horn and string arrangements on Guilty. Guilty was basically a Bee Gees album, except with Barbra Streisand singing lead … On Guilty, the ballads dominate. ‘Woman in Love,’ the biggest hit from Guilty, is an extremely Bee Gees song, and yet nobody would confuse it with disco.

… Multi-tracking his own voice, Barry Gibb does the backing vocals, echoing the song’s central melody and anchoring it so that Streisand can sing all her showiest runs. Gibb and Streisand recorded the song in Miami with an elite squad of session musicians, and it sounds lush and clean and expensive. Strings and horns hum to each other. Electric pianos glow. The heavily processed guitars murmur fancily. On the chorus, the echo on Gibb’s voice is immaculate, and Streisand holds notes for absurd lengths of time. It’s terribly dramatic, in a good way. ‘Woman in Love’ (was) Streisand’s fifth and final #1 hit.”

After a few verses and choruses in Eb minor, 3:03 brings a shift up to E major for a final chorus. Streisand’s famously strong belt takes top billing here, well above melody, lyric, arrangement, etc.!

Milton Nascimento | Don Quixote

“Nascimento is one of a handful of Brazilian artists — think Carmen Miranda, Caetano Veloso, João Gilberto — to break through the Portuguese language barrier to gain some renown in the English-speaking world. Jazzers (Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock) and pop musicians (Paul Simon, Sting, David Byrne) sing his praises,” (Brazil Blog). “American record companies distribute his albums. Anglophone critics put his stuff on best-of lists.

Although born in Rio de Janeiro, Nascimento moved to Três Pontas as a child after his mother died and the couple who adopted him relocated to the Minas Gerais city. They were involved in the music world there, and Nascimento was set on his path. He recorded his first song in 1962, worked with people in the Belo Horizonte scene and then debuted his first album in 1967 just as bossa nova was transmutating into MBP (musica popular brasileira) and tropicália was being born.” Nascimento’s emergence on the music scene during this post-bossa musical transition gives his music its utterly distinctive sound.

Released on Nascimento’s 1988 album Miltons, “Don Quixote” is built primarily in a slightly up-tuned E minor. At the 3:40 mark, a shift to F minor (as well as a change from Nascimento’s solo vocals to a small vocal ensemble sound) bring a welcome renewed energy, fueling a track with a run time of over six minutes.

Ray Charles, feat. Willie Nelson | Seven Spanish Angels

Ray Charles and Willie Nelson’s duet “’Seven Spanish Angels’ showcases the vocal strengths of both artists … allowing the lyric and the singers to shine,” (Country Universe). Written by Troy Seals and Eddie Setser, the tune was released in 1985. “… Charles and Nelson deliver this song with the reverence and empathy that it deserves. It feels like the best music often comes from storytelling like this, where characters with such different lives than us listeners can imagine have their stories told with humanity.”

“It was released in November 1984 as a single from Charles’ 1984 album Friendship,” (The Billboard Book of Country Hits). “Charles and Nelson split the verses, with Charles singing the first and Nelson the second, Charles sang the first and second choruses with Nelson joining for the outro. It was also included on Nelson’s 1985 compilation album Half Nelson. ‘Seven Spanish Angels’ was the most successful of Charles’ eight hits on the country chart. The single spent one week at number one and a total of twelve weeks on the country chart.”

Willie’s clipped delivery provides contrast with Ray’s lyrical phrasing. The two vocalists have a similar range, but the overarching difference in timbre between their two instantly recognizable voices is one of this version’s more noticeable features. At 2:58, the key moves up a half step for the final few verses.

Tim Curry | Easy Street (from “Annie”)

Film and stage actor Tim Curry, a UK native, left us this week at age 80 after a long illness. After 1975’s classic film interpretation of the musical theatre classic Rocky Horror became a hit, “Tim Curry found himself in demand both on Broadway and in Hollywood,” (The Independent). “On the stage, he was nominated for a Tony Award three times over the course of 24 years, for roles as varied as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1981’s Amadeus, swashbuckling movie star Alan Swann in 1992’s My Favorite Year, and King Arthur in 2005’s Spamalot … His film and television roles were just as eclectic.” Curry’s co-star Rob Schneider remembered: “’I have never known another actor who could say more with a knowing grin or a raised eyebrow than the splendid Tim Curry. I was astonished as a young actor to witness Tim do a scene seven completely different ways and ALL OF THEM FANTASTIC!’ remembered Schneider.”

” … Rocky Horror became a cult classic hit and the center of its own devoted subculture,” (W Magazine). “Curry, suddenly famous, found himself inside a celebrity world he would later chronicle in his 2025 memoir Vagabond, with encounters with David Bowie and nights at Studio 54 alongside Truman Capote, Andy Warhol, and Carly Simon … By the end of his career, Curry had acting credits in roughly 126 movies and feature films, making him the sort of omnipresent figure that feels like part of the very fabric of pop culture … Of his penchant for playing villains, Curry told The Guardian in a 2025 interview, ‘I’ve always tried to make them amusing, which gives them a bit more edge. It’s like people being drawn to the scene of a car crash … ‘”

Curry is of course best known for his role in Rocky Horror, but we are featuring his performance as the con artist Rooster Hannigan in the 1982 movie version of Annie, alongside Bernadette Peters and Carol Burnett. With a score written by Charles Strouse, the film followed the 1977 Broadway hit. “Initially intended as a major production number, the final version (of ‘Easy Street’) is more contained, but still crackles with villainous chemistry,” (Golden Age Flicks). Starting in Bb major, the tune makes a bouncy shift to B major around the 1:25 mark. Several more dizzy jumps in tonality follow; meanwhile, the actors are completely absorbed in delivering relaxed-looking but exquisitely choreographed physical comedy.

Madness | Coldest Day

“While a keen feature of London’s musical tapestry, Madness seem to have bottled whatever the British spirit is, unmistakably moulded by the nation’s working class households, terraced streets, and enthusiastic embrace of Caribbean cultural import in keeping with the rest of the Two-tone generation,” (Far Out Magazine). “There’s an infectious invite to Madness at their best, which has assured pop ubiquity ever since, any spin of their hits letting you in on the Nutty gang’s weird world.

Fundamentally, Madness are fantastic popsmiths … the lads wielded a strange ability to report on the lay of the land, even with the grey bits left in … Madness can often pull the rug up while still larking about in fezzes, a bouncy ska number can easily jump into a peek at urban malaise, poverty-induced crime, or racial tensions via their tattered, Beano lyrical lens.

As the 1980s rolled by, so did the studio toys. While never completely losing themselves in the decade’s production trends and digital gadgets, a little of that sophistipop gloss trickled into Madness’ sounds … there’s plenty to enjoy from (1985’s) Mad Not Mad’s vivacious offering … Madness dwell in a deeper introspective realm than fans were used to.”

After beginning in G minor, “Coldest Day” a pre-chorus in F major(ish) kicks in at 0:26. The 0:45 arrives as the chorus shifts to E minor via some thoroughly Madness-style flourishes, despite the tune’s prominent synthetic drums and decidedly non-Ska groove. 1:10 brings a return to G minor; more shifts continue from there.

Many thanks to Julianna A., a longtime contributor from Brazil, for submitting this distinctive tune!

Alannah Myles | Love Is

“When Alannah Myles burst onto the scene in 1989 with ‘Black Velvet,’ the bluesy single, her fantastic, slightly gravelly vocals caught the attention of the entire world,” (Adam’s World). “The song didn’t just hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S., it reached the Top 10 in over a dozen countries (although, oddly, just #10 in her native Canada); it continues to receive radio airplay to this day. In fact, in 2005 ‘Black Velvet’ was the recipient of a “Millionaire Award” from ASCAP for having racked up more than four million radio plays. The single went gold in the U.S., took home the Grammy in 1991 for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance (yes, nearly two years after its release), and launched her self-titled debut album to platinum status.

The follow up single, however, titled ‘Love Is,’ peaked at #36 (although it was her debut single in Canada) … After that, those of us in America didn’t hear much from Alannah, even though she released three albums in the ‘90s, and two more in the current century, including one as recently as 2014. ‘Black Velvet’ was a lightning in a bottle moment, and its staying power over the past 30+ years is a testament to the greatness of the song … ” But “Love Is” has a key change — one of the very few features that “Black Velvet” lacks.

Built primarily in G major, “Love Is” spends most of its verses and choruses in a groove-driven trance limited to various voicings of the tonic chord. From 1:44 – 2:05, a bridge in E major is in effect before a return to the original key. At 2:24, the same E major section returns through 2:44. Then it’s back to G major again for the balance of the tune. In 1990, “Love Is” was nominated for Canada’s Juno Award for Single of the Year; the track lost to “Black Velvet,” clearly illustrating the song’s also-ran status when compared to Myles’ international smash hit.

Huey Lewis + The News | Simple As That

Huey Lewis and the News’ 1983 collection Sports “had been an absolute smash, one of just five records to top the Billboard album chart in 1984 (for just one week in its case, but in that Thriller– and Purple Rain-dominated year, still quite something),” (Best Classic Bands). “It yielded four top 10 singles and catapulted the band into the rarefied space of touring attractions capable of filling arenas around the world. The album stayed on the chart for 160 weeks, and the accompanying Sports tour was about as long.

… Fore! was one of the most front-loaded records ever created. On side one of the vinyl release, four of the five songs charted in the top 10, as did the first song on the flip side.” A tune from the side two of the album, “Simple as That,” is “nestled among band vocals and horn trimming, its throwback soul underpinnings were a reminder that for all the band’s straightforward appeals, its versatility—and willingness to take it in different directions—was easy to underestimate … Recruitment of the Tower of Power horns paid dividends on multiple tracks … Never possessed of dazzling range, Lewis’ singing nonetheless sported enormous craft, and the sheer emotive power he generated was irresistibly insistent.”

After a regal fanfare of an intro, this musical tribute to everyday middle class struggles settles into Ab major. At 2:30, a resounding unprepared key change hits so hard, squarely on beat one, that it takes a few moments for the smoke to clear. Soon, we realize that there’s been a downward key change to G major — vanishingly rare in pop music, and doubly so for straight-down-the fairway Top 40 fare. Quite a lovely touch for the closing moments of the album’s final track.