Guilty Pleasure songs from the year 1981

There’s no doubt that the music from the 1980s is the best ever recorded. At least that is my personal opinion.

In 1981 MTV didn’t really explode quite yet, and softer adult contemporary music was still heard on many top 40 stations.

That’s not to say that music is not good, even the soft adult songs were still impressive.

Here are my top 5 guilty pleasure songs from 1981:

Number 5: Endless Love from Lionel Richie and Diana Ross. It might sound a little cheesy by today’s standards, but back in 1981 the movie Endless Love was one of the hottest movies. The very emotional song as the title track from movie was serious business. You might not want to crank it up with the top down on the car, so listen with care.

Number 4: Theme From The Greatest American Hero (Believe it or not) by Joey Scarbury. Seinfeld made this song famous (again) in the 90′s when George used the melody to create his answering machine message. However, in 1981 the ABC show Greatest American Hero was extremely popular and the song also ruled the radio airwaves. You might even hear this song still on The Eagle. Great record, great show and a reminder of 1981.

Number 3: Just the Two of US by Grover Washington Jr and Bill Withers. This was a monster hit. Again, the song had a second life thanks to its spotlight in the Austin Powers movie as Dr. Evil sang it to Mini Me. This song still has the staying power and is worth a listen again if you haven’t heard it in a while.

Number 2: Love on the Rocks by Neil Diamond. In the late 70′s and early 80′s Neil Diamond had a string of hits that ruled the Adult Contemporary charts. This song is very slow and emotional. Not necessarily a fun oldie, but still not bad.

Number 1: Guilty from Barbra Streisand & Barry Gibb: In 1980 a radio station in Chicago had a “Disco Demolition Night” at a White Sox baseball game and things went a little out of control. What started as a place to burn your disco records, it turned into a full scale riot. The aftermath of the event was that within about 2 months, almost every top 40 radio station in America took all disco music off the air. This put the Bee Gees in a bad situation. Barry Gibb after that produced so many great songs for other artists that had the ‘Bee Gee” sound included. This was one of those songs. It was a major hit and still holds up.

Great listening!