These albums are all turning forty this year. This list is in chronological order by release date and covers albums released between January and April of 1984.
- 1984 – Van Halen
CHART POSITION: #2 in the US, #1 in Canada, #15 in the UK, #11 in Australia, top 15 in ten more countries
SINGLES: “Jump”, “I’ll Wait”, “Panama”, “Hot for Teacher”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, particularly “I’ll Wait” and “Panama”, plus “Drop Dead Legs”
FUN FACT: I was today years old when I learned that Michael McDonald co-wrote “I’ll Wait”. It seems that David Lee Roth was struggling to finish the song’s lyrics and melody; producer Ted Templeman, who had previously collaborated with The Doobie Brothers, brought McDonald in to help Roth complete the tune. “I’ll Wait”, my favorite track off the album, made it to #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 despite no music video accompanying the single.
- Learning to Crawl – The Pretenders
CHART POSITION: #5 in the US, #11 in the UK, #18 in Australia
SINGLES: “Back on the Chain Gang”, “2000 Miles”, “Middle of the Road”, “Show Me”, “Thin Line Between Love and Hate”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “My City Was Gone”
FUN FACT: “My City Was Gone”, one of the album’s most popular tracks despite never having been released as a single, is a scathing indictment of Chrissie Hynde’s home state of Ohio:
I went back to Ohio
But my pretty countryside
Had been paved down the middle
By a government that had no pride
- Bon Jovi – Bon Jovi
CHART POSITION: #43 in the US, #71 in the UK
SINGLES: “Runaway”, “She Don’t Know Me”, “Burning for Love”
MY FAVORITE TRACK: “Runaway”
FUN FACT: “Shot Through the Heart” should not be confused with the opening refrain of Bon Jovi’s 1986 smash hit “You Give Love a Bad Name”.
- Footloose: Original Soundtrack of the Paramount Motion Picture – Various Artists
CHART POSITION: #1 in the US and Canada, #7 in the UK, top 10 in ten more countries
SINGLES: “Footloose”, “Holding Out for a Hero”, “Dancing in the Sheets”, “Let’s Hear It for the Boy”, “Almost Paradise”, “I’m Free (Heaven Helps the Man)”, “Somebody’s Eyes”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “The Girl Gets Around” by Sammy Hagar (which, disappointingly, is not available on Spotify) and “Never” by Moving Pictures – literally the entire album
FUN FACT #1: Footloose was nothing short of a juggernaut. “Footloose”, the first single released from the album, was an international smash and went to #1 in the US, where it was also the fourth-most popular song of the year. Six of the album’s seven singles made it to the Billboard Top 40, and the soundtrack was the ninth-most popular album of 1984.
FUN FACT #2: A 1998 re-release of the album included four songs that were used in the film but not included on the original soundtrack – John (Cougar) Mellencamp’s “Hurts So Good”, Foreigner’s “Waiting for a Girl Like You”, Quiet Riot’s “Bang Your Head (Metal Health)” and a remix of Shalamar’s “Dancing in the Sheets”.
- All the Rage – General Public
CHART POSITION: #26 in the US, #19 in Canada
SINGLES: “General Public”, “Tenderness”, “Never You Done That”, “Hot You’re Cool”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Anxious”
FUN FACT #1: General Public was something of a British new wave supergroup, which included members of The Beat (known as The English Beat in the US), The Specials, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, and The Clash. Mick Jones, recently booted from the latter by Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon, left midway through production on All the Rage and was replaced by Kevin White. Though White appears on the back cover, Jones actually performed most of the guitar work heard on the album.
FUN FACT #2: “Tenderness”, General Public’s biggest hit by far, is the band’s only single to make the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #27. “Tenderness” has remained in the public consciousness for forty years thanks to appearances in Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, Clueless, The Goldbergs, and The Deuce.
- Sparkle in the Rain – Simple Minds
CHART POSITION: #64 in the US, #1 in the UK and New Zealand
SINGLES: “Waterfront”, “Speed Your Love to Me”, “Up on the Catwalk”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “White Hot Day”
FUN FACT: In 1984, Simple Minds were a year away from their US breakthrough but wildly successful in their UK home (the band is Scottish). Around this same time, I was introduced to Simple Minds by my nephew’s dad; I’ve been a fan ever since.
- It’s My Life – Talk Talk
CHART POSITION: #42 in the US, #35 in the UK
SINGLES: “It’s My Life”, “Such a Shame”, “Dum Dum Girl”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above
FUN FACT: “It’s My Life”, Talk Talk’s highest-charting single in the US, failed to make much of an impact in the band’s native UK until a 1990 reissue. A 2003 cover by No Doubt achieved even greater success than the original, reaching the top 10 in 23 countries.
- Declaration – The Alarm
CHART POSITION: #50 in the US, #6 in the UK
SINGLES: “Marching On”, “The Stand”, Sixty Eight Guns”, “Where Were You Hiding When the Storm Broke”, “The Deceiver”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Blaze of Glory”
FUN FACT: In 1984, I was already a big fan of the arena rock coming out of the UK at the time – U2, Simple Minds, and Big Country, to name a few – so The Alarm was right up my alley. It helped that I was also a fan of the I.R.S. label, whose artists included R.E.M. and The Go-Go’s (more on both of them later). While The Alarm was never as successful in the US as in their native UK (Wales, to be precise), I adored them.
- Mister Heartbreak – Laurie Anderson
CHART POSITION: #60 in the US, #93 in the UK
SINGLES: “Sharkey’s Day”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “Sharkey’s Day”, “Gravity’s Angel”, “Excellent Birds”
FUN FACT: Mister Heartbreak features appearances by William S. Burroughs (“Sharkey’s Night”) and Peter Gabriel (“Excellent Birds”). A version of the latter, titled “This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds)”, appears on Gabriel’s 1986 masterpiece, So.
- Out of the Cellar – Ratt
CHART POSITION: #7 in the US, #12 in Canada
SINGLES: “Round and Round”, “Wanted Man”, “Lack of Communication”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: I was never a huge fan of the glam metal genre, but “Round and Round” is such a banger.
FUN FACT #1: Tawny Kitaen, the model on the Out of the Cellar album cover, was in a relationship with Ratt guitarist Robbin Crosby for six years. She went on to famously (infamously?) star in the video for Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again”, as well as marry (and divorce) its lead singer, David Coverdale.
FUN FACT #2: The video for “Round and Round”, which stars the legendary Milton Berle (uncle of Ratt manager Marshall Berle), was in regular rotation on MTV that summer (the clip also features Lisa Dean, who would later appear in Michael Jackson’s “Dirty Diana”). The song charted again in 2020 after the band appeared in a GEICO commercial. “Round and Round” has been used in a number of films and television series, including Supernatural, Stranger Things (a PBandJulie fave), Cobra Kai, and The Wrestler.
- Into the Gap – Thompson Twins
CHART POSITION: #10 in the US, #1 in the UK (where it was the twelfth-most popular album of the year), top 10 in seven more countries
SINGLES: “Hold Me Now”, “Doctor Doctor”, “You Take Me Up”, “Sister of Mercy”, “The Gap”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Day After Day”
FUN FACT: After experiencing their breakthrough in 1983 with Quick Step & Side Kick (simply titled Side Kicks in the US) – and with synth-pop’s popularity at a peak – Thompson Twins were poised for chart success with the release of Into the Gap. The band – whose name was inspired by bumbling detectives Thompson and Thompson in the English language version of The Adventures of Tintin – achieved their greatest chart success with Into the Gap, selling five million copies and yielding three UK Top 5 singles.
For more on Quick Step & Side Kick – and other great albums from 1983 – click here:
- The Smiths – The Smiths
CHART POSITION: #150 in the US, #2 in the UK, #77 in Australia
SINGLES: “What Difference Does It Make?”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “Reel Around the Fountain”, “Pretty Girls Make Graves”, “This Charming Man”, “Hand in Glove”, “What Difference Does It Make?”
FUN FACT: The Smiths, the band’s debut, was an instant hit in their native UK (they formed in Manchester in 1982). The Smiths achieved only cult status in the US – none of their albums cracked the Billboard Top 50, and none of their singles made the Hot 100 – but my friends and I were among the devotees.
- Keep Moving – Madness
CHART POSITION: #109 in the US, #6 in the UK
SINGLES: “Michael Caine” and “One Better Day” (UK), “Wings of a Dove (A Celebratory Song)” and “The Sun and the Rain” (US)
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus the title track and “Victoria Gardens”
FUN FACT #1: “Michael Caine” features an appearance by the two-time Oscar winner, as well as backing vocals by Afrodiziak. Comprised at the time of Caron Wheeler and Claudia Fontaine, Afrodiziak also provided backing vocals for The Jam’s “Beat Surrender” and Elvis Costello’s “Everyday I Write the Book” (and with the addition later of Naomi Thompson, “Free Nelson Mandela” by The Specials). If Wheeler’s name sounds familiar, it’s because she found success in the late ’80s as a member of Soul II Soul with hits like “Keep on Movin'” and “Back to Life”.
FUN FACT #2: Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger of General Public, who appeared earlier on this list, provided backing vocals for “Waltz Into Mischief” and “Victoria Gardens”.
- Dead Can Dance – Dead Can Dance
CHART POSITION: N/A
SINGLES: None
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “The Fatal Impact”, “The Trial”, “Ocean”, “Threshold”, “Wild in the Woods”
FUN FACT: Dead Can Dance vocalist Lisa Gerrard, who would later share a Golden Globe win with the legendary Hans Zimmer for their haunting Gladiator score, utilizes a unique vocal style known as glossolalia (literally, speaking in tongues). A talented multi-instrumentalist (her signature instrument is a Yangqin, a Chinese hammered dulcimer), Gerrard and her Dead Can Dance partner Brendan Perry helped usher in a musical style known as neoclassical dark wave or ethereal wave. They were joined in that musical movement by their 4AD labelmates Cocteau Twins; more about them in volume three of this post.
WARNING: The following video contains a strobe effect, in case you’re sensitive to that sort of thing.
- Human Racing – Nik Kershaw
CHART POSITION: #70 in the US, #5 in the UK
SINGLES: “I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me”, “Wouldn’t It Be Good”, “Dancing Girl”, “Human Racing”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above
FUN FACT: Kershaw, vastly more popular in his native UK, is the definition of a one-hit wonder in the US; “Wouldn’t It Be Good” made it to #46 on the Billboard Hot 100. Two years later, Danny Hutton Hitters performed a cover version of the song for the Pretty in Pink soundtrack. In the UK, “I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” was the bigger hit, peaking at #2.
- The Works – Queen
CHART POSITION: #23 in the US, #2 in the UK, top 10 in ten more countries
SINGLES: “Radio Ga Ga”, “I Want to Break Free”, “It’s a Hard Life”, “Hammer to Fall”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Keep Passing the Open Windows” and “I Go Crazy”
FUN FACT #1: Lady Gaga, whose birth name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, took her stage name from “Radio Ga Ga”.
FUN FACT #2: David Mallet, a legend in the music video industry, directed the clips for both “Radio Ga Ga” and “I Want to Break Free”. I could write an entire post about Mallet’s work; among the videos he’s directed are Boomtown Rats’ “I Don’t Like Mondays”, Peter Gabriel’s “Games Without Frontiers”, David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance”, Billy Idol’s “Eyes Without a Face”, and AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck”.
FUN FACT #3: Stranger Things fans will recognize “Hammer to Fall” from the season two episode “The Spy”.
- “Weird Al” Yankovic in 3-D – “Weird Al” Yankovic
CHART POSITION: #17 in the US, #61 in Australia
SINGLES: “Eat It”, “King of Suede”, “I Lost on Jeopardy”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “The Brady Bunch” (sung to the tune of “Safety Dance”) and “Polkas on 45”
FUN FACT #1: “Theme from Rocky XIII“, a parody of Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger”, suggested a possible thirteenth film in the Rocky series. He wasn’t that far off; a fourth Creed film (in development now) brings the franchise’s grand total to ten.
FUN FACT #2: “Polkas on 45”, a riff on Stars on 45 (IFKYK), contains snippets of seventeen different songs, including Berlin’s “Sex (I’m a …)”, The Beatles’ “Hey Jude”, The Doors’ “L.A. Woman”, Jimi Hendrix’s “Hey Joe”, Talking Heads’ “Burning Down the House”, and The Police’s “Every Breath You Take”.
- This Is Spinal Tap – Spinal Tap
CHART POSITION: N/A
SINGLES: None
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “Hell Hole”, “Tonight I’m Going to Rock You Tonight”, “Big Bottom”, “Stonehenge”, “Christmas with the Devil”
FUN FACT: Though all the tracks were written by Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, and Michael McKean (along with director and co-star Rob Reiner), the album is credited to their Spinal Tap alter egos Nigel Tufnel, Derek Smalls, and David St. Hubbins.
- About Face – David Gilmour
CHART POSITION: #32 in the US
SINGLES: “Blue Light”, “Love on the Air”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “Murder”, “Love on the Air”, “Blue Light”, “All Lovers Are Deranged”, “You Know I’m Right”
FUN FACT: “Love on the Air” and “All Lovers Are Deranged” were co-written with The Who’s Pete Townshend, whose version of the latter appeared on his 2001 solo album Scoop 3. Among the musicians who performed on About Face are Steve Winwood, TOTO’s Jeff Porcaro, and classical pianist Anne Dudley. Dudley, who won an Oscar in 1998 for her The Full Monty score, has worked extensively as a session musician and was also a member of the art-rock outfit Art of Noise (more on them in volume two of this post).
- Human’s Lib – Howard Jones
CHART POSITION: #59 in the US, #1 in the UK (where it was the sixteenth-most popular album of the year)
SINGLES: “New Song”, “What Is Love?”, “Hide and Seek”, “Pearl in the Shell”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Conditioning”
FUN FACT: I bought this album the same day I saw Sixteen Candles in the theater, so the two are inextricably linked in my mind.
- Love Life – Berlin
CHART POSITION: #23 in the US
SINGLES: “No More Words”, “Now It’s My Turn”, “Dancing in Berlin”, “Touch”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Beg, Steal or Borrow” and “Pictures of You”
FUN FACT: “No More Words,” co-produced by the legendary Giorgio Moroder and supported by a Bonnie and Clyde-inspired music video, was Berlin’s first Top 40 hit, peaking at #23 on the Billboard Hot 100. I was mildly obsessed with Terri Nunn; I thought she was the sexiest, most confident woman I’d ever seen, and my little fourteen-year-old mind was blown.
- Heartbeat City – The Cars
CHART POSITION: #3 in the US, #25 in the UK, #5 in Canada
SINGLES: “You Might Think”, “Magic”, “Drive”, “Hello Again”, “Why Can’t I Have You” (UK only), “Heartbeat City”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above
FUN FACT #1: Driven by the album’s six singles, Heartbeat City is the band’s best-selling album. Accompanied by a music video directed by actor Timothy Hutton and starring Ric Ocasek’s future wife Paulina Porizkova, “Drive” was the album’s biggest hit.
FUN FACT #2: The video for “You Might Think,” which utilized (for the time) cutting-edge computer graphics, won five awards at the inaugural VMAs, including Video of the Year. The clip was parodied, along with David Lee Roth’s “California Girls”, Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing”, and The Police’s “Every Breath You Take”, in the video for “Don’t Lose My Number” by Phil Collins.
FUN FACT #3: Andy Warhol directed the video for “Hello Again”. It’s…something.
- Café Bleu – The Style Council
CHART POSITION: #56 in the US, #2 in the UK
SINGLES: “My Ever Changing Moods”, “You’re the Best Thing”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “The Whole Point of No Return”, “The Paris Match”, “My Ever Changing Moods”, “You’re the Best Thing”
FUN FACT: Café Bleu (which was retitled My Ever Changing Moods in the US to capitalize on the single of the same name) was the studio debut for The Style Council, which was co-founded in 1982 by The Jam’s Paul Weller and Dexy’s Midnight Runners’ Mick Talbot. “The Paris Match” features guest musicians Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt of the English pop duo Everything But the Girl.
- Talk Show – The Go-Go’s
CHART POSITION: #18 in the US
SINGLES: “Head Over Heels”, “Turn to You”, “Yes or No”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “You Thought”, “Beneath the Blue Sky”, “I’m the Only One”
FUN FACT: Talk Show was The Go-Go’s’ final album until a 2001 reunion. Simmering tensions over royalties, personal conflicts, and creative differences led to Jane Wiedlin’s departure in October 1984 and the band’s breakup the following May.
- The Swing – INXS
CHART POSITION: #52 in the US, #1 in Australia
SINGLES: “Original Sin”, “I Send a Message”, “Burn for You”, “Dancing on the Jetty”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Melting in the Sun”, “Love Is (What I Say)”, “Face the Change”, “All the Voices”
FUN FACT #1: INXS didn’t achieve their commercial breakthrough in the US until 1985’s Listen Like Thieves, but thanks to their 1982 album Shabooh Shoobah and a slot as the opening act on Men at Work’s 1983 Cargo tour, I had already fallen for the Ozzie sextet.
FUN FACT #2: “Original Sin”, the band’s first (and only) #1 in their native Australia, was produced by the iconic Nile Rodgers and features Daryl Hall on backing vocals.
FUN FACT #3: With over 15 million copies sold, INXS is the third-best-selling Australian artist in US history behind AC/DC and Bee Gees. That’s pretty great company.
- The Icicle Works – The Icicle Works
CHART POSITION: #40 in the US, #24 in the UK, #20 in Canada
SINGLES: “Birds Fly (Whisper to a Scream”, “Love is a Wonderful Colour”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above
FUN FACT: In the US, The Icicle Works (named for Frederik Pohl’s sci-fi short story “The Day the Icicle Works Closed”) is a legitimate one-hit-wonder; “Birds Fly (Whisper to a Scream)” is their only appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 (it topped out at #37).
- Run-D.M.C. – Run-D.M.C.
CHART POSITION: #53 in the US
SINGLES: “It’s Like That”, “Hard Times”, “Rock Box”, “30 Days”, “Hollis Crew (Krush Groove 2)”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Sucker M.C.’s (Krush Groove 1)
FUN FACT: The hugely influential “Rock Box” is considered to be the first song in the rap-rock genre. The single features session musician Eddie Martinez on guitar; in 2015, his contribution to “Rock Box” topped Guitar World’s list of “The Top 10 Uses of Guitar in Hip-Hop” (https://www.guitarworld.com/features/top-10-uses-guitar-hip-hop).
- Love at First Sting – Scorpions
CHART POSITION: #6 in the US, #17 in the UK, #6 in the band’s native Germany
SINGLES: “Rock You Like a Hurricane”, “Still Loving You”, “Big City Nights”, “I’m Leaving You”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above
FUN FACT: “Rock You Like a Hurricane” is somehow both completely of its time and utterly timeless. It rocks times infinity. Appearances in film and television – Stranger Things, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, to name a few – have kept the song in the limelight for forty years.
Here’s the 1984 playlist, which will be updated for volumes 2 and 3:
Peanut Butter and Julie 