It is time to reveal my favourite songs for each year of the 1980's.

Let's start with 1980. I'm much into post-punk, new wave and Ska, so it is no wonder that this kind of stuff tops my chart for the biggest songs of 1980. However, some other styles also found it's way into my Top 50. My favourite band of the year is Joy Division, who appear three times and have my favourite album of the year. It is so sad that Ian Curtis died that early - he was such a genius and his voice was so remarkable and unique. Song of the year is "Enola Gay" by OMD, such a groundbreaking song for Synth-Pop and among my Top 10 of all time.

Playlist

I will also put the top 50 as countdown on mixcloud sourced from my CD collection, but this will take some time.

Hope you like this compilation - more to come! All comments are welcome!

Here is the mixcloud countdown from 50 to 1

Great selection for 1980, one of my favourite years for music. 'Enola Gay', 'Love Will Tear Us Apart', 'Going Underground' and 'Atomic' are all in my top 10 too. I only included UK Top 40 hits, but nice to see some representation from Closer, 'Isolation' is my favourite track from it.

Fantastic start, we share seven of the same top ten for this year - my own looks like this:

1. Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart

2. Blondie - Atomic

3. The Jam - Going Underground

4. ABBA - The Winner Takes It All

5. The Cure - A Forest

6. Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Enola Gay

7. David Bowie - Ashes to Ashes

8. Blondie - Call Me

9. Martha and the Muffins - Echo Beach

10. Adam and the Ants - Antmusic

So consider me part of the Joy Division appreciation society forming in this thread.

Hyped for your 1981 list as I'm particularly fond of that year.

32 minutes ago, jimwatts said:

Great selection for 1980, one of my favourite years for music. 'Enola Gay', 'Love Will Tear Us Apart', 'Going Underground' and 'Atomic' are all in my top 10 too. I only included UK Top 40 hits, but nice to see some representation from Closer, 'Isolation' is my favourite track from it.

1980 indeed is fantastic. I mainly also focussed my charts on UK Top 40 hits, but Closer is such a masterpiece, that I had to include some further songs from the album.

15 minutes ago, Jade said:

Fantastic start, we share seven of the same top ten for this year - my own looks like this:

1. Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart

2. Blondie - Atomic

3. The Jam - Going Underground

4. ABBA - The Winner Takes It All

5. The Cure - A Forest

6. Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Enola Gay

7. David Bowie - Ashes to Ashes

8. Blondie - Call Me

9. Martha and the Muffins - Echo Beach

10. Adam and the Ants - Antmusic

So consider me part of the Joy Division appreciation society forming in this thread.

Hyped for your 1981 list as I'm particularly fond of that year.

That is a great intersection. "A Forest" also appears in my charts. Unfortunately I got a bit tired of "The Winner Takes It All", so that it ended up outside my Top 50. Somehow I don't feel "Antmusic" that much , but I really like Adam's later stuff particularly "Stand And Deliver".

1980 is my all time favourite year for music! So I’m joining in with my top 40. I’m allowing one song per artist:-

1. Ashes to Ashes – David Bowie

2. Going Underground – The Jam

3. It’s Different for Girls – Joe Jackson

4. Love Will Tear Us Apart – Joy Division

5. The Tide Is High – Blondie

6. Hands Off... She’s Mine – The Beat

7. Don’t Stand So Close to Me – The Police

8. Funkytown – Lipps, Inc.

9. Ace of Spades – Motörhead

10. Embarrassment – Madness

11. Talk of the Town – Pretenders

12. Too Much Too Young – The Specials

13. So Good to Be Back Home Again – The Tourists

14. Geno – Dexys Midnight Runners

15. Bankrobber – The Clash

16. Antmusic - Adam & The Ants

17. Echo Beach – Martha and the Muffins

18. Games Without Frontiers – Peter Gabriel

19. Use It Up and Wear It Out – Odyssey

20. The Spirit of Radio – Rush

21. The Winner Takes It All – ABBA

22. Whip It – Devo

23. King – UB40

24. Babe – Styx

25. We Are Glass – Gary Numan

26. Three Little Birds – Bob Marley & The Wailers

27. Upside Down – Diana Ross

28. I Can’t Stand Up for Falling Down – Elvis Costello & The Attractions

29. Enola Gay – Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

30. Turning Japanese – The Vapors

31. A Forest – The Cure

32. Another Nail in My Heart – Squeeze

33. Eighth Day – Hazel O’Connor

34. Master Blaster (Jammin’) – Stevie Wonder

35. Someone’s Looking at You – The Boomtown Rats

36. Special Brew – Bad Manners

37. Runaway Boys -Stray Cats

38. To Cut A Long Story Short - Spandau Ballet

39. Another One Bites The Dust - Queen

40. I Hear You Now - Jon & Vangelis

49 minutes ago, Jaz13music said:

1980 is my all time favourite year for music! So I’m joining in with my top 40. I’m allowing one song per artist:-

1. Ashes to Ashes – David Bowie

2. Going Underground – The Jam

3. It’s Different for Girls – Joe Jackson

4. Love Will Tear Us Apart – Joy Division

5. The Tide Is High – Blondie

6. Hands Off... She’s Mine – The Beat

7. Don’t Stand So Close to Me – The Police

8. Funkytown – Lipps, Inc.

9. Ace of Spades – Motörhead

10. Embarrassment – Madness

11. Talk of the Town – Pretenders

12. Too Much Too Young – The Specials

13. So Good to Be Back Home Again – The Tourists

14. Geno – Dexys Midnight Runners

15. Bankrobber – The Clash

16. Antmusic - Adam & The Ants

17. Echo Beach – Martha and the Muffins

18. Games Without Frontiers – Peter Gabriel

19. Use It Up and Wear It Out – Odyssey

20. The Spirit of Radio – Rush

21. The Winner Takes It All – ABBA

22. Whip It – Devo

23. King – UB40

24. Babe – Styx

25. We Are Glass – Gary Numan

26. Three Little Birds – Bob Marley & The Wailers

27. Upside Down – Diana Ross

28. I Can’t Stand Up for Falling Down – Elvis Costello & The Attractions

29. Enola Gay – Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

30. Turning Japanese – The Vapors

31. A Forest – The Cure

32. Another Nail in My Heart – Squeeze

33. Eighth Day – Hazel O’Connor

34. Master Blaster (Jammin’) – Stevie Wonder

35. Someone’s Looking at You – The Boomtown Rats

36. Special Brew – Bad Manners

37. Runaway Boys -Stray Cats

38. To Cut A Long Story Short - Spandau Ballet

39. Another One Bites The Dust - Queen

40. I Hear You Now - Jon & Vangelis

Great Top 40 - lots of overlaps to my charts. I find it intersestin that you choose "The Tide Is High" over "Call Me" and "Atomic".

5 minutes ago, DaTilt said:

Great Top 40 - lots of overlaps to my charts. I find it intersestin that you choose "The Tide Is High" over "Call Me" and "Atomic".

Thank you, yours is brilliant too, and thanks for giving me the impetus to do the list!

Yes I really love all 3 Blondie songs and to be truthful the order might change from day to day depending on my mood, I just think Tide Is High is so joyous. But what a fantastic year they had in ‘80. My self imposed rule of having one song per artist (basically to try to squeeze more variety in) is working against me here. The Beat, Madness and Joy Division (as you highlighted) all had many great songs that year

Oh no, I just realised when talking about Joy Division in ‘80 I forgot about ‘Atmosphere’ an all time favourite of mine. How could I?!

On 26/04/2026 at 09:41, Jaz13music said:

Oh no, I just realised when talking about Joy Division in ‘80 I forgot about ‘Atmosphere’ an all time favourite of mine. How could I?!

Indeed another fine song from them. I don't like it as much as the three listed, but in a Top 100 of 1980 it would be definitely in as well as further songs from "Closer".

Great and varied top 50 there Da Tilt, nice graphics too of course 😎I pretty much like all of them bar two and love most of them - I have always struggled with Stiff Little Fingers and Cockney Rejects. I bought 30 of them as singles at the time, have about 40 of them on CD compilations I reckon, too, with just a couple pending downloads when I get round to it. 😄

4 hours ago, Popchartfreak said:

Great and varied top 50 there Da Tilt, nice graphics too of course 😎I pretty much like all of them bar two and love most of them - I have always struggled with Stiff Little Fingers and Cockney Rejects. I bought 30 of them as singles at the time, have about 40 of them on CD compilations I reckon, too, with just a couple pending downloads when I get round to it. 😄

I am a big Stiff Little Fingers fan. "Inflammable Material" is such a great album. Came to them through John Peel's Festive 50. You can't miss the Cockney Rejects as Hammers fan. 🙂

On 27/04/2026 at 20:22, DaTilt said:

I am a big Stiff Little Fingers fan. "Inflammable Material" is such a great album. Came to them through John Peel's Festive 50. You can't miss the Cockney Rejects as Hammers fan. 🙂

Ooo yes, Suspect Device and especially Alternative Ulster are fantastic singles.

Finally, I made it finishing my Top 50 of 1981.

This was another superb year for synth-pop and new wave, both styles are heavily featured throughout my chart. There was also plenty of room for post-punk, soul, pop, rock and electronic music.

My band of the year is The Human League, who appear three times in the countdown. “Love Action (I Believe In Love)” begins their run at number 34, followed by “The Sound Of The Crowd” at number 24 and “Don’t You Want Me” at number 17. Any one of those songs would have been enough to make 1981 a memorable year for the group.

Several other artists appear more than once. Soft Cell place two songs inside the Top 20, with “Tainted Love” at number 18 and “Bedsitter” two places higher. Ultravox also appear twice, with “The Voice” at number 22 and the magnificent “Vienna” at number.

Kim Wilde has two entries as well. “Kids In America” reaches number 13, while “Cambodia” goes all the way to number three. Depeche Mode, Madness and Duran Duran also make two appearances each. Depeche Mode place “New Life” at number 27 and “Just Can’t Get Enough” at number eight, while Madness reach number 25 with “Grey Day” and number nine with “It Must Be Love”. Duran Duran’s “Careless Memories” appears at number 48, before “Girls On Film” takes them into the Top 10 at number seven.

My Top 10 begins with Kraftwerk’s “Das Model”. Although the song had first appeared in 1978, its cool electronic sound fitted 1981 perfectly and took it to #1 in the UK in 1982 - however the initial re-release was in 1981. It presents the fashion model as someone admired, photographed and consumed by the public, but also strangely distant and almost mechanical. The minimal music, unemotional vocal and repeated melody make the artificial world of fashion sound both attractive and rather empty.

At number nine is Madness with “It Must Be Love”. It is one of the warmest songs in the chart, but it never becomes overly sentimental. The band keep the tenderness of Labi Siffre’s original while adding their own humour, rhythm and personality. It also showed that Madness could move beyond frantic ska and comic storytelling without losing their identity.

Depeche Mode’s “Just Can’t Get Enough” follows at number eight. It is simple, repetitive and completely infectious, with a synthesizer melody that becomes lodged in your head almost immediately. Knowing that it was Vince Clarke’s final single with the group gives it an extra place in their history. Depeche Mode would soon sound very different, but this early, colourful version of the band remains just as enjoyable.

At number seven is Duran Duran’s “Girls On Film”. The song looks at the less glamorous side of fashion and modelling, although that subject was partly overshadowed by its notorious video. Directed by Godley & Creme, the full version was deliberately provocative and was banned or heavily edited in several places. The controversy helped Duran Duran, especially as music videos were becoming increasingly important, but the record itself is strong enough without any pictures: sharp, fast and driven by one of John Taylor’s best bass lines.

Toyah’s “I Want To Be Free” takes sixth place. It can easily be heard as a rebellious teenage anthem, but Toyah has described it as something much more personal: a demand for the right to be yourself without being forced into somebody else’s idea of what is normal. That gives the song more weight than its colourful image might suggest. Her vocal sounds like someone fighting to be heard, which is exactly what the song needs.

At number five is The Teardrop Explodes with “Treason”. The song had first appeared in 1980 before returning in a new version in 1981. It has the bright brass, unusual rhythms and psychedelic pop sound associated with the group, but there is also something nervous underneath it. Julian Cope makes the song sound cheerful and unstable at the same time, which is one of the reasons it continues to interest me.

The Specials’ “Ghost Town” is at number four. This is far more than a great ska record. Jerry Dammers wrote it after seeing the effects of recession, unemployment and industrial decline around Britain. It describes entertainment disappearing, clubs closing and once-busy places becoming empty and hostile. It arrived during a period of serious unrest, but it also documented the collapse of the original 2 Tone moment. The Specials were already falling apart while recording it, and Terry Hall, Neville Staple and Lynval Golding told Dammers they were leaving while the song was at number one. For that reason, “Ghost Town” feels like both a report on the state of Britain and a funeral song for the ska scene that The Specials had helped to create.

At number three is Kim Wilde’s “Cambodia”. After the immediate pop of “Kids In America”, this was a surprisingly dark move. The song tells an incomplete story involving a military pilot who leaves on another assignment and never returns. We hear the story through the woman left behind, but we are never told exactly what happened. That uncertainty is what makes the song so effective. The distant synthesizers, restrained rhythm and Kim Wilde’s cool vocal give it the feeling of a half-remembered film.

At number two is Kim Carnes with “Bette Davis Eyes”. The song had originally been written by Jackie DeShannon and Donna Weiss and recorded by DeShannon in the 1970s, but Kim Carnes’s version turned it into something completely different. The production is darker and more controlled, and her rough, instantly recognisable voice gives the woman in the song a mixture of glamour, danger and mystery. The reinvention was so successful that the record won Grammy Awards for both Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

My song of the year is Visage’s “Fade To Grey”. It began as an instrumental written by Billy Currie and Chris Payne before Midge Ure added the vocal melody and lyrics. Steve Strange may not have written it, but his detached performance was exactly right for the song, while the French vocal added another layer of mystery.

From its opening seconds, “Fade To Grey” creates a world of its own: cold, elegant, lonely and slightly unsettling. It is connected to the New Romantic scene, but it has never felt like a record that belongs only to one fashion or moment. The synthesizers remain beautiful, the rhythm is wonderfully restrained and the whole performance feels as though it could disappear into the mist at any second. It remains one of my favourite songs of the decade and is a very worthy number one in my 1981 chart.

Feel free to comment and give me an impression on your favourite songs from 1981!!!

The Top 50

1. Visage - Fade To Grey

2. Kim Carnes - Bette Davis Eyes

3. Kim Wilde - Cambodia

4. The Specials - Ghost Town

5. The Teardrop Explodes - Treason

6. Toyah - I Want To Be Free

7. Duran Duran - Girls On Film

8. Depeche Mode - Just Can't Get Enough

9. Madness - It Must Be Love

10. Kraftwerk - Das Model

11. Ennio Morricone - Chi Mai

12. Ultravox - Vienna

13. Kim Wilde - Kids In America

14. Siouxsie And The Banshees - Spellbound

15. Shakin' Stevens - You Drive Me Crazy

16. Soft Cell - Bedsitter

17. The Human League - Don't You Want Me

18. Soft Cell - Tainted Love

19. Spandau Ballet - Muscle Bound

20. Hazel O'Connor - Will You?

21. Rainbow - I Surrender

22. Ultravox - The Voice

23. Aneka - Japanese Boy

24. The Human League - The Sound Of The Crowd

25. Madness - Grey Day

26. Fun Boy Three - The Lunatics (Have Taken Over The Asylum)

27. Depeche Mode - New Life

28. ABBA - Lay All Your Love On Me

29. UB40 - One In Ten

30. The Passions - I'm In Love With A German Film Star

31. Roxy Music - Jealous Guy

32. Quincy Jones; Charles May - Ai No Corrida

33. Department S - Is Vic There?

34. The Human League - Love Action (I Believe In Love)

35. Foreigner - Waiting For A Girl Like You

36. Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Souvenir

37. Tenpole Tudor - Swords Of A Thousand Men

38. Japan - Quiet Life

39. Haircut 100 - Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl)

40. Adam & The Ants - Stand And Deliver

41. Yarbrough & Peoples - Don't Stop The Music

42. Smokey Robinson - Being With You

43. Odyssey - Going Back To My Roots

44. REO Speedwagon - Keep On Loving You

45. Shalamar - Make That Move

46. Randy Crawford - You Might Need Somebody

47. The Jam - Funeral Pyre

48. Duran Duran - Careless Memories

49. The Pointer Sisters - Slow Hand

50. Modern Romance - Everybody Salsa

Full chart as poster

Front cover

Back cover

Wide front cover

Spotify playlist

Mixcloud countdown

We share four of the same top 10 for 1981 and almost have a snap favourite! My own would look like this:

1. Kraftwerk - The Model

2. Visage - Fade to Grey

3. Ultravox - Vienna

4. ABBA - Lay All Your Love On Me

5. Soft Cell - Tainted Love

6. Kim Wilde - Cambodia

7. The Human League - Don't You Want Me

8. The Specials - Ghost Town

9. Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime

10. The Jam - That's Entertainment

Another great selection! I have 'The Model' and 'Just Can't Get Enough' also in my top 10 for 1981 - at #2 & #3 in fact with 'Kids In America' at #4. 'Fade To Grey', 'Ghost Town' and 'Vienna' all make my top 20 as well, as do another 5 lower down your list, so there's plenty of overlap.

Great work, DaTilt, and Fade To Grey is a fantastic song which never sounds out of date. This is my own top 20 from the year:

1. Ultravox - Vienna

2. ELO - Twilight

3. Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight

4. Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Souvenir

5. Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Joan Of Arc

6. Queen & David Bowie - Under Pressure

7. Visage - Fade To Grey

8. Laurie Anderson - O Superman

9. Ultravox - All Stood Still

10. Abba - One Of Us

11. Ultravox - The Thin Wall

12. Jon & Vangelis - I'll Find My Way Home

13. Hazel O'Connor - Will You

14. Ultravox - The Voice

15. Godley & Creme - Under Your Thumb

16. Landscape - Einstein A Go-Go

17. Human League - Open Your Heart

18. Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin - It's My Party

19. Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime

20. Teardrop Explodes - Reward

That’s a brilliant list! Here’s my top 40 (one song for each artist) I have a lot of overlaps with you.

1. Once In a Lifetime — Talking Heads

2. Don't You Want Me — The Human League

3. Under Pressure (feat. David Bowie) — Queen

4. Ghost Town — The Specials

5. The Model — Kraftwerk

6. Souvenir — Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

7. Wordy Rappinghood — Tom Tom Club

8. Stand and Deliver — Adam & The Ants

9. O Superman — Laurie Anderson

10. Rapture — Blondie

11. One of Us — ABBA

12. Everything's Gone Green — New Order

13. Funeral Pyre — The Jam

14. Start Me Up — The Rolling Stones

15. Tainted Love — Soft Cell

16. Vienna — Ultravox

17. Reward — The Teardrop Explodes

18. Can You Feel It — The Jacksons

19. Happy Birthday — Stevie Wonder

20. Fade to Grey — Visage

21. I Could Be Happy — Altered Images

22. One In Ten — UB40

23. Invisible Sun — The Police

24. Woman — John Lennon

25. Just Can't Get Enough — Depeche Mode

26. It's My Party — Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin

27. Good Year For the Roses — Elvis Costello & The Attractions

28. Einstein a Go-Go — Landscape

29. It Must Be Love — Madness

30. Hold On Tight — Electric Light Orchestra

31. Labelled With Love — Squeeze

32. Chant No. 1 (I Don't Need This Pressure On) — Spandau Ballet

33. Under Your Thumb — Godley & Creme

34. Body Talk — Imagination

35. Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl) — Haircut 100

36. In the Air Tonight — Phil Collins

37. The Land of Make Believe — Bucks Fizz

38. Girls on Film — Duran Duran

39. Will You? — Hazel O’Connor

40. Quiet Life — Japan

‘You may find yourself’ realising that Once In A Lifetime is the probably the greatest pop song ever made!

Looks great Da Tilt! Well done! Those top 5 singles are flawless classics. ❤️ There's nothing on the list I dont like, and loads I adore 🤩

well I like all of these other charts of the best too! Clasic Year. I'm hoping to bang on with putting my charts of the time on over the winter so my faves will be obvious from that, but there are a few that I under-rated at the time that I have grown to love even more, like Cambodia, Once In A Lifetime, The Passions that all fell short of my top 3 in the weekly charts. I'll compile a top 100 after Ive done all that, based on chart "sales" and prob a top 20 of those I love most now which might well look a bit like Jade's with selections from everyone else's added 😄.

Thank you all for commenting. 1981 is definitely one of the best years of all time, so it was really difficult for me to narrow it down to just 50 songs. The other great Ultravox songs (The Thin Wall, All Stood Still), "Joanne D'Arc" , "Reward", "Chant No. 1", "That's Entertainment" and "Once In A Lifetime" would be there in a Top 75. Particularly "Once In A Lifetime" has much hype recently - I like it but not as much as it would appear in my Top 50.

"Cambodia" was the song which surprised me most in a positive way. Of course I gave it a lot of listens in the past but did not see it as a Top 3 candidate initially. However, when re-listen to all the songs it gave me goosebumps - such a great arrangement and the vocal performance from Kim is incredible, so that it ended up in the top 3 straight ahead of "Ghost Town" and "Treason".