There are far too many lost and unreleased songs from the 1980s that are still floating around the web today, from bootlegs to demos to secret recordings that never really saw the light of day. A few of those songs, in my opinion, deserve a proper studio recording and release. You might just agree with me. Let’s take a look!
“Each Time You Break My Heart” by Madonna (Mid-1980s)
This song was written and produced by Madonna and her frequent collaborator, Stephen Bray. The song never actually went anywhere under Madonna’s name, but Nick Kamen later recorded a version of the song. Madonna can be heard singing backing vocals. That version was quite a hefty hit during Madonna’s True Blue era of the mid-1980s.
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Bray would later say that Madonna recorded a demo of the song that sounds “virtually unchanged from the version later recorded and released by Nick Kamen.” So… why didn’t she record her own version of it for an album?! I can imagine it would have been an even more enormous hit.
“Radio News” by Depeche Mode (1980)
This tune was written by Vince Clarke and recorded by Depeche Mode in the summer of 1980. Previously, a magazine from years ago incorrectly stated that the song had never been recorded; though, the writer might have meant that “Radio News” had never been properly recorded in a studio.
The demo tape this song is featured on has been floating around for years, and the band has actually performed “Radio News” at least once during a September 1980 performance in Essex, England. This gem never made it to the studio for a proper recording, and I just don’t get why. There’s so much potential there!
“Beatles Forever” by Electric Light Orchestra (1983)
Jeff Lynne penned this little ode to The Beatles in the early 1980s. Apparently, this song was meant to be released on the album Secret Messages, ELO’s tenth album. Sadly, “Beatles Forever” never made it to the record, along with quite a few other tracks.
However, almost all of those cut tracks have since been released. “Beatles Forever” remains unreleased, and I can’t wrap my head around why. This is one of the coolest lost songs of the 1980s, and I would love for Lynne to finally dish it out properly. The most we got was “Video!” from 1984, which features chunks of the chorus of “Beatles Forever” and its chord progression.
Photo by Ron Wolfson/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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