Question for you: Are you one of those people who loves to go thrift shopping? Do you like to dig through record crates or clothing racks to get the best hidden gems? Well, if so, then these songs below are for you! Get ready to dive into the past! Of course, there’s fun in looking back, in discovering something from history that you didn’t know about before. And, boy, are we sure you’ve never encountered these tracks just yet! Indeed, these are three one-hit wonders from 1983 we’re sure you’ve never heard of.
Videos by American Songwriter
“Burning Heart” by Vandenberg from ‘Vandenberg’ (1983)
This track, which barely cracked the Billboard Hot 100 Top 40, hitting No. 39 on the coveted chart, opens with acoustic guitar in a very thoughtful, cerebral way. It almost sounds like the opening of a Dave Matthews song from the late 1990s. But then it opens up into a quintessential 80s song with passionate, ceiling-scraping vocals and enough reverb to kill a herd of cats. Let’s leave this one in the time capsule, shall we?
“So Wrong” by Patrick Simmons from ‘Arcade’ (1983)
This tune, which hit No. 30 on the Hot 100, proves that certain eras really do have their sounds. Could you imagine “So Wrong” coming out in any other decade than the 80s? Why is that? What was so special about the era that it created this exact work? Maybe it’s like getting to the center of a Tootsie Pop—the world may never know…
“Too Shy” by Kajagoogoo from ‘White Feathers’ (1983)
This tune, which rocketed up the Billboard Hot 100 and hit No. 5 on the vaunted charts, benefited from the new wave movement in the 1980s. But sadly, “this “Too Shy” by Kajagoogoo was not one of the songs that lasted throughout the decades. Safe to say that no one recalls this one, despite the fact that it went so high up the charts in its day. It sounds like a song we should all know. But for one reason or another, we just don’t!
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