3 Songs From 1985 That Haven’t Aged

Forty years ago, the 1980s reached its middle period. Musicians were settled into evolving studio technology as drum machines, samplers, and synthesizers became ubiquitous.

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But history has a way of narrowing down which songs survive the brutality of age. It’s hard to pinpoint what makes some timeless and others—even massive hits—forgettable. Meanwhile, new songwriters help with timelessness by continuing to borrow from the past.

Today’s artists like Chappell Roan and Mk.gee are thoroughly modern while also sounding like they’ve landed in a capsule shot straight out of the 1980s. Furthermore, The War on Drugs and Sam Fender echo Bruce Springsteen’s heartland rock, specifically his ’80s period. “Dancing in the Dark” could’ve come out this year, and it wouldn’t be out of place. (Born in the U.S.A. arrived in 1984.)

If you think of songs as things we have a relationship with, these are the ones you never dump. By no means complete, here’s a snapshot of three ageless wonders from 1985.

“And She Was” by Talking Heads from Little Creatures

Few artists turn strangeness into pop gold like David Byrne. Byrne writes about a girl taking acid near a Yoo-hoo chocolate drink factory. In a heightened state, she lifts off the ground and floats above “heaps of rusted cars and fast food joints.” The sing-song hook delivers a compact description of the events: The world was moving / She was right there with it / And she was. While many recordings from the 1980s are timestamped in big reverbs and glossy production, Talking Heads still feels like a band from the future.

“Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears from Songs from the Big Chair

The shuffling beat on Tears for Fears biggest hit stands apart from the rigid call-to-arms in “Shout.” It sounds like a group completely removed from its technology. A drum machine, when programmed, feels mechanical. Forced. It makes the groove hypnotic, like with hip-hop. But with the looseness of a live band. It threads rock, new wave, and dance music. Decades later, modern producers still reference their tracks against this one. It’s just one gigantic hook after another.

“Don’t You (Forget About Me)” by Simple Minds from The Breakfast Club (Soundtrack)

Simple Minds initially declined to record what became their biggest song. Keith Forsey and Steve Schiff wrote it for John Hughes’ 1980s touchstone film The Breakfast Club. There’s a bonding scene in the movie between Anthony Michael Hall’s character and Judd Nelson’s that inspired Forsey. “It reminded me of when I was going to school. If you were in the school playground, the bad guys would be pretty bad to you, but if you met them at the bus stop in the morning, there was some bonding there,” he told The Guardian. Regardless of the decade, the opening Hey, hey, hey, hey! will move any generation to fist-pumping euphoria. Also, the Brat Pack was Brat long before Charli XCX.

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