3 One-Hit Wonders From the 80s That Make You Feel Nostalgic

There is nothing quite like the 1980s to make you feel nostalgic. Well, even more specifically, there is nothing quite like music from the 1980s to make you feel nostalgic. And since we’re being specific, even more specific than that is the fact that there is nothing quite like one-hit wonders from the 1980s to make you feel really nostalgic.

Videos by American Songwriter

The decade was just so specific in its style. New technology came into recording studios, and people jumped on it as if in a stupor of technological haze. You just know it when a song from the 80s is on. It has that feel. And that is especially true when it comes to the one-hit wonders from the era. Indeed, these are three one-hit wonders from the 80s that will make you feel really nostalgic.

“The Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats from ‘Rhythm Of Youth’ (1982)

There are multi-billion dollar companies working around the clock to try and invent some glasses, some full-body suit, some chip to implant in your brain that will make you feel as if you’re time-traveling to another dimension. When all you have to do is fire up YouTube and put on this 1982 track from Men Without Hats, and you’re instantly taken to the early 1980s. Nonsense abounds in the best of ways, and this is the soundtrack to that untethered, lovely feeling. No wonder it hit No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

“Whip It” by Devo from ‘Freedom Of Choice’ (1980)

Speaking of feeling disconnected in the best of ways, this song, which hit No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100, dropped at the turn of the decade and demonstrates just how wacky the 1980s would get. Was Devo a group comprised of men or machines, toys or robots, or human beings? What exactly is going on here? Hard to say, really. But that was the joy the group brought to their fans. In a constricted time of fast money and little to do but play in the yard again, Devo brought the musical madness to break up the monotonous day.

“867-5309/Jenny” by Tommy Tutone from ‘Tommy Tutone 2’ (1981)

This track, which hit No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, is as sticky as a pack of bubblegum. It made a single phone number famous, and there are millions of people out there today who can recite it at the top of their heads even now. How many phone numbers do you really know by heart? If you went to jail tonight, would you have to call Jenny to bail you out? It’s a wonderful magic trick the song pulled, even if it led to many actually dialing the number in real life and bothering whoever picked up on the other end. Ah, memories.

Photo by Richard Creamer/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images