3 Classic Soul Hits From 1982 That You Can’t Stop Singing

Soul music may have experienced a golden age in the 1970s, but R&B legends, new and old, continued to release groundbreaking tunes in the 1980s. Dance music evolved, disco was far from dead, and the music of underground club scenes entered the mainstream. If you were coming of age then, I imagine you haven’t stopped singing these classic soul hits from 1982.

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“Get Down On It” by Kool & The Gang

A not-so-secret secret weapon of funk and disco is repetition. It creates a hypnotic groove, removing the self-awareness that keeps one from dancing. Here, Kool & The Gang offers just such a groove. Moreover, the funk legends direct the audience by repeating the song title. So there are no excuses for not singing along to this classic hit. Four words. That’s all you need to know. “Get Down On It” reached No. 10 on the Hot 100 and remains one of the most iconic post-disco tunes of the 1980s. You know what to do.

How you gonna do it
If you really don’t want to dance
By standing on the wall?
Get your back up off the wall.

“Sexual Healing” by Marvin Gaye

I thought about this song the first time I heard Kacey Musgraves latest single, “Dry Spell”. Similar to Musgraves, Marvin Gaye made it clear exactly what he needed in 1982. And most understand the kind of medicine Gaye croons about is often enough to cure even the most stubborn blues. When Gaye wrote “Sexual Healing”, he was struggling with depression, addiction, and a financial crisis. He also left his longtime record label, Motown. Two years later, Gaye was shot and killed by his father following a domestic dispute. But under such tragedy, and nearing the end of his life, Gaye still managed to produce one of the most iconic slow jams in history.

Whenever blue teardrops are falling,
And my emotional stability is leaving me.
There is something I can do,
I can get on the telephone and call you up, baby.

“1999” by Prince

The title track to Prince’s fifth LP describes the dread many felt about the future. What would happen to the world as it reached the end of the millennium? Of course, the panic never subsided as people became hysterical over a feared Y2K bug. However, in 1982, the chaos of an approaching year 2000 was still far off. And Prince has a solution here: If the world is going to end, then at least have a good time on the way out. Prince famously opened his following album, Purple Rain, with a eulogy. “Let’s Go Crazy” gave us another way to “get through this thing called life.” But the party still raged in “1999”. It was also the first Prince album to feature The Revolution. The perfect band name for an artist forever transforming pop music.

Say, say, two thousand, zero, zero, party over, oops, out of time.
So tonight I’m gonna party like it’s 1999.

Photo by Richard E. Aaron/Redferns