Knowing These 4 Rock Songs From the 80s Will Make You Seem Effortlessly Cool

Whether you’re trying to impress a crush or make a new friend, putting on one of these bad boys is a sure path to success. Grab the aux cord and prepare to be amazed. Here are four rock songs that are just deep cut enough to be cool while keeping the major hits on their toes.

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“I’m Gonna Win” by Foreigner

While it’s no “I Wanna Know What Love Is”, “I’m Gonna Win” by Foreigner presents a moodier, more determined side to the group.

This song sings of having a deep desire to succeed in a world where apparently, it’s “survival of the fittest.”

I was not born, to be a fighter
But now’s the time I have to learn
To keep my head, above the water
Gotta play with fire, but not get burned.

This is definitely a fun one to scream in the car and a good hype anthem for when you wanna take on a challenge.

“The Breakup Song” by The Greg Kihn Band

It’s honestly a toss-up if you know this one or not, which is what gives it that extra edge. At the time of its release, though, in 1983, “The Breakup Song” was the biggest hit for The Greg Kihn Band.

While writing this song, Greg Kihn revealed that he was taking a personal approach.

“You have to take a lesson that the stuff that’s real, it’s in you and it’s got to come out like that song,” he explained. “I’d really broken up that very day. It wasn’t like I was trying to feel like what’s a guy like when he’s broken up. I was living it. When things are real, they’re always better than when they’re fiction, if you can dig what I’m saying.”

“She’s A Beauty” by The Tubes

“She’s A Beauty” is one of those songs that you only hear every once in a while, but it actually went No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in 1983.

As Fee Waybill, the lead singer of The Tubes explained to Songfacts, the song was inspired by a visit he took to a massage parlor in San Francisco’s red-light district. At the time, he’d never been and was “so naïve.”

Upon meeting a prostitute, Waybill started asking why such a gorgeous girl would be doing that kind of work.

“We were looking for new Tubes dancers because we had lost our dancers between the last album and this one,” he shared. “So I kept saying, ‘You can be a dancer in The Tubes. Can you dance? Can you sing?’ And she just completely ignored me.”

“Don’t Stand So Close To Me” by The Police

This song is perhaps a lesser-known No. 1 from The Police, but in my opinion, it hits just as hard as any of their other big songs. The subject matter of this one is definitely something else, though. In “Don’t Stand So Close To Me”, Sting sings about a teacher fantasizing about a student.

In 1981, the lead singer shared that the inspiration for the song actually came from personal experiences. “I’d done teaching practice at secondary schools and been through the business of having 15-year-old girls fancying me,” he explained. “And me really fancying them! How I kept my hands off them I don’t know…”

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