The Eighties in America Music: Popular Musicians 1125
Act Members Notable 1980’s Songs Notable Facts
Loverboy Mike Reno, Paul Dean, Matt
Frenette, Doug Johnson,
Scott Smith
“Hot Girls in Love,” “Lovin’
Every Minute of It,”
“Working for the Weekend”Loverboy is one of the biggest-
selling Canadian bands of all
time.Paul McCartney “Coming Up (Live at
Glasgow),” “Ebony and
Ivory,” “No More Lonely
Nights”
Beginning with 1997’s
Standing Stone, McCartney
composed and released a
series of orchestral albums
that became classical music
best-sellers.Madonna* “Into the Groove,” “Like a
Prayer,” “Live to Tell”
Madonna was the top female
singles artist of the 1980’s,
with twenty top-forty hits,
seventeen of which reached
the top ten and seven of
which reached number one.Richard Marx “Angelia,” “Hold on to the
Nights,” “Right Here
Waiting”
Prior to his solo success, Marx
sang backup on albums by
Lionel Richie, Chicago, Peabo
Bryson, Teddy Pendergrass,
and Julio Iglesias.John Mellencamp* “Hurts So Good,” “Jack and
Diane,” “R.O.C.K. in the
U.S.A. (A Salute to 60’s
Rock)”
From 1976 to 1982,
Mellencamp released albums
under the name John Cougar,
a pseudonym selected by his
manager Tony DeFries.Men at Work Colin Hay, Greg Ham, John
Rees, Jerry Speiser, Ron
Strykert
“Down Under,” “It’s a
Mistake,” “Who Can It Be
Now?”“Down Under” became
famous for introducing
Australian terms such as
“crombie,” “chunder,” and
“Vegemite sandwich” to the
American pop charts.George Michael* “Faith,” “Father Figure,” “I
Want Your Sex”
Michael performed
“Somebody to Love” with the
surviving members of Queen
at the Freddie Mercury
Tribute in 1992.Milli Vanilli Fabrice Morvan, Rob Pilatus
(actually John Davis, Brad
Howe, Charles Shaw)
“Blame It on the Rain,” “Girl
I’m Gonna Miss You,” “Girl
You Know It’s True”Morvan and Pilatus became
notorious for not singing on
“their” recordings and having
to return their 1989 Best New
Artist Grammy Award. Pilatus
died of a drug overdose in
1998.The Moody Blues Justin Hayward, John Lodge,
Graeme Edge, Patrick
Moraz, Ray Thomas
“I Know You’re Out There
Somewhere,” “The Voice,”
“Your Wildest Dreams”In 1986 members of the
British band Mood Six
portrayed the young Moody
Blues in the video for “Your
Wildest Dreams.”