Act Members Notable 1980’s Songs Notable Facts
Rick Springfield “Don’t Talk to Strangers,”
“I’ve Done Everything for
You,” “Jessie’s Girl”
Besides being a teen idol in
the 1970’s, Springfield also
portrayed Dr. Noah Drake in
the soap operaGeneral
Hospital.Bruce Springsteen &
the E-Street Band*
Bruce Springsteen, Roy
Bittan, Clarence Clemons,
Gary Tallent, “Miami Steve”
Van Zant, Max Weinberg“Born in the U.S.A.,”
“Hungry Heart,” “Glory
Days”In 1986 Springsteen’s forty-
songLive/1975-1985became
the only boxed set to reach
number one onBillboard’s
album chart.Starship Mickey Thomas, Grace Slick,
Don Baldwin, Craig
Chaquico, Aynsley Dunbar,
Pete Sears
“Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us
Now,” “Sara,” “We Built This
City”Thomas’s first Top 40
appearance was as the lead
singer on Elvin Bishop’s 1976
hit “Fooled Around and Fell
in Love.”Styx Dennis DeYoung, Tommy
Shaw, Chuck Panozzo, John
Panozzo, James Young
“The Best of Times,” “Mr.
Roboto,” “Too Much Time
on My Hands”Styx’s 1983 albumKilroy Was
Herewas an anticensorship
concept album, inspired in
part by accusations that the
band was encoding evil
messages into its songs.Donna Summer “Cold Love,” “She Works
Hard for the Money,” “The
Wanderer”
Summer revamped her 1970’s
bad-girl image by publicizing
her conversion to Christianity
with the song “I Believe in
Jesus” in 1980 and recording
two albums with the Christian
producer Michael Omartian
in 1983 and 1984.Tears for Fears Roland Orzabal, Curt Smith “Everybody Wants to Rule
the World,” “Shout,”
“Sowing the Seeds of Love”
Orzabal and Smith based their
group’s name and some of
their songs on the primal
scream theories of
psychotherapist Arthur Janev.Thompson Twins Tom Bailey, Alannah Currie,
Joe Leeway
“Doctor! Doctor!,” “Hold Me
Now,” “Lay Your Hands”The Thompson Twins named
themselves after the detectives
Thompson and Thompson in
the European comic stripThe
Adventures of Tintin.Toto Bobby Kimball, David
Hungate, Steve Lukather,
David Paich, Jeff Porcaro,
Steve Porcaro, Fergie
Fredericksen
“Africa,” “Rosanna,”
“Stranger in Town”The real-life subject of
“Rosanna” was the actress
Rosanna Arquette.Tina Turner* “Break Every Rule,” “Private
Dancer,” “What’s Love Got
to Do with It”
Turner costarred with Mel
Gibson in the 1985 filmMad
Max Beyond Thunderdome.1128 Music: Popular Musicians The Eighties in America