70's, 80's 'Feel Good' Music

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"Every Time I Think of You" is a song written by Jack Conrad and Ray Kennedy and released in 1979 as the lead single from The Babys' third studio album Head First; John Waite provided lead vocals featuring female vocals by Myrna Matthews. The track was a worldwide hit, and became their last top 20 in the United States.

The Babys - Every Time I Think Of You
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"Shout" is a song by English pop/rock band Tears for Fears. It was released as the second single from their second studio album, Songs from the Big Chair (1985), on 23 November 1984. The song was written by Roland Orzabal and Ian Stanley and sung by Orzabal, with Curt Smith duetting on the chorus. It was their sixth UK top 40 hit, peaking at No. 4 in January 1985. In the US, it reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on 3 August 1985 and remained there for three weeks. "Shout" would become one of the most successful songs of 1985, eventually reaching number 1 in multiple countries. "Shout" is regarded as one of the most recognizable songs from the mid-eighties and is also recognized as the group's signature song, along with "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"

Tears for Fears - Shout
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"Silver Lady" is a popular single by David Soul. Written by Tony Macaulay and Geoff Stephens and produced by Macaulay, "Silver Lady" was the second and final number one hit in the UK Singles Chart for David Soul, spending three weeks at the top in October 1977. It had spent five weeks in the top ten before eventually toppling Elvis Presley. The single also spent four weeks at number one in Ireland, and peaked at number five in Australia, but fared less well in his homeland peaking at #52 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at number #23 on the Easy Listening chart. It can be found on his second album Playing To An Audience of One.
In the UK, the song was used in the 2013 film Filth, with David Soul miming the song while he kerb crawls in his car at night, eventually picking up a prostitute, with group of female singers in the back seat singing the chorus, and a 2014 television advert for bus operator National Express in which Soul is featured as a coach driver. As a result, the song re-entered the UK Charts at No.145 in June 2014

David Soul - Silver Lady


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"Shadow Dancing" is a disco song performed by English singer-songwriter Andy Gibb that reached number one for seven weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978. Albhy Galuten (who also produced this song) arranged the song with Barry Gibb. While Andy Gibb would have three more Top 10 hits in the U.S., this would be his final chart-topping hit in America. The song became a platinum record.
The song was written by Andy and his brothers (Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb) in Los Angeles, while the trio of brothers were working on the film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. "And one night," Andy would recall, "while we were relaxing, we sat down and we had to start getting tracks together for the album" (also titled Shadow Dancing, which would eventually hit #7 on the U.S. album charts). "So we literally sat down and in ten minutes, we had a group going, (singing) the chorus part. As it says underneath the song, we all wrote it, the four of us.
According to Billboard's Book Of Number One Hits, Gibb became the first solo artist in the history of the U.S. pop charts to have his first three singles hit the number-one spot. It remained in the top spot for seven straight weeks from 17 June to 29 July 1978. On 5 August it was replaced by The Rolling Stones with their hit "Miss You." Additionally, "Shadow Dancing" was listed by Billboard as being the number one single of 1978. The song peaked at number eleven on the soul chart and sold 2.5 million copies in the United States alone. Its two B-sides "Let It Be Me" appeared on US version and "Too Many Looks In Your Eyes" was from his previous album Flowing Rivers.
In July that year, Gibb performed "Shadow Dancing" at the Jai-Alai Fronton Studios in Miami, when Barry, Robin and Maurice unexpectedly joined him on stage, and sang this song with him. It was the first time that all four brothers performed together in concert

Shadow dancing - Andy Gibb
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"I Just Want to Be Your Everything" is a song recorded by Andy Gibb, initially released in 1977. It reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks, starting on the week ending 30 July 1977, and again for the week ending 17 September 1977. It was Gibb's first single released in the United Kingdom and United States. His previous single, "Words and Music" was only released in Australia. It is ranked number 26 on Billboard's 55th anniversary All Time Top 100 list. The song became a gold record.
"I Just Want to Be Your Everything" was written by Barry Gibb in Bermuda as well as "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water" with Andy Gibb credited as co-writer on the latter. It was recorded in October 1976; the sessions were produced mainly by Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson and with Barry on this track and "(Love Is) Thicker than Water"; Galuten also played keyboards and piano. Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh contributed guitar on this song. The track is a fairly dramatic love song, with the singer declaring his unending passion and stating that without her, he would die.
Andy reveals, "'I Just Want to Be Your Everything' was one of the most meaningful of all form, you know". He later recalls on Barry Gibb's writing style:
"So, once we discussed it all and got the deal together, me and Barry locked ourselves in a bedroom and Barry just started writing. When Barry writes, it is very hard to collaborate with him, because he is so quick. And before I knew it he was starting to do the chorus of ['I Just Want to Be Your Everything'], and I thought, 'Wow what a hook!'. He's an expert at his craft. Within about 20 minutes, he'd written a number one record; and then we went right into another one, ['(Love Is) Thicker than Water']
Two mixes were prepared for the song, the more popular mix was released on the album & as the single version and the earlier mix was used for promotional uses. The promotional version had an additional keyboard that at times competed with the lead vocal. The drummer's high-hat count during both breakdowns was completely mixed out and Gibb's harmony vocal is more prevalent during add-libs.
In Billboard Magazine, the song spent a cumulative four weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart. The song first reached the top of the chart on July 30 for the first of three consecutive weeks. Then, The Emotions went to No. 1 with "Best of My Love" on August 20 for the first of four straight weeks, during which time Gibb's song remained in the top three. When the Emotions fell out the #1 spot, "I Just Want to be your Everything" shot back to #1 for an additional week, on September 17. It then fell from #1 (replaced once again by "Best of My Love"), but went on to spend a then-record 16 weeks in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. That record 16-week stay in the top 10 record would be surpassed in early in 1978, by his brothers, Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb, performing as The Bee Gees, when their song "How Deep is Your Love" spent 17 weeks in the top 10. On Billboard's Hot 100, "I Just Want to be your Everything" ultimately enjoyed a 31-week chart run spanning from the end of April through the end of November.
In Billboard's competitor magazine Cashbox, Gibb's hit stayed at #1 for three consecutive weeks, spent 12 weeks in the top 10, and 29 weeks on the Top 100 Singles Chart.
On the Top Singles Chart of Record World (another Billboard competitor), "I Just Want to be your Everything" racked up a five-week stay at #1, which, like its four-week run on Billboard's Hot 100, was interrupted by the Emotions "Best of My Love." On the Record World singles chart, Gibb hit #1 on August 6, stayed there on August 13, then yielded to The Emotions for two weeks, before returning to #1 for two additional weeks beginning on September 3. Gibb's record spent 15 weeks in Record World's top 10, from mid-July to late October, and spent of a total of 32 weeks amongst the top 100 singles on Record World's Top Singles Chart.
"I Just Want to be Your Everything" would be Andy Gibb's longest-running chart single in Billboard, Record World, and Cashbox. In terms of the year-end charts of Billboard, Cashbox and Record World, all ranked "I Just Want to be your Everything" as the #2 song of 1977, bested only by Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life." (in Cashbox and Record World) and by "Tonight's the Night" by Rod Stewart (in Billboard) Gibb's song also appeared on the Soul Singles chart, peaking at number 19 and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male at the 20th Grammy Awards.

Andy Gibb - I Just Want To Be Your Everything
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"Lay Your Love on Me" is a pop song by the British pop group Racey, and was their second single release. The song was written by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, produced by Mickie Most and released in 1978 on the RAK Records label. It was their first hit single, reaching No.3 in the UK Singles Chart, and No.2 in Ireland in December 1978. It was a No.1 hit in the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand later that same year.

Racey - Lay Your Love On Me
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"Jeopardy" is a hit song released in 1983 by The Greg Kihn Band on their album Kihnspiracy. It is the band's only Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, reaching number 2 in May 1983 (behind Michael Jackson's "Beat It") and also hitting number 1 on the dance charts for two weeks a month earlier. The song also reached number 63 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming the band's only charting song in the UK. The song is written in the key of D minor.

Greg Kihn Band - Jeopardy
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"Never Gonna Let You Go" is a popular song from 1983 credited to Brazilian musician and bandleader Sérgio Mendes and sung by Joe Pizzulo and Leeza Miller. Songwriters Cynthia Weil (lyrics) and Barry Mann (music) composed the song, which appears on Mendes' 1983 self-titled album.
Weil and Mann originally submitted "Never Gonna Let You Go" to American funk band Earth, Wind & Fire, but they decided not to record the song. Dionne Warwick recorded the song on her 1982 album Friends in Love. Stevie Woods had also recorded the song for his 1982 album The Woman in My Life.
Mendes, preparing for the release of his 1983 album, was quoted as saying, "All the other songs on the album were up and festive. I needed a ballad on the album, just to change the pace a bit." Mendes' version was a hit, matching the No. 4 peak of his previous best showing on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, "The Look of Love", in 1968.[2] It spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and peaked at No. 28 on the Billboard R&B chart. On the Radio & Records airplay chart the song debuted #26 on the May 13, 1983 issue; after six weeks it reached and peaked at #7 for one week; the single stayed on the top 10 for three weeks and remained on the chart for twelve weeks.. The song was successful, especially in Brazil, being played on Rede Globo's soap opera Final Feliz.

Joe Pizzulo & Leza Miller - Never Gonna Let You Go


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"Hold Me Now" is a song by British band the Thompson Twins. Written by the band members, the song was produced by Alex Sadkin and the group's lead vocalist Tom Bailey. The song is a mid-tempo new wave song that uses a varied instrumentation, including keyboards, a xylophone, a piano and Latin percussion. It was released in November 1983 as the first single from their fourth studio album, Into the Gap.
Released in the United Kingdom in late 1983, the song peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart in November of that year and was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in 1983, becoming the band's biggest-selling single, and their first top five in that country. The song was released in the United States in February 1984 and became the band's highest charting single there, peaking at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 in May, remaining on the chart for 21 weeks. In addition, the song topped Billboard's Hot Dance Club Play chart for one week in April 1984.
"Emotionally, it was written as the result of some argument that was resolved between Alannah and myself," explained Tom Bailey in an August 2014 interview with Songfacts. "We actually decided, well, this is an interesting emotional subject. What it feels like to get back together again after separation and the kind of ideas that come up and the way that emotion and physicality somehow are brought together."
In 1983, after the commercial success of their third album Quick Step and Side Kick, the Thompson Twins collaborated again with producer Alex Sadkin to record Into the Gap at Compass Point Studios, in the Bahamas. Bailey and Sadkin co-produced the album including "Hold Me Now", which according to Bailey "had a very strong idea" behind it and was written very quickly.
When they were going to record the song, Bailey said that he was excited, nervous, and "almost over-prepared for it", he knew exactly what instruments were going on every track; it took three days to record. Before the release the song was remixed by Sadkin at RAK Studios, in London. About the process Bailey commented: "You know what a great producer is? It's someone who takes great ideas and makes them into good records. In our field, great music is a hit record." The song became the Thompson Twins' biggest hit in America, but at the same time it pressured the band to produce top-selling music, even if they were not completely comfortable with that, as Alannah Currie stated in an interview with David Oriard of The Spokesman-Review:

The biggest trouble that we've had basically is that the song, "Hold Me Now" was a huge hit, it was really big here, it was really big all over the world. Which is great, but it was just an accidental thing. It was just a song that we wrote. But after that then, we got everybody—managers, the record company—on our back to write "Hold Me Now, Part 2" and harassing you to try and find a formula. But we can't really. We'll never find a formula for what we did. And that upsets some of them.

Thompson Twins - Hold Me Now
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"Rapture" is a song by the American pop/rock band Blondie from their fifth studio album, Autoamerican (1980).
In January 1981, "Rapture" was released as the second and final single from the album. The song became their fourth and last single to reach No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, where it stayed for two weeks. It was the first No. 1 song in the U.S. to feature rap vocals. The song peaked at No. 4 in Australia and No. 5 in the United Kingdom.
"Rapture" is a combination of disco, funk, and hip hop with the rap section forming an extended coda. The song title "Rapture" served to indicate this element. While it was not the first single featuring rapping to be commercially successful, it was the first to top the charts. Its lyrics were especially notable for namechecking hip-hop pioneers Fab Five Freddy and Grandmaster Flash.
The music video made its U.S. television debut on Solid Gold on January 31, 1981, and not only became the first rap video ever broadcast on MTV, but was part of its first 90-video rotation. Set in the East Village section of Manhattan, the "Man from Mars" or "voodoo god" (dancer William Barnes in the white suit and top hat) is the introductory and central figure. Barnes also choreographed the piece. Much of the video is a one-take scene of Debbie Harry dancing down the street, passing by graffiti artists, Uncle Sam, an American Indian, child ballet dancer, and a goat. Fab Five Freddy and graffiti artists Lee Quinones and Jean-Michel Basquiat make cameo appearances. Basquiat was hired when Grandmaster Flash did not show for the filming. The UK 7" version of the song is used in the video.
Alicia Keys performed a cover of this song on the Sex and the City 2 soundtrack, released on May 25, 2010.

Blondie - Rapture


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"Super Trouper" is a single by Swedish pop group ABBA, and the title track from their 1980 studio album of the same name, written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. The song – with lead vocals by Anni-Frid Lyngstad – had the working title "Blinka Lilla Stjärna" (i.e. Twinkle Little Star, in Swedish), and was the last track to be written and recorded for the album (ultimately replacing the track "Put On Your White Sombrero"). "Super Trouper" is included on the compilation album Gold: Greatest Hits, and also features in the musical Mamma Mia!.
The song's name refers to the Super Trouper, a make of followspot used in large venues
In October 1980, the music video for "Super Trouper" used the largest number of artists that ABBA ever used in a music video. The spotlight featured throughout the video is, in fact, a CCT Silhouette follow spot, as opposed to a real Super Trouper. The city of Glasgow mentioned in the lyric was suggested by Howard Huntridge who worked with their then-UK publishers Bocu Music. The music video was directed by Lasse Hallström. Parts of the video were later reused in the clip for the song "Happy New Year" (which also features on the Super Trouper album).
"Super Trouper" continued ABBA's run of chart success, particularly in Europe. It was to become ABBA's ninth (and final) No. 1 in the United Kingdom. This distinction placed ABBA fourth for the most UK chart-toppers in history (behind The Beatles, Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard); a position the group would keep for almost 20 years until Madonna scored her tenth UK No. 1 with "Music" in August 2000. The track was also the fourth biggest selling single in the UK for 1980. "Super Trouper" also topped the charts in Belgium, West Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands, and was a Top 10 hit in Austria, Finland, France, Norway, Spain and Switzerland.
Outside of Europe, "Super Trouper" was a more modest hit. In the United States for example, where ABBA never quite managed to achieve the same sort of popularity experienced elsewhere, the single only reached No. 45. However, combined with "Lay All Your Love on Me" and "On and On and On", it topped the US Hot Dance Club Play chart in May 1981. The song only reached the lower region of the charts in countries such as Australia[6] and Japan, but did prove successful in Mexico, where it reached No. 3

ABBA - Super Trouper
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"The Final Countdown" is a song by Swedish rock band Europe, released in 1986. Written by Joey Tempest, it was based on a keyboard riff he made in the early 1980s, with lyrics inspired by David Bowie's "Space Oddity". Originally made to just be a concert opener, it is the first single from the band's third studio album, also named The Final Countdown. The song reached number one in 25 countries, including the United Kingdom, and was certified gold in that country in 1986. In the United States, the song peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 18 on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart. A music video by Nick Morris was made to promote the single that features footage from the band's two concerts at the Solnahallen in Solna, as well as extra footage of the sound checks at those concerts.
"The Final Countdown" became an instant success on the charts worldwide upon its release, reaching number one in 25 countries (including the UK, where it spent two weeks at the top and is Europe's only Top 10 hit to date), and is commonly regarded as the band's most popular and recognizable song. The single reached number 8 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, and is the most successful song from the album on the Album Rock Tracks chart, peaking at number 18 (and charting for 20 weeks).
The song is also the band's highest charting single in Australia and Canada, peaking at number 2 and number 5 respectively.

Europe - The Final Countdown
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"Half the Way" is a song written by Ralph Murphy and Bobby Wood, and recorded by American country music artist Crystal Gayle. It was released in September 1979 as the first single from the album Miss the Mississippi.
After achieving major Country crossover success in 1977 with "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue.", followed by a Top 20 Pop hit and No. 1 Country hit the next year ("Talking In Your Sleep"), Gayle attempted this new crossover piece of music.
After signing with Columbia Records in early 1979, Gayle immediately started recording for them. "Half the Way" was the first song recorded under her new record label. The song's up-tempo sound and Soft Rock-sounding melody, made the song reach Billboard's Top 20 chart, and even reaching the Top 15, peaking at No. 15 in 1979. The song also climbed to Billboard Magazine's No. 2 position on the Country charts, just missing the top spot. Like Gayle's other previous recordings, the song also hit the Adult Contemporary chart. "Half the Way" is one of Gayle's better-known Adult Contemporary hits, reaching the Top 10 at No. 9. Following "Half the Way"'s success, Gayle never achieved another Top 40 Pop hit on her own again. Her singles did chart outside the Pop Top 40 though following this, and also the Adult Contemporary chart.

Crystal Gayle - Half The Way
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Juice Newton - Queen Of Hearts
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"Do What You Do" is a single by American R&B singer Jermaine Jackson, sibling of singers Michael and Janet Jackson and former member of The Jackson 5. It was released as the second single from his 1984 album, entitled Jermaine Jackson in the United States but marketed as Dynamite in the United Kingdom and other countries.
This was one of Jermaine's first releases with Arista Records after a long recording career with Motown Records, first as a member of The Jackson 5, then later as a solo artist. Although Jermaine Jackson never achieved the same level of solo success as sister Janet or brother Michael, "Do What You Do" was one of six top 20 solo hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the singer. The song peaked at No. 13 on the Hot 100, No. 14 on the Billboard R&B chart, and spent three weeks atop the Billboard adult contemporary chart. In Canada it peaked on the RPM Top Singles chart at No. 29. The song was one of Jackson's biggest hits in the UK, where it reached No. 6 on the UK Singles Chart.
In the ballad, Jackson is requesting that his lover continue with certain enjoyable events they have both experienced in the past: Why don't you do what you do / when you did what you did to me?

Jermaine Jackson - Do what you do


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"Pilot of the Airwaves" is a 1979 hit single by the English singer-songwriter Charlie Dore. The song reached No. 13 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and earned Dore the Record World New Female Artist of the Year, and an ASCAP award. The single also charted in Canada, Australia and Europe.
The lyrics are from the point of view of a woman who frequently listens, late at night, to a radio disc jockey whom she calls a "pilot of the airwaves," keeping what has often been called the "dawn patrol." She admits that she has few real-life friends and that the DJ keeps her as much company as she believes she needs, describing her life and the feelings she has surrounding the fact that she considers the radio DJ her only true friend. The DJ does not need to play the selection she has requested; she does hope the DJ will do his best along those lines, adding:

I've been listening to your show on the radio,
And you seem like a friend to me.

Charlie Dore - Pilot of the airwaves
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"Harden My Heart" is a song by rock group Quarterflash, written by their guitarist Marv Ross. It is a million-selling Gold-certified single and was featured on the band's Platinum-selling Quarterflash album, released in 1981.
The song was originally released as a single in early 1980 by Seafood Mama, Quarterflash's predecessor band. It featured more sparse instrumentation but a more dramatic vocal arrangement than the hit version and was a regional success on radio stations in Portland, Oregon. The record's video features theatrics in and around an office trailer with dark corridors and swinging light bulbs from the ceiling before it was bulldozed and torched.
After changing their name, Quarterflash released their self-titled debut album in 1981 which contained the new version of "Harden My Heart". This power ballad version was released as the album's first single. In early 1982, it reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and also hit #1 on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The song reached the top 20 in Germany, New Zealand and France and reached #6 in Australia and #49 in the UK. It was the group's only top-ten pop single in the United States, although the follow-up single from the album, "Find Another Fool", and the 1983 hit "Take Me to Heart" both entered the top 20. It reached No. 41 on the U.S. Adult Contemporary chart.
This song is included in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, on radio station Emotion 98.3 and was played twice in the pilot episode of Knight Rider. The song is used in the 2001 film Wet Hot American Summer, which is set in 1981.
Julianne Hough and Mary J. Blige sing this song in the film Rock of Ages.
An excerpt of this song is also heard in the opening scene of the pilot episode of The Americans, a 2013 television series aired on the FX cable channel. The series is set in United States in 1981.

QUARTERFLASH - Harden My Heart
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Night Birds, released in 1982 on the Polydor label, is the second album by English jazz-funk band Shakatak. Night Birds established Shakatak's trademark jazz-funk sound, and contains two of the band's biggest hits, "Easier Said than Done" and "Night Birds", the former reaching the No. 12 spot in 1981, the latter climbing to No. 9 in the following year.

SHAKATAK - NIGHT BIRDS


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"Ride Like the Wind" is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Christopher Cross. It was released in February 1980 as the lead single from his Grammy-winning self-titled debut album. It reached number 2 on the US charts for four consecutive weeks. On the album's inner sleeve, Christopher Cross dedicated this song to Lowell George, formerly of the band Little Feat, who had died in 1979. It features backing vocals by Michael McDonald and a guitar solo by Cross.
The song tells the story of a condemned criminal on the run to Mexico. Told from a first-person point of view, it describes how an outlaw and convicted multiple murderer, on the run from a death-by-hanging sentence, has to "ride like the wind" to reach "the border of Mexico," where, presumably, the posse apparently in pursuit of him will not be able to reach him.
Cross was on acid when he wrote the lyrics. "We were living in Houston at the time, and on the way down to Austin to record the songs, it was just a beautiful Texas day. I took acid. So I wrote the words on the way down from Houston to Austin."
In 1999, the satirical newspaper The Onion published a story with the headline, "Christopher Cross Finally Reaches Mexican Border"; the headline was a reference to the song, and the three-sentence story made several specific allusions to the lyrics. Cross appreciated the honor.

Christopher Cross - Ride like the wind


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"The Groove Line" is a 1978 single by the British-based funk-disco group Heatwave. It was written by Rod Temperton. It was included on Heatwave's second album, Central Heating.
The song became one of the best-known disco songs by a British group and charted at #12 in the UK Singles Chart and #7 in the Billboard Hot 100. It also appeared on U.S. Billboard R&B at #3. The single was certified platinum by the RIAA in 2001. It is ranked as the 49th biggest US hit of 1978.
The song was used in the final episode of the show Freaks and Geeks as well as in the 2013 movie Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues.
The song was also used during a montage segment in Magic Mike XXL.

Heatwave - The Groove Line
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