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Men at Work - Down Under 1981

"Down Under" is a song recorded by Australian rockband Men at Work. It was originally self-released in 1980 as the B-side to their first local single, "Keypunch Operator", before the band signed a recording contract with Columbia Records. Both early songs were written by the group's co-founders, Colin Hay and Ron Strykert. The early version of "Down Under" has a slightly slower tempo and different arrangement from the later Columbia release.

The hit song went to number one in their home country Australia in December 1981, and then topped the New Zealand charts in February 1982. It topped the Canadian charts in October 1982 and the US Billboard Hot 100 in January 1983. Topping the Billboard chart for four non-consecutive weeks, it eventually sold over two million copies in the US alone. Billboard ranked it at number 4 for 1983. The song also went to number 1 in the UK, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, and Switzerland, and was a top 10 hit in many other countries.

"Down Under" is perceived as a patriotic song in Australia; it remains popular and is often played at sporting events. In January 2018, as part of Triple M's "Ozzest 100", the 'most Australian' songs of all time so far, "Down Under" was ranked number 2 behind Cold Chisel's "Khe Sanh". It was added to the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia registry in 2007.

In 2007, on the ABC-TV quiz show Spicks and Specks, the question was posed, "What children's song is contained in the song 'Down Under'?" The answer, "Kookaburra", a song whose rights were owned by Larrikin Music, resulted in phone calls and emails to Larrikin the next day. Sections of the flute part of the recording of the song were found to be based on "Kookaburra", written in 1932 by Marion Sinclair. Sinclair died in 1988 and the rights to "Kookaburra" were deemed to have been transferred to publisher Larrikin Music on 21 March 1990. In June 2009, 28 years after the release of the recording, Larrikin Music sued Men at Work for copyright infringement, alleging that part of the flute riff of "Down Under" was copied from "Kookaburra". On 4 February 2010, it was ruled that Larrikin's copyright had been infringed because "Down Under" reproduced "a substantial part of 'Kookaburra'", and Larrikin would receive 5% of royalties from 2002. The story of the lawsuit was featured on Tim Harford's podcast, Cautionary Tales: The Nursery Rhyme That Ruined a Rock Band.

In 2012, a new version of the song was produced by Colin Hay, coinciding with the thirtieth anniversary of the original's release. In the new version, Hay intentionally changed the flute part that caused the copyright lawsuit. In 2021, Australian producer Luude remixed "Down Under" as a drum and bass track, with Colin Hay re-recording the vocals for the track's release. This version reached the Top 10 in the UK and Australia. In New Zealand, the record climbed to number one on the Official Singles Chart, and by 6 February 2022 had spent four weeks at number one. At the 2022 ARIA Music Awards, the song was nominated for Song of the Year, Best Dance/Electronic Release and Best Video and Luude was nominated for Michael Gudinski Breakthrough Artist.

91,4% enjoyed their Vegemite sandwiches!

Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Want to Have Fun 1983

"Girls Just Want to Have Fun" is a song written in 1979 by rock musician Robert Hazard, who performed it with various bands in the Philadelphia area, and enjoyed some local college radio airplay with a demo recording he made. Hazard wrote it as a rock song coming from the male perspective. Hazard's friend, producer Rick Chertoff, brought it to American singer-songwriter Cyndi Lauper to record as a pop-electronic song. Lauper "flipped the script" and made it carry a feminist attitude by subtly changing some of the lyrics at the suggestion of Chertoff, conveying the point that all women really want is to have the same experiences that men can have, and she had her own suggestions about how her version should sound. It was released in 1983 as Lauper's debut single from her first solo album, She's So Unusual. Lauper's version gained recognition as a feminist anthem and was promoted by an MTV Video Music Award–winning music video directed by Edd Griles. It has been covered by more than 30 other artists.

The single was Lauper's breakthrough hit, becoming a worldwide hit throughout late 1983 and early 1984. It reached the Top 10 in more than 25 countries and reached number 1 in ten of those countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, and Ireland. It also reached number 2 on both the UK Singles Chart and the US Billboard Hot 100. It received Grammy nominations for Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Lauper released a new version, "Hey Now (Girls Just Want to Have Fun)", as the first single from her 1994 compilation album Twelve Deadly Cyns…and Then Some. It reached the top 10 in several countries.

"Girls Just Want to Have Fun" received a total of 92,3% yes votes!

Wham! - Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go 1984

"Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" is a song by English pop duo Wham!, released as the first single from their second studio album Make It Big on 14 May 1984. It became their first UK and US number one hit. It was written and produced by George Michael. The single was certified platinum in the US, which at the time commemorated sales of over two million copies. Michael's inspiration for the song was a scribbled note that his bandmate Andrew Ridgeley had left for his parents, intended to read "wake me up before you go" but with "up" accidentally written twice, so Ridgeley wrote "go" twice on purpose.

The song, according to Michael, had been done in one take without any drop-ins (overdubs) at all – production-wise, he noted that the two options to him were "either to be like Trevor Horn and go for stunning sounds on your own, or just get a great sound on each instrument and go for a live take".

"Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" received a total of 87,8% yes votes! Previous Wham!/George Michael polls: #62 "As", #108 "Everything She Wants", #219 "Freedom! '90", #444 "Do They Know It's Christmas?", #445 "Last Christmas", #690 "Jesus to a Child".

Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) 1983

"Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" is a song by British synth-pop duo Eurythmics. It was released in January 1983 as the fourth and final single from their second album of the same name. It was their breakthrough hit, establishing the duo worldwide. It reached number two on the UK Singles Chart in March 1983, and number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 six months later; it was their first single released in the US. According to Dave Stewart, their record label RCA Records did not think the song was suitable as a single in the US as it lacked a chorus. After a radio DJ in Cleveland kept playing the song from the album, and it generated a strong local response, RCA decided to release it in the US. The song also peaked at number one in Canada, and reached the top ten in a number of countries including Australia, West Germany, Spain, and South Africa.

With Annie Lennox appearing with orange cropped hair and wearing a man's business suit in the accompanying music video, the BBC stated Lennox's "powerful androgynous look" was the music video that "broke the mould for female pop stars". In 2020, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2023, it was selected by the US Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry.

Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart wrote the song after the Tourists had broken up and they formed Eurythmics. Although the two of them also broke up as a couple, they continued to work together. They became interested in electronic music and bought new synthesizers to play around with. According to Stewart, he managed to produce the beat and riff of the song on one of their new synthesizers, and Lennox, on hearing it, said: "What the hell is that?" and started playing on another synthesizer, and beginnings of the song came out of the two dueling synths.

According to Lennox, the lyrics reflected the unhappy time after the breakup of the Tourists, when she felt that they were "in a dream world" and that whatever they were chasing was never going to happen. She described the song as saying: "Look at the state of us. How can it get worse?" adding "I was feeling very vulnerable. The song was an expression of how I felt: hopeless and nihilistic." Stewart thought the lyrics too depressing and added the "hold your head up, moving on" line to make it more uplifting.

"Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" received a total of 96,7% yes votes and is the new most liked song on this poll blog, beating A-ha's long reign! 🥳

Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) 1985

"Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)" is a song by the English singer-songwriter Kate Bush. It was released in the UK as the lead single from Bush's fifth studio album, Hounds of Love, on 5 August 1985. Bush wrote and produced "Running Up That Hill" using a Fairlight CMI synthesiser and a LinnDrum drum machine. The lyrics imagine a man and a woman who make "a deal with God" to exchange places. It reached number three on the UK singles chart, and number 30 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was named among the year's best tracks by Melody Maker and NME and was nominated for British Single of the Year at the 1986 Brit Awards.

In May 2022, "Running Up That Hill" gained renewed attention after it featured in the fourth season of the Netflix series Stranger Things. The composer, Rob Simonsen, created an orchestral remix recorded in Air Studios, London. To create the feeling of a lullaby, he added a choir, combined with the "juggernaut" of a full orchestra. The remix appears as a motif throughout the series and in a pivotal scene. After it was used in Stranger Things, "Running Up That Hill" became the most streamed song on Spotify in the UK and the US. It became Bush's second UK number-one single after "Wuthering Heights" (1978), making Bush the solo artist with the longest gap between two number-one UK singles and the oldest female artist to achieve a UK number one. The 37 years it took to reach number one was also a record.

"Running Up That Hill" also reached number one in Australia, Belgium, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Sweden, and Switzerland. On 1 September, "Running Up That Hill" was issued as a CD single for the first time. It sold 1,077,284 copies in the UK in 2022. In the US, "Running Up That Hill" reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, beating its 1985 peak of number 30. It also entered the Billboard rock and Alternative Airplay charts and reached number one on the Hot Alternative Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs charts. It was nominated for Favourite Rock Song at the American Music Awards of 2022.

"Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)" received a total of 90,3% yes votes!

Bonnie Tyler - Total Eclipse of the Heart 1983

"Total Eclipse of the Heart" is the lead single by Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler from her fifth studio album, Faster Than the Speed of Night (1983) written and produced by Jim Steinman. The song became Tyler's biggest career hit, topping the UK Singles Chart, and becoming the fifth-best-selling single in 1983 in the UK. In the US, the single spent four weeks at the top of the charts, keeping another Steinman penned song "Making Love Out of Nothing at All" by Air Supply from reaching the top spot (a song Tyler would later cover in 1995), and it was Billboard's number-six song of the year for 1983. It also reached number 1 in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. At its peak, it sold 60,000 copies per day and approximately 6 million copies in total. It won the Variety Club award in the UK for best recording artist of 1983. It was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. The music video received two nominations at the Billboard Video Music Awards in 1983 for Best Performance by a Female and Most Effective Use of Symbolism. In September 2023, the video exceeded one billion views on Youtube.

In 2003, Tyler re-recorded "Total Eclipse of the Heart" as a bilingual duet with French singer Kareen Antonn. The track was named "Si demain… (Turn Around)". It was released on 19 December 2003 and appears on Tyler's 14th studio album, Simply Believe (2004). The single topped the charts in France and Wallonia.

The lyric "Turn around, bright eyes" had originally appeared in Steinman's 1969 college musical The Dream Engine. Steinman had originally written the song's verse melody for his score to the 1980 film A Small Circle of Friends. Steinman said in an interview with Playbill about the inclusion of the song in his 1997 musical Dance of the Vampires: "With "Total Eclipse of the Heart", I was trying to come up with a love song and I remembered I actually wrote that to be a vampire love song. Its original title was "Vampires in Love" because I was working on a musical of Nosferatu, the other great vampire story. If anyone listens to the lyrics, they're really like vampire lines. It's all about the darkness, the power of darkness and love's place in the dark…"

A parody of the song and music video were published in 2009, in what the fans and makers call a "literal video version", which is a type of video that replaces the original song lyrics with humorous lyrics describing the images in the video. Time magazine listed it as the 6th best viral video of 2009. This was also the 6th literal video produced by professional video editor David A. Scott Jr.; the singer who performed for this re-dub was Scott's friend Felisha Noble using the pseudonym Persephone Maewyn. A special shout-out to the person who mentioned this version in their reblog! 😄💖

"Total Eclipse of the Heart" received a total of 85,4% yes votes!

Meredith Brooks - Bitch 1997

"Bitch", also known as "Bitch (Nothing in Between)", is a song by American singer-songwriter Meredith Brooks and co-written with Shelly Peiken. The song originated from feelings of frustration that Peiken felt in regards to her stalling music career. It was released in March 1997 as the lead single from Brooks' second album, Blurring the Edges (1997). The song was produced by punk notable Geza X.

Capitol Records was initially hesitant to release "Bitch" due to the song's explicit lyrical content. The label's vice president of artists and repertoire, Perry Watts-Russell, and producer Geza X both expressed their concerns about the song's lyrics potentially having a negative impact on its commercial performance. Peiken explained that the record label considered censoring the song, although she and Brooks convinced the label to release the song to airplay with the lyrics intact. Following the release and subsequent success of the song, Brooks commented that she believed "Bitch" achieved its intended purpose of being a "celebration of Everywoman's multiple psyches."

In the US, the song steadily rose on the Billboard Hot 100, eventually peaking at number two for four weeks. The song also peaked at number two in Australia and Canada and reached number six in the UK. In Australasia, at the APRA Music Awards of 1998, it won the award for Most Performed Foreign Work. The song ranked at number 79 on VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of the '90s", and was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance and Best Rock Song at the 40th Annual Grammy Awards. In 2000, Australian comedian Chris Franklin released a parody of the song titled "Bloke" with the lyrics changed to reflect the stereotypical Australian male lifestyle. The song peaked at number one on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart.

"Bitch" received a total of 80,1% yes votes!