Top 80s Songs: Artists Who Never Let Us Down - Part 1

I remember a day when everybody hated 80s music (I think it was a day in 1993 after that ridiculous first Bush album came out). Now it's become a beloved genre all its own. Not so kitsch as disco, and not as beloved as full-on classic rock, 80's music can be a lot of things to a lot of people. If you were a 'metal-head', then Def Leppard and Van Halen might still be gods to you. If you were a fashionista then perhaps Madonna or Cyndi Lauper were your material girls who just wanna have fun. If you were misunderstood in high-school, then maybe it was Simple Minds or Bauhaus who wrote your top 80s songs.

It was a great time to be alive, and while there were a ton of one-hit wonders, there are a smaller circle of artists who never let us down. Creating classic after classic, these acts not only dominated radio and walk-mans, but are probably on tour today. The only difference is, instead of seeing 90 minutes of yawn-inducing filler and one encore hit where you all have to stand up and sing 'relax...don't do it!', you get a solid two hours of hits!

So, in no particular order, here is a list of artists who never let us down when it came to top 80s songs:

Duran Duran: 'The Reflex', 'Rio, 'Hungry Like the Wolf'...where do you want us to start (or stop)? These guys crafted great and--for the time--unusual pop hits with videos that were as cool to look at today as they were back then. And thank god they're still around and playing shows, because I can't bring myself to go see some weird Guns-n-Roses lineup.

Hall & Oats: These guys actually got us first in the 70s with 'Sara Smile', but by the 80s it almost seemed like they could do no wrong with a bevvy of hits that spanned the decade. My personal favorite: 'Private Eyes'. Darryl Hall still has a phenomenal voice and is making his presence known online.

Journey: Honestly, I hate Steve Perry (and was glad Steve Augeri replaced him), but there's just no denying that Journey could do no wrong during the 80s. From amazing ballads to rocking classics, the songwriting and execution was absolutely second to none.

Pat Benatar: This pint-sized powerhouse went from hard-rock supersinger to pop/rock icon in the space of ten short years. With hits like 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot' and 'Love is a Battlefield', Benatar managed to cover a lot of stylistic territory without compromising that gorgeous voice.

Def Leppard: Are you kidding? Do I even need to explain this one? Put aside over 20 million albums sold just between Pyromania and Hysteria, the whole reason these albums (and those before and after) sold so well was because Def Leppard and (producer) Mutt Lange wouldn't let any disc go out the door without at least four hits (and in the case of Hysteria, six absolute classics) and

Van Halen: These hard-rock icons were probably second only to Led Zeppelin in terms of arena-rock (and, for my money, I'd take VH over Zepp just on personal preferences), and though they got their phenomenal start in the 70s, they managed to only ramp things up in the 80s, even throwing themselves a curve by changing singers mid-stream. With the greatest guitarist on the planet and singers who could pull hit lyrics out of thin air, Van Halen just pounded out classic after classic (and we'd love to see them do it again!).