No. 1 Hits of the 80s Vol. 6 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)

Although Pink Floyd had been around since 1967, they achieved their greatest success in the late 1970s and early 1980s, first with an album called "Dark Side of the Moon", and then with their masterpiece "The Wall". That's the album "Another Brick in the Wall" came from.

It was Pink Floyd's biggest hit going to number one in close to a dozen countries worldwide. It stayed at the top of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 charts for four weeks in the spring of 1980. The lyrics of Part II, which is the more popular piece of the song, deal with the rigidity of education in general and boarding schools in particular.

The song was actually banned in South Africa for this reason.

Answer: False

Not true. "Keep On Loving You" was the first REO Speedwagon tune to grace the top of the Billboard Hot 100 charts when it spent a week there in the spring of 1981. Four years later the group returned to the top with their biggest hit, "Can't Fight This Feeling".

Answer: Stevie Wonder

It was Stevie Wonder who teamed up with Paul McCartney to release "Ebony and Ivory" in 1982. The song spent seven weeks at the top of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 charts in the spring that year. Later, McCartney would duet with Michael Jackson on a couple of major hits.

Answer: Beat It

Surprisingly, the "Thriller" album only yielded two number one hits. Aside from "Billie Jean", the only other song from the album to make the top of the charts was "Beat It", which spent three weeks at the top of the charts in the spring of 1983. "Thriller" peaked at number four, "Wanna Be Startin" Something" topped out at number five, and "P.Y.T." got as high as number ten.

Answer: False

Nope. Of course, it was Phil Collins who topped the charts with "Against All Odds", the title song from the motion picture of the same name. It spent three weeks at the top of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 charts in the spring of 1984. It also went to number two in the U.K. The song won a 1985 Grammy Award, and was also nominated for an Academy Award.

Answer: Bette Midler

Bette Midler was the one that did not have a solo verse in the body of "We Are the World" which spent four weeks at the top of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 charts in the spring of 1985. The song was a number one tune in many other parts of the world as well. Jackson, one of the co-writers of the song, sang the chorus, Springsteen can be heard singling "We are the world, we are the children" with his gravelly voice, and then there is Lauper's memorable "Well, well, well, well let us realize that a change can only come" toward the end of the last verse.

Some other notables that did not have solo parts, but were part of the chorus included Smokey Robinson, Harry Belafonte, Waylon Jennings, Lindsey Buckingham and John Oates.

Answer: These Dreams

"These Dreams" finally gave Heart their long awaited number one tune when it peaked at the top of the Billboard charts for a week in March of 1986. The group had songs on the charts going back as far as 1976, but it took ten years to finally come up with a number one tune.

Interestingly, this song was co-written by Bernie Taupin (of Elton John fame) and was originally offered to Stevie Nicks who declined to record it.

Answer: True

"Jacob's Ladder" was the song that spent a week at the top of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 charts for Huey Lewis and the News in March of 1987. The song was written by Bruce Hornsby who gave it to Lewis for his 1986 smash album "Fore". Of course the biblical reference is to Jacob's Ladder, a "Ladder to Heaven" as described in the Old Testament.

Answer: Tiffany

This song became Tiffany's second consecutive number one hit following her cover of the Tommy James tune "I Think We're Alone Now". The song spent two weeks at the top of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 charts in the winter of 1988. The song was actually discovered in a local club and was brought to the attention of her producer, who at first thought she would not be able to record it because of the mature theme, but he later relented and allowed the song to be done by Tiffany.

The result was a number one tune.

Answer: Debbie Gibson

Debbie Gibson from Long Island, New York was the East Coast version of Tiffany who was from California. They had similar styles and huge followings. The major difference was that Gibson wrote her own material. This song was the first single from her second album called "Electric Youth" The song spent three weeks at the top of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 charts in March of 1989, and was Gibson's fifth Top ten single in a little over two years.