Top 100 Songs of the 1980s (100 - 91) Quiz | Music

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Song Number 100: "I'd better read between the lines in case I need it when I'm older." The rock band Foreigner were together for nearly ten years with a dozen top 40 hits before they struck gold with this song in 1985. It was a ballad with powerful backing vocals by Jennifer Holliday and the New Jersey Mass Choir that gave them their first number one hit. Can you name this song that "Rolling Stone" magazine chose as one of the 500 greatest songs of all time?

Answer: I Want to Know What Love Is

The New York-based band Foreigner had six top ten hits including "Feels Like the First Time" before they reached the top with this power ballad. "I Want to Know What Love Is" hit number one on February 2nd, 1985 and remained there for two weeks. It was number one between two songs that would go on to become the top two songs of 1985-"Like A Virgin" and "Careless Whisper". It finished the year as the fourth biggest hit according to Billboard. Not too shabby itself. The song also reached number one in Britain and Australia.

FUN FACT: When Foreigner was looking for someone to do background vocals they first approached Aretha Franklin. She turned them down. Can you imagine the "The Queen of Soul" letting loose at the end?

2. Song Number 99: "A full commitment's what I'm thinking of" George Michael. Belinda Carlisle. Michael Jackson. Each of these acts were in the top ten the same week this little man with a big voice hit number one. Do you know the British singer with a soulful sound who bested these chart veterans with his very first song in the spring of 1988?

Answer: Rick Astley

"Never Gonna Give You Up" hit number one in the U.S. on March 12th, 1988 and held that spot for two weeks. Three months later Rick Astley followed this song with another number one hit entitled "Together Forever" and had several top forty records after that.

"Never Gonna Give You Up" was a worldwide hit reaching the top in Australia, Canada and the U.K. among others. It spent 5 weeks at number one in Britain and became the biggest selling single of 1987.

FUN FACT: Rick Astley's total worldwide record sales are estimated to be over 40 million. Wow!

3. Song Number 98: "Use the body, now you want my soul." This is the first of four songs the duo Daryl Hall and John Oates placed among the 100 top songs of the 1980s. It was their only number one song on both the pop and R&B charts and has since been sampled on over a dozen hip-hop hits. Can you name this influential song?

Answer: I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)

This was the fourth of six number one songs for Hall and Oates. The song took a slow climb to number one spending five weeks at number four before it's three notch jump to the top. The song is often remembered for dethroning Olivia Newton-John's "Physical" from its record-tying 10 week run at number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

"I Can't Go For That" became the nation's most popular song on January 30th, 1982 and stayed there for one week. It remained on the chart for 21 weeks and in the Billboard yearend chart for 1982 it placed at number 15.

FUN FACT: Daryl Hall claims that Michael Jackson admitted to him that the bassline from "Billie Jean" came from "I Can't Go For That".

4. Song Number 97: "She's simply awesome!" ...began this song and the American love affair for Trinidad-born singer Billy Ocean. In November 1984 he held the top spot for two weeks with this lively dance hit. Can you name it?

Answer: Caribbean Queen (No More Love on the Run)

Billy Ocean, born Leslie Sebastian Charles in 1950, took this song to number one on the pop, R&B, and dance charts in 1984. It spent 26 weeks on the Hot 100, 15 weeks in the top 40, 7 weeks in the top 10 and became the most popular song in the U.S. on November 3rd, 1984.

FUN FACT: The song was also known as "African Queen" and "European Queen", tailor-made for different regions around the world. I didn't know Billy was such an international player!

5. Song Number 96: "Precious people always tell me" ...that this is the song that first introduced Boy George to America. We won't ever be the same. Do you recall Culture Club's first song which spent three weeks at number two in the spring of 1983?

Answer: Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?

"Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?" was a number one hit in over twenty countries around the world including the U.K. where it reached the top in October of 1982. You may wonder why such a massive hit never reached number one in the U.S. Bad timing mostly. While the second British invasion was in full swing (Duran Duran's "Hungry Like The Wolf" was stuck at number three when Culture Club was at number two), there was a more massive pop phenomenom happening at the same time.

A little album entitled "Thriller" had just hit the charts and the song "Billie Jean" was in the midst of its seven week reign at number one. It's amazing how the success of these songs ushered in the pop music sound for the rest of the decade.

FUN FACT: You may remember in the video for this song that Boy George's shirt had words written across it in Hebrew. The English translation: Culture Club.

6. Song Number 95: "We had it all, just like Bogie and Bacall" In 1982 Bertie Higgins had a nation falling in love "so desperately", cuddling with a loved one all while watching "the late, late show". What Humphrey Bogart movie shares its title with this early 80's romantic ballad?

Answer: Key Largo

"Key Largo" hit number eight in April of 1982 and spent an unusually long 29 weeks on the Hot 100 resulting in its placement among the biggest hits of the decade. Born in Tarpon Springs, Florida, Elbert Joseph "Bertie" Higgins is from Irish, German and Portuguese descent. He is the great-great-great-grandson of poet Johann Wolfgang Goethe, author of "Faust".

FUN FACT: Claire Trevor's role in "Key Largo" as the alcoholic mistress of Edward G. Robinson won her the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1949. How saucy!

7. Song Number 94: "Every cowboy sings his sad, sad song" No, this song doesn't come from an old western or "Brokeback Mountain". It's from a power ballad by the heavy metal group Poison, a song that held the top spot for three weeks in December of 1988. Do you know it?

Answer: Every Rose Has Its Thorn

"Every Rose Has Its Thorn" was the first and only number one song for Poison during the 1980s. It reached the top spot on Christmas Eve, 1988 and went on to become the third biggest hit of 1989 according to Billboard's yearend survey. It was their third release off of their second album "Open Up and Say...Ahh!"

FUN FACT: Heartbroken over a stripper, lead singer Bret Michaels wrote the song on an acoustic guitar in a laundromat. I'm glad to hear he cleaned his clothes. :)

8. Song Number 93: "There's a cold, kinetic heat struggling, stretching for the peak" One hit wonder Michael Sembello took this song all the way to number one in the summer of 1983. It sure didn't hurt the song's success that it was featured in which of these popular movies?

Answer: Flashdance

"Maniac" was the second number one song from the Grammy Award winning album for "Flashdance". Following in the footsteps of the movie's title track, "Maniac" hit the top on September 10th, 1983 and spent two weeks at number one. Michael Sembello, a studio guitarist, was nominated for an Oscar for the song. However, when it was learned that the song was initially composed for another movie in 1980 he was disqualified from winning. The Oscar wound up going to "Flashdance...What a Feeling".

FUN FACT: The horror film the song was first composed for was called "Maniac". An early version of the chorus was "He's a maniac, maniac that's for sure. He will kill your cat and nail him to the door."

Um, I think I prefer the "Flashdance" version...

9. Song Number 92: "So many questions still left unanswered" Grammy-nominated for "Song of the Year" in 1990, this record won in the category "Best Pop Performance by a Duo". In the last weekly chart of the 1980's it peaked at number two. Do you know which veteran pop artists covered "Don't Know Much"?

Answer: Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville

"Don't Know Much" was the first of two top ten hits for Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville. It reached number two on December 23, 1989 and held that spot for two weeks.

Linda Ronstadt had her heyday in the 1970s when she had the number one hit "You're No Good" and two number one albums. She specialized in re-interpreting songs from the fifties and sixties often to great success. Aaron Neville was part of the sixties group "The Neville Brothers". Their biggest chart success was with the number two song "Tell It Like It Is" in 1966.

FUN FACT: In the early 1980s, the song was a minor hit under the title "All I Need to Know" by two other chart veterans: Joe Cocker and Bette Midler.

10. Song Number 91: "So slide over here and give me a moment" "Need You Tonight" by INXS was the band's only number one song during the 1980's. The video for the song was a combination of "Need You Tonight" and the short song "Mediate". It won five MTV video awards including "Video of the Year". The "Mediate" segment of the video was an homage to what legend?

Answer: Bob Dylan

The "Mediate" segment of the "Need You Tonight" video featured band members holding up placards each with a word or two from "Mediate". Each cue card would be thrown down as the lyric of the song played. This was a tribute to the 1967 movie "Don't Look Back" where Bob Dylan did a similar thing during his song "Subterranean Homesick Blues".

"Need You Tonight" reached number one on January 30th, 1988, spent one week atop the charts and became the second biggest hit of 1988 according to the Billboard yearend survey.

FUN FACT: The "Need You Tonight" video was ranked number twenty-one on MTV's countdown of the 100 Greatest Videos of All-Time.

I hope you enjoyed this quiz as much as I had putting it together. Thank you so much for taking the time to play.

If you liked this check out the next installment where I countdown songs 90 to 81.

Source: Author bottle_rocket

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Dalgleish before going online.
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Top 100 Songs of the 1980s (100 - 91) Quiz

This quiz features ten of the 100 most popular songs in the U.S. as determined by the Billboard Hot 100 charts from the 1980s. Find out how much you know about these songs that touched and affected so many lives.

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