I Love the Eighties: My Top 100 Albums of 1984

This weekend has been a very quiet one for me. In a couple of weeks, Son #2 will finally be marrying is long-time girlfriend. As a matter of fact, they have been dating nearly 13 years, beginning during the final month of their freshman year in high school. It is fairly obvious to us parents that their relationship was pretty special early on; however, they knew they needed to wait so they could grow up more. Anyway, this weekend was the bachelor and bachelorette parties. The guys idea of fun was not anything that my son’s future father-in-law and me felt necessary to be a part of. However, my future daughter-in-law wanted my wife, her mother and aunt to attend her bash, so I have been kinda been flying solo this weekend, watching superhero movies and listening to music.

Today, I am celebrating the great music from 1984, which was, perhaps, one of the strongest years of not only the Eighties but also of rock history. Once again, we are talking about a truly landmark year, where Prince and The Boss both became mega-superstars, Tina Turner staged one of rock’s greatest comebacks and both hip hop and alternative musics made a huge step in their respective development. And, hair metal began its ascent into history, following up the inroads made by Quiet Riot and Mötley Crüe the previous year, as genre-forefathers Van Halen released their most successful album-to-date, 1984, followed by Bon Jovi, Ratt and Twisted Sister.

Unfortunately, 1984 also marked the beginning of the decline of new wave, as the genre began to mutate into straight up pop, alternative rock as well as other genres such as goth. And, 1984 was the year during which Madonna broke into the public’s consciousness, as her debut really broke through during the summer, as well as her follow-up, Like a Virgin, which hit number one at the end of 1984 and stayed there into 1985. And, the previous work laid down by The Cars and Pretenders paved the way for their hugely successful year in 1984.

The other thing that seemed to peak in 1984 was the quality of music videos, as videos followed Michael Jackson’s finest video moment in “Thriller” with more videos that seemed to be more mini-films than simple videos. Perhaps the best example of this was the video for Journey’s frontman, Steve Perry ‘s first solo hit single “Oh Sherrie.” In this landmark musical video, the premise was a video parodying the making of a large video, only for Perry to make the “perfect” take by stripping the whole shooting down to him “singing” while emoting the lyrics to his then-girlfriend/muse, Sherrie Swafford. At that moment, it seemed as though the whole video-thing had moved full circle, which it had until being revitalized all over again in the Nineties as the vehicle for rap and grunge to take over the music world.

So, finally, let’s take a look at My Top 100 Albums of 1984. Envelope please!

1. Prince & the Revolution – Purple Rain
2. Bruce Springsteen – Born in the USA
3. R.E.M. – Reckoning
4. Daryl Hall & John Oates – Big Bam Boom
5. The Style Council – Café Bleu (aka ‘My Ever Changing Moods’)
6. The Smiths – The Smiths
7. Madonna – Like a Virgin
8. Queen – The Works
9. The Replacements – Let It Be
10. Talking Heads – Stop Making Sense
11. Hüsker Dü – Zen Arcade
12. Run-D.M.C. – Run-D.M.C.
13. Minutemen – Double Nickels on the Dime
14. Tina Turner – Private Dancer
15. Alison Moyet – Alf
16. Wham! – Make It Big
17. Frankie Goes to Hollywood – Welcome to the Pleasuredome
18. Peter Wolf – Lights Out
19. The Cars – Heartbeat City
20. General Public – …All the Rage
21. Shelia E. – The Glamorous Life
22. Pretenders – Learning to Crawl
23. Metallica – Ride the Lightning
24. Talk Talk – It’s My Life
25. Sade – Diamond Life
26. Joan Jett & the Blackhearts – Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth
27. The Psychedelic Furs – Mirror Moves
28. The Time – Ice Cream Castles
29. Van Halen – 1984
30. U2 – The Unforgettable Fire
31. Bananarama – Bananarama
32. Depeche Mode – Some Great Reward
33. INXS – The Swing
34. Joe Jackson – Body and Soul
35. Whodini – Escape
36. Lindsey Buckingham – Go Insane
37. Los Lobos – How Will the Wolf Survive?
38. Bangles – All Over the Place
39. The Art of Noise – Who’s Afraid of the Art of Noise
40. Steve Perry – Street Talk
41. Don Henley – Building the Perfect Beast
42. Glenn Frey – The Allnighter
43. Eurythmics – 1984 (For the Love of Big Brother)
44. Thompson Twins – Into the Gap
45. Elvis Costello & the Attractions – Goodbye Cruel World
46. The Alan Parsons Project – Ammonia Avenue
47. Echo & the Bunnymen – Ocean Rain
48. Let’s Active – Cypress
49. The Smiths – Hatful of Hollow
50. Nik Kershaw – Human Racing
51. The Jacksons – Victory
52. Bryan Adams – Reckless
53. Roger Waters – The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking
54. The Waterboys – A Pagan Place
55. Chaka Khan – I Feel for You
56. Foreigner – Agent Provocateur
57. .38 Special – Tour de Force
58. Simple Minds – Sparkle in the Rain
59. Julian Lennon – Valotte
60. John Lennon & Yoko Ono – Milk & Honey
61. Scandal Featuring Patty Smyth – The Warrior
62. Ratt – Out of the Cellar
63. The Go-Go’s – Talk Show
64. XTC – The Big Express
65. Rush – Grace Under Pressure
66. Shannon – Let the Music Play
67. The dB’s – Like This
68. David Bowie – Tonight
69. Klymaxx – Meeting in the Ladies Room
70. New Edition – New Edition
71. Various Artists – Footloose OST
72. Bronski Beat – The Age of Consent
73. Bon Jovi – Bon Jovi
74. The Kinks – Word of Mouth
75. Meat Puppets – Meat Puppets II
76. Rockwell – Somebody’s Watching Me
77. Twisted Sister – Stay Hungry
78. Iron Maiden – Powerslave
79. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – From Her to Eternity
80. Billy Bragg – Brewing Up with Billy Bragg
81. Teena Marie – Starchild
82. Stevie Ray Vaughan – Couldn’t Stand the Weather
83. Pat Benatar – Tropico
84. Spinal Tap – This Is Spinal Tap
85. Ramones – Too Tough to Die
86. Cocteau Twins – Treasure
87. Robyn Hitchcock – I Often Dream of Trains
88. The Hoodoo Gurus – Stoneage Romeos
89. Howard Jones – Human’s Lib
90. Various Artists – Breakin’ OST
91. Scorpions – Love at First Sting
92. Kurtis Blow – Ego Trip
93. The Cure – The Top
94. Billy Ocean – Suddenly
95. Midnight Oil – Red Sails in the Sunset
96. The Fat Boys – The Fat Boys
97. Dwight Twilley – Jungle
98. Violent Femmes – Hallowed Ground
99. Elton John – Breaking Hearts
100. Chicago – Chicago 17

And, there it is…My Top 100 Albums for 1984. I hope this list contains all of your favorites from that year.

Author: ifmyalbumscouldtalk

I am just a long-time music fan who used to be a high school science teacher and a varsity coach of several high school athletic teams. Before that, I worked as a medical technologist at three hospitals in their labs, mainly as a microbiologist. I am retired/disabled (Failed Back Surgery Syndrome), and this is my attempt to remain a human. Additionally, I am a serious vinyl aficionado, with a CD addiction and a love of reading about rock history. Finally, I am a fan of Prince, Cheap Trick, Tom Petty, R.E.M., Hall & Oates, Springsteen, Paul Weller & his bands and Power Pop music. View all posts by ifmyalbumscouldtalk