Blog: Pop Go The '80s

Of all the new acts to burst onto the music scene in 1982, none took the US by storm like the Australian band Men At Work. With irresistible songs like Who Can It Be Now? and Down Under - and aided by popular videos - the quirky band notched several hits from their Business As Usual debut, which spent 15 weeks at the top of the US album charts. Cargo , the follow-up to that album, was actually finished and ready for release by late 1982, but the continuing success of Business [...]

• Overkill, Men At Work »

For his 1982 album Tug Of War , Paul McCartney (this was before he was knighted and became Sir Paul) reunited with longtime Beatles' producer George Martin. The resultant album was regarded as one of McCartney's best work in some time and it's initial single, the duet Ebony And Ivory with Stevie Wonder, led things off with a monstrous commercial hit (albeit a critically panned one). The seeds for this union were sown in 1971 when Wonder had scored a hit with his version of the Lennon/McCartney composition We Can Work It Out. [...]

In 1980, Journey was a band in transition from a fusion-based rock band into a major hitmaking force. Their album Departure would prove to be the final one with longtime keyboardist/vocalist Gregg Rolle, leading to the band fully becoming a vehicle for the powerful tenor of lead singer Steve Perry. Departure was the third album for Journey with Perry in the line-up and his addition had already paid dividends over the previous three years and two records as the band scored with hits like Wheel In The Sky , Lights , [...]