#1: "When Doves Cry" - Prince & The Revolution
Few, if any, pop music progenitors have been as wildly prolific as the mononymed Minnesotan who set his trajectory for the top of the music world in 1984.
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#2: "Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)" - Phil Collins
When director Taylor Hackford was working on an updated motion picture remake of the 1947 film Out Of The Past, he knew he wanted a big ballad as its musical centerpiece, similar to what he had done two years earlier with his film An Officer And A Gentleman.
#3: "Eat It" - "Weird Al" Yankovic
His career could have been a super-obscure flash in the pan.
#4: "Time After Time" - Cyndi Lauper
In a year that saw Hall of Famers like Bon Jovi, U2 and Madonna earn their first top 40 hits, the biggest newly-minted star of 1984 in the moment was a brash, brassy and colorful New Yorker with an incredible voice and a bold personality to match her fashion sense.
#5: "Drive" - The Cars
When you look at the musical landscape of the year I’m examining, it shouldn’t be a surprise that there’s been a lot of synth-pop and New Wave present on this list.
#6: "Thriller" - Michael Jackson
Make no mistake: No matter what else was going on in 1984’s musical landscape, it was still very much Michael Jackson’s world.
#7: "The Wild Boys" - Duran Duran
As the influence of MTV grew in pop culture, the cable channel playing music videos and music-centric programming 24/7 began to create stars.
#8: "Hard Habit To Break" - Chicago
One of the biggest American bands of all time completed a monumental comeback the likes of which isn’t often seen in the pop music industry.
#9: "If This Is It" - Huey Lewis & The News
With a sound that mixed the nostalgic harmonies of the classic doo-wop they idolized as kids with a more modern pop/rock sound and a light and breezy good-time vibe, an assuming band from San Francisco led by a charming but unknown rock veteran in his mid-30s became one of the…
#10: "Out Of Touch" - Daryl Hall & John Oates
By the time 1984 rolled around, it was official: Daryl Hall & John Oates were the most successful duo in rock history.
#11: "I Feel For You" - Chaka Khan
By the time seminal funk act Rufus broke up in 1983, its frontwoman was already well-positioned for life after the band.
#12: "Rebel Yell" - Billy Idol
It wasn’t his big breakthrough.
#13: "Holding Out For A Hero" - Bonnie Tyler
As the 80s began songwriter/producer Jim Steinman was most known for his work with Meat Loaf on his seminal classic album Bat Out Of Hell.
#14: "For Whom The Bell Tolls" - Metallica
While the glitzy, raunchy strain of metal eventually known as “hair metal” was beginning to break through to the mainstream in 1984 and would eventually become a major source of content for MTV by the end of the decade, something darker and heavier was starting to bubble up from…
#15: "Rock Box" - Run-D.M.C.
For the first few years of the 80s, hip-hop music was seen as a passing fad by many in the popular music establishment as well as the mainstream culture at large.
#16: "Hello" - Lionel Richie
After spending the 70s as the frontman and driving hitmaking songwriter behind the Commodores, Lionel Richie went out on his own in the 80s and quickly found that betting on himself was the right call.
#17: "Jump" - Van Halen
Their star had been rising steadily since they emerged from Pasadena, CA, in the mid-70s with a guitarist who was actively rewriting the rules for his instrument and a frontman with a Sunset Strip look and a Vegas showman attitude.
#18: "Everyday Is Halloween" - Ministry
We’re going to stick with spooky synth vibes from the Midwest for a second straight entry with a band who would become a pioneering force in industrial metal just a few short years later, but in their original state, Ministry was actually a goth-leaning synth-pop group.
#19: "Somebody's Watching Me" - Rockwell
Hailing from Detroit, Kennedy Gordy was bonafide American music royalty, but if he was going to get famous, he wanted it to be based on his own talents rather than his family name.
#20: "You're The Best" - Joe "Bean" Esposito
It was originally tabbed for two other big 80s movies before it finally found a home, but the song that set the standard for the iconic “80s montage” trope obviously would not be relegated to a shelf in the archives.