4 Songs That High Schoolers in 1983 Knew Every Word To

In 1983, MTV was taking music to new heights, and Michael Jackson was breaking records with Thriller, which came out the previous year. It was a time to be alive and arguably one of the most 80s-ish years of the decade. Here are a few songs I think that high schoolers during this time would have loved.

“Let’s Dance” by David Bowie

This song is the title track of Bowie’s 15th album. Apparently, “Let’s Dance” is actually more metaphorical than its disco-funk sound suggests. This is, inherently, a dance song, but that’s not the whole point.

 “When David wrote those lyrics, he was talking about the dance that people do in life; the conceptual dance of not being honest,” Nile Rodgers, the song’s producer, told Mojo. “He sings, ‘Put on your red shoes and dance the blues.’ Like you’re pretending to be happy but you’re sad.”

“Every Breath You Take” by The Police

“Every Breath You Take” is such a monster song that it can’t help but be The Police’s defining track. Synchronicity, the band’s 1983 album, included this song as a single. It was the best-selling single that year in the US, so I’m sure teens were totally wearing it out.

“Girls Just Want To Have Fun” by Cyndi Lauper

I mean, come on. What teenager hasn’t heard Cyndi Lauper’s iconic “Girls Just Want To Have Fun?” It’s like a rite of passage into girlhood if you ask me. She’s So Unusual, which included this song in addition to tracks like “Time After Time” and “All Through The Night”, was also Lauper’s debut album. It came out just a few days earlier.

“Beat It” by Michael Jackson

Okay, so this one wasn’t technically released in 1983, but it appeared on Thriller, which came out in November of 1982, and was a massive hit. Overall, Thriller was a commercial success. The project even made Michael Jackson the artist with the most Top 10 hits from a single album at the time. “Beat It” was the third single from the album, and was released as such in February of 1983. This song was actually completely written by Jackson.

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