60s & 70s Artists who had their biggest                      albums in the 80s

ACDC – Back in Black

One of the biggest selling albums of all time came for these guys in 1980. It seems these guys have never had an unsuccessful album. 

 Aerosmith - Get a Grip

Here's this old bony guy with lips like Mick Jagger and he's come from oblivion with his band. What did people see in these guys? Why are they considered USA's greatest rock band by many?  Ok they did have a great sound. 

Air Supply - Lost in Love

I remember not really being a big fan of Air Supply and finding some of their stuff irritating. But then when “Making Love out of nothing at all” came along in 83, I fell in love with it and then came to love all their songs.

Alan Parson’s Project –

Eye in the Sky

A lot of people don’t seem to remember these guys but they had a lot of singles on the charts and had some amazing music. Sadly one of their main lead singers Eric Woolfson passed away in 2009 before I got to see them in concert in 2017.

Aretha Franklin

Who's zoomin' who?

Barbra Streisand 

Guilty

Clearly a lot of success with this album is thanks to Barry Gibb's song writing. But no one can deny her talent. 

Bonnie Tyler 

Faster than the Speed of Sound

Bruce Springsteen –

Born in the USA

Why did this guy irritate me so much? I don’t know, but this was one huge album.

Chicago – Chicago 17

I wish these guys would have been more creative with their album titles, but this one sure did well with hit songs “Hard habit to break” and “You’re the Inspiration”.  Chicago 16 was my personal favourite though. 

Chris de Burgh - Into the Light

David Bowie – Lets Dance

It took me a while to warm to Bowie and even this album didn’t do it at the time. However, as time has gone by I have come to appreciate it. 

Diana Ross - Diana

Dire Straits – Brothers in Arms

What an amazing album. In 1985 it was released and out came hit after hit. I came to love almost every song on it although due to how much some were played, also came to get a little sick of  a couple of them. 

Foreigner – Agent Provocateur

Of course, the album that has “I wanna know what Love is” is going to be their bestselling one. 

Genesis – Invisible Touch

With Phil Collins on lead vocals, Genesis went from strength to strength and in 1986 reached their peak with this particular masterpiece.

Hall & Oates – Big Bam Boom

These guys had hit after hit throughout the 80s. This one was their biggest with “H20”, 2 years earlier, coming in a close second. 

Heart - Heart

John Cougar Mallencamp – Scarecrow

John Farnham -

Whisphering Jack

Journey - Escape

Kool & the Gang – Emergency

 These guys were your classic disco band, but then suddenly in 1980 had the huge hit “Celebration”. However, it wasn’t until 4 years later that “Emergency” was released and gave them a string of hits, making it their most successful album ever.

Marvin Gaye - Midnight Love

It would be good to know what more he could have achieved if he had not been murdered in 1984.

Michael Jackson – Thriller

Michael came up through the 70s with some great stuff, but who would have thought just how big this album would turn out to be. His 6^th album and the one that would transform him into a megastar. I can still remember recording these songs off the radio and listening to them over and over. 

Neil Diamond

The Jazz Singer

The Oak Ridge Boys

Fancy Free

The  came up with "Elvira" on this one and made this their biggest selling album ever. 

Olivia Newton John

Physical

Paul Simon – Graceland

It took him a while after breaking free from Art Garfunkel, but he finally hit the big times as a solo performer with this one. He even had Chevy Chase in his video for “Call me Al”. How cool was that? 

Peter Gabriel – So

The best thing Peter ever did was leave Genesis and let Phil Collins take over the lead vocals. It meant that Genesis AND Peter Gabriel could finally come up with some GREAT music. Peter did his best work ever in 1986 with this album while Genesis also had their greatest album at the same time – Invisible Touch. 

Pointer Sisters – Break out

Police – Synchronicity

REO Speedwagon –

Hi Infidelity

Robert Palmer -

Riptide

Roxy Music - Avalon

Roy Orbison - Mystery Girl

Shalamar  - Friends

Smokey Robinson

Being with you

Split Enz – True Colours

Some readers may be thinking to themselves “Who?”, but anyone who grew up in New Zealand in the 70s and 80s know who these guys were. They were our most iconic band ever… and yes even more iconic than Crowded House, as that was just one of the main guys from Split Enz teaming up with a couple of Aussies. 

Talking Heads –

Little Creatures 

Talking Heads went from an alternative 70s band to megastars after their live concert movie “Stop Making Sense” in 1984. But even though the album for it is arguably their most iconic album, it wasn’t quite as successful as “Little Creatures” which spawned such great hits as “The Lady Don’t mind”, “She Was” and “Road to Nowhere”, thus propelling them into mainstream stardom.

Tina Turner – Private Dancer

Only in the 80s can a granny become such a huge pop star. And no Tina, I don’t want to see you do the shimmy EVER.

Toto – Toto IV

Another band who weren’t creative enough to come up with decent album titles, but creative enough in 1982, to come up with a couple of all time classic songs “Africa” and “Rosanna”, thus making this their biggest selling album by far.

ZZ-Top – Eliminator