80s hits that don't sound like they were produced in the 80s

While some of their singles do feel 80s, I remember listening to "Everything" awhile back and thinking how they called it a day too quickly. A lot of the non-single tracks on that album were really not much different than some of the female stuff getting played on alternative stations circa 1994-1995 (Juliana Hatfield, Belly, etc...). Makes me wonder if they would've been able to make the "transition" into the 90s had they not imploded like they did, and not reform until it was more a nostalgic thing. Susanna Hoffs' collaborations with Matthew Sweet kinda adds credence to that mentality as well.

 

These albums weren't big hits, but I don't think The Waterboy's masterpiece, This is the Sea, or the recently expanded Workbook, by Bob Mould sound very '80's at all. I'd almost forgot how brilliant Workbook is-- and how fresh still sounds.

 

You could offer up the whole An Innocent Man album really. Outside of maybe Keeping The Faith, almost all of the songs on the album sound genuinely timeless and could've been done 20 years earlier. I remember when oldies stations actually added Uptown Girl, The Longest Time, Tell Her About It to their playlist quite some time before they added more "typical" 80s hit songs, because those songs actually still played well even when the oldies stations were mostly focused on 60s and early 70s..

 

Joe Jackson-You Can't Get What You Want ('Til You Know What You Want), Breaking Us In Two.

 

Let Love Rule by Lenny Kravitz

 

U2 may get a lot of flack for the Rattle and Hum, but it has barely any trace of the 80's.

 

We seem to really be stretching the definition of a "big hit."

 

true, some of it was a throwback, and some of it actually was a bit of a hint of what would come with Achtung (God Part II being the most obvious one, even Desire could've been on AB without sounding too out of place).

 

Suzanne vega's first album
Donal Fagen. The nightfly
Roxy music. Avalon. Slick production but not 80s sound
What I have heard of Sonic youth
Van morrison

 

Some of Paul Simon's "Graceland" is timeless.

 

Warren Zevon- Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School, The Envoy, parts of Sentimental Hygiene.

 

Not as much as we're stretching the idea of "don't sound like they were produced in the 80s"!

 

I'm a big fan of Tracy Ullman's 1984 song "They Don't Know," which sounds like the biggest 1965 Lesley Gore hit she never had:

 

Actually recorded in 1978 or '79 I believe.

 

I’ve never heard of Love Stinks so can’t comment and the reference is lost on me. Freeze Frame IS “80’s” so reminds me of the 80’s, however, it came out in UK when everything was synth pop, new wave, reggae, ska and the punk hang over. IMO it doesn’t fit well (maybe synth pop at a push) with any of those categories. I don’t think the drums have what I think of when I think of 80’s either so, to me, it doesn’t have that "80’s" sound. Having said all that I’m not sure what other decade that it could be from?

Maybe to someone who has knowledge of the J. Geils Band’s history could hear a change in their direction, however, I don’t know anything about them other than this one album!

 

"Stand By Me" by Ben E. King - same reason as "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong; it was a 1960s recording re-popularized in the 1980s
"Twist and Shout" by the Beatles - a Top 40 hit in 1986; another re-release from the 1960s
"Funkytown" by Lipps, Inc. - from 1980, sounds like it should have been from the height of disco in the 1977-78 era
"Let Me Be Your Angel" by Stacy Lattisaw - 1980
"Seven Bridges Road" by Eagles - 1980
"Same Old Lang Syne" by Dan Fogelberg -1980-81
"Queen of Hearts" by Juice Newton - 1981, almost a carbon copy of Dave Edmunds' original
"Start Me Up" by the Rolling Stones - 1981
"Being with You" by Smokey Robinson - 1981
"At This Moment" by Billy Vera and the Beaters - 1981/1986-87
"A Penny for Your Thoughts" by Tavares - 1982
perhaps "Everyday I Write the Book" by Elvis Costello - 1983
perhaps "Saving All My Love for You" by Whitney Houston - 1985
perhaps "Sweet Love" by Anita Baker - 1986
perhaps "I Miss You" by Klymaxx - 1986

 

Well, keeping with the "produced" rule, they sound very much like the 80s to me.

 

The Stranglers - "Golden Brown" - Sounds 60's to me -Great record.

 

The Jam - Start!

 

The Pogues & Kirsty McColl — Fairytale Of New York

 

Great song...Written by the late great Kirsty Maccoll. God I miss her.

 

I'm not sure what exactly you mean by that. Are you saying you forgot about/haven't heard the song or do you mean it doesn't count because it wasn't a hit in the US? The song was a big hit in the UK, Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands and most people in these countries will know it, so it's perfectly valid. It's probably even The Stranglers' most recognised song (and in all honesty it's the only song I know by them, or at least by name).
I could be misinterpreting what you said, but if it's the latter reason you meant, that's a strange mindset to have.

 

Board is not all about Americans mate.
If its a hit in my country, its good enough for me. The op didn't specify anyhow.
In fact, if a song is a hit in Britain, one can almost guarantee its sold more than it would have done had it just been a hit in the good ole USA, because its likely to be a hit around the world.

 

I doubt that. Record sales are exponentially greater in the US than in the UK (obviously due to population size). The top selling album in the UK has sold 6 million while the top selling album in the US has sold 29 million. And record sales of English speaking music are greater in the UK than any other country. A big hit only in the US could easily sell more than a hit everywhere but the US.

 

Wasn't The Nightfly recorded in digital?