Noel Coward famously noted the strange potency of ‘cheap’ music.
There was certainly a lot of cheap, potent music around in the 1980s.
But as the nostalgia industry has grown, so has the dossier of seemingly ‘untouchable’ ’80s pop songs, tracks that are staples of daytime radio but, to many ears, lack distinctive grooves, beguiling melodies or interesting hooks.
If you were being cruel, you might say it’s music for people who don’t really like music. And, weirdly, it mostly comes from established, experienced campaigners who have a lot of other strings to their bow. But we only ever seem to hear one or two of their songs.
Here are those overplayed tracks that always have me reaching for the ‘off’ switch but have retained a weird grip on radio programmers for over 30 years. We consign them to Room 101, here and now, never to be heard again…
Dire Straits: ‘Walk Of Life’/’Money For Nothing’
Yazz: ‘The Only Way Is Up’
King: ‘Love And Pride’
Whitney Houston: ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’
Tina Turner: ‘Simply The Best’
The Beautiful South: ‘Song For Whoever’
Spandau Ballet: ‘Through The Barricades’
Dream Academy: Life In A Northern Town
Anything by The Proclaimers
Anything by Texas
Chris Rea: ‘The Road To Hell’
Sade: ‘Your Love Is King’/’Smooth Operator’
Steve Winwood: ‘Higher Love’
Mike And The Mechanics: ‘The Living Years’
Anything by Fleetwood Mac
The Cars: ‘Drive’
Mental As Anything: ‘Live It Up’
Soul 2 Soul: ‘Back To Life’
Anything by U2 apart from ‘Pride (In The Name Of Love’)’ or ‘The Unforgettable Fire’
Cyndi Lauper: ‘Time After Time’
Depeche Mode: ‘Personal Jesus’
Talking Heads: ‘Road To Nowhere’
Tracy Chapman: ‘Fast Car’
Anything by Tom Petty
Simply Red: ‘Holding Back The Years’
Prince: ‘When Doves Cry’
Womack & Womack: ‘Teardrops’
Anything by Duran Duran except ‘Notorious’ or ‘Skin Trade’
Anything by Bon Jovi
Culture Club: ‘Karma Chameleon’
Anything by Pet Shop Boys except ‘Suburbia’
movingtheriver.com 
You consign ‘Back To Life’ to Room 101 over my dead body!! (I considered adding even more exclamation marks there, I’ll have you know!!!!)
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It was a gamechanger all right, and I love Jazzie’s concept and Caron’s vocals, but it just kinds of plods along…
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Walk of Life is a great call. Have you seen http://www.wolproject.com/
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I haven’t. Have just had a look at it and, must admit, don’t really understand the concept…
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They rework a whole lot of movie endings with Walk of Life as the ending music. Makes it seem even more ubiquitous.
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‘The Shining’ would be good with ‘Walk Of Life’ over the photo of Jack at the end…
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I’m going to pick through this list later…
Fun post!
I love Marvin, but if I never again hear “Sexual Healing” that’s fine with me.
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Agree…
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Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” gets played to death here. Released in 1989, it makes the ’80’s cutoff. It was fairly controversial back when it was released, but without the video, and with little attention paid to the lyrics, I doubt anyone even cares anymore about the double-entendre.
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Good one. No need for me to hear that ever again, despite Guy Pratt’s great bass playing and beautiful vocals from Andrae Crouch Choir…
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“Higher Love” is worth a listen if only to hear Chaka.
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True. Never exactly a chore. And JR Robinson’s drums and Nile’s rhythm guitar don’t hurt. It’s just not much of a song, IMHO.
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Anything by Hall and Oates. Blue eyed soul indeed!
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