Top Songs by Year

Top Songs — 1982

⭐ Appears on Top 750 Songs of All Time

▶ Spotify Playlist

Columbia House — the closest thing the '80s had to Spotify. For pocket change (a dollar, sometimes just a penny), you could score a fat stack of new albums ... never mind the fine print about buying more later at full price!

I obsessed over those dense, full-page ads I always found in our weekly issue of TV Guide. I'd grab a pencil, circle my dream picks, even fill out the order form with all the product codes, as if one day the envelope might magically mail itself.

After much lobbying, my sister and I finally got the green light from our parents. Our starter haul looked like this:

But the thrill didn't last. In 1982, we were still vinyl kids, and cassettes were quickly taking over. The need for portability eventually won, and those records sat untouched in our den until my parents unloaded the whole collection at a garage sale — including some original issue Beatles classics — to some vulture who probably flipped them for a tidy profit. Still, I was hooked. I rejoined Columbia House (and its knockoff cousin BMG) again and again over the years to pad my music library.

1.⭐ R.E.M. — Gardening At Night
2.⭐ Modern English — I Melt with You
3.⭐ Rush — Subdivisions
4.⭐ Bruce Springsteen — Nebraska
5.⭐ The Flirts — Jukebox (Don't Put Another Dime)
6.⭐ Missing Persons — Walking In L.A.
7.⭐ Men Without Hats — The Safety Dance
8.⭐ The Go-Go's — Vacation
9.⭐ The Cleaners From Venus — Only a Shadow
10.⭐ Romeo Void — Never Say Never
11.⭐ Roxy Music — More Than This
12.⭐ Bruce Springsteen — Johnny 99
13.⭐ John Mellencamp — Jack & Diane
14.⭐ New Order — Temptation
15.⭐ The Plimsouls — A Million Miles Away
16.⭐ Soft Cell — Say Hello Wave Goodbye
17.⭐ INXS — Don't Change
18.Steve Winwood — Valerie
19.The Kinks — Come Dancing
20.Duran Duran — Hungry Like the Wolf
21.The Jam — The Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had To Swallow)
22.Jackson Browne — Somebody's Baby
23.The Cure — Let's Go To Bed
24.Rush — New World Man
25.Prince — Little Red Corvette
26.Squeeze — Black Coffee In Bed
27.After The Fire — Der Kommissar
28.Elton John — Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny)
29.TOTO — Africa
30.A Flock Of Seagulls — Space Age Love Song
31.The Little Girls — The Earthquake Song
32.Tears For Fears — Mad World
33.Billy Joel — Allentown
34.Squeeze — Annie Get Your Gun
35.The Cleaners From Venus — Corridor of Dreams
36.Bruce Springsteen — Highway Patrolman
37.Pretenders — Back on the Chain Gang
38.John Mellencamp — Hurts So Good
39.The English Beat — Save It For Later
40.Dexys Midnight Runners — Come On Eileen
41.The Cleaners From Venus — I Can't Stop (Holding On)
42.Scandal, Patty Smyth — Goodbye to You
43.Missing Persons — Words
44.Madness — Our House
45.The Monroes — What Do All the People Know?
46.The Jam — Town Called Malice
47.Laura Branigan — Gloria
48.The Clean — Beatnik
49.The Motels — Only The Lonely
50.Wang Chung — Dance Hall Days
51.Elvis Costello, The Attractions — Man Out Of Time
52.The Chills — Rolling Moon
53.Billy Joel — Goodnight Saigon
54.Eddie Money — Think I'm In Love
55.XTC — Senses Working Overtime
56.Prince — 1999
57.Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers — You Got Lucky
58.Iron Maiden — Run to the Hills
59.Billy Idol — White Wedding - Pt. 1
60.Split Enz — Six Months In A Leaky Boat
61.The Psychedelic Furs — Love My Way
62.R.E.M. — Carnival Of Sorts (Boxcars)
63.Yazoo — Only You
64.Van Halen — Little Guitars
65.Fleetwood Mac — Hold Me
66.Bad Religion — We're Only Gonna Die
67.R.E.M. — Wolves Lower
68.A Flock Of Seagulls — I Ran (So Far Away)
69.Pat Benatar — Little Too Late
70.TOTO — Rosanna
71.Descendents — Hope
72.The Clash — Rock the Casbah
73.Marshall Crenshaw — Someday Someway
74.Talk Talk — Talk Talk
75.Madonna — Everybody
76.The Cure — One Hundred Years
77.Depeche Mode — See You
78.Q-Feel — Dancing in Heaven (Orbital Be-Bop)
79.Yazoo — Don't Go
80.Duran Duran — Rio
81.Fleetwood Mac — Gypsy
82.Pat Benatar — Shadows Of The Night
83.Rush — The Analog Kid
84.Bruce Springsteen — Atlantic City
85.Prince — Delirious
86.Heaven 17 — Let Me Go
87.John Mellencamp — Thundering Hearts
88.The Cleaners From Venus — Night Starvation
89.Supertramp — It's Raining Again
90.The Alan Parsons Project — Eye In The Sky
91.Wall Of Voodoo — Mexican Radio
92.Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers — Change Of Heart
93.The Cure — The Hanging Garden
94.Billy Joel — Pressure
95.INXS — The One Thing
96.ABC — The Look Of Love Pt.1
97.Asia — Heat Of The Moment
98.Duran Duran — Save a Prayer
99.Daryl Hall & John Oates — Maneater
100.The Clash — Should I Stay or Should I Go