How many of these ’80s hit songs can you recognize from just 5 words?
Five words. That’s all you get.
We picked a short line from the lyrics of nine ’80s hits. We chose them at random, with one rule: no line that gives away the song’s title. That would be too easy.
Read each line, pick your answer from the four choices, then check the story behind the song. Score yourself at the end.
Question 1
Clue: But I’ll be stumblin’ away
A) “Hungry Like the Wolf”
B) “Take On Me”
C) “Safety Dance”
D) “Tainted Love”
Answer: B, “Take On Me”
The 1985 video was traced frame by frame in live action. Animators Michael Patterson and Candace Reckinger drew about 3,000 frames over 16 weeks, Deadline reported. The song had flopped in 1984, before the video.
It hit No. 1 in the U.S. on October 19, 1985, and won six MTV Video Music Awards, per Songfacts.
Question 2
Clue: Who am I to disagree?
A) “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)”
B) “Don’t You Want Me”
C) “Girls on Film”
D) “Our House”
Answer: A, “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)”
In the 1983 video, Annie Lennox wore close-cropped orange hair and a man’s suit. Songfacts notes it was the first popular video to present an androgynous woman. The “computer” Dave Stewart types on is a rare drum machine, Vintage Digital explains.
It spent one week at No. 1, in Billboard’s September 3, 1983 issue, Eurythmics Ultimate reports.
Question 3
Clue: And mother always told me
A) “Beat It”
B) “Thriller”
C) “Rock with You”
D) “Billie Jean”
Answer: D, “Billie Jean”
Michael Jackson performed it at “Motown 25,” taped on March 25, 1983, at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. NBC aired it on May 16, per the Michael Jackson shows wiki.
At the time, the song was midway through seven weeks at No. 1. Fred Astaire phoned Jackson to congratulate him, Thriller 40 notes.
Question 4
Clue: I stopped an old man
A) “Rosanna”
B) “Hold the Line”
C) “Africa”
D) “Jessie’s Girl”
Answer: C, “Africa”
Toto’s David Paich had never been to Africa when he wrote it. Stereogum reports that he drew on a late-night TV documentary and his school days. It reached No. 1 on February 5, 1983, the band’s only U.S. chart-topper.
Band members called it a silly experiment at the time, Dave’s Music Database notes. Weezer’s 2018 cover, requested by a fan campaign, peaked at No. 51.
Question 5
Clue: So real in the dark
A) “If You Leave”
B) “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”
C) “Don’t Stop Believin’”
D) “Hungry Eyes”
Answer: B, “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”
Simple Minds didn’t write it. Keith Forsey and Steve Schiff did, for “The Breakfast Club.” Jim Kerr said the band turned it down six times, per Far Out. Bryan Ferry and Billy Idol had already turned it down.
It hit No. 1 on May 18, 1985, and stayed for one week. Parade reports it’s still the band’s only U.S. No. 1.
Question 6
Clue: How my poor heart aches
A) “Every Breath You Take”
B) “Careless Whisper”
C) “Truly”
D) “Time After Time”
Answer: A, “Every Breath You Take”
Sting wrote it at Ian Fleming’s Goldeneye estate in Jamaica. He told NME it was “a nasty little song, really rather evil,” per Stereogum. It spent eight weeks at No. 1 from July 9, 1983.
Sting later told the BBC people had misread it as a gentle love song, Yahoo reported. Counting a 1997 song that sampled it, the melody logged 19 weeks at No. 1, Songfacts says.
Question 7
Clue: You’re too blind to see
A) “Together Forever”
B) “Venus”
C) “Take Me Home”
D) “Never Gonna Give You Up”
Answer: D, “Never Gonna Give You Up”
It was Rick Astley’s debut single, written and produced by Stock Aitken Waterman. It reached No. 1 in 25 countries and won the 1988 Brit Award for Best British Single.
It became the “Rickrolling” meme in 2007, and Astley performed it on a float in the 2008 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the same page notes.
Question 8
Clue: We’re not the fortunate ones
A) “Material Girl”
B) “Walking on Sunshine”
C) “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”
D) “Like a Virgin”
Answer: C, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”
Robert Hazard wrote and recorded a demo in 1979, from a young man’s point of view. Lauper’s producer, Rick Chertoff, took her to see Hazard perform it. She wasn’t impressed with the lyrics, Ultimate Classic Rock reports.
She flipped who was speaking, RouteNote explains. Her version peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Question 9
Clue: And the last known survivor
A) “Eye of the Tiger”
B) “Burning Heart”
C) “The Final Countdown”
D) “Gonna Fly Now”
Answer: A, “Eye of the Tiger”
Sylvester Stallone had edited Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” into “Rocky III,” but couldn’t get the rights. Survivor’s Jim Peterik found a message from Stallone on his answering machine. “At first, I thought it was a joke,” he said, per Yahoo UK.
It began a six-week run at No. 1 in July 1982, The Current notes.
Your score
8 to 9: You were there for all of it.
5 to 7: You know your ’80s. Brush up on the movie tie-ins.
2 to 4: You know the songs better than the stories. That’s the fun part.
0 to 1: No problem. Your radio did the remembering for you.
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