The Top 100 Adult Contemporary Artists of the 1980's: #70 to #61

We are presenting the most popular Adult Contemporary Artists of the 1980's.  It was a decade in which the genre took over as the most popular format, replacing what people mistakenly kept calling "Top 40" or "popular music".  Hence, you want to follow the AC chart from the late 80's on to find out what the true "top songs" are.

Here's an artist who enjoyed her first big success in the 1980's:

#70.  Cyndi Lauper

In 1978, Lauper formed a band called Blue Angel.  Many people wanted to sign Lauper to a recording contract but only as a solo artist.  But Cyndi held out and eventually Polydor Records signed the group, which released their debut in 1980.  The album did get critical praise but sold poorly and the band broke up.  Blue Angel had fired their manager, who filed a lawsuit against them.


The suit forced Lauper into bankruptcy and she began working in retail stores such as Screaming Mimi's in New York City.  Cyndi continued to sing in local clubs and in 1981, David Wolff saw her and took over as her manager.  Wolff engineered a deal with Portrait Records, a subsidiary of Epic, and Cyndi had a new contract.

 

In 1983, the album She's So Unusual was released, and it became a worldwide smash.  "Time After Time" became Lauper's first entry on the Adult Contemporary chart, and it landed at #1 for three weeks, going Gold.  Lauper came up with the title after seeing the 1979 movie starring Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenburgen, in which McDowell portrayed H.G. Wells.  "All Through the Night" reached #4 on the AC chart as well. 


 She's So Unusual stayed on the album chart for over 65 weeks and has sold 16 million copies worldwide.  Lauper received the Best New Artist award at the Grammys, where her debut album also received nominations for Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Song of the Year for "Time After Time" and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Girls Just Want to Have Fun".  Lauper also won Billboard Music Awards for Best New Artist and Best Female Performer.  Lauper appeared on the covers of Time, Newsweek and People magazines and was voted by Ms. magazine as one of its women of the year.


In 1985, Lauper helped out on the U.S.A. for Africa song "We Are the World", which won Grammys for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and Best Music Video, Short Form.  Lauper also received two more solo nominations, Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for "What A Thrill" and Best Long Form Music Video for Cyndi:  Live in Paris.

In 1986, Cyndi released the album True Colors, with the title track reaching #1 on the AC chart and earning another Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.  Lauper won American Music Awards for Favorite pop/Rock Female Artist and Favorite Pop/Rock Female Video Artist.  She also had minor AC hits with "What's Going On" in 1987 and "I Drove All Night" in 1989.  Lauper also sang backing vocals for Billy Joel on his song "Code of SIlence" and made her film debut in Vibes.


Cyndi has sold over 50 million albums and 20 million singles worldwide.  She has received 14 career nominations at the Grammys.





At #69, an artist who enjoyed a comeback in the 80's:

#69.  Cher

Cher was a popular singer and entertainer in the 60's with then-husband, Sonny Bono.  In 1971, she launched her solo career.


Cher's first two albums of the decade did not do well and reportedly she said she didn't care if she ever did another song.  In 1982, she starred in the Broadway production of Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean.  Cher was cast in the film version, which earned her a Golden Globe nomination.  She next starred in Silkwood along with Meryl Streep and Kurt Russell and Cher received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress.


She also starred in Mask in 1985, received another Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.In 1987, Cher starred in The Witches of Eastwick and Moonstruck.  She won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Actress for Moonstruck.


Cher also dusted off the cobwebs in the studio and recorded an album with Geffen Records, with songwriting from Diane Warren, Michael Bolton, Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and Desmond Child.  Cher's self-titled album featured "I Found Someone" and "We All Sleep Alone", which reached #11 on the AC chart.  The album went Platinum.

 

In 1989, Cher released the album Heart of Stone, and again the above songwriters were on board.  Her efforts were rewarded with a Triple Platinum album and gave her three huge AC hits--the #1's "After All" (with Peter Cetera) and "If I Could Turn Back Time" and the #9 hit "Just Like Jesse James.  

 

Cher has received over 250 worldwide industry awards, including an Academy Award, a Grammy, an Emmy and three Golden Globes.  In 1999, Cher received a World Music Award for her lifelong contribution to Music.  Cher's "Farewell Tour" of 2005 was the most successful tour by a female soloist of all-time.  She has sold over 100 million albums in her career.




At #68, an artist who cemented his legacy as one of the greatest lyricists of the Rock Era with his solo career:

#68.    Don Henley

The drummer, co-lead singer and one of the best lyricists of the Rock Era with the Eagles, Henley sang lead on "Hotel California", "Desperado", "One of These Nights", "Best of My Love", "Witchy Woman" and "Life in the Fast Lane".  


Henley has also  had plenty of solo success.  Following the breakup of the Eagles in 1980, Don began a solo career and recorded the classic Top 10 AC song "Leather and Lace" with then-girlfriend Stevie Nicks.  In 1982, Henley released the album I Can't Stand Still.  The single "Dirty Laundry" was a huge hit, sold over a million copies, and was nominated for a Grammy. 

The albums continued to get better as he went along.  In 1984, Henley released Building the Perfect Beast.  "The Boys of Summer" earned Don a Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance and the video won several MTV Video Music Awards including Best Video of the Year.  On the AC chart, Don reached #6 with "Not Enough Love in the World" and had minor hits with "Sunset Grill" and "The Boys of Summer".  

In 1989, Henley released the fabulous album The End of the Innocence.  The title song, a collaboration with Bruce Hornsby, as well as "New York Minute", "The Heart of the Matter" and "The Last Worthless Evening" all received significant airplay.  "The End of the Innocence" reached #1, "The Heart of the Matter" was #3, while the other two singles from the album both reached #5.  However, only "The End of the Innocence" was released in 1989, the cutoff for The Top 100 Adult Contemporary Songs of the 1980's*--otherwise, Henley would be ranked significantly higher.  Henley won the Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for the album.  

 

Henley has sold over 10 million albums, won two Grammys and five MTV Video Music Awards.

The #67 artist was a top star in the 70's, faded somewhat, then enjoyed a resurgence in the 1980's:

#67.    Carly Simon

In 1980, Carly jumped from Warner Brothers to Elektra.  She scored a Gold single with "Jesse" (#8 AC) from her album Come Upstairs.  Simon contributed the song "Be With Me" to the album In Harmony:  A Sesame Street Record and "Maryanne" to In Harmony 2.  Both albums won Grammy Awards for Best Album for Children.

 

Torch in 1981 was an album of jazz standards, from which the single "Why" was released.  In 1983, Simon released Hello Big Man and also performed on albums by Jesse Colin Young and Nils Lofgren.  Carly released Spoiled Girl in 1985, then signed with Arista and her career was revitalized. 

Coming Around Again in 1987 produced the hit title track that hit #5 on the Adult Contemporary chart and earned her a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.  The album also featured "Give Me All Night" (#5 AC), "The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of" (#8) and "All I Want Is You" (#7).  It was Carly's first Gold album in nine years and it eventually went Platinum. 

In 1988, Simon won the Academy Award for Best Song for "Let the River Run", which was featured in the movie Working Girl, and scored her sixth Top 10 AC song of the decade.  Carly also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Song and the Grammy for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.  Simon joined Bruce Springsteen in being the only person to win all three awards (Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy) for a song written and performed by a single artist.

In addition to those, Carly was in big demand to do songs for the movies, recording the following:


  

• "Why" for the film Soup for One (1982)
• "Something More" for the movie Love Child (1982)
• "Someone Waits for You" for the movie Swing Shift (1984)
• "All the Love in the World" from Torchlight (1985)
• "It's Hard To Be Tender" for the television miniseries Sins  (1986)
• "If It Wasn't Love" for the movie Nothing in Common (1986)
• "Two Looking at One" for the movie The Karate Kid, Part II (1986)
• "Coming Around Again"/"Itsy Bitsy Spider" from Heartburn (1986)

Simon has won two Grammys, an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.  Carly was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1994.

At #66, a superstar who is still going strong:

#66.  Rod Stewart

Stewart was first known as the lead singer of the Jeff Beck Group and Faces.  He began his solo career in 1969 and enjoyed several hits in the 70's.  

 

Stewart's 1981 album Tonight I'm Yours went Platinum, but after that, he went into a slump, scoring only the #5 song "Love Touch" from the movie Legal Eagles.  In 1988, Rod returned with Out of Order, which included "Lost in You" and the #3 Adult Contemporary songs "Forever Young" and "My Heart Can't Tell You No".  

In 1989, Stewart played to sellout crowds throughout South America.  There were 90,000 at River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 80,000 people at Corregidora Stadium in Queretaro, Mexico and 50,000 and Jalisco Stadium in Guadalajara, Jalisco.  

 

Stewart was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 as a solo artist and in 2012 as a member of Faces.  He was awarded the Commander of the British Empire medal in 2007.  In 2011, Stewart received the Diamond Award at the World Music Awards for sales of over 100 million records worldwide.

A country act burst onto the scene in the 80's, becoming one of the most successful country artists in history:

#65.    Alabama

Alabama is generally credited with showing the viability of country music groups (as opposed to solo artists), and thus paving the way for the success of today's top country groups.  They began in 1969 with Randy Owen (lead vocals and rhythm guitar), his cousin Teddy Gentry (bass) and Jeff Cook (lead guitar, fiddle and keyboards).  Mark Herndon was not the original drummer but he was there throughout their period of fame and success.  

Eleven years after forming, Alabama signed with RCA Records on April 21, 1980.  Once armed with a deal, the band translated it into great success right away, selling four million albums in their first year.  Alabama released one album per year during the 80's.  

The group began to cross over onto the pop and Adult Contemporary charts with their second RCA album, Feels So Right.  The title track went gold and hit #9 on the AC chart and "Love in the First Degree" and "Take Me Down" were also popular hits from the album, both reaching #5.  

 

Alabama served up the album The Closer You Get in 1983, which yielded the #9 title song and the minor AC hit "Lady Down on Love".  The group also hit #8 with "When We Make Love" and scored the minor AC hits "Deep River Woman" with Lionel Richie and "Forever's As Far As I'll Go".

Alabama's blend of country and southern rock helped give them great crossover appeal that led to their unprecedented success.  They have sold over 73 million records and are easily the top country group of all-time.

 

Alabama received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1998.  

At #64, an artist who has changed its sound several times, but they've always been great:

#64.  Starship

In the 60's, this group was known as Jefferson Airplane.  In the 70's, they became Jefferson Starship.  In early 1981, Grace Slick returned to the group to sing on one song, "Stranger", on the album Modern Times.  The group then released Winds of Change and Nuclear Furniture and embraced the video age, making elaborate videos and appearing on MTV.

 

In 1984, Paul Kantner, the last remaining founding member of the group, left, and took legal action over the Jefferson Starship name.  Thus, the group had to briefly change its name to Starship.

 

Starship had a minor AC hit with "We Built This City", which of course was a bigger hit overall, but they scored consecutive #1's in the genre with "Sara" and "Nothing's Gonna' Stop Us Now", the latter from the movie Mannequin.  The group also hit #9 with "Set the Night to Music" from their album No Protection and a re-release of "Summer of Love" from their debut album as Jefferson Airplane also reached the Top 15 in 1989.

A former Raspberry enjoyed much success in the decade: 
#63.  Eric Carmen

This star from Cleveland, Ohio loved music from the beginning, giving impressions of Tony Bennett at age two. One year later, he was in the Dalcroze Eurhthmics program at the Cleveland Institute of Music. When Carmen was six, he took violin lessons from aunt Muriel Carmen, then a violinist with the Cleveland Orchestra. By age 11, Eric was playing piano and he joined his first band as a sophomore in high school. He also taught himself to play guitar in four months.

Carmen became famous in the 70's as the lead singer for the Raspberries, whose biggest hit was "Go All the Way" in 1972.  After significant solo success later in the decade, he temporarily withdrew from the music business.  In 1984, he wrote "Almost Paradise", which Mike Reno and Ann Wilson took to #1 on the AC chart.  Carmen recorded a second self-titled album in 1985 that included the Top 10 Adult Contemporary song "I Wanna' Hear It From Your Lips".  "I'm Through with Love" also was a minor hit from the album.

In 1987, Carmen's song "Hungry Eyes" was included in the movie Dirty Dancing.  It helped the album become one of The Top Soundtracks of the Rock Era* and hit #2 on the AC chart.  Eric also recorded "Reason To Try" for the upcoming Seoul Summer Olympics in 1988, then scored another smash when "Make Me Lose Control" reached #1 for three weeks.  

Few rock & roll groups have the talent to record a good ballad, but the artist at #62 proved they were well ahead of the pack:

#62.  Foreigner

Three albums in the 70's established Foreigner as one of the top groups in the world by the time the 80's came around.  In September, keyboardist Al Greenwood and co-founder Ian McDonald left the group and Foreigner became a quartet.  

 

In 1981, one of The Top Rock & Roll Groups of the Rock Era* proved they were talented enough to do a ballad, scoring a huge multi-format hit with "Waiting for a Girl Like You".  Foreigner did it again with "I Want to Know What Love Is" from their album Agent Provacateur.  In 1987, the band released the album Inside Information, which contained Foreigner's only #1 AC song, "I Don't Want To Live Without You".

In 1988, Foreigner headlined the 40th anniversary concert for Atlantic Records at Madison Square Garden in New York City and toured Europe, Japan and Australia.  Later in the decade, lead singer Lou Gramm and guitarist Mick Jones each released solo records.


Foreigner has sold more than 70 million albums worldwide, with 37.5 of those snapped up by fans in the United States.

Up next, an artist who finally crossed over to the popular charts:

#61.  Dolly Parton

Though she had a few hits previously, Dolly Parton's success was mostly limited to the country charts.  That changed in the 80's.  

In 1980, Parton recorded "9 to 5", the title song from the movie in which she starred in.  The song reached #1 on the AC chart and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song.  Parton had a minor AC hit with her remake of the First Edition song "But You Know I Love You".  Dolly re-recorded "I Will Always Love You", the song that later became a classic by Whitney Houston, and scored another #1 with her duet with Kenny Rogers, "Islands in the Stream".  She joined Kenny again for the song "Real Love" in 1985 and had minor AC hits with "Don't Call it Love" and her remake of "Save the Last Dance for Me".

 

Parton began a business venture in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee in 1986 with an amusement park called Dollywood.  RCA Records did not renew her contract in 1987, so Parton signed with Columbia.  Dolly joined Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Haris for the album Trio, which drew raves from critics and sold several million copies.  The album won the Grammy for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group and was nominated for Album of the Year.  Parton also revived her television variety show, Dolly, and released the album Rainbow.

 

Dolly has written over 3,000 songs and has sold an estimated 100 million albums in her career.




We have saluted 40 of the top AC artists in the decade.  After the 4th of July Tribute, the special picks up at #60 tonight at midnight!