Monica's Tiki Lounge Music Blog"Bastards of Young" by The Replacements - This alternative rock band never got the recognition they deserved. Their music is very poppy and is known for it's great lyrics like this, "The ones who love us least are the ones we'll die to please." We actually were lucky enough to meet the lead singer/songwriter, Paul Westerberg, at Virgin Records when they still existed.
"Voices Carry"by Til Tuesday (Aimee Mann) - This was a HUGE radio hit in 1985. I can easily remember the year it was the year we got married. On our honeymoon in Hawaii our hotel had MTV, so we were really excited, since we did not have it at home. All I know is that we saw this video about a hundred times.
"Blister in the Sun" by Violent Femmes - This catchy band was unique for it's some times sexually-laced content. It's also known for the nasally voice of Gordon Ganos.
"Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking for" by U2 - This is one of my all time favorite bands and when this song hit in 1987, you could even hear this song on the easy listening stations. Yikes! It had that much mass appeal. I found comfort in this song because I was going through a lot of growing pains in my 20's and this song helped calm me down.
"Love Plus One" by Haircut 100 - This is a very poppy, upbeat, fun song. It made VH1's Top 100 one-hit wonders, so it was a bonafide hit from the 1980's. My husband told me the name of the band means a full body waxing, a pretty weird name for a band. Especially since full body waxing was not very popular in the 1980's like it is now.
"Addicted to Love" by Robert Palmer - Who could forget this unique song and mainly eye-candy video with Mr. Palmer surrounded by beautiful girls pretending to play instruments. This is another catchy tune that had a little soulful sound to it.
"Girlfriend in a Coma" by The Smiths - The haunting sounds of the Smiths was refreshing with all the synthesizer-pop sounds that were around at the time. The lyrics of the song were pretty out there here's a sampling, "Girlfriend in a coma, it's serious."
"Why Can't I be You" by The Cure - Another smash hit from the 1980's, this song was played everywhere. These guys were considered goth for their time with Robert's makeup and moody sound.
"End of the World as We Know it" by REM - I liked REM in the early 1980's as an alternative radio/college band. But they had a longevity that followed them through the 2000's. The main memory I have of this song, was when we were going from 1999 to 2000. There was a big scare with computer systems failing and the world supposedly ending. So this song's lyrics kept going through my head at the year of the century,"It's the End of the World as We Know it."
