'80s Flop Songs That Turned Into Smash Hits

So much of what we call pop culture is made up of old stuff, including songs from a few decades ago that have been played so much they become embedded in the firmament, turning into background noise or audio wallpaper. This is especially true of the canon of '80s pop music, with a handful of songs consistently encountering us from car radio speakers, ruined at karaoke bars, and popping up in movies, TV shows, and commercials. As a result, these are the songs that almost everyone of a certain age knows. But at one point, those tunes were just the latest singles being pushed by a record label, sent to radio stations, promoted at physical music stores, and plastered all over MTV. Amazingly, the general response from the public at the time to these songs they'd someday clamor for was a collective and listless "no thanks."

Perhaps because there was so much competition in the 1980s, some songs got lost in the shuffle when they were first issued on vinyl and cassette. Or maybe they were just ahead of their time. For whatever reason, these quintessential songs so closely associated with the '80s weren't much listened to during the decade itself, yet managed to build up a reputation over time. Here are five '80s flops that eventually became classics.

Coming out of Delaware in the late 1970s, George Thorogood and the Destroyers brought a grimy vibe and stellar musicianship to its throwback bar band style. Thoroughly entrenched in the blues and fronted by the snarling and growling Thorogood, the group sounded like a 1950s throwback, but managed to build a following with concerts and a couple of early albums. In 1982, the band's fourth album, "Bad to the Bone," arrived, and with it the title track. Built around an extremely familiar and often used blues cadence, "Bad to the Bone" was technically an original song, allowing Thorogood to boast about how "b-b-b-b-b-bad" he was, meaning tough and charismatic. "Bad to the Bone" received only moderate airplay at rock radio, and in 1982 it peaked at No. 27 on the recently created Billboard Mainstream Rock chart, and didn't appear on the all-genre Hot 100 at all.

While DJs and record buyers had little interest in "Bad to the Bone" at first, soundtrack supervisors did. Almost immediately, the song started appearing in films and TV shows to introduce intriguing characters. The song was used in "Christine," "Miami Vice," "Lethal Weapon," "Bull Durham," "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," and "Problem Child," among others. Years later, the "Bad to the Bone" album was eventually certified gold by the RIAA for sales of half a million copies.

Long one of the most respected singer-songwriters in modern music, and a member of the historically controversial Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Randy Newman has never had a lot of success on the pop chart. His extremely tongue-in-cheek "Short People" hit No. 2 in 1978, and that's about it. Probably his best-known song, apart from his Oscar-nominated "Toy Story" song "You've Got a Friend in Me," is "I Love L.A.," a frequently misunderstood 1983 tribute to the city of Los Angeles.

At the time, many songs about LA were coming out, and Don Henley of the Eagles suggested LA-born Newman should compose one. "There is an aggressive ignorance to the song," Newman told Rolling Stone, referring to how his lyrics celebrate the sun and cars, while also pointing out an unhoused sex worker. Regardless, a group of voices shout out, "We love it!" throughout. Nevertheless, the song still gets played over the PA when LA sports teams like the Dodgers and Lakers get big wins at their home venues. In 1984, when MTV competitor Cable Music Channel went live, its first video played was "I Love L.A." All that for a single that never even made the Hot 100. 

It's become something of a theme song of Los Angeles: following devastating wildfires, an all-star group of musicians opened the 2025 Grammy Awards ceremony, held in LA, with a rendition of the tune.

German pop band Alphaville topped the U.S. dance chart in 1984 with "Big in Japan," and then followed it up with the wistful ballad "Forever Young." It quickly tanked, peaking at No. 32 on the dance chart and No. 93 on the Hot 100. Perhaps the plaintive, nostalgic, and emotional lyrics were just too much to handle for casual listening, because "Forever Young" became a well-known classic when it found a proper context. From the 1980s onward, "Forever Young" was used as a prom theme song and earned a modest following on big radio stations in large cities. That wasn't enough to give the song a high chart placement, but "Forever Young" earned a permanent spot in the libraries of stations in Philadelphia, New York, and New Jersey, and oldies stations now trot it out when they want to evoke feelings of nostalgia.

"Forever Young" became an instantly recognizable hook that fueled the success of other songs. Jay-Z, one of the richest hip-hop stars in the world, had a top-10 hit in 2010 with "Young Forever," which incorporated "Forever Young." In 2025, a David Guetta and Ava Max remix of the Alphaville original went to No. 1 on the Billboard Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart.

"Dancing with Myself" is one of punker Billy Idol's best-known songs, perhaps because of its wry and suggestive title, a memorable ringing guitar riff, or the singer's repeated "sweat!" mantra outro. But when Idol launched his solo career in 1981 after his stint in the band Generation X, few people wanted to hear "Dancing with Myself." The punk track peaked at a low spot on the U.S. dance chart and then disappeared. After the poppier "Hot in the City" and "White Wedding" reached the Top 40 in 1982, Chrysalis Records re-released "Dancing with Myself" — and again it missed the Hot 100. Idol's career quickly recovered with more radio-friendly smashes like "Rebel Yell," "Eyes Without a Face," and "Flesh for Fantasy."

Meanwhile, "Dancing with Myself" remained a staple of Idol's performance setlist, representing a connection to his punk rock roots. In 1985, Idol collected his string of smashes onto the best-of collection "Vital Idol." He included "Dancing with Myself" — a still from the music video serves as a cover image — and the LP sold a million copies. Over the years, it became a signature Idol tune, and three different versions of "Dancing with Myself" rank in the singer's top-12 most-played songs on Spotify.

After punk fizzled out, the edgy, agitated, and progressive voice of the musical youth came from New Wave, post-punk, and art rock bands. Talking Heads was all of those things and more, forming at the Rhode Island School of Design and first hitting the charts in the late 1970s with disparate songs like the stark "Psycho Killer" and a cover of Al Green's soul classic "Take Me to the River." The history of Talking Heads then included a commercial slump: Its 1980 album "Remain in Light" was resoundingly critically acclaimed, but the second single "Once in a Lifetime" achieved only a nominal presence on the dance chart and missed the Hot 100 altogether. 

"Once in a Lifetime" was like nothing else on the radio at the time. Into an environment of disco leftovers and adult-oriented soft rock, Talking Heads released a composition full of bass lines and keyboard swirls with sung choruses and spoken verses about the existential terrors associated with modern life, suburbia, and aging.

That was something of a thesis statement for the artsy, intellectual Talking Heads, who'd chart a bunch of hit singles, win a lifetime achievement Grammy Award, and get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. After the band split in the early '90s, leader David Byrne continued to include "Once in a Lifetime" in his set due to audience demand, and he's played it live more than any other song in his career.