5 Hit Rock Songs From The '80s That No One Remembers Today

The rock scene in the 1980s was a decade that saw the rise of massively popular bands like Guns N' Roses, U2, and Van Halen, whose songs reached the top spot on the Billboard Mainstream Rock singles chart. Then there were other musicians in the '80s who also made it to the top, but over the ensuing decades have faded from the collective memory. 

These include bands like Canada's Prism, which had a No. 1 rock hit with the song "Don't Let Him Know" in 1982. Similarly, Tommy Conwell & The Young Rumblers reached the top of the rock charts with the song "I'm Not Your Man" in 1988, among others that decade, like Tony Carey, Henry Lee Summer, and The Call, who also had No. 1 hits before falling from national prominence.

It might be a little hyperbolic to say that no one remembers these rock songs, since there are probably a few folks out there who recall these flash-in-the-pan hits, but if you don't recall these musicians or their hit singles, you're not alone. For whatever reason, some rock songs didn't have the staying power of tunes from the likes of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts or Ozzy Osborne that have remained timeless, and are still mainstays on classic-rock radio many decades later. Indeed, none of these performers ever had a top-charting hit again, at least not in the U.S. 

In the spring of 1982, the Canadian rock band Prism was riding high. They were playing U.S. arenas with fellow Canadians Loverboy and had a No. 1 hit on Billboard's Top Rock Tracks chart with the song "Don't Let Him Know" from the album "Small Change." The band formed in Vancouver in 1977 and had a string of successful albums in Canada and some chart success in the U.S., with a lineup that included singer Ron Tabak, guitarist Lindsay Mitchell, John Hall on keyboards, and Al Harlow on bass before internal tensions led to a personnel change in the early 1980s.

It was the incarnation with lead singer Henry Small and keyboardist Jimmy Phillips that saw the band's single "Don't Let Him Know" become a hit. The song was co-written by Bryan Adams, who wasn't in the band, but would soon eclipse Prism as a hit-maker with his own records. By 1984, Prism had disbanded but were considering reuniting with the former lead singer, Tabek, until his tragic death following a bicycle accident. Prism may have faded from memory in the U.S., but the band remains a mainstay of rock radio in Canada and has been honored by being included in Canada's Walk of Fame. Over the ensuing decades, the band in various forms has continued to record and tour.

In 1977, Tony Carey left the rock band Rainbow, as the keyboardist had grown sick of the infighting and decided to go his own way. In 1982, he released his first single, "I Won't Be Home Tonight," which sold well, but his 1984 album "Some Tough City" did even better. From that album, the single "A Fine, Fine Day" reached the No. 1 spot on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, while the album went to No. 60 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart. A tour opening for Night Ranger followed, but unfortunately, unlike Blackmore or Dio — who died from cancer in 2010 – Carey couldn't maintain his place in the limelight.

His follow-up album, "Blue Highway," didn't produce any hits, and although he had a brief resurgence with a hit single in Germany with "A Room with a View" in 1989, by the 1990s he'd fallen from the mainstream public's eye. He would later blame his stubbornness and his decision to release the two albums "Planet P" and "Pink World" under the Plant P Project name, a sci-fi themed side project, instead of records under his own name that would have helped build momentum (via VRP Rocks). Carey stopped working with the major labels in 1994, but has continued to put out his own music and tour.

In 1989, rock critics were hailing Philadelphia's Tommy Conwell as the next big thing, with a growling voice and guitar chops that earned him comparisons to George Thorogood and Keith Richards. Conwell and his backing band, "The Young Rumblers," had just released their major label debut "Rumble," and were getting heavy airtime on both the radio and MTV. Their single "I'm Not Your Man" raced up the charts and went to the top of the Album-Oriented Rock chart that October.

The group did the talk show circuit, including an appearance on "Late Night with David Letterman," and toured with the likes of Robert Palmer, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Chicago, but the rock-and-roll dream didn't last. Some critics soured on Cromwell's second album, "Guitar Trouble," which came out in 1990 and went largely unnoticed. The Young Rumblers disbanded in 1994, but then regrouped and released an album in 2019 — their first in 30 years — and Cromwell continues to play both with the Young Rumblers and other bands. Back in 1988, when he and his band were on the rise, Conwell nailed what would turn out to happen to him and The Young Rumblers. "Rock and Roll has become more and more a business with each year, and acts are more and more disposable, " he told the Courier Post.

Indiana native Henry Lee Summer went from playing car shows to major venues in 1988, after Epic released his self-titled album and its single, "I Wish I Had a Girl (Who Walked Like That)," climbed to the No. 1 spot on the Mainstream Rock charts, to No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100, and got heavy rotation on MTV. Summer was garnering comparisons to John Mellencamp, opened for Chicago, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Richard Marx, and appeared on "The Arsenio Hall Show" and "Late Night with David Letterman."

The song, like other rock songs from the 1980s, hasn't aged well, due to the lyrics in which he wishes he "had a girl who walked like that" and even more so the video, in which Summer spends the entire time harassing women on the street. But it was the 1980s, and it was a hook-filled rocker with a sound that was all the rage in 1988, as was his epic mullet. Epic and later Sony put out more of his albums, but by 1999 he was back to smaller-label releases. Summer continues to record and play live, and still lives in Indiana.

Of all the acts in this list, The Call is probably the one that came closest, at least in the U.S., to achieving long-term mainstream success, and the Santa Cruz, California, band still has a dedicated fanbase. Nevertheless, mishandling by major labels and a sound that couldn't quite be pigeonholed into the various 1980s musical styles meant it was unable to break through to mainstream success. 

After being successively courted and then dropped by Mercury and Elektra, the band found its greatest success with its sixth album, "Let the Day Begin," with MCA. The title track reached the top spot on the Mainstream Rock chart, but the band's follow-up 1990 album, "Red Moon," didn't do as well. The band was dropped by the third major label in less than a decade.

The band went on hiatus until 1997, when they released a new album on a smaller label before breaking up in 2000, the year Al Gore began using "Let the Day Begin" for his presidential campaign. The Call reunited in the mid-2010s to release a live album in 2014, and in this age of social media, perhaps they'll get a second act.