5 Rock Songs From 1980 That Sound Even Cooler Today

The '70s were a time of both musical excess and minimalism in rock and roll — stand up, please, prog and punk — but as one decade concluded and another began, music once again began the process of making a seismic shift, with punk mostly giving way to post-punk, progressive rock easing its way toward a more commercial sound (and length), and although disco may not actually have been dead, it was severely wounded, which meant there was more room on the airwaves for other sounds. 

Additionally, some of those musicians who'd come of age in the '60s and '70s were starting to offer up more mature material, resulting in songs that have not only managed to stand the test of time but, indeed, inspire the generations that followed them. Some of them have been staples on classic rock radio, which has helped cement them in the public consciousness, but some have fallen by the wayside and warrant reappraisal. Either way, these five songs are so innovative, affecting, or powerful that they sound even cooler now than they did when they first landed on record store shelves.

By the time he released "Against the Wind," Bob Seger had been a member of several bands and was already a staple of rock radio, but he approached the LP with a very specific goal: to secure a No. 1 album with at least three Top 20 singles. He succeeded on both counts, but the greatest creative success in the bunch came with the title track, which finds Seger writing some of the most mature lyrics of his career up to that point. It's a song that he couldn't have written as a younger man, as it focuses on the struggles that come with aging and learning to appreciate what matters most. As such, it's a song that only hits harder whenever the listener hears it pop up on the radio or in their playlists over the years.

If "Against the Wind" sounds a bit Eagles-y to your ears, they're not deceiving you: Glenn Frey provides backing vocals. Seger already had a history with Frey and his bandmates, having co-written the Eagles' "Heartache Tonight" with Frey, Don Henley, and JD Souther. But the country-rock influence on Seger's sound is particularly strong with"Against the Wine," and given the mournful lyrics, it's no wonder that no less a musical connoisseur than Vince Gill compared it to the work of Paul Simon or John Lennon and Paul McCartney. 

Formed in London in 1977, the Psychedelic Furs forged a self-titled debut album with the help of producer Steve Lillywhite that provided lead singer Richard Butler with an opportunity to demonstrate the sort of swagger that audiences expect from a lead singer. While tracks like "India" and "Pulse" demonstrate how much the band had learned from the punk movement, it's the loneliness and desperation inherent in the lyrics of "Sister Europe" that transcends the material of such bands as the Sex Pistols and the Clash to offer something different and help define the so-called post-punk movement.

Dark, brooding, and forceful, "Sister Europe" isn't a Furs song that's found itself in regular radio rotation, but it has a power that kept it at the opening of the Furs' sets for many years. Butler's famously Bowie-esque vocals are combined with music that's not so far removed from what the Velvet Underground had been doing in the late '60s and early '70s.

While never released as a single in the U.S., "Sister Europe" has featured on virtually every best-of collection ever released by the band, which is a clear testament to its staying power. It also doesn't hurt that Foo Fighters covered it as a B-side in 2002, thereby helping to keep its profile high.

Powered by the infusion of Geoff Downes and Trevor Horn, aka the Buggles, into the band, Yes recorded "Drama," an album that — while maintaining distinct similarities to its predecessors — definitely dipped into more commercial territory on occasion, thanks to the musical sensibilities of the new recruits. Nowhere is this more evident than on "Into the Lens," a track that was written by Downes and Horn and then arranged to match the Yes sound by bassist Chris Squire. As a result, what started as a simple pop song was expanded into an epic track that still has a hint of commerciality at its heart. Indeed, the Buggles also recorded a version of the song called "I Am a Camera" that emphasizes the pop over the prog, but that's a story for another time.

In the grand pantheon of progressive rock bands, precious few sit on a higher pedestal than Yes, but adding Downes and Horn to the mix set them down the path that would transform them into a powerhouse on the '80s pop charts. Although "Into the Lens" wasn't a major chart success as a single, it provided a tease of the sound that would emerge in earnest when the band released its next studio album, "90125," in 1983. 

When Talking Heads set out to record the 1980 album "Remain in Light," the band did so by recording jams and isolating the best parts to create individual songs. "Once in a Lifetime" almost didn't make the cut, as producer Brian Eno wasn't particularly a fan of the original incarnation of the track. David Byrne, however, was insistent that he could write words to it and make it work, and darned if he wasn't right. Bassist Tina Weymouth has credited her husband, drummer Chris Frantz, with coming up with the bass riff for the song, while Frantz has acknowledged that it was keyboardist Jerry Harrison who was responsible for the burbling synths during the verses. The end result is a track that finds listeners floating through the song until they hit the chorus, at which point it's difficult not to sing along.

Although it never actually found its way onto the Billboard Hot 100 — indeed, it was originally deemed a flop – "Once in a Lifetime" was immortalized by way of its video, which found Byrne getting very sweaty while also getting very funky in his own distinctive manner. It also has the honor of being part of NPR's list of the 100 most important musical works of the 20th century and Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and it's on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of the 500 songs that shaped rock and roll. The simple truth is that, yes, it was quirky upon its initial release, but it was so far ahead of its time that it continues to feel modern even 45 years after it was recorded.

Any band releasing a three-LP set is already treading a path that's well beyond the general perception of punk rock, but having already been declared "the Only Band That Matters" by CBS Records, the Clash were in a commercial position by 1980 to do pretty much whatever it wanted ... and what the quartet wanted to do was release an album called "Sandinista!" 

"Hitsville U.K." is a textbook example of the album's diversity, first and foremost because it features Mick Jones duetting on the song with his then-girlfriend, Ellen Foley. Musically, though, it's utterly devoid of punk, instead paying tribute to the R&B hits of the '60s, starting with its title, which is a reference to Motown Records' nickname, "Hitsville U.S.A." The lyrics, meanwhile, are honoring the rising indie music scene of the U.K. – labels like Rough Trade and Factory are mentioned — while pointedly skewering the major labels ("No slimy deals / With smarmy eels"). It's a rousing song that channels the Motown sound in a big way and virtually defies listeners to not move their feet, and it's arguably one of the catchiest songs the Clash ever recorded. Although it's often forgotten in the band's musical pantheon because it was — believe it or not — never performed live by the band, nor did it crack the U.K. Top 40 as a single, it nonetheless has such a memorable hook that it's nearly impossible to get it out of your head once you've heard it.