Playlist! YEAR 7: 1984

In 1984 I changed schools for the first time, because my school was repurposed into an administration building. I remember playing in the big magnolia tree next door with all the neighborhood kids, and going to sleepovers at their houses. I remember trick-or-treating, trying to avoid the lady who gave out pennies, and I remember mom portioning out our Halloween candy for months later. I remember going to summer camps at the Y. I remember listening to music and watching MTV at my dad's house when we'd go visit for the weekends, taking trips in mom's little camper and listening to her sing along with the radio, roller skating, getting awesome grades, and losing teeth like crazy.

In my first grade photo, which was taken in 1983, I was missing both front teeth. The day before my second grade photo I ran into the magnolia tree, so my mom let me wear my favorite dress even though it didn't have a collar and she french braided my hair around the crown of my head. I still had a big scab in the middle of my forehead, but everyone told me that I'd laugh about it later and they were all right.

I remember going to a slumber party once for my friend's birthday, which was right around Valentine's Day. They had hung pink heart streamers in the basement, where they sat us down around the TV to watch Poltergeist (which was actually rated PG since they hadn't invented PG-13 yet). This was the first scary movie I saw and at one of the most terrifying moments, one of the streamers came down on us. We screamed and ran up and all piled on her dad's lap.


In 1984, Hollywood gave us Ghostbusters, Gremlins, the Terminator, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Karate Kid, Sixteen Candles, Purple Rain, Revenge of the Nerds, Footloose, Police Academy (the start of an empire), Splash, and The Muppets Take Manhattan. It also gave us Blood Simple, Dune, This is Spinal Tap, and Repo Man, which I didn't appreciate until later. I still haven't seen Children of the Corn and Firestarter. I remember watching Purple Rain at a sleepover at the Y. Really not sure how that happened, since the movie is rated R, but it's better not to question 1984 in its Infinite Wisdom.


I thought making the 1983 playlist was hard and it was but a few kind-of-big-deal albums came out in 1984, too, like, oh I don't know Born in the U.S.A. (Bruce Springsteen), Like a Virgin (Madonna), She's So Unusual (Cyndi Lauper), and the Purple Rain soundtrack so yeah, back up to 6 hours again to start.

After much nail-biting, I got it down to right around 2 hours and I'm going to leave it. I moved a couple of the songs to 1983 so now that one is up to 1.7 hours, too. I'm going to have to start tightening up because once I get to the early 90s things are going to get crazy at this rate.


Link / Year 7: 1984*

Track Listing:

Oh Sherrie - Steve Perry
Missing You - John Waite
Like a Virgin - Madonna
Pride (In the Name of Love) - U2
In a Big Country - Big Country
Out of Touch - Hall & Oates
Run to You - Bryan Adams
Footloose - Kenny Loggins
Ghostbusters - Ray Parker, Jr.
Girls Just Want to Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper
Let's Go Crazy - Prince
Jam On It - Newcleus
No Parking (On the Dance Floor) - Midnight Star
Let the Music Play - Shannon
I Didn't Mean to Turn You On - Cherrelle
Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go - Wham!
You Might Think - The Cars
Owner of a Lonely Heart - Yes
2000 Miles - Pretenders
Against All Odds - Phil Collins
Wrapped Around Your Finger - The Police
How Soon Is Now? - The Smiths
I Can Dream About You - Dan Hartman
What's Love Got to Do With It - Tina Turner
Glory Days - Bruce Springsteen


*By the way, you may have to have a subscription to Apple Music to listen to this. You will almost certainly need iTunes and an Apple ID. If you'd rather I make you an actual mixtape, just remember that it's 2017 not 1977.

thanks xoxo