This post is sort of about Tracey Ullman, but is more about Kirsty MacColl and the Boomtown Rats. At first I thought Tracey Ullman was a little too well-known for…
John C. Hughes
402 Articles
John C. Hughes began his Lost in the ’80s blog in 2005 and is now proud to be a member of the Popdose family, where he’s introduced LIT80s’s companions, the obviously named Lost in the ’70s and Lost in the ’90s, alongside the slightly more originally named Why You Should Like…
John C. Hughes
3 Min Read
Quiz Á¢€” complete the following statement: SparksÁ¢€â„¢ heyday was/is Á¢€” (A.) In the mid-70s when, as part of the glam movement that included Bowie and T. Rex, they scored several…
John C. Hughes
5 Min Read
Growing up in northeast Ohio, it was easy to hate the constant grey skies, suburban boredom and West Virginia/Kentucky hick mentality that migrated northward. But when it came to music…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
Hey, Blondie! Congrats on making it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! What are you gonna do now? Awk-ward. So, anyhoo…questionable lapses in acceptance speech taste aside, Debbie…
John C. Hughes
4 Min Read
1982 was a big year for the J. Geils Band Á¢€” after 13 albums, hundreds and hundreds of live shows and a few scattered Top 40 hits, they became overnight…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
Another band Melbourne from punkÁ¢€â„¢s ashes, Hunters & Collectors began life in 1981 as a raucous, horn-fueled live act, feeding off audience participation and feel more than songwriting. Over the…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
Originally presented on April 28, 2005. Another Lost in the Á¢€Ëœ80s oddityÁ¢€¦thereÁ¢€â„¢s not much biographical info or background floating around about The Other Ones, a Scandinavian-ish group who put out…
John C. Hughes
3 Min Read
Originally presented on May 4, 2005. Turn on any local Á¢€Å“Hits of the Á¢€Ëœ80s, Á¢€Ëœ90s and Today!Á¢€ radio station, and within an hour, I guarantee you will hear either of…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
Originally presented on December 13, 2005. “Rollercoaster” was the b-side of the Bunnymen’s most aggressive stab for a U.S. hit, the immortal “Lips Like Sugar”. While the a-side was an…
John C. Hughes
5 Min Read
Originally presented on Feb. 24, 2005. Once upon a time, Bob Geldof was an asshole, and infinitely more interesting. IÁ¢€â„¢m using the term Á¢€Å“assholeÁ¢€ in the most complimentary, and admittedly,…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
Lost in the 80s is one year old this week! In one short year, I’ve seen my little hobby and obsession with 80s emphemra grow from about 10-15 visitors a…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
When they both hit the Top 40 in 1983, it was a common debate: Who was better, Madonna or Cyndi Lauper? While Madonna had the sex appeal, looks and dance…
John C. Hughes
3 Min Read
Allow me to get something off my chest first, if I may: Modern EnglishÁ¢€â„¢s Á¢€Å“I Melt With YouÁ¢€ was not a hit back in the day. No matter how many…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
Shona Laing was fairly well known in her native New Zealand for years before finally scoring an American record deal in the late 80s with fledgling indie label TVT Records…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
Oh, Corey Hart. YouÁ¢€â„¢re trying so hard to say something meaningful and deep here, but weÁ¢€â„¢ll be damned if we know what youÁ¢€â„¢re on about. Is it about James Dean,…
John C. Hughes
3 Min Read
The year: 1989. The artist: Liza with a Á¢€Å“zÁ¢€. The idea: Bring Liza back into the present out of the standards ghetto sheÁ¢€â„¢d been reduced to by teaming her with…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
Taking a break from the New Wave casualties of the Á¢€â„¢80s (and there are more to come), letÁ¢€â„¢s get something truly decent and sadly Lost in the Á¢€Ëœ80sÁ¢€¦former Undertones lead…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
How could I have possibly missed this? Captain Video breaks down your favorite and not so favorite videos from the ’80s in hilarious detail.
John C. Hughes
3 Min Read
Okay, this one might sting a bit. The Steve Miller Band was riding high after the huge success of 1982Á¢€â„¢s Á¢€Å“AbracadabraÁ¢€ LP and single Á¢€” the single was just about…
John C. Hughes
3 Min Read
Things werenÁ¢€â„¢t really happening for Donna Summer in 1980. The Queen of Disco and the sound she and producer Giorgio Morodor ushered in had fallen out of favor, replaced by…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
Á¢€Å“Secret OktoberÁ¢€, the flip side of DuranÁ¢€â„¢s Á¢€Å“Union of the SnakeÁ¢€ is truly a buried gem, a song that would have considerably brightened the overblown and overly bloated Á¢€Å“Seven and…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
One of Thomas DolbyÁ¢€â„¢s earliest singles (even before THAT song, I believe) was the incredible Á¢€Å“Airwaves,Á¢€ a song I think was tough for him to equal Á¢€” itÁ¢€â„¢s mellow and…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
“Rollercoaster” was the b-side of the Bunnymen’s most aggressive stab for a U.S. hit, the immortal “Lips Like Sugar”. While the a-side was an instant alternative classic, the b-side….welllllll… With…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
One of the joys of scrounging through sorely neglected vinyl bins in used record shops is stumbling across something that you didnÁ¢€â„¢t even know you were looking for. Such is…
John C. Hughes
3 Min Read
Okay, IÁ¢€â„¢m a bad music blogger. No update since November?? Awful. IÁ¢€â„¢m here to make up for that today, with not one, not two, but three Lost in the 80s…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
There was a discussion over at Silence Is a Rhythm (scroll down about half a page) about the recent Human League reissues and how EMI have done an okay job…
John C. Hughes
2 Min Read
Years before Cowboy Troy fused rap and country to create Á¢€Å“Hick HopÁ¢€, Rhode Island outfit Rubber Rodeo, dressed in fringe jackets, cowboy boots and bolo ties, added the punk aesthetic…
John C. Hughes
2 Min Read
Wrapped in taffeta and camp while sporting a foot-high blonde beehive, Mari Wilson (not the Supreme) stepped out of the mid-sixties and straight into the new wave movement with her…
John C. Hughes
3 Min Read
Straight outta Beaver Falls, PA, came Dominic Ierace, playing in local combos until he and his band The Jaggerz hit number two in the Á¢€Ëœ70s with Á¢€Å“The RapperÁ¢€. After The…
John C. Hughes
3 Min Read
Argh. I really tried to get this up by Halloween, but it took quite a bit of work, i.e. rummaging through old VHS tapes, then some encoding, blah blah. So…