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- Jim Vallance. Canadian songwriter and producer Jim Vallance is best known as the main songwriting partner of Bryan Adams. Together, the two penned Adams’ hits ‘Cuts Like a Knife,” “Run to You,” “Heaven,” and his iconic “Summer of ’69,” along with songs for Neil Diamond, KISS, Ted Nugent, 38 Special, Juice Newton, and former American Idol winner Taylor Hicks.
- Desmond Child. When a rock song hit the top of the charts in the 1980s, it was highly probable that Desmond Child’s name was in its credits. Throughout the decade, Child wrote some of the biggest hits for Bon Jovi and Aerosmith during the heyday (and hair metal) era of rock in the 1980s.
- Allee Willis. Songwriter, Broadway lyricist, documentarian, music video director and more, the late Allee Willis (1947-2019) mastered most trades within film, stage and music.
- Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis. Donned in their black suits and matching fedoras and shaded sunglasses, Jimmy Jam (James Samuel Harris III) and Terry Lewis became one of the biggest R&B and pop production and songwriting duos during the 1980s.
During the 1980s, George Michael scored four number-one singles as a solo artist, three with Wham! and one as a duet with Aretha Franklin. Olivia Newton-John 's " Physical " remained the longest at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the 1980s (10 weeks).
#Reached Number OneArtist (s)Single480January 5, 1980481January 19, 1980482February 16, 1980483February 23, 1980- Elton John
- David Bowie
- Donna Summer
- Diana Ross
- Marvin Gaye
- Stevie Wonder
- Olivia Newton-John
- Willie Nelson
- Stevie Nicks
- Bruce Springsteen
What hasn’t already been said about Elton John? He is one of the most famous singers in popular music history, and his stage performances have become famous for his showmanship. Though John had been making music in the late 1960s, he became a household name in the 1970s with his hit song “Rocket Man.” His fame only grew through the decade, and his ...
Perhaps no musician on this list went through as big of a change in the 1970s as David Bowie. This singer had made waves at the end of the previous decade but emerged as a face of the ‘70s with his Ziggy Stardust persona and his glam rock albums. He developed a sound he called plastic soul in the middle of the decade with his album Young Americans....
One genre that saw its entire rise and fall happen in the 1970s was disco. And no singer defined that genre quite like Donna Summer. Summer spent much of the late 1960s living in Germany, eventually meeting acclaimed producer Giorgio Moroder. Working with producers like Moroder, she sang in several disco smash hits such as “Love to Love You Baby” a...
By the time 1970 rolled around, Diana Rosswas already one of music’s biggest acts as the lead singer of the Supremes. She left the band to begin the decade, and some wondered if her solo career could match her time with the band. But those fears were quickly quashed, as she recorded two #1 hits in the US from her debut solo album. Ross continued to...
Also called Prince of Soul, Marvin Gayewas already breaking out of the Motown system by the beginning of the decade, and the young musician was poised to take the 1970s by storm. He was still with the production company when he created his opus, the album What’s Going On. Instead of allowing the studio to handle production, Gaye produced the album ...
Stevland Hardaway Morris—though we all know him as Stevie Wonder—was only 13 years old when he topped the charts in 1963, the youngest person ever to accomplish the feat. But it was not until the 1970s that the musician reached his peak abilities. Beginning in 1972, Wonder released a string of albums that are still adored to this day by critics and...
“Hopelessly Devoted to You” singer Olivia Newton-Johnhas had a long and storied career, but the 1970s saw her breakout in the music scene in a big way. She topped the charts with two of her albums in the middle of the decade, If You Love Me, Let Me Know, and Have You Never Been Mellow. Her star only shined brighter by the end of the decade when she...
No one was bigger in the country music scene during the 1970s than Willie Nelson. This singer defined the decade’s outlaw country music, and he remains one of country music’s most recognizable faces. In the early ‘70s, Nelson set out to carve his path and break away from the Nashville music scene he saw as too sterile and corporate. From there, he ...
While her solo career did not begin until the 1980s, it is unquestionable that Stevie Nicksbegan to rise in pop culture by the 1970s. She and her boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham joined the band Fleetwood Mac in 1975 and helped shape it into a commercial powerhouse. Nicks made a splash with her song “Landslide” on the band’s self-titled album from 1975...
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Bruce Springsteenremains one of the most accomplished singer-songwriters in musical history. Known by many as the Boss, he was instrumental in creating the heartland rock genre of music and brought to it his brand of music about working-class heroes. Together with the E Street Band, his concerts became the thing of legen...
A list by paddlesteamer. [List300786] | +18. The 1980s did not produce as great a range of albums as the 1970s, but the decade improves quite a lot if you look at it from the perspective of individual songs and tracks: there are many hundreds of fine compositions here.
1980s →. The Bee Gees scored the most number-one hits (9 songs) and had the longest cumulative run atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart (27 weeks) during the 1970s. Rod Stewart remained at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 17 weeks during the 1970s.
#Reached Number OneArtist (s)Single227January 3, 1970228January 31, 1970229February 7, 1970230February 14, 1970"Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" ...From Brill Building tunesmiths to punk poets, from Woody Guthrie to Max Martin, the visionaries who defined music history.
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Some of the most successful singers and songwriters were Cat Stevens, Steve Winwood, Albert Hammond, Rupert Holmes, and Elton John. Punk rock. The mid-1970s saw the rise of punk music from its protopunk-garage band roots in the 1960s and early 1970s.
