Favorite Songs of 1985

1985 had many good songs, so I don't have room here to include every one I liked. The year began with an emergency plea in the form of a British song Do They Know It's Christmas, by an assemblage of British pop stars. There was famine in eastern Africa (due mainly to war) and the record was put out to fund relief efforts. The U.S. would follow suit with their We Are the World (although I didn't like that song). Even later that year, John Mellencamp came out with his Rain On the Scarecrow, decrying the plight of farmers in financial trouble across America. Murray Head's One Night in Bangkok presented a unique picture of a chess tournament competing with the night life in Thailand. Blanc Mange's underrated and underplayed Don't Tell Me was a very upbeat dance song with a "happy" video. Prince went "Beatles" with his Raspberry Beret. My favorite Bryan Adams song, Summer of '69, came out in '85. One of the best videos ever made, the comic book adventure of A-Ha's Take On Me, accompanied a sweet, synthesizer-based loved song. Wham, George Michael's vehicle to stardom, had my favorite of theirs with the exercise in frustration Everything She Wants. Tom Petty's Don't Come Around Here No More stood well enough on its own without the overblown "Alice in Wonderland" video that came with it. Sting's first solo effort produced three memorable tunes: If You Love Somebody Set Them Free, Love is the Seventh Wave, and Russians. Duran Duran's Save a Prayer, released earlier, was a big hit with me in 1985. Jefferson Starship (I think that's what they were calling themselves then) released their salute to San Francisco, We Built this City. Possibly Foreigner's greatest song, I Want to Know What Love Is, was an early 1985 hit. Don Henley's catchy All She Wants to Do Is Dance was a funny satire on American foreign policy in Latin America. Depeche Mode's "masterful" Master and Servant, from 1984, didn't reach my ears until the next year. The same was true with my #2 favorite song from 1985 (as I lived through it): Frankie Goes to Hollywood's explicit, smashing record Relax. And my top favorite of 1985 was by Tears For Fears: their first big hit in America, the somber and sad (but lively) Everybody Wants to Rule the World (with another great video to go with it).