The 10 Best Movie Soundtracks of the 80s

Here at JoBlo, we love the eighties. Heck, we even have a Facebook page and a YouTube channel called Loving the 80s— that’s how much we’re obsessed with the decade. However, when you think about all your favorite eighties movies, I’m willing to bet that for the majority of them, there’s a song that immediately comes to mind. That’s because the 80s were the heyday of movie soundtracks. Nowadays, movies just don’t have super popular songs associated with them the way they used to (which is why the Best Original Song category at the Oscars is so horrendous). It’s a shame, because there’s something about a hit song and a movie together that’s just indelible.

But there are two kinds of eighties movie soundtracks. There are those like Against All Odds, where the theme song “Take a Look at Me Now” by Phil Collins was WAY more popular than the movie it came from. Then there are others where entire soundtracks became part of pop culture — and those are the ones I’m going to talk about here. So, here we go with the Best Movie Soundtracks of the 80s (in chronological order!)

1. Fast Times at Ridgemont High

This is an iconic but strange soundtrack, deeply divided between the aesthetics and personal tastes of the director Amy Heckerling, and the financiers of the movie, who happened to be associated with The Eagles. As such, half of the soundtrack is New Wave, while the other half is California rock, made by bands closely associated with The Eagles. The album released as a tie-in more closely reflects California rock, with solo songs by every member of The Eagles except Glenn Frey, while the movie’s mix is more eclectic. Some of the most memorable tracks, like Moving in Stereo by The Cars, are absent from the album but add immensely to the film and helped popularize New Wave.

2. Flashdance

Adrian Lyne’s movie was arguably the first eighties film to really reflect the MTV aesthetic that would come to define the decade. Paramount had little to no faith in the movie, but they cut several music videos from the soundtrack for MTV, and the movie became a smash hit. Some of the signature songs include “Flashdance! (What a Feeling)” and “Maniac.”

No less than three songs off the Footloose soundtrack made it into the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. There was the title track by Kenny Loggins (and plenty more from him), “Let’s Hear it For the Boy” by Deniece Williams, and “Almost Paradise” by Ann Wilson and Mike Reno. Even songs that didn’t make the top 10 were iconic, like Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out for a Hero.”

4. Ghostbusters

Would Ghostbusters have been as big of a hit without Ray Parker Jr’s theme song? “Who you gonna call?” became the rallying cry for this movie, but the soundtrack actually has a lot of good songs on it, including “Magic” by Mick Smiley, which will be immediately recognizable to anyone who’s seen the movie (which I wager is everyone reading this article).

5. Purple Rain

Prince’s screen debut became an album inextricably linked to the movie, with two number one hits on the Billboard Top 100 (“When Doves Cry” and “Let’s Go Crazy”), another number 2 hit (the title track), and another that hit number 8 (“I Would Die For You”). The soundtrack went thirteen times platinum and is still one of the highest-selling albums of all time.

6. Beverly Hills Cop

Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer really knew how to assemble a kick-ass soundtrack. Knowing that Flashdance’ssoundtrack helped propel it to boffo box office, they went all out on the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack, which reflected an eclectic mix of pop music. There was Glenn Frey’s “The Heat is On,” but also urban tracks like “Neutron Dance” by The Pointer Sisters, and more. More impressively, an instrumental track, “Axel F,” from the score by Harold Faltermeyer became a number 3 hit on the Billboard Top 100.

7. Back to the Future

When I think of Back to the Future, I can’t help but think of Huey Lewis & the News, with their song, “The Power of Love,” arguably the most immediately identifiable soundtrack cut of the decade. But they’ve got another classic on the soundtrack too — “Back in Time” — that’s almost as good.

8. The Breakfast Club

John Hughes is the definitive voice of 80s teens on film, and his soundtracks reflected that he had his finger on the pulse of what this generation of kids were listening to. Nowhere was this more obvious than with The Breakfast Club, with the Simple Minds track “Don’t You Forget About Me” being one of the biggest and best songs of the decade.

9. Top Gun

Another Simpson/Bruckheimer joint, the Top Gun soundtrack had not one but two iconic theme songs it’s impossible to separate from the movie — “Danger Zone” by Kenny Loggins, and “Take My Breath Away” by Berlin. This is another soundtrack that sold so many records it’s considered one of the defining albums of the decade.

10. Dirty Dancing

Despite being set in the 1960s, the makers of Dirty Dancing didn’t limit themselves to period tracks. Oh no. While they included plenty of old-school songs, many of the biggest hits on the soundtrack were brand new, including Eric Carmen’s “Hungry Eyes,” “She’s Like the Wind” (which is sung by the movie’s star Patrick Swayze), and the most iconic song off the soundtrack, “I’ve Had the Time of My Life.”

Bonus: Less Than Zero

This is another movie whose soundtrack is better known than the film it comes from. This adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis novel was a big flop, but the soundtrack is a banger, produced by Rick Rubin, who included songs from the burgeoning hip hop scene as well as rock tracks, such as The Bangles’ cover of “A Hazy Shade of Winter.” Of all the soundtracks on this list, this is the best curated one.

What do you think of this list and what are we missing? Let us know in the chat!