1985. The year that brought us ‘Back to the Future’, ‘Rocky IV’ and ‘Out of Africa’. The year that also gave us the original Macintosh computer, the Nintendo NES and the takeover of C++ as the dominant programming language. This quiz however is a 1985 pop song lyrics quiz designed to stretch your ancient memory banks to the limit. Musically, 1985 was a significant year with January 1st seeing the first broadcast of the music video channel VH-1.
You get one quiz point for identifying the song that the lyric is taken from and one quiz point for identifying the band or artist. There’s a total of 30 points up for grabs …. NO GOOGLING! … the only permitted access to lyric databanks is via humming, singing and tapping the table.
Lyric 1:
“As the music dies,
something in your eyes,
calls to mind the silver screen …”
Lyric 2:
“Today’s another day to find you,
Shying away …”
Lyric 3:
“Slow change may pull us apart,
when the light gets into your heart, baby”
1985 Interesting Fact: On January 1st, 1985, the fist UK mobile ‘phone call was made from Parliament Square, London, just after midnight. The caller was Michael Harrison. The recipient of the call was his father, Sir Ernest Harrison, the chairman of a brand new firm you may have heard of (Vodafone). The plan was to beat their competitor, BT Cellnet, in making the first mobile ‘phone call. Mission accomplished.
Lyric 4:
“Reckless and so hungered,
On the razors edge you trail,
Because there’s murder by the roadside …”
Lyric 5:
“Empty lake, empty streets,
The sun goes down alone …”
Lyric 6:
“Oh, you’re wasting my time,
You’re just, just, just wasting time”
Lyric 7:
“Feel the silky touch of my caresses,
They will keep you looking so brand new …”
Lyric 8:
“Don’t be so circumscribed, are you gonna do it?,
Just get yourself untied, are you gonna do it?”
1985 Interesting Fact: In April 1985 Coca-Cola decided to tackle their falling sales by changing their recipe formula and launching ‘New Coke’. Around 3 months later they had changed the recipe back following universal criticism.
Lyric 9:
“And I just can’t wait till the day when you knock on my door”
Lyric 10:
“He’s laughing with another girl,
And playing with another heart,
Placing high stakes, making hearts ache”
Lyric 11:
“You’ll find a god in every golden cloister …”
Lyric 12:
“We got to move these refrigerators …”
1985 Interesting Fact: USA’s Route 66 was officially decomissioned in June 1985. A good proportion of the original historic route is still drivable (with some thorough research) and – bonus fact! – ‘Radiator Springs’ in Pixar’s ‘Cars’ movie is inspired by the many towns that vanished off the map once Route 66 was bypassed by Interstate 40.
Lyric 13:
“But maybe sometime if you feel the pain,
You’ll find you’re all alone everything has changed”
Lyric 14:
“A thousand skeptic hands won’t keep us from the things we plan,
Unless we’re clinging to the things we prize”
Lyric 15:
“Shake it up is all that we know,
Using the bodies up as we go,
I’m waking up to fantasy,
The shades all around aren’t the colors we used to see”
STOP SCROLLING ! ….. answers are below
ANSWERS TO OUR 1985 SONG LYRICS QUIZ QUESTIONS
- Careless Whisper’, George Michael
- ‘Take On Me’, A-ha
- ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me), Simple Minds. (If this quiz question had asked which song was offered to Bryan Ferry and Billy Idol and only ended up with Simple Minds because of some persuasion from Chrissy Hynde (The Pretenders) then this would have also been the answer. Every song has a story to tell! Maybe that’ll be the basis of our next quiz …).
- ‘The Wild Boys’, Duran Duran
- ‘The Boys of Summer’, Don Henley
- ‘Head Over Heels’, Tears for Fears
- ‘Dress You Up’, Madonna. ( This song very nearly missed being included on Madonna’s ‘Like a Virgin’ album because the lyrics were submitted just a bit too late by the songwriters Andrea LaRusso and Peggy Stanziale. Nile Rodgers said ‘too late you’ve missed the bus’ (our words, not his) but Madonna loved the lyrics and insisted. Good call!).
- ‘Some Like It Hot’, The Power Station
- ‘Walking On Sunshine’, Katrina and the Waves
- ‘Smooth Operator’, Sade
- ‘One Night In Bangkok’, Murray Head
- ‘Money For Nothing’, Dire Straits. (There’s an interesting story about these quiz lyrics. The story goes that Mark Knopfler was in an electrical store (surrounded by the said microwaves, refrigerators and colour TVs) when he overhead an employee complaining about the rock star lifestyles playing on MTV on the screens in the store. Hence ‘money for nothing’ and ‘chicks for free’ references about rock stars … but he’s also telling his colleague that they need to get on with their job and ‘move these refrigerators’).
- ‘St. Elmo’s Fire (Man In Motion), John Parr
- ‘Things Can Only Get Better’, Howard Jones
- ‘Out Of Touch’, Hall and Oates
That’s the end of our 1985 pop song lyrics quiz. How did you do? MCMLXXXV rocked!