Cheese

Been meaning to do this for a while, so last week I created a Cheese playlist: 1980s one-hit wonders. Below are songs that didn't make the cut, followed by the 100 songs on the playlist. I tried to stay between 1981 and 1987 because that's what really defined the decade, and my playlist is mostly U.S.-based, though I did include Ultravox's "Vienna" because it's such a great song. When I think of Biz Markie and Rob Base, that's more like 1990. And I didn't include The McKenzie Brothers' "Take Off" because I don't consider that a one-hit wonder, since they also had "The Twelve Days of Christmas".

• Altered Images: “Happy Birthday”
• Artists United Against Apartheid: “Sun City”
• Associates: “Breakfast”
• Rob Base: “It Takes Two”
• Big Country: “In a Big Country”
• Biz Markie: “Just a Friend”
• Book of Love: “Boy”
• Boomtown Rats: “I Don't Like Mondays”
• Cult: “Sanctuary”
• Doctor And The Medics: “Spirit in the Sky
• De La Soul: “Me Myself & I”
• Flying Lizards: “Money”
• Frankie Goes To Hollywood: “Relax”
• Herbie Hancock: “Rockit”
• Kidd Video: “You Better Run”
• Love And Rockets: “So Alive”
• M/A/R/R/S: “Pump Up the Volume”
• Meco: “Ewok Celebration”
• Mr. Mister: “Is It Love?”
• John Parr: “Naughty Naughty”
• Rush: “Distant Early Warning”
• Spandau Ballet: “True”
• Sundays: “Here's Where the Story Ends”
• XTC: “Dear God”
• Paul Young: “I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down”