80’s Music You Must Hear Before You Die! - Big Country, The Cult, Roxy Music, Simple Minds

"He made me promise to play Purple Rain at his funeral, and I didn’t even like Prince until then."

Summer of 1990, I was 22, working nights at a pizza shop in Milwaukee. That’s where I met Joey—24, always in a band tee, always smiling like he knew something the rest of us didn’t.

Joey had cancer. Terminal. He told me outside during a smoke break like he was mentioning the weather. “They gave me a few months. Maybe.”

He didn’t want to talk about hospitals or treatments. What he cared about was music. His goal? Re-listen to every great song from the 1980s before he died. Not just hear them—feel them.

Every night after work, we’d sit in his small apartment surrounded by stacks of mixtapes. He had them labeled by mood: “Windows Down in July,” “When the World Feels Heavy,” “Hope.” We listened, argued about which songs were best, and sometimes danced like idiots.

By September, Joey was getting weaker. He’d ask me to pick the tapes, saying, “Just something with feeling.” One night he said, “If I go before the year ends, play Purple Rain at my funeral. Loud. I want people to feel it.”

He passed quietly in October, with headphones on. His mom found him with a tape still playing.

At his funeral, I brought his old boombox and played Purple Rain just like he asked. People were confused, but I cranked the volume. It filled the room. It filled me, too.

I kept some of his tapes. The handwriting’s fading, but the songs still bring him back. And every now and then, when life feels heavy, I press play on Purple Rain—and I remember Joey, smiling, right there in the music.

Track List
1. In a Big Country - Big Country [0:00]
2. She Sells Sanctuary - The Cult [4:45]
3. More Than This - Roxy Music [9:05]
4. Don't You (Forget About Me) - Simple Minds [13:05]
5. Suddenly Last Summer - The Motels [18:00]
6. I Melt with You - Modern English [21:35]
7. Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You) - A Flock of Seagulls [25:20]
8. Wouldn't It Be Good - Nik Kershaw [30:00]
9. Gloria - Laura Branigan [34:30]
10. Is There Something I Should Know? - Duran Duran [38:55]
11. I Know There's Something Going On - Frida [43:20]
12. 99 Luftballons - Nena [48:25]
13. A Fine, Fine Day - Tony Carey [52:55]
14. Feel It Again - Honeymoon Suite [57:00]
15. If You Leave - Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark [1:01:00]
16. Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division [1:05:00]
17. Enjoy the Silence - Depeche Mode [1:08:30]
18. Blue Monday - New Order [1:13:30]
19. Finest Worksong - R.E.M. [1:19:30]
20. Let the Day Begin - The Call [1:23:30]
21. The Ghost in You - The Psychedelic Furs [1:27:30]
22. Purple Rain - Prince [1:32:00]
23. Good Times - INXS with Jimmy Barnes [1:39:00]
24. Salt in My Tears - Martin Briley [1:43:30]
25. Talkin' Bout a Revolution - Tracy Chapman [1:47:00]
26. Games People Play - The Alan Parsons Project [1:50:30]
27. Beat's So Lonely - Charlie Sexton [1:55:30]
28. They Don't Know - Tracey Ullman [2:00:00]
29. Ah! Leah! - Donnie Iris [2:02:30]
30. Tainted Love - Soft Cell [2:06:30]
31. The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em) - The Greg Kihn Band [2:09:30]
32. Downtown Train - Patti Smyth [2:13:00]
33. Day by Day - The Hooters [2:17:30]
34. Fly to the Angels - Slaughter [2:21:30]
35. Dreamin' - Cliff Richard [2:26:30] **Blocked by YT **
36. Desert Moon - Dennis DeYoung [2:30:30]
37. The Dead Heart - Midnight Oil [2:35:30]
38. Rain in the Summertime - The Alarm [2:40:30]
39. It's My Life - Talk Talk [2:45:30]
40. True - Spandau Ballet [2:49:30]
41. Really Want to Know You - Gary Wright [2:54:30]
42. Major Tom (Coming Home) - Peter Schilling [2:58:30]
43. Here Comes the Rain Again - Eurythmics [3:03:30]
44. Tender Years - John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band [3:08:30]
45. Only the Young - Journey [3:12:30]
46. We Didn't Start the Fire - Billy Joel [3:16:30]

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#80sHits
#RetroVibes
#NewWave
#80sParty
#ClassicHits
#longform