70's, 80's 'Feel Good' Music

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"Fresh" is a song by the American group Kool & the Gang. Released as a single in 1984 from the album Emergency, the song peaked at #11 on the UK chart, #9 on the U.S. Hot 100 charts, and was number one on both the U.S. R&B and dance charts. The song introduced a new meaning to the word "fresh", meaning "good".

Kool and the Gang - Fresh

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Evelyn Champagne King - Shame
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"Ladies' Night" is the hit title track single on the album of the same name released in 1979 by Kool & the Gang. The song is a play on the popular use of "Ladies Nights" at bars and clubs that were meant to draw in more female patrons in order to draw in even more male clientele. The song as a single was a success, and became a radio staple. It was also a chart success, peaking at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1980 and stayed atop the R&B charts for two weeks. It also gave them their first hit in the United Kingdom in August 1979, peaking at number 9 in the UK Singles Chart.

KOOL AND THE GANG - LADIES NIGHT
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"Never Knew Love Like This Before" is a song written and produced by songwriters James Mtume and Reggie Lucas for American R&B recording artist Stephanie Mills' fourth studio album Sweet Sensation (1980).
The song became Mills' biggest hit on the US Billboard Pop Singles Chart, where it peaked at number 6, outperforming her previously highest charting single, "What Cha' Gonna Do with My Lovin'", which peaked at number 22. The single was also successful on the R&B and Adult Contemporary charts, peaking at No. 12 and No. 5, respectively. It was a bigger success in the UK where it peaked at number 4.
The record won Best R&B Song and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance at the 1981 Grammy Awards, vanquishing competition that included Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Roberta Flack, and Minnie Riperton.

Stephanie Mills-Never Knew Love Like This Before
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Osibisa is an Afrobeat band, founded in London in 1969 by four expatriate African and three Caribbean musicians. Their music is a fusion of African, Caribbean, jazz, funk, rock, Latin, and R&B. Osibisa were the most successful and longest lived of the African-heritage bands in London, alongside such contemporaries as Assagai, Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath, Demon Fuzz, and Noir, and were largely responsible for the establishment of world music as a marketable genre.

Osibisa - Dance The Body Music

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The Human League - Don't You Want Me
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"Don't You Want Me" is a single by British synthpop group The Human League, released on 27 November 1981 as the fourth single from their third studio album Dare (1981).
It is the band's best known and most commercially successful recording and was the 1981 Christmas number one in the UK, where it has since sold over 1,560,000 copies, making it the 23rd most successful single in UK Singles Chart history. It later topped the Billboard Hot 100 in the US on 3 July 1982 where it stayed for three weeks. In 2015, the song was voted by the British public as the nation's 7th favourite 1980s number one in a poll for ITV.

Don't You Want Me
The Human League
You were workin' as a waitress in a cocktail bar
When I met you
I picked you out, I shook you up and turned you around
Turned you into someone new
Now five years later on, you've got the world at your feet
Success has been so easy for you
But don't forget, it's me who put you where you are now
And I can put you back down too
Don't, don't you want me?
You know I can't believe it when I hear that you won't see me
Don't, don't you want me?
You know I don't believe you when you say that you don't need me
It's much too late to find
You think you've changed your mind
You'd better change it back or we will both be sorry
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh
I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar
That much is true
But even then, I knew I'd find a much better place
Either with or without you
The five years we have had have been such good times
I still love you
But now, I think it's time I live my life on my own
I guess it's just what I must do
Don't, don't you want me?
You know I can't believe it when I hear that you won't see me
Don't, don't you want me?
You know I don't believe you when you say that you don't need me
It's much too late to find
You think you've changed your mind
You'd better change it back or we will both be sorry
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh
Don't you want me, baby?
Songwriters: John William Callis / Philip Oakey / Adrian Philip Wright
Don't You Want Me lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Domino Publishing Company

 

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"Send Me an Angel" is a 1983 song by Australian band Real Life. The song was released in May 1983 as the band's debut single from their debut studio album Heartland. The song peaked in the top 10 in Australia and is the band's best-known song. This version peaked in early 1984 in the US at No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song was No. 1 in Germany and New Zealand and Top 10 in other countries.
The song's biggest chart success, in the US, came in 1989, when an updated version entitled "Send Me an Angel '89" surpassed the original version from 1983. "Send Me An Angel '89" reached a peak of No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the summer of 1989 in the US.
The song appears on the Non-Stop-Pop in-game radio station in the PC/Xbox One/PS4 versions of the 2013 video game Grand Theft Auto V.

Real Life - Send Me An Angel
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"Harden My Heart" is a song by rock group Quarterflash, written by their guitarist Marv Ross. It is a million-selling Gold-certified single and was featured on the band's Platinum-selling Quarterflash album, released in 1981.
The song was originally released as a single in early 1980 by Seafood Mama, Quarterflash's predecessor band. It featured more sparse instrumentation but a more dramatic vocal arrangement than the hit version and was a regional success on radio stations in Portland, Oregon. The record's video features theatrics in and around an office trailer with dark corridors and swinging light bulbs from the ceiling before it was bulldozed and torched.
After changing their name, Quarterflash released their self-titled debut album in 1981 which contained the new version of "Harden My Heart". This power ballad version was released as the album's first single. In early 1982, it reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and also hit #1 on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The song reached the Top 20 in Germany, New Zealand and France. It was the group's only Top 10 Pop single, although the follow-up single from the album, "Find Another Fool (Quarterflash)", and the 1983 hit "Take Me to Heart (Quarterflash)" both entered the Top 20. It reached #41 U.S. Adult Contemporary.
This song is included in the game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, in the radio station Emotion 98.3 and was played twice in the pilot episode of Knight Rider. It also appears in the game Activision Anthology.
The song is used in the 2001 film Wet Hot American Summer, which is set in 1981.

QUARTERFLASH - Harden My Heart
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Helen Reddy ~ Somewhere In The Night
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Don McLean - And I Love You So
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And I love you so
The people ask me how
How I've lived till now
I tell them I don't know
I guess they understand
How lonely life has been
But life began again
The day you took my hand
And yes, I know how lonely life can be
The shadows follow me
And the night won't set me free
But I don't let the evening get me down
Now that you're around me
And you love me too
Your thoughts are just for me
You set my spirit free
I'm happy that you do
The book of life is brief
And once a page is read
All but love is dead
That is my belief
And yes, I know how lonely life can be
The shadows follow me
And the night won't set me free
But I don't let the evening get me down
Now that you're around me
And I love you so
The people ask me how
How I've lived till now
I tell them I don't know

Songwriters: Don Mclean
And I Love You So lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

 

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"Reality" is a song by French composer Vladimir Cosma, performed by English singer Richard Sanderson. It was released in 1980 as part of the soundtrack to the popular 1980 French film La Boum, which starred French actress Sophie Marceau (who later starred in popular films such as Academy Award-winning Braveheart and James Bond franchise The World Is Not Enough). It was also served as the theme song to the 2011 Korean film Sunny.
"Reality" is a ballad composed and written by Vladimir Cosma (under the name of Jeff Jordan) and produced by Pierre Richard Muller. Between 1980 and 1982, then in 1987 after its re-release, it became a major hit in Europe and Asia, topping the charts in fifteen countries including Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Finland and Switzerland and selling more than eight million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time. The song led Richard Sanderson to stardom, giving him more hits with Cosma such as "Your Eyes", "She's a Lady", and "Sun".
"Reality" has been covered many times by various artists, including one singing a Spanish version of the song ("Mi realidad"). On DSDS, the German equivalent of American Idol, the song has been sung multiple times. In the film La Boum, it also appears frequently (usually during the actors' romantic scenes), being the film's main theme song. For the film's 1982 sequel, La Boum 2, the main song was changed to "Your Eyes", performed by Cook da Books. Because "Reality" has the same key as "Go On Forever" (another song played in the last part of the film, from the La Boum soundtrack and sung by Sanderson and Chantal Curtis), both songs are musically linked at the end of the film.

Richard Sanderson - Reality
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"Dog & Butterfly" is a song recorded by the rock band Heart. It is the title track to the band's fourth studio album Dog & Butterfly and was released as the album's second single. The song is a more subdued effort from the band, differing from past hard rock-oriented hits, as Ann and Nancy Wilson pulled from their folk music influences. The song charted moderately in the US in 1979, peaking at #34 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Although it enjoyed only moderate chart success, the song has gone on to be viewed as a classic and has remained a setlist staple consistently through the years.

Heart - Dog & Butterfly
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Guns N' Roses - Paradise City

 

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Pink Floyd - Time

 

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Dean Ford (born Thomas McAleese; 5 September 1946 – 31 December 2018) was a Scottish singer and songwriter best known for his tenure as lead vocalist and frontman of the beat pop group Marmalade from 1966 to 1974. Ford co-wrote the group's worldwide hit "Reflections of My Life" with fellow band member Junior Campbell. "Reflections of My Life" has sold more than two million units globally, and in 1998 the writers were awarded a Special Citation of Achievement by BMI for attaining radio broadcast performances in excess of one million in the U.S. alone
Ford died in Los Angeles on 31 December 2018, at the age of 72 from complications relating to Parkinson's disease.

Reflections Of My Life - Marmalade

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"I Didn't Know I Loved You (Till I Saw You Rock and Roll)" is a song by English glam rock singer Gary Glitter, written by Glitter with Mike Leander and produced by Mike Leander. It was released as the second single from his debut studio album, Glitter (1972) and peaked at No. 4 on the UK Singles Chart. It was covered by Rock Goddess and Planet Patrol both in 1983.

I Didn't Know I Loved You Till I Saw You Rock And Roll-Gary Glitter

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"Baby, I Love Your Way" is a song written and performed by English singer Peter Frampton. It was released in September 1975 and was first featured on Frampton's 1975 album, Frampton. The song segues from the previous track "Nassau".
A live version of the song was later released on his 1976 multi-platinum album Frampton Comes Alive!, where it gained popularity as a hit song, peaking at number 12 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. It also reached number three in Canada.
In 2017, Frampton discussed this song while talking to Washington D.C. lawmakers about inequitable revenue payments from streaming music services like iTunes and Spotify. "For 55 million streams of Baby I Love Your Way, I got $1,700," said Frampton. "Their jaws dropped and they asked me to repeat that for them."
In 1987 the American dance-pop band Will to Power recorded Baby, I Love Your Way/Freebird Medley (Free Baby). The song combines elements of two previously recorded rock songs: "Baby, I Love Your Way" and American Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd's song "Free Bird", which hit #19 on the Hot 100 chart in 1975. Will to Power's medley of these two songs had more of a synthesized dance beat (as opposed to the rock ballad-like nature of the two original songs). It spent one week at #1 on the Hot 100 chart dated December 3, 1988. It also peaked at #2 on the Billboard adult contemporary chart. Additionally, in the "Freebird" section, the line "and the bird you cannot change" in the original version was changed to "and this bird will never change".
In March and April 2009, VH1 ran a countdown of the 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 80s. Will to Power's "Baby, I Love Your Way/Freebird Medley" placed at #97 on the countdown despite the fact the group having another Top 10 hit in 1991 with a cover version of the 1975 10cc hit "I'm Not in Love."

Peter Frampton- Baby I Love Your Way

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"In the Heat of the Night" is a Disco song by German singer Sandra. The song was released in November 1985 as the second single from the album The Long Play, where it charted at #1 in Switzerland and Israel, #2 in Germany, and #8 in South Africa (in mid-1986).
The song was covered by Hong Kong pop singer Anita Mui in 1986 with alternative title Cleave the Iceberg (Traditional Chinese: 將冰山劈開), by Finnish gothic metal band To/Die/For in 2000, and by Swedish progressive rock band Odyssey in 2009. Also in 1999, a remix version of the song by Sandra was released as a promo single only in France.
In 2007, Virgin Music France decided to release a special version of Reflections, containing three new remixes made by French DJs. "In the Heat of the Night" was planned to be released as a single in France containing four new versions of the song, in order to promote the new compilation. A few promotional copies were sent to the media; however, the commercial release was cancelled and it was only released online as a digital single.
In 2006, Sandra recorded a new mix of this song. This mix appeared on her compilation Reflections - Reproduced Hits (2006). In Sandra's first proper music video, the singer was featured in a steaming sauna filled with bare-chested men.

Sandra - In The Heat Of The Night

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