The Best of My 80s Playlist: From Richard Marx, Peter Waterman and more

Virgin Radio

6 Jan 2023, 11:49

Here at Virgin Radio, we have loved reminiscing about the tunes that made the 80s with some of the biggest stars of the decade for My 80s Playlist. 

We celebrated the launch of our latest station, Virgin Radio 80s Plus by bringing in some 80s staples, including Richard Marx, Pete Waterman and Carol Decker.

As we look ahead to 2023’s playlists (starting again on Friday 13th January), we wanted to relive some of the best moments of the 2022 series. 

Richard Marx on Prince

Singer-songwriter and Don’t Mean Nothing hitmaker Richard Marx chose Purple Rain as one of his 10 tracks from the 80s. 

Released in 1984, the undeniable hit used rock, R&B and gospel elements to make one of the most memorable power ballads of all time. 

For Richard, he can’t think about Purple Rain without reminiscing about recording some new music right down the corridor from where the Raspberry Beret singer was also completing a new record. 

Richard elaborated: “We had been told that we were not to make eye contact with Prince or to address him in any way. When they said that to me, I looked at them and I said, ‘are you putting me on?... Are you kidding me? So I was like, ‘I can't wait to run into Prince. I'm going to get right in his face.”

“I see this purple Rolls Royce pull up. Big giant bodyguard gets out, and out comes Prince in full Prince regalia. As you would expect….I think he was wearing a cape. And I was like, ‘oh, okay, here we go.’ He comes up and just as I'm about to say something, he looks at me and goes, ‘Richard! How are you doing, man? Oh, I really liked that last album.’ I turned into a total fanboy. I walked away going, ‘he's the coolest!’”

Carol Decker on Byran Adams

T’Pau star Carol Decker had some great memories to go alongside her choice of Bryan Adams’ Run To You. 

The pop group were invited on tour with the iconic singer in 1987 as part of his Into The Fire tour, while they were still trying to make it into the charts. 

However, that all changed when the group landed at number one with China In Your Hand while on the road, and ended up coming off Bryan’s tour to start up their own. 

Run To You felt particularly poignant for Carol as she was asked to duet with Bryan on stage while he was performing at the former MEN Arena in Manchester. 

Speaking about her “pinch-me moment”, the singer explained: “We had a night off and [Bryan] invited us to the show. We still had our laminates, we could just get backstage, and he invited me on stage. So can you imagine how I felt, because he was famous for duetting with Tina Turner. I just felt epic. 

“When I walked onto the stage, because I was getting a little bit well known, the crowd went crazy. So it was a great moment for me.”

Paul Young on Live Aid

Singer-songwriter and teen musical idol Paul Young has plenty of incredible memories from the 80s, but one of the biggest comes from being on stage during the 1985 Live Aid concert.

He performed Do They Know It’s Christmas in 1984 with the rest of Band Aid, and also busted out some of his own hit songs too.

Paul opened up about how his time on stage at Wembley came to be, and how it almost didn’t happen. 

He explained: “I was in America and they said, ‘we're going to put Live Aid on, can you play?’ I said, ‘of course I can, I will make sure that we've got space in the tour. Then I was thinking, ‘fly all the way back to the UK?'... We were taking a break for Live Aid, so I thought I'll extend it a bit, have a few days off in the middle of this big world tour. So I said, ‘can’t I play in Philadelphia instead than go all the way?' And he went, ’no, you can't do that because we've got all the American artists on that stage. It's full, you were booked for London.”

Eventually, Paul’s manager was able to strike a deal to ensure Paul got a slot during American viewing hours. 

Paul continued: “Bob [Geldof] said, ‘I'm going to come on in the middle of your show, and say Hello, America.’ So he did that up until he actually said it. I hadn't thought anything about it. And then he went, ‘Hello America’ or whatever. I stood there and went ‘this isn't just Wembley anymore.’ It's being out there in front of all those people and all the feeling of goodwill was incredible.”

Pete Waterman on Run DMC & Aerosmith

Walk This Way by Run DMC featuring Aerosmith was released in 1986, and took everyone by surprise by balancing between the rock and rap charts, something previously unheard of. 

It’s a rather emotional track for legendary record producer Pete Waterman on his playlist, who first heard the song when a colleague introduced Run DMC to him while working for a different record company, and it soon became a favourite of his late son. 

Pete shared. “I played at home, and my young lad went nuts. You know, his prized possession up to the day died was his Run DMC batch.

“I saw for the first time my own children, and he went on to have hits of his own before he died. He'd already follied the old man, he could spot a hit. I will always remember that. That’s what it meant to him. That's what hits mean to you, they are memories.”

You can listen to Virgin Radio 80 Plus HERE. You can also listen on DAB+ in London and Central Scotland and on smart speakers across the UK, as well as via the Virgin Radio UK app.