80's Trivia

Did You Know?

1. The Weather Girls singer Martha Wash was also the voice behind Black Box's "Everybody, Everybody" and C&C Music Factory's "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)," among others.

2. Bananarama's Karen Woodward is the longtime girlfriend of Wham! member Andrew Ridgeley.

3. Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Relax" was the biggest single in the UK of the '80s.

4. Blank cassette tapes were controversial because they "took away" from record sales.

5. Richard Marx sang backup on Madonna's "White Heat" from her True Blue album.

6. ZZ Top's "Velcro Fly" video was choreographed by Paula Abdul.

7. Kylie Minogue had her first number one single in the UK in 1988 with "I Should Be So Lucky."

8. Michael Jackson's Thriller is the biggest selling album of all time.

9. The name UB40 is derived from the "Unemployment Benefit Form 40" in the UK.

10. Duran Duran was named for a character in Jane Fonda's film Barbarella.

11. Spandau Ballet members (and brothers) Gary and Martin Kemp went on to become actors.

12. MTV went live on August 1, 1981. The first video was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles.

13. Prince wrote The Bangles' hit single "Manic Monday."

14. Courteney Cox hopped up on stage in Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark" video.

15. Elijah Wood appears in Paula Abdul's "Forever Your Girl" video.

16. It was in 1981 when cassette singles saw a major price hike – they went from $1.29 to $1.99, thanks to slumping sales.

17. Cyndi Lauper sang the theme song for Pee Wee's Playhouse.

18. Jeff Russo, a member of rock band Tonic, appeared in Debbie Gibson's 1988 video for "Out of the Blue."

19. Charity single "We are the World" was performed by USA for Africa, a collection of major stars. The song sold four million copies.

20. Huey Lewis appears in Back to the Future as one of the school's talent show judges.

21. Eddie Van Halen performs the guitar solo in Michael Jackson's "Beat It."

22. Compact discs (CDs) were first introduced in 1983.

23. "No Myth" singer Michael Penn is actor Sean Penn's brother.

24. Wham! was the first pop group to perform in China.

25. The Cure's Robert Smith was once a member of Siouxie and the Banshees.

26. By 1983, MTV was airing as many as 300 music videos each day.