As a quick note – next week I’ll have my top ten albums of 2024 list, as well as my write up of Prince’s Purple Rain to cap off my celebration of 1984.

But for today, it’s off to pick five songs from 1982. This one was kind of fun as there seemed to be a bit more variety, I wasn’t necessarily slammed by 10,000 heavy metal songs I love that I had to winnow down. Still plenty of great music but a pretty simple list here.

As always on these and especially for this decade – these are simply five of my favorite songs from the year, not a definitive list of my absolute five favorite songs. I ain’t got time for all that. Let’s have at it.

Iron Maiden – Hallowed Be Thy Name

Pickings are easy when your favorite band offers up what is widely considered the greatest song they ever recorded. This is a haunting tale of a condemned man who is in his final moments. Maiden were able to couple the dread of the story with their trademark harmonizing and rhythm and Bruce Dickinson delivers a performance for the ages. Things really don’t get much better than this heavy metal standard.

Judas Priest – Electric Eye

Choosing just one song from the seminal Screaming For Vengeance album is kind of tough but it’s pretty easy to go with this one. This is a heavy metal smorgasbord with all kinds of quiet and loud, mid-paced and fast stuff. It’s both heavy as hell and quite accessible. The dark theme of overbearing surveillance is on point, even more so now than 42 years ago. I can’t do anything about the hosed state of civilization but I can headbang along to its demise with this.

Michael Jackson – Thriller

This list is shooting fish in a barrel kind of easy. The title track of what is largely held as the best-selling album of all time is an absolute winner – a melodic romp through a zombie horror show. While the song itself is actually a fairly simple premise of picking up a girl by spooking her out with scary movies, the music video was an all-out zombie invasion that wowed audiences the world over. The song remains a Halloween staple to this day and of course Michael was the defining artist of the greatest decade in music.

Prince – 1999

But Michael did have a rival, he was not as alone atop the pop and rock mountain as some would like to believe. Prince would score his first widespread recognition with this apocalyptic hit. The thing to do when facing the end of the world is to party, which The Purple One summed up with a synth-funk track to boogie ’till the end to. It wound up being very fitting when 1999 actually came around, with the ultimately unfounded fears of Y2K. That was some weird shit to live through. But Prince provided the perfect soundtrack for it.

Scorpions – No One Like You

The Scorpions did rock as well as anyone ever. They also made their mark with a series of awesome ballads, but this song did not head into ballad territory – while proclaiming love, it’s a total rocker. It has been a live staple and one of the band’s signature songs since its release on their landmark Blackout album.

The song also holds significant personal meaning for me. I started dating a gal in 2009, still in the age of setting phone ringtones. I set this as her ringtone and it became our song. We were together for nearly 15 years and boyfriend and girlfriend before this past June when we did the deed and got married. And while she is not an ’80’s metal fan of any real sort, she has always appreciated this as our song. So it’s an easy add to close out this list.

That wraps up 1982, which will likely be the easiest by far of any of the ’80’s stuff to do. The next few are absolute hell, let me tell you.