Hey! Remember the 80's?

Kari and Joe have covered so many long sax solos (as compiled by Dave Kinzer in his 80s Music Compendium) but there's still more! And they are still clocking in at 30-seconds-plus! WOWEE ZOWEE

This time out, a 80s duet straight out of the 60s, not one but TWO Canadian bands with saxes in the mix and an absolute banger from Miss Jody Watley, including a review of her iconic 1988 Video Music Awards performance.

And THEN... Kari quizzes Joe on the other nominees from those VMAs. See if you can beat him!

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Kari and Joe are back to talk about more of Paste's Top 100 songs of the 80s. Up first, lots of documentary news, including one that we are GAGGING for but have to wait until January 29, 2027 to see.

Then, we're in the 80s both figuratively and literally for more selections from that Paste list. Three superstars got together to mock a fourth (sick burn guys), the original version of a beloved classic did not break our thrones, and Joe tries desperately to understand the logistics of recording music on an answering machine.

And just when you...

This week Kari and Joe celebrate the one and only Dolly Parton. What can you say about this beautiful angel on earth that has not already been said? Well, not much, but we still take a deep dive into her 80s hits and celebrate her voice, her choices, her performances, and her gorgeous spirit.  Paint on some jeans and get ready to stop traffic for this episode.

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Grab your party hat and get ready to celebrate some birthdays with Kari and Joe. Toni Basil is turning 83 (and can probably still fit into that cheerleader outfit from the "Mickey" video), Tracey Thorn is celebrating and Jennifer Rush is blowing out some candles as well. Kari and Joe talk about these fabulous ladies and more!

Plus reviews of new music from TWO (count em, two) 80s artists and discussion of both peacing out with some angels and peacing out with some pipes. You don't want to miss that.

And remember, all Kari and Joe...

Are you ready to match wits with Kari and Joe on some trivia questions about 80s movies, TV, and OF COURSE, music?? Well, hop in the backseat and take a ride with them as they see who will be the winner of this challenge. Play along and let us know how you did!

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Yes, another best songs of the 1980s list has been published and Joe and Kari are here to walk you through some of the songs (and call bullshit on at least one!) The bottom of Paste Magazine's list (100 - 93) has got a song about lust for adoration, a classic rap diss track, and one that will make you move your rumpa.

Also, in tidbits, Joe and Kari cover two new songs from two classic 80s acts and Kari mixes up her Canadian athletes who performed amazing feats of endurance. Sorry to our neighbors to the north!

This week is all over the place as Kari and Joe tackle some listener suggestions, songs they have wanted to talk about for awhile, and weird videos that were mysteriously linked in their podcast ideas spreadsheet. We'll never know how or why the video for Backstabber by Hyts was introduced into our lives, but we will never forget the lead singer singing into a phallus-like microphone in the shower. If that doesn't make you want to tune in and listen, that's on you!

So join us on a journey from Italo disco to Canadian rockers to wherever...

Get ready to once again cruise through the pages of Joel Whitburn's Hot Dance/Disco chart book as Kari and Joe highlight some of the notable artists and songs that were soundtracking the clubs in the 80s. Alphaville is promoting a revolution (possibly of the sexual kind?), Ana is way too into shy boys for a girl her age, Ann-Margret is LIVING HER BEST DAMN LIFE and Anthony Malloy is hitting the top of the chart with two different bands. Oh, and also Apollonia is here.

Time to bop til you drop along with us on this...

Kari and Joe are back from hiatus with a bunch of tidbits covering the past couple months. Are you dying to know what they thought of Madonna's new album? Or the Kylie documentary on Netflix? Well you are in luck.

Then it's time to go just a bit outside, bookended by hard rock deeper hits from Van Halen and BulletBoys with a middle full of REO Speedwagon and Erasure. You never know what you are going to get at the other end of the Hot 100, folks.

This episode is dedicated to our dear friend Chad. 

Get in losers, we're taking a road trip through the past seven years and 300 episodes of this podcast, can you flipping believe it?

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Take your seats, your TAs Joe and Kari are ready to go over this week's lecture by Professor Kinzer in Music Theory 101 all about drones, those unchanging pitches held for a number of beats or even notes repeated over and over for an extended amount of time. 

We'll talk about some prime examples, including one of Kari's favorite songs from the end of the decade and it's suave remix, a big UK hit from an female septet and the first pop hit from a legitimate mega singer-songwriter-producer superstar for the ages. And what does Indiana Jones have t...

Stop screening your calls and PICK UP on this new episode of Hey! Remember the 80's? After some Tidbits about Jem and a daytime concert, you'll get the skinny on how to use a landline telephone (remember those?). Phones were BIG in the 80's, so naturally there are lots of SONGS about telephones, including a number one Dance hit from Cheyne, an attempted comeback from Village People, and a pre-fame Lisa Stansfield. In the final segment, you'll hear how Madonna and Prince met and FINALLY collaborated on a song that saw the light of day at the end of...

It's a mish mash of an episode with tidbits covering some recent songs with 80s flavor and a roundup of documentary news, including a "docu-concert" called The Phil Collins Story that mystified Kari and Joe even after several minutes of discussion.

Then they talk new broadway musicals based on 80s movies, there's something for everyone... teenage vampires or lifelong female friendships (with music written by a 93 YEAR OLD MAN). 

Finally, there was a call on the Request Line for the classic and iconic song The Roof is on Fire, so Joe and Kari get into t...

Hello, hello, hello! Episode 296 is here, along with some documentary Tidbits! Then it's time for a new segment called Dance Chart Fun (aka Kari Got a New Chart Book). You'll hear about some big (and not so big) names that made it to the Dance Chart in the 80s. Was ABC trying to pivot from Dance in the late 80s? And why did they put a crazed, murderous Dennis the Menace type in their video?? You'll also hear about some crazy covers, an influential R&B group, and an unexpected Dance Chart entry from an unlikely Canadian rocker. 

Slowly but surely Kari and Joe are making their way through every song that peaked on the Hot 100 in the 80s between number 41 and number 100. In this edition, it's three songs from early 1980 and three from late 1989. Get ready for an all night thing, Cheap Trick paying homage to the Fab Four, The Jets paying homage to a malfunctioning drive-thru speaker and a soundtrack sequel song that never should have been raised from the dead.

Also, did you ever think someone could make a song written by Prince boring AF? Find out which 80s artist said "hold...

Get ready for some SUPERsized tidbits! You wanna hear about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees... we got you! How about a review of the documentary Billy Idol Should Be Dead... hell yea, we got that too! Oh, what about Squeeze in the Radio 2 Piano Room... no problem. All that and morrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeee can be found in this week's episode.

Plus we promised you R&B Superstars and we keep our promises. We talk about Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes. What connection do they have to Katy's 50th birthday party? Who is Katy? Why was th...

Hi there! Taking inspiration from a playlist by music guru and MP3 blog pioneer Matthew Perpetua, Joe and Kari are exploring songs with the "crazed energy or manic intensity" of a good ol 80s coke psychosis. Lindsey Buckingham was definitely (ALLEGEDLY) on something when he decided to record "I Want You". Go West also certainly (ALLEGEDLY) had a line for "party favors" in the "Call Me" video budget. And Bobby Brown... him, Slimer and Vigo were for sure (ALLEGEDLY) doing some skiing on the set of Ghostbusters II. Joe and Kari break down all the tea around these wild...

Join Kari and Joe as they turn the pages on the February 4, 1984 issue of Billboard magazine. An Australian group is asking a computer for dating advice, R&B stations are getting Fresh and Genesis has got a ghost story to keep you up at night. We'll also sip on some cognac and nibble on bologna with Doug and the Slugs, get regretful with Deborah Allen and hear from both the DLR and SH versions of Van Halen!

Plus, music documentary talk in tidbits, HRT90s style!

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It's time for an Adult Contemporary Education (topic courtesy of the one and only Dom.) Kari and Joe talk about AC gems that did not cross over to the Hot 100, or if they did, barely made a dent on that chart. The beautiful voices of Sade, Mica Paris, Barbra Streisand and Dionne Warwick are here to soothe you and there's also some MEN we cover as well (Kari throws salt over her shoulder, lights some sage, and grabs a crystal to cleanse her soul.)

Plus, a large tidbit about the origin about one of Joe's favorite songs...

Join Kari and Joe to cover the second disc of Hits 80's, the crazy French compilation Joe bought at the Hollywood Bowl and then carted all along Hollywood Boulevard while he nearly froze to death (sarcasm). You will hear about Boys, and Boys and Girls, and Steps, and Change, and slinky, sexy, erotic funk. But most importantly, you will hear about a ROBOT who crashed a spaceship over the north pole and is calling to you, so be sure to answer the phone.

Kari also gives a rundown of the 80s legends she saw in concert recently...

Kari and Joe say goodbye to 2025 with a short episode that goes just a bit outside in 1980. Find out if nuclear weapons owe you a beer and what in the world new wave heavy metal pop sounds like. 

There's also a segment that has sat in the archives for awhile: That's What Friends Are For. Big Country got a really big name to help them out on the title track to their third album, but the band's record label went and screwed it up in the end. 

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Kari and Joe have friend of the podcast Chad back to revisit a topic he thought of a couple years back: songs that debuted just as the decade was ending that probably are more 90s but that we still love.

This time around Joe Cocker, The Smithereens, After 7, Pixies are in the mix along with one acid house DJ with too many names (Dancing Danny D, Danny D, D-Mob) and another acid house DJ with infinite uses of the lyric "welcome to the 90s". Thanks dude, we have been welcomed.

All this, plus tidbits covering...

Join Joe, Kari and Charlie to celebrate Charlie's 80s Attic, reminisce about almost six years on the air and hear some big news about the future of the station. 

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Join Kari and Joe for a crazy ride through a compilation Joe bought for 50% off at the Hollywood Bowl called Hits 80’s, and with that weird syntax and punctuation, you guessed right, it’s from France! And this episode has one of the strangest mixes of music we’ve covered in awhile!

Get ready to hear from a 14-year-old American theater kid, learn all about “new beat” music and go “around a dream” (twice). After all that, you will need some Scotch, the band and the liquor. Oh, and of course, it was Europe in the 80s so there’s a S...

Celebrate Native American Heritage Month with Joe and Kari as they discuss some 80s acts with Native American heritage. And we’re ping ponging wildly between genres in this episode, going from southern rock to new wave to thrash metal to adult contemporary. There’s something for everyone in the mix! Think you won’t enjoy it… well, never say never. Oh, and also, this episode is your fate, DON’T DEBATE.

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Another great suggestion from Dom finds Joe and Kari exploring some literal bops and bangers... 80s songs that actually have those words in the titles. And this episode is a real international affair, with acts from Australia, Belgium, Sweden and Oklahoma in the mix. Are you are a Bop Girl doing The Modern Bop or maybe your Heart Goes Bang (or Bang Bang)? No matter how you bop or bang, hopefully you will find something to love in this episode.

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Join Kari and Joe as they cover some soundtrack songs of the 80s, including two versions of a theme to a cult classic that was originally going to star Debbie Gibson, the demo version of what would become one of the biggest soundtrack songs of the decade and a collaboration between Roy Orbison and... Glenn Danzig??!!?? Yes, it's as weird as it sounds.

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Join Joe, Kari and special guest DJ Matt Bailer to discuss Matt's special project revisiting the music of 1980 to create his own personalized top 40 charts! This has led him to discover so many great lost songs he wants to share with Joe, Kari and all of you, so get ready to take a free ride, spend some time in the kitchen, fall in love, shout and scream and learn how to be a hustler (if you wanna get on).

1980 usually means boring boring boring, but not this time. Tune in and find out!

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First up in tidbits, Kari and Joe also talk 80s artists collaborations with Miley Cyrus and once again beg some millionaires to just go to therapy already.

Then they are going just a bit outside yet again to talk about those songs that hit the Hot 100 but peaked between number 41 and number 100. This time around it's six tracks from 1989, including brothers covering brothers, an icon in her adult contemporary era, more hair metal than you can shake a can of aqua net at, and... Dion. Yes, Dion is back.

Pop open an Orangina and listen!<...

Join Kari, Joe and special guest Dom (aka DC Sheehan) to explore the full range of novelty songs of the 80s. There's one that hit the top 40, one by the king of novelty pop himself, one that went all the way to NUMBER ONE in the UK (and number two in New Zealand, but don't blame Dom, he didn't buy it), and two "rap" "songs" that... defy any and all explanation.

Then get ready to be introduced to the beautiful voice (and commanding stage presence) of Margaret Urlich, a New Zealand singer who was a multi-award winner...

Kari and Joe don't want to work, they just want to bang on the vibraslap all day, so... we did. Well, we talked about songs that used vibraslap for about 50 minutes, same difference. Join us for the fun! 

That vibraslap is so versatile everyone from yacht rocker Ali Thomson to rock rockers Pat Travers Band (covering a reggae classic, don't ask) to R&B legends The S.O.S. Band to sophistipoppers Simply Red can make great use of it. Hear songs from those folks and more, plus tidbits about The Boss, a total wanker, and Axl R...

come on inside. Join Joe and Kari (with a soundtrack programmed by friend of the podcast Dom) as they take a road trip through the many songs of the 80s titled with roads (and some related tracks as well). We're visiting that cheating jerk Leo Sayer down on Orchard Road, stopping for a couple rounds at the Double Deuce and hitting a Roadblock with Stock Aitken Waterman.

Grab a fountain soda, your favorite snack, buckle up and let's go!

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No, the title doesn't make any sense, deal with it. Kari and Joe are taking you just a bit outside (JaBO) the top 40 once again, talking about Hot 100 singles from acts as varied as Ray, Goodman and Brown to Pink Floyd to Paul Shaffer with The Fresh Prince and every dude who sang in a doo wop group in the 50s. Yea, for real, you gotta hear it to believe it.

Kari also dishes on some recent music documentaries she's been watching and The Captain & Tennille cause Joe to have an existential breakdown. Same old same old...

Kari and Joe are back with a bunch of capital R capital A capital N capital D capital O capital M tidbits and then a recap of their latest concert, a triple bill of Christopher Cross/Men at Work/Toto.

And while we're on the subject of Toto, let's talk about a Rob Lowe anecdote straight out of Boogie Nights and then FINALLY get to the bottom of just how many ladies Toto has... written songs about. 

Just close your eyes, tap your heels together three times and hit that download button. 

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Hope you all have been having a great summer so far! Joe and Kari certainly have, and you are about to hear what they've been up to! It's been a while since the last episode, but they are back with a super-sized episode to recap most of what's been going on. Kari made a trip to STL for a few concerts, as did friend of the podcast Michael, who is also a special guest on this episode! You'll hear all about concerts from Simple Minds (along with Modern English and Soft Cell) and Peter Hook and the Light (of...

Are you hungry like the wolf for some discussion of all the singles of Duran Duran? Well, there is something you should know... the wild boys (Joe, Kari and special guest Chad) are doing just that this week on Hey, Remember the 80s! That's right, we ranked all 20 of the Fab Five's singles released in the 80s and I can't fit any more title puns in this description.

Just join us for a supersized deep dive into everything from Planet Earth to Burning the Ground. Will your fave be at the top? Will Joe and Kari's friendship...

Ooh, go on an adventure with Joe and Kari through some truly random and truly outrageous 80s hits. You'll hear it all! Bisexual overtones, camp clamor on the dance floor, Joe Strummer hurling a wrecking ball through the Grand Ole Opry, Gladys sending up an SOS and more!

All that, plus the debut of a brand new segment, glamour and glitter, fashion and fame. Whoa, Hey Remember the 80s, the music's contagious... 

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Join Kari and Joe for a journey through the March 16, 1985 issue of Billboard. You opera fans who've been waiting 272 episodes for a mention of Madame Butterfly are in luck! Then, get ready to hear about wild 80s personalities like Doctor G and Lee Abrams, before partying out of bounds with WLIR and getting an invitation to dance with a chart triple threat.

We're also going just a bit outside with entries from Welsh rockers that would later become electronic superstars, California bros who were still cruisin well past their curfew, and a teen star that wanted to...

Episode 271: Joe and Kari are back with an episode that is chock full of delicious tidbits, so strap on the ol' feedbag and tune in! You'll hear about some exciting news that's taken place in the past few weeks (new, unreleased music from Bruce Springsteen, new recordings from Susanna Hoffs, etc). Plus you'll hear about Joe's recent concert experience, and all of Kari's thoughts on the recent 80's Cruise. We're so happy to be back, hope you enjoy the loose format of this week's episode!

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Episode 270: Joe and Kari are back and they brought plenty of tidbits to share with you this week, from the stage to the screen to the sea! Then buckle up for Just a Bit Outside, your look at songs that hit the Hot 100 but NOT the Top 40 -- a surprisingly large amount of great songs for this round. You'll hear from chart mainstays like Little River Band and Eddie Rabbitt, plus acts like The Babys, Vesta, and Kon Kan.

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