80s coverband suggestions?

[kjpollo]

Originally Posted by Richland123

That is actually a late 70s song but still a good song to play.

Here are some 80s tunes my band plays

You Shook Me All Night Long - AC/DC
White Wedding - Billy Idol
Everybody Wants You - Billy Squier
Pink Cadillac - Bruce Springsteen
Summer Of ‘69 - Bryan Adams
Should I Stay Or Should I Go - The Clash
Whip It - Devo
Battleship Chains - Georgia Satellites
Keep Your Hands To Yourself - Georgia Satellites
Twilight Zone - Golden Earring
The Breakup Song - The Greg Kihn Band
Devil Inside - INXS
The Authority Song - John Mellencamp
You Got Another Thing Coming - Judas Priest
My Sharona - The Knack (1979 but still good for 80s)
The Safety Dance - Men Without Hats
Beds Are Burning - Midnight Oil
Smokin’ In The Boys Room - Motley Crue 80s version/ Brownsville Station
Rockin’ In The Free World - Neil Young
Hard Times In The Land Of Plenty - Omar & The Howlers
Your Love - The Outfield
Another Brick In The Wall - Pink Floyd (1979 but still good for 80s)
Talk Dirty To Me - Poison
I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) - The Proclaimers (this song came out in the 80s in the U.K. and became a big hit in the U.S. in the early 90s)
I Wanna Be Sedated - The Ramones
Jessie’s Girl - Rick Springfield
What I Like About You - The Romantics
Behind The Wall Of Sleep - The Smithereens
Tainted Love - Soft Cell 80s version / Gloria Jones
Abracadabra - The Steve Miller Band
The House Is Rockin’ - Stevie Ray Vaughan
The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades - Timbuk 3
Runnin’ Down A Dream - Tom Petty
867-5309 Jenny, Jenny - Tommy Tutone
Gimme All Your Lovin’ - ZZ Top
Sharp Dressed Man - ZZ Top
Tube Snake Boogie - ZZ Top

Damn Dude, thats an awesome list? Where are you located??

[Richland123]

Originally Posted by kjpollo

Damn Dude, thats an awesome list? Where are you located??

Thanks - We are based out of Johnstown, PA

Here are a few more suggestions for the OP

Mexican Radio - Wall Of Voodoo
Our House - Madness
Wild Wild Life - Talking Heads
Shake It Up - The Cars
Magic - The Cars
You Might Think - The Cars

[WalterBush]

Hey there! My main gig is a New Wave cover band. Some of my favorite tunes from our 5-set list:

A-ha, Take on Me
Midnight Oil, Beds are Burning
The Tubes, Turning Japanese
Madness, Our House
Dexy's Midnight Runners, Come on Eileen
Queen/Bowie, Under Pressure
Wang Chung, Dance Hall Days
Men At Work, Land Down Under
Spandau Ballet, True
The Fixx, One Thing Leads to Another
Billy Idol, Dancing With Myself
Duran Duran, Rio
Duran Duran, The Reflex
Talking Heads, Once in a Lifetime
Talking Heads, Burning Down the House
The Smithereens, Wall of Sleep
Dead or Alive, You Spin Me Right Round
INXS, Devil Inside
Devo, Whip It
The Cure, Just Like Heaven
Modern English, I'll Stop the World

The last three we play back to back, no breaks. It works out well. There's a lot more, but those are the ones I enjoy playing, whether I'm using my bass or my keytar for bass. Good luck! There's a surprising amount of New Wave fans out there, we had no idea how many there are south of the border until we started gaining momentum. Lots of our fans don't speak English, and can't get enough chessy New Wave goodness

[the yeti]

talking heads- girlfriend (don't play it but i bet it would go over)
cyndi lauper- girls wanna have fun (actually thought of you/thread when we played it fri)
madonna stuff also goes over pretty well (but only the madonna stuff from the 80s)

[Tituscrow]

Originally Posted by WalterBush

Hey there! My main gig is a New Wave cover band. Some of my favorite tunes from our 5-set list:

A-ha, Take on Me
Midnight Oil, Beds are Burning
The Tubes, Turning Japanese
Madness, Our House
Dexy's Midnight Runners, Come on Eileen
Queen/Bowie, Under Pressure
Wang Chung, Dance Hall Days
Men At Work, Land Down Under
Spandau Ballet, True
The Fixx, One Thing Leads to Another
Billy Idol, Dancing With Myself
Duran Duran, Rio
Duran Duran, The Reflex
Talking Heads, Once in a Lifetime
Talking Heads, Burning Down the House
The Smithereens, Wall of Sleep
Dead or Alive, You Spin Me Right Round
INXS, Devil Inside
Devo, Whip It
The Cure, Just Like Heaven
Modern English, I'll Stop the World

The last three we play back to back, no breaks. It works out well. There's a lot more, but those are the ones I enjoy playing, whether I'm using my bass or my keytar for bass. Good luck! There's a surprising amount of New Wave fans out there, we had no idea how many there are south of the border until we started gaining momentum. Lots of our fans don't speak English, and can't get enough chessy New Wave goodness

Good stuff...but wasnt 'Turning Japanese' by The Vapours? I remember finding out what that title meant....

[4stringfiend]

I think you need to do some Duran Duran covers.

[Richland123]

Originally Posted by the yeti

cyndi lauper- girls wanna have fun (actually thought of you/thread when we played it fri)

The original version of Girls Just Want To Have Fun by Robert Hazard is very new wavish.

Robert Hazard - Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aLNwOxPsjg

[MatticusMania]

Great suggestions so far! Feel free to keep them coming! I'll be using this thread as a reference!

[Richland123]

Scandal - Goodbye To You

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH1O6nyKnow

Greg Kihn Band - Jeopardy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tCEQwww65g

[mixtapelove]

My 80s band is now kaput, but this is some of what we were doing:

Whip It - Devo
The Metro - Berlin
Major Tom - Peter Schilling
Don't You Want Me - Human League
Don't You (Forget About Me) - Simple Minds
Melt With You - Modern English
Rio - Duran Duran
Just Like Heaven - The Cure
Brass in Pocket - Pretenders
Magic - The Cars
Voices Carry - Til Tuesday
Head Over Heels - Tears For Fears (VERY fun bassline)

[SturmUndDrang]

No one mentioned Boy George yet. Decent bass player in that band, ya know "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me", "Karma Chameleon"
Mathew Wilder had a fun one hit wonder with "Break My Stride"

[geoff_in_nc]

Time Zone - World Destruction
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfKCJGYljoU

Husker Du - Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoKeH7JYE48

The Cult - Love Removal Machine (this one always gets me going)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjZTN11fp9U

Or The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I8mWG6HlmU

I want to do Gary Numan - In Cars, but haven't gotten my bandmates convinced yet haha.

We do The B52s - Love Shack, and it goes over really well... we're just guitar/drums/bass instrumentally too, but have male and female vocals.

The Power Station was out in the 80's weren't they? Mid 80's? Some of their tunes could be lots of fun to do also.

[Hobobob]

INXS
The Cars
Talking Heads
My big 3. Performing these will result in me doing things that I will be embarrassed by/regret later on. Good thing too, since I'm close enough to see you play Matticus

[dinogroovie]

Was playing in a band that did a lot of 80s but we were a 3 piece so we kind of did our own basic versions of things. Songs that went over well included (some of which have already been mentioned and some of which I haven't seen yet):
Cars - Gary Nuemann
Whip It - Devo
Rebel Yell - Billy Idol
Don't you Forget About Me - Simple Minds
Don't Change - INXS
Message In a Bottle - Police
I Will Follow - U2
Any Ramones
Shoot You Down - APB
99 Red Balloons - Nena
The Metro - Berlin
Our Lips Are Sealed - Go Gos
(We didn't have a girl singer either)

Some that were a little obscure but we liked to play anyway:
Valerie Loves Me - Material Issue
A Wish Away - The WonderStuff
Bad Luck - Social Distortion
Next to You - Police
Electric Co - U2
Date With A Vampyre - Screaming Tribesman

Some that were on our list that we never got around to:
A Million Miles Away - The Plimsouls
Peace, Love and Understanding - Elvis Costello
Nearly Lost You - Screaming Trees

[dalahorse]

Additional suggestions from my awesome wife:

Gerard McMann - Cry Little Sister
Sisters of Mercy - Dominion / Mother Russia
The The - Jealous of You, Dogs of Lust, Helpline Operator
Talk Talk - Life's What You Make It
The Fixx - Stand Or Fall, anything else they do
OMD - So In Love
Echo And The Bunnymen - The Killing Moon
Bryan Ferry - More Than This
Simple Minds - Alive And Kicking
Psychedelic Furs - Heartbreak Beat
Big Country - In A Big Country

[zachoff]

INXS - Don't Change
REM - Radio Free Europe, The One I Love
Violent Femmes - Add it Up, Blister in the Sun, Gone Daddy Gone, Kiss Off... basically anything off that first ablum.

[tbirdsp]

Originally Posted by Tituscrow

Good stuff...but wasnt 'Turning Japanese' by The Vapours? I remember finding out what that title meant....

Yes - and I saw an interview with the band and they said it WASN'T about that

[Richland123]

Missing Persons - Destination Unknown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RqHBfUTIKY

'Til Tuesday - Voices Carry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP9DbEIm7ns

[4001]

How many 80's cover bands do we need? Theres at least 20 in every city.
OVER-SATURATION.

[videomagician]

Originally Posted by drpepper

Kajagoogoo - Too Shy

Nick Beggs is awesome! Have Ya'll seen what he is doing with Steven Wilson's (Porcupine Tree) solo stuff?