Test Your ’80s Music Knowledge

The original lead singer of English rock band Genesis was another ’80s icon: Peter Gabriel, whose solo hits include “Sledgehammer” and “In Your Eyes.” When Gabriel left Genesis in 1975, the band auditioned more than 400 vocalists before offering the role to drummer Phil Collins, who had provided backup vocals for Gabriel. Collins stayed with the band — even while pursuing his solo career — until 1996, and returned for a farewell tour in 2022.

Prince released his sixth studio album, Purple Rain, in 1984. Along with its titular track, the record spawned the timeless hits “Let’s Go Crazy,” “I Would Die 4 U” and “When Doves Cry.” It also was the soundtrack to a movie of the same name starring Prince as a young Minneapolis musician.

Born in 1962 as John Bongiovi, Jon Bon Jovi grew up in Sayreville, New Jersey, and lived there with his parents while recording his first three albums — including Slippery When Wet, which featured the hits “You Give Love a Bad Name,” “Livin’ on a Prayer” and “Wanted Dead or Alive.”

The late artist’s debut album, Whitney Houston, contained three smash hits: the signature songs “How Will I Know” and “Greatest Love of All,” and Houston’s first single, “Saving All My Love for You.” The latter — originally recorded in 1978 by Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. — won her a Grammy for best pop vocal performance by a female artist. It was Houston’s first Grammy win but not her last: She took home five more Grammys before her death in 2012.

Full Moon Fever, Petty’s first solo album without his band, the Heartbreakers, features the hits “Free Fallin’,” “I Won’t Back Down,” “Runnin’ Down a Dream” and “Yer So Bad.” After his record label rejected it, Petty refused to budge, and instead of scrapping the album, he waited for a regime change. “I came back and I played them the same record, and they were overjoyed. It turned out to be a huge hit,” he told Esquire magazine in 2006.