10 Biggest Rock Songs From Every Year Of The 1980s
5. 1985: I Want To Know What Love Is - Foreigner
The midpoint of the 1980s delivered some absolutely cracking rock albums, as Dire Straits, The Smiths, Heart, and more put out career-defining records. However, when it comes to gigantic singles, you need to look at an album that was actually released in December the previous year.
Foreigner’s fifth album, Agent Provocateur, didn’t sell that well, but that proved to be totally irrelevant thanks to its lead single. I Want To Know What Love Is, the softest of soft rock ballads, was exactly what people wanted in 1985, and it spent two weeks atop America’s charts as a result.
It would end the year as the fourth-best seller of any single in the States, finishing 11th place overall in the UK and third in Canada. It sold millions of copies wherever it was in shops and enjoyed regular radio play throughout the year.
This would be the peak of Foreigner’s powers, their only number one in either the US or the UK, but it remains incredibly popular, cropping up in films, TV shows, and adverts to this very day.
It was in the 2012 film version of Rock of Ages, but don’t hold that against it.