The year 1985 was a great period for music, but not every radio hit survived to live on everyone's modern day playlists or flashback radio specials. For every Dire Straits "Money for Nothing" and ...

Ronald Reagan was president. The Nintendo Entertainment System was released in the U.S., along with the Sony Walkman. The Titanic wreckage was discovered. The ill-fated New Coke made its debut.

Forty years ago, the 1980s reached its middle period. Musicians were settled into evolving studio technology as drum machines, samplers, and synthesizers became ubiquitous. If you think of songs as ...