{"id":790197,"date":"2026-07-28T23:02:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T23:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/790197\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T23:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T23:02:15","slug":"4-songs-every-80s-kid-heard-while-riding-in-the-family-car-to-school-each-morning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/790197\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Songs Every 80s Kid Heard While Riding in the Family Car to School Each Morning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019re an <a href=\"https:\/\/americansongwriter.com\/tag\/1980s\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">80s kid<\/a>, you might remember some of the songs you listened to on the radio on the way to school each weekday morning. For a lot of people, that\u2019s how their music tastes formed: by being a kid stuck in the car on the way to school, exposed to whatever Top 40 jams were currently on the radio. Luckily, the 80s were a killer time for music, as evidenced by the following four top-notch nostalgic 80s tunes. Let\u2019s dive in, shall we?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfrica\u201d by Toto from \u2018Toto IV\u2019 (1982)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785279733_718_hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"Play\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Even if you weren\u2019t alive in the 80s, I bet you\u2019ve drunkenly sung this song at karaoke at least once. \u201cAfrica\u201d by Toto is easily the group\u2019s most enduring synth-pop jam, and it\u2019s one that was all over the radio back in 1982. This hit song, written by David Paich and Jeff Porcaro, peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tVideos by American Songwriter\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI Want To Break Free\u201d by Queen from \u2018The Works\u2019 (1984)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785279734_453_hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"Play\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Queen had a ton of hits in the 1980s. But there\u2019s something about \u201cI Want To Break Free\u201d from 1984 that sticks out among radio hits from that era. This John Deacon-penned synth-pop smash was an impossible-to-ignore tune on the radio. And today, it remains popular on classic rock radio. \u201cI Want To Break Free\u201d peaked at No. 3 on the UK Singles chart, but didn\u2019t quite reach the Top 40 in the US.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)\u201d by Whitney Houston from \u2018Whitney\u2019 (1987)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785279734_230_hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"Play\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Whitney Houston\u2019s electrifying voice on \u201cI Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)\u201d proved that she could take on dance hits as well as soft ballads. This song is still so much fun after all these years. Naturally, many 80s kids jammed out to it on the way to school. \u201cI Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)\u201d peaked at No. 1 across the board. It topped charts in the US, UK, Canada, and just about everywhere else.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTake On Me\u201d by a-ha (1984)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783988052_177_hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"Play\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Whether you heard this song in the car on the way to school or while your face was glued to MTV back in the day, if you\u2019re an 80s kid, this is probably one of the most memorable songs on this list. \u201cTake On Me\u201d by a-ha took synth-pop to a whole new level in 1984. And it was a smash hit across the globe. \u201cTake On Me\u201d peaked at No. 1 in the US.<\/p>\n<p>(Photo by Dave Hogan\/Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re an 80s kid, you might remember some of the songs you listened to on the radio&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":790198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[20278,88,216,17172,187741],"class_list":["post-790197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-1980s","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-pop-music","tag-synth-pop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}