{"id":839763,"date":"2026-09-07T18:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T18:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/839763\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T18:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T18:50:11","slug":"3-rock-songs-from-1981-you-heard-while-shopping-at-the-mall-with-your-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/839763\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Rock Songs From 1981 You Heard While Shopping at the Mall With Your Friends"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Back in 1981, mall rat culture was in its early stirrings. And if you were young that very year, especially if you were a teenager, I bet you spent a lot of time at the mall with your friends. The following three rock songs might have even graced your ears from mall speakers back in 1981. Maybe these three hit tunes will bring back some happy memories, too.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho\u2019s Crying Now\u201d by Journey from \u2018Escape\u2019<\/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\/09\/1788807010_375_hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"Play\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/americansongwriter.com\/tag\/journey\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Journey<\/a> tends to make it to these types of lists often, and that\u2019s just because their music is so mall-friendly. It\u2019s no surprise that \u201cWho\u2019s Crying Now\u201d makes it to our list of mall songs from 1981, considering it\u2019s one of many 80s hits from the band. This soft rock jam was a hit with listeners at the time and peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, among other US charts. It would be the band\u2019s biggest song until the incomparable \u201cDon\u2019t Stop Believin\u2019\u201d dropped a few months later toward the end of 1981.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tVideos by American Songwriter\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Best Of Times\u201d by Styx from \u2018Paradise Theatre\u2019<\/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\/09\/1788807010_774_hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"Play\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Styx had a smash hit on their hands with \u201cThe Best Of Times\u201d in 1981. This enduring, rhythm rock classic made it all the way to No. 3 on the Hot 100. And according to songwriter Dennis DeYoung, it was something of a therapeutic anthem for him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201c\u2018The Best Of Times\u2019 came to me, lyrically, because I was trying to understand what it is that allows me to weather the changes in the world and in our country,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/americansongwriter.com\/the-best-of-times-styx-behind-the-song-dennis-deyoung\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">said DeYoung<\/a>. \u201cAnd I decided, \u2018Well, love is a good thing.\u2019 If you have somebody that you trust to have your back and you have theirs, this is fundamentally a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUrgent\u201d by Foreigner from \u20184\u2019<\/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\/09\/1788807011_942_hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"Play\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How about a slightly funkier tune on our list of 1981 rock songs that you definitely jammed out to at the mall back in the day? Foreigner decided to add a touch of pop-rock and funk to this hit single, which was written by Mick Jones. \u201cUrgent\u201d was a No. 4 hit on the Hot 100 and did similarly well in Canada.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Photo by \u00a9 Roger Ressmeyer\/CORBIS\/VCG via Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back in 1981, mall rat culture was in its early stirrings. And if you were young that very&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":839764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[20278,88,216,2156],"class_list":["post-839763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-1980s","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-rock-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839763","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=839763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}