1983 in music

See also: 1982 in music, other events of 1983, 1984 in music and the list of 'years in music'.

Table of contents

1 Events 2 Albums released 3 Top hits on record 4 Published popular music 5 Musical theater 6 Musical films 7 Musical television 8 Births 9 Deaths 10 Awards 10.1 Grammy Awards 10.2 Country Music Association Awards 10.3 Eurovision Song Contest

Events

Some releases from 1983 deserve special mention:

• The Police's Synchronicity was their final release together before breaking up, and was enormously popular, including one of their more popular songs, "Every Breath You Take"
• Culture Club's Kissing to Be Clever was their popular breakthrough, and included one of their most well-known songs, the hit single "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"
• Eurythmics' Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) was also their breakthrough success, and included their signature tune, the title track
• Mötley Crüe's Shout at the Devil was their breakthrough, and included "Looks That Kill", though they would go on to greater popular and critical success in the later part of the decade after recovering from the shock of member Vince Neil's near-fatal car accident
• Tom Waits' Swordfishtrombones was his first album for Island Records, and the first in a series of three thematically and stylistically linked albums that established him as a critical darling and cult favorite
• New Order's Power, Corruption & Lies included the best-selling 12" record of all time, "Blue Monday"; the album was the second since forming from the ashes of Joy Division (after the suicide of Ian Curtis) and the first to achieve critical or popular success, as it was a stylistically innovative mix of synth vocals and dance-heavy beats
• Duran Duran scored hits from three separate albums in this year.
• Merle Haggard began a run of chart success in this year, which continued for about two years. His duet album with Willie Nelson, Pancho & Lefty, was an enormous critical and popular success and did much to revitalize the careers of both entertainers, especially the hit title track
• Stevie Ray Vaughan's Texas Flood was more popular than any blues album since the late 1960s, and did much to establish country-blues as a commercially viable genre
• George Strait's Right or Wrong sold extremely well, and is a pivotal album in the development of the honky tonk revival during the rest of the decade.

The most long-term influential release of 1983 is probably Head over Heels by the Cocteau Twins, which sold poorly upon its initial release. In the ensuing years, the album's eclectic assortment of alternative rock, New Wave and synth pop influences became a cornerstone of later alternative rock groups, most especially in the United Kingdom, where the Cocteau Twins' mix of airy textures and breathless vocals (dream pop) mutated into genres like twee pop, space rock and shoegazing, and eventually hit mainstream success with a psychedelic-influenced form, Britpop.

Another album that eventually became enormously influential is Kill 'Em All by Metallica. This, their debut, is often considered the first purely thrash metal album, and helped lead the way for the diversification of heavy metal genres in the later part of the decade. Kill 'Em All 's popular success was quite limited, though it received rave reviews from metal critics and fans for its then-unique blend of earlier heavy metal pioneers, especially the New Wave of British heavy metal like Judas Priest, and hardcore punk, such as The Ramones.

Quiet Riot's Metal Health was enormously popular in 1983, and was the first heavy metal album to go to #1 on the pop charts. The lead single, "Cum on Feel the Noize" (cover of Slade) was also a huge hit, and set the stage for the mainstream crossover of later hair metal bands like Guns 'n Roses and Def Leppard. Metal Health is also the only album in Quiet Riot's catalogue to achieve much success critically or popularly.

• February 11 - The Rolling Stones concert film Let's Spend the Night Together opens in New York
• August 12 - Mötley Crüe member Vince Neil is involved in a serious car accident. He was drunk at the time, and Nicholas Dingley of Hanoi Rocks was killed in the accident.
• Diana Ross performs in Central Park in the pouring rain
• The Police breakup
• Highest point of the 1981-1985 Menuditis and Menudomania all over Latin America.
• Run DMC releases their debut single, "It's Like That"/"Sucker M.C.'s"
• The Dust Brothers form
• The Misfits break up; Glenn Danzig forms Samhain
• A-Ha forms in Norway
• Death forms
• Dinosaur Jr forms
• Megadeth form
• Phish forms
• Red Hot Chili Peppers form
• Youth Choir forms (later called The Choir)
• Budgie breaks up

Albums released

• High Land, Hard Rain - Aztec Camera
• Into the Unknown - Bad Religion
• Johnny 99 - Johnny Cash
• Hello, I Must Be Going - Phil Collins
• Kissing to Be Clever - Culture Club
• Head over Heels - Cocteau Twins
• Punch the Clock - Elvis Costello & the Attractions
• Yes Sir, I Will - Crass
• Canterbury - Diamond Head
• Holy Diver - Dio
• Seven and the Ragged Tiger - Duran Duran
• Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) - Eurythmics
• What Funk - Grand Funk Railroad
• Three Lock Box - Sammy Hagar
• Heart to Heart - Merle Haggard
• Pancho & Lefty - Merle Haggard & Willie Nelson
• That's the Way Love Goes - Merle Haggard
• Back to the Mystery City - Hanoi Rocks
• The Luxury Gap - Heaven 17
• Riding with the King - John Hiatt
• Metal Circus - Husker Du
• Piece of Mind - Iron Maiden
• Waylon & Company - Waylon Jennings
• Take It to the Limit - Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson
• Too Low for Zero - Elton John
• Shine On - George Jones
• Frontiers - Journey
• Lick It Up - KISS
• Into Glory Ride - Manowar
• Confrontation - Bob Marley and the Wailers
• Behind the Scene - Reba McEntire
• A Volar - Menudo
• Kill 'Em All - Metallica (debut)
• Shout at the Devil - Mötley Crüe
• Another Perfect Day - Motörhead
• Sound Elixir - Nazareth
• Take it to the River - Willie Nelson
• Tougher than Leather - Willie Nelson
• Without a Song - Willie Nelson
• Power, Corruption & Lies - New Order
• Trouble in Paradise - Randy Newman
• Urban Dance Floor Guerillas - P-Funk All Stars
• The Final Cut - Pink Floyd
• Everywhere at Once - The Plimsouls
• Break Out - The Pointer Sisters
• Look But You Can't Touch - Poison (debut)
• Synchronicity - The Police
• Metal Health - Quiet Riot
• Subterranean Jungle - The Ramones
• All for One - Raven
• Neruda - Red Rider
• Murmur - R.E.M (full length debut)
• Can't Slow Down - Lionel Richie
• Hearts and Bones - Paul Simon
• Show No Mercy - Slayer
• Mommy's Little Monster - Social Distortion
• Confusion Is Sex - Sonic Youth (debut)
• Right or Wrong - George Strait
• Suicidal Tendencies - Suicidal Tendencies
• Life - Thin Lizzy
• Thunder and Lightning - Thin Lizzy
• Hand of Kindness - Richard Thompson
• Speaking in Tongues - Talking Heads
• Never Surrender - Triumph
• You Can't Stop Rock & Roll - Twisted Sister (major label debut)
• Lost in the Feeling - Conway Twitty
• Merry Twistmas - Conway Twitty
• War - U2
• Peace Thru Vandalism - The Vandals
• Texas Flood - Stevie Ray Vaughan
• At War with Satan - Venom
• Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes (debut)
• Swordfishtrombones - Tom Waits
• Animal (F**k like a Beast) - W.A.S.P (debut)
• Even the Strong Get Lonely - Tammy Wynette
• Good Love & Heartbreak - Tammy Wynette
• Mean Streak - Y&T
• Zebra - Zebra

Top hits on record

• "Add It Up" - Violent Femmes
• "All Night Long (All Night)" - Lionel Richie
• "Another State Of Mind" - Social Distortion
• "Baby, Come to Me" - Patti Austin with James Ingram
• "Beat It" - Michael Jackson
• "Billie Jean" - Michael Jackson
• "Blister In The Sun" - Violent Femmes
• "Bloodstone" - Judas Priest
• "Don't Let Him Steal Your Heart Away" - Phil Collins
• "Down Under" - Men at Work
• "Every Breath You Take" - The Police
• "Flashdance... What a Feeling" - Irene Cara
• "Hungry Like The Wolf" - Duran Duran
• "I Cannot Believe It's True" - Phil Collins
• "I Don't Care Anymore" - Phil Collins
• "Is There Something I Should Know" - Duran Duran
• "It Don't Matter To Me" - Phil Collins
• "Jump (For My Love)" Pointer Sisters
• "Let's Dance" - David Bowie
• "1999" - Prince
• "Rio" - Duran Duran
• "Save A Prayer" - Duran Duran
• "Say, Say, Say" - Michael Jackson & Paul McCartney
• "Screaming for Vengeance" - Judas Priest
• "Sweet Dreams Are Made of This" - Eurythmics
• "Total Eclipse of the Heart" - Bonnie Tyler
• "Union Of The Snake" - Duran Duran
• "Uptown Girl" - Billy Joel
• "A Volar"- Menudo
• "Why Can't It Wait 'Til Morning?" - Phil Collins
• "You Can't Hurry Love" - Phil Collins

Published popular music

• "Karma Chameleon" w.m. George O'Dowd, John Moss, Roy Hay, Mickey Craig & Phil Rickett

Musical theater

• Baby     Broadway production
• La Cage aux Folles     Broadway production
• Doonesbury     Broadway production
• Mame     Broadway revival
• Merlin     Broadway production
• Oliver     London revival
• On Your Toes     Broadway revival
• My One and Only     Broadway production
• Singin' In The Rain     London production
• The Tap Dance Kid     Broadway production
• Zorba     Broadway revival

Musical films

• The Pirates of Penzance
• Staying Alive

Musical television

• Salad Days

Births

• March 14 - Jordan Taylor Hanson, Hanson
• May 2 - Rose Falcon
• July 2 - Michelle Branch, Justincase

Deaths

• February 4 - Karen Carpenter, singer, dies of anorexia nervosa
• February 12 - Eubie Blake (100), pianist
• April 4 - Danny Rapp, Danny and the Juniors, gunshot wound
• April 14 - Pete Farndon, the Pretenders, drug overdose
• April 30 - Muddy Waters (68), heart attack
• May 5 - Clarence Quick (46), the Del Vikings, heart attack
• November 7 - Germaine Tailleferre

Awards

Grammy Awards

• Grammy Awards of 1983

Country Music Association Awards

Eurovision Song Contest

• Eurovision Song Contest 1983