{"id":1023074,"date":"2026-08-25T12:19:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T12:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1023074\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T12:19:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T12:19:19","slug":"3-classic-rock-songs-from-1989-that-felt-like-the-last-night-of-the-80s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1023074\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Classic Rock Songs From 1989 That Felt Like the Last Night of the 80s"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the year <a href=\"http:\/\/americansongwriter.com\/tag\/1980s\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">1989<\/a>, a ton of great classic rock and glam metal tunes dropped. They all had an unmistakable sound: that high-production, MTV-candy catchiness that defined a lot of music that very year. And when it comes to the following songs, they really did sound like the very end of an era as the 80s gave way to the 90s. If you were around in 1989, I bet you jammed out to at least one of these songs on New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cKickstart My Heart\u201d by M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce from \u2018Dr. Feelgood\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782576437_94_hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"Play\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This song was like a final blast out of the 1980s classic rock canon. \u201cKickstart My Heart\u201d by M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce dropped mere weeks before the 80s came to an end. It\u2019s glamorous, loud, and fast, all of which are rock elements that didn\u2019t totally disappear in the 90s but definitely leaned way more toward grunge over glam.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tVideos by American Songwriter\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cKickstart My Heart\u201d by M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce peaked at No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 18 on the Mainstream Rock chart in the US.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cPoison\u201d by Alice Cooper from \u2018Trash\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787660359_479_hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"Play\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This theatrical tune from Alice Cooper was a go-to for late-night MTV. The broadcasting network\u2019s move toward non-music content didn\u2019t totally disappear in the 90s, but it changed drastically from the music video-first dogma it stuck to from its inception to the end of the 80s. \u201cPoison\u201d, both the song and the music, almost feels like a swan song for the decade.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cPoison\u201d by Alice Cooper was a pretty big hit for the Godfather of Shock Rock back in 1989. It peaked at No. 7 on the Hot 100 and No. 2 on the UK Singles chart.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201c18 And Life\u201d by Skid Row from \u2018Skid Row\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787660359_788_hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"Play\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Few bands sound more like the 80s than glam metal outfit Skid Row. So, naturally, I had to go with the 1989 hit \u201c18 And Life\u201d for this list. This song was a massive hard rock anthem with a touch of darkness to it that hinted at the direction rock music would take in the 1990s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This classic rock pop metal jam from 1989 peaked at No. 4 on the Hot 100 chart and No. 12 on the UK Singles chart.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Photo by Lynn Goldsmith\/Corbis\/VCG via Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the year 1989, a ton of great classic rock and glam metal tunes dropped. They all had&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1023075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[29],"tags":[42586,976,171,409273,975,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1023074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-1980s","tag-classic-rock","tag-entertainment","tag-glam-metal","tag-music","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117156119287991954","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1023074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1023074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1023074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1023075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1023074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1023074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1023074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}