So you’ve been trudging through your runs this month in the swampy humidity – we feel you. That’s why this month’s running playlist isn’t as much triumphant conquering feel-the-burn feet-mover tracks as just steady-wins-the-race, the race being that you succeed in slogging through your 2 or 5 or 8 steamy miles without dying.
Let it be said that while there are endless amounts of 80s synth-pop, new-wave and one-hit wonders out there to pacify us nostalgic Gen-Xers through retirement, there’s a mighty slim subset of those that hit the sweet-spot of 77-85/155-175 BPM. For example, there’s not a single non-B-side Duran Duran that hits the BPM range and what kind of a monster world is it where an 80s playlist DOESN’T HAVE DURAN DURAN. But our hearts must, and did, go on and we’ve dug deep to bring you an all 80s running playlist to help you keep the faith through the rest of summer’s dog days.
The real winner in this month’s playlist, besides YOU, is Kenny Loggins. Who can say why so many of Mr. Loggins’ 80s tracks landed so squarely in the running zone. And by running zone we mean DANGER ZONE.
You get Peter Schilling’s original German version of Major Tom – “Major Tom (völlig losgelöst)” because Spotify doesn’t have the English release version, because probably communism. So live a little and absorb some non-rhyming German while singing the English lyrics as you plod along.
And don’t come yelling at us that “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and “Private Idaho” are 70s tracks because those puppies slid in right at the crack of 1980.
You get two, count ’em TWO, Heart tracks from the 80s in part because awesome but also because we got to see them a couple weeks ago at a tiny little casino in Nowheresville, MN. And listen, if Ann Wilson (65 years old) and Nancy Wilson (61 years old) can still tear it up, then suck it up princess you can certainly bludgeon your way through mile #5 even in 90 degrees at max humidity.
Since we’re talking about Heart, let’s just talk about how this Wilson sisters’ cover of Stairway To Heaven at the Kennedy Center is the best thing since toast.1
May your runs this month be mostly through neighborhoods where summer’s sweltering fly-swarmed trashcans are stashed discreetly in alleys (thanks Minneapolis!) and not curb-side (ugh – Golden Valley!), and may this 80s running playlist keep you putting one steamy foot in front of the other.
Which may or may not include just a wee bit overmuch zooming in on Robert Plant for real-time emotional impact monitoring throughout but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯; and also we see you digging it, Bamz and Michelle! ↩