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From the Smiths’ debut album to Prince to the doctors’ first prank: these albums were released in 1984.
1984 was a good year for music – in many ways. The Smiths released their debut album and became one of Britain’s most influential bands. Metallica followed up with album number two, and their Bay Area colleagues Anthrax presented their debut. A lot also happened in Germany: The doctors showed what they could do with their debut “Debil”, Die Toten Hosen had already arrived at the follow-up to their debut “Opel-Gang”… and that wasn’t all, as a look at the musical year 1984 shows.
1
Bruce Springsteen – “Born In The USA”
Stadium rock in its purest form – with a title song that is actually a protest piece, but was often misunderstood as hurray patriotism. Also included are classics like “Bobby Jean,” “I’m On Fire,” “No Surrender” and “Dancing In The Dark.” Every piece here is a classic.
2
Metallica – “Ride The Lightning”
Metallica’s second studio album is one of the most important metal albums of all time and defined not only thrash metal, but metal in general. Every song here is a hit: from the opener “Fight Fire With Fire” to “For Whom The Bell Tolls” to the ballad “Fade To Black” and the instrumental “The Call Of Ktulu”.
3
Herbert Grönemeyer – “4630 Bochum”
Ruhrpott rock at its peak: “Bochum”, “Men”, “Planes in the Belly” and “Alcohol”: Herbert Grönemeyer from “4630 Bochum” is said to have sold 2.75 million albums – making “Bochum” one of the most successful German albums Albums of all time.
Van Halen’s sixth studio album only had to admit defeat in the Billboard charts to an album on which the guitar hero himself was also featured: Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”, which was released two years earlier. On “1984,” guitar god Eddie Van Halen also plays keyboards extensively – including on the mega hit “Jump.”
5 Prince – “Purple Rain”
Prince’s sixth studio album was also the soundtrack to the film of the same name – and the title song was probably the musical genius’s best-known piece. With “Purple Rain,” Prince became an international superstar and delivered the best-selling album of his career.
6
Run DMC – “Run DMC”
With their self-titled debut album, Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels and Jason Mizell created a milestone in hip-hop in 1984. What’s more: With the song “Rock Box” they mixed rap with rock guitars for the first time – and created a crossover breeding ground that they would later work on together with Aerosmith. But the most important track on the album is “It’s Like That” – the trio’s debut single and one of the trio’s best-known tracks ever.
7
Die Toten Hosen “Under the False Flag”
A year after their debut album “Opel Gang”, Campino, Andi, Breiti, Kuddel and Trini Trimpop followed up. Produced by Jon Caffery, it was their first release on Virgin Records. On the cover they play Rhine Pirates – they had to change the first cover due to an intervention by their ex-label EMI (the trousers had caused a supposed swipe with a dog skeleton sitting in front of a gramophone, which their ex-label didn’t like ). The highlight of the record: “Liebesplayer”, one of the DTH classics ever.
8th
Iron Maiden – “Powerslave”
On their fifth studio album, British heavy metal icons Iron Maiden feature their mascot Eddie as a pharaoh. This is due to the content of the title track, which lyrically deals with ancient Egypt. What else happens: Classics like the opener “Aces High” and the almost 14-minute long instrumental piece “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” written by Steve Harris.
9
Madonna – “Like A Virgin”
With “Like A Virgin,” Madonna’s second album, the Material Girl became a superstar and global phenomenon. Madonna brought Nile Rodgers on board as producer, who was considered the hotshot of the moment at the time thanks to his work with Bowie, Jackson and Duran Duran.
10
The doctors – “moronic”
While the colleagues from Düsseldorf had already reached album number two, Die Ärzte – then consisting of Bela B., Farin Urlaub and Sahnie – released their debut album “Debil” in 1984. The album is divided into the “boys’ side” with songs like “Scheisstyp”, the lifeguard ode “Paul”, “El Cattivo” and the then scandalous “Claudia has a German Shepherd” as well as the “girls’ side” with songs like “Girls” , “Red Mini Skirt” and of course the classic “Too Late”.