Back to the Eighties! Old School Treadmill Workout Songs

Remember when gyms were seas of scrunchies, leotards and leg warmers? We’ll skip the 80s fashion & keep the music.

Here are great treadmill workout songs from the 1980’s. We’ve included 11 YouTube videos and lots of lyrics.
Some 1980s performers featured here include Madonna, James Brown and Billy Idol. Who’s not here despite his idal workout music: “the artist formerly known as Prince.” Did you know? He won’t let his songs air on YouTube…

1980’s Workout Songs

Warm up:
1. Borderline – Madonna (1983) 3:59
Remember when Madonna first hit radio and MTV? She was controversial from the start, but her early days look tame in comparison to her later work. Borderline is the fifth single released from Madonna’s self-titled debut album. Here we go back to when it all began:

Lyrics from Borderline
If you want me, let me know
Baby, let it show
Honey, don’t you fool around
Just try to understand, I’ve given all I can,
‘Cause you got the best of me
Borderline, feels like I’m going to lose my mind
You just keep on pushing my love over the borderline…

Keep moving:

2. Sledgehammer – Peter Gabriel (1986) 5:01
Sledgehammer is Peter Gabriel’s #1 hit in the US. The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the summer of 1986.
Fact: The Sledgehammer video won nine MTV awards in 1987. As of 2012 it’s the station’s most-played video ever. It stands out partly for its stop-motion and plasticine animation.

Lyrics from Sledgehammer
You could have a steam train
If you’d just lay down your tracks
You could have an aeroplane flying
If you bring your blue sky back
All you do is call me
I’ll be anything you need
You could have a big dipper
Going up and down, all around the bends
You could have a bumper car, bumping

This amusement never ends…

3. Rock Me Amadeus – Falco (1985) 4:09
Rock Me Amadeus is the 1985 international hit by Falco, an Austrian pop musician. The song made Falco the first native German speaker to have a #1 song on all mainstream US pop singles charts. Rock Me Amadeus was originally recorded entirely in German, but this version has an English overlay:

Lyrics from Rock Me Amadeus (US radio version)
1756, Salzburg, January 27, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is born
1761, at the age of five Amadeus begins composing
1773, he writes his first piano concerto
1782, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart marries Constance Weber
1784, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart becomes a Freemason
1791, Mozart composes The Magic Flute
On December 5th of that same year, Mozart dies
1985, Austrian rock singer Falco records
Rock Me Amadeus!

4. Living In America – James Brown (1985)
With Living in America, James Brown returned to the charts after a long hiatus. This patriotic song was featured in Rocky IV and is the only James Brown song to reach the top ten in the UK. Weird Al has parodied the song with Living with a Hernia… but Brown’s lyrics are poetic and make you feel pretty good about living in America.

Lyrics for Living in America
Super highways, coast to coast,
easy to get anywhere
On the transcontinental overload,
just slide behind the wheel
How does it feel
When there’s no destination – that’s too far
And somewhere on the way,
you might find out who you are?
Living in America – Eye to eye, station to station
Living in America – Hand to hand, across the nation
Living in America – Got to have a celebration…

5. Walk Like an Egyptian – The Bangles (1986) 3:22
This peppy song with imaginative lyrics became a #1 hit in 1986. It had staying power, but after the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, Clear Channel banned Walk Like an Egyptian from their airwaves.
Is walking like an Egyptian somehow threatening to America? We don’t care how you walk on your treadmill, as long as you do it safely.

Lyrics from Walk Like an Egyptian
All the old paintings on the tomb
They do the sand dance, don’tcha know?
If they move too quick (Oh-Way-Oh)
They’re falling down like a domino
And the bazaar man by the Nile
He got the money on a bet
Gold crocodiles (Oh-Way-Oh)
They snap their teeth on a cigarette
Foreign types with their hookah pipes say
“Way-oh-way-oh-way-ooo-aaa-ooo…
Walk like an Egyptian.”

6. Mony Mony – Billy Idol (1981) 5:04
In 1968 Mony Mony was a #1 single in the UK for Tommy James & the Shondells. Billy Idol covered the song in 1981.
Did you know? “MONY” comes from the sign atop the Mutual of New York Building in Manhattan.

Mony Mony Lyrics
Here she comes now sayin’ mony, mony
Shoot ’em down, turn around, come on, mony
Hey, she give me love and I feel all right now
Come on you gotta toss and turn
And feel all right, yeah, I feel alright!

7. I Hate Myself for Loving You – Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (1988) 4:00
Joan Jett rocks! Here she’s performing her 1988 hit at a 1998 concert and sounding as good as ever. Now the song is covered by Faith Hill for the opening to NBC Sunday Night Football.

Lyrics from I Hate Myself for Loving You
Hey Jack, it’s a fact they’re talkin’ in town
I turn my back and you’re messin’ around
I’m not really jealous, don’t like lookin’ like a clown
I think of you ev’ry night and day
You took my heart, then you took my pride away
I hate myself for loving you
Can’t break free from the the things that you do
I wanna walk but I run back to you
That’s why I hate myself for loving you

8. My Prerogative – Bobby Brown (1988) 4:55
Bobby Brown taught kids worldwide a new word with My Prerogative in 1988. He wrote the song in response to criticism he received about his departure from the band New Edition. With just about every listener identifying with the song, it reached #1 in early 1989.

Opening Lyrics to My Prerogative
Everybody’s talking all this stuff about me now
Why don’t they just let me live?
I don’t need permission to
Make my own decisions
That’s my prerogative…

9. Straight Up – Paula Abdul (1988)
Paula Abdul’s dance track Straight Up soared to the top of charts in 1988, even before a video was filmed.Below you’ll get the official Paula Abdul video after a quick ad. The video has a cameo from Paula’s friend Arsenio Hall.

Lyrics for Straight Up
Lost in a dream
Don’t know which way to go
If you are all that you seem
Then baby, I’m moving way too slow
I’ve been a fool before
Wouldn’t like to get my love caught
In the slammin’ door
How about some information, please?

Cool down:

10. Here I Go Again – White Snake (1982) 4:33
Check out that HAIR! Welcome back to 1982. In the video for Here I Go Again, David Coverdale snuggles up with actress Tawny Kitaen. In real life the two become married. This song works for cooling down with a few extra burst of energy thrown in.

Opening Lyrics to Here I Go Again
I don’t know where I’m going, but I sure know where I’ve been
Hanging on the promises in the songs of yesterday
And I’ve made up my mind
I ain’t wasting no more time
Here I go again, here I go again…

11. What I Am – Edie Brickell and The New Bohemians
Round out your workout with an inspirational tune from Edie Brickell. What I Am, a song from her band’s debut album, is widely credited with launching her successful career as a singer-songwriter. Listen, cool down and recharge.

Opening Lyrics to What I Am
I’m not aware of too many things
I know what I know, if you know what I mean
Philosophy is the talk on a cereal box
Religion is the smile on a dog
I’m not aware of too many things
I know what I know, if you know what I mean…

What’s missing from our eighties song list? Please add your treadmill workout song suggestions!