Ultimate 80s Workout Song: The Illin’ Eight

Ladies and gentlemen, get your legwarmers ready, because I’m about to present to you …

The Ultimate 80s Workout Song playoff Illin’ Eight!

Let’s take a closer look at the remaining contenders, shall we? If you have a few minutes, I highly recommend clicking through to watch the videos. For research purposes, I mean. Because I know you’re a diligent individual and committed to choosing the very best songs, of course.

Footloose: This Kenny Loggins hit from the movie of the same name spent three weeks at No. 1 and even won the Grammy for Song of the Year in 1985. It took toe-tapping to a whole new level.

Beat It: Michael Jackson is hard to, well, beat, and when you add in a guitar solo from Eddie Van Halen and a music video that basically made MTV mandatory (and introduced many of us to the world of dance-offs), it’s no wonder Beat It took the Grammy for Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Male Rock Vocal Performance.

I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me): This 80s gem from the incomparable Whitney Houston won a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and topped the charts in 13 countries.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun: If you were a girl in the 80s, I’ll bet you my Cabbage Patch Kid (Corinne Fanny, yo) that you danced a time or two to this Cyndi Lauper classic. It only reached No. 2 on the charts, but it’s since been covered on albums and live by more than 30 major artists.

Flashdance … What a Feeling: Another song from a movie soundtrack, Flashdance was Irene Cara’s only No. 1 song, but was it ever a hit! It also ranked as the number three single of the year in 1983 on the Billboard year-end chart.

Eye of the Tiger: Survivor probably didn’t expect this kind of success when Sylvester Stallone requested they write Eye of the Tiger for Rocky III (after Queen rejected his request for permission for Another One Bites the Dust). It topped charts worldwide in 1982 and held the top spot in the U.S. for six consecutive weeks, earning the No. 2 single of 1982 honor. It came in behind Olivia Newton-John’s Physical … which was knocked out of our playoff by — you guessed it — Eye of the Tiger.

Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go: This was Wham!’s first UK and American No. 1 hit back in 1984, and it might be fair to say that this video was how many an 80s girl’s misdirected fantasies about George Michael began. That feathered hair! The fingerless gloves!

Livin’ on a Prayer: You knew there had to be some Bon Jovi on here, right? This is considered by many to be the band’s signature song, and it wasn’t only a four-week chart topper back in 1986 — it was also named No. 1 on VH1’s list of The 100 Greatest Songs of the 80s and No. 1 on the “Sing-a-long Classics List.”

Just click to see this a little bigger!

Did you notice what’s now missing? Straight Up was beaten out by Flashdance, and Livin’ on a Prayer took Jessie’s Girl! Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go — a 4 seed! — rolled over Pour Some Sugar on Me. I did not see some of these coming, I must admit.

Be sure to vote soon and tell your friends — it seriously take about a minute. And next week, we’ll be back with the winners for your Fresh Four!

How much time did you just spend jamming out to those videos? I think it’s best if I don’t give an actual number of minutes here. —Kristen