Guitar Hero 80s final track-list

By Tom Bramwell Published 29 June, 2007

Judas Priest and friends go gold.

Development on Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s is finished and should be out here in the summer. It's out in the US on 24th July, so our wait shouldn't be massive.

To keep everyone happy, Activision has put together the final bits of the track listing, confirming previous reports that Anthrax is in there, and adding Dead Kennedys, The Go Go's and Judas Priest.

Tremendous. You can catch up on more things 80s on our Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80s gamepage. Or you could just cast your eyes down the list below and then complain that there's no Jason Donovan.

  • Caught in a Mosh (as made famous by Anthrax)
  • Balls to the Wall (as made famous by Accept)
  • Electric Eye (by Judas Priest)
  • Los Angeles (as made famous by X)
  • Police Truck (as made famous by Dead Kennedys)
  • We Got the Beat (as made famous by The Go Go's)
  • (I Think I'm) Turning Japanese (as made famous by Vapors)
  • Seventeen (as made famous by Winger)
  • Because, it's Midnite (by Limozeen)
  • Hold On Loosely (as made famous by .38 Special)
  • No One Like You (as made famous by Scorpions)
  • Only a Lad (as made famous by Oingo Boingo)
  • Ballroom Blitz (as made famous by Krokus)
  • The Warrior (by Scandal)
  • What I Like About You (as made famous by The Romantics)
  • Wrath Child (as made famous by Iron Maiden)
  • I Wanna Rock (by Twisted Sister)
  • I Ran (by Flock of Seagulls)
  • Round and Round (as made famous by Ratt)
  • Metal Health (as made famous by Quiet Riot)
  • Holy Diver (as made famous by Dio)
  • Heat Of The Moment (as made famous by Asia)
  • Radar Love (as made famous by White Lion)
  • 18 and Life (as made famous by Skid Row)
  • Bathroom Wall (as made famous by Faster Pussycat)
  • Lonely is the Night (as made famous by Billy Squier)
  • Nothing But a Good Time (as made famous by Poison)
  • Play With Me (as made famous by Extreme)
  • Shaken (as made famous by Eddie Money)
  • Synchronicity II (as made famous by The Police)
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About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (42) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • TipTop #1 5 years ago

    No Guns n Roses, Bon Jovi, Billy Idol, Big Country, Pink Floyd ... which 80s is this they talk about?

  • afray #2 5 years ago

    Limozeen! lol!

  • tonynibbles #3 5 years ago

    I think I'm turning Japanese! Ballroom blitz!

  • Kami #4 5 years ago

    Looking at that list you'd think there weren't any good 80's guitar anthems... INXS, Van Halen, Queen? And whilst not technically electric guitar, George Michael's Faith is worthy of note too.

    I'm just surprised with all the success of this franchise the line-up seems so... well, average...

    edit; also just read that Alice Cooper's "Poison" was 1988 and therefore comes under 80's. That guitar intro is brilliant.
    Edited by 1 at 29/06/07 @ 10:19

  • AcidSnake #5 5 years ago

    Wasn't radar love made famous by Golden Earring?

  • Willum #6 5 years ago

    Limo ZEEEN! Stong Bad stikes again!

    Nice line up, worth it for Maiden and Priest.

  • spadge #7 5 years ago

    Bollocks, no DC.

  • Kami #8 5 years ago

    No Manic, I'm not Satan but it is one of the first guitar tunes I think of about the 80's because that's all it was. Simple as that. Nothing special about it really other than that.

    As for not getting the big names, well why the heck not? You'd think with the money this franchise pulls in they'd have a line-up to make any 80's Air Guitar fan climax over and over again. To me, the line-up just feels... well. It's got some names there but it still feels like a wasted oppertunity...

    edit; And you call me Satan for mentioning George Michael and his guitar solo... name me one £&?$ing Jason Donovan guitar anthem?
    Edited by 2 at 29/06/07 @ 10:28

  • RMXtreme #9 5 years ago

    Wasn't radar love made famous by Golden Earring?

    Yep, the White Lion one is a cover.

  • Brogan #10 5 years ago

    looks like i'm waiting for GHIII to expand my rockage then

  • keyboardmonkey #11 5 years ago

    TipTop & Kami are right.

    I must be either too old or too young, i can only recall about 5 of these songs. How many of these made it into the Top 10 in the U.K. ?

    Not even Crazy Nights! by Kiss
    Final Countdown by Europe etc...

  • brooza #12 5 years ago

    Ballroom Blitz (as made famous by Krokus)

    I don't think so

  • Ceatlan #13 5 years ago

    I recognise like 1 or 2 of those, and the 80s were my teenage years so I would have expected it to have had nearly all tracks that I recognised from my youth. Sad really.

    Well at least now I won't have to worry if they do or don't appear as downloadable content for the 360 version, I don't want any of them anyway.
    Edited by 2 at 29/06/07 @ 10:43

  • silver-jon #14 5 years ago

    Hmm. What, no Satriani ? No Vai ? No Aerosmith ? No Van Halen ?

    I'll still absolutely love it.

    I'm surprised they haven't put together song-packs for the 360 version that feature individual artists. I'd love to have three or four Satriani or Prince tracks to practice and perfect.

    I also wonder how many albums the GH artists have sold on the back of getting a new audience ? For example I've bought Lynrd Skynrd, Chemical Romance and Rush just because I enjoy playing them on GH2. Must be a money spinner for the named artists.

  • Kami #15 5 years ago

    I'd wager it is Silver Jon.

    I know they'd rather save big names for the inevitable GH3, but this is Guitar Hero 80's. I think a lot of 80's guitar fans are going to feel somewhat cheated that they're not getting bigger names from the era who, quite frankly, deserve to be on there.

    It's not rocket surgery. You releasing a game of 80's guitar anthems? How about some ACTUAL guitar anthems/icons from the era then?
    Edited by 1 at 29/06/07 @ 10:58

  • DanWhitehead #16 5 years ago

    Ballroom Blitz (as made famous by Krokus)

    I don't think so

    This is the same series that tried to tell us that You Really Got Me was "made famous" by Van Halen, so nothing surprises me.

  • mechamonkey #17 5 years ago

    Police Truck (as made famous by Dead Kennedys) - Ace

    The rest - meh

    I'd love to have seen some Smiths, Stone Roses, Jesus and Mary Chain, Dammned, The Cult or anything a bit more well English, a bit more indie and a lot less cock-rock filled.

    I mean it is Guitar hero not ROCK guitar hero.
    Edited by 1 at 29/06/07 @ 11:43

  • Lovemoose #18 5 years ago

    They need some more international people on the song choosing team. I'm a child of 80s rock, but there's very little there I can identify with. It should be called Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the American 80s.

    edit: Oops, forgot to say I'd almost forgive them, as they've included Turning Japanese, officially the greatest song about wanking ever made.
    Edited by 1 at 29/06/07 @ 11:50

  • repairmanjack #19 5 years ago

    Um... who picked all this shite?

    No Final Countdown?

    Fail.

  • nickthegun #20 5 years ago

    The final countdowns lighter waving action was almsot entirely inspired by the annoying keyboard riff, so there wouldnt be much point.

    Still, since this is 'Guitar Hero: Hair Metal' in all but name, it probably would have fitted right in....

  • stampax #21 5 years ago

    As others have said - stupid line up - how can you have an 80's disc with no Jovi, Floyd, Guns and Roses, etc.

  • Hangman #22 5 years ago

    No Big Country? No Sale

  • afghan_jones #23 5 years ago

    Dont forget, the tracks dont just have to be 80s classics, they also have to be good games for guitar hero.

    Some of things people are mentioning have good piffs but no variation so they would actually be shit to play.

    there were plenty of songs id never heard of on the first two GH's but they were all good to play so hoping this will be too.

  • Azazel #24 5 years ago

    GH blokes: Get the Transformers soundtrack on here now!

  • dudefella #25 5 years ago

    What I don't understand is why there is no Megadeth. They were in the last two games, and produced awesome music in the 80's. Holy Wars? Tornado of Souls? Come on!

  • Azazel #26 5 years ago

    Yeah and where the fuck is *anything* off Master of Puppets?

  • PlugMonkey #27 5 years ago

    "Yeah and where the fuck is *anything* off Master of Puppets?"

    Where? Up Lars Ulrich's arse, at a guess. I'm surprised you haven't noticed this before, but it turns out Metallica are a bunch of total tosspots who are far too precious to allow their music to be used in pretty much anything at all. Hence no Metallica in any Guitar Hero. But please, by all means, blame the developers. Everyone else does.

  • dcangel #28 5 years ago

    Well, one or two of the tracks (Holy Diver, Play With Me, I Wanna Rock in particular) are pretty good, but the rest I've never heard of.

    That being said, there are other things to consider when these guys pick a track, such as whether it will translate well into the game.

  • captainrentboy #29 5 years ago

    Well I'm glad I'm not the only one, as when reading that list of songs/Artists I was thinking ''Who?'' to the vast majority of them.
    Even though I'm only 25 I'm actually a big fan of 80's music, all genres too, but this list is a pretty big dissapointment, and the potential was there for something effing fantastic.
    Shame.

  • MrChuckles #30 5 years ago

    He he, i'm 33 and I haven't hardly heard of any of them, then again, i got into rock far too late....

    So, who's wants to take a bet that they'll appear on the xbox 360 marketplace for a £20 pack? :-)

  • Kami #31 5 years ago

    I think PlugMonkey, the overwhelming point a lot of us are making is these aren't exactly 80s classics. Okay, they have to translate it to make a good game but surely that isn't beyond their talents for any decent guitar track?

    It is just a crying shame that the list here is so patently average. The 80s were packed with great guitar tunes (as well as dodgy pop) and it just feels like a completely wasted piece of potential. Even taking Metallica out of the equation, using tunes that most haven't even heard of isn't exactly enough to instill confidence in a title that professes to be "Guitar Hero", i.e. alluding to being able to jam to better tracks than are being offered.

    It's certainly not a BAD line up, there's some great pieces there in that list. The problem is, it's far from a good line up either. This is a title that is going to live or die by the quality and brand of the tunes contained within, and in this case I think it's a case of "miss" on Hit, Miss or Maybe. We'll just have to wait for better, is all, and hope they pull their fingers out for the next one.

  • Kami #32 5 years ago

    Possibly Manic. But it's dense to not cover all the bases if you intend an international release. We have mentioned some artists here who we know were big both sides of the Atlantic though. So yeah, US-centric list but still only fifty percent of a decent excuse.

    With you on hoping someone comes along and rips it off and does it better - the problem with any genre dominated by one or two games of the same series is that it gets very complacent very fast. Guitar Hero is a great, great idea as it's one step on from air guitar - it just needs someone to do something to it, shake it up.

  • Dreddnaught #33 5 years ago

    @ MrChuckles

    I hope that comes true.

    I'd be more than happy to spend 2400 points of my pseudo money for that.

    *crosses fingers and waits*...............

  • mechamonkey #34 5 years ago

    Actually Ive YouTube'd most of those tracks today and they ARE fun in a cheesy 80s rock way, and the game is GH : Rocks the 80s (I missed the rock part earlier)

    Could be fun afterall )

  • psychokitten #35 5 years ago

    Needs more Journey.

    DON'T STOP. BELIEVIN'.

  • PlugMonkey #36 5 years ago

    "We'll just have to wait for better, is all, and hope they pull their fingers out for the next one."

    Well, you seem to have rather missed my point Kami, so I guess I'll make it again. Pull their fingers out of what? You think Harmonix had a big design meeting and said "Right lads - Guitar Hero 80s. I'm going to put my foot down now and say absolutely no Metallica, ACDC or Bon Jovi; and I don't care how much they beg to be in our game, I'm just not having it!". I mean, those bands have been conspicuous in their absence from GH since the get go. Do you really think it's because the developers don't want them?

    So, by all means complain about a perfect GH song being omitted from the game, just maybe reserve a small amount of spite for the people saying 'no' rather than the people asking the question. Have you ever tried to convince a rock star, or an A&R man, to let you include their song in a game for people to strum along to on a plastic toy guitar? Not everyone thinks that sounds as cool as you and I do...

    So! Asia, Poison, Scorpions, Twisted Sister, Flock of Seagulls, Quiet Riot, Skid Row, Maiden, Dead Kennedys, Judas Priest? Pretty good I'd say. The only thing I'm genuinely missing is Whitesnake, as I thought they'd be likely to say yes. Metallica and ACDC would be great, but they clearly don't want to play ball. What exactly do you expect Harmonix to do about that?

  • [menace] #37 5 years ago

    Dire.. I'll give this one a miss.

  • gieltjegitaar #38 5 years ago

    Great tracklist

  • Kami #39 5 years ago

    What, you work for them PlugMonkey? Seem to know a lot. So yeah, famous in US of A. This isn't America, this is England, Europe and unfortunately we've not heard more than half of the bloody list!

    If they can't get bigger names, then why not be honest about it - at least it's better than trying to pass off half this shit as somehow iconic when it really isn't.

  • zozart #40 5 years ago

    Oingo Boingo!

  • skybluesam86 #41 5 years ago

    I'd love to have seen some Smiths, Stone Roses, Jesus and Mary Chain, Dammned, The Cult or anything a bit more well English, a bit more indie and a lot less cock-rock filled.

    As would I. Sigh...
    There are some great guitar bands in the 80s in this country, but they perhaps wouldn't suit the Guitar Hero template quite so well.
    It's a format that obviously lends itself well to shredders, and soloers, more than the far more impressive riffery of Johnny Marr.

    This Charming Man would work really well, though.

  • MBar #42 5 years ago

    Poor.

    Dire.

    Other words that communicate my dislike for this track-listing.

    /em waits for GHIII.