Top 10 John Mellencamp Songs of the '80s

On this, his first great tune of the decade, Mellencamp employed a tool that would become familiar in his later work: a gentle, melodic guitar line that works beautifully in combination with the yearning in his lyrics. Comparisons to Bruce Springsteen would hound Mellencamp throughout his career, but on this song the uniquely vulnerable, questioning romantic within the artist is particularly apparent. It's a memorable start but ultimately only a stepping stone to his best work still to come.

Mellencamp had flirted with hard rock prior to this monster hit from his breakthrough 1982 album American Fool, but he had never done so with the verve and melodic sense found here. He had also displayed a bawdy side before, but he had previously failed to grasp subtlety in that regard (check out "Tonight" from the earlier Nothin' Matters and What If It Did for proof). Heavily played though it is, "Hurts So Good" works very well from its Stonesy riff all the way down to its nifty bridge. The video, of course, is another matter entirely.

This one too has been played nearly to death, but it's unmistakably an American classic. "Oh yeah, life goes on/Long after the thrill of livin' is gone" stands not only as a memorable line but one that both improves and becomes more true with age. Mellencamp's tales of post-adolescent, romantic struggle may not be exactly groundbreaking, but they are weighted by an affecting tinge of sadness that doesn't feel quite the same as his musical influences or followers.

With this song, Mellencamp began his transition from rebel rocker to contemplative, serious and meaningful songwriter. Or at least that was probably his intention. This is one of the singer's finest songs, a moving reflection on the joys and pitfalls of the American Dream, all delivered in a somewhat middle-of-the-road Midwestern style. Like Springsteen, Mellencamp's persistent melancholy probably had a way of surprising a lot of people who naturally assumed his music was blindly and unthinkingly patriotic.

Mellencamp waited until 1985 to release his most impassioned rocker yet, delivering not only a rousing performance of solid pop/rock but also tackling a personal political issue directly. The plight of the American family farmer has remained a major concern for the singer for the past two decades, but this particular slice of anger truly unleashes Mellencamp's righteous anger. Pure emotion is not always enough to save him lyrically, but the former John Cougar clearly continued his maturation process here.

Although Mellencamp entered his most consistent phase during the mid-'80s, he still couldn't seem to shake the comparisons to Springsteen. In fact, the parallels may have even grown stronger on Scarecrow. On this fine heartland rock version of a mid-tempo ballad, the singer actually falls closer to Kenny Rogers than anyone else, at least in terms of his lyrical concept. Mellencamp's tale of a bus rider and the old man who bestows wisdom has a close relative in Rogers' "The Gambler."

Going back to his earliest smash hit, "Hurts So Good," one of the trademarks of Mellencamp tunes has often been either a sly central guitar riff or a lovely melodic guitar fill laid over acoustic strumming. In the case of this, one of the singer's most flawless performances, the riff crackles with energy and brings the workmanlike core of the song to an entirely new place. Thematically it's a song that executes a unique blend of hope and despair better than most songwriters can even dream of.

Sorry, John, but this one just feels like Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark" Part II. That being said, it therefore stands as one of the great mainstream rock tunes of the decade. So I guess in many ways it's a pretty good problem to have, resembling one of rock's all-time most deserving legends. As for the song, the verses lay down a pretty decent groove and are supported ably by a solid pre-chorus and chorus. Once again, Mellencamp utilizes a moving, constantly evolving contrast between despair and hope.

Growing older continued to have an expansive effect on Mellencamp as both a musician and lyricist, and on The Lonesome Jubilee this maturation produced some of his most exploratory music yet. Aside from the introduction of violin and accordion accompaniment, the singer's growing band layers other stringed instruments atop world-weary portraits of Average Joes grappling, perhaps for the first time, with mortality. The results aren't necessarily all that profound, but they're certainly genuine.

At times on his last album of the '80s, Big Daddy, Mellencamp turned so stark that the music occasionally came out bitter. But this song, the stunning centerpiece of the album, simply stands as one of the singer's finest moments, especially when it comes to the economical and precise lyrics. In many ways, Mellencamp's late-'80s career continued to eerily mirror Springsteen's, but it was really just coincidence that both turned to highly personal themes and embraced folk instead of rock.