80s

Proms are a uniquely American invention, though they're spreading around the world. When I left school, we had a graduation ball, which is the same sort of thing, but with an English twist.

As with proms, people were getting uptight about what to wear and who to go with. I didn't have a problem. No boyfriend meant no date - I certainly wasn't going to go with one of my cousins.

When looking for prom dresses 2007 graduates will no doubt head for the shops, but my mother was a dab hand with a sewing machine, so I had a home made dress in the height of 80s fashion (did the 80s have a height of fashion?).

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Long before he reclaimed his name as John Mellencamp, there was an artist named John Cougar, a heartland rocker from Indiana in the vein of Bob Seger who had released a handful of albums in the late '70s to relative indifference from the public. Cougar had managed to hit the Top 40 in 1979 with an ode to frustration called "I Need A Lover," but even that success was overshadowed by a version of the song by Pat Benatar.

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Although hard rock (particularly "hair metal") acts sold plenty of albums in the '80s, they weren't always able to make the jump to radio, especially Top 40 radio. There were exceptions, of course, like Van Halen, Quiet Riot, and Def Leppard as well as a Dutch band that might be remembered more for their guitarist's stint with Whitesnake than their one-hit wonder status.

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Originally formed in 1974 by keyboard player Pete Banks, the British band After The Fire would have to wait nearly a decade before having a hit in the US - and it would prove to be their only one - but it was worth the wait as "Der Kommissar" is one of the most enduring hits of the new wave era. The song was actually a cover of a European hit by another touchstone of the period, Falco, who topped the charts with "Rock Me Amadeus."

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Although she didn't score her breakthrough hit, "Angel Of The Morning," until 1981, Judy Kay Newton (better known as Juice) had actually had a half dozen minor hits on the country music charts dating back to the mid-'70s. She also managed to hit #86 on the US pop charts with her version of Bonnie Tyler's Top Ten hit "It's A Heartache" in 1978. It was with "Angel Of The Morning," though, that she became a household name with music fans.

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Christopher Cross "Ride Like The Wind"

The son of a surgeon from San Antonio, Texas, Chris Geppert earned a modicum of regional fame as a member of an Austin-based cover band called Flash, including opening for ZZ Top. That all changed suddenly for the musician in the fall of '78 when he signed a record deal as a solo artist with Warner Brothers Records and changed his name to Christopher Cross.

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