Teenage Kicks Rewind

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Twelve songs from the decade of big synths, bigger hair and the cassette mixtape itself. This tape was made for feeling like a teenager again, so it's full of songs that played at school discos and on every car radio, and that still sound like being sixteen. You don't need to have grown up in the eighties to feel it; most of these choruses have never really gone away.

It opens with Simple Minds' "Don't You (Forget About Me)", the song from The Breakfast Club, a film about teenagers that fits this mood exactly. a-ha's "Take On Me" follows with its racing synth riff and Morten Harket's soaring high note, then Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", wistful and gliding. Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" is carefree and loud, Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark" puts restless lyrics over bright synths, and Madonna's "Into the Groove" heads for the dance floor.

The second half keeps the glamour. Duran Duran's "Rio" is pure escapism, Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" is cool and moody, and Prince's "Kiss" is sparse, funky and sung in falsetto. Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" is the big singalong, a story of a small-town girl and a midnight train, and The Bangles' "Walk Like an Egyptian" is gloriously silly, whistled hook and all. Toto's "Africa" closes the tape, warm and dreamy, like the last song of a long summer.

Everything here comes from 1981 to 1986, mixing synth-pop, new wave, rock and dance-pop, which is roughly how a radio sounded at the time. Press play, sing the chorus you never forgot, and put it on as a YouTube playlist for a kitchen disco or a long drive. If you want more of one sound, make your own tape with the era set to the eighties.