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Sexy Songs of the 1980s: 69 Steamy, Sultry and Seductive 80s Hits

Sexy songs of the 1980s were bold, glossy, sweaty, strange, romantic, loud, electronic, soulful, and occasionally ridiculous in the most lovable way. The decade gave us Prince, Sade, Madonna, George Michael, Marvin Gaye, Janet Jackson, Def Leppard, INXS, Samantha Fox, Salt-N-Pepa, Rick James, and enough innuendo to fog up a Camaro window.

Some 80s sexy songs were slow and seductive. Some were rock songs with big hair and bigger choruses. Some were club tracks, R&B slow jams, new wave provocations, synth-pop flirtations, or dance-floor songs that acted innocent for about three seconds.

The 1980s also pushed sexual imagery deeper into pop culture through MTV, movie soundtracks, dance clubs, hard rock videos, and parental-warning debates. A song could be romantic, suggestive, controversial, funny, sensual, or all of those before the second chorus.

From Sexual Healing to Kiss, from Need You Tonight to Pour Some Sugar on Me, and from Sweetest Taboo to Push It, these are 69 sexy 1980s songs that made the decade blush, wink, and keep dancing anyway.

Best 1980s Sexy Songs

The best sexy songs from the 1980s balanced atmosphere, rhythm, confidence, and just enough danger to make parents pretend they did not understand the lyrics. Some were smooth. Some were obvious. Some arrived wearing lace gloves, leather pants, or both.

  • Sexual Healing – Marvin Gaye
  • Kiss – Prince
  • Physical – Olivia Newton-John
  • I Want Your Sex – George Michael
  • Need You Tonight – INXS
  • Push It – Salt-N-Pepa
  • Relax – Frankie Goes to Hollywood
  • Sweetest Taboo – Sade
  • Pour Some Sugar on Me – Def Leppard
  • Darling Nikki – Prince

69 Sexy Songs of the 1980s

  1. Sexual Healing – Marvin Gaye
  2. Physical – Olivia Newton-John
  3. Kiss – Prince
  4. I Want Your Sex – George Michael
  5. Need You Tonight – INXS
  6. Like a Virgin – Madonna
  7. Pour Some Sugar on Me – Def Leppard
  8. Push It – Salt-N-Pepa
  9. Relax – Frankie Goes to Hollywood
  10. Little Red Corvette – Prince
  11. Darling Nikki – Prince
  12. I Wanna Be Your Lover – Prince
  13. Let’s Pretend We’re Married – Prince
  14. Do Me, Baby – Prince
  15. Erotic City – Prince and the Revolution
  16. Nasty Girl – Vanity 6
  17. Sex Shooter – Apollonia 6
  18. Touch Me (I Want Your Body) – Samantha Fox
  19. Naughty Girls (Need Love Too) – Samantha Fox
  20. Me So Horny – 2 Live Crew
  21. Sex (I’m A…) – Berlin
  22. Let’s Go to Bed – The Cure
  23. I’m on Fire – Bruce Springsteen
  24. Moments in Love – Art of Noise
  25. French Kiss – Lil’ Louis
  26. Take Your Time (Do It Right) – The S.O.S. Band
  27. Slow Hand – The Pointer Sisters
  28. Sweetest Taboo – Sade
  29. Smooth Operator – Sade
  30. Never as Good as the First Time – Sade
  31. Between the Sheets – The Isley Brothers
  32. Juicy Fruit – Mtume
  33. Computer Love – Zapp
  34. Freak-A-Zoid – Midnight Star
  35. Nice ’N’ Slow – Freddie Jackson
  36. Rock Wit’cha – Bobby Brown
  37. Roni – Bobby Brown
  38. Tender Lover – Babyface
  39. If Only for One Night – Luther Vandross
  40. Secret Lovers – Atlantic Starr
  41. Rock Steady – The Whispers
  42. Shake You Down – Gregory Abbott
  43. Super Freak – Rick James
  44. Give It to Me Baby – Rick James
  45. Muscles – Diana Ross
  46. Nasty – Janet Jackson
  47. Control – Janet Jackson
  48. She Bop – Cyndi Lauper
  49. Call Me – Blondie
  50. Pull Up to the Bumper – Grace Jones
  51. Sledgehammer – Peter Gabriel
  52. Oh Yeah – Yello
  53. Centerfold – The J. Geils Band
  54. Legs – ZZ Top
  55. Talk Dirty to Me – Poison
  56. She’s Sexy + 17 – Stray Cats
  57. Urgent – Foreigner
  58. Hungry Eyes – Eric Carmen
  59. Hungry Like the Wolf – Duran Duran
  60. Wild Thing – Tone Lōc
  61. Funky Cold Medina – Tone Lōc
  62. Let’s Go All the Way – Sly Fox
  63. Love Touch – Rod Stewart
  64. Sexy Girl – Glenn Frey
  65. Tonight, I Celebrate My Love – Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack
  66. Touch Me When We’re Dancing – Carpenters
  67. Do Ya Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah) – Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
  68. Let’s Put the X in Sex – Kiss
  69. Don’t Push It, Don’t Force It – Leon Haywood

Prince and the Purple Side of 80s Sexy Songs

No 1980s sexy songs list is complete without Prince. He could make a song feel seductive, funny, dangerous, spiritual, danceable, and completely over the line, sometimes before the guitar solo had even introduced itself.

  • Kiss – Prince
  • Little Red Corvette – Prince
  • I Wanna Be Your Lover – Prince
  • Darling Nikki – Prince
  • Do Me, Baby – Prince
  • Let’s Pretend We’re Married – Prince
  • Erotic City – Prince and the Revolution
  • Nasty Girl – Vanity 6
  • Sex Shooter – Apollonia 6

80s R&B Slow Jams and Bedroom Ballads

The 1980s were loaded with R&B slow jams that favored dim lights, soft keyboards, and vocals that didn’t need to shout. These songs were smooth enough to iron a silk shirt.

  • Sexual Healing – Marvin Gaye
  • Between the Sheets – The Isley Brothers
  • Juicy Fruit – Mtume
  • Computer Love – Zapp
  • Nice ’N’ Slow – Freddie Jackson
  • Rock Wit’cha – Bobby Brown
  • Tender Lover – Babyface
  • If Only for One Night – Luther Vandross
  • Secret Lovers – Atlantic Starr
  • Shake You Down – Gregory Abbott

Rock and Hair-Metal Sexy Songs from the 1980s

Rock songs in the 1980s were not exactly subtle. Between the leather, teased hair, guitar poses, and arena choruses, seduction sometimes sounded like it arrived on a motorcycle with a fog machine.

  • Pour Some Sugar on Me – Def Leppard
  • Talk Dirty to Me – Poison
  • She’s Sexy + 17 – Stray Cats
  • Urgent – Foreigner
  • Hungry Eyes – Eric Carmen
  • Legs – ZZ Top
  • Do Ya Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah) – Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
  • Let’s Put the X in Sex – Kiss
  • Naughty Naughty – John Parr
  • Baby Talks Dirty – The Knack

New Wave, Club and Synth-Pop Seduction

New wave and club music gave 80s sexy songs a cooler, stranger edge. The decade loved synths, drum machines, breathy vocals, and songs that sounded like they knew a very fashionable secret.

  • Need You Tonight – INXS
  • Relax – Frankie Goes to Hollywood
  • Sex (I’m A…) – Berlin
  • Let’s Go to Bed – The Cure
  • Pull Up to the Bumper – Grace Jones
  • Oh Yeah – Yello
  • French Kiss – Lil’ Louis
  • Moments in Love – Art of Noise
  • Let’s Go All the Way – Sly Fox
  • Wild Thing – Tone Lōc

80s Pop Songs with Flirtation, Innuendo, and MTV Heat

MTV made 1980s sexy songs visual. A catchy song could now arrive with choreography, fashion, close-ups, leather jackets, smoke, saxophones, and at least one dramatically lit hallway.

  • Physical – Olivia Newton-John
  • Like a Virgin – Madonna
  • Touch Me (I Want Your Body) – Samantha Fox
  • Naughty Girls (Need Love Too) – Samantha Fox
  • She Bop – Cyndi Lauper
  • Call Me – Blondie
  • Sledgehammer – Peter Gabriel
  • Raspberry Beret – Prince
  • Kiss on My List – Daryl Hall & John Oates
  • Love Touch – Rod Stewart

Romantic 80s Sexy Songs

Not every sexy song has to stomp through the door. Some 80s songs leaned romantic, soft, and sentimental, proving that the decade could whisper when it was not busy buying shoulder pads.

  • Sweetest Taboo – Sade
  • Smooth Operator – Sade
  • Never as Good as the First Time – Sade
  • Tonight, I Celebrate My Love – Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack
  • Touch Me When We’re Dancing – Carpenters
  • Hungry Eyes – Eric Carmen
  • Secret Lovers – Atlantic Starr
  • If Only for One Night – Luther Vandross
  • Tender Lover – Babyface
  • Rock Wit’cha – Bobby Brown

1980s Sexy Song Trivia

  • Darling Nikki became one of the most controversial songs of the decade. Its lyrics helped spark the Parents Music Resource Center conversation, which later fed into debates over parental advisory labeling.
  • Relax turned controversy into momentum. The BBC ban did not bury Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s single; it helped make the song even more famous.
  • Sexual Healing gave Marvin Gaye a major early-80s comeback. The song blended soul, electronic rhythm, and direct sensuality into one of his signature late-career hits.
  • Prince practically owned the sexy side of the 1980s. His songs, side projects, protégés, and Minneapolis sound helped make desire one of the decade’s major pop subjects.
  • Physical used fitness-era imagery and innuendo. Olivia Newton-John’s hit sounded workout-friendly on the surface, but the wink was not exactly hiding behind a treadmill.
  • Sade brought a different kind of heat to the decade. Songs like Sweetest Taboo and Smooth Operator were more restrained, elegant, and atmospheric than many of the louder 80s entries.
  • Hard rock and R&B handled “sexy” very differently in the 1980s. One often went for swagger and volume; the other leaned into groove, atmosphere, and slow-burn vocals.

Why 1980s Sexy Songs Still Work

1980s sexy songs still work because they have personality. They are not all smooth. They are not all subtle. Some are elegant, some are goofy, some are explosive, and some sound like the saxophone player was paid by the wink.

The decade also gave sexy music more visual identity. MTV, movie soundtracks, club culture, and arena rock turned desire into fashion, choreography, lighting, guitar poses, slow jams, and videos that made the songs feel larger than radio alone.

The best 80s sexy songs combine confidence, rhythm, and memorability. They do not simply hint at attraction; they put it in neon, give it a chorus, and let it walk across the room like it owns the place.

Sources and Further Reading

The 80s Made Sexy Songs Bigger, Bolder, and Shinier

Sexy songs in the 1980s came from everywhere: R&B slow jams, Prince’s purple universe, MTV pop, new wave clubs, hard rock arenas, dance tracks, and movie soundtracks. That range is what keeps the list interesting.

From Sexual Healing to Kiss, from Relax to Sweetest Taboo, and from Need You Tonight to Don’t Push It, Don’t Force It, these songs show how the 1980s turned attraction into groove, glamour, controversy, and one very suggestive saxophone solo.

Related posts:

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  3. Summer Songs of the 1980s
  4. The Top 69 Sexiest Songs Of The 1990s!