1. Men At Work, "It's A Mistake" (1983)
How many times did a flock of geese or a stray bear almost bring about World War III? And could the next time be one too many? That's the attitude Men At Work take on a single that blows the paranoia of the hit "Who Can It Be Now?" up to a global scale. Something very bad—however accidental—has happened, leading singer Colin Hay to "jump down the shelters to get away." Good luck with that. And assuming he did make it, he might have to live in a world like that of…
2. Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers, "You Got Lucky" (1982)
There isn't much nuclear paranoia in the song itself, but the video imagines a Mad Max-like world where Petty and his Heartbreakers drive around the wasteland in a cool pod car and live off the scraps of a doomed civilization. Fortunately, there's an old boombox lying around, plus just enough instruments to make some music. Maybe the end of the world won't be so bad.
3. Ultravox, "Dancing With Tears In My Eyes" (1984)
Well, maybe it won't be that bad for the survivors. But what about the rest of us? The icy new-wave band most famous for "Vienna" had an unexpectedly moving minor hit with this ground's-eye view of what life might be like on Earth's last day. To a deep synth beat, singer Midge Ure hears the news that "it's over, it's over" and rushes home to his lover. They get drunk, "love to the sound of our favorite song," and wait for it all to go kablooey. This was an apocalypse you could dance to, even, presumably, through tears. Pundits have argued that the Cold War was better than our current political mess, if only because a contest between superpowers kept everybody else in check. Maybe. But it could also make you feel like this could happen at any second. The video took the song literally, and even though it's obviously shot on a cheap BBC backlot, it remains pretty creepy, if only for the moment when it becomes clear that Ure and his model friend have made love in the living room with their son hanging out nearby.
4. Sting, "Russians" (1986)
With songs like "When The World Is Running Down (You Make The Best Of What's Still Around)" and "Too Much Information," The Police's songs always had a touch of Armageddon. As he was wont to do after going solo, Sting turned subtext into supertext with this sledgehammer plea for peace between the superpowers. With its chorus of, "What might save us, me and you / is if the Russians love their children too," this song had the odd effect of criticizing the policy of mutually assured destruction while explaining how it worked. Still, anyone who gets a ticking clock symbolizing the looming end of the world on the Top 40 charts deserves a little credit, right?
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