1982 Songs: Jack and Diane
By Four Walls
@FourWalls (86875)
United States
July 11, 2022 10:36am CST
I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry, okay???? Yeah, I should’ve left this off the list of songs that turn 40 years old this year, but the fact that you’ve heard this every day for the past 40 years probably explains why it’s so polarizing. But there are a lot of people who still like this song. I guess I’m one of them. So, with one more apology, here’s a ferociously overplayed song from 1982.
Jack and Diane - John Cougar
Yeah, he was still a “cougar” then. 
Sometimes I think this was Mellencamp listening to Meat Loaf’s “Paradise By the Dashboard Lights” too many times and thinking, “Well, hell, I can write something like that.” Well, not exactly.
However, let’s give Mellencamp his due: he did encapsulate the boredom of small town middle America pretty well in this song, much more than in “Pink Houses.” “Suckin’ on a chili dog outside the Tastee-Freez” (yes, it’s a real franchise) while the sidewalks are being rolled up is 1980s tiny town.
If you’re sick of this song, tune in tomorrow.
Jack and Diane
Written by John Mellencamp
Recorded by John Cougar
From American Fool, 1982
(Today’s 1972 song: “Hi, Hi, Hi”)
Holding on to 16 as long as you can:
Sometimes I think this was Mellencamp listening to Meat Loaf’s “Paradise By the Dashboard Lights” too many times and thinking, “Well, hell, I can write something like that.” Well, not exactly.
However, let’s give Mellencamp his due: he did encapsulate the boredom of small town middle America pretty well in this song, much more than in “Pink Houses.” “Suckin’ on a chili dog outside the Tastee-Freez” (yes, it’s a real franchise) while the sidewalks are being rolled up is 1980s tiny town.
If you’re sick of this song, tune in tomorrow.
Jack and Diane
Written by John Mellencamp
Recorded by John Cougar
From American Fool, 1982
(Today’s 1972 song: “Hi, Hi, Hi”)
Holding on to 16 as long as you can:
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8 people like this
9 responses
@thislittlepennyearns (68246)
• Defuniak Springs, Florida
11 Jul 22
I love this song! I have always loved this song.
I also had a cousin named Jack, who married a girl named Diane. So this song was always played at the family reunions.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (86875)
• United States
12 Jul 22
With names like that I hope they like the song. 
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (174708)
• United States
12 Jul 22
This was popular when I was a senior in High School! Everybody seemed to be playing it at every function and every car radio was blasting it out!
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (86875)
• United States
12 Jul 22
Holy cow, Daddy Evil knows a song!!! Alert the media!!!!! 
It was one of those songs you couldn’t escape, no matter how hard you tried, back then.
It was one of those songs you couldn’t escape, no matter how hard you tried, back then.1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (174708)
• United States
12 Jul 22
@FourWalls Yup! I finally recognize one!
And yeah, it has been played too much over the years.
Yup! I finally recognize one!
And yeah, it has been played too much over the years.1 person likes this
. It was so overplayed that it got ingrained in my head . . . not necessarily a bad thing as I appreciated the lyrics when I got a little older 
.@much2say (57760)
• Los Angeles, California
13 Jul 22
@FourWalls Maybe when we are younger, we don't really think about the lyrics - even if we know them and can sing along. We don't think about meanings, perhaps because we are not quite there with life's experiences yet. My teen daughter said her peers think "Careless Whispers" by George Michaels sounds romantic/sexy. Really? Her jaw dropped when we picked apart the lyrics together 
.
.1 person likes this
@FourWalls (86875)
• United States
12 Jul 22
There are a lot of songs I understand a lot better now than I did “back then.” When I was nine “Yesterday, When I Was Young” by Roy Clark was a hit, and I thought it was funny. There ain’t a dang thing funny about that song now!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128842)
• Gainesville, Florida
11 Jul 22
I love this song! Still enjoy listening to it every time it comes on the radio. I still remember the exact time I heard this song for the first time. We were on a family trip to Disney World, driving from West Palm Beach north to Orlando on the Florida turnpike. My brother and I were in the cramped backseat of my dad’s brand new Camaro Z28, and he had the radio blasting. I fell in love with this song the second I first heard it.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128842)
• Gainesville, Florida
11 Jul 22
@FourWalls True. It’s still overplayed to this day. It’s played on the classic rock stations, the easy listening stations, the soft rock stations, and even on some of the hip-hop stations.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (86875)
• United States
11 Jul 22
Hope you’re not sick of it. Of course, I think anyone who’s listened to FM or satellite radio over the past 40 years knows this.
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (222806)
• United States
12 Jul 22
I know this song very well. It's a good one.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (86875)
• United States
12 Jul 22
I’m not even half done and I’m setting new records! 1 person likes this
@wolfgirl569 (135992)
• Marion, Ohio
12 Jul 22
I always enjoy that one when I hear it.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (86875)
• United States
12 Jul 22
I enjoy it once in a while, but I can certainly understand people who are sick of it.
1 person likes this
@RasmaSandra (98124)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
12 Jul 22
Somewhere from long ago I seem to remember this one
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (86875)
• United States
12 Jul 22
I’m glad it takes something to cause you to remember it, because a lot of people hear the opening guitar riff and run to turn the radio off.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (86875)
• United States
12 Jul 22
This is pretty “middle America” thematically, so I don’t know how well that translates outside of the US.
1 person likes this
