Making The Grade (1984) Dorian Walker, Judd Nelson, Jonna Lee, Gordon Jump

The Ladies And The Babies (1984). Frankie Lee's debut album, The Ladies and the Babies, was one of the first contemporary blues albums to successfully negotiate the territory between post-Bobby Bland blues and southern soul. As one of the first albums on HighTone Records, the album helped set the stage for the numerous records and artists that teetered between soul and blues. To Lee's immense credit, he achieved this balance quite skillfully, thanks to solid songs, tight arrangements and powerful vocalists. He followed the record with several others quite like it, but none matched the energy or quality of The Ladies and the Babies…

As a songwriter and performer, Willie Nelson played a vital role in post-rock & roll country music. Although he didn't become a star until the mid-'70s, Nelson spent the '60s writing songs that became hits for stars like Ray Price ("Night Life"), Patsy Cline ("Crazy"), Faron Young ("Hello Walls"), and Billy Walker ("Funny How Time Slips Away"), as well as releasing a series of records on Liberty and RCA that earned him a small but devoted cult following.

John Hughes wrote and directed this quintessential 1980s high school drama featuring the hottest young stars of the decade. Trapped in a day-long Saturday detention in a prison-like school library are Claire, the princess (Molly Ringwald); Andrew, the jock (Emilio Estevez); John, the criminal (Judd Nelson); Brian, the brain (Anthony Michael Hall); and Allison, the basket case (Ally Sheedy). These five strangers begin the day with nothing in common, each bound to his/her place in the high school caste system. Yet the students bond together when faced with the villainous principal (Paul Gleason), and they realize that they have more in common than they may think, including a contempt for adult society. "When you grow up, your heart dies," Allison proclaims in one of the film's many scenes of soul-searching, and, judging from the adults depicted in the film, the teen audience may very well agree. Released in a decade overflowing with derivative teen films, The Breakfast Club has developed an almost cult-like status.