It’s official: the best music ever was written between 1982 and 1987. (The exception to the rule being an obscure British band called the Beatles that recorded a few catchy tunes in the Sixties).

Really, if you listen to the sounds around you, anywhere and everywhere, the music that most people love, and the songs that you think may have gone in and out of style but that are guaranteed to raise a smile are the ones from the Eighties.

The ones that made the original Miami Vice so cool, and had me believe that Eddie Murphy had “it.”

The conclusive evidence for the superiority of the 80s songs is Las Vegas. It was like I was back in high school: “Don’t Stop Believin'”, “The Heat Is On,” “How Will I Know,” “R.O.C.K in the U.S.A,” “Can’t Stop This Feeling,” and as I was leaving the Flamingo at 4 am on Thursday morning, married for four days, “Faithfully.”

This is the music that gets people going, it makes them happy, it makes everybody feel good. The 80s songwriters and artists are the Mozarts of our times. They are the ones that wrote the songs that are going to last. They already outlasted the 90s, and we’re way into the 21st century.

Steve Perry, thank you, wherever you are.

PS. The Swedish Idol started its third season last week, and when they finally kicked it off, they played probably the coolest song they knew. Welcome to the Jungle, by Guns’n’Roses. The album it’s on, “Appetite for Destruction” was released on July 21, 1987.

I rest my case.