There was a series of CDs that Time Life had put out in the very late 90s called Modern Rock and each 2-disc set contained two years of 1980s modern rock/new wave/80s alternative (80-81, 82-83, etc). I discovered them in used music shops over the years some time ago. While there are a lot of songs I like on every disc, there's one disc I can play all the way through easily on ye old stereo.
1986-1987 disc two:
INXS - What You Need
Swing Out Sister - Breakout
Thompson Twins - Lay Your Hands on Me
Dream Academy - Life in a Northern Town
The Cars - Tonight She Comes
Boys Don't Cry - I Wanna Be a Cowboy
The Pretenders - Don't Get Me Wrong
The Blow Monkeys - Digging Your Scene
Eurythmics - Missionary Man
10,000 Maniacs - Like the Weather
Echo and the Bunnymen - Lips Like Sugar
The Smiths - Girlfriend in a Coma
A couple videos from the above:
Lay Your Hands on Me
Digging Your Scene (a peppy, buoyant but deceptively dark song about HIV/AIDS, but nearly a top 10 hit in America in 1986; lyrics appear on the video)
Girlfriend in a Coma