The U.K. 80s Singles & Albums Chart General Discussion Thread.

My favourite Cyndi song. Everybody loved 'She Bop' apart from the Brits, it seems.

 

Thank you! I shall endeavour to go back and have a read. This thread has been so much fun but I am starting to lose track of just who we have discussed! Carry on!

 

A good year, I was in frenzied record buying mode...
Tracey Ullman "Sunglasses’’ - really well done remake of Hilary's 60s South African bubblegum hit. Obligatory fun video with Adrian Edmondson. I heard it a lot that summer
Elton John "Passengers" - one of John's best 80s hits which apparently he doesn't like and is often left off retrospective collections. Another one that reminds me of that summer
The Might Wah! "Come Back" - my 'single of the year' and one of the best of the decade
M+M "Black Stations/White Stations" - a re-christened Martha and the Muffins, despite Radio 1 play, it missed the Top 40. Big in Canada though...
King Kurt "Banana Banana" - for some reason, I bought this. I wanted to see them live but I was too young for a riot-like gig
Lloyd Cole & the Commotions “Forest Fire" - Cole & Co were on a run of excellent singles for a while
Evelyn Thomas "Masquerade" - after "High Energy", I thought this indenti-track would also be a big hit but it wasn't
Working Week "Storm of Light" - utterly brilliant single, probably too classy for the poptastic Top 40 of the day
Astrud Gilberto "The Girl From Ipanema" - re-issued to ride the cool/latin jazz revival, I bought it but was a tad green to really appreciate it
Kid Creole & the Coconuts "Don't Take My Coconuts" - after a string of great pop singles, a band momentarily descending into self-parody sadly
Stevie Wonder "I Just Called To Say I Love You" - the worst non-novelty record of the 80s? Beyond embarrassing for such a class act
Cyndi Lauper "She Bop" - another one that should have been massive in the UK, is it really about m*sturbation? Who cares, it's a great pop song
The Armoury Show "Castles in Spain" - ex- Magazine, Skids, Banshees etc. Appreciate it a lot more today than back then although I did buy it at the time

 

Fox The Fox and especially Precious Little Diamond is a relatively late discovery of mine.
I have grown to love this track only a couple of years ago.

Honestly, I dont know how I managed to miss it for such a long time.

The long Ben Liebrand mix version is really something special.

 

Can you really listen to just one track for a few hours ?
I love certain tracks to death but I dont think I would be able to do that.

 

I used to do this, not just for hours but even days. Alas, there's just too much music and I'm running out of time.

 

I think we’re all losing track of what we’ve discussed.

You can bring Adam up again if you want. I can’t even remember what we said at the start of the thread.

 

It seems we only wanted 2 singles from She’s So Unusual. I think the album did OK here, but it’s crazy that She Bop and All Through The Night weren’t hits.

Same with the next album. Except that time only the title track was a hit!

 

'Change Of Heart' really should've been a UK hit with its great video of her in Trafalgar Square and dancing around London. And those gorgeous harmonies from The Bangles...

Cyndi was huge here. Madonna eclipsed her in mid-1985 but until then they were equally as popular. All five singles from She's So Unusual reached the Top 20 and the album hung around our Top 50 albums chart for 18 months, peaking at #3 in March 1985 in its 43rd week.

Of course, Cyndi was even more successful in the US with four Top 5 singles. I wonder why she wasn't as big in the UK? You guys seemed to appreciate her most in 1989 when her career was beginning to fade.

 

We haven't mentioned Scritti Politti for at least 20 pages. We need to lift our game.

 

The Fixx are my second favorite band (Simple Minds are #1 for me) and they had great success here in the US even though they were ignored in their homeland. They have a new album out now and I'm seeing them here in Houston next month. I was lucky enough to have a hand in some of their reissues back in my music biz days. Their records still hold up!

 

I did not; didn't buy it from the SDE shop. Got it from a US eBay seller. It's really well done, though - I'm normally don't care about demos on reissues but the ones on this are mainly unreleased songs that are catchy and poppy. The DVD also has a lot of great content.

 

Yes, Americans love The Fixx, don't they! I don't know any of their stuff apart from 'One Thing Leads To Another' and 'Stand or Fall', which I prefer as it's more new wavey and very 1982. It only reached #54 on the UK chart. Tsk tsk.

 

Yes but Dylan Jones gave the crap Culture Club album 4 stars. So that's what we're dealing with!

EG.

 

Glad you liked it. I had to send mine back after hearing 3 songs. That was enough torture for my ears. I'll stick to the other Go West CDs and comps.

EG.

 

Agreed! Tremendous song!

 

Untill today I have never heard of Animal Nightlife "Mr. Solitaire" before. This song never made it to the Dutch Top 40. They never had a hit at all in the Netherlands. I do like this song, so thanks for sharing.

 

Can you comment on the soundquality of this remaster? I am thinking about to put this one on my "to buy list".

 

It's a bit on the loud side but not distorted; I have a fairly high end hi fi set up and it sounds fine to my ears on that. I can pull it out again and have a listen for you but I'm not technical enough to run it through a program to generate the dBs. You also get the 12" mix of the main single plus the non-album single I mentioned above on this same page, "Don't Take My Coconuts". The Rainman is a more recent US CD release but without the bonus tracks; I have the Rainmain CD pressing of Off The Coast Of Me and the mastering on that is very good and which I've played much more regularly and can definitely recommend soundwise- assuming therefore their other remasters would at least be decent.

 

I noticed Diamond Life at #2 on the 1984 album chart that Bobby posted earlier and I thought, 'If it wasn't for the Now 3 compilation, that would've been a number one album'. Which got me thinking about all the albums that missed out on topping the UK chart during the 80s because they were stuck behind pesky compilations.

The dominance of various artists compilations ended on 14 January 1989 when they were excluded from the main chart, but before then there were 13 albums that would've hit number one but were foiled by compilations (mostly the Now series) and had to settle for the runner-up spot:

17/02/80 Get Happy - Elvis Costello & The Attractions (it would've been Costello's first and only #1 album in the UK)
12/08/84 Diamond Life - Sade
26/08/84 Private Dancer - Tina Turner (Tina missed out twice! — see below)
09/09/84 Powerslave - Iron Maiden
16/09/84 'The Woman In Red' Soundtrack - Stevie Wonder
21/04/85 Songs From The Big Chair - Tears For Fears
01/12/85 The Singles Collection - Spandau Ballet
24/08/86 Dancing on the Ceiling - Lionel Richie
14/09/86 Break Every Rule - Tina Turner (poor Tina)
12/04/87 Raindancing - Alison Moyet
27/03/88 The Best of OMD - Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (it would've been their only #1 album)
03/04/88 Push - Bros
12/06/88 People - Hothouse Flowers

And then there are some albums that did reach #1 but would've been on top for much longer if compilations hadn't gotten in the way: No Parlez, Can't Slow Down, Make It Big, Like A Virgin, Brothers In Arms, The Whole Story, Kylie...

 

My favourite Cyndi single. And she owns the song-- sorry Roy and Celine. Great video too - she looks the bee's knees in it.

 

I've always dreamt of doing one of those "How to buy" features on The Fixx for mags such as Mojo or Classic Pop!

My favorite song (although it's hard to choose just one) is likely "Red Skies." Not a big pop chart hit here, but did well at Rock Radio and also was all over MTV. "One Thing..." was their biggest hit but they also went Top 20 with "Saved By Zero," "Secret Separation," and "Are We Ourselves" while also reaching the top 30 with "The Sign Of Fire" and the top 40 with "How Much Is Enough?"

"Driven Out" and "Deeper And Deeper" were also big Rock Radio hits. MTV in general was very friendly to the band. Cy and Jamie are also in Tina Turner's "Better Be Good To Me" video.

 

She has many great songs but "All Through The Night" tops my list. Another Jules Shear classic, reinterpreted!

 

I absolutely loved this song back in the day, and I still do.
The blonde lady is Josie Jones, a fabulous character. Glamorous, but with a voice that could cut through you, like Lily Savage or Pete Burns, but a really salt of the earth friendly person.
Josie was a big character on the late 70’s early 80’s Liverpool scene and then eventually the London scene. It was always great to see her.
Sadly Josie died a few years ago, but she is remembered by many, especially her ex Pete Wylie.

 

A friend of mine was in this band. This is another example of a band who started out on the London club scene and we’re predicted to be the next big thing. As we know that never happened. There were just so many bands back then emerging from the clubs, all expected to do big things…