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

Missing the Top 40 in both the UK and the US (#64 and #58 respectively in 1983) is this excellent little number. I've always filed this with other really good American 'weirdness pop' like early B-52's or some Oingo Bongo. Six years later when I was at university in the US, this was still an often played track at some of those slightly messy freshman parties I ended up at...

 

He gives a stunning vocal performance on ‘Sacrifice’, doesn’t he? It still gives me chills to hear it. I think it really announced that his vocal issues from a few years earlier had well and truly been resolved.

 

... but it's clearly George on lead vocal, right? I expect he also had a hand in producing it.

I think it's a bit too faithful to the original to be truly memorable, but it's just a good bit of fun. Interesting that it bombed everywhere outside of the UK, Netherlands and Belgium. I reckon they shot themselves in the foot by not crediting George.

 

I really like Wall of Voodoo. 'Mexican Radio' was a minor hit in Australia (#33) and is still heard today, but my favourite song of theirs is 'Far Side of Crazy', which reached #23 in 1986. Hard to believe it failed everywhere else but Australia as it's such an obvious hit to my ears. The parent album Seven Days In Sammystown is also great.

Wall of Voodoo and Oingo Boingo share a similar sound and sense of irreverence — I've always partnered them as well. And I guess Aussies enjoy "American weirdness pop" because Oingo also had a couple of hits down here!

 

We haven't spoken much about Madness, who really dominated the first half of the 80s in the UK. Fifteen Top 10 hits in four years is an astounding achievement (and it would've been 16 consecutive Top 10s if the aptly titled 'Cardiac Arrest' hadn't stalled at #14).

This single — 'Michael Caine' — just missed out on being a Top 10, reaching #11 in February 1984. It's one of my favourite Madness singles, although its release marked the point at which their fortunes began to wane.

While Madness are often cited as one of the great "singles" bands, I think their first five albums are all very strong. I haven't heard Mad Not Mad, so can't really comment on that one.

 

Love Madness
I have vivid memories of being a 13 year old kid first year of big school,and seeing all the kids walking around with madness on bags, its was when they had Baggy Trousers and Embarrassment out. 2 classic songs.

 

Get listening! It's fantastic. I did a massive feature on that album last year, and I love the record to bits.

Michael Caine was a strange one, chartwise...it went 26-11....and then back down!

EG.

 

Stating the obvious here, but a big part of Madness' appeal was they were such an English band. I know that's what I loved about them (along with the general nuttiness, which I always found very amusing).

I don't know if this was the case elsewhere, but there was a general fascination in Australia with all things British during the first half of the 80s. Lots of UK acts (like Madness) broke through here because they sounded so English. I guess the Americanisation of our culture hadn't really kicked in yet.

 

That said, Our House making #7 in America was a strange moment!

EG.

 

Michael Caine is a great single, but musically I find One Better Day ever better....

 

Suggs is proud of it. The only song he talks about in his whole book, as I recall!

EG.

 

One Better Day is the greatest song they ever did.
Always loved it then, still love it now, it sounds as fresh today as it did when it came out.
Just musically way ahead of anything they ever did.
Suggs as Eric said, talks about this in his audio book, brilliant book from start to finish.

 

Love 'One Better Day'. In fact, the whole Keep On Moving album is fantastic — although I have the US pressing which includes 'Wings Of A Dove' and 'The Sun and the Rain', so I always think of it as a hits-heavy record. It's not, of course.

 

Of course its those piano chords I fell for during the chorus.....

Now, someone might claim that was (once again) borrowed from ABBA, and then wouldnt be far from the truth,
but then again, a number of songs used that little trick before and after.......

 

Once again, I dont know why, but I always seem to place The Wings Of A Dove in 1982,
but it was actually released near the end of 1983.

So, if One Better Day is musically the highlight, that is certainly the next best thing and something I could listen to over and over again...

 

I agree. I also think a lot of it came about as so many of us had British parents or grandparents!

 

Empty Garden is one of the high points of Elton's career and by far the best thing on Jump Up. No disrespect to Blue Eyes which is a very fine song

 

Yes, totally. Culturally it was all still very anglo at the start of the 80s. Thankfully we're much more diverse today.

 

A fine song by Elton but for those of us who have gone through the same or similar situation it's quite dark and depressing.

Fun fact - one of the first songs to use an LM-1 drum machine

 

I quite like a few of them including this one for Blue Moves

 

Yep we were still very much a British colony at that stage. Like most my family was Anglo/Irish. These days the American influence thanks mainly to being exposed to so much American culture via TV etcetera is just as pronounced. To many these days it's now cookies instead of biscuits

 

Meant to reply to this yesterday. Victim Of Love is an album that Elton and most of his fans despise. To be fair, you can’t really value Elton’s opinion as he dismisses most of his back catalogue. The only ones he remembers are the ones that sold really well, or those that got great reviews. Like Madman and Tumbleweed!

For me, VOL is listenable. Only 7 songs. None of them written by Elton. There’s an unfortunate 8 minute disco cover of Johnny B Goode, but the other 6 tracks are OK. Very samey and overly repetitive, but I’ve heard worse.

There’s not much in it, but the best song is the title track. It was a (very) minor US hit I believe.

 

His early album covers, as questionable as the artwork could be, were actually very nicely put together. Textured gatefold sleeves... Often with lyric books attached inside… Honky Chateau had an ‘envelope’ sleeve that was cute, but rather impractical!

 

"Wings of a Dove" is so intrinsically welded into my memory of late summer 1983, the greatest year in pop... I bought the 7" in HMV's flagship on Oxford Street; I remember it being very warm in London that year unless it was all those summery records. Probably my favourite Madness single - the gospel chorus works really well.

 

Thankfully we are. As a gay man with a parent from Northumberland and an Aboriginal parent, I am very happy to be living in more enlightened times! A gay, Geordie blackfella…who would have thought such a thing!