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

I bought Fashion's debut album (1982)....have the CD with bonus tracks. LOL Twisted Sisters review!!!!!

 

The Elton John one wasn’t much better!

 

Its a great record, the follow up to Video Killed The Radio Star. I have that single and the parent album, The Age of Plastic is pretty good too.

 

My favourite Boomtown Rats single, though there are a couple of album tracks that i like even more. They are a hugely underrated band.

 

The album, “The age of plastic,” is a belter. Absolutely all killer, no filler.

 

Not forgetting Diamond Smiles which IIRC also made top 10.


“the girl in the cake jumped out too soon by mistake
Somebody said the whole things half baked”


Was Mondays not 1979?

.sjb

 

How about poor Rod - probably the worst album in the world!

 

What, I ask, about "Strip"? That and "Goody Two Shoes" are the numbers of Mr. Ant's I have remembrance of.

 

A far cry from the somnambulent U.S. charts of the same period which was much in a rut (albeit of a different variety) as the UK charts were in 1975-76.

 

Didn't register in the U.S. where their biggest hit remains "Native New Yorker."

 

In a way, I could understand your missing "No More Tears" . . . the artist order was the reverse of one another in each country!

 

Not unlike the high number of #1's of 1975 where one from one country didn't chart in the other, eh?

 

Yeah. Go figure.

Even with I'm No Hero, the covers differed. Us "Yanks" got this concoction, which seemed to be an attempt to convey a sense of danger - not just with the lighting, the pose and his expression, but also his seeming to sport the proverbial 5:00 shadow:

Even at 40, he seemed ageless . . .

 

Phil has admitted it was a mistake. I ended up making a Directors Cut of Hysteria, with the 1982 and 1983 singles (plus B-sides) included at the expense of the weakest Hysteria cuts.

EG.

 

As we've gone through this thread at SST speed, let us now turn to the third quarter of 1980 and the #1's of NME and Melody Maker where, as usual, bold indicates #1 from one of the "others" and bold italics indicate a topper from both "others":

NME #1's

12 Jul: "Xanadu" by Olivia Newton-John And Electric Light Orchestra
2 Aug: "Use It Up And Wear It Out" by Odyssey
9 Aug: "Upside Down" by Diana Ross (BMRB #2)
16 Aug: "The Winner Takes It All" by ABBA
30 Aug: "Ashes To Ashes" by David Bowie
13 Sep: "Start" by The Jam
20 Sep: "One Day I'll Fly Away" by Randy Crawford (BMRB #2)


Melody Maker #1's

5 Jul: "Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps Please" by Splodgenessabounds (BMRB #7, NME #5)
12 Jul: "Xanadu" by Olivia Newton-John And Electric Light Orchestra
26 Jul: "Use It Up And Wear It Out" by Odyssey
9 Aug: "Upside Down" by Diana Ross
16 Aug: "The Winner Takes It All" by ABBA
30 Aug: "Ashes To Ashes" by David Bowie
13 Sep: "Start" by The Jam
20 Sep: "One Day I'll Fly Away" by Randy Crawford

On both the NME and Melody Maker charts, five of the six "Official" #1's in this quarter made it to the top.

The one "Official" #1 noticeably absent from this list was Kelly Marie's "Feels Like I'm In Love" which NME kept down at #2 and MM at #3 - and was blocked in any case, in whole or part, by "One Day I'll Fly Away."

 

And now for one of the more bizarre #1's ever to top Melody Maker's charts, courtesy Splodgenessabounds (one wonders if MM was trying to make up for having kept "God Save The Queen" all the way down at #5 three years before):

 

Oh, I *love* TWO PINTS OF LAGER AND A PACKET OF CRISPS!!!!!

EG.

 

Two Pints Of Lager & A Packet Of Crisps has to be the most English song title ever

 

All three excellent tracks were somewhat wasted on the Fascination EP, which also includes the excellent I Love You Too Much and Hard Times.

The Human League - Fascination!

I still have a cassette of this taped from a copy I borrowed from the local library, along with Dare and Rio.

 

Fascination would have made a great album title released in 1982/1983. Three years between albums was too much, the pop world of 1984 was vastly different to 1981.

 

I'm curious about all these different charts being published in the UK each week. Was the BMRB considered the "official" chart during the 80s? If so, why did NME and Melody Maker keep compiling their own?

 

EG.

 

BMRB compiled the official UK charts from 1960 to 1983. Then Gallup took over. NME compiled the earliest UK charts, from 1952.

They all had different methods of compiling data, and varying sources.

EG.

 

But if there was an official chart the whole time, why did NME and MM bother compiling unofficial charts? It seems a bit of a waste of time (and must've been quite confusing for the British public, I imagine?)

 

I expect there was a cost involved to license the BRMB charts, which they might not have been willing to pay. And it gave the magazines the chance to shape the charts more to their liking.

EG.