Dunno if this is the right place to put it but I though i would start this thread as just my ramblings on my thoughts of number two records over the years- and also to see if you agree/ contribute your own thoughts. I'm starting in 1980 as it's the beginning of the decade and i was only 4 so reviewing anything before is kinda pointless as i intend to put my personal experiences into things/ as much as i can- probably more interesting for folks in their 30's now as they will have been the same age roughly as i was at that time- if that makes sense? I'll post as and when i can be bothered i suppose- anyway here goes....

 

Also there are blogs reviewing all the number one singles so i thought i'd try to do something different...... :dance:

Edited February 13, 201213 yr by Gezza76

5TH JANUARY 1980- I HAVE A DREAM- Abba (2 Weeks)

 

I recall this song from the time vaguely- my problem with it is that even to my 4 year old ears it seemed too saccharine with it's little kids sing-a-long chorus. I know it's fashionable these days to love ABBA and there are some crackers that they have song (yes "One Of Us" i'm looking at you!) but needless to say it did not improve after Westlife attempted to breath new life into it.

 

I recall reading about five or six years ago that Agnetha had the most recognisable voices in Pop according to a survey- I can believe that- perhaps it's the warm motherly tones but this (along with "Chiquitita" which I like considerably more) seem to be appealing to kids directly, an angle that steps et al certainly took up when re-imagining ABBA all those years later.

 

You could put the record down to the festive season and the xmas market but it seems to me that someone that had the undeniable writing power of Andersson/ Ulvaeus could have done something better than this.......

 

 

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/84/I_Have_A_Dream.jpg

 

 

 

Edited April 24, 201114 yr by gezza76

5TH JANUARY 1980- I HAVE A DREAM- Abba (2 Weeks)

 

I recall this song from the time vaguely- my problem with it is that even to my 4 year old ears it seemed too saccharine with it's little kids sing-a-long chorus. I know it's fashionable these days to love ABBA and there are some crackers that they have song (yes "One Of Us" i'm looking at you!) but needless to say it did not improve after Westlife attempted to breath new life into it.

 

I recall reading about five or six years ago that Agnetha had the most recognisable voices in Pop according to a survey- I can believe that- perhaps it's the warm motherly tones but this (along with "Chiquitita" which I like considerably more) seem to be appealing to kids directly, an angle that steps et al certainly took up when re-imagining ABBA all those years later.

 

You could put the record down to the festive season and the xmas market but it seems to me that someone that the undeniable writing power of Andersson/ Ulvaeus could have done something better than this.......

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/84/I_Have_A_Dream.jpg

Not the best cover verison from Westlife.

I recall reading about five or six years ago that Agnetha had the most recognisable voices in Pop according to a survey- I can believe that- perhaps it's the warm motherly tones but this (along with "Chiquitita" which I like considerably more) seem to be appealing to kids directly, an angle that steps et al certainly took up when re-imagining ABBA all those years later.

You could put the record down to the festive season and the xmas market but it seems to me that someone that the undeniable writing power of Andersson/ Ulvaeus could have done something better than this.......

 

That I agree with, I loved Steps as a young kid - now there are only a few of their songs that are good. I also loved 'Dancing Queen' by ABBA which now I would only rate 5/10 - so overrated

Edited April 22, 201114 yr by danielGaGa

It's a shame because they did do some songs about very adult themes but it seems like they went through a phase of "let's write songs for kids" which was fine at the time but now they are the ones that have aged badly and morever if there is a ABBA legacy then it appears that the worst angles of ABBA have been taken forward, it's no incidence that steps and westlife have both dabbled with them and that Spice Girls reference "Dancing Queen" in "Spice Up Your Life"- they are all groups that appealed and made music aimed primarily at the pre pubescent audience and "the gays" as Michael Parkinson once termed them :lol:

 

Now as an adult they aren't the songs from ABBA that appeal to me- I suppose the point i'm making is that even back then it (IHAD)was too sweet for my tastes and time has not mellowed me to it

19TH JANUARY- WITH YOU I'M BORN AGAIN- Billy Preston & Syreeta (2 weeks)

 

Now I Have no recollection of this from the time- it's been virtually forgotten about now and you know it's not that bad really, it is what it is, a motown ballad.

 

Yes it's that Billy Preston who gets a credit on the Beatles "Get Back" a chart topper in 1969 and it's hard record to dislike or care deeply about, I suppose it's high position in the charts could be attributed to the traditional post xmas dip in sales but all in all it's a nice little winter warmer...

 

http://www.chartstats.com/images/artwork/5445.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My LORD! Just where are you finding the time from to do all of these things! :o

 

 

 

(Not that they're not all welcome additions to the forum, it just astonishes me how you can be running them all at once)

Haha- i plan just adding to this one when i have time- I'm at parents for Easter so time on my hands at the mo- the other threads should be done by next month- the next ones are in the pipeline lol

I really like Gezza's threads as they're full of musical nostalgia. Of course things like this thread will probably only appeal to the few of us over the age of 30. Long may they continue. :D

 

Out of interest, Gezza76 is that an indication that you were born in 1976? (it might mean 7th June for all I know :P ).

Yes I was born in 1976, a whole 35 years of age now! :drama:

23RD FEBRUARY- AND THE BEAT GOES ON- The Whispers (1 week)

 

I just missed the whole Disco thing- it's not something that I feel sad about. It seemed to be full of horrendous clothing that wasn't good at the time let alone something would stand the test of time. I suppose being a kid I wasn't going to hear it in the arena that it was designed for, and certainly the cliche's of something like "Saturday Night Fever" have done a lot to harm to what was probably a decent time to be into music, but the confines of age cannot be undone, and certainly by 1980 it was already sounding like a spent force.

 

I think there is something psychological about a decade change, like somehow something which might be just a few years old becomes "so 70's" or so "80's" a few months into a new decade, like people have a much more urgent need to find a new identity for a decade but I think i'm rambling now, though it probably explains why I think records like this seem to me out of place even in 1980. I was read a review that wherever the 80s began it wasn't in 1980 (I believe that the review actually stated that it began when "Stand and Deliver" debuted at No 1- not a bad beginning if true) they were talking culturally of course- but this track certainly isn't indicitive of what the 80s are remembered for.

 

The song is maybe more famous to younger folk as the basis of the sample in both the Madonna track "Beat Goes On" and also Will Smith's 1998 top 10 hit "Miami". It was their only UK top 5 hit and the nearest they came to hitting No 1 in the UK.

 

http://www.chartstats.com/images/artwork/5481.jpg

 

 

 

5TH APRIL- DANCE YOURSELF DIZZY- Liquid Gold (2 weeks)

 

Well it's more disco and more music used as a sample for a hit much later on. Liquid Gold were another band who only managed 2 top 10 hits before fame deserted them. The Song was used as a sample around Yomanda's "Synth & Strings" a No 8 hit back in 1999, and whilst i can't deny that it's a catchy little tune, it's like all disco records, very much of it's time, there isn't much narrative to be had here other than dancing yourself quite literally dizzy.

 

Perhaps it's a sub text for something far more sexual (though i doubt it) and of course not every song has to be about "something deep or profound". Indeed some of the best pop ever made is about just plain old falling in love, boy meets girl stuff, and furthermore looking through the charts of the year this is pretty reflective of what was big at the time. By the same token it's never a record i've ever heard at an 80's disco (and boy i've been to a fair few) and it stood at No 2 the week I moved down to England from Scotland (this thread's turning into a get to know session, there may be therapy happening later in the decade :lol: )

 

However there is a real sense of belief about the record and indeed iin one important aspect it is quite 80s. It's about enjoyment, about forgetting about your worries and just having a dance, now that's either niave especially considering the political situation or 1980 of very refreshing. In later decades just having a dance and not caring became deeply unfashionable unless it was about drugs and scantily dressed women obviously- and certainly by the time the 00s came around and Indie ruled the airwaves but that's very much later.....

 

http://www.chartstats.com/images/artwork/5512.jpg

 

Edited April 24, 201114 yr by gezza76

3RD MAY- COMING UP- Paul McCartney (1 week)

 

I know I should like Paul McCartney, he is after all the writer of some of the most famous pop songs in the history of music, and remains a much reveared charcater in popular music. Yet if we look at his output since 1980 however he hasn't really done much of note. "Coming Up" was allegedly the song that Lennon loved so much that he decided to come out of retirement and record a new album (eventually turning out to be "Double Fantasy" and released posthumously), and again it's a slice of competent songmanship. Accompanied by a video which utilised what was at the time state of the art camera trickery in which McCartney plays about 10 different roles, even more special when you consider that MTV was yet to be invented so the audience for the video was only TOTP in this country and maybe a few TV Appearances.

 

There has always been an attempt by McCartney to try to appear younger than he is, that somehow he is aware of pop's golden rule- never grow up! I understand that but let's be honest he certainly doesn't need the money any more. A career with Wings in the 70's enabled him to extend his chart life way beyond the Beatles demise and I suppose his numerous busts for drug possession in the 70s and early 80s hardly harmed his career, indeed we'll be seeing more of him later on this list, but the over all feeling of "Coming Up" is that it wasn't a song aimed at me at the age I was. Now I know that sounds silly, I was 4 years old and barely anyone writes with that mind (unless you're doing nursery rhymes) but there are still songs I still connected with back then, heard from the radio, and were played by my father in our house. This is a song I Came to much later in life and I found it boring then, and I still find it boring and instantly forgettable. I'm not liking much in 1980 but all that is about to change.......

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2e/McCartneyComingUp.jpg

 

Edited April 24, 201114 yr by gezza76

24TH MAY- NO DOUBT ABOUT IT- Hot Chocolate (3 weeks)

 

I can't help but like this song. It's a tale of how aliens landed and met Errol Brown, i'm unsure who ended up more afraid. It's the kind of camp fun that pop music should be about, his baco-foil outfit is just exactly what kids always imagine space invaders to look like, and the song is bound up by a chorus which seems to erupt from the semi sung, semi-talked verses. It's a song that I never thought i'd heard until I heard it and said "Oh Yes- that one", and in a year somewhat weighed down by seriousness it's a blast of fun.

 

It's the band's biggest hit of the 80s and if it wasn't for that dire M.A.S.H record it would have been a number one- sometimes the charts are just unfair.....

 

http://www.chartstats.com/images/artwork/5579.jpg

 

 

 

Wow Gezza76 these are great! like Dandy* said, How do you have the time to do all of these things :D

great thread gezza76, will look forward to the 90s and 00s ones especially :D

great thread gezza76, will look forward to the 90s and 00s ones especially :D

yes they'll be fun- next year :lol: or whenever i get round to them.....

28TH JUNE- FUNKY TOWN- Lipps Inc (2 weeks)

 

Meanwhile back in disco land come the summer of 1980 this is the new craze, incredibly this was turned into a 80's rock anthem just 7 years later for Australian band called Pseudo Echo and hit the top 10 all over again. You know the drill by now, except this time it's beautiful one hit wonder time. Apparently it's been used in Shrek 2, and Alvin & The Chipmunks films, which should tell you all you need to know about this record, i'd like to think I was disgusted by this song as a young child but I probably wasn't, and for that i'm deeply sorry.

 

Even the dire dirge of Don McLean's "Crying" that kept this off the top spot is better than Lipps Inc...by the way the video is suitably distressing, I think they're meant to be a trio but that one in the middle clearly doesn't like sharing the limelight I can tell...

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/44/LippsIncFunkytown7InchSingleCover.jpg

 

 

Edited May 31, 201114 yr by gezza76

2ND AUGUST- MORE THAN I CAN SAY- Leo Sayer (1 week)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e7/More_Than_I_Can_Say.jpg

 

Leo Sayer? In the 80's? Yes it's true the 70s dwarf was still going strong and covered a Buddy Holly & The Crickets 1960 hit and darm it almost snared a UK No 1 single. It's a mid tempo ballad which is sung endearingly enough by Sayer and don't let the perm put you off, the whole thing has a kinda "Roxy Music" feel about it musically until Leo Jumps in that is. Mind you after celebrity Big Brother I just think of pants when I see him, but watching his TOTP appearance I 'm not sure he's looked into the meaning of the song- he's far too churpy! Yet it's precisely that that means I can't be nasty about the record, it's the innocence, you imagine if he was your boyfriend he'd worship the ground you walked on...

 

Anyway it's his only brush with the top spot in the 80's though of course he would return to the top in 2006 with "Thunder In My Heart Again"...

 

Edited August 21, 201113 yr by gezza76

9TH AUGUST- UPSIDE DOWN- Diana Ross (2 weeks)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f0/DianaRossUpsideDown7InchSingleCover.jpg

 

"I got Love for you, if you were born in the 80s" sang Calvin Harris- he was probably thinking of this record when he sang it. Written & produced by Disco royalty Edwards & Rodgers of group Chic, this has a bassline and a groove it's almost impossible to not tap along to, if you can manage it you're probably dead.

 

For the song Diana had a minor change of image, out went the afro and a more street, softer slickback look came in, as demonstrated by the cover. It had number one written all over it as indeed it did get to in the US but here and only the truly magical "Winner Takes It All" by Abba managed to hold it off in the UK. I can't sing it's praises too highly to be honest, a dancefloor filler in a truer sense that the "disco" we have met up until now and indeed one that has stood the test of time considerably better...

 

Edited May 31, 201114 yr by gezza76