15TH JUNE- KAYLEIGH- Marillion (1 week)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/76/M_kayleigh.jpg

 

It would be easy to tear into this as mid 80s hairspray rock ballad, but it's much too tender a record to suffer that indignity. Marillion are, apparently, a prog rock group which throws up images of genesis and Pink Floyd, but to my mind "Kayleigh" is actually a better record than that image gives rise to. Introspective lyrics seems almost like a psychoanalystic session with Fish and in era of big haired rock a la Bon Jovi, Cutting Crew, Peter Cetera etc, this is actually a far more subtle record than those. What salvages it from that genre is simply the realism of the record, their is much subjectivity on the record, Fish writing apologetically to former girlfriends about his lousy behaviour seems rather an intimate emotion to be played on the panorama of the big rock ballad. In reality the record is neither a ballad nor a rock song but a curious hybrid.

 

"By the way didn't I break your heart?/ Please excuse me, I never meant to break your heart?/ So sorry , I never meant to break your heart/ but you broke mine" seems almost callous and matter of fact, but the analysis of emotion is exactly what is going on here, yet it sounds clumsily expressed, just as emotions are often are.

 

It's all rather great in a very unexpected way....

 

Edited July 14, 201113 yr by gezza76

29TH JUNE- CRAZY FOR YOU- Madonna (1 week)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/67/Crazy_For_You_single_cover.jpg

 

I will prefix this review with the announcement than I am a Madonna fan, all the albums bought and all the singles since "Justify my Love" BUT i have to say I've never been crazy about "Crazy for You". The songs is uninspiring and almost like Madonna on auto-pilot. She can do ballads marvellously "I want You" and "Oh Father" are fantastic but "Crazy for You" appearance on this list is more a testament to Madonna's growing status in the pop world than to the merits of the record itself.

 

The track was recorded for the "Vision Quest" Film, and was therefore, the first single not to be available on an album since she had hit it big with "Holiday" some 18 months earlier. She had justifiably become become a major star, the gloriously trashy "Like A Virgin" had flirted its way into the top 3 followed by "Material Girl" with it's equally famous video, the girl had shown that she was just as capable as Jackson at understanding the visual importance of pop stars, and that the power of the music promo, "Crazy For You" seems like a step back, not a bad record, but just a record anyone could have done. Perhaps the bar was set too high by previous efforts, and naturally a little calm was going to happen, she was going to do much better just a year later which is everything "Crazy For You" ought to have been, but for me the record is a let down- sorry Madonna, the one consolatino she can take is that she didn't have a hand in writing it.....

 

Edited July 14, 201113 yr by gezza76

6TH JULY- AXEL F- Harold Faltermeyer (3 weeks)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f6/Axel_F_HF.jpg

 

OK we have to acknowledge (whilst simultaneously wiping our collective memories of) the crazy frog version which topped the UK charts for 4 weeks back in 2005. Some 20 years before German Producer Harold Faltermeyer had the original hit taken from the film "Beverley Hills Cop" starring Eddie Murphy as the lead role of Axel Foley (hence the title). Faltermeyer had become over the course of the 80s increasingly involved in writing music for films and was to go on to produce the Top gun Theme in 86 before co-producing the album "Behaviour" with the Pet Shop Boys in 1990.

 

That's the history bit, now onto the song. I'm always at a loss with Instrumentals really- I need words to guide me, otherwise you're left with a general impression or mood which is pretty hard to describe nad to justify an opinion on. Certainly the tune is catchy and has been much played over the years, certainly more than those early 80s hits like "Cha Mai" fr example and it also has less of teh gimmickery that the Crazy Frog injected into it 20 years later. You could look at this record in terms of the progression of Dance music- teh bridge between those early rap/ dance hits and the dance explosion of the late 80s, and there is a progresion and a valid link, perhaps the greatest compliment I can pay this record is that it is VERY 1985, it takes me back to pacman, spacedust, A-Team, and StreetHawk, and that's not a bad place in my memory..

 

Edited July 15, 201113 yr by gezza76

17TH AUGUST- HOLIDAY- Madonna (1 week)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/61/Madonna-2ndholiday-cover.jpg

 

Let's all be clear the fact that "Holiday" is on the list and at this point in time is hugely significant. Far more significant than the actual record itself which is passable dance pop but its original No 6 position back in 1984 was probably the right result. The record feels, and indeed actually is, a step back for Madonna (just like "Crazy For You") and indeed there are two Madonna's in 85 the one which is pushing ahead and towards "True Blue" and the one that is playing catch up.

 

Whilst this was at No 2 it was held out by "Into The Groove" (my personal favourite Madonna song from the 80s), and her lock of the top 2 positions can be read as the moment she was transformed from pop star to "Madonna- The Brand" when Madonna-mania really set in. The birth of a pop star is always a tough point to identify but with her it has always felt like this moment, the nation accepts the star and suddenly they can do little wrong, between 1985 and 1991 that was Madonna, "Holiday" is therefore a catch up, a chance for people to fool themselves that they were in this from the start (the 1986 re-issue of Borderline" is much a similar affair but I wont get ahead of myself). I've never been overly keen on it because it's like every great artists's early work, a work in progress of how they got to the point of stardom when it is stardom that attracts.

 

For all these reasons "Holiday" as a record in this list is just a symbol of the arrival of a superstar....

 

Edited July 15, 201113 yr by gezza76

14TH SEPTEMBER- HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO- Bonnie Tyler (3 weeks)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5f/Bonnie_Tyler_Holding_a_Hero.jpg

 

Good grief I love a bit of Jim Steinman. No-one does gloriously OTT soft rock like him, witness a multitude of Meat Loaf creations, and of course a fair few for Tyler. She's on her usual raspy form here, racking up the adrenaline to fever pitch levels, to be honest I have a soft spot for her and certainly "Total Eclipse of The Heart" remains one of my guilty pleasures and whilst "Holding Out For A Hero" isn't quite up to that standard it's still an enjoyable romp through soft rock country.

 

The song was originally on the "Footloose" soundtrack but when first released did next to nothing in the charts in 1984, but a year later the pop landscape had altered and Tyler was back. The trouble is that this almost sounds like a spoof of the genre- for example compare this to "The Power Of Love" by Jennifer Rush (which was in the charts at the same time) and you see how lightweight this song appears, the tempo seems too rushed in parts, the break at 2.22 seems almost a necessity not only for the song but for the audience as well, that kind of excitement can only be sustained for so long.

 

It's also a song filled with sexual innuendo "Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed?/ late at night I toss and turn and dream of what I need" she sings, I've obviously no idea what she's banging on about but it's getting her going evidently.

 

All told I don't mind the song but neither is it in my top 100 of all time (must get working on that).......

 

Edited July 16, 201113 yr by gezza76

26TH OCTOBER- TAKE ON ME- A-Ha! (3 weeks)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e1/Take_On_Me_cover.jpg

 

Released twice in 1984 the song failed to impress anyone outside of their native norway, but come major investment from Warner Brothers in the US into a ground breaking Pencil sketched video which was, at the time, groundbreaking, plus a new mix and hey presto you get a US No 1. Make no mistake though "Take On Me" is a brilliant pop song. I once had a discussion in a pub about what the perfect pop song was, there were several proposals if i recall correctly "Baby One More Time", "I Should Be So Lucky" "Wannabe" but it was this track that proved less divisive than the others. Writing perfect pop is just as complicated as writing any other genre, the temptation or the tendancy for things to end up "chessy" or "irritating" precisly because they are aimed at mass approval, "Take On Me" treads that line and never oversteps it.

 

With an instantly memorable synth line that announces its arrival and a falsetto that I couldn't possibly emulate the song has classic stamped all over it (It was finally awarded a UK no 1 status when covered by Boyband A1 in 2000) the song deserves to be remembered as one of the best No 2 hits of the decade. But lets try to get to the bottom of why it's a classic- as with all things it is both timeless AND entirely reflective of a zeitgeist. Post "Thriller" there was a greater emphasise than ever before on the pop video, obviously first and foremost there has to be the song and whilst it has not got anything remarkable about it lyrically, it's the irresistability, the optimistic turn of phrase, its sheer joi di vivre that makes "Take On Me" great.

 

To condense that all down to just 4 minutes is an art, and even just for the 4 minutes of this track, A-Ha! are as near perfection as naything the 80s had to offer...

 

Edited July 18, 201113 yr by gezza76

Brilliant reviews, have to admit I do love me a bit of Bonnie Tyler :wub:, plus Take On Me is a classic.

Brilliant reviews, have to admit I do love me a bit of Bonnie Tyler :wub:, plus Take On Me is a classic.

woo-hoo thanks for posting- thought I was on my own in here!! haha

25TH JANUARY 1986- WALK OF LIFE- Dire Straits (1 week)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6e/Direstraits_wof.JPG

 

The odds were firmly stacked against this song being a top 10 hit. It's the third single from the "Brothers In Arms" LP which was the best selling album of the decade and which had already sold over 1.5 copies by the time "Walk Of Life" made it as a single. There must be something pretty special about this then to make it to No 2? well again not really, lyrically nothing to write home about, and though it's actually a pretty good choon (certainly one of their most commercial songs) a fair amount of the explanation for this must be the traditional January slump accompaning the lack of much new music being around which made an easier climb than normal up the charts.

 

It has a certain finger snapping joy, and a carefree sentiment that is certainly representative of the band at this point in their career but for me "Romeo & Juliet" will always be the one song in their repertoire that just hits the right spot. What saves "Walk Of Life" is just that lightness of touch and abandonment of profundity which so much of their stuff reaches for and misses the mark, ending up as rambling dirges. Succinct, catchy, and upbeat- what more do you want in a pop hit?

 

Actually hats off to the intro- it's fantastic and far better than what follows- though as a song it's enormously more enjoyable than 1982's "Private Investigations"

 

 

Edited July 18, 201113 yr by gezza76

woo-hoo thanks for posting- thought I was on my own in here!! haha

 

Not at all. :D I've been reading this since it started. The commentaries are brilliant and reflective of its time. Now that we're heading into 1986 then shall be where I start reminiscing as I'd say 1986 was the year when I became more interested in music.

1ST FEBRUARY- ONLY LOVE- Nana Mouskouri (1 week)

 

http://www.chartstats.com/images/artwork/8377.jpg

 

Now I think in any other year of the 80s I would be scathing about this pile of tripe, but really there is much much worse to come so it's lucky old Mouskouri for now. Believe it or not but Mouskouri had been famous since the 60s, selling millions "on the continent" as they say and even performed Luxembourg's 1963 Eurovision entry despite being Greek by birth. Moving through time and Mouskouri was asked to write and sing the theme to a new BBC drama called "Mistral's Daughter" and "Only Love" was born. Post the 80s the singer took up politics becoming the UN goodwill ambassador and an MEP until retirement in the early 00s, her reputed global sales are 300 Million thanks to her many recordings in other languages, all of this despite being regularly parodied by Benny Hill on his TV show.

 

But back to the single, yes "Only Love" is drivel, saccherine to the point of being vomit inducing. Now the only thing that saves this from the being pile of s***e that 1986 has to offer is another No 2 single which is just on the horizon, but I shan't pre-empt that, the mid 80s were a curious time and no year more so than 1986. It's a kind of transition year between the big hitting bands and boldness of the early 80's and the full on onslaught of the charts by S/A/W which 1987 bought, and as such it's a year that really doesn't have a flavour, suffice to say that confusion lets some quite bewildering records float all the way to No 2, not all of them bad but some are just perplexing and this is one of them. I've just turned 10 and I can in no way remember this and its chart run seems to indicate it didn't outstay its welcome......the only good thing I can say about it really.....

 

Edited July 18, 201113 yr by gezza76

Not at all. :D I've been reading this since it started. The commentaries are brilliant and reflective of its time. Now that we're heading into 1986 then shall be where I start reminiscing as I'd say 1986 was the year when I became more interested in music.

Good Good the more the merrier!! :D

Might as well contribute to this thread too.

 

25TH JANUARY 1986- WALK OF LIFE- Dire Straits (1 week)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6e/Direstraits_wof.JPG

 

I must admit I don't rememeber this song at all from January 1986. I grew up listening to whatever music my older brother listened to. The one song from this period that I know he bought on 7" and played quite a lot was 'Saving All My Love For You' by Whitney Houston even though that was #1 in December 1985. I became more familiar with Dire Straits when my dad got Sky TV back in 1991 - that was when I discovered MTV and it quickly became my fave channel. However, it was 'Money For Nothing' I remember seeing quite a lot of MTV which is rather apt considering it is name checked in the song. As for 'Walk Of Life' it's a jolly enough song and the addition of the organ intro melody suits the content of the video well. It's almost like it's supposed to be a spoof or parody of something. :D

 

1ST FEBRUARY- ONLY LOVE- Nana Mouskouri (1 week)

 

http://www.chartstats.com/images/artwork/8377.jpg

 

I don't rememeber this at all from the time. I'd only just turned 5 years old so I was still only just getting more into music and becoming interested in Top Of The Pops. This does sound like the sort of song my mum would like - so I'd guess the type of people who bought this at the time were 40+ It sure doesn't sound like the type of track teenagers would've been buying at the time. :lol:

15TH FEBRUARY- BORDERLINE- Madonna (1 week)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1b/Borderline_Single.jpg

 

I like Borderline anyway, but being sandwiched between "Only Love" and "Starting Together" illustrates exactly why she became a star. Madonna was the first female pop star to truly grasp the power of the pop promo, perhaps not the first woman to understand the power of sexuality, but certainly the first to be open about her sexual needs and desires and to be agressive about them in the public arena. "Borderline" was of course a throw back to her first album and bombed in the charts of 1984 when it made No 56, but now a major star ths time around the song bounded to No 2 in early 86. Whereas "Holiday" is full of youthul exhuberance, "Borderline" is more mature and lyrically about the shaking the bonds of male chauvanism, emphasising her desire to control her own body and needs.

 

The song is much more conservative in structure than the free flowing "Holiday", but it's the marked adultness of theme that makes this seem less like a back step than "Holiday" did, there's even a bit of interracial relationships in the video, still quite adventurous and provocative for 1984 America. In short its quite a quiet record in terms of his provocativeness, whereas "Like A Virgin" was a full on assault at sensibilities (well it was perceived as such anyway) of the time, "Borderline" was far more subtler and cleverer, and all a better record for it.....

 

Edited March 23, 201312 yr by Gezza

22ND FEBRUARY- STARTING TOGETHER- Su Pollard (1 week)

 

http://www.chartstats.com/images/artwork/8409.jpg

 

Dear reader, I do try to find something good in most records really I do, but this is beyond me. Commisioned as the theme tune the BBC Series "The Marriage" (a fly-on-the-wall documentary of newly weds) the single rocketed up to No 2 without anyone really noticing. Actually, come to think of it there is a BBC connection with "Only Love" as well- is this the kind of rubbish our licence fee was going on 25 years ago? makes you thankful for "Pointless" now.

 

Anyway Pollard had become a household name in the country by 86 thanks to her part as Peggie in the BBC (again) "comedy" Hi- Di- Hi, and had a brief brush with the charts in 1985, but this was her only other hit. Now I'm sure that Su is a lovely lady but this record is god awful. Sling a book of cliches into a song, a cringe worthy video (in which I don't even know what that pink creation she is wearing is), some meaningless twee lyrics and you might start to get there, she does manage to "Clever" with "Together" though so a point for that. When writers attempt to sing and write about love there is always danger, and whilst records like "Zoom" tread the line successfully, this runs over it, and continues far into the distance, just completely unnecessary in anyone's book. Judge for yourself if you will but it may scar you......deeply....forever....

 

Edited July 19, 201113 yr by gezza76

I don't remember this at all from the time. I'd only just turned 5 years old so I was still only just getting more into music and becoming interested in Top Of The Pops. This does sound like the sort of song my mum would like - so I'd guess the type of people who bought this at the time were 40+ It sure doesn't sound like the type of track teenagers would've been buying at the time. :lol:

I asked my mother yesterday if she recalled it- nope. Looks like for all our sakes we've wiped it from our memory! :lol:

15TH MARCH- MANIC MONDAY- The Bangles (1 week)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/09/Manic_monday_UK.jpg

 

1986 Finally kickstarts!! THIS is a great record and no mistaking. Now I know I don't really like Prince but his hits in other people's hands prove that he was a good songwriter- I have to give him credit for that."Manic Monday" shimmers onto the ear in an instantly engaging manner, you can hear Hoffs swoon when she sings "All of the nights / Why did my lover have to pick last night To get down/ Doesn't it matter

That I have to feed the both of us Employment's down/ He tells me in his bedroom voice/ C'mon honey, let's go make some noise". What's so wonderful about the record is its playfulness. It's a simple enough song about that Monday Morning feeling, but its sense of fun and chirpyness wins the listener over and indeed you sense that the singer doesn't mind that much really deep down.

 

Meeting "Manic Monday" at this point is an absolute joy, I'd almost forgotten all about it but it sounds fresh and bang up to date for 1986, which is more than can be said for any of the year's No 2's to date....the bar has been set!

 

 

Edited July 20, 201113 yr by gezza76

22ND MARCH- ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS- David Bowie (1 week)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b5/Bowie_AbsoluteBeginners.jpg

 

1986 is a year, which more than any other we have been through yet, was more closely tied to Film and TV- perhaps a natural consequence of the visual age when a video had been a necessity not a luxury and MTV was the coolest thing around. We've already met a couple of BBC tie in's (this was also the year of Eastenders Nick Berry's No 1 with "Every Loser Wins") and here to entertain us for one last time in this thread is Bowie with the theme to the film of the same time. Now the film was hyped to within an inch of its life back in 1986 and when released was of course panned and became a box office flop, but to be honest Bowie's theme rises like a pheonix from the cinders, and ranks amongst his best work of the decade.

 

What makes this more fulfilling than his previous No 2 hits? Well I think the answer is simple, he's simply more relaxed at this point in his career. During 1982-84 he's under threat by more outragous pop stars, being more visually daring and pushing more boundaries who use him as an influence, so much so that he feels the need to step up his game, to create something extra-ordinary- in short to over egg the pudding which is what the 1983 hits are slightly. By 1986 those pop stars and that pop movement (New Romanticism) have faded and a new conservatism sweeps the pop world (this is my theory anyway- I'm TMing that!) He's got more time to focus on the record, no doubt the film tie- in helped initially to enable this to enter at No 8 and rise to No 2 but i'm sure after that it became a bit of milestone around its neck. Anywy he's bowing out (geddit) on a high, post 1986 we just won't discuss ok.....

 

Edited July 20, 201113 yr by gezza76

15TH FEBRUARY- BORDERLINE- Madonna (1 week)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1b/Borderline_Single.jpg

 

My older brother was a big fan of Madonna - then again, I guess she was the pin up, the princess of Pop who was adored by thousands upon thousands of teenage boys throughout the UK. I know my brother bought 'Holiday' but can't recall if it was first time around, or upon its reissue in 1985. As for 'Borderline', I don't remember this at all from the time. Iirc, the first time I ever heard 'Borderline' was when my sister bought 'The Immaculate Collection' on cassette.

 

22ND FEBRUARY- STARTING TOGETHER- Su Pollard (1 week)

 

I've only become more aware of Su Pollard's single in the last couple of years. Pre-Buzzjack I used to be a poster on another forum called ChC Media and there were a few posters who adored everything Su. Maybe there were some in jokes amongst them that I didn't get. One thing I discovered via YouTube was this gem... :lol:

 

 

15TH MARCH- MANIC MONDAY- The Bangles (1 week)

 

Now this song I do remember from the time although I think it was more hearing it on the radio whilst I was sat in the back of the car going shopping. :D Of the four tracks listed here, this is easily the track I would choose to listen to.

 

22ND MARCH- ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS- David Bowie (1 week)

 

Have to admit, I have no recollection of this song at all from the time. I know 1986 was the year when my brother started buying more music on CDs - the revelation of the mid 80s (how times have changed :D ) and he bought one of the Hits' compilations (it had a red dice on the cover?) but even so I don't remember this. I guess he didn't like the song himself and therefore skipped the track.

Now this song I do remember from the time although I think it was more hearing it on the radio whilst I was sat in the back of the car going shopping. :D Of the four tracks listed here, this is easily the track I would choose to listen to.

Have to admit, I have no recollection of this song at all from the time. I know 1986 was the year when my brother started buying more music on CDs - the revelation of the mid 80s (how times have changed :D ) and he bought one of the Hits' compilations (it had a red dice on the cover?) but even so I don't remember this. I guess he didn't like the song himself and therefore skipped the track.

Yes that was "Hits 5" which came out in Nov 86 (I know cause it was the first compilation my parents bought me :lol: though I wasn't majorly into music until 88.