November 5, 20204 yr Out of those 10, I would also put Take On Me in first place with 19 second and A Good Heart in third place. Me, too. behind them, Madonna. Madonna was HOOOOOOGE in 1985 as became the first solo female pop superstar in the sense of a female in control of every aspect of her career, based in dance music, and set the tone for all future pop music where men weren't pulling the strings. Girls had never become obsessed by female pop stars before, they went almost exclusively for male pop stars or dance tracks with female vocals. Culture change moment. And she got better as she went on. The Abba boys track, shame it wasn't Abba, I would have loved it more than I do. Then the rest, all quite good, but agree Bowie/Jagger last - were it not for Frankie, an annoying huge diversion from Sister Sledge's epic early stuff....
November 5, 20204 yr 1986 had some classic chart=toppers: A-ha and Pet Shop Boys 2 of the greatest records ever. Sadly, we had absolute drivel as well. Spitting Image not funny, not clever, and even more annoying than the records it was trying to parody. Just awful. In the top 10, Nick Berry was absolute tripe, last place by a country mile. Sinitta was just terrible, hear it more than 6 times in 2 weeks and you want to pull your ears off. Then Lady In Red, no 80's wedding complete without it, those always the bridesmaid can only hate it! Dirge. Living Doll was great, because of the Young Ones taking the piss and Cliff going along with it - but musically, errr, hmmm, it's not even amongst Cliff's Best 100 tracks (and he had some fantastic tracks before and after this one). Then moving into the "OK" category, Boris Gardiner is pleasant, and he'd waited 16 years for a follow-up to his version of the fab Elizabathan Serenade, so I dont begrudge him anything. Billy Ocean, another 70's legend, I was a fan of his records when he was known as Scorched Earth in 1974 (On The Run) - this wasn't anywhere near his best 70's stuff, or even his Caribbean Queen & Loverboy, but at least it wasn't Suddenly that topped! Then the good stuff, The Bee Gees - sorry I mean Diana Ross! Great to see her get a biggie 15 years on from her last chart-topper. Madonna & Berlin are both great chart-toppers and tracks. Love 'em both. Berlin has the edge I think. Or was that U2?
November 5, 20204 yr Author Just checked what they are and I quite like them all too - although I wouldn't choose to listen to the novelty one. Hey ...no reading ahead :nono: :P
November 6, 20204 yr Lots of great #1s in 87 especially T'Pau, PSB, Mel & Kim, also partial to La Isla Bonita but guess it didn't do enough to be top 10 of the year
November 8, 20204 yr Author 1987 10th place - Ben E King - Stand By Me 6.0 hwZNL7QVJjE This is one of those songs that sounds like it existed even before it existed. Almost as if mankind had no choice but to produce this song at some point in its evolution. It was always on the cards - a necessary song. Amazingly, it was originally rejected by King's band so he kept it for himself and released it when he went solo. Not only has it become his signature song, it also became a standard, being covered over 100 times by notable artists. The song was a minor hit when it was released in 1961. During the late 80s and early 90s Levi's jeans developed a television advertisement campaign of using classic songs as the sound track to brief retro vignettes usually featuring good looking men in white underwear taking off or putting on the jeans in the presence of admiring women and disapproving men. The ads became so talked about that record companies spotted an opportunity for some re-release revenue. Stand By Me was the fourth in the advertisement series and the third/fourth to be re-released as a single. Another song from the series - Percy Sledge's When a Man Loves a Woman - was released the same day, going on to climb the chart and sit at number 2 behind King's hit for two weeks. Stand By Me had one of the biggest jumps to number 1 in chart history, leaping from 19 to 1 in February 1987. It's a fine song but not one I would be in a hurry to listen to. That's going to be the case for most of these 1987 songs. Seventh best selling single of the year Edited November 10, 20204 yr by Colm
November 9, 20204 yr I love both versions of Stand By Me, both topped my charts - Lennon in 1975 and Ben in 1987, and although John's is my "original version" (the one I really knew well first) these days I love Ben's even more.
November 9, 20204 yr Ouch, lots of meh songs only saved by Madonna and Berlin Madonna is the best by millions, still love the song, genious lyrics and amazing melody Always loved Take my Breathe Away too, even bought the album as a kid back in the day The Berlin "Count Three & Play" album was very good, "Take My Breath Away" was probably the lowlight of the whole record. "Like Flames" was the best track.
November 10, 20204 yr Author 1987 9th place - Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up 6.3 dQw4w9WgXcQ The star here is Rick's voice - which at the time many assumed was the voice of a black man. Not far behind is the housey bassline stolen/borrowed from Colonel Abrams 1985 hit Trapped. The backing music is fairly standard Stock, Aitken and Waterman fare, in comparison to their previous number 1 single Mel and Kim's Respectable - more on that later. Never Gonna Give You was a worldwide phenomenon long before it became a worldwide meme - hitting number 1 in 25 countries. An astonishing feat for the debut single of a chronically shy 22 year old British singer. Even more impressive is that one of those countries was the USA where it became the 4th best seller on 1988. It wasn't actually his debut single. A duet with Lisa Carter, When You Gonna, credited to Rick and Lisa, came out earlier in 1987 and was a hit in Belgium and the Netherlands. I was never a big fan of this song. It was sorta just there. My favourite SAW-period Rick song is Take Me To Your Heart - which also featured a borrowed house base line - this time from Inner City's Big Fun. Best selling single of 1987. Edited November 10, 20204 yr by Colm
November 10, 20204 yr Author 1987 8th place - The Firm - Star Trekkin' 6.8 FCARADb9asE I do like the progression in this - the ever increasing tempo, the gathering derangement of the vocalists, the vocoder interludes. The chorus is probably the weak point. Another song that jumped to number 1 from outside the Top 10. They didn't have a video for the song until a few hours before it was due to be broadcast on Top of the Pops, at number 1. It was done by a group of art school graduates who had less than a week to come up with something. Ninth best seller of the year. Edited November 10, 20204 yr by Colm
November 10, 20204 yr Author Yep - his singles were all decent but hardly any of them were remarkable.
November 10, 20204 yr Author 1987 7th place - Starship - Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now 6.9 3wxyN3z9PL4 I'm quite sure opinions vary on this slice of mid-80s FM rock. It's probably a slight overstatement to call it a power ballad - there's not enough anguish in it for a start. It came straight off the production line of mid-80s hit machines Albert Hammond and Diane Warren and dusted with sparkling production care of Narada Michael Walden - who will be mentioned again later in this thread. All in aid of providing the soundtrack to 1987 romantic comedy Mannequin. What may not be apparent to some people is, while there were no million sellers between 1985 and 1991, there were still huge runaway hits. This did over 740,000 and Never Gonna Give You Up did over 810,000. Massive sales in late '80s terms. One thing I notice is that the follow up - It's Not Over ('Til It's Over) barely charted at all - peaking at number 86. Does anyone know if that was a full UK release? Second best seller of the year.
November 10, 20204 yr Author Starship only 0.1 higher than The Firm? Scandalous! But you're ok with Stand By Me being 0.8 lower than Star Treckin'? :lol:
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