NO 61- 78 POINTS

 

Eye Of The Tiger Survivor (Voter: Jackjones- 14 points, Riser- 12 points, Chez Wombat- 19 points, AH Gold- 18 points, Colm- 9 points, Nina West- 6 points)- No 1 for 4 weeks in September 1982

 

 

The quintessential 80s songs are starting to leave now, from “Rocky III” and with an unmistakable intro!

 

NO 60- 80 POINTS

 

True Spandau Ballet (Voter: Riser- 29 points, Donnahjaneymack- 21 points, ..Ready for it- 8 points, Leonardo- 22 points)- No 1 for 4 weeks in April/ May 1983

 

 

Their only No 1 in 10 top 10 singles between 1980 and 1986 during which time they were one of the “big four” in terms of 80s groups. Written by Gary Kemp about Altered Images frontwoman Clare Grogan.

 

NO 59- 81 POINTS

 

Uptown Girl Billy Joel (Voter:Dot Branning- 11 points, Riser- 23 points, Jimwatts- 20 points, Nina West- 14 points, Gezza- 13 points)- No 1 for 5 weeks in November/ December 1983

 

 

Written by Joel about his then girlfriend Elle MacPherson, he split with her shortly after and continued to work on the song which in the end was dedicated to his new girlfriend Christine Brinkley who appears in the promo.

 

the latest batch are all great except Kylie (pleasantly nice at best) and Spandau (so sick of it, and I've seen them do it live at least 3 or 4 times - PM Dawn's Set Adrift On Memory Bliss is way better, or Spandau's Chant no. 1)

Sorry, not sorry I much prefer Westlife's version of Uptown Girl. Also Westlife's video is hilariously amazing. :P

Edited January 11, 20223 yr by Jason

True is my favourite of those three, good vocal from Tony Hadley. With its harmonies, True stylistically is a possible precursor to most of Wet Wet Wet's 90s career.

 

Although yes Spandau did have more interesting songs before it such as To Cut A Long Story Short and Chant Number 1.

 

 

not a fan of those 3

never got Spandau Ballet, even worst than Duran Duran :D

and Westlife kinda ruined Uptown Girl forever :D

Sorry, not sorry I much prefer Westlife's version of Uptown Girl. Also Westlife's video is hilariously amazing. :P

 

Thing is Billy didn’t do ‘a version’ of it he wrote and produced it hence for me his version is by far better!

'Stand And Deliver' definitely deserved more as well but at least it didn't only get one vote like 'Prince Charming' did! (I do prefer the latter but they're both great)

 

I don't associate it with the 80s at all obviously by 'Stand By Me' is great. Band Aid and Shaky both Xmas classics, and the last 3 songs to drop out are all good tunes as well (Survivor the best of the three). For some reason I thought 'Gold' was a #1 for Spandau Ballet too but I see it stalled at #2, I wish that had been their #1 instead if they had to have only one but that and 'True' are both classics.

Thing is Billy didn’t do ‘a version’ of it he wrote and produced it hence for me his version is by far better!

Which means all cover versions deserve to suffer in hell forever and ever just because they are not original versions? :unsure:

 

and Billy Joel's original song is so good that got zero points from you. :lol:

covers can also be as good or even better than the original

ie Jeff Buckley's cover of Hallelujah

 

but most covers are lazy or clueless about what they're singing about, and then it's no good

Ugh, “Uptown Girl” - the Westl*f* version was playing in the supermarket the other day and I had to get out of there ASAFP. I did wonder if I had died and had entered purgatory but there was no sign of James Corden.

Another 30 pointer exiting today....

there should definitely be a law against Westlife being played in public places

the other day they played Westlife & Mariah's Against All Odds on the bus and almost complained to the driver :D

Westlife's version of Uptown Girl isn't really any different from the original, even the video is basically exactly the same in scenario.

Westlife's version of Uptown Girl isn't really any different from the original, even the video is basically exactly the same in scenario.

 

Indeed- both are mediocre.

 

Cover versions should be completely different and change the meaning of a song, see: Johnny Cash's version of Nine Inch Nails Hurt - otherwise they are completely pointless. Westlife were completely pointless though so I guess a by-numbers cover is pretty ON BRAND.

Yup exactly my point!

 

‘Uptown Girl’ is a great song like even if it didn’t make my votes but yes Jason Westlife should def ‘suffer in hell forever’ (not literally) as all they did was sing the same song and got another number one out of it. They symbolise the plastic quick buck mentality of Louis Walsh and his management!

I feel like the mentality around covers was quite different 20 years ago though. If you did a cover it was pretty much expected that you’d just re-sing the song. The less distinguishable the end product was from the original the better the job you’d done. Not defending Westlife’s artistic contribution or anything.

 

Uptown Girl was close to my votes. Would it have made it if the Westlife version had never existed? Hard to say. Brass in Pocket is the other recent exit I really like.

Uptown Girl is great, Billy Joel is a classically-trained wonderful musician with a great back-catalogue and it was his loving tribute to the brilliant 60's band The Four Seasons (see Jersey Boys, and a hundred charting and chart-topping covers of their songs, many of them completely different and brilliant, many of them copycat and grabbing a hit where The Four Seasons originals hadn't been hits due to lack of UK airplay). I didn't vote for it either, but my not voting merely reflects I needed more votes than 30. About 150 would have done :P

 

Westlife version was artistically pointless, but was a Comic relief single designed to make money for worthy causes, so the whole point was not to fart around with it to maximise sales of what was a popular song in the UK, so I entirely forgive it, and rather enjoy the last 2 Westlife singles, much better than most of their heyday stuff.

 

 

 

 

There has alsoways been amazing covers by very inventive people also 20 or 30 years ago

from Tori Amos covering Smells like teen spirit on piano only to the Fugees making a hip-hop version of Killing me softly

and if you have a more faithful cover you have to do it from the guts like Jeff Buckley did with Cohen's Hallelujah

 

there are no excuses for cheap useless covers like Westlife or the X Factor did, thats the Louis Walsh/Simon Cowell mentality