Last call for this round!

+25 Robson & Jerome - Unchained Melody (1995)

+24 Hale & Pace & The Stonkers - The Stonk (1991)

+23 Chris de Burgh - The Lady in Red (1986)

+22 Band Aid II - Do they Know it’s Christmas? (1989)

+21 Goombay Dance Band - Seven Tears (1982)

+20 USA for Africa - We are the World (1985)

+19 Joe Dolce Music Theatre - Shaddup You Face (1981)

+18 Renée and Renato - Save your love (1982)

+17 Glenn Medeiros - Nothing’s Gonna Change my Love for You (1988)

+16 Jive Bunny & the Mastermixers - Let’s Party (1989)

+15 Manchester United FC - Come On You Reds (1994)

+14 Bombalurina - Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini (1990)

+13 St Winifred’s School Choir - There’s no one Quite Like Gramdma (1980)

+12 Outhere Brothers - Don’t Stop (Wiggle Wiggle) (1995)

+11 Partners in Kryme - Turtle Power (1990)

+10 Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder - Ebony and Ivory (1982)

+9 Lionel Richie - Hello (1984)

+8 The Simpsons - Do The Bartman (1991)

+7 Nick Berry - Every Loser Wins (1986)

+6 Color Me Badd - I Wanna Sex You Up (1991)

+5 Mr Blobby - Mr Blobby (1993)

+4 Stevie Wonder - I Just Called To Say I Love You (1984)

+3 The Firm - Star Trekkin’ (1987)

+2 Right Said Fred - Deeply Dippy (1992)

+1 Spitting Image - The Chicken Song (1986)

[the podium of bad]

+25 Jive Bunny & the Mastermixers - Let’s Party (1989) [way to ruin some festive faves]

+24 St Winifred’s School Choir - There’s No One Quite Like Grandma (1980) [the song and vocals aren't the worst thing about this, it's the production]

+23 Joe Dolce Music Theatre - Shaddup You Face (1981) [the social commentary in this might be commendable if the execution weren't so excruciating]

[90s nostalgia gone bad]

+22 Right Said Fred - Deeply Dippy (1992)

+21 Hale & Pace & The Stonkers - The Stonk (1991)

+20 Bombalurina - Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini (1990)

+19 Color Me Badd - I Wanna Sex You Up (1991)

+18 Partners In Kryme - Turtle Power (1990)

+17 The Simpsons - Do The Bartman (1991)

[more bad than bland]

+16 Glenn Medeiros - Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love for You (1988)

+15 Band Aid II - Do They Know It’s Christmas? (1989)

+14 Robson & Jerome - Unchained Melody (1995)

[equal parts terrible and amusing]

+13 Spitting Image - The Chicken Song (1986)

[more bland than bad]

+12 Chris de Burgh - The Lady In Red (1986)

+11 Goombay Dance Band - Seven Tears (1982)

+10 Nick Berry - Every Loser Wins (1986)

[can't say much bad about these]

+9 USA For Africa - We Are The World (1985)

+8 Manchester United FC - Come On You Reds (1994)

+7 Lionel Richie - Hello (1984)

+6 Mr Blobby - Mr Blobby (1993)

+5 Renée and Renato - Save Your Love (1982)

+4 Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder - Ebony And Ivory (1982)

[the ones I voted for in best 80s/90s #1s rates]

+3 The Firm - Star Trekkin’ (1987)

+2 Outhere Brothers - Don’t Stop (Wiggle Wiggle) (1995) [i've said it before and I'll say it again, the Townhouse radio edit (which is the one on Now 30) is a tune]

+1 Stevie Wonder - I Just Called To Say I Love You (1984)

I am going to vote in this tonight but it might be just after midnight.

 

edit:

 

Intolerable:

+25 Color Me Badd - I Wanna Sex You Up

+24 Right Said Fred - Deeply Dippy (ehhh I thought this would be my +25 but to be fair there are parts of it that are fine, IWSYU is more of an intolerable slog throughout)

 

Bad:

+23 Band Aid II - Do They Know It's Christmas?

+22 The Manchester United Football Squad - Come On You Reds

+21 Robson & Jerome - Unchained Melody

 

Boring:

+20 Nick Berry - Every Loser Wins

+19 Stevie Wonder - I Just Called To Say I Love You

+18 Chris De Burgh - The Lady In Red

 

Honestly I kind of like all of the rest? This isn't really a bad list at all lol. I guess I have a high tolerance for this era of novelty hits and a few slower songs that I don't mind. Admittedly there isn't anything that I would put anywhere near a best #1s list like with Fatman Scoop and 3 Of A Kind in heat 3 but still.

 

+17 Bombalurina - Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini

+16 Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder - Ebony And Ivory

+15 Jive Bunny & The Mastermixers - Let's Party (I want to stick up for Jive Bunny more but tbf this is definitely weaker than the other 2)

+14 Joe Dolce Music Theatre - Shaddap You Face (obviously it's offensive that this held Ultravox off #1 but in its own right it's fine as a curious novelty song)

+13 U.S.A. For Africa - We Are The World

+12 Renée & Renato - Save Your Love

+11 Hale And Pace And The Stonkers - The Stonk

+10 Spitting Image - The Chicken Song

+9 St. Winifred's School Choir - There's No-One Quite Like Grandma

+8 Lionel Richie - Hello

+7 Glenn Medeiros - Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You

+6 Partners In Kryme - Turtle Power

+5 The Simpsons - Do The Bartman

+4 Mr Blobby - Mr Blobby

+3 Goombay Dance Band - Seven Tears (nope I'm still not hearing what's meant to be so bad about this even after specifically listening out for it)

+2 The Outhere Brothers - Don't Stop (Wiggle Wiggle)

+1 The Firm - Star Trekkin'

Thanks to the 29 of you who voted in this heat! Julian has kindly entrusted me to reveal the results as he takes a well earned rest from the rate - he’ll be back with the results from Heat 1 when that closes - so if you haven’t voted in that, please do so :)

 

 

We’ll be kicking off the results tomorrow with your bottom / top three #1s…..let the fallout commence :)

25th Hello - Lionel Richie

 

 

 

 

Average Score 6.48

 

Highest Score - 19 (Suedehead2)

 

Lowest Score - 1 (chartjack2, uls2000)

 

#1 for 6 weeks from w/e 24/03/84

 

Kept off #1: It’s Raining Men (The Weather Girls), A Love Worth Waiting For (Shakin’ Stevens), You Take Me Up (Thompson Twins), Against All Odds (Phil Collins).

 

“Mr Reynolds, excuse me but there’s something going on in the sculpture class. I think you should check it out….”

 

Kicking off the Heat 2 rate is Lionel Richie’s third single from his second solo album “Can’t Slow Down”, and his only solo UK #1. This also hit the top in the US. Maybe its legacy as a terrible #1 has been cemented by its bizarre video as on record there are far worse examples of this type of slushy baladeering. You obviously agree as it finishes bottom of the 1980-1995 rate.

Edited September 22, 20222 yr by chartjack2

YESSSSS Stevie Wonder wasn’t last!!!

24th - I Just Called to Say I Love You - Stevie Wonder

 

 

 

Average Score - 7.62

 

Highest Score - 19 (Bumblebre)

 

Lowest Score - 1 (Jade, Popchartfreak, coi, JulianT, AaronTM, jimwatts)

 

#1 for 6 weeks from w/e 08/09/84

 

Kept off #1: Ghostbusters (Ray Parker Jr), The War Song (Culture Club)

 

“But what it is, though old, so new, to fill your heart like no three words could ever do”

 

So Mr Wonder edges out the ex-Commodore to record Buzzjack’s least favourite #1 of 1984. Unfairly derided or a fine example of a genius just treading water? Whatever this Steve Wright Sunday Morning Love Song’s perennial has possibly the laziest three note finish in modern pop music.

 

This was only the fifth record to both reach UK #1 and win the Academy Award for Best Original Song (after Secret Love, Three Coins in the Fountain, Que Sera Sera and Fame). Wonder both self-produced and wrote the track so he only has himself to blame, although as it turned out to be the third highest selling record of the 1980s in the UK, I doubt that he cares too much!

 

 

 

 

Both of Stevie's U.K. #1s are far from his best work but I don't really mind 'I Just Called to Say I Love You'

23rd - Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love for You - Glenn Medeiros

 

 

Average Score - 9.69

 

Highest Score - 18 (Daan, Chez Wombat, Leonardo)

 

Lowest Score - 3 (Adelita, coi, MyKindofLove, JulianT)

 

#1 for 4 weeks from w/e 04/07/88

 

Kept off #1: The Twist (Yo Twist) (The Fatboys / Chubby Checker), Push It / Tramp (Salt N Pepa)

 

“Our dreams are young, and we both know they’ll take us where we need to go”

 

Hawaii’s most famous chart export pre Bruno Mars? This is a cover of a George Benson track that did no business whatsoever in the Uk only three years previously. However, Glenn’s version became the 6th best selling single of 1988, not bad for a 17 year old with his debut hit. The record itself is more forgettable than terrible, although I can see why it sold - Gary and Traceys in high schools up and down the country swooning along. Medeiros would only trouble the top 40 once more with a Bobby Brown duet, so he has Something in Common with Whitney Houston!

Didn't know or check out many of the songs for this or heat 1 really but some decent ones falling out quickly.

 

Glad 'Hello' is out first. Video is a bit creepy with him following that girl but funny for the meme's etc.

 

'Nothing's Gonna Change My Love' is very sappy and drab for me. Like 'I Just Called To Say I Love You' although like Jade said far from his best and a couple of classics of his not even making top 10 I think either!

Edited September 22, 20222 yr by Roba!

Glenn Medeiros is by far the worst of those three.

 

IJCTSILY is far from Stevie's best work i'd agree and it's a bit dull but I don't think it's that bad.

Hello beating Stevie Wonder! Justice has been made :o

Positive start to these results, good that those three have made it out early.

Those are my bottom 3 exactly so pleased! The Glenn Medeiros track has oddly grown on me to the point where I guiltily enjoy it, though obviously it’s still criminal that it blocked Salt n Pepa.

 

All that debate over which of Hello and IJCTSILY should go on the list - and the verdict is in fact that they’re both perfectly acceptable records.

I don't really strongly dislike IJCTSILY but it ended up quite high for me by default because it's just a bit boring / overly cheesy among a list of songs that I mostly actually quite like. Oops at me ending up giving it its highest score :lol:

 

The other 2 so far are both pretty good (albeit not ones I'd be rushing to put on a playlist of my own) and I'm not really sure I understand them having a legacy for being among the worst #1s so glad they are both out!

22nd - I Wanna Sex You Up - Color Me Badd

 

 

 

Average Score - 10.10

 

Highest score - 25 (Bumblebre)

 

Lowest Score - 1 (….ready for it)

 

#1 for 3 weeks from w/e 08/06/91

 

Kept off #1: Baby, Baby (Amy Grant)

 

“Girl you know I’m hooked on you, and this is what I’ll do”

 

Another debut hit that reached the top spot, this was the lead single from the Oklahoma City’s outfit debut album “CMB”. It couldn’t quite match the feat Stateside, falling behind first “More Than Words” by Extreme and then “Rush Rush” by Paula Abdul. It’s not exactly a subtle record, but I guess there are stronger examples of this, ahem, genre to come in the rate.

 

 

21st - Deeply Dippy - Right Said Fred

 

 

Average Score - 10.97

 

Highest score - 24 (Bumblebre, Alex!)

 

Lowest score - 1 (dandy*)

 

#1 for 3 weeks from w/e 18/04/92

 

Kept off #1: Be Quick or Be Dead (Iron Maiden), On a Ragga Tip (SL2)

 

“I’m takin’ a hike to Tahiti”

 

They might have initially been too sexy for the top spot, but having been kept off #1 for six straight weeks by the Groover from Vancouver the previous year, the Freds were not deterred, and after notching up a #3 hit in January with “Don’t Talk, Just Kiss”, came back with this effort. Perhaps their justified current reputation as Covidiots-in-chief have sullied memories of the music, but to me this just seems like harmless, fun pop really. It is definitely saved by the brass solo however! Aside from a single-entrendre Comic Relief single this would their last top 10 smash.

 

20th - The Simpsons - Do the Bartman

 

 

 

 

Average Score - 11.21

 

Highest Score - 25 (Bjork)

 

Lowest Score - 1 (Chez Wombat, Mack.)

 

#1 for 3 weeks from w/e 10/02/91

 

Kept off #1 - I Wanna Give You Devotion (Nomad / MC Mike Freedom), Crazy for You (Madonna)

 

“If you can do the Bart, you’re bad like Michael Jackson”

 

Despite not premiering on terrestrial television in the UK for another five years, Matt Groening’s most famous creations became the first animated chart choppers since The Archies in 1969. Essentially this is Bart Simpson solo effort though - maybe Maggie was involved heavily on production? Co-written be the aforementioned Jackson and Bryan Loren, I guess the harshest brickbat to be thrown at this is “novelty”, but I’d certainly sit through this than “The Principal and the Pauper” again.

 

 

 

Those 3 are all pretty inoffensive to me so happy with those placings. I quite enjoy the Jacko influence on Do The Bartman although the follow up Deep, Deep Trouble was awful and I imagine the whole album they did probably wasn’t a great listen. Like the Ah Tick Tock You Don’t Stop on IWSYU and think the title is the only really bad thing about it. Deeply Dippy is a big step down from I’m Too Sexy but it’s still moderately catchy.