93. THE BANGLES (1,473,300)

8 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: ETERNAL FLAME (490,000)

 

Formed in 1981 success didn’t come early for these girls whose first album didn’t generate any hits but did get the attention of Cyndi Lauper who gave them the opening slot on her US tour in 1984 as well as attracting a certain singer called Prince who took quite a shine to lead singer Susanna Hoffs.  He gave them the song “Manic Monday” which he wrote and bingo a No 2 hit on both sides of the Atlantic.  The hits started to flow culminating in the chart topping “Eternal Flame” which spent a month at the top here in 1989 but the band split by the end of that year over friction caused by the media in promoting Hoffs as the “lead singer” and highlighting her in interviews and profiles.

92. YAZOO (1,473,900)

4 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: ONLY YOU (519,000)

 

Quite a few acts are on the list for shining very brightly for a short period of time.  One of them is Yazoo who lasted just 18 months giving us 2 albums and 4 singles.  Vince Clarke was of course famously in Depeche Mode prior to meeting to Alison Moyet and the pair also notoriously never got on during their time as a duo but both of them will be back later on in the rundown in different Guises.  Their work has proved popular though with a cover of “Only You” becoming the Christmas No 1 for 1983 in a cover by Flying Pickets and The Saturdays sampling another track “Situation” on their debut single “If This Is Love” in 2008.

Yazoo <3

Love Vince & Alison and whilst it was a short journey, I think all of their hits are really strong singles.

I only really know the four biggest UK hits from the Bangles but I do like all of them, albeit two of them are covers. I think I may have bought their best of at some point from a bargain bin, but I can't recall liking it much aside from those four.

91. TOYAH (1,540,900)

7 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: FOUR FROM TOYAH (370,000)

 

Another punk survivor the name of the band and the vocalist have become synonymous but “Toyah” was actually a group until 1984 when the lead singer Toyah Wilcox went solo and carried on using the same name (Sales on this list are split accordingly). Wilcox ran successful careers as an actress and a musician for much of the early 80s appearing in cult films “Jubilee” and “Quadrophenia” but the musical career really took off after she appeared in a TV show called “Shoestring” as a popstar that the band really took off with Wilcox as the focus of attention thanks to her startling appearance.  Wilcox’s solo career was only a middling success and she soon returned to film and TV presenting.

90. MODERN ROMANCE (1,541,000)

8 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (378,000)

 

Now largely forgotten these boys racked up considerable sales in the early 80s with happy party tunes “Ay Ay Ay Ay Moosey” and “Everybody Salsa”.  They changed their lead singer in 1982 to the far more photogenic Michael J Mullins and the hits continued until 1983 when an ill advised switch of image went down like a lead balloon and the hits dried up with the group going their separate ways in 1985.

89. KATE BUSH (1,542,700)

13 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: BABOOSHKA (267,000)

 

What more can be said about Kate Bush?  Well let’s just say that her long time lapses between albums probably affected her position here, in 1980 her second album “Never For Ever” became the first album by a British Female soloist to hit No 1 (let alone debut there) but second album “The Dreaming” in 1982 was poorly received due to the experimentation on it.  She returned to favour in 1985 with “Hounds Of Love” which contained 4 top 40 hits including “Running Up That Hill” which would eventually hit No 1 in 2022.  She is rightly revered as one of the most creative and innovative singers we’ve produced.

Kate Bush Hounds of Love is definitely a contender for my favourite 80s album, what a masterpiece.

Some good acts there - some of which (Kate Bush, Toyah, maybe Bros) I might have expected to be a bit higher.

Love Yazoo and The Bangles as well.

No British female soloists had a #1 album until 1980? That's wild!

Was hoping Bangles would make an appearance. Eternal Flame is an all time fave of mine

oh love Bangles, my fav of the lot, Walk like an Egyptian deserved #1, the song was everywhere at the time

also love Yazoo, but why did they make a band together if they didn't get on that well?

Kate Bush for me has always been more like than love. Surprised she isn't higher on the list.

and Bros, I did like the first 3 singles but they had one of the biggest drop in song quality I've ever experienced.

Toyah I never liked and can't say I recall anything from Modern Romance.

10 hours ago, Riser said:

No British female soloists had a #1 album until 1980? That's wild!

In fact I believe the first female soloist to have a #1 album was Connie Francis, with 20 All Time Greats in 1977.

88. ALISON MOYET (1,554,000)

7 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: THAT OLE DEVIL CALLED LOVE (296,000)

 

So Moyet ends the 80s outselling Yazoo which I imagined would have pleased her at the time.  Post split she teamed up with Jolly & Swain (probably the most successful songwriting team of the early 80s) to give her a massive solo debut era with three top 30 hits.  Her biggest solo singer was a cover of the Billie Holiday track “This Ole Devil Called Love” which made No 2, her second album in 1987 contained another two top 10 singles but a gap of 4 years between albums from 1987 cost her a few rungs on the rundown.

87. DOLLAR (1,569,200)

6 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: MIRROR MIRROR (396,000)

 

Duo comprising former members of 70s pop group Guys N Dolls, they were initially successful in the late 70s but once again a change of image in 1980 proved unsuccessful and prompted the pair to approach producer Trevor Horn who helmed their hits in their most successful period (1981-1982) during which they were rarely off TOTP.  The pair were romantically involved in the 70s but had split by 1980, but that year they announced their engagement to generate publicity for that failed album- that was unearthed as a lie which didn’t help at all!  They split by 1983 with both attempting, and failing, to get a solo career and had reformed by the end of the 80s to cover Erasure’s “Oh L’Amour” which retuned them to the top 10 for one final time.  Van Day went on to remain in the public eye for the wrong reasons, running a burger van in Brighton and getting in legal wranglers over the use of the “Bucks Fizz” name as he was touring with a rival variation of the former group, he then ran into a highly publicised argument with Sonia on “Reborn In The USA”.

86. JIVE BUNNY & THE MASTERMIXERS (1,576,500)

3 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: SWING THE MOOD (820,000)

BIGGEST SELLING ACT OF 1989

 

Proving the concept that the doing a medley was not old hat, this father and son duo threw some old tracks over an instrumental hit and used a cartoon Bunny to promote it and what do you know- we lapped it up in 1989!  They equalled the (then) record of three No 1 hits from their first 3 singles held at that point by Gerry & The Pacemakers and Frankie Goes To Hollywood, and they did it in just 4 months.  They also sold 1.5 million singles in that same time frame which was incredible bearing in mind the general poor sales during the year.  By 1991 we were bored .

oh loved Alison Moyet, the first album not so much, but loved album 2 and the singles Is This Love

and Weak in the Presence of Beauty. Her torch song covers - Ole devil and Love Letters I also didn't like much, preferred her pop songs.

On 30/05/2025 at 09:12, Bjork said:

Bruce output in the 80s was great

Communards I hated with a passion,

those falsetto vocals so high they could pierce your eyed

and too much relying on covers

I did buy Banderas and bought the album, think I was the only one :D

I bought that Banderas album on cassette, too. Love This Is Your Life see BJSC. Two ex BJSC acts so far for Singerpurear, (Cities In Dust, from Siouxsie t'other) so not too shabby, give or take a Sinitta or so. Springsteen I was way ahead of in the UK (Born To Run got the single), Fame I bought when the film came out, and Communards own material was better than their covers, none of which were better than the original versions - though they were fun. Julio's best achievement was Enrique, but Begin The Beguine is a great song.

Bangles were great, their minor hits were often as good as the big hits, Yazoo, 3 great singles and done. Better things to come for both, Alison Moyet's solo career was pretty good. Toyah had her moments, and kept it going albeit never big hits after 1981. Kate Bush is far too low, but will have way outsold most of them so far in the long run. Modern Romance are very flattered, one decent single and a lot of soundalikes. Dollar had great singles thanks to their producers and despite young David, and Jive Bunny introduced oldies to a new generation and for some, ruined them.

85. THE STRANGLERS (1,577,600)

12 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: GOLDEN BROWN (552,000)

 

For a band that were told by their manager to disband in 1979 as they’d lost their creative direction, we have to be thankful that they took no notice.  They produced some of their biggest hits in the 80s including the glorious “Golden Brown” obviously, once frontman Cornwall left the band in 1990 the hits dried up but they remain one of the most innovative bands of the decade.

84. NIK KERSHAW (1,594,200)

8 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: I WON’T LET THE SUN GO DOWN ON ME (375,000)

 

Starting off with a string of 7 top 20 singles in a row, Kershaw was one of the big stars of 84, to the point where music fans poured over the lyrics of “The Riddle” to make it make sense!  Most famous after the 80s for writing Chesney Hawkes 1991 hit “The One And Only”.