Three great acts tonight! The Specials / Special AKA were hugely influential in their music and social commentary, all of them were huge talents but the genius of Jerry Dammers was the constant throughout.

The linked song 'The Boiler' is one I'd read about but never actually heard before...

trigger warning:

it's about rape.

I might have expected U2 and Erasure to be a little higher, but I expect that's the effect of the early 80s having generally higher sales than when most of their 80s chart successes came.

I adore the Thompson Twins. Good to see their best song is also their biggest seller.

55. SHALAMAR (2,006,200)

9 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: A NIGHT TO REMEMBER (369,000)

 

Early 80s outfit that were influential in introducing body popping to the UK as well as pretty much inventing the moonwalk when group member Jeffrey Daniel did both on TOTP!  Daniel was already known to Jackson through being a dancer on the  “Soul Train”  programme in the US and teamed up with him in the 80s to do choreography on some of Jackson’s promo’s.

54. HOWARD JONES (2,012,900)

10 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: NEW SONG (395,000)

 

Synth pop alert!  One of the charts most reliable provider of hits between 83 and 85, he was famed (at the start of his career) for using a mime artist called Jeb on his early performances  and led to him getting signed. He appeared at Live Aid but it was pretty much downhill for him after that commercial wise.

53. RICK ASTLEY (2,032,100)

7 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP (774,000)

BEST SELLING ACT OF 1987

 

From very popular to uncool and back again, Astley has proved surprisingly resilient in the fickle world of pop.  His first hit remains his biggest seller and signature track, but he fell out with S/A/W in 1988, a situation which probably cost him a place in the top 50 ultimately.

Tomorrow, a recap of the bottom 50!

U2 outside the top 50 is a surprise, even given their fan base appeal and a low-selling Desire chart-topper. At least 4 of those singles sales were due to me starting with Fire. The Specials were great, but the fans swapped to Fun Boy Three by and large (as I did), and another 5 sales from me. Shalamar were big for a while in the UK, not so much in the USA, along with anything remotely sounding like disco - even though it wasnt really disco, but I still wouldnt have put them ahead of U2!

Erasure is also lower than I'd have guessed, Sometimes was my first chart-topper from Vince n andy. Rick Astley was always going to do well with a big-seller debut, but Howard Jones is also a bit higher than I'd expected, and I also bought a handful of his singles - best one is Hide & Seek, though What Is Love is up there too.

52. BLONDIE (2,058,800)

6 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: THE TIDE IS HIGH (619,000)

 

Flipping from punk to a more commercial sound was just the ticket for these guys to hit it big in the late 70s with classics “Heart Of Glass” and “Sunday Girl”.  By the time the 80s came around the group was at its biggest scoring a hat-trick of No 1 singles in 1980, “Rapture” in 1981 proved to be their final top 10 hit of the 80s (and arguably the first US No 1 single to feature rapping) and they split by 1982 which makes their position here all the more impressive.

51. BILLY JOEL (2,071,300)

8 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: UPTOWN GIRL (827,000)

 

Singer songwriter who of course is most famous for “Uptown Girl” here which remains his best seller, but his best compositions are probably from the 70s (“Piano Man”, “She’s Always A Woman” and “Just The Way You Are” among a few of the finest).  However his biggest hit was actually inspired by an occasion when Joel was in the company of Christine Brinkley, Whitney Houston, and Elle McPherson (his girlfriend at the time), but by the time it was completed he had swapped McPherson for Brinkley who appeared in the promo.

Re-cap of the bottom half!

100. SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES (1,383,300)

99. JULIO IGLESIAS (1,385,900)

98. SINITTA (1,390,700)

97. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN (1,418,900)

96. IRENE CARA (1,420,600)

95. THE COMMUNARDS (1,429,000)

94.  BROS (1,456,800)

93. THE BANGLES (1,473,300)

92. YAZOO (1,473,900)

91. TOYAH (1,540,900)

  

90. MODERN ROMANCE (1,541,000)

89. KATE BUSH (1,542,700)

88. ALISON MOYET (1,554,000)

87. DOLLAR (1,569,200)

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

85. THE STRANGLERS (1,577,600)

84. NIK KERSHAW (1,594,200)

83. GARY NUMAN (1,602,700)

82. TIGHT FIT (1,610,800)

81. FUN BOY THREE (1,621,800)

 

80. GEORGE BENSON (1,623,500)

79. ABC (1,624,200)

78. THE BEAT (1,641,600)

77. THE PRETENDERS (1,651,900)

76. DIRE STRAITS (1,660,649)

75. DONNA SUMMER (1,669,400)

74. IRON MAIDEN (1,671,300)

73. ROXY MUSIC (1,761,300)

72. GENESIS (1,762,300)

71. HOT CHOCOLATE (1,769,200)

 

70. ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA (1,788,100)

69. STYLE COUNCIL (1,788,700)

68. NEW ORDER (1,800,900)

67. EDDY GRANT (1,851,300)

66. TINA TURNER (1,859,900)

65. THE NOLANS (1,867,600)

64. ODYSSEY (1,879,900)

63. BILLY OCEAN (1,909,700)

62. SHEENA EASTON (1,922,700)

61. FIVE STAR (1,938,800)

 

 

60. THOMPSON TWINS (1,966,300)

59. IMAGINATION (1,970,300)

58. THE SPECIALS (1,984,300)

57. U2 (1,984,400)

56. ERASURE (2,002,100)

55. SHALAMAR (2,006,200)

54. HOWARD JONES (2,012,900)

53. RICK ASTLEY (2,032,100)

52. BLONDIE (2,058,800)

51. BILLY JOEL (2,071,300)

Wow go Blondie

'Heart Of Glass', 'Sunday Girl', 'Atomic', 'Call Me', 'The Tide Is High' and 'Maria' is one of the strongest collections of #1s I can think of

I liked a lot of Howard Jones' songs - New Song especially.

I used to have a friend who was a fan and years after he stopped being chart successful she used to write to his mother and get replies. I think the mother must have run his fan club or something.

I don't mind Blondie and really like some of their songs but don't own any album or GH

not the biggest fan of Billy Joel, find him so over-rated

50. LEVEL 42 (2,105,700)

16 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: LESSONS IN LOVE (333,000)

 

Take a bit of jazz funk and a few synths and you get pop gold for the mid 80s with this band,  they supported Madonna on her world tour in 1987 and had to survive losing two members at the height of their success in 1987.  The struggled on into the 90s but their glory days were well behind them by that time.

49. PAUL YOUNG (2,112,700)

8 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: LOVE OF THE COMMON PEOPLE (545,000)

 

One of the most distinctive voices of the mid 80s was Paul Young who was considered something of a heart throb at the time and made a big splash in 1983 with 1.2 million singles sold when he launched his solo career.  He never recaptured that momentum after his third album underperformed and he didn’t release anything else in the decade.

48. A-HA (2,118,400)

12 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: TAKE ON ME (578,000)

 

Certainly the biggest new Scandi act of the decade, they of course broke through thanks in part to the state of the art promo for “Take On Me” but youthful good looks helped them to become the biggest male pop act (let’s avoid the term boyband shall we) until Bros came along at least.  An impressive 11 top 20 hits in the last 6 years of the decade sees them ease into the top 50 for the decade.

oh I thought A-ha would be much much higher, so many classics during the 80s

Take on me, Hunting high and low, Cry wolf, I've been losing you, and the jewel that is Manhattan skyline <3

also liked Level 42 and Running in the Family was one of the first albums I bought as a kid

Paul Young I also kinda liked and both his GH that came out in 91 (I think)

Three very, very middle of the road acts right there.

Never liked Level 42 but Mark King was an astounding bassist

Paul Young has a couple of tracks I like - most notably his cover of Love of the Common People. Great voice

a-ha had two solid albums to kick off their career and have slid gently into icy elegance over the years. An underrated band. Although, Take on Me is overrated

Mark King, Nick Heywood, Howard Jones, Limahl, Nik Kershaw and the fella from Red Box are all the same bloke and nobody’s telling me otherwise.

I would have thought a-ha would be higher. Take on Me and Sun Always Shines being their very best.

Love of the Common People the best Paul Young song