Tears For Fears loved em then love em now still great. Rule The World may be my top track of the decade and saw roland TFF in the 90s and reformed TFF recently. Pity they fall short of the 40.

Elton 40 sounds about right given sacrifice sold in 90 not 89 but that and healing hands snd im still standing all topped my charts in the 80s. Saw Elt at Wembley when his albums were "going cardboard" in sales as he quipped circa 1988. And just before his voice went.

Prince should be higher in terms of influence but he was never a mass sales icon bar the Purple Rain soundtrack which is classic. Saw him twice at Wembley Arena and when Doves Cry Sign O The Times i wish U Heaven all top motch classics among many many greats.

35. DEXY’S MIDNIGHT RUNNERS (2,735,500)

9 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: COME ON EILEEN (1,080,000)

BEST SELLING ACT OF 1982

 

50% of that tally of 2.7 million is made up of their 2 chart toppers in the decade “Geno” and “Come On Eileen”- with the latter becoming the second track to sell a million copies in the 80s. Kevin Rowland was a master at coming out with new images for the outfit which kept him in the papers even when the hits weren’t flowing but no-one sold more singles than this outfit in 1982.

34. SOFT CELL (2,764,100)

9 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: TAINTED LOVE (1,075,000)

 

That first million seller?  Well that “Tainted Love” which tottered over the million in 1982 for this duo.  One of the leading acts of 1981 and 1982, they sold over a million singles in both years with a string of top 4 singles but their demise was quick with the pair splitting by 1984 and Almond going on to a successful solo career and Dave Ball forming 90s dance outfit The Grid.

5 hours ago, Jade said:

'Vienna' is utter magic and one of my favourite songs. I'm another who needs to do a proper deep dive outside the singles!

Same with John Foxx really as I mostly know 'Underpass' but not a lot else

Foxx's first three albums are all really good.

33. ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK (2,765,100)

12 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: SOUVENIR (445,000)

 

Early pioneers of synth pop, the group put together a long run of successful top 30 hits between 1980 and 1986 which sees them here on the list.  Not every album was a commercial success with the band moving on occasion onto more experimental music than what was popular but they tended to pull it back to pop often enough to keep them in the public eye.  A changing line up in the decade led them eventually to disband in 1989 for 3 years until they returned in style to the top 3!

Dexys were a much more interesting band than they often get credit for. I like all three of the 80s albums.

Soft Cell too were really good at first, and the second album The Art of Falling Apart is my favourite. By thetime Marc formedMarc and the Mambas with The The's Matt Johnson I thought they were spent and the new band was a more interesting group. Marc's work in The Immaculate Consumptive with Nick Cave, Foetus and Lydia Lunch was incredible stuff too.

OMD are one of those bands that started out very Kraftwerk influenced but by 1984 had become more of a pop group. Similar to what happened with Thompson Twins and Ultravox to a degree. I will always prefer the really stark, cold European feel of the early synth bands over the poppier numbers. Give me Enola Gay over Tesla Girls any day.

OMD being the best here.

My brother was a fan. so I nicked his vinyl to listen to rather than buying it myself.

They had some goodies, but Enola Gay is the best.

Band Aid obv flattered By virtue of huge charity sales including me. John lennon ditto as i went into a state of shock and mourning at news that seemed to throw us into an alternate universe where a Beatle could be murdered. That was the point the miserable 80s started for me. Musically fabulous but the decade was socially and politically falling apart.

Ultravox i saw in 1981 and again in the 2000s. Midge was musically behind Visage Fade To Grey Yellow Pearl solo number one and Band Aid so one might argue he should be way higher. The George Martin era is my fave maybe esp Reap The Wild Wind but Vienna and If I Was are classics as is Fade To Grey.

Dexys were passionate and had 2 classic chart toppers. I never caught them in concert but when Dexys Mark 1 split off to form The Bureau i caught them supporting Pretenders in 1981 Mansfield. Mansfield now has more potholes than Lennon sang about in A Day In The Life.

Soft Cell had a fabulous run of singles and would be higher if Marc's solo career was included. OMD i loved too right from buying Messages onwards. Still love them and entered a contemporary dnq into bjsc way back. One they wrote for Britney who couldnt recognise a good record when she heard one - if she actually did. OMD i saw in the 90s and 2010s. Fabulous. Still have personal chart toppers in the 21st century.

Soft Cell had a couple singles that I really liked, Say hello wave goodbye and of course Tainted Love, the rest I didn't like them so much.

Dexy's, not a fan.

OMD I like, but not love.

32. GEORGE MICHAEL (2,804,100)

9 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: CARELESS WHISPER (1,143,000)

 

The original blueprint for how to forge a successful career from a boyband, George Michael decided to split Wham! Up in 1986 and forge his own way forward.  The colossal album “Faith” generated 6 top 20 hits in the UK but also 4 US chart toppers proving it was the right move for him, it all started of course with a trio of solo chart toppers as he became one of the decades heart throbs.

31. DEPECHE MODE (2,837,100)

20 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER:  SEE YOU (354,000)

 

Who suspected the Basildon boys would be this high?  It’s another tale of consistency in the decade for the group who survived the loss of Vince Clark in late 1981 as the main songwriter.  Indeed in marks a record third appearance for Clark though he only had input into Depeche Mode’s first album.  Their mixture of dark pop and synth made them fans in the US where they got cult status and a large fanbase though that top 3 single would always elude them on the UK charts.

30. PET SHOP BOYS (2,849,000)

12 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: ALWAYS ON MY MIND (508,000)

 

The top 30 starts off with the perennially popular Pet Shop Boys whose purple period of 1987-89 saw everything they touched turn to commercial gold including writing for Dusty Springfield and Lisa Minnelli and steering both into the top 20.  The pair would site OMD, Soft Cell and Depeche Mode as inspiration for their music and ended up outselling them all by the decade end.

Oh some great acts dropping out recently with the likes of OMD, Soft Cell, Depeche Mode and Pet Shop Boys!

Agreed that 'Enola Gay' is a stone cold classic. Same with 'Tainted Love' which has transitioned into the streaming era really well with over 1 billion plays on Spotify. That and also Pet Shop Boys' take on 'Always On My Mind' are two of my most loved cover versions.

Violator is my favourite period from Depeche Mode which is more 90s release-wise but still straddles the 80s thanks to 'Personal Jesus'.

I haven't seen many '80s acts' live but Pet Shop Boys are an exception as they supported Take That on their mammoth Progress tour, which I attended with my family as a teenager. I was drawn in by the synths but have come to appreciate their lyrical content more and more too as I've gotten older.

Those latest three ❤️

George Michael's best was A Different Corner

Depeche Mode - maybe Everything Counts, but also maybe Personal Jesus

Pet Shop Boys - Always On My Mind. Or West End Girls. Or about 10 others!!

Never particularly liked George Michael's work and really didn't like Wham. That being said he was a talented songwriter, and a good singer, although not that pleasant an individual but much of the success was thoroughly deserved.

Depeche Mode are my favourite of the three here and are definitely among the best of the synth bands. The early pop tracks are good (although 1 minute of Just Can't Enough is ironically, quite enough) and the move into more serious work served them well. I think they've been treading water since Gahan overdosed but they've never been awful. Although it drives e up the wall when they get labelled Goth!

Pet Shop Boys had some great early Pop singles but seem content to never do anything particularly different musically. I feel they're a tad overrated but a decent singles band.

oh Depeche Mode one of the best bands ever. Much prefer their 90s stuff, especially Violator and Ultra

but they also had some gems in the 80s, Strangelove, Never let me down, Everything Counts, Behind the wheel, Personal Jesus

PSB were fantastic from West End Girls to Left to my own devices. After that imperial phase, they became very average and quickly run out of ideas.

George Michael, I like, but don't love, never bought any of albums. Not a fan of his early singles, Careless whisper, A different corner, I Want your sex... but he has some great ballads like One more try, Father figure, You have been loved...

Some great acts appearing in the past few posts. Particularly love Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode and OMD. It's a slight shame the acts who released singles predominately in the mid to late 80s are undervalued quite a lot due to the sales climate being so drastically lower than the first few years.

I also never commented on Erasure, was really pleased to see them sneak over the 2 million mark as I knew they never had a huge selling single and wasn't sure where they would end up.

29. KIM WILDE (2,894,200)

17 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: KIDS IN AMERICA (494,000)

 

Daughter of 60s pop star Marty Wilde with songs written for her by brother Ricky, it was a family affair which helped Wilde into the charts at just 20.  Whilst she’s only the 4^th highest female on the list she is the biggest selling UK female act of the decade by some way, and whilst she twice made No 2 in the UK charts, that chart topper always eluded her though she did claim a US chart topper with her version of “You Keep Me Hanging On”.

28. EURYTHMICS (2,932,000)

19 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: SWEET DREAMS (ARE MADE OF THIS) (505,000)

 

Well aren’t duo’s quite the thing in the 80s!  Eurythmics were born out of the demise of punk pop outfit The Tourists who were themselves no strangers to the top 10.  It took a while for them to start scoring hits but as 1983 dawned the track “Sweet Dreams” became a massive hit all over the world and they never looked back with hits flowing on both sides of the Atlantic throughout the rest of the decade before the duo split in 1990 acrimoniously (for a period anyway).

27. LIONEL RICHIE (2,962,000)

10 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: HELLO (761,000)

 

Starting out the decade as a member of the Commodores, Richie was writing for other artists (a US chart topper for Kenny Rogers) before branching out as a solo artist in 1981 to huge success.  By the middle of the decade he was an international superstar with the best selling album of 1984 and helping to organise and sing on “We Are The World” though of course the single “Hello” was his only solo No 1 in the UK with shall we say a “memorable” video and leave it there?!