10. DURAN DURAN (4,369,700)

20 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: THE REFLEX (464,000)

 

Into the top 10 with one of THE definitive acts of the decade, Duran Duran had come from the New Romantic movement but before long were staples in “Smash Hits” with expensive foreign lensed videos showcasing the excesses of the 80s and starring models.  Cracking the US they were massive on both sides of the Atlantic and early pin ups for the MTV generation with a dedicated (mostly) young female audience scoring chart toppers in both countries.  They had imploded by the late 80s when they were reduced to a trio by 1988 but they continue to this day, and yes they are the 3^rd of the “big 4” to be on the list.  The minor hit “Burning The Ground” in December 1989 gave them just enough sales to overtake FGTH at the death.

Can't bear Phil Collins - vapid, vacuous and the epitome of what was bad in the '80s. Good drummer though

Frankie were an exciting breath of fresh air in '83/'84 and they had 4 great singles from the debut album, with Two Tribes as the pinnacle. It was a shame that Holly Johnson's lack of attention/interest marred the follow up album as they had more potential. Rage Hard is a sign of what could have been but by the time they'd paid Trevor Horn half a million to mix the album it was clear they were done.

Duran Duran had a great 1st album, but got glossier and less interesting which each follow up but they still managed a run of great singles. By the time of Bond and Live Aid they were coming apart. The Notorious album in '86 showed there was life in them as a three piece, but it didn't show again until the early '90s. Then they managed to come back brilliantly before blowing it again with a dreadful covers album.

Duran Duran are a great 80s band. The Greatest album is a brilliant listen, which just goes to show how many top notch singles they had.

Fun Fact - My brother used to be a Daniel Craig look-a-like and is in a recent Duran video for Anniversary with a load of other look-a-likes!!

FGTH had some great singles, but I found their album barely listenable. When the first track is less than 2 minutes and the second is almost quarter of an hour long, it just seems a little over-indulgent from the outset.

I liked early Duran in 1981, then during the Rio phase I got a bit fed up with them, bar Save A Prayer, and Simon seemed to have been part-ego, part-wailing-vocals, before they started to get way more interesting around Union Of The Snake era, and peaked with The Reflex and Wild Boys, 2 classic tracks. Simon was getting better as a vocalist (and has continued to improve over the decades), and anyone willing to let themselves get tied to a windmill and dunked (Wild Boys video) gets me on board. The Bond theme was good, and then the minor decade end tracks were interesting, prior to the 1993 re-invention that was peak Duran again. 21st century stuff has been, IMO, as good as anything they have done, loved the recent Halloween album and bonus tracks, and before that a fabulous track with Tove Lo and another with Janelle Monae amongst much more. I class myself as a non-Durannie who got converted by virtue of brilliant singles.

Duran best 80s song easily was the debut Planet Earth imo!

9. UB40 (4,634,300)

23 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: RED RED WINE (728,000)

 

They are undoubtedly better remembered for their covers (and indeed their No 1’s have all been covers- of Neil Diamond, Sonny & Cher, and Elvis Presley) but UB40 were just as successful with their own compositions in the 80s.  Their combination of reggae and pop seemed evergreen hitting the top 10 in 8 years of the decade and top 30 in the other 2 years meaning they never saw sales of less than 180k in any year of the 80s.

UB40’s first couple of albums vastly superior to anything else they ever did.

UB40 are Reggae for people who don't like Reggae.

2 hours ago, Severin said:

UB40 are Reggae for people who don't like Reggae.

I don't mind the odd UB40 80s track, "The Earth Dies Screaming" and "Don't Break My Heart" are the only ones that I would say I positively liked. But then I'm not overly keen on Reggae so maybe I prove your point? 😁

Food for Thought and One in Ten are the only two I like.

I LOVE reggae and I love UB40 - but not so much the monster hit covers. Food For Thought, One In Ten, If It Happens Again, Earth Dies Screaming from the actual UB40-dole form period when it was a political statement (and I was one of the 3 million for 2 years and lived the lifestyle they were talking about). Ali is a great vocalist and the band shared a mutual love of growing up (like me) loving obscure and hit reggae tracks of the 60's and into the 70's and helped struggling reggae songwriters get an actual income. I still like stuff UB40 parts 1 and 2 do post-split apart, but their greatest records are easily Kingston Town and Don't Break My Heart though they'd always chuck a good oddity in the mix like Rat In Mi Kitchen. Seen them a couple of times, and they arent what you call an exciting live act, but the rhythms and tempo were never going to let that happen, it's more of a laid-back vibe, and a pleasant one. That's why they lasted so long.

8. STEVIE WONDER (4,786,200)

12 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: I JUST CALLED TO SAY I LOVE YOU (1,731,000)

 

Since Wonder first had a hit back in 1966 he had gone 34 hits without a chart topper but the 80s gifted him two in the form of “Ebony & Ivory” and “I Just Called To Say I Love You” .  The latter was the 2^nd best selling single of the entire 80s contributing over a third of his total decade sales, it’s often forgotten that Wonder was signed at just 11 and by 13 was atop of the US Billboard charts, a record breaking feat at the time.  He was also a very high profile star supporting the campaign to get Martin Luther King’s birthday a national holiday in the US, composing “Happy Birthday” for that reason, and was successful in 1983- not many pop stars can claim making a bank holiday!

so far a top 10 from hell.

well, Duran Duran is not that bad, but they were so over-rated. They basically knew how to do 1 song and they released the same song 20 times...

10000% agree on the comment of UB40. Especially when their success was relying on covers alone, I mean, how many times they pulled the same trick!!

not a fan of Stevie Wonder. I Just called to say I Love you is easily the worst song of the 80s for me

Stevie Wonder is one of those acts who had an impressive '60s, a brilliant '70s and a creative mess in the '80s. After which, commercially, he never quite recovered.

7. DAVID BOWIE (4,809,400)

22 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: LET’S DANCE (616,000)

 

Another 70s survivor who had an exceptional 80s scoring more chart toppers than he managed in the 70s.  Bowie successfully borrowed from the New Romantic movement for his first 80s hit “Ashes To Ashes” and turned to Nile Rogers for his “Let’s Dance” era which proved his most successful in the decade with three top 2 hits and ran a mildly successful acting career in the process.  Post 1986 his albums were not as successful and he decided to plough his energies into his group Tin machine by 1989 which may have cost him a few places on this list.

Agreed that Stevie Wonder had a sublime '70s but there was a lot less to write home about in the '80s, especially those chart toppers.

Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), Bowie's first '80s album, is one of my favourites of his overall glad he got a #1 out of 'Ashes to Ashes'.

2 monster legends there in Stevie Wonder and David Bowie, who were both still on fire in the early 80's, Scary Monsters and Hotter Than July albums both top notch with singles to match, huge faves like Ashes To Ashes, Under Pressure from David and Lately, Masterblaster, Happy Birthday from Stevie. They kept great into 1983 for me, loved the Let's Dance poptastic era, and the huge number one was justice served after waiting so long for a solo topper. Yes we all got sick of hearing it, but it sounded fun at the time and my Aunty Norma still loves it, and Stevie dropped the fabulous Part Time Lover and Overjoyed as good singles afterwards, while Bowie did Loving The Alien and Absolute beginners, an one-offs like This Is Not America still classy.

I still havent caught Stevie wonder live, but Bowie I saw twice, Glass Spider was the 80's gig, and that much maligned (post-shambles that was Tin Machine) album they were plugging was OK, better than Tonight at any rate. Stevie never did improve after 1986 bar the odd decent single along the way, or collaboration.

Was waiting for David to turn up. I think it's reasonably known on here that I'm a something of a massive fan of his and his legacy and influence is almost unparalleled. That being said the '80s is probably his weakest decade, creatively, and yes I am including the '60s in that. It all started so well with the Scary Monsters album which was a fine follow on from the Berlin trilogy, that gave him a deserved 2nd #1. After that things slowly began to unravel somewhat. Under Pressure was a barebones idea of a song that somehow worked, mainly due to having all the magic ingredients present, but Bowie's theatrical, cinematic and label distractions came at a cost. The Baal EP and Cat People single were both great but with a new deal at EMI in hand he went looking for hits. The drunken antics of one Billy Idol threw Bowie and Nile Rodgers together and the hits duly followed but the Let's Dance album was 50% brilliant, the other half was trash.

Bowie, by his own admittance began phoning it in during the '80s. Tonight, was full of bad covers and only Blue Jean and Loving the Alien are worth the time. Absolute Beginners showed there was still class in him when he wanted but that should have been the #1 and not the terrible Jagger collaboration (good intentions aside). The Labyrinth soundtrack album was a mess and by the time he worked on Never Let Me Down he was barely in the studio and left the album in the hands of the session players for the most part. (However, the re-recorded 2018 version of the album shows how good it could have been).

Tin Machine, for all their faults, literally renewed him artistically and showed he was back on the pulse, picking up on the nascent sounds of the American underground scene that would explode in the wake of Nirvana.

With the exception of those who came before him, Bowie has influenced pretty much every musician whose work I have ever loved. For me he will always be The King of the Weirdos.

Forgot Bowie was coming, finally some class in the top 10!!! My fav from his is Time will crawl, which was not a big hit

6. WHAM! (4,831,100)

10 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: EVERYTHING SHE WANTS/ LAST CHRISTMAS (1,234,000)

 

Here they are then- the biggest of the “big 4” in mid 80s pop, Wham! Started out with social commentary rapping but quickly abandoned the genre after their first three singles to make a deliberate ploy to become “the biggest band in the world”.  It didn’t turn out so badly with 4 No 1 singles and 5 top 10 singles to their credit all in 4 years before splitting at their peak in 1986.  Combined with sales of his solo career (he’s at No 32 on this list) would place George Michael at No 1 on this list, thanks in part to the boy’s good looks which saw “Whamania” become as big as “Duranmania” in the US, and they sold over 2 million singles in 1984 alone from just 3 releases.