Fairly sure the obvious candidate will be #1 but would be nice for the underdog to throw a spanner in the works!

^Not sure who is the obvious and who is the underdog? :)

I kinda thought Cliff would be #1 so relieved he's missed. Hate him with a passion, find him so unlikeable, with zero redeeming qualities. and Mistletoe and Wine is really the cherry on top :D

Never been a fan of Wham, Jackson certainly had his moments of genius but always felt he's been overrated in general.

Madness were huge at the time and it's hard not to fall for their charms.

Cliff? No

Unfortunately, I've known since the start how this plays out at the top but it's been a great thread to follow

Of course, forgot about Cliff! The 80's, from an output point of view, was Cliff's most-consistently good era following on from We Don' Talk Anymore in 1979 he suddenly got access to Alan Tarney and top songwriters again, and in the early 80's he was as cool as he got since his 50's/early 60's movies heyday. I genuinely rate tracks like Carrie, Wired For Sound, and the gorgeous All I Ask Of You, and most of the hits were decent enough, bar the odd Xmas track and detour away from synthpop. Cliff's first attempt at being synthpop-ish was in 1975, and was rewarded with a complete flop for the rather-good It's Only Me You Leave Behind, so he can't really have been accused of bandwagon-jumping as he took another 4 years to try it properly after his fans obviously weren't ready for that just yet!

When you can only think of one of the two acts remaining 😂

Wondering if I should Google or wait and see...

Im sure the evil act will win :/ but not sure google knows, kinda imagined only our Gezza knows 😆

Yeah the not so good act has the benefit of releasing over the full decade, including the higher selling earlier years. I’d be surprised if they didn’t win

The “evil act” is my “underdog” btw - they dropped off by the end of the decade really, so I still think the favourite will take it.

1 hour ago, chartjack2 said:

Fairly sure the obvious candidate will be #1 but would be nice for the underdog to throw a spanner in the works!

Clue as to who the "underdog" is

No wonder those shingles never got fixed!

Right then............

2. SHAKIN STEVENS (6,436,200)

27 TOP 40 HITS

BEST SELLER: THIS OLE HOUSE (727,000)

 

Well Shaky led the way from 1985 right through to April 1989 despite never being the top selling artist of any individual year of the decade, his mixture of regurgitated 50/60s hits and inoffensive pop proved a winning formula with kids and grown-ups alike.  He was in the top 30 in every year of the 80s grabbing 14 top 10 hits including a quartet of chart toppers as he accumulated sales of over 6 million singles (that’s more than Oasis in the 90s).  In truth his selling power had started to diminish as the late 80s came round and after 1987 he never got another top 10 single (the annual festive charting “Merry Christmas Everyone” aside)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm0J6-RezL4

1. MADONNA (7,000,000)

22 TOP 40 HITS

BEST SELLER: INTO THE GROOVE (723,000)

BEST SELLING ACT OF 1985 & 1986

 

So, she left it late as we’ve seen but Madonna finally pulled clear of Shaky in the summer of 1989 and sold her 7 millionth single in the final week of the decade.  She had more No 1 hits than any other act in the decade (6) and more top 10 hits stringing 21 of them back-to-back, her mixture of controversy of cracking tunes ensured that publicity was never hard and some iconic videos meant that no act sold as many singles as she did!  She was the bestselling singles act of 85 and 86 (a double no one else achieved) and sold another million in 1987!  In conclusion not only the Queen of pop but also queen of 80s sales- officially.

All that remains to say is to thank all who have contributed to the thread with their own memories and thoughts.

I'm finally leaving the 80s behind now and we venture into the 90s later in the month!

Oh I actually thought Shaky would win but glad it’s Madonna instead.

Thanks Gezza!

I have heard several times before that Shaky was the top selling act of the 80s, so it’s a surprise it’s actually Madonna.

I'm sure I've also heard that Shaky was the biggest selling singles artist of the 80s, but I think there would (or should) have been the word UK or British in there somewhere! Still quite an achievement for him to be as high as second, but ultimately the right winner here.

Thanks Gezza for presenting this!

Yes sometimes "best selling act" means "best selling UK act" and again it depends on what multiplier you use for 1980-1982, using a higher multiplier would boost the earlier 80s acts higher up this rundown but I think the ones I use are more realistic given the limited information we know about the accepted wisdom and conventions of the period (i.e if you increase the multiplier then you get more million sellers in the early 80s).

I have shaky at approx 3.8 million 1980-82 but you'd need to push that to 4.4 million to make him the biggest selling act of the 80s given we "know" the sales of the two acts 83-89.

I’m much happier it’s Madonna!

oh wow wasn't expecting Madonna to walk it! Unbelievable, but that string of 21 top 10 hits in a row from Like a Virgin to Dear Jessie is all kinds of amazing

This is her singles discography of the 80s:

Happy to hear 'Merry Christmas Everyone' during the festive season but otherwise Shaky is not my thing at all, so I'm pleased Madonna came out on top.

The epic 'Like A Prayer' is my favourite song from her '80s catalogue. I think 'La Isla Bonita' and 'Into The Groove' would round out my top 3 - all #1s!

Thank you for the superb work as always Gezza, this was fun to follow.