Over the 3 million mark tomorrow

I've not heard a Kim Wilde album before but adore 'Cambodia' and of course 'Kids in America' is a synth-pop classic and part of a strong run of #2s at the time.

My favourite from Eurythmics is probably 'Here Comes the Rain Again'. I always forget that it wasn't a massive top 5 hit at the time.

Best Kim Wilde is Kids in America, though I enjoyed a lot of her songs.

I liked the Eurythmics, but they didn't get better than Sweet Dreams.

48 minutes ago, Jade said:

I've not heard a Kim Wilde album before but adore 'Cambodia' and of course 'Kids in America' is a synth-pop classic and part of a strong run of #2s at the time.

Cambodia is her worst single.

I love Kim Wilde, but mostly for her 90s music stuff.

Kim Wilde has so many great tracks, Another Step, You Came, Never trust a stranger, You keep me hanging on, Four letter word

the early 80s singles I don't care so much, they're just ok, Kids in America is a classic but much prefer the late 80s stuff

Eurythmics were one of the best bands of the 80s, no doubt. So many classics. My #1 from them is The miracle of love <3

but also love Here comes the rain, Thorn in my side, Sweet dreams, Don't ask me why, There must be an angel,... also a big fan of Shame, which sadly flopped

Lionel Richie, not a fan at all

Shame is my favourite Eurythmics single, it only got to number 41. Cambodia was a great song by Kim Wilde, probably her best, along with Child Come Away which only reached number 43. OMD, Depeche Mode and the Pet Shop Boys are all fantastic, of course.

Cambodia is brilliant and I won't hear otherwise. Both Kim's first two albums are good. My favourite description of the first is 'The best Blondie album Blondie never released'.

Chequered Love us my favourite of hers.

Eurythmics were mostly great bar a few stinkers.

Not a Lionel fan

George Michael surprisingly low, though I guess the singles sales were modest compared to the album sales for Faith-era. george was a lovely man, quietly doing wonderful things for people out of the limelight, complete strangers and all, though he had personal tragedies he struggled to deal with personally (not least being gay in the pop biz) and got into drugs. A Different Corner is jaw-droppingly brilliant, understated, with Father Figure, Monkey, and most of the Faith album being key 80's. Plus, that voice is to die for, he made it seem effortless. I caught George in the 90's in concert.

Depeche surprisingly high, consistency works I guess, I caught them in their early just-post Vince days, I think, and they improved with age, early tracks like Leave In Silence hinting at the classic Personal Jesus to come. Pet Shop Boys I may have mentioned once or twice as being, oh, only the greatest band of the 80's. Very British, reserved, and their songs do not all sound the same despite that comment of the time. Neil's voice sounds the same, yes. Musically inventive, especially lyrically, they can happily dabble in other genres, acoustic guitar, orchestral, ballet, film scores, musicals, and have never been afraid to suddenly drop into a bit of latin vibes, rap, rock-piss-takes, Abfab comedy, diva revivals and pop protoges unexpectedly not to mention lending a hand to the avante-gard or great - Yoko, Bowie, Madonna, Dusty, Liza, Electronic, Robbie, Kylie, Girls Aloud and so on. Their lyrics rank among the best, and remain relevant to the human condition and politically and socially. "As good as they have ever been". I'm a fan but I think I have gotten away with nobody noticing.....😎

Kim Wilde I love, and her family too, from mart's Abergavenny, Ricky's Teen Wave and Kim's Kids In America. The Wilde family are still fab in 2025, and well worth catching on tour anytime, big pop venues or cosy small acoustic Xmas gigs. Best of the 80's? Cambodia, Never Trust A Stranger, You Came, Chequered Love, You Keep me Hangin On, Four Letter Word, and even the lesser known stuff is good, see You'll Never Be So Wrong, a Hot Chocolate song gift from their labelmates on RAK. Eurythmics I also loved throughout their career bust especially in the 1983/4 period. Sweet Dreams, Love Is A Stranger, Sex Crime, Here Comes The Rain, and the under-rated Shame being the best of the later stuff, but they were always good. Saw them in 1984, around 1990 I think, and def again in 1999.

And then there's the inevitable Lionel Richie. The Commodores were great, they kept his maudlin tendencies mostly tempered and they had some great tracks, but unshackled it was one horror show after another. Running With The Night is his best record. All Night Long is his most joyful record. Nothing else comes close to those two, and some are just awful. I'm looking at you Truly.

26. THE POLICE (3,080,900)

11 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: DON’T STAND SO CLOSE TO ME (766,000)

 

Combined Rock, Reggae and new wave altogether Sting and the boys broke through in the late 70s before really racking up the sales in the early 80s as we cross the 3 million mark.  Only together until 1983 they became a major stadium act on both sides of the Atlantic and popularly thought to be the “biggest band in the world” in their time grabbing the best selling single of 1980 into the bargain.

25. BUCKS FIZZ (3,277,500)

13 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: THE LAND OF MAKE BELIEVE (701,000)

 

Certainly the biggest UK act to come from Eurovision (to become famous through it) the band went though several line up changes amid rumours of not getting on internally.  Regardless they racked up a trio of UK chart toppers and became chart regulars in the first half of the 80s, a near fatal coach crash in 1984 put them in the headlines for the wrong reasons but by 1987 the hits had dried up for the foursome.

24. STATUS QUO (3,293,600)

20 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: WHAT YOU’RE PROPOSING (430,000)

 

Critically decried as a one track pony, Status Quo managed to carve out a long career from the 60s and the 80s proved no exception.  They managed to last out the decade with only a few line up changes but were in the top 20 in every year of the decade except 1985, 1987 and 1989 though a chart topper in the 80s eluded them.

I don't hate the Quo and the odd track can be entertaing enough in the right circumstances but I've no idea how they remained so popular for do long. They seem to have a very similar fan base to Queen. Their two biggest covers - Rockin All Over the World and In the Army Now are pretty good though.

Bucks Fizz had better songs than their individual talent deserved, some of which have held up well but they were always going to be short lived.

The Police were among the best New Wave groups (they were Punk for 5 minutes but it didn't suit them). Sting was even a charismatic and engagingly funny character back then but somewhere around 1983 and the bands... ahem, fall out, he disappeared up his own backside, which seems a bit of a shame thinking about it now.

Edited 17 hours ago17 hr by Severin

On 14/06/2025 at 09:57, Bjork said:

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

A lot of his early albums are said to be his best ones but for me it's An Innocent Man. Packed full of hits and great album tracks too.