The Nolans are a surprise high-placed act, veen giving Dancing's sales. I liked a couple of the singles after that though. Classics for me in ABC, The Lexicon Of Love is a masterpiece, and their 1987 comeback is also fab and slick. Gary Numan and The Stranglers would be higher with their 70's material, loved early Numan then went off him apart from the Bill Sharpe stuff. The Stranglers were great in their punk and 80's heyday, loved both phases.

Iron maiden exist and not surprisingly they feature. Tina Turner is an icon, but as mentioned album sales were her major output and her singles were never quite up to River Deep or Nutbush quality for me, so her placing seems about right. Loved The Style Council, left-wing 60's jazzfunkish pop for the 80's. Fun Boy Three got better as they went along, peaked, then split which was a shame. I still feel a bit cheated Terry Hall's solo stuff just wasn't as good.

Eddy Grant is currently plugging The Equals 60th anniversary compilation, absolutely mad on Viva Bobby Joe as a kid I was (and others), and Eddy was fab in the 70's and 80's too, especially Living On The Frontline. His 80's success was warmly welcomed by me, and Eddy just gave me a follow, so hooray for the great man! ELO were second only to ABBA in my affection during the 70's, but also like ABBA, they crossed-over into the 80's just as hot for me. They had 5 personal chart-toppers from 1980 to 1986 from me, which beats everyone else on this list so far.

New Order got better as they went on, I thought, I much prefer their late 80's stuff, Genesis had Mama and Land Of Confusion as 2 classics, plus Turn It On Again, but by and large I wasnt that fussed, they were mostly OK. Dire Straits ditto, Money For Nothing, Private Investigations and a lot of OK stuff. Donna Summer could never be written off in the 80's, she'd drop the occasional goodie and I'm finding of late (eg current remix of I'm Free) that a lot of her non-hit stuff was pretty good too. That said 1976-1979 are peak Donna.

Hot Chocolate were one of my top fave bands of the 70's, loved them, loved Errol Brown and Tony Wilson songs, and it was great seeing them have gems like No Doubt About It and It Started With A Kiss keeping the 15-year annual hit chart run going. Roxy Music also 70's faves, along with Bryan Ferry's solo stuff in the 70's, but the 80's output of both was pleasantly mellow and not that exciting, bar Same Old Scene.

Nik Kershaw was good, saw him at his Riddle peak at the time, Tight Fit, loved Fantasy Island but they are basically on the list thanks to Lion Sleeps Tonight, and that's about it. Then sacked and career over. George Benson is a jazz-funk "always pleasant" but "rarely exciting" for me, and The Beat had a few great singles in their chart run. The Pretenders I caught in concert at each stage of their career - first line-up 1981, then late 80's and 90's - and I still rate Chrissie Hynde.

64. ODYSSEY (1,879,900)

5 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: USE IT UP AND WEAR IT OUT (464,000)

 

Another act that you probably wouldn’t have predicted would be in the countdown.  Having first hit our charts in 1977 (“Native New Yorker”, #5) they were absent thereafter until 1980 when they scored a chart topper with “Use It Up, Wear It Out”.  Another 3 top 10 singles followed by 1982 before we moved on.

63. BILLY OCEAN (1,909,700)

8 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, THE TOUGH GET GOING (561,000)

 

Like Odyssey, Ocean found fame in the 70s but his career looked over by the time the 80s came round, that was until his 1984 hit “Caribbean Queen” set him off on a train of hits for the rest of the decade.  He was more successful in the US where he scored a hat-trick of No 1’s, and interestingly the aforementioned “Caribbean Queen” was released alternatively as European Queen” and African Queen” depending on the territory- cleaver marketing!

62. SHEENA EASTON (1,922,700)

10 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: 9 TO 5 (544,000)

 

Back when reality TV was somewhat less of a thing, Easton rose to fame after being featured on the  Esther Ransen TV programme “The Big Time” which followed the singer’s attempt to break the big time.  She ended up the 6^th highest placed female soloist of the decade moving more than a million in 1980 alone, she also became just the 4^th UK Female solo act to make No 1 in the US following Petula Clark, Lulu, and Olivia Newton-John (depending on how you view her).

Was never that keen on Tina except a handful of songs. Eddy was good for Dance and Avenue and Billy Ocean was okay.

Not really feeling any of the others here.

Not really that fussed on the last batch. Didn't expect sheena Easton in there.

Also, are the two Prince duets included in this or just her own solo releases?

13 minutes ago, Severin said:

Not really that fussed on the last batch. Didn't expect sheena Easton in there.

Also, are the two Prince duets included in this or just her own solo releases?

Only "Arms of Orion" is Included as she had a named credit on that one

Sheena Easton I always liked, especially the Bond song she did

Tina Turner I also like

the rest not so much

61. FIVE STAR (1,938,800)

15 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: RAIN OR SHINE (367,000)

 

Britain’s answer to the Jacksons strung 9 top 20 hits back to back in just 2 years as they made hay when the sun shone.  Being the 80s they invested in a recording studio under their mansion and sports cars just as the hits stopped happening resulting in bankruptcy and a rather spectacular fall from grace which the press lapped up.

60. THOMPSON TWINS (1,966,300)

10 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: HOLD ME NOW (417,000)

 

Everything this trio touched between 1982 and 1985 turned to gold as they even cracked the US thanks to MTV.  Two members of the band married each other (Bailey and Currie) and went on to write Debbie Harry’s 1989 hit “I Want That Man”.

59. IMAGINATION (1,970,300)

9 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: JUST AN ILLUSION (437,000)

 

More trio’s here with a group that took their name from the John Lennon single in homage to his (then) recent death.  They persuaded producers Jolley & Swain to produce their first single “Body Talk” and landed them all a hit which helped the producers become the most sought after of the early to mid 80s and launched the group into the charts.  They became famed for their TOTP performances which were increasingly exotic and flamboyant (certainly for the time).

We finally hit the 2 million sales mark tomorrow!

oh man I couldn't stand Five Star, they sounded like chipmunks :o

will have to go check Thompson Twins cos the name sounds very familiar but reading the song titles, nothing rings a bell

Odyssey were always bigger than they seemed to be, but only in the UK, not so much in the USA - their best tracks def Native New Yorker and Going Back To My Roots. Billy Ocean's heyday is the 70's for me, big fan of his obscure On The Run from 1974 under the name Scorched Earth (note later version under his own name not nearly as classic), and his 2 still-popular Red Light and Love Really Hurts, but Caribbean Queen and Loverboy are very good too. Sheena Easton should really be over 2 million with her uncredited Prince hit, and her 101 song gifted by the man was criminally ignored. That's her best record bar none, but U Got The Look is up there, and I also rate Machinery and Sugar Walls, which was not really broadcast-able on the BBC.

Thompson Twins had a run of good hits, so not surprising they feature around about here, but they mostly have been forgotten these days, even their best record You Take Me Up. Five Star ditto, and Rain Or Shine. Imagination were hot for 2 or 3 years, and of course I always mention I got a hug from Leee in a club when I gushed about my fave Imagination records, Just An Illusion, Body talk, Flashback. My mate who didnt feel like going out that night remains a huge Imagination fan, so I like to remind him of it as often as possible, as Leee turned up randomly as a holiday punter, not as an advertised PR thing. He was also in Doctor Who, true fact, though they had to tone down the sci fi costumes from his stage show 😄

Really liked 5 Star as they were a mixed gender vocal group making pop music, the kind of which I always liked in the 80s (and went on to enjoy with the likes of Steps, S Club, Liberty X and even Hear'say). They made some good songs.

Thompson Twins were another form fave for me. Doctor! Doctor!, Hold Me Now, Don't Mess with Dr Dream to name a smattering of my fave hits of theirs.

I rather like the early Thompson Twins albums, when they were a Post-Punk/New Wave act but once they slimmed down to the three piece line up they got more commercial, more Pop oriented and less interesting. Kind the same way OMD did around the same time. Still decent enough but I was losing interest.

In the Name of Love is my favourite by far

Imagination didn't do much for me beyond Just an Illusion, which is great.

Hated Five Star with a passion.

58. THE SPECIALS (1,984,300)

7 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: GHOST TOWN (605,000)

 

 

Spearheading the brief 2Tone craze of 1980-81, this group of course famously topped the charts with “Ghost Town” during the urban riots of July 1981 in a rare moment of zeitgeist with social history and the charts.  It was the peak before the very quick decline of the genre from the charts with three members breaking away from the group in the immediate aftermath of the single to for Fun Boy Three.  The rest limped on as “The Specials AKA” but only one more top 20 hit followed (sales for both are combined here).

57. U2 (1,984,400)

12 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: PRIDE (IN THE NAME OF LOVE) (363,000)

 

OK so who thought these would be higher?  In truth always more of an albums act, they did have 9 consecutive top 10 hits (if you exclude an import single) but tended to debut high and drop quickly.  Their performance at Live Aid is credited with transforming the band into a major stadium rock act for the rest of the 80s and well into the 10s though they haven’t troubled the top 40 in well over 15 years.

56. ERASURE (2,002,100)

10 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: CRACKERS INTERNATIONAL EP (473,000)

 

Vince Clark’s second appearance on the rundown isn’t even his highest, but we move over the 2 million mark with this longest surviving act.  By 1986 the duo had broke the charts and they strung 10 top 15 singles together before the decade ended- an impressive stat complimented by a couple of chart topping albums, they inched over the 2 million mark at the death of the decade!

oh love U2 and Erasure, thought both would be much higher