Welcome to the 3rd thread in this series! As the 1st thread which started from the birth of the charts in 1952 is currently stalled at 1972, I think we need a fresh thread for these ‘80s reviews.

Many thanks to @jimwatts for offering to host a series of Synctube listen-throughs alongside my reviews, which should help keep me on schedule!

As the Synctube sessions will typically cover around 45 hits I will divide each session into 3 groups of roughly 15. I hope to then review all 3 groups during the week following the session in which each hit was played, so that should be convenient for those both joining the sessions and following this thread. The idea is also that this can replace the session follow up polls and be the place to discuss what we’ve heard.

I will score each hit and give a very brief commentary. I will aim to keep the average score in the 5-6 region and use the full range so:

7-10 great

4-6 decent

1-3 not for me

Each day I’ll post a video of my track of the day plus any runners up that I give a 9. Only my very favourite hits of the year (3 maximum) will score a 10.

I will review double or multiple A sides and EPs as 1, so effectively giving an average score. I also plan to review each song only once meaning that a remix of a previous hit won't be reviewed unless it's a completely different song.

I plan to listen to any songs I'm not familiar with half a dozen times or so, though where a single has multiple versions I only plan to listen to 1 (probably the radio or main single version if it's clear what that is).

I hope to avoid too much genre bias and give everything a fair hearing. Note that I'm not a music journalist or critic or historian on any level, but just a chart geek with a slightly bonkers compulsion to do this!

I’ll be reviewing everything solely on musical merit, so there could be some cases where rather unsavoury artists receive good scores, and of course that won’t indicate support for any of their non musical actions.

Comments will always be welcome, even if you strongly disagree with my ratings. And don't worry if you dip in and dip out of following the thread - occasional comments are good too!

The 1980 playlist:

Possibly you will give 1 or 2 for my favourite song from 80s decade.

And here we go with 1980 Group 1:

#1	05/01/1980	Madness	My Girl	3	54-14-4-{3}-3-4-10-29-41-69->10
#2	05/01/1980	Dr Hook	Better Love Next Time	8	58-31-14-{8}-13-17-24-56->8
#3	22/12/1979	Positive Force	We Got The Funk	18	71-71-65-34-32-{18}-25-32-57->9
#4	08/12/1979	The Inmates	The Walk	36	66-60-50-50-44-{36}-40-56-68->9
#5	05/01/1980	Styx	Babe	6	69-37-17-{6}-7-6-9-17-37-54->10
#6	05/01/1980	Bee Gees	Spirits (Having Flown)	16	61-38-26-{16}-21-31-36->7
#7	05/01/1980	Jon And Vangelis	I Hear You Now	8	72-45-25-17-15-12-{8}-13-18-36-61->11
#8	12/01/1980	Joe Jackson	It's Different For Girls	5	50-27-12-{5}-5-7-19-42-61->9
#9	12/01/1980	Azymuth	Jazz Carnival	19	65-30-21-{19}-22-29-49-62->8
#10	22/12/1979	The Regents	7 Teen	11	72-72-62-48-31-22-12-{11}-15-15-33-53->12
#11	12/01/1980	UFO	Young Blood	36	63-{36}-36-49-61->5
#12	22/12/1979	Fleetwood Mac	Sara	37	67-67-50-41-{37}-37-42-51->8
#13	12/01/1980	Rupert Holmes	Escape (The Pina Colada Song)	23	72-38-27-27-{23}-28-35->7
#14	26/01/1980	The Specials	Too Much Too Young (The Special AKA Live! EP)	1	15-{1}-1-2-4-13-21-48-64-71->10
#15	19/01/1980	New Musik	Living By Numbers	13	52-26-20-{13}-14-22-26-48->8