I was familiar with the Michael Andrews and Gary Jules version of 'Mad World' first, so it took some time to adjust to the more midtempo original, but now I really appreciate the song in both versions. Tears for Fears would top that group for me as well! 'Back On The Chain Gang' stands out in that batch too as one of my favourite Pretenders singles.

I considered Bauhaus for the retro One Hit Wonders contest we had, as they fit under the 'one top 20 hit' criteria. But in the end I went with The Vapors as they felt a little bit more faithful to the OHW tag. 'Ziggy Stardust' is a decent enough cover but I would've sent the goth classic 'Bela Lugosi's Dead' one of my favourite songs named after somebody.

We differ slightly with the next batch, as my hand would be forced to choose the wonderfully zany 'Living On The Ceiling' to top it, but 'The Day Before We Came' is still a worthy pick. I first came across it in a BJSC spin-off years ago and couldn't believe how much of a lost classic it felt like by ABBA's standards, at least in terms of chart placement - truly stunning. I wonder if it'll turn up in the Pop Factor contest! Also, as pointed out, Blancmange would later cover this song - so it's interesting they ended up next to each other here. Pulp's recent take on it sounded good too.

'The Girl Is Mine' really was a baffling choice to lead Thriller with! Obviously that name power is attractive on paper but he was sitting on a goldmine of classics elsewhere. I agree it's not even the best Jackson and McCartney collab let alone the best that album had to offer.

The Day Before You Came dropped like a brick to the record-buying public who tended to agree with DLT's view that it was boring, a drop in standards and uttelry missed the emotional impact of the track construction and lyrics. For me it reflected the mundanity of my own life at that time, but with the glistening jewel that could come with meeting someone who could change your life in an exciting way. Sadly that remained more of an ideal for me, mundanity was the reality for years to come. But I see it as an ultimately romantic song 10/10. Living On The Ceiling is also brilliant, Blancmange managed to push Abba out of my top spot for a week with those thrilling Eastern sounds and powerful song 10/10.

Maneater borrowing heavily from the rhythms of You Can't Hurry Love (Supremes' version) and coming up with one of Hall & Oates many great singles, and one of the few that became big-ish UK hits - always poorly served by the UK charts, sadly, 9/10. Cry Boy Cry indeed a forgotten goodie, always rated it, 8/10. The Bee Gees couldnt get a hit to save their life after the disco sucks backlash so they did what they do best - wrote hit songs - and gave it away to Dionne who'd been annoyingly out of fashion for 15 years or so. Heartbreaker was nice too, lovely having her back in the charts 8/10.

Another great soul comeback in Marvin Gaye's Sexual Healing getting back to his Let's Get It On vibe era, classy and tragically not here with us for much longer. Recorded it in Belgium of all places to hide away for 6 months, Ostend isnt top of the list for anyone who isn't getting the ferry or trying to come off drug use. 9/10. If only Marvin had stayed in Europe.... It's Raining Again always seemed a bit formulaic to me, albeit pleasantly bringing back Breakfast In America era vibes 6/10. Jack & Diane a great record for future John Mellancamp minus the Cougar tag, but he never released another commercial pop-appealing track, going more for the Springsteen vibes, all of which were ignored by the UK record buyer, many of them rather good too. 8/10.

Eddy Grant finally getting another number one 14 years later was one of the delightful events of 1982. I recorded the video onto my Betamax tapes and it always bloody jumped on playback, so I can never not hear that. It's not quite as good as previous Eddy hits though, for me 7/10. Talking of formulaic, Kool & The Gang showing no signs of shifting it 6/10. Raw Silk I don't remember much, I'm guessing a 5/10. Zambezi was a bit of 50's singalong fun, nice to see Pirhanas get another bite out of the charts arf 7/10.

The Girl Is Mine, the worst part of Thriller, and the novelty of Jacko & Macca getting together the main reason it was a hit. At best one might say it's mildly pleasantly diverting, but it's well below par for either act 6/10. Never a fan of live versions of old hits, Caroline is still best in the original form, from when Quo were great boogie-rock rather than throwaway retro-rock 4/10. Diana Ross getting a Michael Jackson song he couldnt have recorded himself as a gift for being a long-time friend of the Jackson 5, Muscles was supposedly about his pet Python. Of course it was.... 😇4/10

I’m very late to this party, sorry Julian!

I hope it’s okay just  jumping in by commenting about your last group, though I promise I’ve been back to read through the whole thread and it’s great!

Overall a great set of songs, I think I generally agree with your top choices.

The Day Before You Came is indeed fantastic, almost a ‘lost’ ABBA song (with its chart position) if there can be such a thing?!

I also love Living On The Ceiling, a really quirky 80s classic.

Maneater is up there as one of my favourite Hall & Oates singles.

I admit I couldn’t remember Cry Boy Cry from its title but I really enjoyed hearing it again when I played it through. Heartbreaker is a great Bee Gees written song and Dionne sells it really well.

I suppose the one song I would place higher is Sexual Healing which has a fantastically smooth slinky groove and brilliant vocals. A real highlight of the year that felt out of time when it was released, like a throwback to the soulful 70s but with an 80s flavour.

Of the others I do enjoy I Don’t Wanna Dance too, but I still wonder what on earth MJ and McCartney were doing on The Girl Is Mine!? The worst song by far on Thriller and it was lucky this first single didn’t sink the album momentum before it even got going. I suppose the star names alone saved it.

Leading this group we have Ultravox at their dramatic best, and a very beautiful and iconic TV theme tune.

9	Ultravox	Hymn	They're back on top form with this pseudo-religious track about corruption that has an epic and diabolical feel to it
9	Clannad	Theme From 'Harry's Game'	For a TV series about the Northern Ireland troubles, a beautiful evocative track that will be sampled effectively in future
8	A Flock Of Seagulls	Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You)	By far their biggest hit about a chance encounter, with a hypnotic riff and beautiful wall of sound style production
8	Simple Minds	Someone Somewhere (In Summertime)	A small hit for them but I find it an excellent dreamy and longing track with a very effective punchy accompaniment
7	Duran Duran	Rio	The 3rd Top 10 hit and another very strong and well remembered song from a hugely successful campaign for them
7	Talk Talk	Talk Talk {1982 Re-Release}	A re-release after it initially peaked at #52: I like "Today" even more but this is another arresting synth pop offering
7	The Human League	Mirror Man	One of their biggest hits, with the backing "ooh"s paying tribute to the Motown style: very good but I don't quite love it
6	Yazoo	The Other Side Of Love	A #13 hit in the midst of their Top 3s, and it's a good song complete with their usual synths, but lacks a little oomph
6	Donna Summer	State Of Independence	A cover of a Jon and Vangelis song that missed the Top 40: this version includes an all star choir and is very well done
5	Wham!	Young Guns (Go For It)	The duo's 1st hit: it's quite an all over the place track but it is bursting with energy and you can see why it did well
4	Whitesnake	Here I Go Again/Bloody Luxury	A mix of the 1st side will go Top 10 in 1987: it's a pretty good hard rock song but the other side sounds like Status Quo
3	Musical Youth	Youth Of Today	The less successful follow up to their chart topper: the style is similar but it lacks the infectious quality of the debut
2	Modern Romance	Best Years Of Our Lives	Their highest peak and a catchy number in their usual salsa style, but it grates slightly and doesn't have very  much to it
2	Lionel Richie	Truly	His 1st solo hit after "Endless Love": this is a very moribund and overly sentimental ballad that does very little for me
1	Renee And Renato	Save Your Love	512th #1 and the only Top 40 for this duo whose operatic and pop voices don't blend, and the song is an overblown mess

1982 Group 20:

#919	27/11/1982	Madness	Our House	5	32-17-12-{5}-5-5-5-13-10-21-35-53-73->13
#920	27/11/1982	Culture Club	Time (Clock Of The Heart)	3	34-9-5-{3}-4-4-6-8-17-26-44-70->12
#921	20/11/1982	Japan	Night Porter	29	50-35-{29}-39-35-40-40-49-64->9
#922	20/11/1982	Evelyn King	Back To Love	40	55-{40}-43-63->4
#923	04/12/1982	The Jam	Beat Surrender	1	{1}-1-2-10-10-15-24-44-62->9
#924	27/11/1982	Shalamar	Friends	12	44-25-19-{12}-15-15-19-20-30-47->10
#925	04/12/1982	Soft Cell	Where The Heart Is	21	32-{21}-24-27-27-36-48->7
#926	27/11/1982	Adam Ant	Desperate But Not Serious	33	42-{33}-42-57-65-65-70->7
#927	04/12/1982	Kevin Rowland And Dexys Midnight Runners	Let's Get This Straight (From The Start)/Old	17	35-18-18-{17}-17-21-23-36-68->9
#928	27/11/1982	Bucks Fizz	If You Can't Stand The Heat	10	53-37-29-20-20-20-13-{10}-16-32-64->11
#929	04/12/1982	Malcolm McLaren And The World's Famous Supreme Team	Buffalo Gals	9	38-24-19-18-18-11-{9}-11-16-23-37-61->12
#930	27/11/1982	David Bowie And Bing Crosby	Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy	3	73-39-22-10-{3}-3-9-46->8
#931	27/11/1982	Young Steve And The Afternoon Boys	I'm Alright	40	69-{40}-41-47-63-63->6
#932	04/12/1982	Phil Collins	You Can't Hurry Love	1	52-27-17-6-6-2-{1}-1-2-3-8-17-26-37-53-70->16

Talk Talk is a very good synthpop/dance-rock track!

Mirror Man also has a good dance beat to it - is very good too, one of Human League's best!

Other Side of Love is a good feelgood song!

I like Renee and Renato actually it sounds like a throwback to the really early days of the chart in the 50s like David Whitfield!

The Day Before You Came is certainly my favourite Abba song. I know some people speculate it's the day before she was murdered but I would much rather think of it as the day before she met someone who would change her life for the better. Mad World and Living On The Ceiling are synthpop classics.

Hymn is a better Ultravox single than Reap The Wild Wind. I knew Donna Summer's State Of Independence long before the original and prefer it to Jon & Vangelis' recording. Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You) is fantastic, especially the ten minute version with its extended outro.

7 hours ago, King Rollo said:

The Day Before You Came is certainly my favourite Abba song. I know some people speculate it's the day before she was murdered but I would much rather think of it as the day before she met someone who would change her life for the better.

I see it as something between those two possibilities - meeting someone who would change her life, though not necessarily entirely for the better. It’s quite eerie when you consider Agnetha retired from public life for a long time and had some problems with stalking. I connect “Super Trouper” with her phobia of performing as well - that’s why these aren’t just bubblegum pop songs.

Oddly, Hymn I thought wasnt quite up to usual standards for Ultravox, the chorus is very Lord's Prayer (with all the dull school assembly memories that drags up) and the verses are really low key and forgettable. The intrumental break is the best bit. 6/10. Harry's Game is lovely 8/10. Never watched the TV series. A Flock Of Seagulls finally get the big hit and it's a goodie, rifftastic 9/10.

Simple Minds always under-rated these days, but Someone was pretty good 7/10. Rio is still an anthem, but not one I got into much, it's OK but I've never rated the song much and it's still overplayed. 6/10. Talk Talk is fine, Today is better yes, still quite exciting though but no epic hook to it 7/10. Mirror Man is fab, loved the Motown vibes, very unespected after the long post-Dare break 9/10 - they should have had another single off Dare though in between, plenty of great tracks.

The Other Side Of Love is very forgettable, sounds like an early Depeche song that wasnt quite good enough to be a single 5/10. State Of Independence is Donna's best record since 1979, and the choir is a great touch, 9/10. Young Guns was a record with attitude and sounded like nothing much else around, as arrivals go it's still a banger 9/10.

The 1987 remix of Here I Go Again is pretty good, this version came and went fairly quickly though 5/10. Youth Of Today quite a let-down in comparison to Dutchie, but it still has a bit o charm to it I guess - as I havent heard it in decades. 6/10. Best Years Of Our Lives is their best record, but for Modern Romance that's still a modest 7/10. Truly really got on my tits, what a dirge and disappointment from the man who wrote Sail On and Three Times A lady. 3/10. Save Your Love, my grandma loved and it's pure old-fashioned cheese, but I'm sort of fond of it as it doesnt know it's cheese and goes for it anyway. 6/10.

Re ABBA's "murder" song, wow that's quite a stretch! Bjorn says he saw it as a reflection of a woman musing on her mundane life before starting a relationship that ended unpleasantly, and it was also the end of ABBA (for 40 years) recording-wise, so very sad with all that goes with that. Agnetha's understated vocal fits in with that theme, but I also see it as optimistic and hugely romantic - maybe thats not what they intended, but it creates a mood and the open ending allows that: there is no further information beyond her living an unexciting routine life - and then someone came along that changed that. There is no indication she's speaking from the grave, though and if she was why focus on how dull your life was, if that were the case....

The Flock Of Seagulls track is good and sounds more like a mid or late 80s track too.

1 hour ago, Popchartfreak said:

Re ABBA's "murder" song, wow that's quite a stretch! Bjorn says he saw it as a reflection of a woman musing on her mundane life before starting a relationship that ended unpleasantly, and it was also the end of ABBA (for 40 years) recording-wise, so very sad with all that goes with that.

That's how I've heard it as well - so part of what makes it so chilling is that Björn wrote it for Agnetha to sing, with their own marriage having ended, almost as if to say "this was your life before you met me", and perhaps by extension Anna-Frid's too on Benny's part. Whether or not that's the case, Agnetha's vocals, almost through tears, make it feel resonant to her. It was a hugely bold move to present such a perspective in what they must have realised would be one of their last singles before parting ways, but like so much of their songwriting at the time it was stronger than they were given credit for, and this is absolutely one of their best songs.

20 minutes ago, jimwatts said:

That's how I've heard it as well - so part of what makes it so chilling is that Björn wrote it for Agnetha to sing, with their own marriage having ended, almost as if to say "this was your life before you met me", and perhaps by extension Anna-Frid's too on Benny's part. Whether or not that's the case, Agnetha's vocals, almost through tears, make it feel resonant to her. It was a hugely bold move to present such a perspective in what they must have realised would be one of their last singles before parting ways, but like so much of their songwriting at the time it was stronger than they were given credit for, and this is absolutely one of their best songs.

Bjorn often seemed to be giving the girls side of events in his lyrics, given they sang them, which is quite bizarre really given their divorces and kids involved to boot with Bjorn and Agnetha, which crept up as a lyric on Voyage on the Dan track many years later, so I like to think he's aware of other people's emotions and situations, always good for a lyricist!

Another great song group.

Love the emotive Hymn and Harry’s Game is gorgeous, I remember the great TV show well too. Wishing is probably my favourite, it’s a great  and unusual synth pop which stands out from the crowd.

Rio and Mirror Man are both great fun.

I do love the earlier Simple Minds singles.

Talk Talk is great but they later blossomed into a wonderful band on their last 3 albums, some of my favourites of the whole decade and early 90s.

Great to see the arrival of Wham!, I especially like the energy of their early singles. George really was fantastic wasn’t he, such variety in song writing across his whole career. One of the best of all time, I am ashamed I have sometimes taken it for granted a bit in the past.

And Save Your Love, well …….. just why?In the middle of all the musical revolutions in the 80s?

Edited April 10Apr 10 by Jaz13music

I forgot how much I enjoyed 'Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You)' until it came up in the relevant SyncTube session but wow, what an enchanting synth riff. Impressive that it managed to pull off a win in the accompanying 'best of' poll for that evening of music listening, even ahead of Blancmange. That might top this group for me but 'Hymn' is also very good.

'Rio' stands out positively from that group too. I'm not the biggest fan of 'Young Guns (Go For It)' musically but the energy is undeniable, especially paired with the famous TOTP performance, where they had a magnetic presence right away. The less said about the dreadful 'Save Your Love' the better

I actually found “Night Porter” less good than most of Japan’s singles on the first couple of listens and thought “Our House” would win the group. Now it might even be my favourite of all their hits - up there with “Ghosts” at any rate.

9	Japan	Night Porter	This is inspired by a film and the piano part is influenced by Satie's "Gymnopédies": it's a beautiful and intimate track
8	Malcolm McLaren And The World's Famous Supreme Team	Buffalo Gals	1st hit for this producer that broke ground in hip hop and scratching techniques, which Trevor Horn helped to produce
8	Madness	Our House	Their most streamed and probably most culturally significant song: the pinnacle of their bouncy and witty ska pop style
8	Kevin Rowland And Dexys Midnight Runners	Let's Get This Straight (From The Start)/Old	The 1st side is good but it's "Old" that I love here: a very slow and emotive track accompanied by warm piano and brass
7	Adam Ant	Desperate But Not Serious	His 3rd single and a surprisingly small hit, but it has his usual driving rhythm, spaghetti western feel and intense vocals
7	Soft Cell	Where The Heart Is	A #21 after 5 straight Top 5s, but it's a lovely track very tenderly sung with a rich and warm orchestral accompaniment
7	David Bowie And Bing Crosby	Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy	Recorded just before Bing's death 5 years before and popularized by MTV, this is a very sweet mash up of an old carol
6	Phil Collins	You Can't Hurry Love	513th #1: a shame this and not "In The Air Tonight" is his 1st chart topper, but a good cover faithful to the Motown style
6	The Jam	Beat Surrender	511th #1: the last single before they disbanded, and I like the urgency of the beat but prefer their other chart toppers
5	Bucks Fizz	If You Can't Stand The Heat	Their 5th Top 10 certainly doesn't have the magic of the 4th and is more standard pop fare of the time, but quite nice
4	Culture Club	Time (Clock Of The Heart)	A 2nd Top 3 hit in a funk style and very different from the debut: it's nice enough but the chorus is a little limp for me
3	Evelyn King	Back To Love	Very similar in style to "Love Come Down" but only scraping in at #40: it just doesn't manage to be compelling like that
2	Shalamar	Friends	A #12 hit following 3 straight Top 10s: to me this is a terribly dull and repetitive 5 minutes: funk at its most interminable
1	Young Steve And The Afternoon Boys	I'm Alright	A #40 hit for Steve Wright and the crew of his Radio 1 show with a Madness style energy, but it's exceptionally grating

1982 Group 21:

#933	04/12/1982	Donna Summer	I Feel Love (Patrick Cowley Remix)	21	42-33-22-23-23-22-{21}-22-33-55->10
#934	11/12/1982	Shakin' Stevens	The Shakin' Stevens EP	2	35-4-{2}-2-7-25-58->7
#935	04/12/1982	Kool And The Gang	Hi De Hi, Hi De Ho	29	55-37-{29}-32-32-35-42-73->8
#936	04/12/1982	Cliff Richard	Little Town	11	63-38-21-{11}-11-18-44->7
#937	11/12/1982	Dionne Warwick	All The Love In The World	10	73-27-14-14-{10}-12-15-23-34-52->10
#938	11/12/1982	Santa Claus And The Christmas Trees	Singalong-A-Santa	19	58-28-{19}-19-30->5
#939	11/12/1982	David Essex	A Winter's Tale	2	65-30-7-7-3-{2}-6-15-29-44->10
#940	11/12/1982	Abba	Under Attack	26	46-31-{26}-26-26-26-42-73->8
#941	11/12/1982	Kid Creole And The Coconuts	Dear Addy	29	51-34-{29}-29-31-39-69->7
#942	04/12/1982	Incantation	Cacharpaya (Andes Pumpsa Desi)	12	59-48-39-28-28-16-14-{12}-14-26-42-52->12
#943	04/12/1982	Barry Manilow	I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter	36	62-43-40-{36}-36-44-62->7
#944	18/12/1982	Keith Harris And Orville	Orville's Song	4	55-33-33-8-{4}-5-9-18-31-46-60->11
#945	18/12/1982	John Williams	Theme From 'E.T. (The Extra Terrestrial)'	17	48-34-34-24-{17}-21-30-45-59-75->10
#946	11/12/1982	The Maisonettes	Heartache Avenue	7	67-43-39-39-29-15-{7}-7-13-23-43-68->12

This is a really great batch of songs.

I couldn’t recall Night Porter before re listening but it is gorgeous, so thanks for highlighting that one.

Buffalo Gals was groundbreaking for hip hop especially in the UK, a breath of fresh air at the time.

I do like Our House, but probably wouldn’t put it at the absolute peak of Madness’s songs.

Both sides of the Dexys double A side are great and Where The Heart Is is a bit of a lost Soft Cell gem, I agree.

You Can’t Hurry Love is fine but doesn’t really offer anything different to the original.

My other favourite would be Beat Surrender, a great signing off from a fantastic band, talk about going out on top. Though I do also think Time is lovely

As “Harry’s Game” was reviewed just in the batch before last, RIP Máire Brennan.

Silly season is upon us and this one certainly has its fair share of novelty silliness. A good top 3 though, and “Cacharpaya” gets better with every listen.

9	Incantation	Cacharpaya (Andes Pumpsa Desi)	A rather brilliant South American traditional folk instrumental track, including an exciting accelerando towards the end
8	David Essex	A Winter's Tale	I find this a very beautiful slushy Christmas ballad: something about the sincerity of how he performs it sets it apart
8	The Maisonettes	Heartache Avenue	Only hit for this UK band and it's an excellent slice of electropop that feels like it's harking back to the Motown sound
7	John Williams	Theme From 'E.T. (The Extra Terrestrial)'	His 2nd hit after the "Deer Hunter" theme: this is of course a great and instantly recognisable piece of classical music
7	Donna Summer	I Feel Love (Patrick Cowley Remix)	This remix is long but very interesting, with some psychedelic and experimental parts that really do add to the track
6	Abba	Under Attack	I really like the new wave production on this but it's a relatively ordinary though nice song: the last hit before they split
5	Dionne Warwick	All The Love In The World	It's similar in style to "Heartbreaker" and also Bee Gees penned; not as good as that but pleasant and well performed
4	Kid Creole And The Coconuts	Dear Addy	The big hits have dried up now: the song itself is quite slow moving though I do enjoy the far Eastern sounding backing
3	Kool And The Gang	Hi De Hi, Hi De Ho	A track in their typical style but not particularly interesting,  with a chorus that's not catchy and lyrically rather poor
3	Santa Claus And The Christmas Trees	Singalong-A-Santa	A medley of Christmas carols in a Cockney accent strung together: somehow nowhere near the worst of the bunch
2	Barry Manilow	I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter	A 1935 American standard that has covered covered many times: this radio friendly version has very little of interest
2	Keith Harris And Orville	Orville's Song	I want to find this sweet but find I can't even warm to Orville's words about being daft, let alone enjoy it musically
1	Cliff Richard	Little Town	This feels like a foreshadowing of "The Millennium Prayer" as it uses the words to a traditional carol and is fairly grim
1	Shakin' Stevens	The Shakin' Stevens EP	This is really a chore and seems longer than its 12 minutes: it's mostly live renditions and it feels like a karaoke set

I agree with Jaz that 'Beat Surrender' was The Jam going out on a high! I have grown more and more fond of this energetic call to arms over time. I'm sure a reunion would've been lucrative at some point but fair play to them for never messing with their legacy.

Love a bit of 'Heartache Avenue' as well 🥰 I would've first come across the instrumental via the sample use in Roll Deep's 'The Avenue'.

That 'I Feel Love' remix was an interesting experience on SyncTube! The original is one of my all-time favourite songs so I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this version. At first, I didn't sense much of a difference, but then it took off in its own way. The execution is messy but I can appreciate how ahead of the curve some of the ideas are, like proto acidic techno sounds.

Heartache Avenue is very good and it got a second wind in 2005 after being used a lot as part of the Avenue by Roll Deep.

Yeah the I Feel Love remix is interesting and it does go progressive rock in parts layer actually.

Abba - Under Attack is quite good too and so is Cacharpaya.

Edited April 15Apr 15 by TheSnake

RIP Maire, only 5 years older than me, all very sobering. The Bono duet was great too, In A Lifetime.

The Japan track is one Ive not heard in 40-odd years, and I barely remember it now I play it again, more in the style of Ghosts (my fave Japan track), Classy actually. 8/10. Buffalo Gals was an innovative debut anticipating samples and the late 80's 8/10. Our House is peak Madness for me, love it 10/10. So good even the USA went big on it and its quirky Britishness.

Dexy's dont know the Old side, but the airplay side I always found dull 5/10. Desperate But Not Serious was very sub-par and one I couldnt hum these days 6/10. Where The Heart Is, I'm always a fan of Marc's tearjerking 60's-ish ballads in the vein of Scott or Dusty or Gene or Roy or etc 8/10. Crosby & Bowie very much the odd couple here, Bowie coming off appearing on Marc Bolan's TV show doing Heroes at the same time, and within weeks both Bolan and Crosby would be dead. Coming after the death of Elvis both got meagre coverage in comparison, but Crosby was a 20th century game changer, as was Bowie and this track remains sweet. The SNL piss-take of the video is too accurate to be that funny, but it is mildly amusing. 8/10.

You Can't Hurry Love is fun and upbeat, but not quite on a par with The Supremes original. 8/10. Beat Surrender I also thought was a bit disappointing, formulaic compared to recent singles Town Called Malice, Bitterest Pill, Funeral Pyre 6/10. Bucks Fizz also a drop in quality, but still quite good 7/10. Culture Club a good follow-up, though the weakest of all their early singles 8/10.

Back To Love I don't recall much, so can only guess it's around 5/10, Friends wasnt as good as the top tenners but it was still pleasant enough 7/10, and Steve Wright was pretty bad novelty 1/10. Ironically he was innovating UK radio at the time with his party characters humour and multiple guest star regulars like Mr Angry, as nicked from Kenny Everett.