'Easy Lover' is a good shout for topping its respective group. Nice to see that still clicking with modern audiences to the point where it's recently been in the Spotify chart. It took me way too long to realise Philip Bailey was from Earth, Wind & Fire! 'Material Girl' is my other main standout from that batch, not exactly top tier Madonna, but her best up to this point and an iconic song / video in her catalogue. Interesting to see this sudden Marilyn Monroe relevance with Madonna channelling her in the video and now 'Some Like It Hot' coming up too.

p.s. 'If You Buy This Record Your Life Will Be Better', complete with Madge sample, has become a bit of a guilty pleasure for me too. F-f-f-fabulous!

'Everybody Wants To Rule The World' is a worthy 10 classic synth-pop production with hard-hitting lyrics that flow so well. It's easy to see why it's so beloved and I'm not even slightly bored of it. I also liked Lorde's pretty atmospheric version for the Hunger Games: Catching Fire soundtrack in 2013.

'Welcome To The Pleasuredome' is also a strong runner up. Their chart-topping trio is flawless but I agree this deserves a look-in too. I recently revisited the full version, as part of the accompanying album, when I was writing commentary about 'Two Tribes' for my countdown and it truly shines in that more sprawling execution indeed.

Rhino video did not disappoint <3 🦏

great outfit too. 🤩

Rhino video is excellent!!🦏

I didn’t know either of these top picks well beforehand so they’re great discoveries, as are many of the others in the top half.

9	The Damned	Grimly Fiendish	Their 1st Top 40 since 1979 although they've had many misses, and a delightful stompy and comically dark song
9	Dream Academy	Life In A Northern Town	Only Top 40 for this UK band produced by David Gilmour and it's a stunning track including the "Sunchyme" riff
8	Pat Benatar	Love Is A Battlefield {1985}	A re-release for this after "We Belong" did well, and it's a hugely compelling, euphoric and slightly rocky pop song
8	The Rah Band	Clouds Across The Moon	Their last hit and only Top 40 after 1980: it's a wonderfully quirky and futuristic track imagining a war with Mars
7	The Smiths	Shakespeare's Sister	A very short track but still a very enjoyable and interesting song, with a rather frantic rockabilly style rhythm
7	China Crisis	Black Man Ray	Many of their releases have missed but this is their 3rd Top 20 and a very warm track with an Eastern flavour
6	REO Speedwagon	Can't Fight This Feeling	The last of their 3 hits, this is their most Spotify streamed and a US #1, and a big emotive arena rock style song
6	Bryan Adams	Somebody	He'll only have small hits from now until the '90s, but this is a nice track with an anthemic feel to the chorus
5	Phil Collins	One More Night	A US #1 and very well streamed and remembered song, but to me it's only quite nice and nothing really special
5	ABC	Be Near Me	The only single from their 3rd album to even reach the Top 40, it has a nice sound to it but isn't that distinctive
4	Foreigner	That Was Yesterday	A #28 hit following up a #1 and their last Top 40: this has the same big emotive sound but doesn't quite land
3	Change	Let's Go Together	Their last Top 40: it has quite a nice tune but it plods along for over 5 minutes and feels a little limp overall
2	Billy Connolly	Super Gran	The theme song for a children's TV programme: Billy's only hit that isn't a parody and it could be worse really
1	USA For Africa	We Are The World	548th #1: conceived for the Ethiopian famine and a huge worldwide seller, but a laboured and over the top track

1995 Group 7:

#1654	20/04/1985	Howard Jones	Look Mama	10	20-{10}-13-18-29-48->6
#1655	20/04/1985	Simple Minds	Don't You (Forget About Me)	7	22-8-{7}-8-10-13-23-32-38-46-69-72R(7)-73-67-66-71-64-69-61-74R(12)-72R(7)-74-62-68R(2)->24
#1656	20/04/1985	Dead Or Alive	Lover Come Back To Me	11	23-{11}-12-14-27-32-47-74->8
#1657	20/04/1985	Bronski Beat And Marc Almond	I Feel Love (Medley)	3	24-7-5-{3}-3-5-7-15-27-35-55-71->12
#1658	20/04/1985	Dire Straits	So Far Away	20	38-22-{20}-23-41-64->6
#1659	30/03/1985	Chris Rea	Stainsby Girls	26	64-49-44-39-27-27-{26}-36-51-70->10
#1660	20/04/1985	Chaka Khan	Eye To Eye	16	40-19-{16}-21-37-55-68->7
#1661	27/04/1985	Steve Arrington	Feel So Real	5	20-11-7-{5}-8-11-20-33-47-72->10
#1662	20/04/1985	Freddie Mercury	I Was Born To Love You	11	50-23-14-{11}-11-12-18-31-36-51->10
#1663	20/04/1985	Eurythmics	Would I Lie To You	17	45-31-25-{17}-18-25-41-62->8
#1664	06/04/1985	DeBarge	Rhythm Of The Night	4	61-55-42-34-17-9-{4}-6-5-11-22-27-40-55->14
#1665	27/04/1985	New Model Army	No Rest	28	36-30-{28}-44-67->5
#1666	30/03/1985	Godley And Creme	Cry	19	68-44-42-41-37-29-{19}-19-23-29-53-66R(62)-67-67->14
#1667	27/04/1985	Curtis Hairston	I Want Your Lovin' (Just A Little Bit)	13	39-22-16-{13}-22-34-52->7
#1668	04/05/1985	Paul Hardcastle	19	1	4-{1}-1-1-1-1-3-14-16-24-31-36-48-69-74-69->16

'Love Is A Battlefield' is amazing and sort of has a 90s dance vibe for me with the euphoric female vocal and the fast beat.

'Life In a Northern Town' is a strange mix of the downbeat verse vocal and lyrics and the more optimistic African style choral part that was used for 'Sunchyme'.

Edited Friday at 23:151 day by TheSnake

Havent heard Grimly Fiendish in decades but it was a fave at the time. Nice to hear it again, it had mid-60's vibes to me, still charming 8/10. Life In A Northern Town is classic 10/10 loved it then love it more now. Love Is A Battlefield is Pat Benatar at her very best and I'd already bought the single first time round 10/10. Rocks with passion.

Love the sci-fi Rah Band single too, bound to appeal to me really, and a nice tune too 9/10. Not quite The Crunch quality but good anyway. The Smiths single came and went fairly quickly without making much of an impression on me. My chartfile says it peaked at 65 for me so that'll be a 4/10 then. China Crisis always welcome to me, but earlier hits and later flops were more enjoyable than mellow Black Man Ray. 7/10.

REO Speedwagon more of a self-parody by this time, Keep On Loving You is much better, 6/10. Somebody is nicely singalong without being anything special 6/10. One More Night is quite sweet, but it never did that much for me either, just pleasant 6/10. Be Near Me was big in the USA but compared to The Lexicon Of Love, or even 2nd album's SOS minor hit ballad it was more just stylishly pleasant. 7/10.

Foreigner losing the edge by this time on non-ballads, That Was Yesterday run of the mill 5/10. I dont recall the Change single at all but my trusty chart-file assures me I rated it a 5/10. Billy Connolly's best record was Irish Heartbeat in 1990. Everything else was pretty much novelty 2/10. We Are The World demonstrating Americans tendency to wallow in self-congratulatory emotion. I bought it because it was a worthy cause, and the star-spotting video was interesting to see who could be arsed to turn up and who couldn't and trying to guess who some of them were. 6/10.

I think Grimly Fiendish was new to me, but it’s a great discovery.

Life In A Northern Town is gorgeous, and sounds ahead of it’s time, maybe due to the sampled use?

Love Is Battlefield is excellent pop rock and well deserving of its resurgence.

Shakespeare’s Sister is one of The Smiths many great rockabilly influenced songs, a short sharp blast of energy. Very underrated amongst their singles

I’d forgotten about Clouds Across The Moon but it’s fantastic and quirky/unique sounding

Black Man Ray is more China Crisis loveliness

One More Night is very pretty, though I always felt it to be a surprising US number one