13 hours ago, TheSnake said:

I even prefer Tracey Ullman's 60's bubblegum pop revival (via Kirsty McColl) song 'They Don't Know' to Karma Chamaeleon (which was at #2 for two of the Karma weeks)!

I prefer Sunglasses which wasn't as big, first done by Sandy Posey, the Single Girl in the 60's.

Candy Girl was a sort of retro Jackson 5 pastiche that wasn't as good as The Jackson 5 - cos, Motown writers and the Jackson's vocals had more class. That said, it was pleasant enough in a cutesy sort of way, but not what I would call a classic pop track. Unlike Baby Jane, I love it, and it's one of Rod's best records, and very much his best post-70's track. It sounded very 1983 at the time, glossy pop with a major hook. it's one of his best vocal performances, and like most of his best records, he had a hand in writing it. Rod's a self-confessed lazy arse when it comes to songwriting, he doesnt enjoy the process, but his best stuff tends to be those he writes. His covers are invariably bland and dull.

Culture Club's was a fave at the time, but it's quite twee these days from overplay, it never goes away, but it's one of the weakest tracks on the otherwise fabulous Colour By Numbers, one of the very few post 60's pop albums my mum bought. She loved Boy George. Victims, Miss Me Blind, Church Of The Poison Mind all top notch 10/10's.

14. Give It Up - KC and the Sunshine Band

KC and the Sunshine Band were named after their lead singer Harry Casey and the Sunshine State of Florida that they came from. They had five US number 1s in the 70s as well as three UK top 10 singles but the decline of disco had seemingly seen them off. The UK division of their record label liked this song and decided to release it as a single. Their decision paid off with the song spending three weeks at number 1 in August. It's now their most streamed song, well ahead of 'That's The Way (I Like It)'. The group's revival was short lived with no further top 40 hits but their legacy lives on with their musical 'Get Down Tonight' currently being performed in London's West End.

14th place seems a bit low for this but I like all the remaining singles. The song starts well with the synth intro going into guitars, drums and horns before the vocals come in. I think its success is down to that catchy chorus with the "na-na, na-na, na-na, na-na, na, na, now" hook. Lyrically, it's about wanting someone who everyone else wants with the "give it up" bit meaning the woman should give up keeping them all waiting and choose someone. So overall, it's a good, fun dance/pop song but a little repetitive.

Oops I quite like 'Karma Chameleon', especially the "...you're my lover not my rival" bridge and harmonica, but can understand how overplay would sour it for people.

However, I think 'Give It Up' would be in a similar position for me too.

'Give It Up' a fun party track. 1983 is a strong year for #1's having looked over them myself.

Big fan of Karma Chameleon, shame to see it so low.

It was the favourite of mine when we got the first Now album for Christmas!

Give It Up was number one the week my niece was born, and KC had had a life-affecting car crash prior to this comeback biggie, so lots of good will for him, not least because none of his 70's classics topped the UK charts, bar his George McRae Rock Your Baby which he donated (one of many) to George. I'm still annoyed by The History Of Rock 80's weekly collectible magazine doing the dirty on disco and KC in particular by ignoring them as much as possible while happily going in-depth on many lesser acts where KC had kicked-started the whole genre as Glam died a death. Muso writers of that era often didnt have a clue about what quality pop music meant, too stuck in their own elitist genres and niches and too quick to dismiss mass popularity as being somehow indicative of all the plebs and their terrible taste in music. See also ABBA, Queen. Moan over, Give It Up is fun, but I wish it got less airplay and exciting Queen Of Clubs got more. Or Get Down Tonight. Or That's The Way. Or Shake Shake Shake....

Behind Culture Club, but ahead of Candy Girl. There's one pet hate to come which would be bottom for me. I turn it off as soon as it inevitably pops up on a weekly basis. 😄Fingers-crossed it's up next...

13. Only You - The Flying Pickets

The Flying Pickets were a group of actors who had sung a cappella in a 1981 production of the play 'One Big Blow' and decided to take if further by singing versions of pop songs in London pubs and clubs. Their name came from them taking part in the miners' strikes in the early 70s. For their first single release, they chose the Yazoo song Only You which had reached number 2 the previous year. Vince Clarke had written it just before leaving Depeche Mode and offered it to them as a parting gift but they rejected it. Instead, he recorded it with Alison Moyet who he knew from the Essex music circuit. The Flying Pickets' version was the Christmas number 1, spending five weeks at the top of the chart. The follow-up, 'When You're Young And In Love', reached number 7 but they had no other top 40 hits which could have been down to supporting the 1984 miners' strike which led to conflicts with their record label and one store refusing to sell their album or more likely the a cappella novelty wearing off. The group have kept going all this time but none of the original members are still present. Most of them returned to the acting profession.

While this is not as good as the Yazoo original, I do like what they've done with it. The lead vocal is strong, supported by the all the dum dums and bom boms and you also get those sustained notes which add to the quality. It's really well put together and is the first a cappella number 1. The lyrics are fairly simple, about missing someone that the person has split up with. I think this is the right position for the song, there is not much to choose between the ones in these mid-table positions.

'Give It Up' was a good comeback and catchy and an undoubtedly classic but yeah I still prefer the more electronic dance pop and dance music of the 80s.

Strange that there was no charting follow-up single.

Not really a fan of that version of 'Only You', but it was influential with 'Caravan of Love' in 1986 very much influenced by it I would say.

Edited Sunday at 16:214 days by TheSnake

My dad loved The Flying Picketts' cover of Only You, he bought the single, I thought it was clever and enjoyable, but it was Yazoo that topped my own charts, and I never liked this one as much as that one - that said, their name was popular in our house and community (Mansfield), a coal mining town, and with my grandad and dad having worked down the pit when young, and my brother working in the mines at the time, just ahead of the Scargill vs Thatcher strikes before Thatcher closed the lot and tipped everyone onto the dole. Mum and dad's puppy dog was named Pickett after the band as they and me packed up and moved to the South Coast for work.

So it's a shame I dont rate this higher, better than New Edition but behind KC for me!

The KC song is deffo better than the other songs in this list so far though!

It did keep Spandau Ballet 'Gold' off #1.

Edited Sunday at 16:534 days by TheSnake

I quite enjoy that KC track, it's one of those guilty pleasure kind of songs that I'd dance to at a wedding - and I do quite enjoy songs like that where they're just really upbeat and fun. Probably an 8/10 for me.

I definitely prefer the Yazoo version of Only You but I do still enjoy the cover version, another 8/10 for me.

Both of them would be a bit higher for me, I've re-looked at the list of number ones and whilst there are no absolute stinkers in there, I've spotted a handful that are quite mid for me that haven't appeared here yet.

12. True - Spandau Ballet

After starting out as the house band at London's 'Blitz' club, Spandau Ballet made a big impact on the UK charts with their singles 'To Cut A Long Story Short' and 'Chant No.1 (I Don't Need This Pressure On)' but with 'Paint Me Down' only reaching number 30 and 'She Loved Liked Diamond' missing the top 40 altogether, they thought that the fanbase they had built up had deserted them and decided to change their sound to appeal to a more mainstream audience and the Trevor Horn produced 'Instinction' returned them to the top 10. True was the title track of their next album and leaned towards the soul music sound that its writer Gary Kemp liked to listen to, even mentioning Marvin Gaye in its lyrics. Held back as the third single from the album, it spent four weeks at number 1 in May, the last of those coinciding with the 1000th edition of Top Of The Pops, disappointing Richard Branson who had arranged a lavish post-show party in the expectation that his own label's group, The Human League, would have been at number 1 with '(Keep Feeling) Fascination'.

The song has endured, with 620 million streams on Spotify and also being sampled on the 1991 Billboard number 1 'Set Adrift On Memory Bliss' by PM Dawn. The follow-up single, 'Gold', reached number 2 and has 238 million streams. 1983 can be looked on as the group's peak time of popularity, they had just three more top 10 singles before splitting up in 1990. They reformed in 2009 and continued for ten more years.

I certainly liked this song at the time but not so much now as it's a little overplayed. There is a grandeur and smoothness to it with the sparseness of the production giving Tony Hadley a chance to shine with his commanding lead vocal and the Kemp brothers helping out on the "huh huh huh"s. You've also got that long saxophone solo which went on to be a staple of 80s ballads. I didn't know that the lyrics were inspired by Clare Grogan who Gary Kemp had a crush on.

You are right, this track is mostly about the strong Tony Hadley vocal. It is a well written song too. Its an early hit for the 80s sophistipop genre but it along with with the use of saxophone had been started before this really with ABC in 1982.

Sophistipop would become popular by 1984 with the Style Council, Sade and others and I think 'True' (and 'Gold') did help to open the gates for this.

I still prefer the higher tempo electronic 80s music (like Spandau did with 'To Cut A Long Story Short') so 'True' wouldn't be one of my faves either of the band or 1983's charts.

But its interesting the chart revival with Spandau Ballet with 'Instinction'.

Edited Sunday at 21:224 days by TheSnake

...and there falls one of the ones I think is "quite mid".

It is an okay track but I much prefer PM Dawn's Set Adrift On Memory Bliss to it, the sample they used from it really is the best part of the original track for me. But still, that sample is still from the original so it's not all bad, it is very recognisable and I wouldn't turn it off if it came on shuffle.

I prefer both of the songs that dropped out today in other forms too! Yazoo's 'Only You' is a synth-pop classic, so more to my taste than a cappella music, but I can appreciate that it's a unique chart topper at least. 'Gold' is a bit of a guilty pleasure but I don't really care for 'True', however I like what P.M. Dawn did with their sample.

Off the top of my head, Nelly also took a sample of it into the top 10 with 'N Dey Say' in 2005, but a pretty forgettable track.

Interesting how all the records in this countdown so far are all very well known and still regularly played today. In the 90s there were several that faded into obscurity straight after they topped the charts. In this countdown I'm certain I would know all these songs even if I wasn't a music nerd and I'm aware there's still more really well known ones to come.

A clever and unique take on 'Only You' that was but Yazoo's is of course fab too.

Don't particularly care for 'True' either oops. I knew of Martin Kemp as Steve Owen in Eastenders before coming across the band though and he was a great villain character in that. 'Cut A Long Story Short' and 'Gold' are the only ones I quite like from Spandau Ballet.

Nothing I’m madly excited about in the last 3.

“Give It Up” is fun - my favourite of them actually.

The “Haa Ha Haa Haaa Haa” is probably my favourite part of “True” and beyond that it’s not that exciting.

My thread will reveal what I think of Yazoo’s “Only You” (spoiler: a lot). So this one is never going to compete for me, but to their credit they didn’t ruin it and did it in an entirely different way that did work very well.

..and thus falls my least-fave number one of 1983. I rated it top 5 at the time, the sax is great, the riff nice, Tony going for old-fashioned crooner vibes, but I have just become immune to it from overplay. I really don't want to hear it, it just grates now. Once you can play an entire song in your head without hearing it.... My mate was a huge Spandau fan so I've had the "pleasure" of live versions 3 or 4 times to boot, including their last tour before they self-combusted yet again. Their first 12 months as pop stars were the best, apart from the odd decent track here and there.

And I too love Set Adrift On Memory Bliss, it takes the best bit and drops the rest, and isn't overplayed.