Annoying but extremely catchy

Both of those are fun tunes. I don't think I knew of the backstory of 'I Don't Like Monday's' either or slipped my mind when I did Bob Geldof as a research project in college. The things you learn etc!

I thought there was a chance that Ian Dury may be a bit divisive being that high but so far it's avoided the panning I feared, fourth up next...

04 | The Buggles - Video Killed the Radio Star

Weeks at number one: 1

End of year position: 17

Rating: 10/10

We're sticking with the fun songs as we reach #4 and find ourselves in the company of the Buggles. Video Killed the Radio Star is another song in this list that would easily feature in a list of the most distinctive #1s of all time - and arguably the band had more influence over the next decade than any of the others I've featured... well, I say the band, I of course am really referring to Trevor Horn who would go on to produce some of the most adventurous music of the 80s, and in the guise of Frankie Goes to Hollywood some of the most successful as well.

I like that the song arrives in deceiving fashion, the opening piano and wow wow wow wows (this is a technical term) feel like they're going to subject us to a generic US soul ballad... but then the vocal comes in with an unexpected tone and pitch and you know you're not getting what you anticipated, then the 'Oh-oh' comes out of nowhere and you're like what on earth is this?!!!!... and then what's that, a thudding beat and synth flourishes? Why it's the arrival of a possibly completely bonkers but brilliant electro-pop banger! It has so many production elements as it progresses, a choir that just appears for verse two before evaporating away, a guitar crescendo to announce the chorus is coming back after the instrumental section... then the echoey ending... but, what's that, it's not over... youuuuuu aaaarrrrrrreeeeeeeee a radiooooooo star! Why yes Buggles, yes you truly are!

Of course whilst it is famous for making #1 in quite a few key markets, it is probably most famous these days for being the song that launched MTV... and you can see why they chose it to be the first song, not only is the lyrical theme fitting but it just works as a way to introduce anything with it's joyously distinctive and fun approach signalling a bright new future (even though the song was a few years old by then!) - of course sadly it was also the final song to be played on MTV as well as the music channel closed on the final day of last year, but a lovely touch from them to go full circle like that.

Both of those last two are fantastic - 1979 definitely seemed the year of technological anxiety with both Video Killed the Radio Star and another number 1 still to come (as well as Kraftwerk making waves) and I loved it. This one still sounds so unique and standout, and indeed was a lovely touch of MTV to come full circle with it.

Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick is wonderful, the bassline is amazing and the vocal performance has gotta be one of the most distinctive on a number 1. It's always worked really well as a whole, I can't say I've ever heard much detraction for it, I assumed it's one of those universally liked songs.

Enjoy all of 6-10 as well, I have great Guitar Hero memories of Message in a Bottle.

Video Killed The Radio Star is fabulous. The singles by Buggles, Gary Numan and New Musik really got me interested in synth pop in 1979 and 1980 before Ultravox, Depeche Mode and OMD came along behind them.

Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick is another good one. I also like Ian Dury's other two top 10 hits, What A Waste and Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 3. All of them had his witty, quirky lyrics.

Ian Dury is iconic. B.A Robertson, Jona Lewie (kitchen at parties) and Bill Wyman (Je suis un rock star) copied Ian Dury's vocal style!

'Video Killed The Radio Star' I never used to like much but I do now, majestic.

13 hours ago, Roba. said:

I don't think I knew of the backstory of 'I Don't Like Monday's' either or slipped my mind when I did Bob Geldof as a research project in college. The things you learn etc!

Disturbing to say the least, I really like 'Someone's Looking At You' from the Boomtown Rats! Way better than 'I Don't Like Mondays'.

It drove me mad as a kid, but as an adult I think it's pretty fabulous!

I love the "ooo-ooo" bits

Ian Dury is one that would definitely be in my Top 5 and Buggles is the one that would just miss out.

Aside from Dr Hook as my number one it's very difficult to choose between the ones behind it but when I thought what my Top 3 would be prior to making my last post it included the 2 which are yet to come. So 2 of our Top 3 are the same but we have polar opposite opinions on our other choices.

If only @Last Dreamer was still on here to give his opinions!

30 minutes ago, TheSnake said:

If only @Last Dreamer was still on here to give his opinions!

Yeah - that would be great!

The Buggles 'Video Killed The Radio Star' brings back memories of first discovering it via playing the dance mat game as a kid lol. A bundle of joy it is.

03 | Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive

Weeks at number one: 4

End of year position: 6

Rating: 10/10

By 1979 disco was starting to fade out as new wave began to take over, and to be honest I'm not the biggest fan of disco anyway... but the genre still had one more huge moment to come in the form of this classic from Gloria Gaynor that perhaps appropriately knocked the Bee Gees from the top. This is an absolute powerhouse of a track and I'm tempted to say that it's the highlight of 70s disco for me.

It opens with the iconic line of at first I was afraid I was petrified which surely has to be up there as one of the most instantly recognisable openings ever, with Gloria delivering that first line with a slight breathiness to her vocal that hints at a picture of a victim... before she then makes it absolutely clear that this isn't the case as the tremble disappears and she turns to a confident and strong vocal as she belts out and I grew strong and I learned how to get along and you know this is much more than you thought. What follows is the ultimate anthem of empowerment as Gloria makes it clear that she doesn't need that man and she's living life for herself - and again I love the delivery of the song, she's not overhanging it or relying on vocal gymnastics, she just delivers such a confident and assured vocal with a bit of bite that just matches the energy of the song and lyrics perfectly. I particularly love the string sections that follow the first chorus but then also come back altogether for the final section of the track, it's all just so majestic.

The track was re-released in 1993, when it made the top 5 again, and this was the first version I knew. Whilst in retrospect it isn't anywhere near the original, I do feel that Phil Kesley updated it in a way that stayed true to the classy feel of the original - although he removed the piano intro which is clearly sacrilege! I did buy the remix single and my main memory is it's one of the first times I realised that certain songs could be associated with gay culture - I had taken it on the school bus for my then and girlfriend to listen to (I used to regularly subject her to my music on the bus, bless her!) and one of the kids in the fifth year really took the p*** out of it saying it was such a gay song etc - consequently for such a long time afterwards I never played it again and hid it away at the bottom of my ever growing collection of singles. But today it's making its way firmly back out of the bottom of that pile to its rightful place as a 10/10 track and land itself a position in my top 3 of the year <3

Gloria probably my #1 - such an iconic song.

"I Will Survive" is the one I cannot stand. I think disco is one of those genres where when done well you have a great tune but if done badly it's really irritating and this fits the latter for me. I always used to write off disco as being cheesy nonsense which was really because of the big anthems like this, but when looking at the more obscure records there's some proper gems which are mainly instrumental or have minimal vocals.

02 | Blondie - Heart of Glass

Weeks at number one: 4

End of year position: 2

Rating: 10/10

Just missing out on the top spot are Blondie with Heart of Glass. The track set up an extraordinary year for the band who went on to have four hits and the biggest selling album of the year, with this particular track also shifting a million copies to finish as the second biggest seller.

This must have felt like quite a departure for them at the time as, whilst the prior singles were all pretty great, none of their material had hinted at anything out of the ordinary for rock music. I remember watching a documentary where it explained how revolutionary this sound was for analogue recordings and the fusion of traditional rock music instruments with synthesisers and drum machines. As always Debbie Harry is coolness personified and her vocals remain restrained whilst also really delivering a strong melody - I've always been particularly in love with the verses where she floats all over the melody and the whole thing feels incredibly sensual, the way she sings the word 'blind' alone is simply to die for. But the rest of the band really play their part on it too, it all sounds quite simple but when you really pay attention there's so many layers going on in the track - the drum machine stays in place right from the beginning, but is joined by more traditional drums, and I think there's at least three different guitar elements going on one way or another (no pun intended before I just wrote that!)... and then throw in the synth lines and you've got so many elements weaving in and out of each other as the song progresses.

What's amazing is that this isn't even their best track imo, I've never ranked them all but I'm not sure it would even be top 3 for me such is the strength of their back catalogue - the only thing I'm certain of is that Atomic would definitely be my #1. As mentioned, the parent album Parallel Lines was the biggest of the year and is surely one of the most stacked albums of all time. But despite being the undoubted darlings of the year in the real charts, they couldn't quite defeat one song that's still to come here...

Heart of Glass is good (didn't know it was their first synthy track though). Of course they would exceed it in terms of quality with 'Atomic' arguably.

8 minutes ago, dandy* said:

I remember watching a documentary where it explained how revolutionary this sound was for analogue recordings and the fusion of traditional rock music instruments with synthesisers and drum machines.

Yes you can hear the influence in tracks like Japan - Quiet Life (another 1979 track actually) and from early 1981, Duran Duran - Planet Earth and Kim Wilde - Kids In America obviously too! This became the normal 1981-1982 new wave/pop sound in the charts for a while (1981 I say because strangely 1980 actually didn't have much synthy new wave making the UK chart apart from Blondie - Atomic and then Spandau Ballet - To Cut A Long Story Short near the end of the year).

Edited March 1Mar 1 by TheSnake

01 | Tubeway Army - Are Friends Electric?

Weeks at number one: 4

End of year position: 7

Rating: 10/10

So I've finally made it to my favourite #1 of the year and Gary Numan takes it with his first single under the guise of Tubeway Army. I've already said a lot of what I think about him and his style of music in my commentary for Cars, but it all still applies here as well. This is one of those songs that I really wish I'd been around at the time to hear for the first time - I can just imagine hearing it and thinking whoa what the hell is this?!!! It surely must have felt like such a whiplash hearing this after anything else that was popular up to this point in 1979?!!! Blondie had pushed things with Heart of Glass but this track well and truly shoves music off into a new direction and for me this is the song that created the 80s.

I guess Donna Summer had already been successful with I Feel Love (another 10/10 moment obvs) but that still very much felt like pushing disco into new electronic territories, where as this was different. This was dark, it was almost brutal and abrasive sounding and it was all delivered in a manner that feels completely disconnected from the audience, not something I can think of having previously occurred in any of the UK #1s that preceded it. The production has really stood the test of time, not least because of how seamlessly it transitioned into the public's consciousness all over again some 23 years later when it was used as the primary production for the Sugababes' Freak Like Me. It's one of the most impressive electronic singles of all time for me and one that I listen to on a weekly basis these days as it sits in most of the playlists I have.

The reason this one sits so much higher than Cars is the lyrics. Where as the lyrics to Cars feel a bit basic, this one feels like it's so much more important as it tells a story between man and machine... now I've read that Gary himself just wrote it as a song about robotic prostitutes(!) but whether intentional or not, the lyrics feel even more relatable today than they probably did at the time - it's always been a dystopian tale of the future where technology takes over, but it feels like we're getting to a place where that type of vision isn't too far away. So many people already communicate with their friends almost exclusively via electronic means and similarly, like us, communicate with others exclusively via electronic means. The verse where he says "You know I hate to ask but are friends electric? Only mine's broke down and now I've no-one to love" is one of my favourites ever.

So that's it - I've done! Hope everyone has enjoyed revisiting the year with me, I definitely enjoyed listening to everything and I've got a new found appreciation for a lot of the songs that I've featured. I'd be delighted to hear whether you agree with how I've ranked them, or equally if you think I've gone it way off the mark - your own rankings etc are all more than welcome. Thanks for everyone's comments along the way, much appreciated x

Final ranking:

01 Tubeway Army - Are Friends Electric?

02 Blondie - Heart of Glass

03 Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive

04 The Buggles - Video Killed the Radio Star

05 Ian Dury and the Blockheads - Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick

06 The Boomtown Rats - I Don’t Like Mondays

07 Gary Numan - Cars

08 Blondie - Sunday Girl

09 The Police - Message in a Bottle

10 Bee Gees - Tragedy

11 Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall Part II

12 Village People - YMCA

13 Anita Ward - Ring My Bell

14 The Police - Walking on the Moon

15 Cliff Richard - We Don’t Talk Anymore

16 Art Garfunkel - Bright Eyes

17 Dr Hook - When You’re in Love with a Beautiful Woman

18 Lena Martell - One Day at a Time