I agree Who’s That Girl is a case of Madonna playing safe and coasting a bit, which was exactly the opposite of most of the songs in her fantastic early career. It’s the epitome of average, so a 5.

For the most part I think Madonna has a pretty immaculate singles discography, however this is a complete non-entity.

I go through phases with WTG, I don't hear it for ages then when I do I normally find it a decent enough tune (especially the "light up my life" part)- but neither is it "Into The Groove"...

I like WTG, its not as overplayed as some of her other songs.

I like Who's That Girl, and bought it at the time, though its not amongst her greatest hits of the 80's - but it is better than most of her other movie spin-offs!

Generally speaking my view of Who’s That Girl is that when I listen to it I find it isn’t as bad as I remember it being.

But it’s still not brilliant so no grumbles about it dropping out

14. Los Lobos - La Bamba (score 6/10)

Number 1 for 2 weeks

From Madonna to the song that knocked it off the top of the charts! La Bamba (or La Bomba originally) is a folk song from Mexico and was first made famous by Ritchie Valens (more on him in a bit) in 1958. However, it is a much older song (probably 17th century), originating from the phrase to wobble o shake and the earliest recording dates back to the 1930s. Forward then to the 1980s, Los Lobos (meaning the wolves in Spanish) had been around since the 1970s with very limited success on the charts mainly playing American jazz before deciding to get back to their Mexican roots in the early part of the 1980s.

So, back to Ritchie Valens. Luis Vadez wrote and directed a film of the musical career and life of Valens and this was titled La Bamba after his biggest hit. The soundtrack needed a cover of said hit and Los Lobos were approached to cover La Bamba. The video is typical of a film soundtrack, showing the band interspersed with film clips. The result was a hige worldwide smash for Los Lobos, the song spent 2 weeks at number 1 in the UK and was a chart topper in the USA and throughout Europe.

I have always liked this cover, its really uplifting and a massive earworm (even the Weird Al Jankovich cover Lasagne works well!). The Spanish guitars work particularly well with the melody and the song rarely fails to cheer me up.

I'm not a big fan of La Bamba or Who's That Girl but would certainly put La Bamba above the latter.

La Bamba is such fun and joy, I love it and used to hear it a lot growing up. I guess my dad would have played the Ritchie Valens version a lot.

Not keen on Who's That Girl, very middling for a Madonna No.1, considering some of her classic 80s No.2s especially.

On 25/03/2026 at 21:44, Jessie Where said:

For the most part I think Madonna has a pretty immaculate singles discography, however this is a complete non-entity.

This made me laugh but not sure it's intentional, "Who's That Girl" was one of the singles that was excluded from "The Immaculate Collection". I agree it's a poor record.

I do like the other 3 records that have featured here since I last posted.

Being a primary school kid at the time I was probably the right audience for "Star Trekkin" and remember seeing the mad video on Top of the Pops very well.

"Reet Petite" was really ahead of its time in the 50s when you compare it to what else was around at the time.

"La Bamba" was the first song I remember hearing sung in a foreign language which was something I found interesting. I also remember thinking at the time the singer looked like Tony Green on Bullseye.

la Bamba is fun, and it's a good version of a song I always vaguely was aware of as I grew up in the 60's and 70's. So it was nice it got a moment to shine, but I did overdose on it a bit that year so I'd rather hear Madonna's these days - there's no question which one would pop up in an oldies party though!

Just echoing the sentiments of others, La Bamba is good fun and it was unusual, especially at the time, to have a non English language #1. I’d agree with your 6/10.

13. M/A/R/R/S - "Pump up the Volume" (score: 7/10)

Number 1 for 2 weeks

 

Dance, dance! Now this is the much better innovation in dance music from 1987 imo. Pump up the Volume was a huge milestone for both house music and the use of sampling (the title being derived from Eric B & Rankim’s I Know You Got Soul from earlier in 1987) and hit number 1 in several other countries. 

 

M/A/R/R/S were a mix of a group called Colourbox which produced electronic music and ban A.R. Kane which were known for their dream pop. The A side (Pump up the Volume) was primarily by Colourbox and the B side was a A.R. Kane production called Anitina – this came about as the two bands didn’t massively get on so they produced a track each, but then had input post production on each others songs. The original version of Pump.. was instrumental with the sample that included the song title, then A.R. Kane over dubbed some extra guitar. The real difference though came from some scratch effects and samples. 

 

The two tracks were originally released on white label to clubs in July 1987, with no artist names or credits. Pump… proved much more popular in clubs and was then released properly as a 12” single where it charted at 35. But, the song really only took off when a new remix was released a week after charting which contained the many samples (Public Enemy, Bar-Keys and Criminal Element Orchestra to name a few) we are used to hearing to this day. This was then edited to a 7” mix and the single started to rise in the charts. But (there is always a but in sampled song stories!) when the song reached number 2 it had an injunction issued by Stock, Aitken, Waterman as the sample from Roadblock wasn’t cleared beforehand. But, this was lifted provided that the overseas market did not contain the sample as it was too late to change it in the UK! (Ironically, it was pointed out that the bassline from Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up produced by SAW cheekily contained the bassline from Trapped by Colonel Abrams!). Legal issues aside, the song hit number 1 anyway (knocking off Astley haha). M/A/R/R/S never released anything again, making this a genuine one-hit wonder.

 

The influence of this song cannot be under-stated, it massively poplarised House music in the UK and directly led to the success of early House hits such as Bomb The Bass’ Beat Dis, S-Express and Coldcut’s Doctorin’ The House. I loved this track so much back in the day, the video seemed so futuristic with the satellite and space theme (and they were called Mars!) and the samples made more than the sum of its parts. A solid dance track and in another year this would be easily in my top 10.

I was waiting for this one to come up, sorry in advance about the incoming enthusiasm guys!

One of my all time favourite singles and an absolute epiphany for me when I first heard it back in ‘87. Even now it still sounds like the future. House, hip hop, indie, dub, sampling, innovation, true one hit wonder and controversy over that SAW ‘Roadblock’ sample resulting in a new radio edit and contributing to a precipitous drop down the charts, all adding to its mystique. The sound of club culture taking over UK pop and, as mentioned, resulting in many often fantastic imitators.

But the original is still best. It’s very rare that a song can be pinpointed as a true game changer but this is one of them. An easy 10/10 for me (11 if I’m allowed)!

And Anitina is also good too.

Nothing that I would have in my top 10 has gone yet so I think we're pretty aligned thus far... Michael Jackson next please

That's the first one to come up that I've loved! Such an addictive tune, I love how it's structured.

A game changer of a track this one, it sounded like the future at the time, was influential and is still a total banger fave. Love it. Unlike Jack Your Body, this was and is genuinely exciting and it very much polarised opinion as most folk my age and above just didnt get it, what with not having a song as such to it. To which my response has always been, well nothing wrong with instrumentals or classical pieces that dont have any lyrics, and in this case the various samples add interest and power along the way. The B side? Never heard it at the time or since until very recently. It was all about Pump Up The Volume and a genuine mark in the sand in pop music history. It would be near the top end for me in 1987 chart-toppers.

"Pump Up The Volume" is an all-time classic such as "Jack Your Body". Absolutely essential stuff and both are top 5 for me.

12. Rick Astley - "Never Gonna Give You Up" (7.5/10)

Number 1 for 5 weeks

Kept off number 1: Pet Shop Boys & Dusty Springfield – What Have I Done to Deserve This? & The Fat Boys & The Beach Boys - Wipeout

Now we get to the biggest selling single of 1987. I have slightly agonised over where to put this in the rate, it’s quite the cheesy classic but not as good as the number 1s above (plus look what it kept off the top spot – more on that later!).

So what isn’t Rick never gonna do? Give you up, let you down, run around and desert you? Make you cry, say goodbye, tell a lie and hurt you? So many things!

Onto Rick and the song, this was a huge hit for Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW) becoming their biggest and probably most well known hit, reaching number 1 in 25 countries (including the USA in March 1988). In 1985, Rick started out as a drummer for band called FBI and found some local fame in Warrington and when the lead vocalist left the band, Rick stepped up as lead vocalist. This lead to him being noticed by Pete Waterman and the offer of a job at the PWL studio in London (Rick actually moved in with Pete at this time). He was ‘tea boy’ for the studio for 2 years while he learnt the ins and outs of the music business and although he feared SAW had forgotten to make him a record, they did get round to it by 1987. Rick actually contributed to the vocals to the charity record Let It Be earlier in the year (see my number 20) and after a few false starts with Rick contributing to other songs and his own minor hit in the Netherlands, Never Gonna Give You Up was released in July 1987.

The song was actually recorded on 1st January 1987 and it was loosely based on Colonel Abrams Trapped (also mentioned in my write up of Pump up the Volume above). SAW wanted a different sound to their standard fayre and this went well with Rick’s rich deep vocal (on the subject of his voice, many people at the time were shocked at what Rick looked like as his voice didn’t match his clean cut boyish looks!). The lyrics were inspired by Rick’s devotion to his long term girlfriend at the time. The final remix of the song by Pete Hammond of PWL made the vocal more prominent in the song, a wise choice imo as the strength of the track is clearly Rick’s voice and delivery.

The video for Never Gonna.. is pretty iconic (for more than one reason, see below). It was filmed at the Harrow Club in London and I think the main appeal is actually Rick’s terrible dad ‘dancing’ – a wiggle to the left and right best sums it up! The video actually has 1.7 billion views on youtube, which initially seems odd for a standard 80s hit but for one thing – Rickrolling! This is basically where a shortened URL is used to fool people into thinking a link is one thing, but it’s another – usually leading to this song. This was started back in 2007 and heightened in 2008 as an April Fool (including youtube that Rickrolled very video for the day!). To this day, Rickrolling continues in increasingly inventive ways so watch what you click!

I really liked Rick Astley at the time, though my fondness was more from 1988 so its not surprise I much prefer his follow up Together Forever which missed the top spot (as did the awful cover of When I Fall In Love from the same year). Rick has become quite an enduring legacy act in recent years and it is good to see him still performing to adoring crowds. I think this song is his biggest legacy though mainly thanks to the continual Rickrolling.

A word on what was kept off the top of the charts – Pet Shop Boys and Dusty being my favourite PSB’s single (boo at it being stuck at number 2!) and a truly awful cover of Wipeout and the least said about that one the better.

I agree i prefer other SAW Rick singles from later on, almost all of them but I'd probably still put this above Michael Jackson.