Gezza

83. GARY NUMAN (1,602,700) 18 TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST SELLER: WE ARE GLASS (234,000) Maybe not where electronic music began but certainly an early pioneer Numan entered the 80s as one of the biggest stars of 1979, he acquired a reputation for being rather dire and robotic on stage which made him a bit of a marmite act even by the early 80s. A declaration that he was retire from touring came early in 1981 but didn’t last. He teamed up with Bill Sharpe (of Shakatak) to produce hits in the mid 80s but he never regained the magic of 79-80

84. NIK KERSHAW (1,594,200) 8 TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST SELLER: I WON’T LET THE SUN GO DOWN ON ME (375,000) Starting off with a string of 7 top 20 singles in a row, Kershaw was one of the big stars of 84, to the point where music fans poured over the lyrics of “The Riddle” to make it make sense! Most famous after the 80s for writing Chesney Hawkes 1991 hit “The One And Only”.

85. THE STRANGLERS (1,577,600) 12 TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST SELLER: GOLDEN BROWN (552,000) For a band that were told by their manager to disband in 1979 as they’d lost their creative direction, we have to be thankful that they took no notice. They produced some of their biggest hits in the 80s including the glorious “Golden Brown” obviously, once frontman Cornwall left the band in 1990 the hits dried up but they remain one of the most innovative bands of the decade.

86. JIVE BUNNY & THE MASTERMIXERS (1,576,500) 3 TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST SELLER: SWING THE MOOD (820,000) BIGGEST SELLING ACT OF 1989 Proving the concept that the doing a medley was not old hat, this father and son duo threw some old tracks over an instrumental hit and used a cartoon Bunny to promote it and what do you know- we lapped it up in 1989! They equalled the (then) record of three No 1 hits from their first 3 singles held at that point by Gerry & The Pacemakers and Frankie Goes To Hollywood, and they did it in just 4 months. They also sold 1.5 million singles in that same time frame which was incredible bearing in mind the general poor sales during the year. By 1991 we were bored .

87. DOLLAR (1,569,200) 6 TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST SELLER: MIRROR MIRROR (396,000) Duo comprising former members of 70s pop group Guys N Dolls, they were initially successful in the late 70s but once again a change of image in 1980 proved unsuccessful and prompted the pair to approach producer Trevor Horn who helmed their hits in their most successful period (1981-1982) during which they were rarely off TOTP. The pair were romantically involved in the 70s but had split by 1980, but that year they announced their engagement to generate publicity for that failed album- that was unearthed as a lie which didn’t help at all! They split by 1983 with both attempting, and failing, to get a solo career and had reformed by the end of the 80s to cover Erasure’s “Oh L’Amour” which retuned them to the top 10 for one final time. Van Day went on to remain in the public eye for the wrong reasons, running a burger van in Brighton and getting in legal wranglers over the use of the “Bucks Fizz” name as he was touring with a rival variation of the former group, he then ran into a highly publicised argument with Sonia on “Reborn In The USA”.

88. ALISON MOYET (1,554,000) 7 TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST SELLER: THAT OLE DEVIL CALLED LOVE (296,000) So Moyet ends the 80s outselling Yazoo which I imagined would have pleased her at the time. Post split she teamed up with Jolly & Swain (probably the most successful songwriting team of the early 80s) to give her a massive solo debut era with three top 30 hits. Her biggest solo singer was a cover of the Billie Holiday track “This Ole Devil Called Love” which made No 2, her second album in 1987 contained another two top 10 singles but a gap of 4 years between albums from 1987 cost her a few rungs on the rundown.

89. KATE BUSH (1,542,700) 13 TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST SELLER: BABOOSHKA (267,000) What more can be said about Kate Bush? Well let’s just say that her long time lapses between albums probably affected her position here, in 1980 her second album “Never For Ever” became the first album by a British Female soloist to hit No 1 (let alone debut there) but second album “The Dreaming” in 1982 was poorly received due to the experimentation on it. She returned to favour in 1985 with “Hounds Of Love” which contained 4 top 40 hits including “Running Up That Hill” which would eventually hit No 1 in 2022. She is rightly revered as one of the most creative and innovative singers we’ve produced.

90. MODERN ROMANCE (1,541,000) 8 TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST SELLER: BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (378,000) Now largely forgotten these boys racked up considerable sales in the early 80s with happy party tunes “Ay Ay Ay Ay Moosey” and “Everybody Salsa”. They changed their lead singer in 1982 to the far more photogenic Michael J Mullins and the hits continued until 1983 when an ill advised switch of image went down like a lead balloon and the hits dried up with the group going their separate ways in 1985.

91. TOYAH (1,540,900) 7 TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST SELLER: FOUR FROM TOYAH (370,000) Another punk survivor the name of the band and the vocalist have become synonymous but “Toyah” was actually a group until 1984 when the lead singer Toyah Wilcox went solo and carried on using the same name (Sales on this list are split accordingly). Wilcox ran successful careers as an actress and a musician for much of the early 80s appearing in cult films “Jubilee” and “Quadrophenia” but the musical career really took off after she appeared in a TV show called “Shoestring” as a popstar that the band really took off with Wilcox as the focus of attention thanks to her startling appearance. Wilcox’s solo career was only a middling success and she soon returned to film and TV presenting.

With hindsight it was the peak of the CD single era- a gentle decline hereon in......

Not sure if there was a TOTP on January 2nd so I've posted that chart here too as it belongs in 1997 saleswise. At any rate that rounds off TOTP repeats for the year. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the thread as we chalk another year off!

3RD JANUARY 1997 draws to an end with no new entries in the top 10. The top 5 remain static so The Spice Girls get a second week at No 1 though sales are off slightly at 218,000 thanks in part to the launch of their movie and the fact that this week contains four days of sales pre Christmas. The rest of the top 5 are therefore Teletubbies (150,000), Various Artists (137,000), All Saints (102,000) and Janet Jackson (91,000). Slight movement at least in the lower half with Robbie Williams and Aqua swapping places at No’s 6 & 7 with sales of 88,000 and 60,000, Williams’ album “Life Thru A Lens” also reaches No 18 and is back in the top 20. Natalie Imbruglia holds at No 8 (60,000) as it moves over the 800,000 mark, Boyzone stick at No 9 (58,000) and Elton John returns to the top 10 moving 11-10 (54,000). See you next week in 1998! 1- TOO MUCH- Spice Girls (218,000) 2- TELETUBBIES SAY EH-OH- Teletubbies (150,000) 3- PERFECT DAY- Various Artists (137,000) 4- NEVER EVER- All Saints (102,000) 5- TOGETHER AGAIN- Janet Jackson (91,000) 6- ANGELS- Robbie Williams (88,000) 7- BARBIE GIRL- Aqua (60,000) 8- TORN- Natalie Imbruglia (60,000) 9- BABY CAN I HOLD YOU/ SHOOTING STAR- Boyzone (58,000) 10- CANDLE IN THE WIND 97/ SOMETHING ABOUT THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT- Elton John (54,000)

27TH DECEMBER The day has to come when the Spice Girls fail to make No 1…..but it won’t be with this release, yes just in time for Christmas the new Spice Girls record “Too Much” instantly tops the chart after shifting 252,000 copies to eager hands. With “Spice world- The Movie” opening on Boxing Day expect this to continue at the top, they don’t have it all their way though with the album “Spiceworld” stuck at No 2 behind Celine Dion but selling 186,000 copies nonetheless. The single becomes their 6th chart topper from six releases and means they now double the old record that was held originally by Gerry & The Pacemakers back in 1963. The promo incidentally pays homage to some of the girl’s favourites movies and naturally ties in with their own forthcoming film- ever an eye on marketing! They are also the first act to grab back to back Christmas No 1 singles since the Beatles back in the 60s though honourable mention must go to Cliff Richard who was No 1 in both 1988 and 1990 and featured on Band Aid II in 1989. The top 10 is naturally slow at this time of year but in 1997 is bookended by new entries- The Spice Girls at No 1 and at No 10 US rapper Ma$e who is top 10 stateside with this track “Feel So Good” another slice of Puff Daddy co-written and produced music. The two main samples in the song come from Kool & The Gang (“Hollywood’s Swingin”) and Miami Sound Machine’s “Bad Boy” and is the fourth single of the year to feature the rapper having previously guested on tracks from Puff Daddy and Notorious B.I.G. The single sold a mighty 53,000 copies last week. Teletubbies fall 1-2 with a sale of 203,000 the highest for the runner up position since Oasis’ “Roll With It” in 1995 and brings the song’s tally to 750,000 exactly. “Perfect Day” dips 2-3 (132,000) and the All Saints have a best week yet holding at No 4 on sales of 119,000 and there’s some re-arranging just beneath it. Janet Jackson is back up 6-5 (103,000), Aqua are down 3-6 (100,000) but they’ve improved their sales and get that record 9th week of six figure weekly sales, and Robbie Williams tumbles 5-7 (94,000). Natalie Imbruglia holds at No 8 (72,000) as Boyzone continue to descend 7-9 (64,000). As a footnote the much touted Chicken Shed Theatre enters at No 15 with sales of 34,000 proving that the bookies don’t know it all. 1- TOO MUCH- Spice Girls (252,000) 2- TELETUBBIES SAY EH-OH- Teletubbies (203,000) 3- PERFECT DAY- Various Artists (132,000) 4- NEVER EVER- All Saints (119,000) 5- TOGETHER AGAIN- Janet Jackson (103,000) 6- BARBIE GIRL- Aqua (100,000) 7- ANGELS- Robbie Williams (94,000) 8- TORN- Natalie Imbruglia (72,000) 9- BABY CAN I HOLD YOU/ SHOOTING STAR- Boyzone (64,000) 10- FEEL SO GOOD- Ma$e (53,000)

92. YAZOO (1,473,900) 4 TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST SELLER: ONLY YOU (519,000) Quite a few acts are on the list for shining very brightly for a short period of time. One of them is Yazoo who lasted just 18 months giving us 2 albums and 4 singles. Vince Clarke was of course famously in Depeche Mode prior to meeting to Alison Moyet and the pair also notoriously never got on during their time as a duo but both of them will be back later on in the rundown in different Guises. Their work has proved popular though with a cover of “Only You” becoming the Christmas No 1 for 1983 in a cover by Flying Pickets and The Saturdays sampling another track “Situation” on their debut single “If This Is Love” in 2008.

93. THE BANGLES (1,473,300) 8 TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST SELLER: ETERNAL FLAME (490,000) Formed in 1981 success didn’t come early for these girls whose first album didn’t generate any hits but did get the attention of Cyndi Lauper who gave them the opening slot on her US tour in 1984 as well as attracting a certain singer called Prince who took quite a shine to lead singer Susanna Hoffs. He gave them the song “Manic Monday” which he wrote and bingo a No 2 hit on both sides of the Atlantic. The hits started to flow culminating in the chart topping “Eternal Flame” which spent a month at the top here in 1989 but the band split by the end of that year over friction caused by the media in promoting Hoffs as the “lead singer” and highlighting her in interviews and profiles.

94. BROS (1,456,800) 8 TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST SELLER: I OWE YOU NOTHING (278,000) If success could be measured by the amount of screaming young female fans then Bros in 1988 were in a league of their own. They sold a million singles in that year alone thanks to their good looks and the power of TOTP and smash hits magazine, but the wheels started to come off in 1989 when a second album underperformed, Craig Logan left, and girls moved on to New Kids On The Block. They reformed in 2017 to perform some concerts and had a successful documentary “After The Screaming Stops”. Logan had the last laugh becoming head of RCA records between 2006 and 2010 as well as writing hits for Kim Appleby.

95. THE COMMUNARDS (1,429,000) 8 TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST SELLER: DON’T LEAVE ME THIS WAY (694,000) Bronski Beat don’t quite make this list (they sold 1.25 million) but Jimmy Somerville’s next project did even better in the main down to a fortuitous choice of the covers they did which make up the majority of their sales. Somerville created the act with Richard Coles in 1985 (Coles actually played the clarinet on the Bronski Beat single “It Ain’t Necessarily So”) and they parted ways in 1988 with Somerville going solo and Cole becoming an Anglican vicar and TV personality. The two common backing vocalists for the group went on to become Banderas who had a top 20 hit themselves in 1991 with “This Is Your Life”. Not bad sales for 3 years together!

96. IRENE CARA (1,420,600) 2 TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST SELLER: FAME (985,000) Another tale of Child star who landed roles in Broadway shows then moved into TV before getting a role in a major film. That film was “Fame” which was a moderate success and saw the theme track of the same name win an academy award for best original track as well as making at No 4 in the US chart. Its success was more muted in the UK where the single flopped but when the film spawned a TV series in 1982 it was a different story, the show became a phenomenon in the US and started to get hyped in the UK leading the track to get a re-issue and top the charts. Cara herself appeared in the film didn’t feature in the TV show choosing to concentrate on film which generated her other main hit “Flashdance”.

97. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN (1,418,900) 11 TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST SELLER: DANCING IN THE DARK (444,000) Some may be surprised by the relatively low position of “The Boss” on the list but that’s probably because he was more of an albums act even back in the 80s. After a series of band’s which failed to ignite Springsteen finally hit it big stateside in the mid 70s but we were unimpressed until the 80s came around though he garnered a reputation as a songwriter and a live act during that time. It was 1984’s “Dancing In The Dark” that established him as a major act in the UK with its promo that famously featured a young Courteney Cox in the promo.

98. SINITTA (1,390,700) 8 TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST SELLER: SO MACHO (501,000) Another family connection here with Sinitta’s mother being Miquel Brown and her aunt being Amii Stewart (both popstars). She started out in musical theatre but branched into pop videos (check out Forrest’s “rock the boat”) and attempting to represent the UK in Eurovision in 1984. Hooking up with Simon Cowell in the mid 80’s helped her into the charts and once she started working with Stock, Aitken, and Waterman the hits started to flow for the rest of the decade. She can count Cowell, David Essex, and Brad Pitt in her ex’s and these days is better known for her work on “X Factor” and THAT leaf dress.

99. JULIO IGLESIAS (1,385,900) 6 TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST SELLER: BEGIN THE BEGUINE (550,000) Before Enrique there was Enrique’s dad! Former professional footballer Julio is (according to Wiki) the most successful act of all time in his native Spain, and the biggest selling Latin artist of all time. After giving up football he turned to music representing Spain at Eurovision in 1970 (came 4th) and became a star in most of Europe before moving to the US in 1979 and the producing his first English language album in 1983. However in a rare show of tolerance for foreign language tracks in the UK (in the 80s certainly) his cover of the Cole Porter track “Begin the Beguine” became the first song to make No 1 in the UK sung entirely in Spanish.

100. SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES (1,383,300) 12 TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST SELLER: DEAR PRUDENCE (244,000) Emerging from the remnants of punk in the late 70s , this group changed musical direction to more alternative indie and were rewarded with longevity through the decade. Whilst they only scored 1 top 10 hit in the 80s (a Beatles’ cover at that) they racked up impressive sales under the radar consistently to sneak into our top 100! Lead singer Siouxsie Sioux was probably one of the most recognisable front woman of the decade.

You may recall some years ago I attempted this with rough estimates but after actual sales surfaced (thanks to Robbie and Kobyhadrian) I can now present the (almost) official top 100 singles acts of the 80s based on sales. Why is it almost? Well this is a matter of a couple of factors which are still open to speculation: 1) the multiplier for 1980-1982 is still open to debate ( I have gone for x13 for 1980, x12 for 1981 and 11.5 for 1982 out of interest)- others may use different multipliers which will give you different figures. 2) We still don’t have panel sales for the whole decade (it is possible that a track was selling under 5k a year and these would be missing from the final calculations so there isn’t much that can be done about that. If a song never charted in the weekly top 200 nor in the Y/E top 1000 then it’s sales are not included here. 3) Sales during the missing chart weeks over New year in 1980/81 and 1982 have not been factored in because sales were not collected for those weeks (some can estimate but for the purposes of this rundown I have stuck to what we “know”) 4) Panel sales are themselves estimates of the entire market not definitive sales, but they remain the best I think we will ever get. So now all that has been addressed a note on calculations. In keeping with all my threads if an act is credited then they receive all the sales for that track, so (for example) both Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson get the full sales for “The Girl Is Mine” and “Say Say Say”. Now with all that said we can crack on with the rundown- each act will be revealed with their biggest hit listed and, where appropriate, he biggest selling act of individual years will also be indicated!

1.45m

And so that was it- the 80s were over! For my money the decade was ideal in terms of how the charts worked, records debuting low and rising over time, big new entries in the top 10 reserved (normally) for big well established acts, and clearly defined era's normally consisting of 3 or 4 singles. The variety in the top 10 on a weekly basis was immense with Rock, pop, soul, dance all jostling at the upper end and nothing hanging around forever, of course all tinged with nostalgia. Thanks to everyone who has commented in the thread and indeed on all the 80s threads. I'll be back in July with 1990 and a new decade!