ScottyEm

31 Gwen Guthrie/Ain't Nothin' Goin' On But The Rent HCP:5/1986 "Bill collectors at my door/What can you do for me... hey!". Gwen Guthrie was the original gold digger - and there was no shame! In an age where women are rightfully declaring independence, 1986 was a very different time and a man with a flash job and a decent salary was more important than the size of his manhood. This was THE R&B jam of 1986. A ridiculously addictive hook thanks to that bassline. Gwen would never come close to the chart highs of this and later passed away in 1999. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/89/Ain't_Nothin'_Gwen_Guthrie.jpg gkO9us2ZmGg

32 New Order/Bizarre Love Triangle HCP:56/1986 Oh I'm full of surprises! Mancunian indie darlings save a SAW hat-trick with what is, in my opinion, one of the most under-rated singles of the decade. A glorious, breezy and joyous track - what's more bizarre is how this was a complete commercial failure! That said, what remains is a cult classic. Very of it's time, so it sounds a bit dated now but the prodding bass and the electronic strings just before the chorus explodes... Wonderful! http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/04/Blt_New_Order.jpg 7uEBuqkkQRk

33 Dead Or Alive/You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) HCP:1/1984 Any 80s rundown worth its salt is incomplete without this instant blast of giddy Hi NRG pop. Inspired by Hazell Deans "Whatever I Do (Wherever I Go)", Pete Burns fancied a bit of that for the said track and SAW were equally looking for an act they could get their teeth into. The development of "YSMR" is a well documented story - it was pain-staking and time consuming. But what a result! 28 years later, Im sure both parties can look back with a smile... or as close to a smile Pete Burns can manage these days. http://chartarchive.org/artwork/7757-raw.jpg lUHbLhMPo5E

34 Mel & Kim/Showing Out (Get Fresh At The Weekend) HCP:3/1986 What a track! "Showing Out" was basically 2 good-time girls giving a stern middle finger to the Thatcherite champagne socialists of the mid 80s. "Can't afford to wear diamonds and pearls/wouldn't want to be that kinda girl - anyway". DAMN RIGHT! And let's remind ourselves this is 1986 and SAW were still making tracks made firmly for the weekend with aplomb. This is so close to Chicago house, DJs were spinning this against the most underground of house tracks. It's raw, inperfect and clumsy in parts but that only adds to its charm. A bloody great record, nothing less. Mel Appleby was sadly be no longer with us but her memory will remain, atleast on my ipod anyway! http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/10/Showing_out2.jpg cRScWseLXSg

35 Terence Trent D'arby/Wishing Well HCP:4/1987 Terence owned 1987. 35 weeks on the chart and that album, which the infectious "Wishing Well" came from, "Introducing The Hardline...". Who could have guessed he would crash in spectacular fashion just a couple of years later. But lets remembers his sole glory year. All singles were great but "Wishing Well' towers above. A simplistic drum kick, a nagging whistle and shit-hot vocal. It's also worth mentioning Terence was my very first music fixation - "Introducing The Hardline" was my favourite tape when I was just 4 years old! http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/58/Wishing_Well_song.jpg ynIHsHYaig0

I hated by singles on tape, but is only what I could afford at the best of times! That said, I bought a ton of vinyl and CD singles in my teens!

36 Evelyn King/Love Come Down HCP:7/1982 Let's go back a bit now. It's 1982 and disco is, essentially dead, certainly in its purest form. That said, it never went away as such, is evolved and branched out. Evelyn King, part of the disco movement, enjoyed a brief flutter with the top 10 most notably with this absolute beauty. "LCD" is the sort of track your mother would appreciate, a perfectly simple, soul song that just swings so effortlessly. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f4/Love_Come_Down.jpg cWOpls3Onqo

Sometimes you have to revisit to realise the goodness of past tracks. I only ever bought one 7", which was Sybil "When I'm Good and Ready"!!, but within a matter of months the 7" was virtually out of circulation and cassette singles were the order of the day!

37 Neneh Cherry/Buffalo Stance HCP:3/1988 "Who-wh-wh-who-whooos that gigalo on the street with his hands in his pocket and his crocodile feet!". With an opener like that, you know you're on to a winner! "Manchild" has already been featured and, like I say, it's a real head-scratcher why such a bold and exciting talent like Miss Cherry only has enough steam to carry out one successful album. "Buffalo Stance" genre hops like an over excited yo-yo and still packs out bar floors... I had a drunken wiggle (freak out!) to this just the other week on Friday night! Oh and here she is back in 1988 - 8 months pregnant! http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/61/Neneh_Cherry_Buffalo_Stance_cover.jpg ToNvjTrNlL8

38 Ten City/That's The Way Love Is HCP:8/1989 Now we're sailing into the top half of the rundown, the dance tunes of 88 and 89 are starting to flood in. Dance and house music was often hard and even cold sounding to the casual listener - Ten City however, a 3 piece male group from Chicago, added a dollop of soul to proceedings - swaggery guitars, trumpets and Byron Stingilys knock-out vocals make for one of the greatest soul tracks ever in my opinion. "TTWLI" charts the breakdown of relationships - how "feelings change just like seasons". Such a profound lyric and sung with such sincerity. Music that is very much good for the soul, as cheesey as it sounds. http://chartarchive.org/artwork/10300-raw.jpg Y_edhEpE_YM

39 Madonna/Lucky Star HCP:14/1984 Missing the top ten is something Madonna is probably used to now, but "Lucky Star" was a rather unlucky star chart-wise, missing the top 10 was a very rare occurrence in the 80s . Saying that, I have immense fondness for this quick blast of vintage Madonna. The primitive choreography is utterly endearing and, despite it's tiny budget, still stands head and shoulders above anything her disastorous MDNA album has to offer. 80s producer and dance music extraordinaire (and then boyfriend of said songstress) Jellybean paved the way for a superstar and also produced one of the great dance albums ever - "The First Album". http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/39/Lucky_Star_Single_Cover.jpg ThHz9wlBeLU

40 Joyce Sims/Come Into My Life HCP:7/1988 And she's back! Only 2 top 20 hits to her name and both easily sail into this top 80. Unlike it's predecessor, "Come Into My Life" is a slowie in that candle-lit 80s short of way but in much better way that you're probably envisaging! Gorgeous, silky 80s soul that still oozes class 24 years on. http://chartarchive.org/artwork/9608-raw.jpg v_H23dEmO4Y

41 Kylie Minogue/Hand On Your Heart No:1/1989 Well it was only a matter of time before she turned up! Not content with 4 top 2 hits and a 2 million selling debut album, SAW and Kylie plotted a second avalanche of hit singles to irritate the utter hell out of so-called muzo's. "HOYH" was a move towards a bouncier, housier sound from SAW which I'm a total sucker for (to be fair, it's all down to the desk-board wizardry of remixer Phil Harding). The choreography is rather splendid too! Check! http://chartarchive.org/artwork/10486-raw.jpg dDl7qxXikXk

42 Lipps Inc/Funky Town No:2/1980 Play it in a retro bar, play it in an indie bar, play it in a gay bar or play it in a student dive errr I mean bar... "Funky Town" will fill a floor of drunks doing their very best robot dance. One of the most glorious one-hit-wonders of the 1980s, "Funky Town" sort of bridged the gap between disco and electro and suffered 5 long weeks in the top 3 without troubling the top spot. Considered a guilty pleasure but I struggle to understand why! http://chartarchive.org/artwork/5603-raw.jpg 5CImrIKNmBo

My music roots are FIRMLY in dance/house music, I bought an old dance CD when I was a kid and I was HOOKED from the get go! Bizarrely it's the chart pop of the 1980s I would discover later on. "Tears' just oozes gorgeousness and class... perhaps needed to balance out the cheddar and naffness! Ha!

43 Pet Shop Boys/West End Girls HCP:1/1985 Is this the first rap single to top the UK charts? "West End Girls" was an underground sleeper, initially released in 1984 yet without troubling the mainstream. Refusing to accept there was no commercial potential in the track, Stephen Hague is assigned to revamp it into the song we know today. Those synth pads, the trembly bass line and Tennants stern "rapping" was just the latest milestone in electronic 80s music and one of the most illustrious careers on pop music was about to follow. A triumph! http://chartarchive.org/artwork/8306-raw.jpg j2QbhlnpZlY

44 Frankie Knuckles Featuring Robert Owens/Tears No:50/1989 1989 again... but clock that underwhelming chart peak! "Tears" didn't exactly set the charts alite, "Tears" rather like a lot of club records, failed to translate to the charts. What is interesting about "Tears" is that this is not a house track that you can dance to - it's a love song, plain and simple. 23 years and and it's still hailed as a cult classic, mainly due to it's stellar production and the remarkable vocal from Robert Owens. -no available image- RwYJ6lTlzt0

45 Neneh Cherry/Manchild No:5/1989 How do you follow up a debut top 3 smash and a very good one at that? With something remarkably different but (almost) equally as good. "Manchild" took the tempo down and ropped in 3-D from Massive Attack - this Swedish canteause was on a mission to prove her worth. A shame Neneh never sustained the momentum as the big hits very quickly dried up. "Manchild" however remains one of '89s most under-rated and criminally ignored singles. http://chartarchive.org/artwork/10514-raw.jpg sWBTw9paRXE

46 Shalamar/A Night To Remember No:5/1982 Disco was very, very cruely written off by the beginning of the 80s, yet Shalamar continued - blissfully unaware almost. "A Night To Remember" bleeds into disco, funk, soul and pop... and cheese. It's a shame Shalamar don't get a look in much these days, 'ANTR' is just one of an array of brilliant singles and no CD/vinyl collection is complete without a 'Best Of Shalamar'. Oh and that TOTP performance... ^_^ http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/73/Shalamarnight.jpg 1qokA5khruY

47 Divine/You Think You're A Man No:16/1984 1984 is the year pop music came out of the closet. Hi NRG was getting commercial exposure, Frankie Goes To Hollywood practically monopolised the number one position and a virtually unknown songwriting trio, Stock/Aitken/Waterman, bagged their first top 20 hit with what remains their most rampent and campest hit. Even TOTP joined the gay party by having the late Divine on a centre platform, sporting a lovely V-line silver number. http://chartarchive.org/artwork/7560-raw.jpg xp-9vUp3Ge4

48 Mel & Kim/Respectable No:1/1987 Mel & Kim were great. 2 Hackney girls - gorgeous and instantly likeable. Pete Waterman could not have been marketed them any better; young girls loved watching them on TV while their elder siblings were out dancing to the extended house mixes at 3am. SAW came to their creative peak with this and what remains is one of the most instantly recognisable classics of 1987. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9c/Respectable_-_Mel_and_Kim.jpg czAQVsIldZ4

49 Kim Wilde/You Keep Me Hanging On No:2/1986 Enormous, dramatic, titanic sized production values - this is Motown getting a 1986 make over. "You Keep Me Hanging On' is a great song - the much told story of getting shut of a loveless relationship (rather like getting rid of a bad fart), Kim gives it 110% and her efforts paid off. Number one in the USA, Australia and basically shattering charts all over Eurpoe. Given it's production values, time hasn't been very kind to YKMHO, but no budget 80s compilation is complete without this! Certainly beats gardening anyway... http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e8/Youkeepmehanginon.jpg N_xrVEEblY

50 Freeez/I O U No:2/1983 A relatively short-lived London act, Freeez would never come close to topping the electro swagger of "IOU". Produced by Arthur Baker (a man who is basically a leg end in dance music circles). "I O U" in 1983 is essentially a new-found technology. Even as early as 1983, electronic dance music was in position and a whole host of electro 80s tracks were predictably to follow. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4b/Freeez_IOU_single_cover.jpg hRG_mwCecmE

After a too-may-months hiatus! The Top 50 shall begin! I have no real excuse of why I stopped for several months, the top 80 has already been done and ready to relay... Just a case of lazyarseitis. Anyway... shall we continue?

I never listen to Radio 1 but I'm very happy about this! And only 38? Not weathering very well is he?!