Gezza's review of every number 2 single 1980-1984

[Gezza]

Dunno if this is the right place to put it but I though i would start this thread as just my ramblings on my thoughts of number two records over the years- and also to see if you agree/ contribute your own thoughts. I'm starting in 1980 as it's the beginning of the decade and i was only 4 so reviewing anything before is kinda pointless as i intend to put my personal experiences into things/ as much as i can- probably more interesting for folks in their 30's now as they will have been the same age roughly as i was at that time- if that makes sense? I'll post as and when i can be bothered i suppose- anyway here goes....

Also there are blogs reviewing all the number one singles so i thought i'd try to do something different......

[Gezza]

5TH JANUARY 1980- I HAVE A DREAM- Abba (2 Weeks)

I recall this song from the time vaguely- my problem with it is that even to my 4 year old ears it seemed too saccharine with it's little kids sing-a-long chorus. I know it's fashionable these days to love ABBA and there are some crackers that they have song (yes "One Of Us" i'm looking at you!) but needless to say it did not improve after Westlife attempted to breath new life into it.

I recall reading about five or six years ago that Agnetha had the most recognisable voices in Pop according to a survey- I can believe that- perhaps it's the warm motherly tones but this (along with "Chiquitita" which I like considerably more) seem to be appealing to kids directly, an angle that steps et al certainly took up when re-imagining ABBA all those years later.

You could put the record down to the festive season and the xmas market but it seems to me that someone that had the undeniable writing power of Andersson/ Ulvaeus could have done something better than this.......

[Gezza]

19TH JANUARY- WITH YOU I'M BORN AGAIN- Billy Preston & Syreeta (2 weeks)

Now I Have no recollection of this from the time- it's been virtually forgotten about now and you know it's not that bad really, it is what it is, a motown ballad.

Yes it's that Billy Preston who gets a credit on the Beatles "Get Back" a chart topper in 1969 and it's a hard record to dislike or care deeply about, I suppose it's high position in the charts could be attributed to the traditional post xmas dip in sales but all in all it's a nice little winter warmer...

[Gezza]

23RD FEBRUARY- AND THE BEAT GOES ON- The Whispers (1 week)

I just missed the whole Disco thing- it's not something that I feel sad about. It seemed to be full of horrendous clothing that wasn't good at the time let alone something would stand the test of time. I suppose being a kid I wasn't going to hear it in the arena that it was designed for, and certainly the cliche's of something like "Saturday Night Fever" have done a lot to harm to what was probably a decent time to be into music, but the confines of age cannot be undone, and certainly by 1980 it was already sounding like a spent force.

I think there is something psychological about a decade change, like somehow something which might be just a few years old becomes "so 70's" or so "80's" a few months into a new decade, like people have a much more urgent need to find a new identity for a decade but I think i'm rambling now, though it probably explains why I think records like this seem to me out of place even in 1980. I was read a review that wherever the 80s began it wasn't in 1980 (I believe that the review actually stated that it began when "Stand and Deliver" debuted at No 1- not a bad beginning if true) they were talking culturally of course- but this track certainly isn't indicitive of what the 80s are remembered for.

The song is maybe more famous to younger folk as the basis of the sample in both the Madonna track "Beat Goes On" and also Will Smith's 1998 top 10 hit "Miami". It was their only UK top 5 hit and the nearest they came to hitting No 1 in the UK.

[thehitparade]

There is actually a Number 2 blog as well - but it's only up to 1963 at the moment so you're not exactly treading on her toes:
musicsoundsbetterwithtwo.blogspot.com/

Anyway, looks like an interesting thread. Although I know all three of these songs, I wasn't quite old enough to remember any of these songs from 1980 itself.

[Gezza]

May 29, 2011 23:43:04 GMT 1 thehitparade said:

There is actually a Number 2 blog as well - but it's only up to 1963 at the moment so you're not exactly treading on her toes:
musicsoundsbetterwithtwo.blogspot.com/

Anyway, looks like an interesting thread. Although I know all three of these songs, I wasn't quite old enough to remember any of these songs from 1980 itself.

Oops- well she's got some catching up to do then!

[evansabove]

With You I'm Born Again was resurrected on Glee recently. Sad that both artists have since passed away

[Gezza]

5TH APRIL- DANCE YOURSELF DIZZY- Liquid Gold (2 weeks)

Well it's more disco and more music used as a sample for a hit much later on. Liquid Gold were another band who only managed 2 top 10 hits before fame deserted them. The Song was used as a sample around Yomanda's "Synth & Strings" a No 8 hit back in 1999, and whilst i can't deny that it's a catchy little tune, it's like all disco records, very much of it's time, there isn't much narrative to be had here other than dancing yourself quite literally dizzy.

Perhaps it's a sub text for something far more sexual (though i doubt it) and of course not every song has to be about "something deep or profound". Indeed some of the best pop ever made is about just plain old falling in love, boy meets girl stuff, and furthermore looking through the charts of the year this is pretty reflective of what was big at the time. By the same token it's never a record i've ever heard at an 80's disco (and boy i've been to a fair few) and it stood at No 2 the week I moved down to England from Scotland (this thread's turning into a get to know session, there may be therapy happening later in the decade :lol: )

However there is a real sense of belief about the record and indeed iin one important aspect it is quite 80s. It's about enjoyment, about forgetting about your worries and just having a dance, now that's either niave especially considering the political situation or 1980 of very refreshing. In later decades just having a dance and not caring became deeply unfashionable unless it was about drugs and scantily dressed women obviously- and certainly by the time the 00s came around and Indie ruled the airwaves but that's very much later.....

[Gezza]

3RD MAY- COMING UP- Paul McCartney (1 week)

I know I should like Paul McCartney, he is after all the writer of some of the most famous pop songs in the history of music, and remains a much reveared charcater in popular music. Yet if we look at his output since 1980 however he hasn't really done much of note. "Coming Up" was allegedly the song that Lennon loved so much that he decided to come out of retirement and record a new album (eventually turning out to be "Double Fantasy" and released posthumously), and again it's a slice of competent songmanship. Accompanied by a video which utilised what was at the time state of the art camera trickery in which McCartney plays about 10 different roles, even more special when you consider that MTV was yet to be invented so the audience for the video was only TOTP in this country and maybe a few TV Appearances.

There has always been an attempt by McCartney to try to appear younger than he is, that somehow he is aware of pop's golden rule- never grow up! I understand that but let's be honest he certainly doesn't need the money any more. A career with Wings in the 70's enabled him to extend his chart life way beyond the Beatles demise and I suppose his numerous busts for drug possession in the 70s and early 80s hardly harmed his career, indeed we'll be seeing more of him later on this list, but the over all feeling of "Coming Up" is that it wasn't a song aimed at me at the age I was. Now I know that sounds silly, I was 4 years old and barely anyone writes with that mind (unless you're doing nursery rhymes) but there are still songs I still connected with back then, heard from the radio, and were played by my father in our house. This is a song I Came to much later in life and I found it boring then, and I still find it boring and instantly forgettable. I'm not liking much in 1980 but all that is about to change.......

[Gezza]

24TH MAY- NO DOUBT ABOUT IT- Hot Chocolate (3 weeks)

I can't help but like this song. It's a tale of how aliens landed and met Errol Brown, i'm unsure who ended up more afraid. It's the kind of camp fun that pop music should be about, his baco-foil outfit is just exactly what kids always imagine space invaders to look like, and the song is bound up by a chorus which seems to erupt from the semi sung, semi-talked verses. It's a song that I never thought i'd heard until I heard it and said "Oh Yes- that one", and in a year somewhat weighed down by seriousness it's a blast of fun.

It's the band's biggest hit of the 80s and if it wasn't for that dire M.A.S.H record it would have been a number one- sometimes the charts are just unfair.....

[Earl Purple]

Syreeta is the same as Syreeta Wright who was once married to Stevie Wonder.

As for the sexual nature of Dance Yourself Dizzy, I tend to think more sexually of the song that was one position ahead of it on the week it was #4 about to climb to #2.

The next one that will come up was yet another disco song, almost the definitive one of that era, and one that at the time we expected to be #1 but fell just short.

The disco hits of 1980 was simply the dance music of the era. Not sure why the 80s would start with Stand & Deliver, that was only Adam & The Ants' 4th major hit, after Dog Eat Dog, Ant Music and Kings Of The Wild Frontier (actually the first to be released but the fourth to reach the chart). There were some other Adam & The Ants songs released too, but you might also define the 80s as New Romantic, in which case OMD first charted in 1980.

I would actually define the "era" as beginning with the mod/ska revival at the tail end of 1979. Maybe I should run through the #3 hits of 1980. I am then fortunately enough to pick up 2 Madness hits...

[Gezza]

I suppose the review was thinking of No 1 hits- certainly 1980 looks more 70s on paper than 80s- Abba, Blondie, Don Mclean, Kenny Rogers, John Lennon,Detroit Spinners, Streisand etc, and not many appearances on the list for major 80s bands. You may have a point about the Vapours though!

I didn't know about the Stevie Wonder connection though see this is why it's good to get input from others seeing as I was a youngster at the time....

[Gezza]

28TH JUNE- FUNKY TOWN- Lipps Inc (2 weeks)

Meanwhile back in disco land come the summer of 1980 this is the new craze, incredibly this was turned into a 80's rock anthem just 7 years later for Australian band called Pseudo Echo and hit the top 10 all over again. You know the drill by now, except this time it's beautiful one hit wonder time. Apparently it's been used in Shrek 2, and Alvin & The Chipmunks films, which should tell you all you need to know about this record, i'd like to think I was disgusted by this song as a young child but I probably wasn't, and for that i'm deeply sorry.

Even the dire dirge of Don McLean's "Crying" that kept this off the top spot is better than Lipps Inc...by the way the video is suitably distressing, I think they're meant to be a trio but that one in the middle clearly doesn't like sharing the limelight I can tell...

[Gezza]

2ND AUGUST- MORE THAN I CAN SAY- Leo Sayer (1 week)



Leo Sayer? In the 80's? Yes it's true the 70s dwarf was still going strong and covered a Buddy Holly & The Crickets 1960 hit and darm it almost snared a UK No 1 single. It's a mid tempo ballad which is sung endearingly enough by Sayer and don't let the perm put you off, the whole thing has a kinda "Roxy Music" feel about it musically until Leo Jumps in that is. Mind you after celebrity Big Brother I just think of pants when I see him, but watching his TOTP appearance I 'm not sure he's looked into the meaning of the song- he's far too churpy! Yet it's precisely that that means I can't be nasty about the record, it's the innocence, you imagine if he was your boyfriend he'd worship the ground you walked on...

Anyway it's his only brush with the top spot in the 80's though of course he would return to the top in 2006 with "Thunder In My Heart Again"...

[Gezza]

9TH AUGUST- UPSIDE DOWN- Diana Ross (2 weeks)



"I got Love for you, if you were born in the 80s" sang Calvin Harris- he was probably thinking of this record when he sang it. Written & produced by Disco royalty Edwards & Rodgers of group Chic, this has a bassline and a groove it's almost impossible to not tap along to, if you can manage it you're probably dead.

For the song Diana had a minor change of image, out went the afro and a more street, softer slickback look came in, as demonstrated by the cover. It had number one written all over it as indeed it did get to in the US but here only the truly magical "Winner Takes It All" by Abba managed to hold it off in the UK. I can't sing it's praises too highly to be honest, a dancefloor filler in a truer sense that the "disco" we have met up until now, and indeed one that has stood the test of time considerably better...

[Chris]

Great thread. Thanks for this.

[Gezza]

20TH SEPTEMBER- ONE DAY I'LL FLY AWAY- Randy Crawford (2 weeks)


If anyone should have been bigger than they ever really were then there is a good case for Randy Crawford to be made. She led the band called "Crusaders" on their first UK hit and UK top 10 hit "Streetlife" back in 1979 and used that as a launchpad for her solo career. Her main hits in this country occured in the 80s, she provided the original "You Might Need Somebody" which Shola Ama covered and more successfully so in 1997, and the utterly sublime "Almaz" in 1987, but this was her biggest hit.

It took just four weeks from a debut at No 55 to hit the No 2 spot here and looked No 1 bound but for the Police with "Don't Stand So Close To Me". It featured in the film "Moulin Rouge" some 21 years after it's release, but it's a truly beautiful record in it's original form, and tells the tale of a scarred lover desperate to move on in her life but not having the strength yet! Wonder what happened to ballads?

[Gezza]

4TH OCTOBER- MASTER BLASTER (JAMMIN)- Stevie Wonder (1 week)



Stevie Wonder had long been star by the time we get to 1980, but the album that "Master Blaster (Jammin)" comes from was to be his biggest seller of the decade. "Hotter Than July" contained 4 straight top 10 hits and returned Wonder to the kind of stardom back in his mid 70's heyday, none bigger than this one. Now for people of my age Stevie Wonder in the 80's will forever be associated with the evil "I Just Called To Say I Love You" which spent 6 weeks at number one in 1984, and that's a shame, as he's one of music greats certainly for periods in his career.

A Browse through a greatest hits compilation of his will reveal more songs you know than you think you do, and some are blinders, i'd much rather be writing about "Lately" (on the same album as "Master Blaster") than this song but hey ho. It's Stevie's brush with Reggae and is allegedly a song in praise of Bob Marley and his music, and whilst it's not a bad record I loathe Reggae (I blame for Shaggy for that) so that taints any review, but it is substantially better than IJCTSILY, and it's certainly not the last time we'll meet Stevie on this thread.....

[mfr]

Jun 1, 2011 17:27:38 GMT 1 Gezza said:

20TH SEPTEMBER- ONE DAY I'LL FLY AWAY- Randy Crawford (2 weeks)



If anyone should have been bigger than they ever really were then there is a good case for Randy Crawford to be made. She led the band called "Crusaders" on their first UK hit and UK top 10 hit "Streetlife" back in 1979 and used that as a launchpad for her solo career. Her main hits in this country occured in the 80s, she provided the original "You Might Need Somebody" which Shola Ama covered and more successfully so in 1997, and the utterly sublime "Almaz" in 1987, but this was her biggest hit.

It took just four weeks from a debut at No 55 to hit the No 2 spot here and looked No 1 bound but for the Police with "Don't Stand So Close To Me". It featured in the film "Moulin Rouge" some 21 years after it's release, but it's a truly beautiful record in it's original form, and tells the tale of a scarred lover desperate to move on in her life but not having the strength yet! Wonder what happened to ballads?

Fantastic voice.

I believe the original version of You Might Need Somebody was by Turley Richards (US number 54 in 1980).

[Gezza]

Ah Thanks MFR another thing I never knew!