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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2011 16:46:03 GMT 1
[quote author=mnmbacon board=beatles thread=68295 post=1530492 time=1310573910Alison Moyet "That Ole Devil Called Love" - Interesting opinions regarding Ms Moyet. Loved her material with Vince Clarke in Yazoo (they definitely should have had at least a couple of No.1's) but have never been blown away by her solo material. No doubting she has an exceptional voice and this is probably her stand out track but in my eyes (or ears) it would have been a travesty if this had denied "Easy Lover" the No.1 spot. Loved the Philip Bailey song and I think it is only tarnished by the strange disliking of Phil Collins by the public in general. [/quote]
I've never got this massive disike of Phil Collins. A lot of time you see people go on about him being a Tory and tax exile but so were a lot of other musicians. Why single him out? He was a very successful songwriter, and a great drummer.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2011 16:49:29 GMT 1
[ Tears For Fears "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" - Was also a big fan of TFF but preferred the debut album and singles. "Mad World" is one of the finest 80's songs. Wasn't overly fussed by "Everybody..." but it was a bit of an injustice that it should have been denied the top spot by "We Are The World". I agree there, often been a case where a great song has cruelly been denied the No.1 position by something that didn't deserve to be there - case in point Ultravox/Joe Dolce. But yes this was definately one of those cases, TFF never had a No.1 and deserved to do it with this song.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2011 16:55:58 GMT 1
29TH JUNE- CRAZY FOR YOU- Madonna (1 week)I will prefix this review with the announcement than I am a Madonna fan, all the albums bought and all the singles since "Justify my Love" BUT i have to say I've never been crazy about "Crazy for You". The songs is uninspiring and almost like Madonna on auto-pilot. She can do ballads marvellously "I want You" and "Oh Father" are fantastic but "Crazy for You" appearance on this list is more a testament to Madonna's growing status in the pop world than to the merits of the record itself. The track was recorded for the "Vision Quest" Film, and was therefore, the first single not to be available on an album since she had hit it big with "Holiday" some 18 months earlier. She had justifiably become become a major star, the gloriously trashy "Like A Virgin" had flirted its way into the top 3 followed by "Material Girl" with it's equally famous video, the girl had shown that she was just as capable as Jackson at understanding the visual importance of pop stars, and that the power of the music promo, "Crazy For You" seems like a step back, not a bad record, but just a record anyone could have done. Perhaps the bar was set too high by previous efforts, and naturally a little calm was going to happen, she was going to do much better just a year later with a track which is everything "Crazy For You" ought to have been, but for me the record is a let down- sorry Madonna, the one consolation she can take is that she didn't have a hand in writing it..... Always been one of my all-time favourite Madonna singles but each to their own. And yes a year later she released the glorious 'True Blue' album which had the ballad Live To Tell, the no.1s Papa Don't Preach (less said about the Kelly O version the better) and True Blue.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2011 17:02:51 GMT 1
26TH OCTOBER- TAKE ON ME- A-Ha! (3 weeks)Released twice in 1984 the song failed to impress anyone outside of their native norway, but come major investment from Warner Brothers in the US into a ground breaking Pencil sketched video which was, at the time, groundbreaking, plus a new mix and hey presto you get a US No 1. Make no mistake though "Take On Me" is a brilliant pop song. I once had a discussion in a pub about what the perfect pop song was, there were several proposals if i recall correctly "Baby One More Time", "I Should Be So Lucky" "Wannabe" but it was this track that proved less divisive than the others. Writing perfect pop is just as complicated as writing any other genre, the temptation or the tendancy for things to end up "chessy" or "irritating" precisely because they are aimed at mass approval, "Take On Me" treads that line and never oversteps it. With an instantly memorable synth line that announces its arrival and a falsetto that I couldn't possibly emulate the song has classic stamped all over it (It was finally awarded a UK no 1 status when covered by Boyband A1 in 2000) the song deserves to be remembered as one of the best No 2 hits of the decade. But lets try to get to the bottom of why it's a classic- as with all things it is both timeless AND entirely reflective of a zeitgeist. Post "Thriller" there was a greater emphasise than ever before on the pop video, obviously first and foremost there has to be the song, and whilst it has not got anything remarkable about it lyrically, it's the irresistability, the optimistic turn of phrase, its sheer joi di vivre that makes "Take On Me" great. To condense that all down to just 4 minutes is an art, and even just for the 4 minutes of this track, A-Ha! are as near perfection as anything the 80s had to offer... Really enjoying these threads of yours, you've put a lot of work into it and your viewpoints are interesting. Couldn't agree more with this classic.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2011 17:04:05 GMT 1
"Holding Out For A Hero" was a big hit just after "We Don't Need Another Hero" by Tina Turner, which peaked at #3 just a few weeks before it. So a bit of a conflict in lyrics there. "Take On Me" actually completes 1985, in the last few weeks no songs peaked at #2 and the next single to do so would be behind A-Ha's next single which did reach #1, and would be 11 weeks after Take On Me vacated the #2 spot. With regards to Madonna, when "Live To Tell" comes up I will clearly take issue if you don't like that one. She had 5 #1s in my chart and that was the first of them. In the UK chart it was cruelly denied by that dreadful "Rock Me Amadeus". Never saw the appeal of Falco at all. Agree completely that Live To Tell was cruelly denied No.1 by it.
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Gezza
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Post by Gezza on Sept 9, 2011 17:36:19 GMT 1
Really enjoying these threads of yours, you've put a lot of work into it and your viewpoints are interesting. Couldn't agree more with this classic. Thanks- I did wonder if you'd only just come across this?
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borneoman
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Post by borneoman on Sept 9, 2011 18:46:26 GMT 1
I went on holidays during August so I missed the last #2s... I agree with most of your comments... except... Pepsi & Shirlie - Heartache: I looooooooved it, one of the best pop songs of the 80s. P&S were my first obsession as a kid together with Madonna and Debbie Gibson. The other day I even found a box with all their singles & 12" Pity they didn't last long... especially since their 3rd single was very good, Can't Give Me Love, never figured out why it flopped... the 4th single, their cover of All Right Now was a disaster though... TT D'Arby - Sign Your Name: an absolute classic and of the best songs of the whole 80s for me. Up there with Madonna's Live to Tell for best #2 of the 80s :-)
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2011 19:00:27 GMT 1
Manic Monday is one of my all-time favourites. The Bangles were a much underrated band. Outside of the singles, the albums were full of good songs but their flame didnt seem to burn for very long Agreed, Manic Monday was a class song written by the Purple one. It was good that it wasn't their only UK No.1. And years later they would have one final (if not minor) Top 40 hit in Something That You Said. Always thought I Will Take Care Of You (3rd single?) from Doll Revolution should have been a bigger hit. Wrong time perhaps?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2011 19:12:57 GMT 1
17TH MAY- ON MY OWN - Michael McDonald & Patti LaBelle (3 weeks)Only the 4th No 2 of the year with no film/ TV connection, and it's an odd one. Both acts were 70s survivors, Michael McDonlad formerly of the Doobie Brothers and Patti LaBelle formerly of Labelle, and famously recorded this track without ever meeting. The song was orginally a Dionne Warwick song but was not included on her "Friends" album and was offered to LaBelle to record, which she did but was not happy with it insisting that it might sound better as a duet, enter McDonald. "On My Own" is a prime piece of Mid 80s balladry, but against all the odds this actually works. There is so much warmth and genuine emotion behind it that it seems that personal experience is poured into the track, indeed exactly because they never met it may have been easier to put that personal feeling into the song than if they had met face to face, their is no displaced emotion so to speak. It's not actually that far from similar ballad's like "Cherish" by Kool & The Gang, but unusually for the genre it's lyrics are actually quite defiant and strong rather than melancholy and forlorn "I've got to find out what was mine again/ My heart is saying that it's my time again/ And I have faith that I will shine again/ I have faith in me". Sure there is regret about the failure of the relationship, but there is realism here to, and it is perhaps this that makes the song work, it's not about a moment in a relationship, the rush of love at the beginning, the bitterness at the end, the routine in the middle, it's a song about the whole experience, it's about maturity that comes with age, not the teenage first love bang that so many songs describe. I've always liked the song (though again not a song I recall from the time) in the way that its charms are not immediately evident but well worth the delve.... Always loved this song, at the time (being 14) i did like what was No.1 too, but On My Own deserved that No.1 position a whole lot more than what stopped it doing so.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2011 19:14:22 GMT 1
7TH JUNE- HOLDING BACK THE YEARS- Simply Red (2 weeks)We all have them don't we? those moments when all you want to do is wallow in your own depression! Mick Hucknell put his on vinyl- now I know it's not very fashionable these days (or for the last 15 years in fact) to like Simply Red but I have to conceed he nails it on "Holding Back The Years". A song that bends and cracks with pain and disappointment of life that it's use on "Only Fools and Horses" three years later as Del is left alone after Rodney's wedding was actually one of the sincerest, sadest moments in TV history and, rather appropriately for 1986, was the perfect marriage of TV and music, a moment bathed in pathos. It's a little too bleak in places for comfort "I've wasted all my tears/ Wasted all those years/ And nothing had the chance to be good/ Nothing ever could" it's a view of life in the rear view mirror tinged with regret and failure- that's not to everyone's taste, but there is no doubt that Hucknell belts this out and no-one could for a second be under the impression that he doesn't believe 100% in the song and the meaning and that will become an increasing rarity as the 80s progress. In my view they would never top this record, the fact that it was never a No 1 song remains a crime in my eyes.... IMHO Simply Red's finest moment and i agree it is a crime that it wasn't a No.1. One of the stand-out tracks from '86 without a doubt.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2011 19:21:36 GMT 1
19TH JULY- EVERY BEAT OF MY HEART- Rod Stewart (1 week)I can't give this a bad review as my mother would quite literally disown me, and to be honest I wouldn't without that threat in any case. As a Scotsman Rod had me at the point when he said "Lonely Jacobite" Seriously though, no decade quite did the ballad like the 80s in my opinion, and this is Stewart's attempt to pull on the heartstrings, now it doesn't entirely succeed, there are some cliches involved in the compositon but on the whole it's pulled of- just. Maudlin in mood, the subject (displacement and longing for home) is a relatively rare one in the pop world, and indeed Stewart had a history of unusual themes ("Killing Of Georgie" for instance) which had helped keep him a star since the late 60s. This was indeed his last appearance in the chart this high up (with the exception of that 1994 hit "All 4 love" with Sting & Bryan Adams) and post 1993 he stopped being any kind of chart force singles wise. As anthemic rock goes it does the job, the trademark raspy performance is of course present and it's a plesant if uninspiring addition to our No 2 countdown but things are about to get very interesting indeed..... [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBBsTWK8EzU [/youtube] Always loved this one, as for being his last Top 3 hit, Rhythm Of My Heart reached No.3 in 1991. One place lower than this but still a Top 3 hit.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2011 19:29:41 GMT 1
Anyway, I guess we're done for now with the great ones, bring on Sinitta, Jermaine Stewart and Five Star. I wonder what you'll make of Status Quo that follows that lot. "Bring On Sinitta" a phrase used by Bruno Brookes once introducing So Macho on the Top 40.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2011 19:31:47 GMT 1
I bought the Nu Shooz 7" but havent listened to the song in full for a long time. It doesnt seem quite as great as it did then but i guess thats true with a lot of 80s songs. Agree with the comments about Bucks Fizz too - my second favourite after Mamba Seyra Agree about Bucks Fizz too, there was so much more to them their Making Your Mind Up. Heart Of Stone was another good track released as a single, recorded BEFORE Cher released it.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2011 19:40:54 GMT 1
9TH AUGUST- SO MACHO- Sinitta (2 weeks)Sometimes the story of a song is far more interesting than the song itself- "So Macho" is one of those songs. Of course Sinitta was at the time girlfriend of one Simon Cowell, and the hit was the first big hit for the Fanfare Label that gave Cowell his break in the music business. Sinitta meanwhile had been in Hot Gossip (the dancers on the Kenny Everatt Show), as well as an entrant in song for europe (though she failed to get to the Eurovision Song contest and had pretty much been a failed popstar since 1983 (as an aside she also appears in the video for Forrest's 1983 top 10 hit "Rock The Boat") so that's where we're at come 1986. Now Cowell approached writer George Hargreaves to write a record for Sinitta and "So Macho" was the result. What is interesting in watching Sinitta perform this at TOTP is the about face that appears to have taken place in the UK between 1984 and 1986- this, I conjecture, is due to AIDS. Witness the line "Or a boy who thinks he's a girl" Sinitta does the famous "Limp Wristed" movement which, as we all know for our childhood days, is the universal sign for a gayer. From the gay friendly, and obviously gay anthems of 84 we seem now to have done a full 180 degree about face- now it is heterosexual sex which has reclaimed the centre place, promiscuity, straight culture (and whilst never exactly being out of fashion) is now re-asserting it's muscle on the pop landscape, it mocks the stars and the themes of only 24 months earlier. Hargreaves, the writer, is now a religious minister and political spokesman for the christian Party (UK) and has made rather outspoken negative remarks on the subject on hiomosexuality during the 00s. "So Macho" is therefore a record of deep contradictions, it's HI-Energy (A medium associated with gay clubs), it clearly references the Village People's "Macho Man" from 1978, and considering Sinitta's future productions with S/A/W for the remainder of the 80s, it was from the gay market that she sustained much of her career, but in 1986 it was perfectly acceptable to mock homosexuality in a place like TOTP that only recently was a showcase for it's talent, and what allowed that was the emergence of AIDS, stright culture's ultimate revenge on gay culture (or at least that's how it was seen back in 1986) For all those reasons "So Macho" is a much more interesting record than I ever deemed it to be, of course as a song it's a piece of camp fun, throwaway pop that is unashamed of what it is, and for that I can't fault it, but all is not what it appears! In theme "So Macho" is not that distant from "It's Raining Men" for example, same theme (sexual avarice and promiscuity) same medium (Hi- Energy) and both sung by female acts, but don't you notice that deep difference down under the surface? In the year of Sam Fox's Chart emergance also, sexual promiscuity, provided it's straight, is the now back in the camp of the righteous.... I never saw So Macho that way before and noticed its contradictions. Although i heard the lyrics i was never one to study them, just appreciated the music. As for the song, at the time i loved it and was even the very first No.1 on my personal chart (from memory as i don't have the data from the 1st 2 years). Still has retro appeal to me but it's just a bit of a fun pop. Nothing more nothing less (hmmm isn't there another PWL song with that line).
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2011 19:48:19 GMT 1
I loved Five Star but I was their target age and they were popular for the same reason many boy/girl bands are, you had a favourite, yes the clothes were awful and the hair mostly and you realised that even in 1986 but they had very good voices and were pretty 'Silk and Steel' was the first cassette I bought with my own pocket money Same here being a teenager at the time, i was right for their audience. If I Say Yes (and A-ha's Cry Wolf) were the singles that started off my record collection bought for me as a Christmas present this year by a neighbour (who we always called Aunt) now sadly deceased. They still have retro appeal to me, and have a new album about to be released. And are going on tour next year.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2011 19:50:56 GMT 1
Five Star were ok. I didn't hate them and some of their songs were ok. I think Rain Or Shine was a hit in my chart but System Addict was their biggest. Did their dad write the songs? In any case they were "self-manufactured" as a unit including the father rather than just puppets of some big producer. "In The Army Now" wasn't totally new ground for Status Quo as in some ways their first hit Pictures Of Matchstick Men had a similar kind of rhythm. Whilst there was a common "sound" in many of their songs, there were also various diversions, e.g. the slowest paced Living On An Island and Rock N Roll. I did like their more regular stuff too though, my favourites being Burning Bridges (much better than the Man Utd adaptation) and Marguerita Time. At the time when Nick Berry and Status Quo had the top 2 places in the UK chart, much better songs that were leading in my chart were You Can Call Me Al - Paul Simon True Colors - Cyndi Lauper Thorn In My Side - Eurythmics Don't Give Up - Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush for me showing the quality of the music out at the time. Spandau Ballet got their 2nd NM #1 with "Through The Barricades" just after this (during the time Berlin and Europe were #1 in the UK chart). Those weeks will be shown up in the next two #2s which comprise of a female singer we last met in 1981 doing a Motown (Supremes) cover and an instrumentalist we met in 1982 partnered with a new vocalist, one with whom he would remain working for a long long time. In The Army Now wasn't to be their last balled either, they entered the Top 40 with Rock Till You Drop (January 1992).
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2011 19:58:28 GMT 1
13TH DECEMBER- SOMETIMES- Erasure (1 week)Here's where 1986 and the mid 80s, ends for us with Andy Bell and Vince Clark. It's also where Erasure start, after a series of relative failures this was their breakthrough and they would remain a chart force until 1994 when they fell from chart favour. Back in 86 though they were new and fresh, indeed "Sometimes" is a cracker of a single, nothing revolutionary theme wise, but it's a full on pop song that intends to win you over by sheer power of force. It's cleverly written as well, the opening lines "It's not the way you lead me by the hand into the bedroom/ It's not the way you throw your clothes upon the bathroom floor" grab you- so just what IS it? Well that's not easy to tell- you get to the end and i'm certainly no wiser. That saxophone by the way seems to add a sense of melancholy to the track- it's a love tinged with heartbreak (or previous heartbreak i'm unsure) and to me that makes the track slightly above the boy meets girl, they fall in love etc genre, yes we're ending 1986 on a high, and again I've plesantly surprised by the year, it was far better than I recalled it (after a dodgy start)....how was it for you? A fine single to end look back of 1986 No.2s, Erasure were a great duo and still provide the odd gem (2005's Nightbird was a good album). Looking forward to hearing what the new album brings. 1986 holds special memories for me as it was the year i got into music and charts (went back to previous years). There were a few novelty tracks and the awful Only You by Nana Mouskouri but overall a decent year...each to their own of course.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2011 20:07:58 GMT 1
7TH FEBRUARY 1987- HEARTACHE- Pepsi & Shirlie (2 weeks)Former Wham! backing singers (yes those girls in the "Everything she Wants" Clip) returned three years later for some hit action of their own. The two items of real interest post this song involved Shirlie Holliman marrying Martin Kemp and the girls reuniting to do the backing vocals on Geri Halliwell's "Bag It Up" in 2000, but for a brief spell in 87 they were bonafide pop stars- this by far their biggest hit. "Heartache" is somewhat of an underwhelming song to start the year off, it's far from the worse we've encountered by it's also far from the best, kinda pop by numbers and daytime radio fodder, somewhat ironically, the track was denied the No 1 spot by former "bandmate" George Michael and his duet with Aretha Franklin "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)". Even hooking up with S/A/W for follow up "Goodbye Stranger" which did deliver them a further top 10 but after that the top 40 was a stranger to them! All in all I suppose this was a thank you to the girls for their Wham! work....acceptable is the most I can award this song i'm afraid..... I never knew they sang back-up on Geri's Bag It Up. Thanks for the info. This has been an very interesting thread throwing up a few gems that i didn't know before. Thanks
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2011 20:14:18 GMT 1
25TH APRIL- CAN'T BE WITH YOU TONIGHT- Judy Boucher (4 weeks)Now I consider myself to be pretty clued up on late 80s chart music and up until I started doing this thread a list only a few records would have genuinely stumped me to recall them, Kate Robbins, Laurie Anderson, Hooked on Classics can all be forgiven for being early 80s hits so I was only a kid but by the age of 11 and 1987 this is the only song on that list that I still not heard. The fact that this spent 4 weeks at No 2 just astounds me, not that it's an awful record, it's just instantly forgettable, and it seems to have to have been erased for the 80s collective memory, probably just for that exact reason. Boucher was a St Vincent crooner who had relocated to the UK in the 70s, and this was, one of only 2 hits for her in this country. It's hard to review really, a reggae tinged track which floats nicely enough, but it's hard to pin down the attraction, and the track is the first No 2 since probably 1984 that I don't recall from the time at all (I do remember the fabulous "La Isla Bonita" being at No 1 and denying this record however). In short this record is a mystery to me, and thusly a not altogether welcome surprise.... Now this song is absoutely beautiful. Always loved it
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2011 20:23:02 GMT 1
29TH AUGUST- WHAT HAVE I DONE TO DESERVE THIS?- Pet Shop Boys & Dusty Springfield ( 2 weeks)From Spagna who was never going to get an Ivor Novello Award to PSB who had only just recieved one for "West End Girls" when this track was released. It was during their "imperial" phase when they claimed a hat trick of No 1 singles in just 10 months, that "What Have I Done To Deserve This" was unleashed, it seems almost like a crime was committed against it in not reaching No 1. Springfield is on glorious form in this tale of ungrateful lovers who realise what they have lost, and whilst I love 80s PSB it's Dusty who is the star here, and cleverly I suspect that was always the plan from the boys. The last minute or so of the song are clearly the best with Springfield almost ad libbing over the track, the steeliness of Tennant's vocals contrast with the warm of Springfield's, it's the contrast that grabs in this, the best no 2 of 1987 yet.... What a glorious song. Best No.2 of 1987, and yes definately another 'Vienna/Shaddup' incident, maybe even more so. A No.1 that never was.
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