We are currently at the end of March in the Top of the Pops reruns for 1984, so a quarter of it will be fresh in my mind and the rest of it will be predicting what will happen as it's still a bit early for me to remember.
As you probably know, the Liverpool group who were just outside the top 40 at the end of 1983 were Frankie Goes To Hollywood with "Relax". This was the first record to be played on Top of the Pops this year and go banned shortly after, meaning it didn't get played during it's 5 weeks at number one. Their follow up, "Two Tribes", fared even better spending 9 weeks at number one, the longest of the decade. Their third hit "The Power Of Love" was also number one making them the second act to reach number one with their first three singles. It spent one week at number one, before being knocked off be the Christmas number one "Do They Know It's Christmas" by Band Aid.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood was clearly the success story of 1984, but not far behind them was Wham! who scored their first number one with "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" and second number one with "Freedom". They were only denied their third number one by Band Aid who kept "Last Christmas" off the top. Additionally we had George Michael get to number one with his first solo record "Careless Whisper".
Duran Duran had their second and final number one with "The Reflex" and scored a number two with "The Wild Boys" and number nine with "New Moon On Monday2. Meanwhile, after a solid start to the year, both Spandau Ballet and Culture Club were starting to decline in popularity towards the end of the year having record outside the top 10, with Culture Club only reaching 32 with "The Medal Song" having reached the top 4 with all their previous releases.
Cliff Richard was the only 50s debutant to have a hit this year meaning midway through the decade only him and Elvis had hits in the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. He had one hit bringing his total to 83.
David Bowie continued his streak of hits every year since 1972 with "Blue Jean" keeping him in third place with 36 hits. Elton John became fourth outright adding two to his total bringing it to 33. Stevie Wonder had a number one with "I Just Called To Say I Love You" putting him in fifth place with 32, leaving Frank Sinatra sixth with 31 and Lonnie Donegan seventh with 30, who is now joined by Status Quo who had two hits this year.
Stevie Wonder wasn't the only Motown act to have a number one this year. Lionel Richie scored his only number one with "Hello". We saw a return to the charts after an 11 year gap for the Temptations with "Treat Her Like A Lady". There was also a couple of Motown debutants this year. Dazz Band had their only hit with "Let It All Blow" and Berry Gordy's son had his only hit with "Somebody's Watching Me" which featured the vocals of Michael Jackson who himself had a couple of Motown hits in the charts this year which he recorded in the 70s when he was on the label.
We have a solitary Punk record in the charts this year from the Toy Dolls with their Punk version of "Nellie the Elephant". Disco meanwhile was finally starting to fizzle out with the only ones of note being "Fresh" by Kool & the Gang and "Thinking Of You" by Sister Sledge which was actually recorded in the 70s.
It could be argued that there were two types of music Disco was making way for. First was Funk, most notably with Chaka Khan having hits this year with "Ain't Nobody" and the number one "I Feel For You" having previously done disco music. There was also the chart debut of Cameo with "She's Strange".
The other type was Hi NRG music which is what Frankie Goes To Hollywood is considered to be. We had the Weather Girls chart in March with "It's Raining Men" and a pre Stock Aitken & Waterman Dead Or Alive debut with their cover of " That's The Way (I Like It)".
In April we had the first Stock Aitken & Waterman record in "Searchin' (I Gotta Find A Man)" by Hazell Dean. We also had the Ian Levine produced, and appropriately titled "High Energy" by Evelyn Thomas.
In June we saw the debut of Bronski Beat with "Smalltown Boy", whilst July saw the second Hazell Dean record "Whatever I Do (Wherever I Go)" and the debut of Divine with "You Think You're A Man", both Stock Aitken & Waterman produced.
We also had Freddie Mercury jump on the bandwagon with "Love Kills" and Kim Wilde with "The Second Time".
When watching the story of 1984 prior to the current Top of the Pops reruns, they mentioned a style of music I honest had never heard of before, Sophisti-pop. It was said to be inspired by Roxy Music, who had split up by this point.
One of the notable groups of this genre, the Style Council, had debuted the previous year and would have further hits this year. We had the debut of Matt Bianco with "Get Out Of Your Lazy Bed" and Sade with "Your Love Is King" already appear on Top of the Pops.
Also debuting this year from that genre is Scritti Politti with "Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)" and Everything But the Girl with "Each And Everyone", plus Level 42 return with "Hot Water" and are now considered to be a part of this genre. There is also the only hit of Animal Nightlife with "Mr. Solitaire".
As we had the debut of Howard Jones in 1983, it was only a matter of time before we saw the debut of Nik Kershaw which we did in January with "Wouldn't It Be Good".
There was no shortage of Synth Pop in 1984 of all varieties, but towards the end of the year we get the debut of Art Of Noise with "Close (To The Edit)" which takes it in a completely different direction.
The synths are making their way into the Rock world too, with Van Halen making their chart debut with "Jump". This would be the only UK hit for the band from the David Lee Roth era.
We have Whitesnake, Iron Maiden and AC/DC from the Hard Rock/Heavy Metal scene continue to have hits, but we also see the debut of Dio with "Mystery".
Despite forming back in the 60s, its wasn't until 1984 that we saw the chart debut of ZZ Top with "Gimme All Your Lovin" followed up with "Sharp Dressed Man". This made them the first act beginning with Z to have more than one hit.
The most notable debutant of the year in the pop world though was Madonna. She debuted with "Holiday" which reached number 6 and followed up with "Lucky Star" and "Like A Virgin". She would have to wait until next year for her first number one though, and "Lucky Star" failed to reach the top 10, it would be another decade until the next Madonna record failed to do so.
There was also the debut of Cyndi Lauper with "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" which reached number 2 and followed up with "Time After Time" which reached number 3. Based on their first two hits, it seemed like Cyndi Lauper had the upper hand on Madonna, but her other two releases that year failed to reach the top 40 and would only have two further top 10 hits including a remake of her debut hit.
After a 20 year absence, Henry Mancini returned to the charts this year with his second and final hit "Main Theme From The Thornbirds". There was also a return after 15 years for Sandie Shaw courtesy of the Smiths, who had her final hit with "Hand In Glove".
Also bidding farewell to the charts this year, not taking re entries into account, is John Lennon who's final hit is "Borrowed Time" and Hot Chocolate who's final hit was "I Gave You My Heart (Didn't I)". You may have noticed that Mike Read said on Top of the Pops that Hot Chocolate had hits every year since 1970, but that applies to the top 75 rather than top 40, they failed to reach the top 40 in 1979 and 1981.
We are now getting more Rap/Hip Hop records in the charts. There are two from Grandmaster Flash with "White Lines (Don't Do It)" and "The Furious Five Step Off (Part 1)", the latter not being listed in the 1000 No.1 Singles edition of British Hit Singles. We also had Break Machine have their three chart hits with "Street Dance", "Breakdance Party" and "Are You Ready". Then there is the debut of Afrika Bambaataa with "Renegades Of Funk". We also have a novelty rap record from Mel Brooks with "To Be Or Not To Be (The Hitler Rap)".
The Afrika Bambaataa record was said to inspire the Freestyle genre of music, and we had our first Freestyle hit in the UK in "Let The Music Play" by Shannon. She followed this up with "Give Me Tonight" and "Sweet Somebody". This would be the last we'd see of Shannon in the charts expect for a couple of dance records where she was guest vocalist in the 90s.
No new nationalities on the charts this year, but a mention needs to go to German group Nena who scored a number one with their only UK hit "99 Red Balloons", a style described as being "Neue Deutsche Welle".
So that brings us to the mid-point of the 80s. Stock Aitken & Waterman have arrived, will this set the scene for the rest of the 80s?
No comments:
Post a Comment