Thursday 22 July 2021

UK Charts Best Year Search: 1987

What's this all about?

Top 40

Best Song: Pet Shop Boys - It's A Sin

This was also my record of the year for 1987. It was the first record that had a true impact on me when I was a kid and still remains one of my favourite Pet Shop Boys tunes.

Worst Song: Samantha Fox - Nothing's Gonna Stop Me Now

It's Samantha Fox again for the second year in a row. Funnily enough the closest contender to this for worst song came from former Shalamar singer Jody Watley. I think few people would disagree that Samantha Fox's music is dreadful though, that's kind of the point.

Top 40 Review

We've now reached the first Top 40 that I remember the first time round. It therefore has the advantage of potentially having music that appealed to me as a young child that I may not have liked had I heard it for the first time as an adult.

Erasure are in there with "Victim Of Love" which I don't recall hearing at the time, but have known and liked for a long time. We also have a live version of "Promised You A Miracle" by Simple Minds which I do remember, though I can lump a lot of Simple Minds records into my early music memories as they seemed a very popular band at the time. Again, a good record.

As a kid I took a liking to what I would call "shouting songs" and there are 2 records in this Top 40 that meet that criteria. They are "Is This Love" by Whitesnake and "Alone" by Heart and I still like both those records today.

Soul/R&B is quite prominent in this Top 40. We have "Always" by Atlantic Starr which is one I liked as a kid. There's "Wishing Well" by Terence Trent D'Arby that I probably liked as a kid, but certainly like it now. A record I have no recollection of at the time but like now is "If I Was Your Girlfriend" by Prince. Then there's a re-entry of "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher" by Jackie Wilson. I'm not keen on "The Pleasure Principle" by Janet Jackson or "Diamonds" by Herb Alpert which features vocals from Janet Jackson. Finally we have actor Bruce Willis covering "Under The Boardwalk", which is shit.

One record that likely does get the full marks because of me liking it as a kid is "Wishing I Was Lucky" by Wet Wet Wet. But that said, it's not the only Wet Wet Wet song I like so who knows.

What I do know is that the Wet Wet Wet record is the difference between 1987 and most of the 80s years so far with the overall score.

Score: 15

Table

It's very tight between a lot of the 80s years:





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