Best Song: Erasure - Sometimes
This was the Top 40 debut of Erasure which came after their first 3 singles failed to reach the Top 40. It put them on the music map and is one of their best known records. Despite the number of times I must have heard it over the years I'm yet to get bored of it which is a sign of a truly great record.
Worst Song: Kim Wilde - You Keep Me Hangin' On
This gave Kim Wilde her first Top 10 hit in over 5 years and no doubt helped her to have a few more Top 10's in the 80s. I like the original of this by The Supremes but this cover is absolutely terrible. All the soul has been taken out of it and replaced by a cheesy backing track and Kim Wilde's voice is nowhere near as good as Diana Ross.
Top 40 Review
1986 was one of 4 years in the 80s to score 14 points, but was the consistency there at Christmas time?
We'll begin with Christmas hits of which there was just one. This was "Santa Claus Is On The Dole" by Spitting Image which was a double a-side with "First Atheist Tabernacle Choir". It therefore is also a novelty record and there was just one further novelty record in "O' My Father Had A Rabbit" by Ray Moore. Both records get zero points.
Sticking with Spitting Image, there was also "Land Of Confusion" by Genesis which is famous for it's Spitting Image video. This one gets half marks.
The Christmas number one was "Reet Petite" by Jackie Wilson which is one of my favourite Christmas number ones. It beat "Caravan Of Love" by The Housemartins, perhaps the most famous Christmas number two that has nothing to do with Christmas but still gets played then. I do quite like it.
A record I'd like to give a shout to is "Breakout" by Swing Out Sister. It has to be one of the most 80s sounding 80s records, but in a good way. If I had to pick one record to sum up the 80s then that would probably be it.
Elsewhere we have a healthy number of points coming from the funk and soul records with none of them scoring zero. These include the only hits for Oran 'Juice' Jones and Gregory Abbott plus "Candy" by Cameo which is about as funky as they come.
Quite a few record in this Top 40 get half marks. Some of these fit the category of familiar but overplayed and acceptable without being outstanding. Examples include "Livin On A Prayer" by Bon Jovi and "Walk Like An Egyptian" by The Bangles.
One of the records I don't like is "Each Time You Break My Heart" by Nick Kamen, least of all because it was a record I couldn't think of when I was on Champions League Popmaster and could only think of his 2 lesser hits. I wouldn't have liked it anyway though.
All in all this chart was more like business as usual and this is reflected in the score.
Score: 14
Table
We continue to have consistency with the scores in the 80s at this early stage:
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