Best Song: Specials - Do Nothing
The Specials a a much celebrated band and probably the first who spring to mind when you mention 2 Tone. Their Top 40 career was very brief though, this single came 18 months after their Top 40 debut and the only remaining Top 40 hit from the band as we knew them was "Ghost Town" 6 months later. The intro to this record sets the scene for a pretty good tune.
Worst Song: The Nolans - Who's Gonna Rock You
The story of The Nolans to many is that they did the very cheesy and shit "I'm In The Mood For Dancing" and then made a living from being celebrities. Turns out they had 8 Top 40 hits and they were all just as cheesy and shit as their big one.
Top 40 Review
1980 was the best year of the 80s from a Top 40 perspective, but was that still the case by Christmas time?
Let's begin with the Christmas number one which was "There's No One Quite Like Grandma" by St Winifred's School Choir. It's a record that's said to be liked by nobody and topped the charts due to people buying it as a present for their grandma. Makes sense to me.
Other novelty hits that had nothing to do with Christmas was "Rabbit" by Chas & Dave and "I Could Be So Good For You" by Dennis Waterman.
In terms of Christmas hits we had "Never Mind the Presents" by Barron Knights, "December Will Be Magic Again" by Kate Bush, "Stop The Cavalry" by Jona Lewie and "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" by John Lennon & Plastic Ono Band.
The latter came just after the death of John Lennon and he had 2 other records in the Top 40 with "(Just Like) Starting Over" and "Imagine". I like the former and the latter is OK but overplayed/overrated.
A lot of the points come from the 2 tone and reggae acts. In addition to The Specials we have The Beat, Madness, UB40 and Eddy Grant. Blondie had also gone in the reggae direction with "The Tide Is High".
A surprising source of points comes from Neil Diamond with "Love On The Rocks". I'm referring to when I first heard it years ago and assumed all his music was shit, I was pleasantly surprised.
A less surprising source of points come from the ever reliable Electric Light Orchestra with "Don't Walk Away".
That's about as good as it gets. We have a good mixture of music genres throughout the Top 40 but a lot of it is lowest common denominator rubbish.
The result is a score that's pretty poor by 80s standards.
Score: 12.5
Table
The best year of the 80s has the 2nd worst Christmas chart of the 80s:
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