According to my faultless methodology
Having some time on my hands — I decided to go through all the UK Number 1 singles of the 80s and tray and figure out the best ones — according to me obviously.
If you’re curious about what singles made that list you can look it up courtesy of wikipedia here: List of UK Singles Chart number ones of the 1980s — Wikipedia
Look at that galaxy of stars! Pink Floyd, Madonna, The Police, U2… it’s just packed full of people who would define what pop music is. But the other thing that’s noticeable is how much terrible, awful rubbish makes it to number one in an era when you actually had to sell a lot of singles to get to number one: Jive Bunny, Joe Dolce, St Winifred’s School Choir…
So, how to create a top 10? My methodology was this: listen to every number one of the 80s and judge which ones were definitely out (pretty easy). That gets you down to about 40–50 tracks. Then pick 20 of those to be in a shortlist of greatness. Then take that list of 20 and sort them until the top 10 is revealed in a sort of “bubble sort” manner (ahem: Bubble sort — Wikipedia).
Anyway, without further ado — here is my list of the top 10 singles in classic DJ format, from 10 down to 1:
10. Into The Groove — Madonna (Sire, 1985)
Madonna had more UK number one’s than any other artist in the 80s, but in this listener’s humble opinion (ITLHO) Into the Groove is the one that really captures the mood of that early Madonna moment in music —a super danceable, confident and energetic slice of club sound made pop. That staccato synth bassline is a classic slice of 80s electro-pop and sounds as fresh now as did then. Later hits slide into a sound that was more manufactured and poppy for me, this is the real deal and I don’t think she’s ever bettered it.
9. Don’t You Want Me — The Human League (Virgin, 1981)
Those sounds of 80s electro-pop have been recycled and repackaged so many times in the past 20 years that it’s easy to forget how that it’s not just a copy but an evolution for the modern (pretension alert) sonic palette. Listening to real 80s electro pop now, it’s surprising how thin and flat it sounds, it’s hard to remember how fresh it seemed at the time. Everything about it sounded modern. What makes the classic songs classic is that they are great songs above all. Don’t You Want Me is probably THE classic 80s synth-pop song, totally unmistakable.
8. Billie Jean — Michael Jackson (Epic, 1983)
At the time, Thriller was just huge — I mean HUGE. And while Michael Jackson’s legacy has slid towards pariah status, there’s no denying this is an awesome song. From the iconic drum intro, to the shuffling bassline (borrowed from “I Can’t Go For That” by Hall & Oates) to the lush string sounds everything about it is just so slick — compare this to Don’t You Want Me and you can immediately hear the (presumably) hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on the session musicians and production hours. And 40 years later, as soon as it comes on, you know exactly what it is.
7. Back To Life (However Do You Want Me)—Soul II Soul feat. Caron Wheeler (Virgin, 1989)
Some might say, is this really deserving of a place this high in the list? Damn right it is. As a youth, if I’m honest, I was not much of soul/rnb fan, but when I heard this for the first time the scales fell from my eyes (ears). One of those songs where I can remember hearing it for the first in the summer of 1989 and thinking I needed to get more music by this band. I think this was a break-out record for British urban music, which had been so much under the shadow of US acts, because here we had something that sounded so fresh and different coming from a British act with a uniquely British sensibility. And the production, too — wonderful — so much space and light. It sounds really ahead of it’s time.
6. West End Girls — The Pet Shop Boys (Parlophone, 1986)
It’s hard to put my finger on why this is such a great single, but I’m not alone here thinking it’s a classic — it’s won countless awards including “song of the decade” by the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters. First off it sounded very different from anything else in the charts — you could hear the influences: New Order, Cabaret Voltaire and other vaguely leftfield electronic artists, but it was unapologetic pop. It sounded sophisticated and polished and was massively popular, even if there’s nothing obviously catchy about the song. There’s also something timeless about the whole mood of the song— it just seems to capture something about the 80s perfectly.
5. Going Underground — The Jam (Polydor, 1980)
I was surprised to find out that The Jam had four number one singles in the 80s. They all happened in 1980–82, an incredible run of fantastic singles. This for me is the pivotal one — it was just massive. I’ve always felt The Jam don’t get the credit they deserve when seen in retrospect— a punk offshoot that weren’t punk, sometimes derided as The Who clones, like they never quite fit in to pigeonholes that people wanted to carve out. But then look at those songs — Paul Weller showing himself (as he has throughout his career) to be one of the most gifted songwriters in British history.
4. Ghost Town — The Specials (2 Tone, 1981)
You just couldn’t not have this in a top 80s 10 singles, in my opinion. Just an amazing song — every inch a 2 Tone record, but unmistakably unique. From the moment the intro kicks in you know what this is. Another one where I remember hearing it and seeing it for the first time, and although I was living a cosy sheltered teenagers life, you definitely got the sense it was capturing the mood of a nation under Thatcher. It’s also an amazing piece of music, so much going on and really cleverly written. Love this song.
3. Under Pressure — Queen & David Bowie (EMI, 1981)
Just an amazingly unique and unforgettable song. Iconic bassline, ties the whole song together. And you have the clash and/or complement of Freddie Mercury’s operatic vocals and Bowie’s unmistakeable theatrical delivery. Bowie said that the whole song was basically written by Queen/Mercury when he arrived in the studio but I think he’s doing himself a disservice — you can hear some Bowie melodic flourishes in parts. One for bathroom divas everywhere. And another one where you hear the opening bar and you immediately know it, which is something you don’t hear that often these days.
2. Brass In Pocket — The Pretenders (Real, 1980)
This to me is just a perfect pop song. It’s got that fantastic bouncing rhythm, a really clever melody and most of all Chrissie Hynde’s amazing vocal performance. I don’t mean she’s pounding out soaring vocals, but she just puts so much nuance and feeling into the words. I can’t quantify what made this number 2 in my top 10, but every time I listened to it and asked myself if I liked it better than another song the answer was yes (almost). To these jaded old ears, it hasn’t dated at all — it’s a classic. And if you listen to this and things like Talk of the Town, Back on the Chain Gang, 2000 Miles etc — they’re all stone cold classics and for me make Pretenders one of the icons of 80s pop.
1. Let’s Dance — David Bowie (EMI America, 1983)
This is the greatest UK number one single of the 80s. Why? Because I said so. Like a lot of 80s tracks, this has production values up the wazoo. It feels like every note, every drum hit was carefully calculated without any of it sounding contrived. There’s a great origin story about this record that has David Bowie playing Nile Rodgers an acoustic folky song he called Let’s Dance and asking Rodgers what he thought of it. This is what Rodgers wrought from those humble beginnings. From the Beatles-esque stacked harmony vocals at the beginning to Stevie Ray Vaughan’s bluesy guitar solo (at a time when blues was becoming very hip again), everything about this song is just perfect. And much as I love Bowie’s 70s output, I think it’s the best track he’s every done. There, I said it.
And…. that’s it.
For reference, I picked my Top 10 from a shortlist of 20 that I felt were the top singles of the decade. You can peruse the whole 20 here:
