However, there are certain sounds, whether they be in terms of instrumentation, or the production, that is exclusive pretty much to a particular era in music. I am not a progressive rock fan as such, but i enjoy elements of its sound, which was pretty common place within the more general sounds of the early seventies music (just listen to the more progressive guitar solo on the Carpenters ''Goodbye To Love'' as an example). Also the use of clavinet, and wah wah guitar, which was also pretty prominent back in those days, too, which sometimes created a rather funky element within the music. There was a different ''feel'' depending on a particular period, some of which i like a great deal more than others. The early seventies, for me, is arguably one of the very best periods (with the addition also of the lushness of the musical orchestrations).
I agree if you listen to Gilbert O'sullivan top 10 1970 hit " Nothing rhymed " the orchestra on it is so good! and so was a lot of other orchestras on Tom jones , and Englebert Humperdink's early hits!
When I got Abba's The First Ten Years album at Christmas that year, The Day Before You Came was on it, having just been a very modest hit, yet it was the one I kept playing again and again over and above all the standard well known Abba classics on the album. At nearly 6 minutes long I guess it must be Abba's longest ever single release too.
I'm a sucker for a song with a story and this is a fine example. I'd put it in my Abba all time Top 3 without a doubt and it's my favourite Blancmange song.
I like both the Abba and Blancmange versions of The Day Before You Came, and I'm always interested to hear how people interpret it. A lot of people describe it as a sad song, when to me it's the opposite. I see it as she's singing how the day before she met the love of her life, she had no idea how her life was going to change for the better, and was just routinely going about her day.
I like both the Abba and Blancmange versions of The Day Before You Came, and I'm always interested to hear how people interpret it. A lot of people describe it as a sad song, when to me it's the opposite. I see it as she's singing how the day before she met the love of her life, she had no idea how her life was going to change for the better, and was just routinely going about her day.
I like both the Abba and Blancmange versions of The Day Before You Came, and I'm always interested to hear how people interpret it. A lot of people describe it as a sad song, when to me it's the opposite. I see it as she's singing how the day before she met the love of her life, she had no idea how her life was going to change for the better, and was just routinely going about her day.
And I think that's why so many can relate to it, just thinking back to the day before I met my partner and it was just a typical day, little did I know within 24 hours I'd meet the woman I was destined to spend the rest of my life with.
I remembering reading somewhere someone interpreting it that Agnetha was singing about the day before she died - ie "you" being the grim reaper. Now that is quite depressing!
I remembering reading somewhere someone interpreting it that Agnetha was singing about the day before she died - ie "you" being the grim reaper. Now that is quite depressing!
The video for the song is very good got it on Abba greatest hits videos, its very atmospheric and set on a railway platform and on a train!
I remembering reading somewhere someone interpreting it that Agnetha was singing about the day before she died - ie "you" being the grim reaper. Now that is quite depressing!
I think that is over analysing it! It is a strange song though in that the depressing melody doesn't go with the uplifting story.
Much as I love TDBYC, as I said yesterday, why does it take her an hour and a quarter to get to work and three hours to get home, even allowing for getting a takeaway (and maybe doing some shopping) on the way back???
Totally agree about the Firm sounding like Chas n Dave. Quite like Chalk Dust !
Good to hear The Firm again. Can't locate a CD or MP3 of it. Got a vinyl transfer but would love a nice sharp CD version. Strange that their later hit Star Trekkin' is readily available on CDs, despite both of them originally being on the same record label.
As I read this post Rich, it just reinforces what is currently being discussed, how one track some of us rave about, and for another they dis-like it. For me as much as I love Abba, I could never rave about The Day Before You Came, as I grew up hearing the Blancmange version most of the time, and it's one of my favourite songs. Never tire of hearing it, where as I feel the vocal on the Abba version sounds weak. Does anyone else like the Blancmange version? It's rarely heard nowadays.
Abba were before my time and I always thought of them as cheesy naffsters but I've heard both versions of this song a few times now and it's incredibly poignant and puts a lump in my throat when I hear it. It's possibly the bleakest love song ever recorded.
Much as I love TDBYC, as I said yesterday, why does it take her an hour and a quarter to get to work and three hours to get home, even allowing for getting a takeaway (and maybe doing some shopping) on the way back???
She spends an hour contemplating jumping off Beachy Head (or the Swedish equivalent)?
I'm enjoying the discussion about musical quality. I was sat in the car listening to 'Don't Go' and 'Fame' yesterday and I started blubbering a bit as they reminded me of feeling exuberant and excited, an amazing Summer and a relative who recently died and listening to these old songs is very bittersweet. 'Fame' is probably an embarrassing piece of old schlock to some but it means a lot to me. (I'm glad the internet is anonymous! )
I agree if you listen to Gilbert O'sullivan top 10 1970 hit " Nothing rhymed " the orchestra on it is so good! and so was a lot of other orchestras on Tom jones , and Englebert Humperdink's early hits!
Yes, exactly.
It is the richness of the sound of those records, which contributes so much to their greatness. Whether it is strings, variations on guitar styles (wah, wah, slide, etc.) or the early use of the synthesiser (especially the moog in the early seventies), the sound of those sixties and seventies records have a richness and a sincerity about them. Somewhere along the line in the early part of the eighties, a great deal of the finesse went out of the playing/recording of those newer and more contemporary songs. Why employ a full orchestra, when you can recreate the same sound by just using a finger or two tapping on a keyboard etc? Again the eighties was about cutting back to maximise profits. However, the end result for me, was nowhere near as convincing.
Certainly there are some great songs recorded during the eighties, but by and large most songs generally were just nowhere near as ''musical'' as those from previous decades.
Tony ignored Visage's Night Train yesterday. I doubt he likes Visage much, as he ignored The Damned Don't Cry earlier this year.
Thinking back to 1965 last week, he made a gag about treading on some cake and so having a Walk in a Black Forest. I have some advice to give him ready for 1968:
I advise Tony not to leave the cake out in the rain!
Tony ignored Visage's Night Train yesterday. I doubt he likes Visage much, as he ignored The Damned Don't Cry earlier this year.
Thinking back to 1965 last week, he made a gag about treading on some cake and so having a Walk in a Black Forest. I have some advice to give him ready for 1968:
I advise Tony not to leave the cake out in the rain!
Hate to tell you Multimedia but you're a bit late with the advice. Tony did that one about a month ago when he played Richard Harris in his entirety on POTP!
I'm enjoying the discussion about musical quality. I was sat in the car listening to 'Don't Go' and 'Fame' yesterday and I started blubbering a bit as they reminded me of feeling exuberant and excited, an amazing Summer and a relative who recently died and listening to these old songs is very bittersweet. 'Fame' is probably an embarrassing piece of old schlock to some but it means a lot to me. (I'm glad the internet is anonymous! )
There's no need to feel embarrassed at all. Popular music is by its very nature about evoking reactions/emotions etc. I think there's sometimes too much emphasis placed on music attempting to appear credible etc. especially in the sense as a reaction to the over saturation of disposable pop in the last 20 odd years. Whatever may have been the relative perceived shortcomings of the eighties (and i'm inclined to believe the quality did begin to drop significantly after around the 1983 period), there was always during the whole of the eighties period, a sense of fun. The nineties marked by contrast, for me, a more clear division with the processed pop sounds becoming ever more frowned upon, by a significant part of the industry, and the more ''serious'' artists taking a pretty aloof (and often contrived) view, concerning their own perceived more lofty self importance, which i actually found, if anything a lot more irritating, than the manufactured pop sounds of the day. Disposable pop generally is what it is, and has few pretentions, in terms of it having anything especially profound to say, and i think some of it works pretty well on its own terms (even though i still think there was a lot of rubbish about). However, there are so many of the indie/brit pop artists, especially, of the nineties, who had all kinds of (contrived) artistic pretentions, many of whom overwhelmingly failed to convince me on any fundamental level. Many of them so much wanted to be taken seriously, but really had little truly exceptional talent to back it up.
Want to start by saying thanks to Paul Burnett who also played this chart on the Wireless, including the entire top 20. Very helpful!
August 7 1982
Top 20
19 THE CLAPPING SONG - BELLE STARS _ Not a good start for me. Not really a fan of the the Belle Stars, Sign Of The Times aside, and certainly not a fan of this song. No idea what it's about - geese drinking wine, monkeys chewing tobacco and, if she's old enough to be kissing a soldier, she's surely too old for dollies!
17 ARTHUR DALEY ('E'S ALRIGHT) - FIRM - Now we're talking! Very Chas and Dave, that's probably why I love it. The posh version on the B-side, which Tommy Vance played on the top 40, is fun too. Would love to get a definitive answer to whether the man fronting it on TOTP is Tony Thorpe. It certainly looks like him to me.
15 TAKE IT AWAY - PAUL MCCARTNEY - While the will hardly be considered one of Macca's classic, it was nice to hear this one for a change. Don't recall the video, or if there's a TOTP appearance, so will have to youtube it.
14 A NIGHT TO REMEMBER - SHALAMAR - Like this, though it is overplayed and I do prefer their later hit There It Is. I've said before that, after seeing Jeffrey Daniel moon-walking to this on TOTP, why did everyone go wacko when Jacko did it on that Motown shown.
13 ME AND MY GIRL (NIGHT-CLUBBING) - DAVID ESSEX - Not one of his hits that immediately springs to mind, but I think it's good. I like the reggae style and tempo.
12 ABRACADABRA - STEVE MILLER BAND - Always had a soft spot for this song, after I won a prize for being the best dancer to this song at a Christmas party in this year. Because of his accent, though, I thought for ages he was singing "Ebracadebra", whatever that means! I didn't know it was inspired by Diana Ross, until Sara Cox mentioned it on her show the other week.
11 STRANGE LITTLE GIRL - STRANGLERS - Defintely one of their more radio-friendly hits. I like this, but I do like some of their punkier stuff as well, though it's not usually my sort of thing.
10 THE ONLY WAY OUT - CLIFF RICHARD - While Cliff was doing better singles around this time, this is still a pretty decent effort and, for me, has the feel-good factor.
08 STOOL PIGEON - KID CREOLE AND THE COCONUTS - Oh definitely my fave song of theirs, as I love a song with a story to it.
07 SHY BOY - BANANARAMA - Pleasant enough song, though I've said before that I'm more into their later stuff.
06 DA DA DA - TRIO - Oh God, the sound of the casio VL-1 makes me so nostalgic it hurts! I could listen to it all day. For anyone who's not seen the wonderfully weird TOTP performance of this, I'd check it out on youtube.
05 IT STARTED WITH A KISS - HOT CHOCOLATE - When it comes to Hot Chocolate singles, not everyone's a winner (excuse the pun!) as far as I'm concerned. This one definitely is, though. As I said, I love a song that got a story to it.
04 DRIVING IN MY CAR - MADNESS - If I didn't know anything about Madness, I'd just assume this was a one-off novelty song, and not a good one at that. Just annoying and, as we know, they were capable of much better.
03 DON'T GO - YAZOO - Shame it was up against such a strong top two, as I see no reason why this couldn't have gone all the way to number one. Great synth riff.
02 FAME - IRENE CARA - I'd no idea at the time that this was first from the film of a couple of years previous and not new to the TV show, which I was hooked on. Massively overplayed, but still makes me want to dig out my leg warmers!
01 COME ON EILEEN - DEXY'S MIDNIGHT RUNNERS AND THE EMERALD EXPRESS - I sort of hate the fact that, no matter how many millions of times I've heard this, and still have no idea what a lot of the lyrics are, it never fails to draw me in. Of course the best bit is at the end when it slows down then speeds up.
Not played
20 CHALKDUST (THE UMPIRE STRIKES BACK) - BRAT - I so wanted this to be played, but knew it wouldn't. Quite amusing to hear once in awhile, though you wouldn't want to hear it more often than that. When searching for info on this song, I was surprised to find out it got to No.1 in Belguim.
18 VIDEOTHEQUE - DOLLAR - One of their hits I always tend to overlook, which is a shame as it's just as good. I shall definitely have to give this more plays. I love the title too - very 80s!
17 NIGHT TRAIN - VISAGE - I've forgotten how this one goes already! Certainly not as memorable as Fade To Grey.
09 I SECOND THAT EMOTION - JAPAN - I know they had to release a cover to get a hit, but their own songs are better than this. I'd much sooner hear the Smokey Robinson and the Miracles original.
'I Second that Emotion' by Japan was a cash-in release by their old record label, Ariola Hansa (Boney M's label!). The track had originally been released in March 1980 with 'Quiet Life' on the B side. In fact, most of their hits were re-releases by their old label, with five of their hits from summer 1981 to early 1983 that made the charts being singles released by Hansa.
Want to start by saying thanks to Paul Burnett who also played this chart on the Wireless, including the entire top 20. Very helpful!
August 7 1982
Top 20
19 THE CLAPPING SONG - BELLE STARS _ Not a good start for me. Not really a fan of the the Belle Stars, Sign Of The Times aside, and certainly not a fan of this song. No idea what it's about - geese drinking wine, monkeys chewing tobacco and, if she's old enough to be kissing a soldier, she's surely too old for dollies!
17 ARTHUR DALEY ('E'S ALRIGHT) - FIRM - Now we're talking! Very Chas and Dave, that's probably why I love it. The posh version on the B-side, which Tommy Vance played on the top 40, is fun too. Would love to get a definitive answer to whether the man fronting it on TOTP is Tony Thorpe. It certainly looks like him to me.
15 TAKE IT AWAY - PAUL MCCARTNEY - While the will hardly be considered one of Macca's classic, it was nice to hear this one for a change. Don't recall the video, or if there's a TOTP appearance, so will have to youtube it.
14 A NIGHT TO REMEMBER - SHALAMAR - Like this, though it is overplayed and I do prefer their later hit There It Is. I've said before that, after seeing Jeffrey Daniel moon-walking to this on TOTP, why did everyone go wacko when Jacko did it on that Motown shown.
13 ME AND MY GIRL (NIGHT-CLUBBING) - DAVID ESSEX - Not one of his hits that immediately springs to mind, but I think it's good. I like the reggae style and tempo.
12 ABRACADABRA - STEVE MILLER BAND - Always had a soft spot for this song, after I won a prize for being the best dancer to this song at a Christmas party in this year. Because of his accent, though, I thought for ages he was singing "Ebracadebra", whatever that means! I didn't know it was inspired by Diana Ross, until Sara Cox mentioned it on her show the other week.
11 STRANGE LITTLE GIRL - STRANGLERS - Defintely one of their more radio-friendly hits. I like this, but I do like some of their punkier stuff as well, though it's not usually my sort of thing.
10 THE ONLY WAY OUT - CLIFF RICHARD - While Cliff was doing better singles around this time, this is still a pretty decent effort and, for me, has the feel-good factor.
08 STOOL PIGEON - KID CREOLE AND THE COCONUTS - Oh definitely my fave song of theirs, as I love a song with a story to it.
07 SHY BOY - BANANARAMA - Pleasant enough song, though I've said before that I'm more into their later stuff.
06 DA DA DA - TRIO - Oh God, the sound of the casio VL-1 makes me so nostalgic it hurts! I could listen to it all day. For anyone who's not seen the wonderfully weird TOTP performance of this, I'd check it out on youtube.
05 IT STARTED WITH A KISS - HOT CHOCOLATE - When it comes to Hot Chocolate singles, not everyone's a winner (excuse the pun!) as far as I'm concerned. This one definitely is, though. As I said, I love a song that got a story to it.
04 DRIVING IN MY CAR - MADNESS - If I didn't know anything about Madness, I'd just assume this was a one-off novelty song, and not a good one at that. Just annoying and, as we know, they were capable of much better.
03 DON'T GO - YAZOO - Shame it was up against such a strong top two, as I see no reason why this couldn't have gone all the way to number one. Great synth riff.
02 FAME - IRENE CARA - I'd no idea at the time that this was first from the film of a couple of years previous and not new to the TV show, which I was hooked on. Massively overplayed, but still makes me want to dig out my leg warmers!
01 COME ON EILEEN - DEXY'S MIDNIGHT RUNNERS AND THE EMERALD EXPRESS - I sort of hate the fact that, no matter how many millions of times I've heard this, and still have no idea what a lot of the lyrics are, it never fails to draw me in. Of course the best bit is at the end when it slows down then speeds up.
Not played
20 CHALKDUST (THE UMPIRE STRIKES BACK) - BRAT - I so wanted this to be played, but knew it wouldn't. Quite amusing to hear once in awhile, though you wouldn't want to hear it more often than that. When searching for info on this song, I was surprised to find out it got to No.1 in Belguim.
18 VIDEOTHEQUE - DOLLAR - One of their hits I always tend to overlook, which is a shame as it's just as good. I shall definitely have to give this more plays. I love the title too - very 80s!
17 NIGHT TRAIN - VISAGE - I've forgotten how this one goes already! Certainly not as memorable as Fade To Grey.
09 I SECOND THAT EMOTION - JAPAN - I know they had to release a cover to get a hit, but their own songs are better than this. I'd much sooner hear the Smokey Robinson and the Miracles original.
Yazoo, Dollar and Hot Chocolate prevent this chart from being an utter car crash of a chart. Absolutely abysmal. Don't say you listened to it twice. Radio 2 and the Wireless. What had you done to deserve that.
Yazoo, Dollar and Hot Chocolate prevent this chart from being an utter car crash of a chart. Absolutely abysmal. Don't say you listened to it twice. Radio 2 and the Wireless. What had you done to deserve that.
any chart that has in it Yazoo, Dollar, Hot Chocolate, Bananarama, Kid Creole, Shalamar, Dexys and the Stranglers is far from a car crash. And the Trio hit has a very special place in my heart too. 1982 was probably my all time favourite year. I bought more singles that year (2 or 3 a week) than any other time before or since.
There's no need to feel embarrassed at all. Popular music is by its very nature about evoking reactions/emotions etc. I think there's sometimes too much emphasis placed on music attempting to appear credible etc. especially in the sense as a reaction to the over saturation of disposable pop in the last 20 odd years. Whatever may have been the relative perceived shortcomings of the eighties (and i'm inclined to believe the quality did begin to drop significantly after around the 1983 period), there was always during the whole of the eighties period, a sense of fun. The nineties marked by contrast, for me, a more clear division with the processed pop sounds becoming ever more frowned upon, by a significant part of the industry, and the more ''serious'' artists taking a pretty aloof (and often contrived) view, concerning their own perceived more lofty self importance, which i actually found, if anything a lot more irritating, than the manufactured pop sounds of the day. Disposable pop generally is what it is, and has few pretentions, in terms of it having anything especially profound to say, and i think some of it works pretty well on its own terms (even though i still think there was a lot of rubbish about). However, there are so many of the indie/brit pop artists, especially, of the nineties, who had all kinds of (contrived) artistic pretentions, many of whom overwhelmingly failed to convince me on any fundamental level. Many of them so much wanted to be taken seriously, but really had little truly exceptional talent to back it up.
Thank you so much for replying to me and making me feel so welcome on this thread! I think there's a lot to love about the 80s and 90s: so many exciting developments: New Romantics, the second British invasion, synth pop, indie, Goth, Hip Hop, Britpop, trip hop, house. And some fantastic artists such as Kate Bush, Siouxsie, Eurythmics, Peter Gabriel etc were at their peak. And I do find listening to this stuff very conflicting. It's wonderful but it feels like someone jangling the keys to a vanished, familiar, happy place in front of me that I can never return to. There's a famous quote by Noel Coward about the potency of cheap music, but I wouldn't call it cheap!
Comments
I agree if you listen to Gilbert O'sullivan top 10 1970 hit " Nothing rhymed " the orchestra on it is so good! and so was a lot of other orchestras on Tom jones , and Englebert Humperdink's early hits!
I'm a sucker for a song with a story and this is a fine example. I'd put it in my Abba all time Top 3 without a doubt and it's my favourite Blancmange song.
This is my interpretation as well.
And I think that's why so many can relate to it, just thinking back to the day before I met my partner and it was just a typical day, little did I know within 24 hours I'd meet the woman I was destined to spend the rest of my life with.
The video for the song is very good got it on Abba greatest hits videos, its very atmospheric and set on a railway platform and on a train!
I think that is over analysing it! It is a strange song though in that the depressing melody doesn't go with the uplifting story.
Good to hear The Firm again. Can't locate a CD or MP3 of it. Got a vinyl transfer but would love a nice sharp CD version. Strange that their later hit Star Trekkin' is readily available on CDs, despite both of them originally being on the same record label.
Abba were before my time and I always thought of them as cheesy naffsters but I've heard both versions of this song a few times now and it's incredibly poignant and puts a lump in my throat when I hear it. It's possibly the bleakest love song ever recorded.
She spends an hour contemplating jumping off Beachy Head (or the Swedish equivalent)?
Yes, exactly.
It is the richness of the sound of those records, which contributes so much to their greatness. Whether it is strings, variations on guitar styles (wah, wah, slide, etc.) or the early use of the synthesiser (especially the moog in the early seventies), the sound of those sixties and seventies records have a richness and a sincerity about them. Somewhere along the line in the early part of the eighties, a great deal of the finesse went out of the playing/recording of those newer and more contemporary songs. Why employ a full orchestra, when you can recreate the same sound by just using a finger or two tapping on a keyboard etc? Again the eighties was about cutting back to maximise profits. However, the end result for me, was nowhere near as convincing.
Certainly there are some great songs recorded during the eighties, but by and large most songs generally were just nowhere near as ''musical'' as those from previous decades.
Thinking back to 1965 last week, he made a gag about treading on some cake and so having a Walk in a Black Forest. I have some advice to give him ready for 1968:
Hate to tell you Multimedia but you're a bit late with the advice. Tony did that one about a month ago when he played Richard Harris in his entirety on POTP!
There's no need to feel embarrassed at all. Popular music is by its very nature about evoking reactions/emotions etc. I think there's sometimes too much emphasis placed on music attempting to appear credible etc. especially in the sense as a reaction to the over saturation of disposable pop in the last 20 odd years. Whatever may have been the relative perceived shortcomings of the eighties (and i'm inclined to believe the quality did begin to drop significantly after around the 1983 period), there was always during the whole of the eighties period, a sense of fun. The nineties marked by contrast, for me, a more clear division with the processed pop sounds becoming ever more frowned upon, by a significant part of the industry, and the more ''serious'' artists taking a pretty aloof (and often contrived) view, concerning their own perceived more lofty self importance, which i actually found, if anything a lot more irritating, than the manufactured pop sounds of the day. Disposable pop generally is what it is, and has few pretentions, in terms of it having anything especially profound to say, and i think some of it works pretty well on its own terms (even though i still think there was a lot of rubbish about). However, there are so many of the indie/brit pop artists, especially, of the nineties, who had all kinds of (contrived) artistic pretentions, many of whom overwhelmingly failed to convince me on any fundamental level. Many of them so much wanted to be taken seriously, but really had little truly exceptional talent to back it up.
August 7 1982
Top 20
19 THE CLAPPING SONG - BELLE STARS _ Not a good start for me. Not really a fan of the the Belle Stars, Sign Of The Times aside, and certainly not a fan of this song. No idea what it's about - geese drinking wine, monkeys chewing tobacco and, if she's old enough to be kissing a soldier, she's surely too old for dollies!
17 ARTHUR DALEY ('E'S ALRIGHT) - FIRM - Now we're talking! Very Chas and Dave, that's probably why I love it. The posh version on the B-side, which Tommy Vance played on the top 40, is fun too. Would love to get a definitive answer to whether the man fronting it on TOTP is Tony Thorpe. It certainly looks like him to me.
15 TAKE IT AWAY - PAUL MCCARTNEY - While the will hardly be considered one of Macca's classic, it was nice to hear this one for a change. Don't recall the video, or if there's a TOTP appearance, so will have to youtube it.
14 A NIGHT TO REMEMBER - SHALAMAR - Like this, though it is overplayed and I do prefer their later hit There It Is. I've said before that, after seeing Jeffrey Daniel moon-walking to this on TOTP, why did everyone go wacko when Jacko did it on that Motown shown.
13 ME AND MY GIRL (NIGHT-CLUBBING) - DAVID ESSEX - Not one of his hits that immediately springs to mind, but I think it's good. I like the reggae style and tempo.
12 ABRACADABRA - STEVE MILLER BAND - Always had a soft spot for this song, after I won a prize for being the best dancer to this song at a Christmas party in this year. Because of his accent, though, I thought for ages he was singing "Ebracadebra", whatever that means! I didn't know it was inspired by Diana Ross, until Sara Cox mentioned it on her show the other week.
11 STRANGE LITTLE GIRL - STRANGLERS - Defintely one of their more radio-friendly hits. I like this, but I do like some of their punkier stuff as well, though it's not usually my sort of thing.
10 THE ONLY WAY OUT - CLIFF RICHARD - While Cliff was doing better singles around this time, this is still a pretty decent effort and, for me, has the feel-good factor.
08 STOOL PIGEON - KID CREOLE AND THE COCONUTS - Oh definitely my fave song of theirs, as I love a song with a story to it.
07 SHY BOY - BANANARAMA - Pleasant enough song, though I've said before that I'm more into their later stuff.
06 DA DA DA - TRIO - Oh God, the sound of the casio VL-1 makes me so nostalgic it hurts! I could listen to it all day. For anyone who's not seen the wonderfully weird TOTP performance of this, I'd check it out on youtube.
05 IT STARTED WITH A KISS - HOT CHOCOLATE - When it comes to Hot Chocolate singles, not everyone's a winner (excuse the pun!) as far as I'm concerned. This one definitely is, though. As I said, I love a song that got a story to it.
04 DRIVING IN MY CAR - MADNESS - If I didn't know anything about Madness, I'd just assume this was a one-off novelty song, and not a good one at that. Just annoying and, as we know, they were capable of much better.
03 DON'T GO - YAZOO - Shame it was up against such a strong top two, as I see no reason why this couldn't have gone all the way to number one. Great synth riff.
02 FAME - IRENE CARA - I'd no idea at the time that this was first from the film of a couple of years previous and not new to the TV show, which I was hooked on. Massively overplayed, but still makes me want to dig out my leg warmers!
01 COME ON EILEEN - DEXY'S MIDNIGHT RUNNERS AND THE EMERALD EXPRESS - I sort of hate the fact that, no matter how many millions of times I've heard this, and still have no idea what a lot of the lyrics are, it never fails to draw me in. Of course the best bit is at the end when it slows down then speeds up.
Not played
20 CHALKDUST (THE UMPIRE STRIKES BACK) - BRAT - I so wanted this to be played, but knew it wouldn't. Quite amusing to hear once in awhile, though you wouldn't want to hear it more often than that. When searching for info on this song, I was surprised to find out it got to No.1 in Belguim.
18 VIDEOTHEQUE - DOLLAR - One of their hits I always tend to overlook, which is a shame as it's just as good. I shall definitely have to give this more plays. I love the title too - very 80s!
17 NIGHT TRAIN - VISAGE - I've forgotten how this one goes already! Certainly not as memorable as Fade To Grey.
09 I SECOND THAT EMOTION - JAPAN - I know they had to release a cover to get a hit, but their own songs are better than this. I'd much sooner hear the Smokey Robinson and the Miracles original.
'I Second that Emotion' by Japan was a cash-in release by their old record label, Ariola Hansa (Boney M's label!). The track had originally been released in March 1980 with 'Quiet Life' on the B side. In fact, most of their hits were re-releases by their old label, with five of their hits from summer 1981 to early 1983 that made the charts being singles released by Hansa.
Yazoo, Dollar and Hot Chocolate prevent this chart from being an utter car crash of a chart. Absolutely abysmal. Don't say you listened to it twice. Radio 2 and the Wireless. What had you done to deserve that.
any chart that has in it Yazoo, Dollar, Hot Chocolate, Bananarama, Kid Creole, Shalamar, Dexys and the Stranglers is far from a car crash. And the Trio hit has a very special place in my heart too. 1982 was probably my all time favourite year. I bought more singles that year (2 or 3 a week) than any other time before or since.
Thank you so much for replying to me and making me feel so welcome on this thread! I think there's a lot to love about the 80s and 90s: so many exciting developments: New Romantics, the second British invasion, synth pop, indie, Goth, Hip Hop, Britpop, trip hop, house. And some fantastic artists such as Kate Bush, Siouxsie, Eurythmics, Peter Gabriel etc were at their peak. And I do find listening to this stuff very conflicting. It's wonderful but it feels like someone jangling the keys to a vanished, familiar, happy place in front of me that I can never return to. There's a famous quote by Noel Coward about the potency of cheap music, but I wouldn't call it cheap!