For God's sake Jedikiah, don't mis-spell comment on the number 7 of Gambo's 1982 chart. You know what happened last time

enjoying 1982...great pop tunes

Fame was released in 1980. I loved it then but strangely didnt get into the top 40.
Released again due to the success of the tv series.

Survivor...excellent ..all great tunes

Nice try. It is actually 1914 and 1947.

I think the producer decides. He has decided.

Not too bad I think the number one says it all about your statement

Looks pretty dreadful to me.

What! The Freudian slip, i presume? Well thankfully the person in question doesn't as yet write on this thread!

I very much enjoyed the 1969 chart, and there were some rather striking examples of blues and also country influenced rock, as in Creedence Clearwater Revival, and The Rolling Stones especially, although i have never felt fully convinced by Steve Marriott's style of rock, in his period with Humble Pie, where he collaborated with Peter Frampton, after his time with The Small Faces. Gambo made an interesting observation with regard to the Humble Pie single being called ''Natural Born Bugie'', when the lyrical repetition was 'Natural Born Woman'.

Engelbert's ''I'm A Better Man'' is perhaps my favourite single of his, post ''The Last Waltz'', and i think it deserved more success than its rather modest highest peak placing of 15 on the chart. I found it a rather effective Bacharach and David song. The Bee Gees had also split in around this period, with Barry and Maurice continuing with the group name, while Robin went solo and scored his biggest solo hit with ''Saved By The Bell'', when it reached No 2. ''Don't Forget To Remember'' managed to make the No 2 spot too, although i can remember Tony making the comment when it was included in the Pick Of The Pops chart last year, that he didn't consider it to be one of their better songs. I have to admit though, to always really enjoying the track.

''Je T'aime'' is the one track that wouldn't have been heard much on the airwaves at the time, because it was considered much too risque. Brigitte Bardot was the original voice to be heard making the heavy breathing, until her husband disapproved of that version being released. I think Bardot's replacement, Jane Birkin, enjoyed stepping in - it certainly sounded like it!

I didn't think the 1982 chart was one of the better ones, although The Stranglers ''Strange Little Girl'' is always worth a listen. The song was actually originally recorded as far back as 1974, in demo form for EMI, although unfortunately on that occasion they failed to pass the audition:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFmmYg9ck1A

I'm going to have to catch up with POTP on the player thing this week. A shame as it was a great pair of years together, but I had an accident and broke both my ears. OK, it was more boring than that and I woke up on Saturday with a sickness bugging me. Too many late nights with the Olympics have caught up with me.

Looking forward to hearing 1914 and 1947 David!

Music in 1914 - https://youtu.be/jFv5N0Y4rxE

1947 Hits - http://tsort.info/music/yr1947.htm

For 1997 and 2008 David, how about some Sex On Fire, the No1 from 2008 in September? You know you like it.

As for breaking ones ears, is that even possible?

No RIch Tea didn't realise top of the pops was from my birthdate, I don't watch it religiously, but when I do catch it when control flicking it's always a good watch.
As you say will after get it on catch up be interesting to see what songs are on, I do know tight fit the lion sleeps tonight was no 1 a silly song to come in to the world to, probably why I'm still daft half the time now.

Repent your sins Yorkstar before it's too late!

You are invited to attend Mass at 7.30 this Thursday on BBC4 or Late Night Mass at 0140 Friday, with readings to follow on the link below. All welcome

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showt...51582&page=137

Presented by Len Goodman!

This Strangers song is rarely played compared with Golden Brown. I was pleased to hear Toto Coelo, and Soft Cell. I prefer later Soft Cell singles namely What, Where the Heart Is, Numbers and Down in the Subway to earlier singles of theirs.

Well that's very interesting to read and not something I've often, if indeed at all(!), ever heard anyone else say. You list all their pre-split latter singles except what, well for me at least, was possibly their best - Soul Inside. Did you not like that one? If we get to see it in due course they did a great TOTP performance for that one.

Very interesting also to see you rate 'Numbers'. A good song, particularly the 12" version, but borderline career suicide to release possibly the least commercial sounding track on The Art Of Falling Apart as a single with it's blatant references to taking speed. Marc evidently insisted it be a single though and Phonogram went along with that to try and keep him happy. Of course, that all went pear shaped though when after low initial sales and in order to try and shift more copies they (Phonogram) then packaged 'Numbers' with a free 12" copy of Tainted Love. To put it mildly, something Mr Almond heavily disapproved of resulting in him infamously trashing their offices, a scenario which they later 'recreated' for the Soul Inside video.

Perhaps unsurprisingly they were never invited onto TOTP to perform Numbers and I'm not totally sure but I don't believe Radio 1 play listed it at the time either. Barriers (it's double 'A' side), was a good song too.

Yeh, Soul Inside was ok, and I rank it as a "middle" single ie I preferred it to those I did not list but prefer the ones I listed. Numbers may have been their slowest single and always had a "song is growing slowly as it proceeds" feel.

Just a thought: Is your username inspired by Soft Cell's Torch Hit, and their emergence in 1981?

Well, yes, my username is totally inspired by 'Torch', one of my favourite ever singles from one of my favourite ever groups. When I registered on DS I hoped to have the username just as 'Torch', but that was already taken, bizarrely by someone who to my knowledge has never actually posted on here. So, I chose Torch81. In retrospect somewhat embarrassingly, (particularly for someone supposedly quite knowledgeable about most things Soft Cell), as I wrongly thought at the time that Torch was a 1981 single and not one from '82. In my defence it was late at night when I registered though and from memory I was also slightly inebriated at the time.

The Soft Cell sound may have appeared to have matured with The Art Of Falling Apart single releases, but the hooks had also almost disappeared. I am certainly not implying the likes of ''Where The Heart Is'', and the later ''Soul Inside'', aren't good on their own terms, which they most definitely are, but the later singles to me, sound more suited to the true die hard fans of the group, rather than the occasional listener. Soft Cell's earlier singles, up to and including ''What'', may have possessed a deepness, and occasional tortured quality, but they were also stuffed with hooks which made them immediately accessible.

Strangely, out of all of Soft Cell's earlier single successes, pre The Art Of Falling Apart, the No 1 ''Tainted Love'' is my least favourite, for whatever reason (it probably doesn't reflect Marc's very individual campy persona so well). With ''What'', Marc was mining the same old Northern Soul song catalogue, as ''Tainted Love'', with a song that had been recorded by Judy Street during the sixties, but i thought the Soft Cell version really did stand up well on its own terms, and they managed to make the song most definitely their own.

''What'' was certainly one of the highlights, for me, of the 1982 chart, along with The Stranglers ''Strange Little Girl'', Yazoo's ''Don't Go'', Hot Chocolate's ''It Started With A Kiss'', and Duran Duran's ''Save A Prayer'' (which i believe to be one of their best songs). However, more generally i didn't find 1982 to be that great. I am really not a fan of Rockers Revenge take on Eddy Grant's ''Walking On Sunshine'', despite it being given a very contemporary sound by producer, Arthur Baker. I prefer Eddy's original without the gimmicks. The Fun Boy Three's take on ''Summertime'', didn't do it for me either, or for that matter, The Boys Town Gang's ''Can't Take My Eyes Off You'', which didn't work so well as a disco song, in my opinion. Kool And The Gang's ''Big Fun'', didn't strike me as one of their better songs, either.

I think Haysi Fantayzee's ''John Wayne Is Big Leggy'', was at least fun, and listening back, it is most definitely has an infectious quality, which in part, reminds me of some of Altered Images better songs. Toto Coelo, i would probably make the same point, that it was enjoyable (although i don't like it nearly as much), and it is worth noting that former Legs & Co. and Zoo dancer, Anita Chellamah, is a member also of the group. ''Hurry Home'' from Wavelength was enjoyable, too, and i believe deserves to be heard more often. It has an interesting, and rather haunting quality.

It is amazing though that both Irene Cara's ''Fame'' and Dexys Midnight Runners ''Come On Eileen'', still fail to sparkle for me, despite them both being deeply infectious songs. I put that down in part to them being a little overplayed, and too familiar. The high profile of those songs, in my opinion, has lessened their effectiveness over the years. ''Come On Eileen'', on listening again, had actually become grossly irritating!

Disappointed that Gambo hasn't been given the Bank Holiday special, particularly as it looks like being a good one (top 40 albums of all time). Steve is back from holiday so, presumably, that's why he is doing it.

And we might have actually got proper album tracks with Gambo presenting. I suspect we will hear the same tiresome singles played from albums with Wrighty presenting?

This would have been the perfect programme for Gambo to present. With his vast knowledge and with sales figures provided by the OCC which would be mentioned this would have been the perfect show for all chart geeks. Instead Steve Wright will probably be working from a script.

Yes we'll get probably the biggest hit single from each album and would be nicer to hear popular album tracks. Bet you any Money it's the same track as always from DSOTM.

Wasn't a bad year for music really 1982.
Some classics for me that weren't in this chart were

pHD I won't let you down.
Supertramp it's raining again.
Simple minds glittering prize.
And her sort of tight fit lion sleeps tonight 😏

There hardly seems to be a dud in that summery August 1982 chart to me, but maybe that's because I was 13 at the time. People that same age now will likely feel the same way about the current chart in a few years time too.

I laid in bed listening to The Message by Grandmaster Flash the other night with headphones trying hard to listen to every word and nuance of that top ten hit that entered the chart this week in 1982.

When the record first charted it was a 12" only release. The record label only ever intended it to be a 12" but eventually gave in to demand from retailers and released a 7" version a month later. It was the belated release of the 7" that was enough to get the record into the top 10. The good thing was that the 7" version (which is the one I bought) wasn't an edit but rather the full version of the track making it a good value release. There was a radio edit though and Radio 1 used to play this edit. However this radio edit was never commercially released.

Despite being credited to Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five the record doesn't actually feature Grandmaster Flash. Flash wasn't a rapper but rather the DJ who would play records at live gigs that the Furious Five would all rap to. The only member of the Furious Five to appear on 'The Message' is Melle Mel.

The Top 10 feature in Classic Pop features the chart from w/e 25th September 1982 & has a resume of "The Message".

One titbit of info I didn't know was Grandmaster Flash was at the time a cocaine addict, which might give some indication of the inspiration for their biggest hit?

Apparently Melle Mel admitted the band were uncertain about whether to be so overtly political & didn't want to record "The Message", as they were used to doing party raps & boasting about how good they were.

The last few shows Steve has done on a Bank Holiday have all been pre records so I'd imagine this one won't be any different and with Steve away this week I expect it's already 'in the can'

Shame as it would have been nice for it to have been live, even if Gambo couldn't do it then I'm sure they could have got Mark to do it.

Yes, there are a few from 1982 that really stand out:

Forget Me Nots - Patrice Rushen
The Associates - Party Fears Two
Culture Club - Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?
Japan - Ghosts
Soft Cell - Say Hello, Wave Goodbye
The Jam - A Town Called Malice
Evelyn King - Love Come Down
Trio - Da Da Da (i liked the fact that track made No 2 because it was unusual)
Odyssey - Inside Out
The Stranglers - Golden Brown

I always liked Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder's No 1, ''Ebony And Ivory'', and could never understand the negativity with which some viewed the song.