Great work as usual! Loved this rundown! I did notice one small mistake though. You have Toyah at number 29 with It’s A Mystery from the Four From Toyah EP which charted in March of 81, it was the Four More From Toyah which was charting in December which used Good Morning Universe as the lead track. Other than that, thank you for putting together your chart rundowns and favourites as I love watching them 👍.
Well spotted. I thought that too. Being a big Toyah fan as a kid in the early 80s I followed her chart positions week by week and knew Four More....ft Good Morning Universe as it's lead song was heading down the chart around mid December 81 after peaking at No.14 so was expecting to see a clip of her/their Top of the Pops performance as it never had an official video. Still, good to see them in a chart rundown.
A lot of dross at the lower end of the chart especially the Christmas stuff (excluding the re-issues by Slade and WIzzard) and the Tweets was an abomination. Always liked the melody of Cambodia and some other good tunes in there. Decent No.1 too.
First off. Live in the USA. I have been to the UK several times and enjoyed it every time I’ve gone. I “discovered” the EPL and now I’m an addicted Chelsea supporter. That said I’m always amazed how different our music charts have always bee. Fortunately the UK has sent it’s best like Duran Duran, The Police and Genesis. We have tried to send our best back like Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson and Bob Dylan. That said... Some of the British pop hits are just horrible. Sure, the same can be true of the American charts... but you guys seemingly have more crap. Not trying to be offensive here but our two charts just don’t have the qualities. Thanks for sending us Genesis, Tolling Stones and Led. Zeppelin. I enjoy some artists like Frankie Miller but England should try some of our really good bands too... Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band (who are much like the American Frankie Miller).
as an objective australasian observer (where all the really good 80s music came from e.g. Cold Chisel, INXS, Aussie Crawl, Icehouse, Split Enz) I'd have to agree that when the Brit pop songs are bad they're really bad (laughing jingle bells, wtf?) but the Brit charts of the 80s with their New Wave influences already apparent IMO were infinitely superior to the bland funk of the US charts. Seger was great , but Springsteen? seriously? Give me Elvis Costello or Joe Jackson any time, instead of Michael, with a solid helping of Brit 2-Tone like the Specials or the Beat. I'll let both sides of the Atlantic claim the Buckingham/Nicks infused Fleetwood Mac though!
