My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1986

Every Friday I post the Top 5 of one of my classic hit music charts based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from either 15, 25, 30, or 35 years ago this weekend (rotating each week).

It’s the 4TH Friday of the month, so I go back 35 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday June 01ST 1986:

“Spirit In The Sky” – Doctor And The Medics
“Snooker Loopy” – Matchroom Mob With Chas & Dave
“My Favourite Waste Of Time” – Owen Paul
“Addicted To Love” – Robert Palmer
“Quiet Life” – Ray Davies

What a quirky pop chart that was !

Let me write about the quirkiest of the 5. That would clearly be “Snooker Loopy” – the surprise novelty smash that invaded and shocked the British pop charts to the point that BBC Radio 1 didn’t know what to do with it. The national Top 40 station didn’t play it much at all aside from when they revealed and counted-down the new Top 40 chart each week.

It debuted at # 98 on the BBC-Gallup chart. It climbed 19 notches in its 2ND week to # 79. Then it climbed another 21 notches in its 3RD week to # 58. Then it entered the Top 40 (gasp) in its 4TH week at # 37. 2 days later Chas & Dave performed the song LIVE on the Thursday May 08TH 1986 edition of “Top Of The Pops” (hosted by John Peel and Janice Long). (Chas & Dave actually lip-synched it with the accompanying music video.) They did a great job with it, and the United Kingdom was impressed. They went out and bought the single at the record stores that weekend. It climbed another 26 notches in its 5TH week to # 11. The following week it reached # 6 – where it peaked – entirely on retail sales.

Here’s that “Top Of The Pops” performance that inspired a nation to buy a single – and hang out at their local village pub to play snooker – or at least sing-along to its newfound anthem:

♫ Snooker loopy nuts are we
Me and him and them and me
We’ll show you what we can do
With a load of balls and a snooker cue
Pot the reds then screw it back
For the yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, and black
Snooker loopy nuts are we
We’re all snooker loopy ♫

It’s halftime my friends. I’ll be back on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday with 3 more blog posts for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Thanks for going RETRO with me !