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 29TH 1986:

“Edge Of Heaven” – Wham!
“New Beginning” – Bucks Fizz
“Sun Street” – Katrina And The Waves
“Nasty” – Janet Jackson
“Mountains” – Prince And The Revolution

I estimate that I’ve attended over 150 concerts in my entire lifetime. I attended 17 during a less-than-17-month stretch over in England in 1986 and 1987 when I lived there. I’ve attended at least 88 since 2000. I have no record-keeping of my concerts and other live events from 1988 to 1999, but I estimate about 4 per year.

I came of age into the concert scene 3 weeks after turning 19. My very first concert – the final Wham! concert at Wembley Stadium in London England. It was an 8-hour Saturday event. Gates opened at 2 PM, and the show started about 2 hours later with a few opening acts and special guests making appearances. It was a hot and steamy late-June afternoon and evening in a packed stadium in London, and I was a singing and dancing (and sweating) maniac during the entire show from start to finish.

After the show was done and over with, and me and my concert buddy were heading home on the M4 I asked him “What’s our next concert, and when is it ?”

(The eventual answer was “The Art Of Noise” on August 15TH 1986.)

Reaching # 2 on my chart exactly 35 years ago was the lavishly-produced HI-NRG “New Beginning (Mamba Seyra)” from Bucks Fizz. Despite its more European (continental) sound it was only a hit in their native United Kingdom and nearby Ireland, Belgium, and The Netherlands.

Here’s the music video for “New Beginning (Mamba Seyra)”. To my Christian brothers and sisters of today this is a “feel good” positive and encouraging song that speaks of hope and love in a new world. There is a gospel choir performing back-up vocals. Feel free to get up and dance !

It’s halftime my friends. I’ll be back on Sunday and Monday with 2 more blog posts for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Thanks for going RETRO with me !