Tag: 1986

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1986

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date August 27, 2021

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 August 31ST 1986:

“Don’t Leave Me This Way” – The Communards
“Press” – Paul McCartney
“Dancing On The Ceiling” – Lionel Richie
“Girls And Boys” – Prince And The Revolution
“We Don’t Have To Take Our Clothes Off” – Jermaine Stewart

Jimmy Somerville and Richard Coles were The Communards – a short-lived pop-dance duo while I was living in the United Kingdom. They formed just before I arrived in 1985, and they broke-up for good just after I left in 1988. They scored 9 U.K. Top 40 hits in a row – including a single # 1 smash – “Don’t Leave Me This Way” – that was not just a # 1 smash for a month – but it was the U.K. # 1 smash for the entire year of 1986. It hit # 1 or # 2 in the U.K., Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia, and New Zealand. It also crossed-over stateside and hit # 1 on the U.S. Dance Club Songs chart, but only # 40 on the pop chart (still a remarkable achievement for an obscure pop act from across the Atlantic).

Here’s the official music video for the 130+ BPM HI-NRG pop-dance anthem of 1986:

35 years ago this weekend I compiled (via pen, pencil, and loose-leaf notebook paper) my 50TH weekly hit music chart. It was Labor Day Weekend in the U.S.A., and we observed and celebrated it on our U.S. Air Force Base in the U.K. For that 50TH “issue” of my chart I also counted down the Top 50 hits of my first 50 charts. Here are the Top 5 of that Top 50:

“The Edge Of Heaven” – Wham!
“The Spirit In The Sky” – Doctor And The Medics
“Rock Me Amadeus” – Falco
“The Lady In Red” – Chris DeBurgh
“Sun Street” – Katrina And The Waves

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 !

Tags 1986, BBC, British, Communards, England, Music, Radio

1980s Blogging Music Radio

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1986

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date July 23, 2021

It’s the 4TH Friday of the month, so I go back 35 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday July 27TH 1986:

“The Lady In Red” – Chris De Burgh
“So Macho” – Sinitta
“Heartbeat” – Tippa Irie
“Smile” – Audrey Hall
“Roses” – Haywoode

The Summer of 1986 was an amazing time in the music of my life. I’m not a big fan of ’80s music. It’s perhaps my least favorite decade of music since I’ve been alive. But living in England as a 19-year-old was quite the experience, and the music was beatin’ – whether it be slow pop, smooth pop, bubblegum pop, HI-NRG pop, reggae pop, and all kinds of poppin’. I produced a hectic Top 40 chart back then, and 35 years ago this weekend I had 14 new entries on that chart. Much like the U.K. pop charts it was fast and furious. Most songs lasted less than 10 weeks on the radio and on the charts – even songs that made it all the way to or towards the top of the pops.

Sinitta had one of the biggest HI-NRG pop hits of the summer. It got the whole nation up on their feet and dancin’. It eventually hit # 1 on my chart and # 2 on the U.K. pop charts. It was her first and biggest hit ever. She was actually signed by a young (mid-20s) music executive by the name of Simon Cowell. YES – that Simon Cowell. Sinitta was Simon’s first big pop star, and “So Macho” was his first big pop hit. They even seriously dated for a few years. They’ve been great friends ever since.

Here’s the official music video for Sinitta’s “So Macho” that’s so 1986:

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 !

Tags 1986, BBC, British, England, Music, Radio

1980s Blogging Music Radio

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1986

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date June 25, 2021

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 !

Tags 1986, BBC, British, England, Music, Radio

1980s Blogging Music Radio

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1986

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date May 28, 2021

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 !