Tag: British

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1986

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date November 26, 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 November 30TH 1986:

“Waiting For The Ghost Train” – Madness
“French Kissin’ In The U.S.A.” – Debbie Harry
“Sometimes” – Erasure
“Everybody Have Fun Tonight” – Wang Chung
“Hip To Be Square” – Huey Lewis And The News

What great music. What fond memories of that wonderful time of my life – enjoying the company of my friends and the fun times that we shared together in the south of England. This was the 2ND (U.S.) Thanksgiving of my life away from my family back home stateside. (The 1ST was the year before in 1985. I had just arrived in England 2½ weeks earlier.)

Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away” was the # 1 smash all across the United Kingdom, and back home stateside Bon Jovi scored their very first # 1 smash with the hard-rockin’ “You Give Love A Bad Name” from their multi-platinum album “Slippery When Wet”.

Next Friday on RETRO I’ll go back 15 years ago to December 2006. Thanks for going RETRO with me !

This is the end of an abbreviated blog weekend, as #SundayScripture and #Top10Monday are on hiatus for the rest of this month of November. They will both return during the 1ST weekend of December. In fact a full weekend of blogging returns next weekend – with 5 new entries on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday, and Monday. I don’t blog on Saturdays. That’s my day of rest.

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

1980s Blogging Music Radio Television

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1986

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date October 22, 2021

It’s the 4TH Friday of the month, so I go back 35 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday October 26TH 1986:

“Heartache All Over The World” – Elton John
“Whole New World” – It Bites
“Take My Breath Away” – Berlin
“You’re Everything To Me” – Boris Gardiner
“Girls Ain’t Nothing But Trouble” – DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince

Elton John may not like that song. In fact he may hate it – as well as the album that it came from (“Leather Jackets”). But I loved it back then, and I still love it today. It’s actually one of my favorite Elton John songs ever. It was the perfect HI-NRG pop sound for the Autumn of 1986.

35 years ago this week I had so much spare time on my hands living and working in the U.K. that I was able to compile and publish (on notebook paper) a personal Top 50 chart – twice per week. On that inaugural Top 50 chart (expanded from a Top 40) I had 25 hits moving up, 14 hits moving down, 5 non-movers, and 6 new entries from The Mission, Icicle Works, Jackson Browne, Boston, Kenny Loggins, and The Cutting Crew.

Nick Berry was at # 1 on the BBC-Gallup Top 40 with “Every Loser Wins”. He was one of the stars of the # 1 TV programme at the time – “EastEnders” – and he performed that song (in character as “Wicksy”) many times on the show back then.

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, EastEnders, England, Music, Radio

1980s Blogging Music Radio

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1986

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date September 24, 2021

It’s the 4TH Friday of the month, so I go back 35 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday September 28TH 1986:

“Stuck With You” – Huey Lewis And The News
“Pretty In Pink” – The Psychedelic Furs
“(Forever) Live And Die” – Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
“You Can Call Me Al” – Paul Simon
“Brand New Lover” – Dead Or Alive

35 years ago next month – October 1986 – I saw Huey Lewis And The News (supported by Bruce Hornsby And The Range) LIVE in concert in London England at the historic Hammersmith Odeon. 9 days later I saw Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (OMD) LIVE in concert in Oxford England at the Apollo. They were two great concerts, and they were my 3RD and 4TH concerts ever in my life (at age 19).

OMD is my favorite electronic pop act of all-time, and “(Forever) Live And Die” is my favorite song from them. It was the lead single from perhaps my favorite album / cassette of all-time – “The Pacific Age”. I actually got to see OMD LIVE in concert again – nearly 33 years later in August 2019 in Fort Lauderdale Florida (just up the road from me). I sat near the front row (far-left corner), and me and a bunch of fellow concert-goers (all strangers) were singing and dancing so actively that during “Dreaming” Andy McCluskey came over and cheered us on from the stage as he sang and danced. It was an awesome sight to see and experience !

OMD

2 years ago here on RETRO I wrote about that concert experience. Read all about it.

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, OMD, Radio

1980s Blogging Music Radio

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1986

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

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 !