It's the Gallup UK Top 100 Singles of the Year 1986 - and your chance to download a whopping 3% of them! Imagine that!
1986 being the zenith (or nadir, depending on your point of view) of my chart-pop-buying lifespan, I bought no less then thirty-eight of the songs listed below on either 7" or 12" vinyl (including the one at #2), and could still happily listen to most of them on a constant loop for the rest of eternity (if I happened to be immortal. Which I'm not. Or am I? We just don't know yet).
Anyway, here is that hot/tepid/cold (delete as applicable) hundred. Click on numbers 73, 68 & 39 to download these frankly wondrous snapshots of a mid-1980s Smash Hits-reading teenager's idea of pop heaven!
UK TOP 100 BESTSELLERS OF 1986
100 WHY CAN'T THIS BE LOVE - Van Halen
99 BROKEN WINGS - Mr Mister
98 SING OUR OWN SONG - UB40
97 MIDAS TOUCH - Midnight Star
96 GREATEST LOVE OF ALL - Whitney Houston
95 LOOK AWAY - Big Country
94 SET ME FREE - Jaki Graham
93 NEW BEGINNING (MAMBA SEYRA) - Bucks Fizz
92 THROUGH THE BARRICADES - Spandau Ballet
91 OPEN YOUR HEART - Madonna
90 HUMAN - Human League
89 FRENCH KISSIN' IN THE USA - Debbie Harry
88 CALLING ALL THE HEROES - It Bites
87 SHAKE YOU DOWN - Gregory Abbott
86 STUCK WITH YOU - Huey Lewis & The News
85 PETER GUNN - The Art Of Noise & Duane Eddy
84 THE POWER OF LOVE/DO YOU BELIEVE IN LOVE - Huey Lewis & The News
83 DANCING ON THE CEILING - Lionel Richie
82 LIVING IN AMERICA - James Brown
81 FOR AMERICA - Red Box
80 SUBURBIA - Pet Shop Boys
79 HUNTING HIGH AND LOW - A-ha
78 EACH TIME YOU BREAK MY HEART - Nick Kamen
77 RAGE HARD- Frankie Goes To Hollywood
76 CAN'T GET BY WITHOUT YOU - The Real Thing
75 SECRET LOVERS - Atlantic Starr
74 ANYONE CAN FALL IN LOVE - Anita Dobson
73 THE RAIN - Oran 'Juice' Jones
72 VENUS - Bananarama
71 CAN'T WAIT ANOTHER MINUTE - Five Star
70 WALK THIS WAY - Run DMC
69 BURNING HEART - Survivor
68 LOVE CAN'T TURN AROUND - Farley 'Jackmaster' Funk
67 LOVE MISSILE F1-11 - Sigue Sigue Sputnik
66 CAMOUFLAGE - Stan Ridgway
65 WEST END GIRLS - Pet Shop Boys
64 HI HO SILVER - Jim Diamond
63 SYSTEM ADDICT - Five Star
62 ELOISE - The Damned
61 ADDICTED TO LOVE - Robert Palmer
60 WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR ME LATELY - Janet Jackson
59 HOW WILL I KNOW - Whitney Houston
58 LIVE TO TELL - Madonna
57 EVERY BEAT OF MY HEART - Rod Stewart
56 BROTHER LOUIE - Modern Talking
55 TOO GOOD TO BE FORGOTTEN - Amazulu
54 ONLY LOVE - Nana Mouskouri
53 AIN'T NOTHIN' GOIN' ON BUT THE RENT - Gwen Guthrie
52 ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS - David Bowie
51 BREAKOUT - Swing Out Sister
50 BORDERLINE - Madonna
49 WALK OF LIFE - Dire Straits
48 THORN IN MY SIDE - Eurythmics
47 STARTING TOGETHER - Su Pollard
46 HAPPY HOUR - The Housemartins
45 YOU TO ME ARE EVERYTHING - The Real Thing
44 (I JUST) DIED IN YOUR ARMS - Cutting Crew
43 SHOWING OUT - Mel & Kim
42 SOMETIMES - Erasure
41 LIVIN' ON A PRAYER - Bon Jovi
40 YOU CAN CALL ME AL - Paul Simon
39 MY FAVOURITE WASTE OF TIME - Owen Paul
38 I CAN'T WAIT - Nu Shooz
37 MANIC MONDAY - The Bangles
36 WORD UP - Cameo
35 LET'S GO ALL THE WAY - Sly Fox
34 YOU KEEP ME HANGIN' ON - Kim Wilde
33 HOLDING BACK THE YEARS - Simply Red
32 A KIND OF MAGIC - Queen
31 WONDERFUL WORLD - Sam Cooke
30 (TOUCH ME) I WANT YOUR BODY - Samantha Fox
29 ALL I ASK OF YOU - Cliff Richard and Sarah Brightman
28 SLEDGEHAMMER - Peter Gabriel
27 THE EDGE OF HEAVEN - WHAM!
26 GLORY OF LOVE - Peter Cetera
25 LESSONS IN LOVE - Level 42
24 IN THE ARMY NOW - Status Quo
23 WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN - The Bangles
22 ON MY OWN - Patti Labelle & Michael McDonald
21 THE SUN ALWAYS SHINES ON TV - A-ha
20 THE CHICKEN SONG/A NICE SOUTH AFRICAN - Spitting Image
19 CARAVAN OF LOVE - The Housemartins
18 RAIN OR SHINE - Five Star
17 REET PETITE - Jackie Wilson
16 THE FINAL COUNTDOWN - Europe
15 SPIRIT IN THE SKY - Doctor and the Medics
14 WE DON'T HAVE TO... - Jermaine Stewart
13 ROCK ME AMADEUS - Falco
12 A DIFFERENT CORNER - George Michael
11 TRUE BLUE - Madonna
10 SO MACHO/CRUISING - Sinitta
9 TAKE MY BREATH AWAY - Berlin
8 PAPA DON'T PREACH - Madonna
7 WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH - Billy Ocean
6 THE LADY IN RED - Chris De Burgh
5 CHAIN REACTION - Diana Ross
4 LIVING DOLL - Cliff Richard and the Young Ones
3 I WANT TO WAKE UP WITH YOU - Boris Gardiner
2 EVERY LOSER WINS - Nick Berry
1 DON'T LEAVE ME THIS WAY - The Communards
A worthy winner there in the Communards, I'm sure you'll agree (unless you remember the Harold Melvin version, in which case probably not). I remember Don't Leave Me This Way being a big floor-filler at all the school discos and parties I attended that year anyway (especially the bit near the end with the mega-long ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! baby!).
1986 also saw the release of fantastic singles such as Brilliant Mind by Furniture, Driving Away From Home by It's Immaterial, Panic, Bigmouth Strikes Again & Ask by The Smiths, E=MC2 by Big Audio Dynamite and New Order's Shellshock but none of these songs, despite all making the charts, were ever going to rob the likes of Madonna, George Michael and, umm, Nick Kamen of their rightful places in the year end chart.
There were also many memorable and/or innovative videos doing the rounds in '86: Sledgehammer, Addicted To Love, Reet Petite, Dancing On The Ceiling and Happy Hour, to name but several. But I know which 1986 video you really want to see here: Su Pollard's Starting Together! (Just don't tell Miss Cathcart!)
4 comments:
I read on a myspace meme once that the record that was number one on your 18th birthday is Your Life Song. So that would be 'Every Loser Wins' for me then.
I can't believe the Real Thing were big in 1986, that's the thing that astonishes me from that list, I'd have put them a good eight or nine years earlier. Were they reissues? I remember (*puffs pips, sucks werthers original, hums the nick berry song*) going to the cinema back when there was a supporting flick and one week, although I couldn't tell you what the main thing was, the b movie was a documentary all about The Real Thing! It was great.
I think I have about 20 of these. I like the 'You Can Call Me Al' video very much too. And 'Sledgehammer' was an early release for... Aardman Animation!
Blimey! I had no idea that was an Aardman production. And that was terribly remiss of me, not mentioning the You Can Call Me Al vid. Was Chevy Chase ever funnier? (Certainly not in Fletch!)
The Real Thing songs do look a bit incongruous in that list, don't they? There's a simple explanation though: the songs were re-mixed and re-released to celebrate the tenth anniversary of their original release(s). (I'm sure all the money they recouped from charting second time around was just a lovely bonus.)
West End Girls (another great vid now I think of it) would doubtless have ended up a lot higher in this 1986 chart too had it not done a lot of its business at the tail end of 1985 and therefore ended up straddling the two years. The Sun Always Shines On TV's year-end position possibly suffered from the same sort of thing too.
I’ve got a fair few of those in one format or another but I only bought three in 7” or 12” vinyl (Absolute Beginners, You Can Call Me Al and Sledgehammer since you ask). My singles buying peak was about five years earlier.
According to Adam’s formula my Life Song is Rat Trap.
Mmmmm. Moderately interesting exercise, boys.
'That song by Knob-akoff' was indeed No 1 on my 18th birthday on 1 Oct 1980. I was sandwiched between Kellie Marie and Barbra Streisand. I'm suprised I lived to tell the tale.
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