Popular '86

Bit chewy wasn’t it?

Here’s the US list, not much overlap:
Say You, Say Me – Lionel Richie
That’s What Friends Are For – Dionne Warwick featuring Elton John, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder
How Will I Know – Whitney Houston
Kyrie – Mr. Mister
Sara – Starship
These Dreams – Heart
Rock Me Amadeus – Falco
Kiss – Prince
Addicted to Love – Robert Palmer
West End Girls – Pet Shop Boys
Greatest Love of All – Whitney Houston
Live to Tell – Madonna
On My Own – Patti LaBelle & Michael McDonald
There’ll Be Sad Songs (to Make You Cry) – Billy Ocean
Holding Back the Years – Simply Red
Invisible Touch – Genesis
Sledgehammer – Peter Gabriel
Glory of Love – Peter Cetera
Papa Don’t Preach – Madonna
Higher Love – Steve Winwood
Venus – Bananarama
Take My Breath Away – Berlin
Stuck with You – Huey Lewis & the News
When I Think of You – Janet Jackson
True Colors – Cyndi Lauper
Amanda – Boston
Human – Human League
You Give Love a Bad Name – Bon Jovi
The Next Time I Fall – Peter Cetera featuring Amy Grant
The Way It Is – Bruce Hornsby & the Range
Walk Like an Egyptian – The Bangles

I foremost remember 1986 as the year Hip-Hop broke, thanks to Run-D.M.C. and Salt-n-Pepa. No Number Ones though, apparently.

Only three!! Now I remember why I hadn’t been to popular over the last few months!

John Peel’s Festive Fifty 1986

1. Smiths – There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
2. Age of Chance – Kiss
3. The Fall – Mr Pharmacist
4. Primal Scream – Velocity Girl
5. Smiths – Panic
6. Smiths – I Know It’s Over
7. Smiths – The Queen Is Dead
8. Shop Assistants – Safety Net
9. Jesus and Mary Chain – Some Candy Talking
10. The Fall – US Eighties – Nineties
11. Smiths – Ask
12. Smiths – Bigmouth Strikes Again
13. Weather Prophets – Almost Prayed
14. Half Man, Half Biscuit – Trumpton Riots
15. The Fall – Living Too Late
16. Wedding Present – Once More
17. Soup Dragons – Hang Ten!
18. Wedding Present – This Boy Can Wait
19. Bodines – Therese
20. The Fall – Bournemouth Runner
21. Cocteau Twins – Love’s Easy tears
22. Primitives – Really Stupid
23. Pastels – Truck Train Tractor
24. Billy Bragg – Levi Stubbs’ Tears
25. Soup Dragons – Whole Wide World
26. The Fall – Realm of Dusk
27. Age of Chance – Bible Of The Beats
28. Wedding Present – You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends
29. That Petrol Emotion – It’s a Good Thing
30. Very things – This is Motortown
31. We’ve Got a Fuzzbox – Rules and Regulations
32. The The – Heartland
33. Freiwillige Selbstokontrolle – I Wish I Could Sprechen Sie Deutsch
34. Mighty Lemon Drops – Like An Angel
35. Smiths – Cemetry Gates
36. Wedding Present – Felicity
37. The Fall – Lucifer Over Lancashire
38. Cocteau Twins – Those Eyes, That Mouth
39. Half Man, Half Biscuit – Dickie Davies Eyes
40. Elvis Costello – I Want You
41. Billy Bragg – Greetings To The New Brunette
42. Flatmates – I Could Be In Heaven
43. Shop Assistants – I Don’t Want To Be Friends With You
44. Mighty Mighty – Is There Anyone Out There?
45. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – By The Time I Get To Phoenix
46. Colourbox – The Official Colourbox World Cup Theme
47. Camper van Beethoven – Take The Skinheads Bowling
48. The Fall – Dktr Faustus
49. Mission – Serpent’s Kiss
50. Pogues – The Body of an American

C86 acts unsurprisingly well represented here.

As usual I voted for the ones I know, which leaves thirteen blank spaces. I would have voted for a lot more on the US list!

A shorter list from Melody Maker. Ten fantastic singles, though;

1. Kiss – Prince
2. Some Candy Talking – Jesus & Mary Chain
3. Word Up – Cameo
4. Human – Human League
5. Rise – PiL
6. E=MC2 – BAD
7. Tokyo Storm Warning – Elvis Costello
8. Panic – The Smiths
9. Papa Don’t Preach – Madonna
10. Who Snatched The Baby? – The Band Of Holy Joy

I’m going to be the only person voting for the Chicken Song, aren’t I?

Here’s The Face top 50:

1. Rum DMC – Walk This Way
2. Prince – Kiss
3. Gwen Guthrie – Ain’t Nothing Going On But The Rent
4. Cameo – Word Up
5. The Real Roxanne & Howie Tee – Bang Zoom
6. The Smiths – Ask
7. Davis/Pickney Project – You Can Dance (if You Want To
8. Paul Simon – You Can Call Me AI
9. Beastie Boys – She’s On It
10. Oran ‘Juice’ Jones – The Rain
11. James Brown – Living In America
12. Kurtis Blow & Trouble Funk – I’m Chillin’
13. Janet Jackson – When I Think Of You
14. Half Pint – Greetings
15. Diana Ross – Chain Reaction
16. Big Audio Dynamite – E= Mc2
17. The Junkyard band – The Word
18. Joyce Simms – All And All
19. Van Halen – Why Can’t This Be Love
20. Billy Bragg – Levi Stubbs’Tedrs
21. Prince – Anotherloverholeinyouhead
22. Wham – Edge Of Heaven
23. The Smiths – Panic
24. Heay D & the Boys – Big Stuff
25. George Clinton – Fries Go With That Shake?
26. Madonna – live To Tell
27. SOS Band – The Finest
28. Prince – Mountains
29. Willie Colon – Set Fire To Me
30. Robert Cray – Guess I Showed Her
31. Janet Jackson – What Have You Done For Me Lately
32. The Source featuring Candi Staton – You Got The Love
33. Shirly Jones – Do You Get Enough love
34. Taffy – I Love My Radio
35. Leo Sunship – Give Me The Sunshine
36. Ultimate 3 – Ultimate 3 live
37. Marshall Jefferson – Your Body
38. Steve Hurley – Jack Your Body
39. ZZ Top – Sleeping Bag
40. Farley Jackmaster Funk – Love Can’t Turn Around
41. LL Cool J – Rock The Bells
42. Trouble Funk – Good To Go
43. Talking Heads – Wild Wild life
44. Michael MacDonald – Sweet Freedom
45. Original Concept – Can You Feel It
46. Sheila E – A Love Bizarre
47. Simply Red – Holding Back The Years
48. Epic B – Eric B Is President
49. Duke Bootee – Broadway
50. Bananarama – Venus

2 – “A Different Corner” and “West End Girls” (and even the second of those I wouldn’t listen to now due its connotations of a very depressing time in my life). My worst scoring year so far I should think!

I’d hardly say hiphop broke in 1986 – if any year should have that honour it’d be 1983. Big hip-hop hits including one of the biggest ever “White Lines”, hip-hop productions Freeez etc, the start of the ubiquitousness of the electro compilations, every town having its first break crew with the lino…

9 out of 20. I thought there were some good ones on the list.
This was a year that started with one of the best pop songs let alone number ones ever so anything that followed was simply less impressive.
Having said that I don’t envy Tom having to force himself to listen to
a little roh-monnce or Wicksys lonesome dirge all over again.

The record says a generous 9, though three were lucky to get a 6. What a good mood I must have been in on the day I reviewed Falco!

That would have been a decent shout for an 8+

No doubt it’s a product of having been 15/16 in 1986, but god I love so much of this stuff, from the Soup Dragons to Gwen Guthrie, BAD to Schoolly, Cameo to the Band of Holy Joy… and I much prefer the two Elvis Costello albums from this year to his earlier, more revered work.

Woo, these broader lists for 1986 make it look pretty darned good: on the one hand Elvis C. going great guns, Smiths regnant and Bragg in his pomp, and on the other hand Prince, Cameo, Run DMC, and Janet Jackson. Sundry others too of course and the great thrash-metal that isn’t on any of the lists…But put it all together, and there are a hell of a lot of keepers that I still listen to a lot, and that have really been part of pop’s DNA ever since. Word Up, Greetings to the New Brunette, Tokyo Storm Warning, Kiss, There’s a Light, Master of Puppets, Walk this Way, Venus FTW.

love the face giving proper respect to michael mcdonald’s ‘sweet freedom’

Re:20, my perception is that although early house had advocates in certain djs and journalists (Jazzy M, Simon Witter…) the average style-mag reading, DM and MA-1 wearing club-goer, and probably many of the Face’s other journalists, were very much passing it over in favour of rare-groove and whatever the latest release on Def Jam was. I’d imagine the list reflects that.

Although to me there’s very much a continuum between this era of house and what would happen later on, I find that for a lot of people, modern-dance music only really begins in 88. This is bourne out by all the articles that begin with Ibiza and Acid House, or even by the fact that I don’t seem to have ever really heard anything like Move Your Body by Marshall Jefferson, House Nation or our next bunny-embargoed track in a club. I’m not if that’s because people genuinely don’t like this stuff (too slow!) or there’s another reason for it.

All of which is probably a discussion for the next number 1 and not here 🙂

Oh yeah, I actually remember that one too – weirdly Everyhit doesn’t bring it up, I guess that’s when he was using the symbol.

Well done UK public tho’ for getting Prince’s brilliant but v. naughty Sexy MF to #4 in 1992. That track blew the roof off the joint at parties in the US as I recall, but I don’t remember hearing it on the radio. Checking now, I see it didn’t go top 40 in the US, and it actually did worse on the rnb charts than on the general ones!

And, sadly , for the last time I noted down this particular list off the radio, Radio 1’s list of the top 30 best sellers of the year:

1 Don’t Leave Me This Way
2 Every Loser Wins (incredibly)
3 I Want To Wake Up With You
4 Living Doll
5 Ch(a)in Reaction
6 The Lady in Red
7 When The Going Gets Tough The Tough Get Going
8 Papa Don’t Preach
9 Take My Breath Away
10 So Macho – Sinitta (2)
11 True Blue
12 A Different Corner
13 Rock Me Amadeus
14 We Don’t Have To Take Our Clothes Off – Jermaine Stewart (2)
15 Spirit in the Sky
16 The Final Countdown
17 Reet Petite
18 Rain or Shine – Five Star (2)
19 Caravan of Love
20 The Chicken Song
21 The Sun Always Shines On TV
22 On My Own – Patti LaBelle & Michael McDonald (2)
23 Walk Like An Egyptian – Bangles (3)
24 In The Army Now – Status Quo (2)
25 Lessons in Love – Level 42 (3)
26 The Glory of Love – Peter Cetera (3)
27 The Edge of Heaven
28 Sledgehammer – Peter Gabriel (4)
29 All I Ask Of You – Cliff Richard & Sarah Brightman (3)
30 Touch Me (I Want Your Body) – Samantha Fox (3)

I was stunned when I first saw The Face ’86 tunes list last year with The Source included, then found out the whole story behind ‘You Got The Love’. Remarkable and a pity it just missed the top spot 4 years later (a slightly different version tho it may have been).

to clarify, this was the ’86 version as listed by The Face right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFgbtb_qozM

I remember they actually started playing this version on Capital just after the Eren remix hit charts.

But Frankie Knuckles (or was it Paul Simpson?) put the acapella over ‘Your Love’ in 88/89?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0outhVH-Os

Before the DJ Eren mix surfaced a year or two later. Followed by numerous inferior versions thereafter.

‘Easy Lady’ is actually not bad. I’ve not heard the other Italians in there (er, not including Madonna).

@AndyPandy. My sense at the time was that House was just too minimalist, not musical enough for most people. If you specifically liked being part of underground scenes that would never grow then it was for you (and for no one else) was the basic vibe. A lot of people, myself included, quite liked the more ‘ominous’ end of House (Adonis ‘No way back’, Hercules “7 ways’) because of the extra attention it gave the vocals, but the mega-trendy House clubs and parties of 1987 seemed to go out of their way to not play this stuff, and instead played only the most monotonous things for hours. If you were there in a group, it was simply a nightmare – the least adventurous person would throw a fit if they had to listen to this s**t for more than 5 minutes. You know the drill. The early House wave burned a lot of people like this in my experience. A certain sort of club music didn’t want interlopers, and the interlopers took the hint… Vaguely relatedly, I’ve found this mix-tape blog fantastic for filling in my own (vast!) gaps in dance/club music knowledge (i.e., wanna get a basic backgrounder on ambient jungle? on happy hard-core? And so on. It’s there.).