20 - “Feel So Real,” Steve Arrington
Ohioan Arrington mainly charted on the R&B list at home both solo and with the band Slave, but he picked up a Top Five here with this danceable love jam. Nice, and some of the lyrics could be seen as indicative of the religious conversion he would soon make, which would keep him out of secular music for a quarter-century.
19 - “Eye to Eye,” Chaka Khan
Chaka’s fifth and final non-remix U.K. hit was this jazz-funker about a dying relationship. Don’t worry Chaka, I still feel for you.
18 - “The Heat is On,” Glenn Frey
The Eagle’s biggest solo hit here was this totally 80s soundtrack product. Well, at least it didn’t even go Top Ten. Leaves me very cold.
17 - “Love is a Battlefield,” Pat Benatar
This was the highest Pat ever got here, and it came almost two years after this song was first released. That’s a big miss. This is among the best chick-rock moments ever.
16 - “Spend the Night,” Cool Notes
The biggest of two hits for these funksters was this booty call request. Average for the genre.
15 - “Life in a Northern Town,” Dream Academy
The biggest hit for this London trio only got this high here, but was a Top Ten in North America. We
were right. This is well-constructed pop beauty.
were right. This is well-constructed pop beauty.
14 - “Black Man Ray,” China Crisis
The third hit by the band from Kirkby was this midtempo number about uncertainty. I’m not sure who Ray is, and what he has to do with it. I’m thinking Ray Charles, but yes, yes, I could be wrong.
13 - “Easy Lover,” Philip Bailey and Phil Collins
The boisterous rock duet between the voices of Earth Wind and Fire and Genesis almost won a Triple Crown, but America held it to #2. It deserved the headgear. This is just catchy, perfect 80s mainstream rock.
12 - “Welcome to the Pleasuredome,” Frankie Goes to Hollywood
After three straight #1s out of the gate, the Frankies fell one place short with single number four, a song that is either a celebration or a condemnation of excessive lifestyles. It’s arresting either way, and you know there was a lot of cheekiness in their choice to replace the word “decree” from the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem with “erect.”
11 - “Lover Come Back to Me,” Dead or Alive
The follow-up to the #1 “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record),” is more earwormy Stock/Aitken/Waterman dance-pop. I kind of wish the SAW boys would have put together a duet between Pete Burns and Kylie Minogue. That would have had epic potential.
What do you hear, Top Ten or Taurel Tanny?
What do you hear, Top Ten or Taurel Tanny?
10 - “Look Mama,” Howard Jones
HoJo’s sixth and final home Top Ten was this about an adult trying to convince his mother to cut the proverbial apron strings. It wasn’t released as a single in North America, and even though Imlike it quite a bit, I think that was the right call.
9 - “We Close Our Eyes,” Go West
The first and biggest domestic hit for the London duo was this big-heated dance track about seizing the day and not avoiding risk. To me, it’s the crown jewel of the white British synthfunk sub genre.
8 - “Don’t You (Forget About Me),” Simple Minds
Britain blocked the Breakfast Club smash from a Triple Crown, but it did at least make it the Minds’ first Top Ten, so they only just avoid detention in the library.
7 - “I Feel Love (Medley),” Bronski Beat and Marc Almond
The disco/new wave trio teamed up with Almond, who had recently departed Soft Cell, on a mashup of two Donna Summer classics, the title song and “Love to Love You Baby.” Nothing groundbreaking here, but the liberated energy of Almond and Jimmy Somerville’s vocal performances give it enough of a kick to make it special.
The disco/new wave trio teamed up with Almond, who had recently departed Soft Cell, on a mashup of two Donna Summer classics, the title song and “Love to Love You Baby.” Nothing groundbreaking here, but the liberated energy of Almond and Jimmy Somerville’s vocal performances give it enough of a kick to make it special.
6 - “Clouds Across the Moon,” RAH Band
The second of two Top Tens for Richard Anthony Hewson was this jazzy number on which his wife Liz makes an intergalactic phone call to her husband, who is fighting some sort of war on Mars. As sci-fi pop goes, it’s more tongue-in-cheek than, say, “Silent Running,” but maybe that’s why I like it more.
5 - “Could it be I’m Falling in Love,” David Grant and Jaki Graham
The British duo had the biggest of their two duet hits with this cover of a 1972 Spinners classic. They sing it well, but it’s just not distinct enough to matter.
4 - “One More Night,” Phil Collins
For the second time this week, Britain denies Phil a Triple Crown, only letting this soul ballad get this high. It’s a professional job, for all the good and bad that implies.
3 - “Move Closer,” Phyllis Nelson
Jacksonville, Florida’s Nelson had only one major moment of success, but it did involve this sultry sex ballad topping the charts here. It’s very effective for its intended purposes, shall we say.
2 - “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” Tears for Fears
Another U.K. act denied a Triple Crown by the homeland. I guess it’s true, you can’t always get what you want.
1 - “We Are the World,” USA for Africa
Not surprisingly, the American reaction to “Do They Know It’s Christmas” was a Triple Crown winner, and topped charts in at least fourteen other countries. Not among those were Austria and Germany, where it only got to #2. No, I don’t know what, if anything, that says. It’s just a fact I discovered.
It’ll be Britain again next time, but the tournament will resume soon. Stay tuned and good day.
It’ll be Britain again next time, but the tournament will resume soon. Stay tuned and good day.
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