8th September 1984 for si weeks

I have a weird memory of this song. I remember looking in through our front window from the outside and seeing that this song was at Number 1. On the TV inside was some sort of chart TV show. This was Number 1 and without really knowing what this meant, thinking this must be a huge deal and the song was officially the best song ever or something.

Anyway, I do remember hearing this a few times during my childhood. I remember quite liking it but not loving it. That hasn’t changed much as I’ve got older, except that I like it less than I did when I was a child. It is Stevie Wonder’s biggest selling record in the UK, but not one of his better songs.

6/10

18th August 1984 for three weeks

George Michael neatly bookends Two Tribes’s stay at Number 1. As part of Wham! he spent two weeks at the top with Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go and now he spends three weeks at the top with his solo single, Careless Whisper.

What a talent George Michael was. One of the greatest love songs and finest saxophone solos ever. He sings the song with such power and yet it feels effortless.

Almost forty years later, Carelss Whisper is a guilty pleasure for many people and, I would imagine, still gets played lots on the radio and streamed. A true classic.

10/10

16th June 1984 for nine weeks

The record at Number 1 for the longest since I started this blog. In the days of monster streaming hits, around forty years later, nine weeks at the top is more commonplace. Back in 1984 this was a rarity, with no other song managing it during the entire decade.

Two Tribes is a good song but I cannot take to it in the same way as FGTH’s other two Number 1s. I can only imagine that it was hyped up due to the success of Relax and other world events of the time meant this was a good protest song.

It neither feels like a pop song or a dance song and so somehow falls short, at least it does with me.

5/10

2nd June 1984 for two weeks

Such a fabulous song! I was too young to remember this song coming out. But I can remember hearing it throughout my childhood, as a teen and throughout my adult life. Wake Me Up has always been there – it’s hard to imagine a time when it was brand new and people were hearing it for the first time.

George Michael sings the song with such force, you cannot help but sing along and move.

Brilliant.

10/10

5th May 1984 for four weeks

The Reflex is a fabulous song – a dancefloor filler. I don’t recall ever hearing it as a youngster, but as a teenager, I enjoyed it on Eighties compilation albums.

It is one of those songs that you’d hear in Eighties-revival nightclubs. For instance, I can recall hearing it in the club called Reflex in Stoke-on-Trent (presumably this was the song the club was named after).

It’s not a song you hear so often these days, but when you do, you join in and belt it out!

8/10

24th March 1984 for six weeks

A truly classic song, Hello is a song that everyone has heard at some point. It’s perhaps not one that the younger generation will be aware of as you don’t tend to hear it so much these days. However, for people around my age, it will be instantly familiar.

Richie really belts this song out. From the moment those piano chords are played at the start, you know where this is going: the words, the tone in which he sings, the melody… All signs point to a beautiful love song. And it delivers on every level, if you’re into that sort of thing.

8/10

3rd March 1984 for three weeks

I have no awareness of where I heard this song first – it’s just one of those songs that I’ve always been aware of without any knowledge of when it was released, or anything.

It’s a great pop song. I can recall thinking that there was a German-twang to the singer’s accent. Of course, I later found out that is a song that was originally sung in German.

It is just a fun song and very catchy.

8/10

28th January 1984 for five weeks

As a child, the first time I had really heard of Frankie Goes To Hollywood was a computer game that we had on the Commodore 64. I don’t know why we had this game as it feels most unlikely that mum and dad bought it for us – a gay band would not have been something they’d have been encouraging. It probably proves that they have never heard of FGTH or popular music. I remember that the game was rubbish.

I do, however recall hearing Relax, but I don’t remember when. I don’t recall anything about a ban on Radio 1 but hearing about it in my teens made me laugh that the ban just encouraged more people to buy it!

The song is a classic. It was ahead of its time, sounding more like dance music than anything else for a long time.

I know that I have heard a few remixes over the years, but, in truth, the original version is the best.

9/10

14th January 1984 for tw weeks

I am almost lost for words. Surely Paul McCartney only reached Number 1 with this because he was a Beatle and a Wing? Perhaps it is the video which shows the truce between fighters in WW1 at Christmas 1914?

The song is bloody awful.

It would appear that the older generation went out to purchase this song, and then the younger generation went out and purchased the song that followed this one.

1/10

10th December 1983 for five weeks

In 1982 Yazoo released one of the best songs ever – Only You. It peaked at Number 2. It has remained a gorgeous song, being covered numerous times over the years. In fact it was covered by Becky Hill as recently as 2022 for use in a McDonald’s Christmas advert. Probably because of the Flying Pickets’ version it seems to have become associated with Christmas but the original song came out in March 1982 and had absolutely nothing to do with Christmas.

The Flying Pickets version is perhaps the most different of all the cover versions as it is an a accapella version in which voices create all of the backing. It is a great version of the song and one that you probably don’t hear often enough. However, and probably quite rightly, the original Yazoo version is the one that you do hear more often.

I guess this has not lasted quite as strongly as Yazoo’s original, but I still love it and I’m giving it full marks.

10/10