7th September 1985 for four weeks

Dancing In The Street is a total cheesefest, but it’s a wonderful pop single.

I can remember liking it when I was a child and it still holds affection for me today. Considering I have never been a Bowie fan, I like this more than most of his songs. The original version by Martha and the Vandellas is better.

But these days it’s hard to think of this song without thinking about this ‘silent’ video!

5/10

31st August for one week

What a great song! I really love this. I can remember hearing it on the radio when I was a child and loving it then.

It was a surprise to me when I discovered that it is a cover of a Sonny and Cher song. For me, UB40 and Chrissie Hynde’s version is the best version.

It has lasted well and still sounds great today!

9/10

3rd August for four weeks

Here’s the first Number One single from Madonna. We’ll discuss her quite a few more times over the years.

Into The Groove is apparently Madonna’s biggest selling single (not including streams) in the UK which is surprising considering how many massive songs she has released. Holiday was re-released at the same time and it reached Number Two at the same time as Into The Groove was at Number one.

It’s a great pop song and you can appreciate why it was huge in the Eighties. It’s not my favourite Madonna song, but it is enjoyable.

8/10

27th July for one week

I have no memories of this as a child, but I have clear memories of this as a Morrisons tune.

I worked at Morrisons for five and a half years and over that time they probably had four or five different CDs that they played on loop throughout that time. There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart) was one of the songs that I heard repeatedly.

TMBAAPWMH is a great song, one of Eurythmics’ finest, in my opinion. It is a real earwork and Annie Lennox’s powerful singing stays in your head. It still sounds great 38 years later.

8/10

29th June for four weeks

Considering how average this song is, I have fond memories for it. This is one of the first times that I can ever remember what was at Number 1. I have clear memories of seeing the video on TV and hearing that Frankie was at Number 1. I can remember my brothers and I talking about it, very clearly.

I can still sing the chorus to this day.

5/10

15th June for two weeks

I remember seeing the Bradford City Football Club fire when I was a child. It was really shocking. As an adult I’ve seen it in fire saftey training videos and it now scares the life out of me. It was unbelievable to watch how quickly that fire spread and how more the health and safety measures were in the stadium at that time. It is not an easy watch.

I have a vague recollection of hearing about this recording of You’ll Never Walk Alone on TV. I recall that Paul McCartney was involved but that’s all. I remember thinking that raising money for the victims of the disaster was a good thinking. But I remember thinking that the song was awful.

I was just getting into football in 1985 and was trying to decide which football team to support. I was aware of YNWA because I was interested in Liverpool (and later decided that this would be my team).

The song has not aged well. There is barely a mention of this version on Wikipedia.

1/10

11th May for five weeks

Although I don’t remember hearing it whatsoever as a child, this song was seemingly huge in 1985.

19 is an anti-war protest song and it is considered to be one of the first electronic dance singles to reach Number 1.

But I cannot work out why everyone liked it. It is not good. Apart from the repetition of N-n-n-n-nineteen, there is nothing memorable about this song.

3/10

4th May for one week

I have vague recollections of this song during my childhood, but it is mostly memorable from an advert in the Nineties. I think it was for deodorant.

Used to flog deodorant doesn’t really do the song justice. It’s a nice, lovely song and it’s easy to see why it reached Number 1. If Adele released this in 2023 people would go nuts for it.

7/10

20th April for two weeks

I must have heard this song at some point as a young child because the first time that I recall hearing it was when I was about 11 when we had to do a gang show at Scouts. I wasn’t in the scouts for long and cannot remember much about the gang show whatsoever. But I do remember being asked to sing this song with all of the others.

It’s not a great song, but, like Band Aid, it was for a good cause. Again, you can try to guess who every one is on the video or on the song itself. I bet you cannot get everyone without looking it up.

You never hear this song any more which, I guess means that it was very much of its time.

6/10

23rd March for four weeks

As an adult I have appreciated Phil Collins’ music way more than when I was a child. He has released some absolutely classic songs over the years and Easy Lover is a great record.

I had no idea that this was a duet and always assumed it was Phil Collins and a backup singer. I didn’t know who Philip Bailey was but apparently he was in Earth, Wind and Fire. Who knew?

Easy Lover is a great pop song and rightly experienced huge success here and in the USA.

8/10