6th March 1982 for three weeks
I know exactly when I first heard this song – it was when watching Friends Season 2 episode 12.
Since then I’ve heard it over the years and heard it loads. What a random novelty hit in the middle of 1982. I guess there have been weirder songs to reach Number 1.
The Lion Sleeps Tonight is one of the cheesiest songs ever and should be celebrated for its unashamed lack of shit what anyone thinks of it.
4/10
6th February 1982 for one week
Well, I don’t think I’d ever heard Computer Love before writing this blog post. I thought I was streaming the wrong song – I thought it was some sort of bad electronic cover of a Coldplay song. No, apparently I was listening to Computer Love. Talk by Coldplay used the tune. It’s a catchy tune, but it just feels a bit dull. The tune doesn’t go anywhere.
The Model is a song that I have heard over the years. I’m sure it’s been on TV shows or in films – I know that I’ve heard it somewhere. It is a much better song than Computer Love.
I wonder if, when it was first released, this double A-side from Kraftwerk was considered cutting edge. It’s a bit dancy which was not typical of the sound of the time. Nowadays it just feels tame and dull.
4/10
21st February 1981 for three weeks
It seems almost insulting that this novelty record knocked Lennon off the Number 1 spot. To add insult to injury, Shaddap You Face also kept Ultravox’s Vienna off the top spot.
It’s quite catchy and I could imagine that, as a child, I would have loved it. There you go – I found some positives.
4/10
21st June 1980 for three weeks
This is one of those songs that people just know. I haven’t a clue about when I first heard it but I know I was aware of it when I was a child.
By the time this hilarious moment was included in an episode of Only Fools And Horses I would have been eleven.
Although I wasn’t a huge Only Fools fan at the time (that came later) I do remember this and loved it. By that time I must have known Crying from somewhere.
Apparently it was a cover of a Roy Orbison song. I don’t know whether it’s the Orbison version or the McLean version that I have heard most but I imagine they both sound the same.
The song just kind of happens and doesn’t really go anywhere. And it can’t be sung anymore without singing, “cwying!”
4/10
3rd May 1980 for two weeks
I wasn’t sure that I’d heard this one but the trumpet section (do do do do doo) around half way through sounds familiar.
The whole thing just sounds like noise. You have to wonder what caused this to reach Number 1. Their other hit, Come On Eileen, is such a classic, you have to wonder whether they knocked this together in two minutes.
It didn’t just reach Number 1, it was there for two weeks. So there were enough people who liked it enough to go out and buy it more than any other song for two weeks Weird.
4/10
30th June 1979 for four weeks
This single has one of the weirdest names ever. But that bass line and synth are just so memorably fantastic. Sounding ahead of its time, it’s easy to understand how it caught people’s imagination.
The synth was later sampled in 2002 by Sugababes after producer Richard X mashed it up with Adina Howard’s Freak Like Me. In truth, Freak Like Me was probably a better tune. This is probably down to the Sugababes’ vocal being way better.
I cannot decipher half of the lyrics. But, it’s not about the lyrics, is it? It’s about that synth…
4/10
26th May 1979 for 3 weeks
I don’t know what to make of Sunday Girl. It’s not an unpleasant song to listen to. I think it’s that I don’t really feel anything when I listen to it.
It just feels like background music as it doesn’t seem to get anywhere.
Maybe it was a song of its time, but I don’t think it holds up well in 2019.
4/10
Number 1s of my lifetime 