55 Heaven 17: Temptation Heaven 17’s finest moment, Temptation has a split personality: sometimes, it’s the 1983 UK number-two original with Glenn Gregory duelling with Carole Kenyon (as performed on…
Top 100 Singles of the 80s: 60-56
60 Tears for Fears: Mad World Curt Smith claims that when Tears For Fears wrote Mad World back in 1982, he and Roland Orzabal had absolutely no idea it would…
Top 100 Singles of the 80s: 65-61
65 Depeche Mode: Everything Counts We counted up the votes for Everything Counts but – oops – forgot to qualify which version people were voting for, as it’s been a…
Top 100 Singles of the 80s: 70-66
70 Toto: Africa Someone somewhere should compile one of those petrol-station compilations called Smooth Driving Sounds Volume 90 and fill it only with Toto’s Africa, on a loop, because nothing…
Top 100 Singles of the 80s: 75-71
75 Madonna: Like A Prayer It’s funny to think now that this single – released at the end of the Eighties – was seen as a big comeback single for…
Top 100 Singles of the 80s: 80-76
80 George Michael: A Different Corner “This record is dedicated to a memory,” reads a note from George Michael on the rear sleeve of this, his second solo single and…
Top 100 Singles of the 80s: 85-81
85 Prince: Purple Rain For such a reliable Eighties hit-maker, it’s surprising that only two Prince singles have made it into our Top 100. Let’s Go Crazy, 1999 and Raspberry…
Top 100 Singles of the 80s: 90-86
90 Eurythmics: Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four) Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox couldn’t have been a more apt duo to record the 1984 movie soundtrack, having already filmed their Orwellian nightmares for…
Top 100 Singles of the 80s: 95-91
95 Japan: Ghosts Downbeat, minimalist and bordering on an ambient ballad… it’s almost inconceivable now but, thanks to the open-mindedness of Eighties singles buyers, this beautiful piece of music reached…
Top 100 Singles of the 80s: 100-96
100 The Smiths: Bigmouth Strikes Again A surprisingly low entry in the Top 100 for what’s possibly the purest of pure indiee-pop, at least in comparison to everything else in…