That holy trinity of pop anecdotage, Paul Gambaccini, Tim Rice and Jonathan Rice, have this to say about 1986 in their book Guinness Hits Of The 1980s:
"Any objective observer would have to concede that 1986 was not one of the best years of the decade for popular music."
The evidence, for them, is that "none of its hit singles, not even the year's number one by the Communards, 'Don't Leave Me This Way', figured in the top 20 best-sellers of the decade."
Tsk. Typical. It's all a matter of numbers and statistics for those three. Might it actually be the case that 1986 was...the best year from the 1980s for pop singles?
'Kiss', 'Ask', 'Levi Stubbs' Tears', 'You Can Call Me Al', 'E=MC2', 'Think For A Minute', 'Fall On Me', 'Suburbia', 'Cut Me Down', 'Live To Tell', 'World Shut Your Mouth', 'Digging Your Scene', 'Manic Monday', 'Venus', 'Have You Ever Had It Blue?', 'Absolute Beginners' and the best number one of the year, 'The Sun Always Shines On TV' - just some of the ace songs dismissed out of hand by the grumbling trio. They go on to claim:
"One good measure of the weakness of the singles market was that none of the records that became number one in 1986 stayed there for more than four weeks."
Well, quite. Anyway, in the words of Ian MacDonald, let those with ears, let them hear. Or in the words of Macca in his not-a-smash-hit from 1986, 'Press': Oklahoma was never like this - but was it ever like this?
5 weeks ago
8 comments:
Wot, no Sigue "Sigue" Sputnik?
Seriously, I'd also add Belouis Some's Imagination (alright, I know it was a rerelease), Driving Away From Home, The Captain of Her Heart, Let's Go All The Way, Calling All The Heroes, Brilliant Mind, Sometimes, Girls & Boys and at the risk of sounding a bit fluffy-dice-Essex, Roses and Lessons In Love.
I'll put my head above the parapet and clain that 1984 was the best year of the 80s for singles. However I will concede that '86 wasn't a bad year either.
It amuses me that David Bowie and much of the music media seem determined to ignore 'Absolute Beginners' as a Bowie single, when I view it as the last great Bowie song.
Didn't Happy Hour come out in '86 as well?
I think one reason it gets overlooked is because Reet Petite is the song everyone most remembers from this year together with "The Chicken Song". Ergo it must have been rubbish.
"One good measure of the weakness of the singles market was that none of the records that became number one in 1986 stayed there for more than four weeks."
Really? I'm a little bit baffled by that claim. Surely if singles are hanging around at number one for Bryan Adams-like times, it's a sign that there's nothing popular enough to knock it off. I would've thought that in a good year for music, amazing tracks would be coming out every week, toppling each other from number one in a relentless (yet joyously exciting) battle.
Of course, that was Back When The Charts Mattered (© Paul Morley on any Channel 4 'Top 100' show). These days, unremarkable songs drift in and out of the number one slot on a weekly basis almost by accident. Nobody seems to get that excited any more.
Still, it was aces when the Ting Tings did it.
Walk Like An Egyptian, Girlie Girlie, Alone Again Or, Driving Away From Home, Sweet Freedom, and many many more.
1987. That's the worst year for music.
I beg to differ - surely 1992 must qualify as the worst year ever?
Yes, 1992 was dreadful, and that was a year when records stayed at number one for ever - Stay, Please Don't Go - and indeed, that was the year I think singles sales were at their lowest. So that disproves the GRRR gang's theory.
Course, 1986 was on Pick Of The Pops on Sunday, and in a row Dale played Happy Hour, My Favourite Waste of Time and, brilliantly, New Beginning by Bucks Fizz, which made for a hugely enjoyable ten minutes.
Take your pic from any year in the 90's
Post a Comment