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Sign upDeep dives into single hits - sound anatomy, chart history, legacy.
135 articles newest first
September 1983: Culture Club with Boy George. #1 UK 6 weeks, #1 Billboard 3 weeks, #1 in 16 countries, 10M copies. Best-selling UK single of 1983 and the 9th best-selling UK single ever. Judd Lander's £200 harmonica, video on an 1870s riverboat in Buckinghamshire for $220,000.
August 1985: UK #3, Billboard #30 on release. The track then sleeps 37 years. June 2022: Stranger Things 4 puts it in a pivotal scene - five weeks later it hits UK #1. Records set: oldest female UK #1 (63) and the longest gap from release to #1 ever. 2.8B Spotify streams to date.
January 1978: the 19-year-old Kate Bush - the first UK single with a female author at national chart #1. 4 weeks UK #1, 3M copies. Written in one night after a BBC adaptation of Brontë's novel. EMI wanted a different song as her debut; Bush insisted. Steinway, Fender Rhodes, ARP Odyssey. Opened doors for Björk, Tori Amos, PJ Harvey.
May 1982: Survivor write the Rocky III theme in four days, commissioned by Stallone. He had wanted Queen's “Another One Bites the Dust” - Queen pulled out. Five days at Rumbo Recorders, $28,000 budget. #1 Billboard for 6 weeks, 1983 Grammy, 1.2B streams.
September 1981: 10 consecutive weeks at Billboard #1 - an 80s record only broken by Whitney Houston in 1992. 8M copies, Billboard #1 single of 1981. Banned on 11 Bible Belt stations and in South Africa. LinnDrum, Yamaha CS-80, producer John Farrar. Became the soundtrack to Jane Fonda's aerobics.
February 1980: “American Gigolo” soundtrack, producer Moroder. Debbie Harry wrote the lyric in one Chateau Marmont evening. #1 Billboard for 6 weeks, Billboard #1 single of 1980, 6M copies. Bernard Edwards of Chic on live bass.
June 1987: “It's a Sin” - Tennant's autobiography of 12 years at St. Cuthbert's Catholic school in Newcastle. #1 UK for 3 weeks, US #9, 2M copies. Latin Confiteor at the intro, Derek Jarman's $230K stained-glass video. In 2021 the Netlix series of the same name pushed sales up 450%.
Summer 1987: 19-year-old Sabrina Salerno from Genoa with producer Cecchetto. #1 Italy, France, Germany, #3 UK, 5M copies. The Grand Hotel Alassio pool video with a “slipped” strap was BBC-banned by day - only fuelling demand.
November 1984: SAW's first project. 17 weeks to UK #1 - a record-slow climb. Billboard #11, 6M copies. LinnDrum 132 BPM, Jupiter-8, £15,000 budget. Pete Burns (1959-2016) - Liverpool androgynous vocalist, died of thrombosis after 300+ surgeries. In 2008 Flo Rida sampled him on “Right Round”.
August 1979: first UK synth-pop #1 without a guitar band. Polymoog Vox Humana through a Roland RE-201 - the signature sound. Before “Cars”, Numan played punk in Tubeway Army; a chance Minimoog in 1978 flipped him. 3.5M copies.
March 1983, Rome: Paul Mazzolini (Gazebo) with Pierluigi Giombini. #1 Germany for 6 weeks, plus the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Japan - 8M copies. UK and US never noticed. Yamaha CP-80, Jupiter-8, LinnDrum; the melody echoes Chopin's Prelude Op. 28 No. 7 - heirs considered suing in 1985.
June 1986: Moroder and Tom Whitlock write a ballad for “Top Gun”. Moroder first offered it to Donna Summer and Linda Ronstadt - both said no. Third pick - Terri Nunn of Berlin at $40,000. By September - Billboard and UK #1, soundtrack 9M copies. 1987 Oscar - Moroder's third. Berlin fell apart in 1987.
November 1983: 70s prog legends drop a single from 90125. By January 1984 - Yes's only ever Billboard #1. The architect of the pivot: Trevor Horn. 16 months at SARM East, a $1.1M budget, the Fairlight ORCH5 stab in commercial pop for the first time. Old fans called the album a betrayal.
January 1983: the second Thriller single. 7 weeks #1 Billboard. Quincy Jones wanted to cut the 29-second intro - Jackson refused. 91 vocal takes, Steve Barron's $250K video broke MTV's “no-Black” wall.
June 1979, New York: #1 Billboard for 6 weeks, 5M copies. Bernard Edwards plays an E-D fingerstyle riff on a Music Man StingRay through an Ampeg SVT. Sugarhill Gang copied it on “Rapper's Delight” - the first hip-hop hit. Queen paraphrased it on “Another One Bites the Dust”. 1,900+ samples by 2024.
January 1979, New York: the fifth Parallel Lines track. Harry and Stein wrote it in 1975 as “a Bee Gees parody”; producer Mike Chapman pushed for a serious cut. #1 UK and Billboard, 4M copies. Drummer Clem Burke refused the disco beat for three weeks before giving in.
March 1977, Düsseldorf: Kraftwerk's sixth album on their own Kling Klang label. Modest #67 UK on release. Five years later the title track becomes the spine of Afrika Bambaataa's “Planet Rock” (1982) - the first hip-hop hit. House, techno, IDM and trip-hop all grow out of that chain.
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