The Eighties are well under way here and a strong alternative scene was thriving. New Order started dancing and fellow Mancunians The Smiths began their five year dominance of indie. Liverpool unleashed Frankie Goes To Hollywood, from America R.E.M. and Talking Heads led the college radio scene and all around excellent alternative bands were busy releasing yearly albums at a work rate that would shame today's bands.
1) Blue Monday by New Order (Factory)
New Order still refused to include their singles on their albums so Blue Monday was only available as a single. The floppy disc sleeve with cut out sections cost more to produce than they sold it for. It became the best selling 12-inch single of all time selling over 700,000 copies in 1983 and cost Factory Records a fortune. Created as a song that could be played by the machines while the band went to the bar early it heralded the indie dance crossover and served as the blueprint for Madchester.
2) This Is The Day by The The (Epic)
Another classic song that was not popular at the time but its quality shines through the decades. Harmonicas were all the rage in '83.
The brilliant debut single by The Smiths released on Rough Trade was not the huge hit single that Morrissey and Marr were expecting. It reached #124 in the charts. After it appeared on their debut album and was re-recorded with Sandie Shaw on vocals it did make the charts the following year.
4) Mad World by Tears for Fears (Phonogram)
A new wave hit taken from their debut album. It was covered twenty years later for the soundtrack of the movie Donnie Darko and it became a #1 single for Michael Andrews and Gary Jules.
5) A New England by Billy Bragg (Utility)
Folk protest singer Billy Bragg wrote this a year before it was a hit for Kirsty MacColl. This original only had two verses but Kirsty asked him to write another verse for her cover version.
6) This Is Not A Love Song by Public Image Limited (Virgin)
This was Public Image Limited's biggest hit single reaching the top 5 in the UK charts. PiL were formed by John Lydon a.k.a. Johnny Rotten after he left the Sex Pistols. PiL had started to head in a more commercial direction and this song was written as a response to their fans who believed they were selling out.
7) Dear Prudence by Siouxsie and the Banshees (Polydor)
Their second cover of a Beatles White Album song after Helter-Skelter. Robert Smith of The Cure had joined the Banshees for two separate tours during their early years and wanted to appear on a Banshees record so suggested they released this cover which became their biggest hit.
Scottish rock band drench this track with lush guitars and nonsensical vocals and possibly invent dream pop. I was listening to this track heavily years later whilst trying to feed my baby son mashed fruit and in my mind the lyrics will forever be "banana throw-up".
9) Burning Down The House by Talking Heads (Sire)
This was the result of Talking Heads attending a Parliament-Funkadelic gig and trying to emulate them.
10) Southern Mark Smith (Big Return) by The Jazz Butcher (Glass)
Name checking the leader of the Fall is one way to remain obscure and the Jazz Butcher achieved this easily. And they went on to repeat this feat many times resulting in an obscure career. However some members went on to star in The Woodentops.
11) Radio Free Europe by R.E.M. (Hib-tone)
Their debut single from 1981 re-recorded for their 1983 debut album "Murmur" it helped establish R.E.M. as a big band on the US College Radio circuit. The lyrics were largely improvised and mumbled which would be Michael Stipe's preferred vocal method until the Mid-80's.
Stevie Ray Vaughan sounds like the Jimi Hendrix of the 1980s and you can see what John Squire was aiming for on The Second Coming.
13) Sixty Eight Guns by The Alarm (I.R.S.)
Originally called The Toilets in 1977 these Welsh punks went through many line ups and several name changes (Quasimodo, Seventeen and Alarm Alarm) before they became The Alarm in 1981. This was their biggest hit and was inspired by a book on 1960's Glasgow Street Gangs. The Alarm are still touring and recording music but I've never heard anything else by them.
14) New Year's Day by U2 (Island)
Taken from the War album, a song about the Polish Solidarity labour union movement which opposed the Communist Government.
Gothic rock band formed in Leeds in 1980 who released several singles and three albums between 1980 and 1993. Their biggest hit was an epic 1992 remix of this early single but here it is in the original form.
16) 99 Luftballons by Nena (Epic)
An anti-war song from West Berlin - It was re-recorded into English as 99 Red Balloons but the original was sung in German and tells a story of 99 air balloons being released on the border of the Iron Curtain which a pilot shoots down and this escalates into a full scale war.
17) Temptation by Heaven 17 (Virgin)
Formed when some members of The Human League split away. Great dance tune which later featured in the disco scene in the film Trainspotting.
18) The Love Cats by The Cure (Friction)
One of the first happy poppy songs released by The Cure. Unfortunately if you listen to the lyrics "Into the sea, you and me", is a reference to drowning cats in a bag. Still they were definitely lightening up and subverting the mainstream.19) Relax by Frankie Goes To Hollywood (ZTT)
Liverpool's FGTH originally released Relax in October '83. It would sell millions of copies all over the world and become one of the biggest hits of the decade. It was the first of their trio of epic singles covering the topical issues of the Mid-Eighties: gay sex, nuclear war and horny vampires.
20) The Trooper by Iron Maiden (EMI)
Maiden's Eighties output was very educational. This single details the battle of the Balaclava in 1854 with a retelling of Lord Tennyson's poem The Charge of the Light Brigade.
Further Reading...
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