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Sign upBritish and European synth-pop - relatives and neighbours of Italo Disco.
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The first 1984 version with Bobby Orlando sold 7,000 copies and killed Pet Shop Boys' Bobcat deal. A year later Stephen Hague at Advision Studios rebuilt the track: lower BPM, Emulator II samples, Jupiter-8, TR-909. The result - UK #1, Billboard #1, 6M copies, T. S. Eliot in the lyric.
November 1981: with Human League collapsed, Phil Oakey recruited two Sheffield club girls and cut the track with Martin Rushent on Linn LM-1 and Jupiter-8. Five weeks UK #1 (including Christmas), Billboard #1 July 1982, 6M copies - pop's first gender duet.
September 1979: Trevor Horn and Geoffrey Downes record The Buggles' debut at Sarm East for £18,000. Two months later - #1 in 16 countries, 5.5M copies. Two years later Russell Mulcahy's clip becomes the first ever video aired by MTV - the symbolic start of the era. Jupiter-4, Debbie Harry on backing vocals.
January 1983: the British Buckinghamshire quintet with Limahl - producers Nick Rhodes (Duran Duran) and Colin Thurston. Jupiter-8, a DX7 prototype, Nick Beggs's Chapman Stick, seven weeks at Townhouse Studios. Two months later - UK #1; a year later Limahl is fired and the band falls apart.
January 1981: Ultravox with Midge Ure release a synth-pop ballad on a Yamaha CS-80, with a Roland VP-330 vocoder and a live violin. Seven consecutive weeks at UK #2 - held off by Joe Dolce's comic hit “Shaddap You Face”. In 2012 BBC Radio 2 asked listeners: should it have been #1? 62% said yes.
January 1983: without a deal, Lennox and Stewart cut the single for £600 in three days. A £50 Wasp EDP, a Movement MCS, an SH-09, a rented OB-X. Eight months later - #1 Billboard, 4M copies. The minimal budget beat FGTH's £140K; Lennox's alto and androgynous look set an 80s gender icon.
July 1984: Limahl, just fired from Kajagoogoo, cuts the German fantasy theme with Moroder. Jupiter-8, Emulator II, Westlake Audio Hollywood, 18 vocal takes. UK #4, US #17, #1 Norway, 3.5M copies. The film is forgotten; the song isn't - 1.2B streams and a second wind after Stranger Things.
July 1981: Soft Cell rework Gloria Jones's forgotten 1964 soul side in 11 days for £10,000. Synclavier II, TR-808, Pro-One - no live instruments. Three months later - UK #1; a year later - a 43-week Billboard Hot 100 record. Ed Cobb, who wrote the 1964 original, suddenly received a $400,000 cheque.
October 1985: after two flops (UK #137 and #127), Norwegian trio a-ha reworked the track a third time with Alan Tarney. #1 US, #2 UK, #1 in 17 countries, 7M copies. Steve Barron's £100,000 video - 3,020 rotoscoped frames and six MTV awards. Morten Harket's A5 made the track immortal.
October 1983: Trevor Horn at ZTT Records drops FGTH's debut. Three months - 30,000 copies. January 1984: BBC Radio 1 bans it; by March - UK #1 for 5 weeks and 2M copies in a year. Eight weeks at Sarm West with Fairlight CMI and Synclavier built a record the band itself couldn't reproduce live.
March 1983: a 12-inch single with no title or band name on the sleeve. Oberheim DMX, Moog Source, MC-4 sequencer. By 1988 - a million copies, the best-selling 12-inch in UK history; Factory lost 10p per sleeve.
December 1980: Steve Strange assembles a supergroup of Ultravox and Magazine members, brings in a Parisian model to count in French, and cuts “Fade to Grey” in three months. UK #8 but #1 in Germany, Switzerland and Austria - 1.2M copies and the start of New Romantic.
March 1983: a song about balloons mistaken for a missile strike. #2 Billboard in German, #1 UK in English. The first German-language song in the US top 10 since 1961; 5 million copies by 1984.
September 1984: German duo Alphaville release a ballad about fear of nuclear war. At release - #10 Germany, #65 US. Forty years on - 20M streams a month, lifted by Jay-Z, Stranger Things and Bob Dylan. A 60s chord progression dressed in 80s synths.
September 1982: Peter Schilling releases the German answer to Bowie's “Space Oddity”. Four months later - #1 in Germany for seven weeks; a year on, #14 US and #1 Canada. Cut at Union Studios Munich on a Prophet-5. The track hit the Cold War nerve; Bowie heard it on BBC Radio 1.
Explore the magic and energy of '80s and '90s retro music - its history, genres, sonic innovations, and lasting influence on culture today.
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