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January 1981: Collins's solo debut. Engineer Hugh Padgham accidentally invents gated reverb through an SSL talkback mic. Three minutes of quiet, then an eight-second drum break - pop's most recognised fill. UK #2, US #19, 6M copies. The drowning-man myth is fiction: it's about Collins's divorce from Bertorelli.
October 1984: Bohlen and Anders launch Modern Talking at Hansa Tonstudio. The single flopped in week one; the German #1 came after their January 1985 Musikladen TV spot. 6 weeks at #1, #1 in three neighbouring countries, 8M copies. Chorus secret: Bohlen sang the falsetto, not Anders. In 1987 Moscow's Olimpiysky sold 18,000 tickets in four hours.
September 1983: Cyndi Lauper rewrites Robert Hazard's 1979 original from male gaze into first-person feminist manifesto. Billboard #2 (behind Van Halen's “Jump”), #1 in three countries. Eric Bazilian's mandolin, video shot in Lauper's mother's Queens flat. Video of the Year MTV VMA 1984.
March 1983: Giorgio Moroder, Keith Forsey and Irene Cara write the chorus in a car between Paramount and Hotel Sunset. #1 Billboard 6 weeks, #1 France and Italy. 1984 Best Original Song Oscar - first African-American woman in the category. LinnDrum, Moog Source, 6M copies.
May 1980: Steven Greenberg of Minneapolis under the alias Lipps Inc. #1 Billboard for 4 weeks and #1 in 28 countries - a single's world record until 1984. Vocal: Cynthia Johnson (Miss Black Minnesota 1976), Oberheim OB-X, EMS Vocoder 2000, $8,000 budget.
August 1982: Laura Branigan reworks Umberto Tozzi's 1979 Italian hit with a fully rewritten Trevor Veitch lyric. #2 Billboard 3 weeks, 36 weeks on Hot 100 (matching “Hey Jude”), 8M copies. Branigan died of an aneurysm in 2004; in 2019 her “Gloria” became the St. Louis Blues anthem.
February 1990: lead single from Violator. UK #6, US #8. Martin Gore wrote it as an acoustic ballad in Tenerife 1988; Alan Wilder insisted on 112 BPM. Violator sold 15M copies, the band's best-seller. Anton Corbijn's video with Gahan as a wandering king took MTV VMA 1990.
February 1983: Bonnie Tyler with Jim Steinman. The track had first been offered to Streisand, Donna Summer, Tina Turner - all declined. Tyler's husky post-1976 surgery voice over Steinman's Wagnerian production, 17 hours of vocal across 8 days. #1 Billboard 4 weeks, UK #1 2 weeks, #1 in 14 countries, 6M copies.
July 1984: 21-year-old George Michael wrote “Careless Whisper” aged 17 at a bus stop. Five studios, three years, $250,000 budget. Steve Gregory's sax solo on the 10th take for £350 with no royalties. #1 UK and Billboard, 6M copies.
February 1983: the third Thriller single. Billboard #1 for 3 weeks. Eddie Van Halen's solo cut in 30 minutes for free - two takes for a beer. Bob Giraldi's $150,000 video with 80 real Crips and Bloods.
November 1984: the 26-year-old Madonna with producer Nile Rodgers; songwriters Steinberg+Kelly. Six weeks at Billboard #1 - her longest. Album 21M copies - the best-selling female album to date. The track had been offered to 20 artists (Tina Turner, Sting) before her - all passed. Venice video with a live lion.
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.
December 1984, Milan: Den Harrow was fronted by Stefano Zandri, but every vocal was tracked by American Tom Hooker on 1.5% royalties. Four years - 12M records, 240 shows a year. Italian TV exposed it in February 1988, two years before Milli Vanilli.
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