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Sign upNotes on music, craft, and the era
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May 1985: a modest UK #8 and US #9 on release. But by 2024 - 100+ ad campaigns (Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Samsung, BMW), 40+ films and 60+ TV series. Author Kimberley Rew earns $1M+ a year - $25M total across 40 years. The lyric works because it's universal, with no specifics.
September 1984: 25-year-old Sade Adu, a former model, releases her debut single. #5 UK and Billboard. Ray St. John's lyric about a con man. Power Plant Studios, producer Robin Millar. Stuart Matthewman's sax solo cut in one take after 12 hours of non-stop play. Diamond Life sold 10M and launched sophisti-pop.
April 1983: UK #1 for four weeks, Billboard #4. Compass Point Studios, Bahamas; producers Jolley & Swain. Gary Kemp wrote about unrequited love for Clare Grogan (Altered Images). Steve Norman's tenor sax solo - one take after seven rehearsals. P. M. Dawn sampled it in 1991 - about $1.8M came back to Kemp.
February 1982: David Paich writes “Africa” on a Yamaha CS-80 after a PBS doc. No Toto member had been to Africa. #1 Billboard 1983, 11 vocal tracks on the chorus, 2.3B streams after the Reddit revival.
January 1981: 20-year-old Kim Wilde's debut - lyric by 19-year-old brother Ricky, music by 50s pop star father Marty. Nobody in the family had been to America. UK #2, #1 in four European countries, US #25. Eden Studios, Roland Jupiter-4, 172 BPM, 3M+ copies. Ricky produced at 19.
May 1985: Swiss duo Yello (Meier+Blank) drop “Oh Yeah” on Stella. #51 Billboard - not a hit. 1986: editor Paul Hirsch slots 3 seconds over a Ferris Bueller scene, John Hughes greenlights it in 5 seconds. Since then - 200+ films, $40M in licensing. Yello have never played a live show.
September 1984: Moroder and Philip Oakey (Human League) cut the title theme of “Electric Dreams” - a comedy about a computer in love with the neighbour. #3 UK, #1 Denmark. Musicland Munich, four days, one-take vocal. LinnDrum, Moog Source, DX7. The film bombed ($4.6M), the song lived - and is timely again in the AI era.
20 June 1980: the single drops 33 days after Ian Curtis's death. The 23-year-old frontman hanged himself on 18 May in a Manchester flat, torn between wife Deborah and lover Annik Honoré. UK #13, 5M+ copies. Strawberry Studios, Martin Hannett, ARP Omni-2. The title became the only inscription on his grave.
October 1986: Jon wanted the song cut from the album - 12 New Jersey teens voting on tracks saved it. #1 Billboard for 4 weeks, Slippery When Wet 28M copies. Sambora's Heil Talk Box intro, key change E minor → F minor for the final chorus. Tommy and Gina - Italian-American names for the East Coast audience.
September 1982: Prince stacks three drum machines at once - LinnDrum, Oberheim DMX and TR-808 - with a three-vocalist trade-off. 8M singles and the idiom “party like it's 1999” entering English.
May 1984: Andrew Ridgeley accidentally writes “up up before you go go” twice on a fridge note. George Michael turns it into a song. UK #1 for 2 weeks, Billboard #1 for 3 weeks, #1 Netherlands for 8 weeks. Five days at Sarm West, Michael producing. Hamnett's “CHOOSE LIFE” T-shirts sold a million in six months.
3 August 1983: Prince and The Revolution play a charity show at First Avenue. 24-track recording; the live “Purple Rain” runs 13:45. In October at Sunset Sound, Prince adds 24 strings and trims it to 8:41. Originally written as a duet with Stevie Nicks, who passed. Album 13M US copies.
October 1981: a modest #9 Billboard at release. 10 June 2007: HBO puts it in the Sopranos finale, then cuts to black. The song re-enters the iTunes top-10 after 26 years. By 2024 - 4.7B streams, the best-selling rock song of the digital era. The chorus arrives at 3:22.
March 1989: Madonna drops the single alongside a $5M Pepsi deal. Mary Lambert's video with burning crosses and the Andraé Crouch Singers - the Vatican calls it blasphemy; Pepsi pulls the ad in a week, Madonna keeps the money. #1 Billboard for 3 weeks, album 15M copies.
Summer 1983: 8 weeks at Billboard #1. Sting wrote the lyric in 5 minutes at 3am in Ian Fleming's former Goldeneye house in Jamaica, after his divorce - it's a stalking song, not a love song. Cut at AIR Montserrat with Hugh Padgham, 20M+ copies, 1984 Song of the Year Grammy.
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.
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