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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.
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%.
October 1984: the Juno-106 at $1,295 - an affordable 6-voice polysynth with built-in chorus and MIDI. 66,000 units in four years, second best-selling 80s analogue after the DX7. Heard on Madonna's “La Isla Bonita”, Sting's “Russians”, a-ha, Human League. The BBD chorus burns out; in 2024 originals sell for $1,500-2,500.
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”.
January 1984: Pete Waterman, Mike Stock and Matt Aitken open PWL Studios on Borough High Street. In six years - 44 UK #1s, 100+ top-40 hits and 120M records sold. Conveyor method: a single a week, £25-40K each. In August 1988, 15 SAW tracks sat in the UK top-40 at once. The trio split in 1991.
The Yamaha CS-80 (1977) was the most expensive production synth of the 70s: $6,900 then, only 2,400 ever built. Vangelis (1943-2022) owned three and used them on Chariots of Fire (1981, Oscar), Blade Runner (1982), 1492 Conquest of Paradise. Polyphonic aftertouch - its unique feature, never reproduced digitally.
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.
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