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13 June 1983: “Rockit” takes #71 Billboard but Dance Club #1. Five 1984 Grammys - a record for an electronic track. Scratching by 22-year-old Grandmixer DST at 1 TON Records. Godley & Creme's video with Jim Whiting kinetic mannequins opened MTV to only the second Black artist after MJ.
13 March 1981: a cover of DeShannon/Weiss's forgotten 1974 original becomes the longest #1 of 1981 - 9 weeks Billboard. Bill Cuomo's synth hook improvised in 10 minutes. Bette Davis sent a thank-you note.
19 November 1984: Mick Jones writes the melody in 40 minutes at The Mayfair Regent's lobby. Billboard #1 for 2 weeks, UK #1 for 3 weeks. New Jersey Mass Choir - 20 voices cut in 5 hours on 8 October, including Jennifer Holliday (1982 Tony for Dreamgirls). The band's first and only #1.
14 January 1985: the first No Jacket Required single. #1 Billboard, UK #12. The nonsense word came from a drum improv; Collins tried “Julie” and “Susan” - sounded worse. Four days at The Townhouse with Hugh Padgham. The 3+3+2 syncopation lifted from Prince's “1999” - Collins admitted in 2016. Album 25M copies.
23 January 1984: written solo by Roger Taylor after his 3-year-old son said “radio ca-ca”. UK #2 (blocked by “Relax”), Billboard #16. The video uses Lang's 1927 “Metropolis” footage via a Moroder deal. At Live Aid on 13 July 1985, 72,000 fans did the synchronized double-clap on cue.
14 March 1983: Bowie with producer Nile Rodgers. UK #1 for 3 weeks, US #1 for 1 week. Cut in 17 days at Power Station, NYC. Bowie met Rodgers at the Continental Club in December 1982 and asked, “Can you make me a hit?”. Stevie Ray Vaughan's solo - one take on a 1962 Strat. Album 10.7M copies - more than every prior Bowie album combined.
26 October 1981: Queen and David Bowie release a track born from a 24-hour jam at Mountain Studios, Montreux. UK #1 for 2 weeks, US #29. John Deacon worked out his seven-note bassline on a smoke break. In 1990 Vanilla Ice sampled it for “Ice Ice Baby”, denied the borrow on MTV, then settled out of court.
July 1986: Ivana Spagna with producer Pignagnoli. UK #2 (blocked by The Communards), #1 Germany 5 weeks, #3 France. First Italian woman in UK top-3 with an English-language track - and one of the last Italo-disco UK mainstream hits before house.
September 1986: Liam Sternberg wrote the song after watching passengers on an English Channel ferry. Toni Basil, Lene Lovich and The Go-Go's all passed before The Bangles took it. #1 Billboard for 4 weeks, top-selling US single of 1987. After 9/11 CNN added the track to its list of 164 inappropriate songs.
June 1985: Knopfler overheard delivery workers at a New York appliance store and put their words into the lyric. #1 Billboard for 3 weeks, UK #4. Sting sings “I want my MTV” - for a 25% writing credit. The $350K video, with pop's first full 3D animation, became MTV Europe's first clip in 1987.
May 1982: from the Rio album. UK #5 immediately, US flop at #80. In December MTV puts Russell Mulcahy's $35K Sri Lanka clip in heavy rotation; by January 1983 - Billboard #3. The first case of MTV pulling a song from failure into the top 5. 1983 Grammy for Best Music Video.
February 1986: Prince wrote “Kiss” for Mazarati then took it back. #1 Billboard for 2 weeks, blocking The Bangles' “Manic Monday”. Sunset Sound, one night. Three elements: a Hohner G3T acoustic, LinnDrum and Prince's falsetto. No bass, no synths. 1987 Grammy for Best R&B Performance.
January 1984: Van Halen with an Oberheim OB-Xa synth - alien to hard rock. David Lee Roth and the band hated it; Eddie insisted. #1 Billboard for 5 weeks - the band's only #1. 5150 Studios, producer Templeman. Roth shot the $600 video himself. Album: 10M US copies. Roth quit nine months later.
December 1984: George Michael wrote the song alone in one February 1984 night. Advision Studios, DX7 and sleighbells. UK #2 - blocked by Band Aid, on which George himself sang. He donated single profits to Ethiopia. On 2 January 2021 the track finally hit UK #1 - a 36-year record gap from release.
June 1984: Lauper and Rob Hyman (The Hooters) write the song in half a day at The Record Plant. Title from a 1979 H. G. Wells film. #1 Billboard for 2 weeks, UK #3, 1985 Grammy for Best Pop Vocal. Yamaha CP-70 and Eric Bazilian's mandolin. Miles Davis cut a jazz cover in 1985 - 500+ versions followed.
May 1984: Prince releases a song WITHOUT a bassline. Warner Bros. refused to put it out; Prince insisted. #1 Billboard for 5 weeks - the best-selling US single of 1984. Sunset Sound, one day, Prince plays everything himself: LinnDrum + OB-Xa + Stratocaster. The lyric is autobiographical - about his parents' 1968 divorce.
October 1987: the 24-year-old George Michael writes, produces and performs his solo debut alone. Title single #1 Billboard for 4 weeks, album 25M copies, 12 weeks at #1. Grammy Album of the Year 1988 - a first for solo pop. Gibson J-200 12-string and TR-909.
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