Smash Hits

mrsdewinter

LOVED Smash Hits - not past 1990, tho, it just moved into parody - and started to cover hip-hop and dance and other music I hated.
Also, just like everything else, it lost a lot of its value. When I first bought it in about 1986, it was crammed with good writing: as others have mentioned, even the captions were worth reading. My favourite was Mutterings: almost Twitteresque roundup of gossip and factoids on the back page. Plus, the song lyrics kicked ass. I remember myself, aged 12, and about 5 other girls standing around our newly purchased copy, whooping hysterically as 1 of the girls read out the lyrics to George Michael's 'I Want Your Sex'. Ah the innocence

kelle

mrsdewinter wrote: »

I remember myself, aged 12, and about 5 other girls standing around our newly purchased copy, whooping hysterically as 1 of the girls read out the lyrics to George Michael's 'I Want Your Sex'. Ah the innocence

I remember that particular edition! The song was banned from TOTP and could only be played on radio after 9.30 pm. I knew all the words of the song before I actually heard it, and to this day I still know them thanks to Smash Hits (sad, I know!)

joyce2009

Damn you make me feel old now :Dused to buy it in the early -mid eighties and loved it,,

Gauge

I used to buy it in the late 90s... my favourite part was the Biscuit Tin, where a musician would have to answer questions pulled out of a tin. I think they were coloured by type of question and there was particular type of question that was more risque than the others.

I moved onto J17, Bliss, and Sugar when I was about 11. They were actually fairly decent magazines, lots of true stories and articles and I remember J17 in particular being fairly progressive in terms of how they presented sexuality, feminism and reproductive choices- very interesting. I haven't looked at those teenage magazines in a while but they seem to be very bland, mostly focused on celebrities now which is a shame.

milly4ever

candy-gal1 wrote: »

lol yeah i remember that just seventeen, then twas called seventeen, then J17! got that first at 14 or 15 i think, and thought it was a real "grown ups" magazine! lol

just seventeen disappeared off the face of the earth! loved it

moonstreet

Dudess wrote: »

Who here is old enough to have purchased Smash Hits in the 80s/early 90s? A former editor was on TV earlier and her deadpan manner reminded me of just how funny and clever that magazine could be. I mean, there was a really dry wit there - and more than a bit of piss-taking. No teeny-bopper hysteria - and lots of great artists/bands, even though it was a "pop" (as in, commercial) magazine.

And the lyrics pages were awesome...

omg, SMASH HITS, my music bible... sigh... I used to buy it off and on from 1987/ 1988 and then every issue from 1989 to 1994, the years I was in secondary school. I even gave my friend money when I went on holiday so that I wouldn't miss an issue. I still have them all in a box, stored in chronological order, yes I know Im sad :P:P At one stage, my bedroom walls were completly covered in Smash Hits posters.

The lyrics were soo amazing, to sit with my home made mix tapes , my fav songs taped from the radio, with my Smash Hitslyrics was just pure bliss:D

Dudess wrote: »

Very intelligently written - Neil Tennant was actually editor for a while...

He was editor of Smash Hits first, and Pet Shop Boys was his part time job/ hobby. He left Smash Hits to concentrate on his music career with Pet Shop Boys. I think I have the issue or maybe its an interview in one of the Smash Hits Yearbooks, where he does his final editorial and all the staff are wishing him well etc.

120_Minutes wrote: »

also loved whenever a photo of paul mccartney was printed it was usually followed by a "fab macca wacky thumbs aloft" caption.

the moment I read that, I just laughed as I remember that caption soo well:D

pikachucheeks wrote: »

Or the free stickers of bands like 3T and 911!

the free sticker pages omg, still have them somewhere, I used never peel them off though, I used to cut them out, still with the backing paper on, so that I could decorate things like my school journal etc and then at the end of year could reuse them again...

rainbowtrout wrote: »

And how many of you tuned into the annual Smash Hits Poll Winners Party?:D

jumps up and down... me... meee:P I think I still have a few of them on video tape somewhere. Anyone remember the one when Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine stage crashed and almost took out Phillip Schoefield?? ahh the days of live music awards shows.... I always wanted to go to one but being in Dublin, and aged aged 14 to 16, there was no way I would be allowed

anyone remember the yearbooks and the sticker books. I was soo proud of myself, I managed to complete the sticker book, bought all the packets of stickers from the shop and then when they stopped selling them, I sent off for the ones I was missing. I still have that too:D

Ann22

kelle wrote: »

I loved this one, and the words were in Smash Hits!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe5rg05ZQNs

And remember those bows? I remember fashion experts advising those with full moon faces to wear very wide bows to give an illusion of a slimmer face!

Ah kelle, thanks for that. I used to love that song! I would've loved the song words, it drove me mad that I couldn't make out this line, can you fill me in?
you must have been heaven sent, hearing me call you went.......out on a limb??? I'm embarrassed as I fear this is ridiculously wrong:o

deadhead13

Ann22 wrote: »

Ah kelle, thanks for that. I used to love that song! I would've loved the song words, it drove me mad that I couldn't make out this line, can you fill me in?
you must have been heaven sent, hearing me call you went.......out on a limb??? I'm embarrassed as I fear this is ridiculously wrong:o

Yeah, you're right...

http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/t/the_jets/you_got_it_all.html

Ann22

Thanks a mill Deadhead. I used to feel silly singing it out loud thinking I had it arseways:o

Firetrap

Neil Tennant made it to the lofty heights of Deputy Editor of Smash Hits before he left to concentrate on his Pet Shop Boys career full time.

I loved this magazine when I was in my early teens - 1986 onwards. Like most people I suppose, I got less interested in it when I got a bit older and had probably stopped reading it by 16. For those few years earlier though it was crucial reading and I don't think I've liked a magazine as much since. I used to go into the local newsagent's on a Wednesday (I think) to get it because that was the day it hit the shelves. I loved the big posters that were the size of four pages (I was an A-Ha girl ), the lyrics and the interviews where they used to ask very strange questions. For some reason the question "Do parsnips scream when they're cut" they asked of Enya has stuck in my mind.