1983

Atoms for Peace

After hearing True by Spandau ballet in the choon thread I did some googling. It was released in 1983 and went to number one in the Irish charts for a week.
But what I found most remarkable, considering I wasn't even born then, is the amount of recognisable hits that went to the top spot that year.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_number-one_singles_of_1983_(Ireland)

theteal

T'was a good year. I soiled many a nappy!

Atoms for Peace

But strangely I've never heard of the song that spend five weeks at number one.

Uriel.

That's a super lists of tunes alright.

sbsquarepants

I love 1983 was on BBC2 last night OP - you'd probably catch it on i-player

Oops!

Year i was born.... Some great stuff made that year!

Oops!

Atoms for Peace wrote: »

But strangely I've never heard of the song that spend five weeks at number one.

Did'nt Boyzone murder a cover of it many a moon later?

Speedsie

Atoms for Peace wrote: »

But strangely I've never heard of the song that spend five weeks at number one.

You might know it if you heard it, was a bit of a one hit wonder. I think he was French.

"Words don't come easy to me, How can I find a way to make you see I love you ..."

sbsquarepants

Uriel. wrote: »

That's a super lists of tunes alright.

I would have been 8 / 9 at the time and you're quite right - apparently 1983 was a great year for chart music. Who would have thunk it!

I've never heard of FR Davis either, but I looked up the song and I know it well.

Words don't come easy to me
How can I find a way to make you see I love you
Words don't come easy
Words don't come easy to me
This is the only way for me to say I love you

The only low point of the years No.1's is UB40 so - that pile of shíte ruined a perfect year!

TheValeyard

Great year for music and near accidental WW3 nuclear Armageddon.


https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-24280831


Twice!!

https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/02/nato-war-game-nuclear-disaster

Badly Drunk Boy

sbsquarepants wrote: »

I would have been 8 / 9 at the time and you're quite right - apparently 1983 was a great year for chart music. Who would have thunk it!

I've never heard of FR Davis either, but I looked up the song and I know it well.

Yeah, I was the same. I was 10 at the time but couldn't recall his name at all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTsSk0r_Tq8

sbsquarepants wrote: »

The only low point of the years No.1's is UB40 so - that pile of shíte ruined a perfect year!

What, the original Brit-pop band?

shar01

Can't remember the name of the dj, but he pronounced it father David.

Bit like yerwan on today fm this morning announcing that avicii's next album would be post-hummus...

Franz Von Peppercorn II

Atoms for Peace wrote: »

After hearing True by Spandau ballet in the choon thread I did some googling. It was released in 1983 and went to number one in the Irish charts for a week.
But what I found most remarkable, considering I wasn't even born then, is the amount of recognisable hits that went to the top spot that year.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_number-one_singles_of_1983_(Ireland)

I was a wee thing but yes, I recognise 3/4 of those songs.

gammygils

An absolute scorcher of a summer that year and I was in 5th year so 3 months off school
But I remember my favourite song ever made the UK charts that year.
"Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division

The Satanist

Metallica released Kill Em All in 83, which just goes to show that the charts were always ****e

Deebles McBeebles

Oops! wrote: »

Year i was born.... Some great stuff made that year!

branie2

I was 4 in 1983

Bob Harris

I know it's tastes changing and all the rest but compared to 1983, music has gone to utter shíte in the last 15/20 years by comparison.

bigar

I was 16 then so it falls in my formative years for music, as they say.

Some more songs from that year, that most will know:

Young Guns - Wham
Our House - Madness
1999 - Prince
Eddy Grant - Electric Avenue
Fame - Irene Cara
Is There Something I should Know - Duran Duran
Blue Monday - New Order
I'm Stil Standing - Elton John
Tell Her About It - Billy Joel
The Safety Dance - Men Without Hats
Burning Down The House - Talking Heads
Cruel Summer - Bananarama
Nobody's Diary - Yazoo
New Year's Day - U2

Conall Cernach

The early 80s was pretty good for pop music though there were many exceptions. An episode of Top of the Pops from 1983 would usually have at least one or two really good songs on it. Pop music really fell off a cliff towards the end of the decade though. If you watch the old Top of the Pops on BBC 4 over the weekends the early 80s ones were decent but the ones they are showing now, from 1987 I think, are diabolical. Everything sounds the same with the same over produced sound and drum samples.

bigar

The Satanist wrote: »

Metallica released Kill Em All in 83, which just goes to show that the charts were always ****e

No one heard of them then, definitely not the pop loving kids from that age. Metallica only broke through to the mainstream in 1991 with Enter Sandman.

bigar

Conall Cernach wrote: »

The early 80s was pretty good for pop music though there were many exceptions. An episode of Top of the Pops from 1983 would usually have at least one or two really good songs on it. Pop music really fell off a cliff towards the end of the decade though. If you watch the old Top of the Pops on BBC 4 over the weekends the early 80s ones were decent but the ones they are showing now, from 1987 I think, are diabolical. Everything sounds the same with the same over produced sound and drum samples.

I agree, the eighties for what great music is concerned only lasted until 1985. It also really started in 1979 with Tubeway Army's Are Friends Electric (although for me it was their next single Cars with the band renamed Gary Numan that did it).

Mad_maxx

Conall Cernach wrote: »

The early 80s was pretty good for pop music though there were many exceptions. An episode of Top of the Pops from 1983 would usually have at least one or two really good songs on it. Pop music really fell off a cliff towards the end of the decade though. If you watch the old Top of the Pops on BBC 4 over the weekends the early 80s ones were decent but the ones they are showing now, from 1987 I think, are diabolical. Everything sounds the same with the same over produced sound and drum samples.

1987 was peak 80,s in terms of excess, hair metal etc, yuppydom also peaked, perhaps due to black Monday

I still like the late 80,s in sofar as it was a great era for good bad music

Franz Von Peppercorn II

Atoms for Peace wrote: »

After hearing True by Spandau ballet in the choon thread I did some googling. It was released in 1983 and went to number one in the Irish charts for a week.
But what I found most remarkable, considering I wasn't even born then, is the amount of recognisable hits that went to the top spot that year.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_number-one_singles_of_1983_(Ireland)

Looking at this again it looks like wedding DJs took one look at the charts from 1983 and decided that they had their set now for the next 30 years. Done and dusted.

facehugger99

Great year for No. 1's but on the negative side the world nearly exploded

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alarm_incident

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Able_Archer_83

So, swings and roundabouts.

Ipso

Badly Drunk Boy wrote: »

sbsquarepants wrote: »

I would have been 8 / 9 at the time and you're quite right - apparently 1983 was a great year for chart music. Who would have thunk it!

I've never heard of FR Davis either, but I looked up the song and I know it well.

Yeah, I was the same. I was 10 at the time but couldn't recall his name at all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTsSk0r_Tq8

sbsquarepants wrote: »

The only low point of the years No.1's is UB40 so - that pile of shíte ruined a perfect year!

What, the original Brit-pop band?

They were no Def Leppard!

Lollipops23

My folks are always reminiscing about the summer of 83; they were on strike for 3 months and apparently it was a belter of a summer weather-wise. They were 'doing a line' (not in a white powder sense) and not yet engaged, with no kids to support, so it sounds like they partied and acted the bollox the whole time.

JupiterKid

Fond childhood memories of 1983. I was 8 years of age that year. Mike Oldfield's Moonlight Shadow was a huge hit that summer...and IIRC a scorcher of a summer it was too!

Also Uptown Girl by Billy Joel, Let's Dance by David Bowie and New Song by Howard Jones.

YFlyer

gammygils wrote: »

An absolute scorcher of a summer that year and I was in 5th year so 3 months off school
But I remember my favourite song ever made the UK charts that year.
"Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division

Three years after Ian Curtis passing away?

Deebles McBeebles

YFlyer wrote: »

Three years after Ian Curtis passing away?

Went top 20 in 1983 at some stage. Possibly due to the Paul Young cover although I'm not sure on that one.

Badly Drunk Boy

Atoms for Peace wrote: »

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_number-one_singles_of_1983_(Ireland)

Now that's what I call music! (almost, and with a few additions).

Atoms for Peace

facehugger99 wrote: »

Great year for No. 1's but on the negative side the world nearly exploded

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alarm_incident

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Able_Archer_83

So, swings and roundabouts.

Reagan really was a piece of work, intentional goading of the soviets to justify the hypocritical Reagan Doctrine turned the nuclear threat knob up to 11.

vriesmays

Biggest rap hit from 1983.

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

Mad_maxx

Atoms for Peace wrote: »

Reagan really was a piece of work, intentional goading of the soviets to justify the hypocritical Reagan Doctrine turned the nuclear threat knob up to 11.

Best American president since FDR and miles ahead of any who followed him

Snow Garden

Great year indeed. The 80s did produce some memorable music.

facehugger99

Atoms for Peace wrote: »

Reagan really was a piece of work, intentional goading of the soviets to justify the hypocritical Reagan Doctrine turned the nuclear threat knob up to 11.

That's a very simplistic reading of history.

Regan believed that to successfully negotiate with the Soviets you had to do so from a position of strength. He was deeply troubled by the threat of nuclear warfare and arguably did more to make the world a safer place than any president since.

Atoms for Peace

Supporting the contras, mujahedeen etc. made the world a safer place?

Galwayguy35

Don't remember much about the music from 1983 but I remember the Dubs gave us a beating in more ways that one in the All Ireland that year!

Mad_maxx

Atoms for Peace wrote: »

Supporting the contras, mujahedeen etc. made the world a safer place?

Helped defeat the communist International movement

Atoms for Peace

Mad_maxx wrote: »

Helped defeat the communist International movement

And inadvertently created the international Islamist and Narco movements.

Nigel Fairservice

True was number 1 roughly around the time of my conception :pac:

Poor Uncle Tom

Atoms for Peace wrote: »

And inadvertently created the international Islamist and Narco movements.

Hardly, it was all set up and facilitated by the CIA.

cj maxx

I knew all of the no1’s in the OP straight away apart from one. Surprisingly good year for the 80’s . Also that AI final between Dublin and Galway

odyssey06

I think music in the 80s hit peak 'radio friendliness' in terms of catchy ear-worm types songs. Poptastic

Atoms for Peace

The first no. 1 of '83 was quite awful but it was released in 1982.

Harry Palmr

Pure Pop for perfect people was killed by grunge and then over reliance on software and then the internet ending the big tent of shared tastes.

cj maxx

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Pure Pop for perfect people was killed by grunge and then over reliance on software and then the internet ending the big tent of shared tastes.

Generally the 80’s were shyt compared to the 90’s

Thelonious Monk

Some good tunes there, I hate that Renee and Renate song though. I couldn't tell you one song in the charts now, or for a long time, if they even have charts nowadays.

Gimme A Pound

Atoms for Peace wrote: »

After hearing True by Spandau ballet in the choon thread I did some googling. It was released in 1983 and went to number one in the Irish charts for a week.
But what I found most remarkable, considering I wasn't even born then, is the amount of recognisable hits that went to the top spot that year.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_number-one_singles_of_1983_(Ireland)

"No, things are the same as ever - you're just getting old!" Oh wait, you weren't even born.

Unquestionably better chart music overall then.

Mad_maxx

Atoms for Peace wrote: »

And inadvertently created the international Islamist and Narco movements.

No risk of the end of the world there

Mad_maxx

odyssey06 wrote: »

I think music in the 80s hit peak 'radio friendliness' in terms of catchy ear-worm types songs. Poptastic

The best decade for catchy shallow throwaway pop

Good bad music