Today on the BBC was a feature examining the thousand albums that have topped the British charts since their point of origin in July 1956. I wondered how many of those best sellers would fall under the purview of this blog? So for the sake of argument, I picked through 1975-1987 and this is what managed to rise to the top.
That’s only 43 albums in a 12 year period. We often think of the UK as being the epicenter of the Post-Punk Explosion; and it was: but that and five dollars will get you a latte. Against the cosmic scheme of things, our little musical revolution was a small blip in the musical radar. A look at the complete list here will cause your eyes to glaze over with the crushing banality of it all. That’s even taking into account the largely middle-of-the-road offerings above! I own 31 of those and have once owned a scant pair of those titles in the vinyl days. I’ve not heard nine of those albums.
The one album that seemed to have come from nowhere to top the charts in a shocking way would have to be the second Yazoo album, “You And Me Both!” The news that it reached the top is fairly flabbergasting to me. It’s an album that was exceptionally low on my radar, and I had previously bought [and enjoyed] the first Yazoo album! Another shocker was the Big Country album. I would have thought that if any of their waxings had been chart-toppers, it would have been their debut, “The Crossing.” I can’t even name a track off of “Steeltown.”
A sobering thought is that the first six albums on the top row encompass three years of chart-time! In 1977 acts like Leo Sayer and Boney M had a lock on the charts that wouldn’t quit. The breakthrough of the Sex Pistols therefore is even more exceptional than what it seems on the face of it. Compared to granny-friendly pop like Leo Sayer, even past-its-sell-by-date-prog like Yes’ “Going For The One” was practically synthpop nirvana!
It’s surprising to gauge just how popular The Police were. Every album but their first topped the charts. Including their greatest hits comp. Even Blondie had only two chart toppers! It’s hard to believe that at least “Autoamerican” didn’t hit number one as well! On the other hand, Gary Numan was perhaps bigger than I dared guess. Only the brilliant [but left field] “Dance” album of 1981 stopped his continuous run at the top.
Another thought. Except for Deborah Harry, Chrissie Hynde, Alison Moyet, and Annie Lennox, this looks like it was a boy’s club. It’s surprising that only a single Eurythmics album was a number one hit as well. I would have picked “Sweet Dreams” at least as another champion.
The Smiths managed only a single number one in this light, but that they did it from a vantage point on Rough Trade was a dramatic accomplishment. Especially considering what bands are missing from this list. Like for instance The Clash. I would have expected to at least see “London Calling” on this grid. That they couldn’t scale the chart even with CBS behind them as compared to The Smiths is very surprising.
This is a provocative list that reveals many patterns that bear comment, so let’s get to it!
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Post-Punk Monk 
Not all that surprised. The Official (Gallup I think) Chart as always reflected a mainstream sensiblity as the UK is a country of popular music buyer age 5 to 85. I think it’s not so hard to believe that the #1s for bands like Big Country, Yazoo and Eurythmics were the follow ups to their breakthrough records. The UK chart is either a slow burn upwards or an in at the top and dramatic drop…it’s not the same as Billboard where Michael Jackson could rule for 35 weeks at #1.
For my part, I was always more partial to the NME Chart, which is just about as old but weighted album positions differently than the national chart. Nice to see Roxy/Ferry out do Bowie 4 to 3 in the time period you chose. Numan and Blondie’s rankings are very satisfying as is Peter Gabrial 3 and ABC’s Lexicon Of Love.
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Echorich – Perfectionist Ferry managed to outrun Bowie because this period contained his “quarantine” period following “Scary Monsters And Supercreeps” where he was determined not to make Tony DeFries any more money!
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Monk, I can name every song on Steeltown! :)
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East of Eden has actually always been my favorite Big Country song, but I’m afraid they never lived up to the promise of The Skids.
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I vote for The Skids too! Actually, Stuart Adamson’s strained vocals killed the band dead for me. I get nodes on my vocal cords just listening to him sing!
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Well, in my humble opinion, The Crossing is the best album of the ’80s.
Back to the list above, some albums went to #1 that IMO just aren’t very good:
Flesh and Blood
Seven and the Ragged Tiger
Let’s Dance
Tonight
True
Once Upon a Time
Did Peter Gabriel’s “So” not reach #1, or was it outside the years you focused on?
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zoo – Ha HA! I exercised editorial control on that list. Some might include “So,” but I maintain it’s a far more mainstream recording and no longer rubbing shoulders with his 3rd and 4th albums. In fairness, I did include the 2nd Culture Club album, which I can’t stand.
I have a lotta love for “Flesh + Blood” as well as “True” [though it’s not my favorite Spandau album], but agreement on the rest of your subset list!
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I made “Eat To The Beat” the thumbnail for this page because it ROCKS! The cover is commercial New Wave personified! It doesn’t get any better than that… the Grid! That Logo! The warm 4-color black & white portraits…and the record inside the sleeve is my favorite Blondie album! [On days when I can peel myself away from the first one!]
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and THAT is why I have this logo tattooed on my left shoulder blade!
love the loving for ETTB.
biggest surprise to me is that Duran’s Rio wasn’t a chart topper. and considering how much the Brits have always adored Paul Weller, I would have thought they hit the top before The Gift (specifically with Setting Sons or Sound Affects). But it all depends if something bigger is released at the same time. A little research shows that Abba’s Super Trouper came out when Sound Affects did and hogged the chart peak for weeks, becoming the UK’s biggest seller for all of 1980. Aint no body gonna beat prime Abba in sales!
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Taffy – I knew that would draw you out of the woodwork. Great taste in tattoos, friend!
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you knew indeed.
actually, both my tattoos are Eat To the Beat related – the other is an “atomic” symbol. My hair is beautiful…
meanwhile, I guess Wham, Paul Young, and Alison Moyet (solo) fall just outside the boundaries of your blog, being blue-eyed Brit soul (well, maybe not Wham!). But all three would be lumped in with the “new pop” tag which surely encompasses Ho Jo, Cuture Club, T Twins, Eurythmics, etc.
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Taffy – Yeah, it gets down to splitting hairs, and it’s why I invited comment. The career of Alison Moyet is qualitatively different from the Yazoo records for me. “True” is blue-eyed soul (I prefer the term ‘Vegas Soul’ for that album) but I kept it in the grid. I do enjoy it a lot. I keep to the artier side of New Pop, myself. Wham were only pop dance fodder to me, and yes, I once owned “Fantastic,” but not for long.
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Eat To The Beat is Blondie at the top of the mountain. I have been listening to it constantly over the past few months. Victor, Atomic and Shayla are Debbie’s most exciting and sublime vocal performances for me. Union City Blue could be a film – that Jim Jarmush hasn’t gotten around to making yet. Dreaming, Eat To The Beat and Living In The Real World are pure American Power Pop and Slow Motion is a wonderful wall of sound. The New Wave skank of Die Young Stay Pretty finds the band reviving and renewing the oldest of rock & roll cliches but is one of the albums most memorable moments. Oh and I say to this day The Clash STOLE the opening guitar line of The Hardest Part for Lightning Strikes on Sandinista. Finally, who wouldn’t want Debbie to sing them a lullaby like Sound-A-Sleep?
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Echorich – Sonnuva…! You know, I never made that connection with the Clash number. So right, pally. Did you ever see the Union City movie with Debbie? Not as good as the song! I have to say that it is my absolute favorite Blondie tune. Debbie’s vocal could melt ice. This is the album where I also started paying attention to [engineer] David Tickle. This album just sounds like “all is right in America, citizens!”
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Normally you can’t shut me up about how brilliant ETTB is, but I defer to Echorich’s complete comment — I might well have written that myself! I do love the pre-ETTB albums as well though.
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Chasinvictoria – Yeah, on even days the Blondie debut stands tallest for me. It defined new vistas of kitsch influenced themes for New York New Wave hipsters to explore and colonize for decades beyond.
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