Pop goes 1984

Saga Magazine’s launch in the autumn of 1984 coincided with the commercial zenith of British pop music in the 1980s.

In 1984 alone, unprecedented at the time, six hit singles each sold at least 1 million copies in the UK: ‘Relax’, ‘Two Tribes’, ‘Careless Whisper’, Stevie Wonder’s ‘I Just Called to Say I Love You’, ‘Last Christmas’ and ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’

The last of these, by the multi-artist group Band Aid, a charity record in aid of the Ethiopian famine, sold over 3m copies in the last few weeks of the year, becoming what was then the UK’s all-time best-seller.

In the 40 years since, only one single has shifted more units: Elton John’s ‘Candle in the Wind 1997’.

The start of sampling

Sampling on hit records quickly became commonplace, but in 1984 it was a new phenomenon. ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ was only the second UK number one single to contain a sample of another recording – the drum part was taken from Tears for Fears’ ‘The Hurting’.

The first chart-topper to contain a sample had occurred only a month earlier, when Chaka Khan’s cover of Prince’s ‘I Feel for You’ featured Stevie Wonder not only in the then-present tense on harmonica but in the past tense, aged just 13 in a section taken from his 1963 US hit ‘Fingertips’.

Prince himself became an international star in 1984 thanks to his film and soundtrack album Purple Rain; its breakout track ‘When Doves Cry’ sounded like nothing else – and partly because of the decision to include no bassline on the record. 

Also in 1984, the first-ever remix hit the top of the charts, thanks to Nile Rodgers’ reworking of Duran Duran’s album track ‘The Reflex’.

Who was the biggest chart topper?

But while Duran lead singer Simon Le Bon sang on two number one hits in ‘84 (he was part of Band Aid too), and Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s Holly Johnson sang on three (‘Relax’, banned by Radio 1 and Top of the Pops for most of the year, ‘Two Tribes’ and ‘The Power of Love’), Wham!’s George Michael is notable for singing on no fewer than four: Wham!’s ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’ and ‘Freedom’, his first solo single ‘Careless Whisper’ and – yep – Band Aid, which kept Wham!’s ‘Last Christmas’ off the Christmas 1984 top spot. 

The start of Stock Aitken Waterman

Of note elsewhere in this lavish pop year: a new three-strong writing and production team by the name of Stock Aitken Waterman. Hazell Dean’s ‘Whatever I Do (Wherever I Go)’ became the first of 47 SAW creations to hit the UK top 10 during the 80s.

Only Madonna from the US came anywhere near this kind of chart domination in the same period, with ‘Like a Virgin’ becoming her second British top five hit, and (fittingly?) the Christmas number one in her homeland.

And we must not forget about rock music. Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA album, issued in summer 1984, would sell over 6 million copies in the US in under a year, while the Rob Reiner mockumentary This is Spinal Tap (about a venerable heavy rock band) quickly became a cult favourite with music fans, bands on tour buses, and future practitioners of comedy alike.

As ever, in 1984, the music never stopped.