GREATEST MISSES TOP 4036
ORDINARY ANGEL
HUE AND CRY
The storytelling
sophisti-pop of Scottish
brothers Greg and Pat
Kane worked on angsty
anti-Thatcher tirade Labour Of
Love and beautiful control
freakery anthem Looking For
Linda, but in-between three
releases stalled outside the Top
- The third was this melodic
launch single from second album
Remote, peaking at No.42 in
1988, a time when the Hit
Factory and house music was
leaving little space in the charts
for much else.
35
OVER THE WEEKEND
NICK HEYWARD
The mid-80s were
torturous for Haircut
100’s Nick Heyward.
His label barely noticed him, and
this single was the nearest he
came to Top 40 success during
the turmoil. A pounding drum
track and a friendly lyric are the
highlights on something typically
Heyward; you can almost see
that coy smile of his as you listen
in. It got to No.43 in 1986 and
started a heartbreakingly hitless
period for him (though 1996
would fi nd the Britpoppy
Rollerblade make it to No.37).34
DANGER ZONE
KENNY LOGGINS
Next to Take My Breath
Away, the most striking
song from Top Gun,
recorded (after various others
said no) by a distinctive
soundtrack specialist. This
Giorgio Moroder-composed
track got to No.2 in America but
despite seeing what was a
defi nitive mid-80s Hollywood
movie, not enough British
cinemagoers were swayed to
buy the music. It made No.45 in
1986, meaning that, via
Footloose, Loggins remains a
one-hit wonder in the UK.4O
BLUE
FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS
The follow-up to
Johnny Come
Home could have
been more forgettable than it
eventually was, a regulation
swipe at the Tory government
of the mid-80s at a time when
the charts were saturated with
them. It became the fi rst
non-hit to feature on a Now
That’s What I Call Music album
(Volume Six, to be precise),
meaning the randomness of
compilation albums gave it
higher status than its No.41
peak in 1985 merited.
39
SOLD ME DOWN
THE RIVER
THE ALARM
One of The Alarm’s
most raw records,
grafting the pop riff
from T-Rex’s 1971 stomper Get It
On to a marvellous roots rock
anthem with a chorus as good as
any they composed. Radio loved
it and all was hopeful when it
entered the chart at 43 in 1989- but then it didn’t climb at all.
The song – which came from
their fourth LP, Change – was
the Welsh band’s third
consecutive single to peak
between 50 and 41.
38
IF YOU LEAVE
OMD
The cross-Atlantic
contrast in this 1986
song’s fortunes is
startling; No.48 in the UK, No.4
in the US. Penned hastily for a
revised ending to John Hughes
rom-com Pretty In Pink, its
perky, spectacularly inoffensive
vanilla taste was decent, but
didn’t fi t the narrative of OMD’s
hard-won status as electronic
pioneers, while the duo
themselves were coming into
confl ict. Stateside punters didn’t
know about these instances, nor
did they need to.37
THE DREAMING
KATE BUSH
How can anything by
Kate Bush fl op? She’s
Kate Bush, after all.
In the early 80s she was at the
peak of her powers as innovator
and creator. But with this track
came a rare moment when the
public walked by on the other
side. Mockney singing and
jungle drums... superbly
executed, of course, but too
weird (the song is all about the
destruction of Aboriginal
homelands by white Australians).
The few who understood could
only get it to No.48 in 1982.33
THE END OF
THE INNOCENCE
DON HENLEY
The ex-Eagle enjoyed
sporadic success in
the early 1980s, then,
after a long break, his
collaboration with Bruce Hornsby
ticked every AOR box at the end
of the decade. Furnished with
instantly recognisable Hornsby
tinkling at the baby grand, with
Henley delivering one of the
most earnest vocals of his
distinguished career, it was
playlisted forever on radio, but
only made No.48 in the summer
of 1989.