Awake Me!: VER HITS on a 10

(I haven't published a non-review on here in ages and I think it's long past time I did so)

Toms Ewing and Breihan both run entertaining blogs covering the UK and US number ones. The former was even a big influence on my decision to get back into music blogging. They both rate the hits they write about which is something I've never given much thought to doing for this blog. Yet, a recent post led me to think about personal favourites and those I would wish to give a score of 10.

Please note that I won't be scoring any other records beyond the 10's. I was tempted do likewise for the absolute dreck but I couldn't be bothered doing so and, in any case, I don't think there are any I'd give a 1 to other than Limahl's abominable "Love in Your Eyes", a dubious SOTF from the trolling imagination of the great Tom Hibbert. Let's just keep it to those killer singles that I adore as much as the reviewers did back in the day.

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Year	“Artist”	Single
1979	Blondie	“Heart of Glass”
	Rick James	“High on Your Love Suite/One Mo Hit (of Your Love)”
	Squeeze	“Up the Junction”
	Buzzcocks	Spiral Scratch
1980	The Jam	“Going Underground”/”Dreams of Children”
	XTC	“Generals and Majors”
1981	The Human League	“Love Action (I Believe in Love)”
	The Police	“Invisible Sun”
1982	The Associates	“Party Fears Two
	Scritti Politti	“Faithless”
	Elvis Costello & The Attractions	“Man Out of Time”
	ABC	“All of My Heart”
1983	Prince	“1999”
	Fun Boy Three	“Our Lips Are Sealed”
	Madness	“Wings of a Dove”
	The Cure	“The Lovecats”
1984	Cocteau Twins	“Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops”
1985	Propaganda	“Duel”
	Prefab Sprout	“Faron Young”
	Kate Bush	“Running Up That Hill”
	Dire Straits	“Brothers in Arms”
1986	The Jesus & Mary Chain	Some Candy Talking
1987	Duran Duran	“Skin Trade”
	U2	“With or Without You”
	The Housemartins	“Me and the Farmer”
	Pet Shop Boys	“Rent”
1988	S’Express	“Theme from S’Express”
	Deacon Blue	“Real Gone Kid”
	Pet Shop Boys	“Left to My Own Devices”
1989	Nick Heyward	“Tell Me Why”

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Some fun facts about this list:

• “High on Your Love Suite/One Mo Hit (of Your Love)” and “Tell Me Why” are the only singles listed that failed to reach the Top 100. At least two hundred other records were more popular than either of these magnificent songs which beggars belief. But if the masses didn’t have time for Rick James and Nick Heyward, at there’s a small number of people out there who are aware of how special they are. Hopefully that’s more than just cold comfort.
• To the surprise of precisely no one who knows me even a little, the Pet Shop Boys appear twice and are the only act with more than a single entry. It’s probable that they will back for a third time before long. The inevitable Pet Shops backlash won’t be here for a while.
• The Police, Dire Straits and U2 are perhaps the most surprising inclusions. They aren’t my favourite groups in the world though it’s worth mentioning that I don’t have anything against any of them either. The Police have never impressed me much so it was a pleasant surprise to discover how brilliant “Invisible Sun’ is. Too bad it doesn’t get more love. The other two are fine albeit in a having-the-greatest-hits-is-enough kind of way. All three benefit from having the right songs chosen: “Walking on the Moon”, “Walk of Life” and “Pride (in the Name of Love)” wouldn’t have done so well.
• 1984 and 1986 have just one single apiece. The class of ’84 was a particular slog to get through with even decent bands coming up short (Robert “Bobby Bluebell” Hudgens wanted to go for Aztec Camera’s overrated cover of “Jump” in favour of its superior A-side “All I Need Is Everything”, which might have been a 10) while ’86 wasn’t quite as poor as I had been expecting but suffered compared to the years on either side of it. But, yeah, Cocteau Twins and The Jesus & Mary Chain are the standouts from a pair of grim years, which is a reminder of just how wonderful indie music was while pop and rock were rapidly descending into an abyss of wretchedness during this time (even if ’85 was quite good).
• Deacon Blue’s “Real Gone Kid” is one people will take issue with. As I said in its write up, I have long ago accepted that very few will see eye-to-eye with me on the Scots sextet and their breakthrough hit. There aren’t many songs which make me swoon and it is one. There’s no accounting for taste and I’m not about to try to do so here.
• As the above suggests, these scores of 10 are based purely on my own tastes in the latter part of 2021. I may not necessarily have awarded the same score to each single when I wrote about them even if I’ve always rated them highly. The Human League’s “Love Action”, Fun Boy Three’s “Our Lips Are Sealed” and Propaganda’s “Duel” are among those that would’ve certainly received a score of 10 at the time. I will not be changing them in the future even if I change my mind.
• Any further Smash Hits Singles of the Fortnight that I deem 10 worthy will be added. We’re fast approaching the nineties, which isn’t a favourite decade of mine, so I suspect the totals will gradually begin to slow down. Still, ’89 and ’90 each have some solid candidates awaiting and there’s at least one more sure-fire 10 coming up when I finish off the ’81 batch next year. Keep following for more!