1985 saw 32 songs reach the top, many of the songs are mutual number 1 singles that also show up on the American Billboard charts. However a couple only reached #1 in Canada.
Corey Hart, Northern Lights and Platinum Blonde are the featured Canadian artists in 1985. ***
Which ones would you vote for?
Let’s see, two Wham entries, Duran Duran, Tina, Paul Young, Simple Minds, Band Aid, Mr.Mister, TF and Dead or Alive squeezed itself in. REO and few others did not make my cut since I already voted for a bunch.
Neutron Dance, Everybody Wants to Rule the World, and We Don’t Need Another Hero. There are a bunch of other good ones that just missed my cut, but unlike the previous couple years, there’s a lot of crap. How the hell is REO Speedwagon tied for the lead? That song is terrible, yet it still gets a lot of airplay for reasons I can’t comprehend.
Ponch that song to me is the better of the band’s songs. But it certainly is not the best of the songs featured in this poll. Certainly not the worst either, there are few I can pick up that I would say are crap. I also agree that 1980-1984 had uniformly better songs and less crap.
Do They Know It’s Christmas (for the cool memories of seeing all these stars together back when I was 10). Careless Whisper (it may be a bit corny but it’s one heck of a catchy tune). Crazy For You (not one of Madonna’s best-known songs but a personal favourite). You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) (silly but fun and garanteed to make me dance which is saying something). Money For Nothing (for the legendary riff - I’m not crazy about the song itself).
Looking at the list, wasn’t 1985 the height of the Wham-Duran Duran rivalry?
“Can’t Fight This Feeling”- REO Speedwagon - all I can think about is Rock of Ages when Russell Brand and Alec Baldwin start gaying out. Funniest scene ever.
To answer your question, I’m not sure as I was not around at the time, being born in Dec 1986. But I decided to see what I can find on the internet regarding a Wham- Duran Duran rivalry.
Les Espaces Du Sommeil here is what I found.
That most of the rivalry in some countries was between fans and not the actual bands. Here is a music forum started by a member who notes that in their country of Iceland, fans of both groups were rivals. http://rateyourmusic.com/board_message?message_id=1438714&find=1447738&src=sr
Now here is a extract from a page I found of a book in Google Books. The title is "Wired For Sound: Now That Is What I Call An Eighties Music Childhood".
Here is the excerpt:
This is a link to the page that discusses this:
Bascially Duran Duran had a rivalry with Spandau Ballet, and while the latter scored a #1 hit first, Duran was clearly the winner in all aspects. Wham beat Duran Duran in terms of scoring #1 hits, the group had three in 1984-1985, more than Duran Duran. George Michael predicted Wham would have four #1 in the UK by end of 1984, it was close but with three: “Wake Me Up”, “Careless Whisper”, “Freedom” hit the top spot, but “Everything She Wants/Last Christmas” stalled at #2 because of the Band Aid chart.
Of course “Everything She Wants” was #1 in the U.S and Canada.
Yet Duran Duran made a song for the James Bond film of the same name, and it remains the only James Bond soundtrack to ever hit #1. “A View To Kill”.
Here is the a Guardian Article that mentions some nastiness between them:
"The 1980s music milieu was beset by rivalries which often teetered into nastiness. Duran Duran were in fierce competition with Spandau Ballet. Paul Weller, perhaps with good reason, believed that his more teen-oriented peers were characterised by an unbecoming mixture of arrogance and emptiness (“Look at Wham!,” he counselled. “‘Go for it’ - go for fucking what, exactly?”). When Boy George arrived at the Band Aid session, he was fortuitously met by Simon Le Bon, with whom he had recently been trading insults; once inside, he made at least one catty aside about George Michael’s sexuality.
I did not know any of this at all.
From Wiki on Wham:
"became their first UK #1 single and rose to that position in the USA as well, accompanied by a memorable video of the duo with Pepsi and Shirlie, all wearing Katharine Hamnett T-shirts with the slogans “CHOOSE LIFE” and “GO GO”.
The next single “Careless Whisper” was issued as a George Michael solo piece, yet unlike any Wham! single except “Wham Rap!” and “Club Tropicana”, it was credited as co-written by Ridgeley. The song, about a remorseful two-timer, had more emotional depth than previous releases. It quickly reached #1, selling over 1.3 million copies in the UK.[4] “Careless Whisper” marked a new phase in George Michael’s career, as he somewhat distanced himself from Wham!'s playboy image. In the U.S.—so as not to confuse American listeners just being exposed to Wham!—the single was billed as “Wham! featuring George Michael”.
In the autumn of 1984, Wham! returned as a duo with “Freedom”, another UK chart-topper and the first single for quite some time to reach #1 in the UK without an accompanying video. Wham! subsequently decided to use a video edited together from footage of their tour of China in time for “Freedom’s” U.S. single release. The group by then had achieved three number-one singles in a row. In November, they released their second album, Make It Big, which quickly climbed to #1 on the album charts, and the band set off on an arena tour at the end of 1984.[5]
The double A-side single “Last Christmas/Everything She Wants” became the highest-selling single ever to peak at #2 in the UK charts. It stayed at #2 for five weeks and, to date, is the 24th best-selling single of all time in the United Kingdom, selling over 1.4 million copies in the UK.[4] Wham! donated all their royalties from the single to the Ethiopian famine appeal to coincide with the fund-raising intentions of Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”, the song which kept them out of the top spot. Nevertheless, Band Aid’s success meant that Michael had achieved #1 status in the UK within three separate entities in 1984—as a solo artist, as one half of a duo, and as part of a charity ensemble.[6]
At the end of 1985, the U.S. Billboard charts listed “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” as the number-three song and “Careless Whisper” as the number-one song of the year.[7]
China (1985)[edit]
In March 1985, Wham! took a break from recording to embark on a lengthy world tour, including a ground-breaking 10-day visit to China, the first by a Western pop group.[8] The China excursion was a publicity scheme devised by Simon Napier-Bell (one of their two managers—Jazz Summers being the other). It culminated in a concert at the Workers’ Gymnasium in Beijing in front of 15,000 people. Wham!'s visit to China attracted huge media attention across the world. Napier-Bell later admitted that he used cunning tactics to sabotage the efforts of rock group Queen to be the first to play in China. He made two brochures for the Chinese authorities - one featuring Wham! fans as pleasant middle-class youngsters, and one portraying Queen singer Freddie Mercury in typically flamboyant poses. The Chinese opted for Wham![9]
British Director Lindsay Anderson was engaged to accompany Wham! to China and make a documentary film about the visit. The film was shot over two weeks of March and April and subsequently edited over late spring and summer of 1985 in London. Anderson called his one-hour and 18 minute film “If You Were There.” In the final stages of editing, Anderson was dismissed[10] by Wham!’s management, the editing team quit, and the film was entirely re-edited, renamed and released as Foreign Skies: Wham! In China. According to a 2006 interview with The Independent,[11] Andy Stephens, manager for George Michael, claims that the film [Anderson’s version] was simply not good enough to be shown in public. “It’s a dreadful film … It’s 20 years old and it’s rubbish. Why on earth should we allow it to be shown?”
Live Aid (1985)[edit]
Sporting a beard, Michael appeared with Ridgeley onstage at Live Aid on 13 July 1985 (although they did not perform as Wham!). Michael sang “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” with Elton John while Ridgeley joined Kiki Dee in the row of backing singers. In September, Wham! released the single “I’m Your Man” which went to #1 in the UK charts.
Michael claimed to have begun a relationship with model/makeup artist Kathy Yeung around this time, and Ridgeley began one with Keren Woodward of Bananarama. Ridgeley also took up the hobby of rally driving. “Last Christmas” was re-issued for the festive season and again made the UK Top 10, peaking at #6, while Michael took up offers he was starting to receive to add his voice to other artists’ songs. He performed backing vocals for David Cassidy and for Elton John on his successful singles “Nikita” (UK #3) and “Wrap Her Up” (UK #12), on which he sang co-lead vocals."
Meanwhile Duran Duran in 1985:
"Even with Duran Duran on hold, band members were soon anxious to record new music, leading to a supposedly temporary split into two side projects. John and Andy Taylor wanted to break away from the Duran Duran sound and pursue hard rock material; they collaborated with Robert Palmer and Tony Thompson to form the rock/funk supergroup The Power Station, which released two Top 10 singles. Simon Le Bon and Nick Rhodes, on the other hand, wanted to further explore Duran Duran’s atmospheric aspect and formed Arcadia, who released one LP (“So Red The Rose”) from which the single “Election Day” was released. Contributors to that album included guitarist Masami Tsuchiya, bassist Mark Egan, percussionist David Van Tieghem, drummer Steve Jordan, Sting, Herbie Hancock, and David Gilmour. Roger Taylor was a drummer for Arcadia as well, but also contributed percussion to the Power Station album. Duran Duran were never the same after this break. According to Rhodes, the two side projects “were commercial suicide… But we’ve always been good at that.”[10] The band were still off balance when they regrouped to contribute A View to a Kill to the 1985 James Bond movie of the same name. This single was the first Bond theme to go to Number 1 on the US charts, and was at the time the joint highest-placed Bond theme on the UK chart where it reached Number 2. It was the last single the band recorded as the original five-piece for close to twenty years.
As a follow-up to the Christmas 1984 Band Aid single, Duran Duran performed in front of 90,000 people (and an estimated 1.5 billion TV viewers) at the Live Aid charity concert at John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 13 July 1985 while their Bond song held the top spot on the American charts. It was not intended to be a farewell performance—the band planned only to take a break after four years of non-stop touring and public appearances—but the original five did not play live together again until July 2003. Their Live Aid set became infamous for Le Bon inadvertently hitting a falsetto note in the chorus of A View to a Kill, which he later described as the most humiliating moment of his career.[27]"
So both members participated in Live Aid, Wham broke up in 1986 and Duran Duran continued, while George Michael went on to solo success.