'80s Pop 4

It's the decade that keeps on giving . . . welcome to our fourth selection of '80s chart fodder featuring — in no particular order — Susan Fassbender, whose one big hit, "Twilight Cafe" (1981), reveals an artist with '70s bubblegum stuck on her shoes; the Jam, tearing through "A Town Called Malice" with revolutionary intent; and Queen's decade kick-starting funk-rock classic, "Another One Bites the Dust", with a bassline inspired by that from Chic's "Good Times". Get a taste for Orange Juice and Blancmange in Next Steps.

We've stashed a couple of the best new wave singles of the early '80s here — Blancmange's "Living on the Ceiling", a heady blend of Indian sitar work and bouncy synth pop, and "Rip It Up" by Glasgow's Orange Juice, with lyricist Edwyn Collins laying his acerbic lyrical poetry on a bed of soft funk. Elsewhere, the future would start to take shape in the cut 'n' paste sampling of Malcolm McLaren's "Buffalo Gals" and Mark Moore's S'Express signature, "Theme from S'Express". Disco, goth, synth-pop . . . take your pick of '80s styles, in Deep Cuts.

"Tonight will be a boogie-oogie night" — no one had told Liquid Gold that disco was in its death throes at the dawn of the '80s, so the Northamptonshire party-pop outfit ploughed on regardless with "Dance Yourself Dizzy". A Flock of Seagulls proved to be futurists worth their salt with "I Ran", the Damned picked up Barry Ryan's 1968 hit "Eloise" and loaded it with gothic bombast, and Tom Jones teamed up with Art of Noise to retool "Kiss" . . . all of which made for a wildly kaleidoscopic poposphere.

Our fourth instalment of '80s pop hits reveals a decade in transition — from creamy disco grooves swathed in orchestral strings to the chopped up electro-pop beats that would point the way towards hip-hop and acid house; from seminal group tracks (the Police's "Don't Stand So Close to Me") to landmark solo cuts (Sting's "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free"); and from the pin-up pop tease (Kim Wilde) to the bedsit-bound singer-songwriter (Suzanne Vega). Whether you prefer the staunch optimism of Spandau Ballet's "Gold" or the flip cynicism of Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing", it all amounts to another priceless collection of '80s pop.