'80s Number Ones

The king of pop, the queen of clubs, the knaves of shock and an assortment of legendary troubadours can all be found among this regal collection of artists who all ascended to the Number One chart spot during the '80s. Liverpudlian sensationalists, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, deliver double the fun with the sex-centric "Relax" (1983) and their funky dissection of geo-political posturing, "Two Tribes" (1984), Michael Jackson puts an irresistible shuffle in everyone's stride with "Billie Jean", Madonna uses after-midnight Manhattan as her springboard to global superstardom with "Into the Groove", and Kylie leads the Stock Aitken Waterman pop charge with "I Should Be So Lucky".

A Eurovision Song Contest winner rubs shoulder-pads with a young roller from Newton-Le-Willows, in Next Steps.

A rolling stone, so the saying goes, gathers no moss . . . and neither does a rolling Rick, as we discovered when Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" picked up 21st Century momentum as a bait-n-switch internet meme — and the song remains as catchy as ever, following its chart-topping first appearance back in '87. The success of Paul Hardcastle's heavily sampled pacifist dance anthem "19" (1985) provided strong business foundations for his manager, Simon Fuller, who would go on to massive pop success with the Spice Girls and American Idol (and named his company 19 Entertainment), while Bucks Fizz went big with 1981 Eurovision winner "Making Your Mind Up".

A 21st Century movie villain features in Deep Cuts alongside a '60s crooner enjoying a second wind.

Long before he was unleashing his fists as the baddie in the second instalments of the Hellboy and Blade franchises, Luke Goss was wielding his sticks as the drummer in Bros, alongside vocalist twin brother Matt — a re-issued "I Owe You Nothing" went to the top in 1988. Norway's A-Ha packed a powerhouse Morten Harket vocal and a whole lotta production gloss into their 1985 chart-topper "The Sun Always Shines on T.V.", reggae raggamuffins Musical Youth took "Pass the Dutchie" to pole position in 1982, and in 1988 Marc Almond reinvented "Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart" with melodramatic panache, accompanied by Gene Pitney (who'd had a hit with the song in '67).

However we choose to remember the '80s, there's no denying that the decade generated tremendous energy, and that comes across loud and clear in this big, bold selection of chart-topping Essentials. Back then, it was hard to avoid the sensation that the entire country was enjoying an unstoppable rocket-ride, fuelled by boundlessly optimistic singles like "The Only Way Is Up" (Yazz & the Plastic Population), "Uptown Girl" (Billy Joel) and "Pump Up the Volume" (MARRS). A few bands found success by keeping it real ("Ghost Town" by the Specials, "Going Underground" by the Jam), but — for the most part — we were giddy on UB40's "Red, Red Wine", groovin' to Bowie's "Let's Dance", and bathing in the lush colours of Boy George's dreams on "Karma Chameleon".