Weekend Diversion: 1983 – And also

When I posted my most recent Weekend Diversion post in the 1983 Series on July 9, it was for a song that would be Number One for eight weeks, replacing one that had been at the top of the charts for six weeks. In fact, for the first 35 weeks of 1983 that I’ve talked about so far, 31 one of them were occupied by just seven songs, meaning that only four songs were Number One for only one week.

This got me to wondering: What about the songs that never made it to Number One? 1983 was a pretty good year for pop music generally—well, my sort of pop music, anyway—so what songs missed out? I decided to look at some of the “and also” hits during the part of 1983 I’ve talked about so far.

This search began because a friend posted to the Facebook group for his podcast that the song ”Gold” by the UK new wave band Spandau Ballet was released on August 5, 1983. The thing is, while the song was Top 10 in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK (and 12 in Canada), it barely reached the Top 30 in the USA (Number 29). On the other hand, the band’s bigger hit “True” was released on April 15, 1983:

The song has one of the most memorable openings of any pop song, and hearing that distinctive "Ah ha-hah hahh-hi…” coming from the radio can only be from that song, and it’s nearly impossible to avoid joining in, at least it is for me—I know this much is true. Gary Kemp, co-founder of Spandau Ballet and the writer of the song, said in 2017: "With the royalties from 'True', I was finally able to move out of my parents' house."

Despite never reaching Number One on the Billboard “Hot 100”, the song still did quite well. It reached Number 4 In Australia (Gold), Number One in Canada (Gold), Number 4 in New Zealand (Platinum), Number 4 on the USA’s “Hot 100”, and Number One in the UK (Platinum). The song entered the US chart on August 6, 1983—which is another reason I’m talking about it first—and it peaked the week of October 8, 1983 It was also Number 89 on the Billboard “Year-End Hot 100 singles” of 1983.

Speaking of songs with a distinctive opening, next up is “The Safety Dance” by Canadian new wave and synth-pop band, Men Without Hats:



The song was, it’s fair to say, one of my favourites from that era. I particularly loved these lyrics:

We can go when we want to
Night is young and so am I
And we can dress real neat
From our hats to our feet
And surprise 'em with the victory cry

At the time, I was 23-24, still learning what it meant to be a young gay man in times that were becoming increasingly troubled for people like me, something that led to me becoming a grassroots LGBT+ political activist in that same timeframe—but I was also one that loved absurdity and what to me were unexpected song lyrics. According to songwriter and lead vocalist Ivan Doroschuk, the song is actually a protest song about club bouncers after he’d been kicked out of a club for “pogoing”. Turning that into a successful pop song is a pretty good bit of revenge. I bought the album the song was from, Rhythm of Youth, and later bought remixes.

The song was released in the USA on March 16, eventually peaking at Number 3 the week of September 10, 1983. The song reached Number 5 in Australia, Number 11 in Canada (Gold), Number 2 in New Zealand, Number 6 in the UK, and, in addition to Number 3 on the “Hot 100”, it was also Number One on BillBoard’s “Hot Dance Club Play” chart and also on Cashbox.

Finally for today, “She Blinded Me With Science” by English musician Thomas Dolby:



I suppose the intro for this song is pretty distinctive, too, but for me it’s more about the distinctive early 1980s electronic/synth pop sound of the song. The lyrics, once again, caught my attention, too. It peaked at Number 5 on the USA’s “Hot 100” the week of May 14, 1983.

The song is somewhat unusual in that Dolby conceived of the music video first, and wrote the title and lyrics to fit the video he planned (and that he directed). The character of “The Doctor” was played in the video by real-life English nutritional scientist and TV presenter Magnus Pyke, who provided the spoken word portions of the song—the interjections “Science!”, and the line, "Good heavens, Miss Sakamoto, you’re beautiful", which Dolby wrote because he wanted a Japanese woman in the video. "I was boldly ahead of the times in fetishising Asian women," he said of it.

The song reached Number 19 in Australia, Number One in Canada, 7 in New Zealand, 56 in the UK, and 5 in the USA.

• • • • •

These three songs were hits in 1983, but for whatever reason never made it to Number One. Even so, each one of them is part of the soundtrack of my life from that era, sometimes more so than songs that reached the top of the charts. For me, that’s reason enough to pause at (roughly) the mid-point between Part 7 and the still-to-come Part 8 in the 1983 Weekend Diversion series. And to think, it all started because of a friend’s Facebook post that was relevant to today. Still, inspiration for blog posts can come from anywhere. Clearly.

Previously in the “Weekend Diversion – 1983” series:

Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 1
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 2
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 3
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 4
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 5
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 6
Weekend Diversion: 1983, Part 7