My Favourite 45s of the Year: 1986 Quiz

Answer: Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" is a killer combination of a knock-out record and an astonishing video. The song is really funky with a great bass line; Tamla and Soul influences make it a great dance record. A couple of interesting factoids: what sounds like a flute on the track is actually a synthesizer, and the wonderful P. P. Arnold sings backing vocals (see my "Favourite 45s of the Year: 1967" quiz!).
As for the video - well! It's a mixture of animation and real-life filming featuring dancing chickens, steam trains, all sorts of things. The headless, featherless chickens were the product of Nick Park of "Wallace and Gromit" fame. The making of the video was especially challenging for Gabriel, who had to lay under a sheet of glass for 16 hours!
The record went to number four in the UK Singles Chart and to number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. The video won a record nine MTV Music Video Awards.

Answer: Robert Palmer

Another killer record/video combination, Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love" is a real piledriver of a song - very soul and funk influenced, with a great drum intro. It was originally intended to be a duet with Chaka Khan! - that would have been brilliant.
The main issue, though, is the video of Palmer singing backed by five look-alike models in tight black dresses - it's been praised and panned in equal measure. All I can say is that I doubt if it could be made now, unless it was pushed very hard as being "post-modern irony"!
It went to number five in the UK Singles Chart and to number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Answer: The Rainmakers

The Rainmakers were basically a bar band from rural Missouri that enjoyed a bit of success in the late 80s and early 90s. They even had a superstar fan, Stephen King, who quoted their song lyrics in a couple of his books. But they released this one stand-out track, "Let My People Go-Go" - I was totally addicted to it! It seems it was based on the American Spiritual "Go Down Moses", transcribed to a modern pop song. Again it has a wonderful driving guitar riff with an excellent horn section behind.

It went to number 18 on the UK Singles Chart but didn't chart in the US.

Answer: Kate Bush

With her number one album "Hounds of Love" already yielding two hit records, Kate Bush had every reason to be pleased with the issue of the title track as a single. It's a powerful song, driven by powerful drum rhythms and led by her wonderful voice, and all the time her songwriting was developing and maturing.

Despite a rather scary video, it went to number 18 on the UK Singles Chart but didn't chart in the US.

Answer: Big Audio Dynamite

Having been fired by the other members of The Clash, Mick Jones went on to form Big Audio Dynamite in 1984. The ace in the pack was the recruitment of film-maker, social commentator and DJ Don Letts, who had worked with The Clash in earlier days.
The new band was amazing! Musically it combined punk, hip hop, reggae and funk, and songs were often embellished with sampled dialogue. This was especially the case with the band's second single, "E=MC2", which included snatches of dialogue from the 1970 Nicolas Roeg and Donald Cammell film "Performance". Roeg was in fact the inspiration for the song, and the song's lyrics quote many of his films such as "The Man Who Fell to Earth", "Walkabout", "Don't Look Now" and "Insignificance".
The single went to number 11 on the UK Singles Chart (the band's biggest hit) but didn't chart in the US. I was able to go to two of the band's gigs, in 1986 and again a couple of years later - they were tremendous!

Answer: Prince and the Revolution

And all the time Prince was releasing wonderful music - the "Parade" album had all sorts of goodies on it, including this stand-out track, "Kiss". Lots of electronic noises, a choppy, "James Brown" guitar and no bass guitar all combined to produce something really funky and totally original - sheer genius!
It went to number six in the UK Singles Chart and to number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was also ranked at number 461 in the 2004 "Rolling Stone" list of the 500 greatest songs of all time, at number 464 in the 2010 list and at number 85 in the 2021 list.
And who could forget "Act your age, not your shoe size"!

Answer: The Beastie Boys

The Beastie Boys got together in around 1981, going through a number of personnel changes before getting the lucky break of a support slots on tours by Public Image Ltd and Madonna. Their first album, "Licensed to Ill", was the first rap album to top the Billboard 200 chart, and the single from this album "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)" was a great record, fun and exciting in equal measures. "Kick it"!
It went to number 11 on the UK Singles Chart and to number seven on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Answer: Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush

Peter Gabriel's fifth album, "So", produced a number of classic tracks such as "Red Rain", "Sledgehammer" and this wonderful duet with Kate Bush, "Don't Give Up". Gabriel is a very politically aware man, and in the verses of this song he sings about unemployment and its effects: isolation, loneliness and despair. Then Kate Bush comes in for the choruses, offering hope and encouragement. It's a wonderfully uplifting song. The video is, if anything, even more affecting: Gabriel and Bush locked in an embrace as they sing. It's beautiful.
There's been a number of covers: Willie Nelson and Sinead O'Connor in 1993, Alicia Keys and Bono in 2005 and others. None have come close to the original.
It went to number nine on the UK Singles Chart and to number 72 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Answer: Cameo

So you're watching "Top of the Pops" and this group comes on, strutting to a great beat with a little sample of Enrico Moricone's "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" in the background - and the lead singer is wearing a bright red codpiece! Cue mayhem! Cameo had formed in New York in the early 1970s.

Originally a pure funk band, they went through numerous changes of personnel before settling into a more dance vibe and recording a US number three hit with "I Just Want To Be" in 1979. More success followed, culminating in "Word Up" in 1986 - a wonderful strutting song with a great riff. It went to number three on the UK Singles Chart and to number six on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.

There have been numerous covers, including versions by Little Mix, Mel B, Korn, Jan Delay and Gun; most have charted, illustrating the continued popularity of the song and how ahead of its time it was when first released.

Answer: Nu Shooz

Nu Shooz were formed in Oregon by a husband-and-wife team in the late 1970s, and after much local work hit the big time with this wonderful, happy, up-beat dance track, "I Can't Wait". I don't know why but I found it totally addictive. I also fell in love with the lead singer, Valerie Day, who sang with a big smile on her face and was also a great dancer.
It went to number two on the UK Singles Chart and to number three on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.