68 Fun Facts About 1980s One-Hit Wonders

Which group recorded 'Come On Eileen', Britain's best-selling single of 1982?

Dexys Midnight Runners had switched to fiddles and a Celtic folk sound after topping the UK chart in 1980 with the soul single 'Geno'.

Soft Cell's 1981 smash 'Tainted Love' covered a 1964 recording by which soul singer, later Marc Bolan's partner?

Gloria Jones's version flopped as a 1965 B-side but became a Northern soul favourite in Britain, which is how Soft Cell came to hear it.

Soft Cell's 12-inch version of their 1981 hit segues halfway through into a cover of which Supremes song?

Where Did Our Love Go was a song the Supremes were unhappy to be given, yet in 1964 it became their first No. 1 in the US.

Balloons released at whose 1982 West Berlin concert inspired '99 Luftballons'?

The Rolling Stones released the balloons at that concert; guitarist Carlo Karges imagined them drifting over the Berlin Wall and being mistaken on radar for an attack.

Which is the only German-language song ever to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100?

Rock Me Amadeus grew from Falco's idea, inspired by the film Amadeus, that if Mozart were alive today he would be a pop star.

Which British band took an English cover of Falco's 'Der Kommissar' into the US top five?

After the Fire's English version missed the UK top 40 but reached No. 5 in the US, becoming the British band's only American hit.

The Vapors' managers were Bruce Foxton, bassist of which band, and John Weller, father of its frontman?

The Jam's Bruce Foxton spotted The Vapors at a pub gig in Surrey, and 'Turning Japanese' became a bigger US hit than anything The Jam released.

Which 1980s hit's video shows its singer in her own high-school cheerleader uniform?

Mickey: Basil wore her real Las Vegas High cheer sweater, and she had turned Racey's 1979 song 'Kitty', about a girl, into a song about a boy.

Ivan Doroschuk wrote 'The Safety Dance' after being thrown out of a club for doing what?

Pogo dancing: fans have often read the song as a plea for safe sex or a nuclear-war metaphor, but Doroschuk says it's really a protest for freedom of expression.

Who wrote 'Puttin' On the Ritz', a 1983 synth-pop hit for Taco, back in the 1920s?

Irving Berlin's original lyrics followed well-dressed strollers on Lenox Avenue; he rewrote them in 1946 for Fred Astaire in Blue Skies, moving the scene to Park Avenue.

Which British TV scientist shouts 'Science!' on Thomas Dolby's 'She Blinded Me with Science'?

Magnus Pyke shouts the lines on a song Dolby wrote to fit a video he had already storyboarded, set in a home for deranged scientists.

Tommy Tutone's 1982 hit '867-5309' started a nationwide fad for doing what?

Prank-calling it and asking for Jenny: co-writer Alex Call says there was no Jenny and he made the number up, though bandmates told bathroom-wall stories.

Matthew Wilder's 1983 hit 'Break My Stride' was later interpolated in which 1997 Puff Daddy single?

Can't Nobody Hold Me Down raps over a chorus Wilder wrote about Clive Davis, who dropped him from Arista after calling the song 'not a hit'.

Rockwell's 1984 hit 'Somebody's Watching Me' has uncredited chorus vocals by which superstar?

Michael Jackson's chorus won over Rockwell's father, Motown boss Berry Gordy, who had been lukewarm about his son's music until he heard this track.

Timbuk 3's 'The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades' was written as an ironic song about whom?

A young nuclear scientist with a rich future is the song's subject, yet the grim joke went unnoticed as high schools adopted it as a graduation theme.

'Voices Carry', the 1985 hit by 'Til Tuesday, was written and sung by which future solo artist?

Aimee Mann says she didn't write it as a feminist anthem; that idea arrived with the video, where a controlling boyfriend belittles her singing.

Martika's 1989 US number one 'Toy Soldiers' was written about a friend struggling with what?

Cocaine addiction: Martika wrote it about a friend hooked on the drug, and Eminem later sampled its chorus for his own 'Like Toy Soldiers'.

In 1988, Bobby McFerrin's 'Don't Worry, Be Happy' became the first US number one of what kind?

A cappella: McFerrin made every sound with his own voice and body, and he objected when the 1988 Bush presidential campaign used the song.

Eddy Grant's 'Electric Avenue' is named after a street in which London district, hit by 1981 riots?

Brixton: Grant, horrified by the unemployment, racism and poverty behind the riots there, gave the song a serious message about race and equality.

In Musical Youth's 1982 hit 'Pass the Dutchie', a 'dutchie' is Jamaican patois for what?

A Dutch oven cooking pot: 'dutchie' replaced 'kouchie', cannabis slang in the original reggae song, so the young band's version would be radio-friendly.

'In a Big Country' (1983), famous for guitars that sound like bagpipes, was by a band from which country?

Scotland's Big Country broke through in America on heavy MTV airplay, and this became their only US Top 40 hit.

The Dream Academy's 1985 hit 'Life in a Northern Town' was co-produced by which Pink Floyd member?

David Gilmour produced it with Nick Laird-Clowes, who said the song was about the collapse of Britain's shipyards and the unemployment left behind.

Peter Schilling's 1983 hit 'Major Tom (Coming Home)' continues the story from which David Bowie song?

Space Oddity's astronaut returns in Schilling's song, which follows Major Tom as he cuts off radio contact and drifts back out into space.

The Weather Girls' 'It's Raining Men' was first written for which disco star, who rejected it as blasphemous?

Donna Summer turned down Paul Jabara and Paul Shaffer's song, and Diana Ross and Barbra Streisand passed too before the Weather Girls recorded it.

Eddie Murphy's 1985 hit 'Party All the Time' was written and produced by which funk star?

Rick James recorded it with Murphy in Buffalo, where a snowstorm turned a short planned visit into two weeks snowed in.

Which Red Hot Chili Peppers member played on Young MC's Grammy-winning 1989 hit 'Bust a Move'?

Flea played bass and appeared in the video, and Young MC had already written the lyrics for Tone Lōc's 'Wild Thing' before scoring this hit himself.

Lipps Inc.'s 1980 hit "Funkytown" was written by members dreaming of leaving which city for New York?

Minneapolis was the city Steven Greenberg longed to leave, and six years later Pseudo Echo's rock cover made 'Funkytown' a hit all over again.

'Cars' (1979) was a hit for which singer, previously the frontman of Tubeway Army?

Gary Numan wrote it after men menaced him in London traffic and he escaped by driving up onto the pavement.

Mark Mothersbaugh said Devo's 'Whip It' was a pep talk for which 1980 presidential candidate?

Jimmy Carter was the president Mothersbaugh had in mind, while Jerry Casale modelled the lyrics on the can-do parodies in Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow.

'Too Shy', a 1983 UK number one, was by which band fronted by Limahl?

Kajagoogoo and Limahl split after their first album, and he carried on as a solo act.

Trio, the band behind the 1982 hit 'Da Da Da', came from which country?

West Germany's Trio found a new US audience in 1997, when a Volkswagen Golf ad used the song.

Which 'Hot Child in the City' singer co-wrote Scandal's 1984 hit 'The Warrior' with Holly Knight?

Nick Gilder co-wrote it with Holly Knight, who said the song was about empowerment, fighting for something rather than against someone.

Club Nouveau's 1987 number one 'Lean on Me' was a remake of a 1972 hit by which singer?

Bill Withers's original had also topped the Hot 100, and as its writer he won the Best R&B Song Grammy for Club Nouveau's remake.

'Our House' by Madness reached number seven in the US in 1983 and won Best Pop Song at which ceremony?

The Ivor Novello Award went to writers Chas Smash and Chris Foreman, and Madness later played the song at the London 2012 Olympics closing ceremony.

Tom Tom Club, of 'Genius of Love' fame, was a side project of which band's rhythm section?

Talking Heads' Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz made the record, and its hook later became the base of Mariah Carey's number one 'Fantasy'.

Katrina and the Waves, of 1985's 'Walking on Sunshine', later won what in 1997?

The Eurovision Song Contest win came with 'Love Shine a Light', which the 2020 acts sang from home to close the show that replaced that year's cancelled contest.

Joe Dolce's 'Shaddap You Face' kept which Ultravox single off the top of the UK chart in 1981?

Vienna stalled at number two behind Dolce's novelty song, and Midge Ure later admitted he had invented the arty back story he gave the press.

St Winifred's School Choir's 'There's No One Quite Like Grandma' kept which star at number two on the 1980 Christmas chart?

John Lennon's '(Just Like) Starting Over' had shot to number one after his murder, until the school choir's song overtook it for Christmas.

'The Chicken Song', a UK number one in 1986, came from which satirical TV show?

Spitting Image made it a deliberately annoying earworm, mocking holiday party hits like Black Lace's 'Agadoo'.

When 'Star Trekkin'' reached number one in 1987, which BBC show did its two writers refuse to appear on?

Top of the Pops: the writers felt a bunch of balding thirty-somethings would kill the fun, so art students made a cheap animated video starring potato heads.

Aneka of the 1981 hit 'Japanese Boy' was Mary Sandeman, previously known as what kind of singer?

Scottish folk: after her follow-up single flopped, Mary Sandeman dropped the Aneka name and went back to traditional Scottish music.

The Timelords, whose 'Doctorin' the Tardis' hit UK number one in 1988, were an alias of which duo?

The KLF's Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty later walked away from the music industry in 1992 and deleted their entire back catalogue.

M|A|R|R|S's 'Pump Up the Volume' took its title from a sampled lyric by which hip-hop act?

Eric B. & Rakim supplied the line, and the record, built almost entirely from samples, drew lawsuits and stayed M|A|R|R|S's only release.

Steve 'Silk' Hurley's 1987 UK number one 'Jack Your Body' belongs to which dance music genre?

House: the record helped pave the way for the acid house explosion in late-1980s Britain.

Yazz's 1988 UK number one 'The Only Way Is Up' was a cover of a 1980 single by which soul singer?

Otis Clay's soul recording was reworked into a dance record by Yazz and producers Coldcut, and the cover spent five weeks at number one.

'Together in Electric Dreams' (1984) paired Philip Oakey with which disco producer?

Giorgio Moroder wrote it with Oakey for Electric Dreams, a film about a personal computer that grows jealous when its owner falls in love.

Ray Dorset wrote Kelly Marie's 1980 number one 'Feels Like I'm in Love' with which singer in mind?

Elvis Presley died just before the demo could be sent to him, and the song became a number one for Kelly Marie instead.

The chorus of Stephen 'Tin Tin' Duffy's 1985 hit 'Kiss Me' draws on which book of the Bible?

Song of Songs supplies the chorus, and Duffy, a founding Duran Duran member who left before their fame, finally scored his biggest hit with it.

Modern English's 'I Melt with You' became a US cult hit in 1983 after appearing in which film?

Valley Girl used it for a falling-in-love montage, though singer Robbie Grey says the song is about a couple making love as the atomic bomb drops.

'One Night in Bangkok' comes from Chess, a musical by Tim Rice and two members of which group?

ABBA's Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus wrote Chess as a 1984 concept album first, so this song was a US No. 3 hit before the musical was staged.

Donnie Iris, whose 1980 hit chants the name Leah, became a lasting rock hero in which American city?

Pittsburgh took the Western Pennsylvania singer to heart, and the song's 'ah, Leah' hook began as a Gregorian-style chant on a planned anti-war song.

Baltimora's 1985 hit 'Tarzan Boy' was fronted in videos by Jimmy McShane, who did what on the record?

Nothing — he lip-synced it: producer Maurizio Bassi recorded the vocals, though fellow producer Tom Hooker says McShane sometimes sang backing parts for Baltimora.

Sabrina, singer of the 1987 hit 'Boys (Summertime Love)', came from which country?

Italy: Sabrina Salerno's swimming-pool video was so revealing that British TV censored it when the song reached number three in the UK.

A Flock of Seagulls' 'I Ran (So Far Away)' was inspired by a picture of people fleeing what?

A flying saucer: Mike Score took the title from another band's song, and heavy MTV rotation of the video made it a US hit.

David Fenton says The Vapors' 'Turning Japanese' is about a young man pining for whom?

His ex-girlfriend: Fenton drew the heartbroken narrator from his own experience of being rejected in love.

Which heavy-metal frontman plays a western villain in the video for Boys Don't Cry's 'I Wanna Be a Cowboy'?

Lemmy was cast because Nick Richards, whose label had Motörhead on its roster, wanted a Lee Van Cleef-style bad guy after watching Clint Eastwood westerns.

Paul Hardcastle's 1985 hit '19' took its title from a documentary's claim about US soldiers in which war?

The Vietnam War documentary Vietnam Requiem supplied its samples and the claim that the average US combat soldier was 19, a figure later disputed.

Ready for the World's 1985 number one "Oh Sheila" is often wrongly attributed to which star?

Prince was the star listeners assumed, and many took 'Sheila' for his protégée Sheila E., though the song isn't about her.

Which band's 'Video Killed the Radio Star' was the first music video shown on MTV, in 1981?

The Buggles' Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes joined Yes in 1980, and Downes then co-founded the supergroup Asia.

After "Pac-Man Fever", Buckner & Garcia's 1982 follow-up single was about which other arcade game?

Donkey Kong got its song after 'Pac-Man Fever' sold fast and a whole album of video game songs was rushed out to follow it.

Opus, whose "Live Is Life" topped charts across Europe in 1985, came from which country?

Austria's Opus recorded it live at a 1984 concert in Oberwart, and Diego Maradona famously warmed up to it before a 1989 UEFA Cup match.

Real Life's "Send Me an Angel", a US hit in both 1984 and 1989, came from a band based where?

Australia: the band began when singer-guitarist David Sterry answered keyboardist Richard Zatorski's ad in a Melbourne newspaper in 1980.

Harold Faltermeyer's 1985 instrumental hit "Axel F" is the theme from which film?

Beverly Hills Cop's hero Axel Foley gave the tune its name, and in 2005 a Crazy Frog ringtone cover made it a chart-topping hit all over again.

Jan Hammer's "Miami Vice Theme" was the last instrumental to top the Hot 100 until which 2013 track?

Harlem Shake debuted at No. 1 the week Billboard began counting YouTube views, powered by a flood of fan-made dance-meme videos.

Michael Sembello's 1983 number one "Maniac" is best known from the soundtrack of which film?

Flashdance got a rewritten 'Maniac', which began as a darkly comic song inspired by a serial killer and the horror film Maniac.

Yello's 1985 track "Oh Yeah" later became the theme for which Simpsons character?

Duffman's 'Oh, yeah!' nods to the Yello song advertisers rushed to use after Ferris Bueller's Day Off made it famous.

Bertie Higgins' 1982 hit 'Key Largo' likens a couple's romance to which Hollywood screen pair?

Bogart and Bacall starred in the 1948 film Key Largo, and Higgins also borrowed 'Here's looking at you, kid' from Bogart's Casablanca.

Trans-X, the synth-pop act behind 'Living on Video', was formed in which Canadian city?

Montreal: Pascal Languirand formed Trans-X there, and after 'Living on Video' first stalled in Britain, a 1985 remix took it to No. 9.