1985 in British music

This is a summary of 1985 in music in the United Kingdom, including the official charts from that year.

ummary

The biggest British musical event of 1985 was the Live Aid concert in London's Wembley Stadium on July 13th. Held to follow-up the previous year's charity record "Do They Know It's Christmas?", the biggest selling single ever at the time, popular acts such as The Who, U2 and Queen performed in front of an estimated audience of 1.5 billion viewers. It raised £150 million to help famine in Ethiopia, and a similar event would happen 20 years later in 2005, with Live 8.

After the huge success of Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?", several more charity songs reached number 1 this year. USA for Africa, inspired by Band Aid, released "We Are the World", a song written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, while David Bowie and Mick Jagger released a cover of "Dancing In The Street", the music video being premiered at Live Aid and all proceeds going to the charity. In May, a fire at a football stadium in Bradford killed 56 people, and supergroup The Crowd released a charity cover of popular football anthem "You'll Never Walk Alone" in tribute.

British rock band Dire Straits released their album "Brothers in Arms" in May, one of the first ever albums to be released on Compact Disc. It went on to become a huge seller, the biggest selling album of the entire decade and as of 2008 in the top 5 biggest selling albums of all time. Four singles were released from the album, including the number 4 hit "Money for Nothing", which referenced American music channel MTV and had a groundbreaking video featuring early computer-generated imagery. When a European version of MTV launched in 1987, it was the first video ever played on the channel.

Jennifer Rush entered the top 75 in June with the power ballad "The Power of Love", which remained in the chart for months without entering the top 40. When it finally did in September, it quickly hit number 1, where it remained for five weeks and was the biggest selling single of the year. It sold over a million copies, however it would be the last single of the decade to do so, and there would not be another million-seller until 1991.

Many songs this year competed for the Christmas number one single, and the entire top 3 from 1984 re-entered the chart this year; Paul McCartney's "We All Stand Together" at number 32, Wham!'s "Last Christmas" at number 6, and Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" at number 3. There were also attempts from Bruce Springsteen with a cover of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town", and ventriloquist Keith Harris released a cover of "White Christmas" with his green puppet Orville the Duck.

However, the Christmas number one went to Shakin' Stevens with the song "Merry Christmas Everyone". It had been intended to be released in 1984, but was kept back a year due to the Band Aid charity single. Still a widely known Christmas song in the 21st century, it re-entered the chart in Christmas 2007 on downloads alone, at number 22.

Charts

Top 40 Singles of 1985

Music awards

BRIT Awards

The 1985 BRIT Awards winners were:

*Best British comedy recording: Neil (also known as Nigel Planer) - "Hole In My Shoe"
*Best British producer: Trevor Horn
*Best classical recording: Antonio Vivaldi's - "The Four Seasons"
*Best international artist: Prince and the Revolution
*Best soundtrack: "Purple Rain"
*British album: Sade - "Diamond Life"
*British female solo artist: Alison Moyet
*British group: Wham!
*British male solo artist: Paul Young
*British single: Frankie Goes to Hollywood - "Relax"
*British Video: Duran Duran - "The Wild Boys"
*Outstanding contribution: The Police
*Special Award: Bob Geldof and Midge Ure

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chart/ BBC Radio 1's Chart Show]
* [http://www.theofficialcharts.com/ The Official United Kingdom Charts Company]