Much was interchangeable between the UK and US charts in the 1980s as particular genres and stars controlled both sides of the Atlantic. Yet it always came as a surprise when something caught on immeasurably on the Billboard Hot 100 that the chart in Britain simply wouldn’t entertain. Sometimes the reason was understandable – a song in an US sitcom or soap not shown anywhere else – but in many cases the act was established, or the movie it came from was a box office smash. Obviously plenty of great British music was also around to nullify a lot of Stateside’s attempted infiltration, yet there were some truly inexplicable anomalies. A sizeable number of the 29 US No.1s in the 80s that missed the UK Top 40 were medium-pace soft rock and hair metal songs – which, on reflection, could have also been a reason. Here we count down our Top 20.
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