TOP 2O
80S COLLABORATIONS
THE PULL OF STAR POWER CAN BE UNDENIABLE SO IT’S NO SURPRISE THAT SOME DREAM TEAM HOOK-UPS HAVE MADE A MAJOR SPLASH IN THE CHARTS OVER THE YEARS
JON O’BRIEN
The star-studded collaboration may have become de rigueur in the Spotify era. In fact, nearly half of 2019’s 40 biggest-selling singles were duets or artists “featuring” another. But in the days of Bruno Brookes chart countdowns, the union of two different acts was a rarity rather than a regularity. Here’s a look at 20 team-ups which suggest that the 1980s was the true golden age of the pop collab.
2O UB40 & CHRISSIE HYNDE
I GOT YOU BABE
Almost 20 years to the day that Sonny & Cher flower-powered their way to the UK top spot with I Got You Babe, Birmingham’s premier soft-reggae collective repeated the feat, with a little help from another self-described hippy. Ali Campbell and Chrissie Hynde are no match for the ultimate husband-and-wife entertainers and are on extremely low-key form on this lead single from UB40’s LP Baggariddim. However, their lovers’ rock treatment of the iconic love song still manages to retain some of the original’s unashamedly corny charm.
19 KIM WILDE & JUNIOR
ANOTHER STEP (CLOSER TO YOU)
Chiswick’s finest formed pop’s other Mel and Kim when she teamed up with the grumpier half of Smith & Jones for a cover of a Brenda Lee classic. But Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree wasn’t Kim Wilde’s only duet of 1987. Junior Giscombe hadn’t troubled the UK Top 10 since 1982’s Mama Used To Say. But the British soulman fully grabbed his chance to re-enter the spotlight on a sprightly synth-rock duet which, in the wake of You Keep Me Hangin’ On, gave Wilde her first back-to-back UK Top 10s since the turn of the decade.
18 ROBERT HOWARD & KYM MAZELLE
WAIT
From ABC to The Style Council, 1989 saw several artists abandon their trademark sophistipop sound for something a little more hedonistic. But Dr Robert was perhaps the only name who pulled off such a reinvention convincingly. In an inspired move, The Blow Monkeys frontman called upon the talents of Kym Mazelle, the powerhouse diva who’d previously worked with Marshall Jefferson. And the resulting Wait was the kind of joyous dance-pop anthem you could imagine blasting out at the clubs of Chicago.