1983 ANNOUNCED THE ARRIVAL OF MADONNA, HOWARD JONES, CYNDI LAUPER, WHAM! AND BANANARAMA, WHILE SPANDAU, DURAN AND EURYTHMICS BROKE BIG. CLASSIC POP SURVEYS THE FRUITS OF A TRULY BOUNTIFUL YEAR FOR SINGLES TO WHITTLE IT DOWN TO JUST 20…

Before our Twitter feed gets fully jammed with expletives and our mail-bags overflow with hate mail, we must point out that we are fully aware that there are an indefensible amount of gigantic, brilliant pop tunes absent from this rundown.

So to beat you to it, what amounts to a near mile-long honorary roll-call of second-string candidates, includes the likes of The Smiths (This Charming Man), The Police (Every Breath You Take), Aztec Camera (Oblivious), Paul Young (Wherever I Lay My Hat/Love Of The Common People) Kajagoogoo (Too Shy), Wham! (Bad Boys), Thompson Twins (Hold Me Now), Orange Juice (Rip It Up), R.E.M. (Radio Free Europe), The The (This Is The Day), PiL (This Is Not A Love Song), and on (and on)… Yes, we know, we know, Kraftwerk’s Tour de France isn’t there either, nor is Chris & Cosey’s sublime cult favourite October (Love Song) or Cabaret Voltaire, or Elvis Costello or Yello – all of whom are fully deserving of their slice of 1983 glory. Hell, even Club Tropicana didn’t make it. Shame on us…

But be kind, as is plain to see from the abridged list of runners-up above, 1983 was an absolute banger of a year for pop music and, as such, distilling such a far-reaching bounty into a humble run-down of just 20 would be an incredibly tough ask for anyone. Yes, even you would struggle.

But, as we’re sure you’ll agree, it’s a whole heap of fun, so we did it anyway, even though several of CP’s team members had to be prised apart and pacified with Haribo more times than we’re happy to admit.

Indeed, days and nights were lost shivering in the dank corners of the stationary cupboard – but we eventually emerged. With our only rule being that there can be only one track per artist – through gritted teeth – we came to an agreement. Here’s our Top 20 singles from 1983 – be sure to send us yours…

20 IS THERE SOMETHING I SHOULD KNOW?

DURAN DURAN

A rare straight-in-at-No.1 single, this standalone effort was the Brum fivepiece’s first to flag the UK summit. Is There Something I Should Know? took its lead from The Beatles, revolving around one of guitarist Andy Taylor’s finest riffs that meshed neatly with yet another classic Duran low-line. Supposedly only taking a mere 10 minutes to write, this deserves much more recognition in the Duran canon. The bods at NASA agreed, adding it to the interplanetary playlist, aired by the Mars Rover. An arty Russell Mulcahy-directed promo video with soldiers, bowler-hatted businessmen, crawling babies and a surplus of shadows added an air of intrigue.