Friday's 40th five (no.48/80)

Week by week we're listing 5 tracks which were big music news in the charts, on your radio or even in your record collection 40 years ago, this week in 1980:

1. ABBA - On and On and On. ABBA did the double this week with Super Trouper the single and Super Trouper the album both at no.1 in the UK. Here's a banger from side one of the album which was also released as a single in some countries (but not in the UK).

2. AC/DC - Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution. This single, taken from the Back in Black album, was the highest new entry in the Top 40 this week. Eventually got to no.15.

3.  Darry Hall & John Oates - Kiss On My List. Another new entry this week and the first UK Top 40 hit for the American duo.

4. Siouxsie & The Banshees - Israel. Released as a 'stand-alone' single on 26th November, this was their attempt at a "Christmas" song. Sadly it only made no.41 in the UK, although unsurprisingly on heavy rotation on John Peel's show.

5. Blondie - Live It Up. Random track choice from Blondie's new Autoamerican album, highest new entry at no.3 in the UK this week. 

Friday's 40th five (no.47/80)

Week by week we're listing 5 tracks which were big music news in the charts, on your radio or even in your record collection 40 years ago, this week in 1980:

1. Spandau Ballet - To Cut A Long Story Short. One of the defining bands of the eighties made their Top 40 debut this week with their debut single, and the highest new entry at no.18.

2. Madness - Embarrassment. The Nutty Boys are also new on the charts this week (no.31) with this track off Absolutely, allegedly about Lee Thompson's teenage sister.

3. John Lennon & Yoko Ono - Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him (from Double Fantasy). ABBA were straight in to the album charst at no.1 this week, while Lennon & Ono's comeback album entered at a more modest no.27. Penned and sung principally by Yoko, this track was later remixed highlighting only Lennon's vocal for the 1984 compilation album Every Man Has a Woman. 

4. Bow Wow Wow - Louis Quatorze (from Your Cassette Pet). Opening track form the 'revolutionary' mini-album by Mlcolm McLaren's latest project which, as it wasn't released on vinyl, wasn't classified as an album at all, but only as an Ep and as such failed to make the singles Top 40. 

5. Motels - Days Are OK. Lead singer Martha Davis got the Record Mirror cover this week, with a full feature on the band inside "on the eve of their UK tour". British audiences hardly warmed to this Blondie-esque US band however and the single made slow progress.

6. Boomtown Rats - Banana Republic. First new material from the Rats in 1980, and the lead single from new album coming in '81. This new single was a new entry at no.23 this week and would eventually reach no.3 by Christmas.

Friday's 40th five (no.46/80)

Week by week we're listing 5 tracks which were big music news in the charts, on your radio or even in your record collection 40 years ago, this week in 1980:

1. ABBA - Super Trouper. And they're back with a strong new single and "feeling like a number one". This single (and album) did eventually reach the top although it would also be their last one to do so. Highest new entry this week at no.13

2. Diana Ross - I'm Coming Out. Nothing to do with LGBT, and indeed Ross was apparently horrified when she discovered the double meaning of the phrase after the song had been written and recorded. Another track off her Diana album released back in May. new entry this week and eventually reached no.13.

3. Adam & The Ants - Kings of the Wild Frontier. Title track of the band's new album, a new entry this week at no.4. 

4. The Professionals - Join The Professionals (Peel session). More post-punk fun from two former Sex Pistols and a friend. This session was recorded and broadcast by Peel although a self-titled debut album never emerged. 

5. Roxy Music - Same Old Scene. Another single is squeezed out of the Flesh+Blood album and makes it to no.12, its peak position, this week.

Friday's 40th five (no.45/80)

Week by week we're listing 5 tracks which were big music news in the charts, on your radio or even in your record collection 40 years ago, this week in 1980:

1. Blondie - The Tide Is High. Blondie are back with a surprising cover version of a 1969 Jamaican reggae number. Hisghest new entry this week in 1980 at no.5

2. John Lennon  - Just Like Starting Over. Another comeback although we've waited even longer for new material than we had with Blondie. More tinges of rock n roll nostalgia in Lennon's ode to both his wife and his career in music. Into the charts at 30.

3. Rod Stewart - Passion. Another lead single from another upcoming new album, Foolish Beahviour, Rod's tenth. A fairly modest new entry at 37 but would go higher.

4. Motorhead - Ace of Spades. The heavy metal revival starts here, with the album and its title track both in the charts this week. Saxon and Whitesnake were also coming out with new material around this time.

5. Modern English - Gathering Dust. Rock of a different kind for this band's new single release on burgeoning independent 4AD label. They also recorded their first Peel session later in the month (listen here).