![\"Charts](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Charts-Official-Charts-Gold-Platinum-Music-General-Single-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ NASA \/ Uwe Conrad)<\/p>\n
Fri 26 September 2025 19:00, UK <\/p>\n
Only a year into the 1980s<\/a>, and the pop world was already rapidly shifting.<\/p>\n The previous decade\u2019s era of the blockbuster album wasn\u2019t over; the 1980s delivered mammoth records from AC\/DC and Michael Jackson that still stand as the two biggest-selling albums of all time. But punk and new wave, while still boasting fantastic LPs, did herald the single\u2019s resurrection, bringing primacy back to an artist\u2019s A-side unseen since the days of rock and roll\u2019s coveted 45.<\/p>\n Such a comeback for the single was pushed by the revolutionary impact of MTV. The moment The Buggles\u2019 \u2018Video Killed the Radio Star\u2019 launched the fledgling cable channel on August 1st, 1981, the demand for a shiny, big-budget promo to sell a song added a whole new dimension to the Billboard Hot 100, unleashing a new form of pop star whose visual identity was as essential as their music. Before long, Madonna, Prince, and the cohort of cartoon hair metallers found a new optic foil for their stardom, and the Woodstock generation wandered blearily into the new world, battling confusion and irrelevance in MTV\u2019s glitzy fug.<\/p>\n 1981 was the year that synthpop, new wave, and the broader second British invasion exploded in earnest. With dizzying pace, the likes of Billy Idol were swept up from a bit part of punk\u2019s so-called Bromley Contingent to posterboy pop sensation adorning the walls of American teens, and A Flock of Seagulls singer Mike Score was a hairdresser in possession of a second-hand Korg MS-10 synthesiser one moment, to playing America\u2019s famous US Festival \u201983 the next.<\/p>\n The new wave naturally held a major presence on UK charts. Both sharing the year\u2019s longest held top spot, Adam and the Ants\u2019 glam camp \u2018Stand and Deliver\u2019 and The Human League<\/a>\u2019s \u2018Don\u2019t You Want Me\u2019 synthpop soap opera spent five consecutive weeks at number one. Both bands would fall as easily as they rose, never enjoying the same commercial success or cultural cachet after those electric few months of 1981.<\/p>\n So, what song was number one the longest in 1981?<\/p>\n While MTV was pushing the crop of British new wave stars into American households in earnest in 1982, the cable channel was yet to find its niche during those first few months of broadcast, playing the likes of Rod Stewart, REO Speedwagon, and Phil Collins over the future decade-defining stars we know today.<\/p>\n The British invasion\u2019s sequel was well underway, but America\u2019s number one record for 1981 hadn\u2019t quite gotten the memo yet. After rejections from Rod Stewart and Tina Turner, songwriters Terry Shaddick and Steve Kipner, the future hitmakers behind Natasha Bedingfield\u2019s \u2018These Words\u2019 and Christina Aguilera\u2019s \u2018Genie in a Bottle\u2019, shopped around a dance-pop disco demo that was eventually picked up by clean-cut, British-Australian singer and Grease star Olivia Newton-John<\/a>.<\/p>\n Leading her 11th album, \u2018Physical\u2019, coupled with its kitschy and steamy workout video, launched to the top of the Hot 100 in November after its September release, staying put for six straight weeks before returning to number one again in 1982 for four weeks, making \u2018Physical\u2019 the longest-running US number one of the decade.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ NASA \/ Uwe Conrad) Fri 26 September 2025 19:00, UK Only a year into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[81823,64503,77,269,152587,16,127536,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-454470","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-1980s","9":"tag-billboard-hot-100","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-olivia-newton-john","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-uk-singles-chart","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115274361313805090","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}