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WOW's Top 20 Singles from 1983

THE GOLDEN YEARS

Featured Year...

Indulge in a little nostalgia. Rewind to 1977 and relive the music and events that defined the year.

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Biggest Artists 1978

The UK's Top 20 best-performing artists in 1978 are listed below. They are ordered by their total Chart Measured Performance (CHAMP) scores for the year. Singles are listed per artist in chronological order (from left to right) with a symbol denoting peak position. Boney M are the first of only four acts to accrue over 5,000 CHAMP points in a year during the Golden Years (1977-85). The Top 10 has something for most tastes: disco (Boney M, Donna Summer, The Bee Gees), new wave (Blondie and The Boomtown Rats), doo-wop and rock 'n' revival (Darts, Showaddywaddy, Travolta & Newton-John), dance-funk (Chic) and Beatlesque pop (ELO).

★No. 1 ●Top Ten ○Top 40 (all on official chart) ☆Unofficial No. 1 (i.e. No. 1 only on NME Chart)
WKS: total weeks spent on the official Top 40

WKS CHAMP
1 BONEY M★Rivers Of Babylon  ●Rasputin  ★Mary’s Boy Child 42 5,459
2 JOHN TRAVOLTA & OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN1★You’re The One That I Want  ★Summer Nights 32 4,826
3 BEE GEES●Stayin’ Alive  ★Night Fever  ●Too Much Heaven 40 3,877
4 DARTS●Come Back My Love  ●The Boy From New York City  ●It’s Raining  ●Don’t Let It Fade Away 38 3,782
5 BLONDIE☆Denis  ○(I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence Dear  ●Picture This  ●Hanging On The Telephone 35 3,184
6 BOOMTOWN RATS●She’s So Modern  ●Like Clockwork  ★Rat Trap 32 2,938
7 DONNA SUMMER●Love’s Unkind  ●I Love You  ○Rumour Has It  ○Back In Love Again  ●MacArthur Park 43 2,808
8 CHIC●Dance Dance Dance  ●Everybody Dance  ●Le Freak 34 2,621
9 SHOWADDYWADDY☆I Wonder Why  ●A Little Bit Of Soap  ●Pretty Little Angel Eyes 27 2,389
10 ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA●Mr Blue Sky  ●Wild West Hero  ●Sweet Talkin' Woman  ○Can't Get It Out Of My Head2 34 2,347
11 ROSE ROYCE●Wishing On A Star  ●Love Don’t Live Here Anymore  ○It Makes You Feel Like Dancin' 27 2,323
12 KATE BUSH★Wuthering Heights  ●The Man With The Child In His Eyes 20 2,165
13 ROD STEWART●I Was Only Joking  ●Ole Ola (Mulher Brasileira)3  ★Do Ya Think I’m Sexy? 24 2,099
14 ABBA★Take A Chance On Me  ●Summer Night City 17 1,979
15 HEATWAVE○The Groove Line  ○Mind Blowing Decisions  ●Always And Forever 29 1,921
16 THE COMMODORES○Flying High  ★Three Times A Lady  ○Too Hot To Trot 13 1,684
17 BOB MARLEY AND THE WAILERS●Jamming  ●Is This Love  ○Satisfy My Soul 27 1,646
18 CRYSTAL GALE●Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue  ○Talking In Your Sleep 24 1,548
19 JOHN TRAVOLTA●Sandy  ○Greased Lightnin' 17 1,525
20 BROTHERHOOD OF MAN★Figaro  ●Beautiful Lover 18 1,466

Chart © Wow Vinyl 2023

★No. 1 ●Top Ten ○Top 40 (all on official chart) ☆Unofficial No. 1 (i.e. No. 1 only on NME Chart)

WKS total weeks spent on the official Top 40

1 If duets and solos are combined, John Travolta scores 6,351 pts and Olivia Newton-John 5,682 pts. However, we consider these distinct acts because otherwise the duet score would be counted twice.

2 Lead track from the ELO EP which also included Strange Magic, Ma-Ma-Ma Belle and Evil Woman

3 With Scotland World Cup Squad

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