1983 in British music explained

This is a summary of 1983 in music in the United Kingdom, including the official charts from that year.

Events

• 8 January – The UK singles chart is tabulated from this week forward by The Gallup Organization and the BMRB manual diary method was ended. Electronic dataport machines were used in selected stores and Gallup would automatically dial up the terminals via telephone lines to gather the sales information.
• 10 February – John McCabe's Concerto for Orchestra is given its first performance by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Georg Solti.
• 14 May – The Symphony No 2 Summer Music by William Mathias is performed for the first time by the Liverpool Philharmonic Society
• 30 May – Elton John releases his album Too Low for Zero, marking the beginning of his mid-1980s comeback after several albums disappointed in sales.
• 31 May – Nigel Osborne's Sinfonia No 2 is performed for the first time by the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra.
• 3 June – The opera Raleigh's Dream by Iain Hamilton is performed for the first time in Durham, North Carolina
• 17 July – The Cello Concerto by Lennox Berkeley, composed in 1939, is performed for the first time in Manchester.
• 27 July – The Piano Concerto by Dominic Muldowney is performed for the first time in London.
• 20 August – The Rolling Stones sign a new $28 million contract with CBS Records, the largest recording contract in history up to this time.
• 1 September – Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon of The Clash issue a press statement announcing that Mick Jones has been fired from the group.
• 20 September – The first ARMS Charity Concert is held at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
• 3 October – The first performance of the opera Marching Song by Benjamin Frankel, left in short score at the time of the composer's death ten years earlier, is broadcast by the BBC.
• 9 November – The Blue Guitar for solo guitar by Michael Tippett is performed for the first time, at the Ambassador Auditorium, Pasadena, California.
• 28 November – The first Now album is released.
• 15 December – The broadcast premiere of Elisabeth Lutyens’ Music for Orchestra 1V is given by the City of London Sinfonia, conducted by Richard Hickox.

Charts

Number one singles

^[1]

Chart date (week ending)	Song	Artist(s)	Weeks
1 January	"Save Your Love"		2
8 January
15 January	"You Can't Hurry Love"		2
22 January
29 January	"Down Under"		3
5 February
12 February
19 February	"Too Shy"		2
26 February
5 March	"Billie Jean"		1
12 March	"Total Eclipse of the Heart"		2
19 March
26 March	"Is There Something I Should Know?"		2
2 April
9 April	"Let's Dance"		3
16 April
23 April
30 April	"True"		4
7 May
14 May
21 May
28 May	"Candy Girl"		1
4 June	"Every Breath You Take"		4
11 June
18 June
25 June
2 July	"Baby Jane"		3
9 July
16 July
23 July	"Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home)"		3
30 July
6 August
13 August	"Give It Up"		3
20 August
27 August
3 September	"Red Red Wine"		3
10 September
17 September
24 September	"Karma Chameleon"		6
1 October
8 October
15 October
22 October
29 October
5 November	"Uptown Girl"		5
12 November
19 November
26 November
3 December
10 December	"Only You"		4
17 December
24 December
31 December

Number one albums

^[2]

Chart date (week ending)	Album	Artist(s)	Weeks
1 January	The John Lennon Collection		2
8 January
15 January	Raiders of the Pop Charts	Various Artists	2
22 January
29 January	Business as Usual		5
5 February
12 February
19 February
26 February
5 March	Thriller		1
12 March	War		1
19 March	Thriller	Michael Jackson	1
26 March	The Hurting		1
2 April	The Final Cut		2
9 April
16 April	Faster Than the Speed of Night		1
23 April	Let's Dance		3
30 April
7 May
14 May	True		1
21 May	Thriller	Michael Jackson	5
28 May
4 June
11 June
18 June
25 June	Synchronicity		2
2 July
9 July	Fantastic		2
16 July
23 July	You and Me Both		2
30 July
6 August	The Very Best of the Beach Boys		2
13 August
20 August	18 Greatest Hits		3
27 August
3 September
10 September	The Very Best of the Beach Boys	The Beach Boys	1
17 September	No Parlez		1
24 September	Labour of Love		1
1 October	No Parlez	Paul Young	2
8 October
15 October	Genesis		1
22 October	Colour by Numbers		3
29 October
5 November
12 November	Can't Slow Down		1
19 November	Colour by Numbers	Culture Club	2
26 November
3 December	Seven and the Ragged Tiger		1
10 December	No Parlez	Paul Young	1
17 December	Now 1	Various Artists	3
24 December
31 December

Year-end charts

Note: The year-end charts published in Music Week on 7 January 1984 only covered the period 4 January to 17 December 1983 – the BPI Year Book 1984 included the complete charts to the end of 1983.

Best-selling singles

^[3]

scope=col		scope=col	Title	scope=col	Artist	scope=col	Peak position
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	1	"Karma Chameleon"	Culture Club	1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	2	"Uptown Girl"		1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	3	"Red Red Wine"	UB40	1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	4	"Let's Dance"		1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	5	"Total Eclipse of the Heart"		1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	6	"True"	Spandau Ballet	1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	7	"Down Under"	Men at Work	1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	8	"Billie Jean"		1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	9	"Only You"		1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	10	"All Night Long (All Night)"		2
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	11	"Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)"	Eurythmics	2
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	12	"You Can't Hurry Love"		1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	13	"Too Shy"	Kajagoogoo	1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	14	"Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home)"		1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	15	"Love of the Common People"		2
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	16	"Every Breath You Take"		1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	17	"Is There Something I Should Know?"	Duran Duran	1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	18	"Blue Monday"	New Order	9
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	19	"Give It Up"	KC and the Sunshine Band	1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	20	"I.O.U."	Freeez	2
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	21	"Baby Jane"		1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	22	"Say Say Say"	and Michael Jackson	2
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	23	"They Don't Know"		2
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	24	"Tonight I Celebrate My Love"	and Roberta Flack	2
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	25	"Words"		2
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	26	"Bad Boys"	Wham!	2
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	27	"Flashdance... What a Feeling"		2
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	28	"New Song"		3
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	29	"Moonlight Shadow"		4
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	30	"My Oh My"	Slade	2
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	31	"Sign of the Times"		3
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	32	"Hold Me Now"	Thompson Twins	4
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	33	"Candy Girl"	New Edition	1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	34	"Temptation"	Heaven 17	2
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	35	"Cry Just a Little Bit"		3
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	36	"Church of the Poison Mind"	Culture Club	2
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	37	"Electric Avenue"		2
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	38	"Mama"	Genesis	4
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	39	"Beat It"		3
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	40	"Double Dutch"		3
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	41	"Africa"	Toto	3
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	42	"Club Tropicana"	Wham!	4
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	43	"(Keep Feeling) Fascination"		2
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	44	"Gold"	Spandau Ballet	2
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	45	"Modern Love"		2
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	46	"Let's Stay Together"		6
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	47	"Come Back and Stay"		4
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	48	"Victims"	Culture Club	3
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	49	"I'm Still Standing"		4
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	50	"(Hey You) The Rock Steady Crew"		6

Best-selling albums

^[4]

scope=col		scope=col	Title	scope=col	Artist	scope=col	Peak position
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	1	Thriller		1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	2	No Parlez		1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	3	Colour by Numbers	Culture Club	1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	4	Let's Dance		1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	5	Fantastic	Wham!	1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	6	True	Spandau Ballet	1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	7	Now That's What I Call Music	Various Artists	1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	8	Stages		2
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	9	Genesis	Genesis	1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	10	Can't Slow Down		1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	11	Synchronicity		1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	12	Labour of Love	UB40	1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	13	Business as Usual	Men at Work	1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	14	18 Greatest Hits	and The Jackson 5	1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	15	Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)	Eurythmics	3
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	16	Too Low for Zero		7
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	17	The Luxury Gap	Heaven 17	4
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	18	Snap!		2
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	19	The Hurting	Tears for Fears	1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	20	Rio	Duran Duran	3
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	21	The Very Best of the Beach Boys		1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	22	In Your Eyes		3
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	23	The Crossing	Big Country	3
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	24	Seven and the Ragged Tiger	Duran Duran	1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	25	An Innocent Man		4
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	26	War	U2	1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	27	Introducing Richard Clayderman		2
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	28	Chas 'n' Dave's Knees Up: Jamboree Bag No. 2	Chas & Dave	7
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	29	Hello, I Must Be Going!		3
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	30	The John Lennon Collection		1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	31	Faster Than the Speed of Night		1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	32	Quick Step and Side Kick	Thompson Twins	2
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	33	Pipes of Peace		4
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	34	Under a Blood Red Sky	U2	2
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	35	The Final Cut	Pink Floyd	1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	36	Touch	Eurythmics	8
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	37	You and Me Both	Yazoo	1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	38	Voice of the Heart	Carpenters	6
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	39	Toto IV	Toto	4
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	40	Crises		6
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	41	Raiders of the Pop Charts	Various Artists	1
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	42	Formula 30	Various Artists	6
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	43	Body Wishes		5
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	44	Chart Hits '83	Various Artists	6
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	45	Twice as Kool: The Hits of Kool & the Gang	Kool & the Gang	4
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	46	Heartbreaker		4
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	47	The Essential Jean Michel Jarre		14
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	48	Lionel Richie		9
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	49	The Two of Us	Various Artists	3
scope=row style="text-align:center;"	50	Kissing to Be Clever	Culture Club	10

Notes:

Classical music

• Alun Hoddinott – Quodlibet on Welsh Nursery Tunes - arr. for brass quintet
• William Mathias – Symphony No. 2, Op.90 (Summer Music)
• John Pickard – Nocturne in Black and Gold

Opera

• Oliver Knussen – Where the Wild Things Are

Musical films

• Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
• The Pirates of Penzance, starring Kevin Kline and Angela Lansbury

Births

• 18 January – Antony Brant, singer (V)
• 3 March – Katie White, singer (The Ting Tings)
• 8 May – Matt Willis, singer and musician (Busted)
• 16 May – Mince Fratelli, musician (The Fratellis)
• 23 May – Heidi Range, singer (Sugababes)
• 17 June – Lee Ryan, singer (Blue)
• 30 June
  • Cheryl Cole, singer
  • Patrick Wolf, singer-songwriter
• 7 July – Aaron Buckingham, singer (V)
• 22 July – Jodi Albert, singer (Girl Thing)
• 18 August – Mika, singer
• 25 August – James Righton, musician (The Klaxons)
• 11 September – Matthew Halsall, jazz trumpeter and promoter
• 13 September – James Bourne, singer and musician (Busted), (Son of Dork)
• 14 September – Amy Winehouse, singer-songwriter
• 25 September – Hayden Powell, jazz trumpeter and composer
• 24 October – V V Brown, English singer-songwriter, model, and producer
• 26 October – Ant Scott-Lee, singer (3SL)
• 8 November – Mark Harle, singer (V)

Deaths

• 5 January – Amy Evans, operatic soprano, 98
• 6 January – Bernard Stevens, composer, 66
• 7 January – Edith Coates, operatic mezzo-soprano, 74
• 18 January – Cedric Thorpe Davie, composer, 69
• 28 January – Billy Fury, singer-songwriter, 42 (heart attack)
• 22 February – Sir Adrian Boult, conductor, 93
• 23 February – Herbert Howells, composer, 90
• 6 March – Howard McFarlane, jazz trumpeter, 89
• 8 March – Sir William Walton, composer, 80
• 23 March – David Wynne, composer, 82
• 14 April
  • Pete Farndon, bassist of the rock group the Pretenders, 30 (drug overdose)
  • Elisabeth Lutyens, composer, 76
• 17 April – Thomas L. Thomas, operatic baritone, 72
• 20 April – Sarah Makem, Northern Irish singer, 82
• 6 May – Pat Smythe, jazz pianist, 60
• 5 June – Anthony Lewis, musicologist, conductor and composer, 68
• 12 June – Ceinwen Rowlands, operatic soprano, 78
• 2 July – Jacqueline Townshend, violinist and pianist, 71
• 12 July – Chris Wood, founding member of Traffic, 39 (pneumonia)
• 16 July – David Ward, operatic bass, 61
• 31 August – Eve Taylor, music manager, 68
• 19 September – Peter Mooney, conductor, 68
• 24 September
  • Isobel Baillie, operatic soprano, 88
  • John Bee, theatre organist, 87
• 19 November – Tom Evans, bassist of the rock group Badfinger, 36 (suicide)
• 7 December – Norah Blaney, pianist, composer and music hall performer, 90
• 8 December – Monica Harrison, operatic soprano, 86

Music awards

Brit Awards

The 1983 Brit Awards winners were:

• Best British producer: Trevor Horn
• Best classical recording: John Williams – Portrait
• Best international artist: Kid Creole and the Coconuts
• Best live act: U2
• Best selling album: Barbra Streisand – Love Songs (also released as Memories in the U.S.)
• British breakthrough act: Yazoo
• British female solo artist: Kim Wilde
• British group: Dire Straits
• British male solo artist: Paul McCartney
• British single: Dexys Midnight Runners – "Come On Eileen"
• Life achievement award: Pete Townshend
• Outstanding contribution: The Beatles
• Special Award: Chris Wright
• The Sony award for technical excellence: Paul McCartney

See also

• 1983 in British radio
• 1983 in British television
• 1983 in the United Kingdom
• List of British films of 1983

External links

• BBC Radio 1's Chart Show
• The Official Charts Company

Notes and References

1. Web site: 1983 The Number One Singles . The Official Charts Company.
2. Web site: 1983 The Number One Albums . The Official Charts Company.
3. Book: Peter . Scaping . Top 100 singles: 1983 . BPI Year Book 1984 . . 42–43 . 1984 . 0-906154-04-9.
4. Scaping (1984). "Top 100 LPs: 1983". pp. 44–45