Five new entries in the bottom six positions: Dr and the Medics' cover of Spirit In The Sky would go on to the top spot, the Matchroom Mob's Snooker Loopy would join it in the top ten, but the B52s Rock Lobster fell just shy of the charmed circle. The Big Sky was the final single from Kate Bush's "Hounds of Love" album, and was joined by ZZ Top's Rough Boy.

Also in there: absolute classics from It's Immaterial - one listen to Driving Away From Home and it's instantly 1986 again, the bleak existence for twentysomethings in Northern England. Suzanne Vega had her debut hit, Marlene On The Wall, and Van Halen rocked out with Why Can't This Be Love. It wasn't all great, mind, Samantha Fox, the Real Thing, and Dire Straits all placed in the lower half.

20 (15)All The Things She Said - Simple Minds

The pomp-rock band had taken on their career high with "Don't You (Forget About Me)" the previous year, and bounced an album of stadium rock off the one single. This wasn't quite as anthemic as "Alive and Kicking" from the previous autumn, but still rocked merrily.

SOS Band fell to 19 with "The Finest", Joyce Sims rose to 18 with "All In All", two slices of completely forgettable mid-80s soul. Atlantic Starr's "Secret Lovers" was at 17, an only barely memorable slice of mid -80s soul.

16 (24)I'll Keep On Loving You - Princess

The second big Stock Aitken and Waterman creation, after Dead Or Alive, she had three perfectly decent pop-soul crossover hits in 1985 and 86, then faded into nothingness. That's a bit unfortunate, really, as "Say I'm Your Number One" in particular was a quality tune.

15 (30)Sledgehammer - Peter Gabriel

The video turned a great song into a classic. Can you possibly listen to this track without seeing the train go round his head?

Big Country enjoyed one of their biggest hits with Look Away, more melodic than much of their earlier work; we find it at 14. Aurra were at 13 with "You And Me Tonight", about which I remember nothing; and Lauren Laverne was responsible for bringing the Grange Hill Cast down to 12 with "Just Say No." If you thought that was toe-curlingly terrible...

11 (NE)The Chicken Song - Spitting Image

Philip Pope and other session musicians had got together to make closely-observed spoofs of contemporary hits for Radio Active in 1981. Their fake group, the Heebeegeebees, became quite a turn on network television, and landed Phil a spot on a new ITV satirical show that used puppets to lampoon people. As sure as eggs was eggs, a spoof record lampooning Black Lace and other anthems that sound great after a dozen beers on the Med would follow, and spend the next three weeks at Number One. Pope's work wasn't always so light-hearted - his "Frankie Goes To The Bank" and "Mobile Home Of Love" parodies showed a social edge that wasn't obvious.

10 (10)The Greatest Love Of All - Whitney Houston

Third hit single, a decent cover of a decent George Benson tune. She never did re-release "You Give Good Love" as the follow-up; indeed, we wouldn't hear more from Whitters until "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" a year later.

Queen were down at 9 with "A Kind Of Magic", the lead single from what would turn out to be their antepenultimate studio album. Marvin Gaye was at 8 with "I Heard It Through The Grapevine", thanks to a jeans commercial. Five Star held at 7 with "Can't Wait Another Minute", the follow-up to the superior "System Addict" - the group was 1986 in a nutshell.

6 (1)A Different Corner - George Michael

Wham! was going to split up at a massive concert in Wembley on June 28. George had already had one solo topper, 1984's "Careless Whisper", and now re-launched his solo career with this far superior track. Solo single number three would be "I Want Your Sex", a record they didn't play in the daytime on the radio, until Simon Mayo used it as the backing track to his "On This Day In History" feature.

5 (3)What Have You Done For Me Lately? - Janet Jackson

Solo debut for the then-Mrs El Debarge, a glorious funk workout that she's rarely topped since.

4 (19)On My Own - Michael MacDonald and Patty LaBelle

A fabulous composition, clearly showing the handiwork of co-writer Kept off the top by the Spitting Image record.

3 (9)Lessons In Love - Level 42

A rare foray into the top end of the chart for Mark King and the boys, with a chugging number that typifies their sound. Level 42 made the same record every eighteen months throughout the 80s, and for a brief moment, they were the hottest thing around.

2 (4)Live To Tell - Madonna

Madge had been an ever-present on the UK charts between the release of "Crazy For You" at the end of May 1985 right until the end of February 1986; at some points, she had three titles on the top 40. The woman who was already becoming the Queen of Pop returned after a short absence with a crashing ballad from the film "Shanghai Surprise." The surprise was just how poor her acting was, not that this fragile beauty of a record went to the upper reaches and still sound superlative and contemporary to this day.

1 (2)Rock Me Amadeus - Falco

The first Austrian to top the singles chart, Falco's hit bears a close resemblance to Paul Hardcastle's "19" from a year before. Strong drum beats, cut-up samples, strange voices talking over the top. This influenced other dance pioneers such as M/A/R/R/S and Bomb the Bass more than they might admit. We're still waiting for the Garry Lux revival, by the way.