These are the Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of 1980. The two longest running number-one singles of 1980 are "Call Me" by Blondie and "Lady" by Kenny Rogers with each single obtaining six weeks on top of the chart.
Olivia Newton-John's "Physical" remained the longest at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the 1980s (10 weeks).
The longest-running Number 1 of the year, at four weeks, was Don't Stand So Close To Me by The Police, and ranks as the UK's best-selling song of 1980 with estimates sales of 808,000, according to the Official Charts Company.
Nearly everyone knows something about Shakin' Stevens. The Welsh rock 'n' roller, born Michael Barratt, was the UK's biggest-selling singles artist of the 1980s, and not just thanks to that festive perennial Merry Christmas Everyone.
1980 was a hugely successful year for ABBA. They started the year at Number 1 with Greatest Hits Volume 2, and their studio album Super Trouper was the year's best-selling album. It also spawned the two chart-topping singles The Winner Takes It All, and the title track.
1 Michael Jackson
As the decade's best-selling artist, it may come as a surprise to note that Michael Jackson only released two albums. However, it certainly helps out when one is the best-selling album of all time as his 1982 record Thriller has sold an astonishing 70 million copies worldwide.
According to Guinness World Records, Irving Berlin's "White Christmas" (1942) as performed by Bing Crosby is the best-selling single worldwide, with estimated sales of over 50 million copies.
The first number-one song of the Billboard Hot 100 was "Poor Little Fool" by Ricky Nelson, on August 4, 1958. As of the issue for the week ending on June 17, 2023, the Billboard Hot 100 has had 1,149 different number-one entries.
In case you need a reminder of how long ago 2010 was, when the decade kicked off, the set on top the Billboard 200 albums chart was Britain's Got Talent alum Susan Boyle's I Dreamed a Dream — in the fourth frame of its six-week run at pole position.
In 1956 Elvis Presley received a Gold Record for 1,000,000 sales of “Don't Be Cruel.” The following year, 1957, Harry Belafonte was presented with a Gold Record for his album “Calypso”, the first L.P to sell over 1,000,000 copies[1]. These were not the first accredited hit songs.
The first CD to sell a million copies world-wide was Dire Straits' Brother in Arms in 1986. It subsequently topped a million sales in Europe alone, including over 250,000 in Britain.
Billboard first published a decade-end ranking in the 1980s, based on the magazine reader's votes, with Madonna becoming the Pop Artist of the Decade.
What happened in 1980 Major News Stories include John Lennon shot and killed in New York, Post-It Notes go on sale, Liberty City, Miami Rioting, MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas Destroyed with Fire, Crude Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act passed.
Young American singer-songwriter Christopher Cross completes a meteoric rise from obscurity when his hit ballad “Sailing” reaches the top of the Billboard pop chart on August 30, 1980.
Some of the names are famous: Julian Schnabel, David Salle, Eric Fischl, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring. Others, less widely renowned, are solidly established: Susan Rothenberg, Elizabeth Murray, Terry Winters, Carroll Dunham.