The Official Top 50 best-selling songs of 1982
1982 saw the Official Singles Chart celebrate its 500th Number 1, claimed by A Little Peace by Nicole Seibert, the winning song on the Eurovision Song Contest, which that year was held in Harrogate.
The song spent two weeks at Number 1 and ranks 38th on the year-end chart, with just over 518,000 estimated sales, according to Official Charts Company data.
As revealed on new Channel 5 series Britain's favourite 80s songs, The biggest song of 1982 was Come On Eileen by Dexy's Midnight Runners and the Emerald Express, with an estimated 1.21 million sales, according to Official Charts Company data. The song spent four weeks at Number 1 and was the British pop band's second chart-topper following Geno in 1980.
Eileen also bagged Dexy's Brit Award for Best British Single in 1983, while the single went on to top the charts in a further seven countries, including America.
MORE: Every Official UK Number 1 single ever
In second place is Irene Cara's Fame, with an estimated 1.1 million UK sales. The theme of the hit film spent three weeks at the summit, released to coincide with the adapted TV series, which launched in 1982 following Oscar-winning success for the movie, in which Irene played the role of Coco Hernandez.
Another song made popular from a film, Survivor's Eye Of The Tiger from Rocky III, ranks third with 956,000 sales, while a cover of The Lion Sleeps Tonight by pop group Tight Fit, a three-week Number 1, is fourth on 901,000. Tight Fit make a second appearance in the chart with Top 5 hit Fantasy Island at 42.
Closing out the Top 5 is Culture Club's Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?. The new wave band's breakout hit and first Number 1 spent three weeks at the summit and sold 882,440 copies that year.
Other big hitters in 1982 that rank among the Top 10 best-sellers that year include Pass the Dutchie, a three-week chart-topper by British-Jamaican reggae band Musical Youth (6), Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder's Ebony And Ivory (9), and The Jam's third Number 1 single, double A-side Town Called Malice/Precious (10).
The Official Top 100 best-selling singles of 1982
| POS | TITLE | ARTIST | PEAK |
| 1 | Come On Eileen | Dexy's Midnight Runners | 1 |
| 2 | Fame | Irene Cara | 1 |
| 3 | Eye Of The Tiger | Survivor | 1 |
| 4 | The Lions Sleeps Tonight | Tight Fit | 1 |
| 5 | Do You Really Want To Hurt Me | Culture Club | 1 |
| 6 | Pass The Dutchie | Musical Youth | 1 |
| 7 | I Don't Wanna Dance | Eddy Grant | 1 |
| 8 | Seven Tears | Goombay Dance Band | 1 |
| 9 | Ebony And Ivory | Paul McCartney With Stevie Wonder | 1 |
| 10 | Town Called Malice/Precious | Jam | 1 |
| 11 | Golden Brown | Stranglers | 2 |
| 12 | Mad World | Tears For Fears | 1 |
| 13 | Mickey | Toni Basil | 2 |
| 14 | Love Plus One | Haircut One Hundred | 3 |
| 15 | The Model/Computer Love | Kraftwerk | 1 |
| 16 | Oh Julie | Shakin' Stevens | 1 |
| 17 | Goody Two Shoes | Adam Ant | 1 |
| 18 | Heartbreaker | Dionne Warwick | 2 |
| 19 | Only You | Yazoo | 1 |
| 20 | Don't Go | Yazoo | 2 |
| 21 | Walkin' On Sunshine | Rocker's Revenge | 4 |
| 22 | Zoom | Fat Larry's Band | 2 |
| 23 | Save Your Love | Renne & Renato | 1 |
| 24 | I Won't Let You Down | PHD | 3 |
| 25 | Just An illusion | Imagination | 2 |
| 26 | Starmaker | Kids From Fame | 3 |
| 27 | Hard To Say I'm Sorry | Chicago | 4 |
| 28 | Abracadabra | Steve Miller Band | 2 |
| 29 | The Look Of Love | ABC | 4 |
| 30 | Centrefold | J Geils Band | 3 |
| 31 | House Of Fun | Madness | 1 |
| 32 | The Land Of Make Believe | Bucks Fizz | 1 |
| 33 | Maid Of Orleans | Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark | 4 |
| 34 | Young Guns (Go For It) | Wham! | 3 |
| 35 | Ain't No Pleasing You | Chas & Dave | 2 |
| 36 | Save A Prayer | Duran Duran | 2 |
| 37 | It Ain't What You Do | Fun Boy Three With Bananarama | 4 |
| 38 | A Little Peace | Nicole | 1 |
| 39 | Hungry Like The Wolf | Duran Duran | 5 |
| 40 | My Camera Never Lies | Bucks Fizz | 1 |
| 41 | It Started With A Kiss | Hot Chocolate | 5 |
| 42 | Fantasy Island | Tight Fit | 5 |
| 43 | Dead Ringer For Love | Meat Loaf | 5 |
| 44 | Inside Out | Odyssey | 3 |
| 45 | Torch | Soft Cell | 2 |
| 46 | This Time (We'll Get It Right)/England,We'll Fly The Flag | England World Cup Squad | 2 |
| 47 | Say Hello, Wave Goodbye | Soft Cell | 3 |
| 48 | I've Never Been To Me | Charlene | 1 |
| 49 | Mirror Man | Human League | 2 |
| 50 | Papa's Got A Brand New Pig Bag | Pig Bag | 3 |
©2021 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.
Please note, this chart may differ from previously published charts as it is compiled using the very latest Official Charts Company sales information now available for the 1980s period. Read more on how the Official Charts were compiled back in the 1980s here.
Article image: ITV/Shutterstock
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J
JC
Wonderful memories from a truly exceptional year for music!
PK
Philip King
Mad world - Tears For Fears was #3 not #1 (Gary Jules version was Xmas #1 in 2003)
Only You - Yazoo was #2 not #1 (Flying Pickets version was Xmas #1 in 1983)
Adam Ant's Goody Two Shoes and Toni Basil's Mickey I loved :D Actually Toni's albums are so under rated they are 2 of my favourite albums of all time plus some of Adam's solo albums also rank very high. :)
Bengy
So these are the BEST sellers from 1982. So no streams. Are downloads included? Are sales from either 1981 or 1983 included? What about sales from the missing Christmas week?
Please clarify "compiled using the very latest Official Charts Company sales information ". Have you used different multipliers for the panel sales?
vastariner
Hang on.
"Centerfold", which spent 4 weeks in a low-selling month in the top 10, is at 30, yet "House Of Fun", which spent 4 weeks in the top 5, two at no. 1, is lower? "Walking On Sunshine" higher than "Save A Prayer" when it was behind it in their peak weeks?
"Mad World" did not peak at no. 1 either.
Methinks some creative accounting here.
Richard M White
What I've noticed is the top 22 singles are exactly the same as the year end chart broadcast on Radio 1 by Tommy Vance on 2 Jan 1983 (which I believe had 2 weeks' sales missing so Save Your Love didn't appear). In that same show Madness were at 29 and J Geils Band at 28 so not much change there.
SF
Stuart Fraser
Yazoo's "Only You" didn't make no.1 either
LM
Lee Moore
And Don't Go reached #3
GF
Gary Feld
I think this should be Flying Pickets version .....which reached number 1
Miserable Mozz
The Flying Pickets version didn't reach #1 until Christmas 1983.
Miserable Mozz
Peak positions do not account for all sales. House of Fun sold well, but fell away quickly, while Centerfold had a longer, slower ascent and descent on the charts.
vastariner
Centrefold didn't have a slower ascent though. They spent the same time in the charts. And the bulk of sales in any chart are in the top couple of places. Madness spent as long in the top 5 as J Geils did in the top 10 - and had an extra week in the single digits.
Maybe they changed the counting method some way in the middle of the year. Because February sales are usually much lower than the summer, when kids have pocket money and more opportunity to buy singles.
Miserable Mozz
I guess the top of the charts were selling more during J.Geils Band's run than during Madness'. Looking at the songs that were above Centerfold during it's peak weeks, Town Called Malice, Mickey, The Lion Sleeps Tonight and Love Plus One are all in the top 15. Love Plus One also only peaked at number three. Higher sales weeks, although unusual for the Spring, is the obvious explanation.