1986 was a strange year for the UK charts. Prince was in full pomp, Madonna was everywhere, and the Pet Shop Boys made synth-pop sound like the future. But nestled between the heavyweights, a parade of artists you’d never heard of before — and would never hear from again — dropped a single, climbed the charts, and vanished like a pint at last orders.
Some of them were brilliant. Some were baffling. A few were so bad they’ve circled back around to brilliant. And at least one of them inspired a scene in my time-travel novel, The ’86 Fix, because you can’t write a book set in 1986 without the soundtrack bleeding into the story.
This is my rundown of the one-hit wonders that graced the UK charts in 1986 — the songs that defined a year and then promptly retired from public life. I’ve given the standouts the attention they deserve and covered the rest below. If you think I’ve missed one, or if you violently disagree with my opinions, there’s a Spotify playlist at the bottom where you can relive the lot and form your own.
The Big Hitters
Falco — Rock Me Amadeus
An Austrian bloke rapping in German about an eighteenth-century composer, and it went to number one in the UK. If you pitched that concept to a record label today, they’d have security escort you from the building. But in 1986, it worked — partly because the hook was impossible to shake, and partly because nobody had the faintest idea what he was actually saying. Falco was cool in a way that made no sense, which is arguably the best kind of cool. He had a couple of minor chart entries either side of this, but for all practical purposes, this was the one.
Boris Gardiner — I Want to Wake Up With You
Three weeks at number one and the third best-selling single of the entire year. Boris Gardiner was a Jamaican session musician who’d been quietly grafting in the music industry for two decades before this slab of smooth reggae-pop landed on the UK charts and refused to leave. It was the kind of song your mum slow-danced to at a wedding while your dad went to the bar. If you were alive in the summer of ’86, you heard this song whether you wanted to or not. You probably still know every word.
Nick Berry — Every Loser Wins
The second best-selling single of 1986, and it came from the bloke who played Wicksy in EastEnders. Three weeks at number one. Let that sink in for a moment — a soap actor outsold almost every professional musician in the country. The song itself is a perfectly serviceable ballad, the kind of thing you’d hear in a lift and not immediately complain about, but it was Berry’s face on the telly five nights a week that shifted the copies. There’s a lesson in there somewhere about the power of television, although I’m not sure it’s a lesson the music industry wanted to learn.
Spitting Image — The Chicken Song
Three weeks at number one. A novelty record performed by latex puppets, written as a deliberate parody of the irritating holiday songs that plagued the charts every summer. The joke was that it became exactly the kind of irritating holiday song it was taking the piss out of. If you were a kid in 1986, you thought it was the funniest thing ever recorded. If you were an adult, you wanted to lob the radio out of the window. It has not aged well, but then, it was never meant to.
Jackie Wilson — Reet Petite
Technically, this is a cheat. Jackie Wilson originally released “Reet Petite” in 1957, and the man himself had been dead for two years by the time it hit number one at Christmas 1986. It was re-released off the back of an animated music video and spent four weeks at the top. It’s a joyous record — impossible to hear without grinning — and it remains one of the most unlikely Christmas number ones in chart history. I’ll allow it on the list because Wilson never had another UK number one, and because it’s too good to leave out.
Owen Paul — My Favourite Waste of Time
Peaked at number three, which is remarkable for a twenty-three-year-old Scottish lad who seemed to materialise out of thin air. It’s a genuinely lovely pop song — warm, melodic, and sung with more sincerity than most of the chart that summer. Owen Paul should have had a long career. He didn’t. The follow-up singles went nowhere, and he became the textbook definition of a one-hit wonder. If you’ve never heard this song, do yourself a favour.
Grange Hill Cast — Just Say No
The cast of a children’s television programme releasing an anti-drugs single and reaching number five in the UK charts. The eighties were a different time. “Just Say No” was earnest, clunky, and performed with all the musical sophistication of a school assembly, but it had a message and it landed in enough living rooms to make the charts. It’s also the only single on this list that doubled as a public health campaign, which has to count for something.
It Bites — Calling All the Heroes
Number six, and genuinely one of the best pop-rock singles of the decade. It Bites were a proper band — talented musicians with songwriting chops — and “Calling All the Heroes” deserved to be the launchpad for a long career. It wasn’t. The band had a devoted following but never troubled the top ten again. If there’s a more criminally underrated one-hit wonder from the eighties, I haven’t found it.
The Rest of the Class of ’86
Furniture — Brilliant Mind. Peaked at number twenty-one and deserved better. A slick, atmospheric pop song with a chorus that lodges itself in your brain and refuses to pay rent. The band split up a few years later, which feels about right for a group that talented and that overlooked.
Timbuk 3 — The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades. An American duo who cracked the UK top thirty with a song that most people assumed was optimistic but was actually dripping with nuclear-age sarcasm. It didn’t chart as high over here as it did in the States, but it’s become one of those songs everybody knows without knowing who recorded it.
Rosie Vela — Magic Smile. Reached number twenty-seven. Rosie Vela was a model turned singer-songwriter, and “Magic Smile” is a smooth, slightly jazzy pop track that sounds like it belongs in a wine bar circa 1986. Which, now I think about it, is probably exactly where most people heard it.
The One That Causes Arguments
I’ve deliberately left Europe — The Final Countdown off the main list, and I know some of you are already composing an angry email. Yes, it reached number one in the UK in late 1986. Yes, it’s one of the most recognisable songs of the entire decade. But Europe had other chart entries — “Carrie” hit number twenty-two in 1987, and “Superstitious” charted in 1988. That makes them a two-or-three-hit wonder, depending on how strict you want to be.
I mention it because any conversation about 1986 music that doesn’t include “The Final Countdown” feels incomplete, and because the opening synth riff is essentially the national anthem of the eighties. But rules are rules, and if I start bending them, I’ll have to let Samantha Fox in, and then we’re in real trouble.
Why 1986 Was a Vintage Year
Most years produce a handful of one-hit wonders. 1986 produced a battalion. What made that year special wasn’t just the volume — it was the sheer diversity. You had reggae-pop, novelty records, soap-star ballads, Austrian rap, prog-rock, anti-drugs anthems, and a dead man’s reissue all competing for the same chart space. It was chaotic, unpredictable, and utterly brilliant.
Part of the reason is that the mid-eighties were the last era before the music industry became ruthlessly efficient at manufacturing pop stars. In 1986, a Jamaican session musician could still stumble into a number one. A children’s TV cast could chart higher than most rock bands. A bloke from EastEnders could outsell Prince. The charts hadn’t been homogenised yet, and the weird stuff could still break through.
That chaos is exactly what I tried to capture in The ’86 Fix. When I sent a middle-aged man back to 1986 to fix the mistakes of his youth, the music wasn’t just a backdrop — it was the emotional texture of the story. You can’t separate the decade from its soundtrack, and writing that novel meant living inside 1986 for the best part of a year. I listened to every song on this list more times than is medically advisable.
If this post has made you even slightly nostalgic for a year when the charts still had the capacity to surprise you, The ’86 Fix might be exactly what you’re after. It’s a time-travel novel for people who grew up in the eighties — funny, warm, and absolutely stuffed with the kind of cultural references that’ll make you say “I remember that” on every other page.
More about The ’86 Fix → | Buy on Amazon
The Playlist
Every one-hit wonder from this post, in one Spotify playlist. Hit shuffle, pour yourself a drink, and argue with anyone within earshot about which one’s the best.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the biggest one-hit wonder of 1986 in the UK?
By chart performance, it’s a tie between Boris Gardiner’s “I Want to Wake Up With You” and Nick Berry’s “Every Loser Wins” — both spent three weeks at number one and were the third and second best-selling singles of the year respectively. Jackie Wilson’s “Reet Petite” spent four weeks at number one over Christmas, though that was a re-release of a 1957 recording.
What songs were popular in the UK in 1986?
The best-selling single of 1986 was “Don’t Leave Me This Way” by The Communards. Other massive hits included “Every Loser Wins” by Nick Berry, “I Want to Wake Up With You” by Boris Gardiner, “The Final Countdown” by Europe, “Chain Reaction” by Diana Ross, and “Living Doll” by Cliff Richard and The Young Ones. The year also produced an unusually high number of one-hit wonders including Falco, Spitting Image, Owen Paul, and the Grange Hill Cast.
Who had a number one hit in 1986 UK?
Twenty-one different singles reached number one in the UK during 1986. Among the one-hit wonders, Falco (“Rock Me Amadeus”), Boris Gardiner (“I Want to Wake Up With You”), Nick Berry (“Every Loser Wins”), Spitting Image (“The Chicken Song”), and Jackie Wilson (“Reet Petite”) all topped the chart.
What was the best-selling single of 1986 in the UK?
“Don’t Leave Me This Way” by The Communards was the best-selling single of 1986 in the UK, though The Communards were not a one-hit wonder — they had several other chart entries. Among the one-hit wonders, Nick Berry’s “Every Loser Wins” was the highest seller, finishing as the second best-selling single of the year.