THIS WEEK IN 1983
1 True Spandau Ballet
2 Words FR David
3 Beat It Michael Jackson
4 (Keep Feeling) Fascination The Human League 5 Church of the Poison Mind Culture Club
6 Let’s Dance David Bowie
7 Love Is A Stranger Eurythmics
8 True Love Ways Cliff Richard and the London Philharmonic Orchestra
9 We Are Detective The Thompson Twins
10 Breakaway Tracey Ullman Though Tony Hadley was the vocalist and face of ‘new romanitc’ band Spandau Ballet as the hits rolled out in the early eighties, Gary Kemp – the band’s guitarist and synth player – wrote the music and lyrics for all of the band’s 23 hit singles.
This included ‘True’, the third single from their third studio album of the same name.
Spandau Ballet’s biggest hit, it spent four weeks at the top of the UK charts in 1983 and reached the top of the charts in 20 other countries. It was also their only major US hit, reaching No. 4 in the Billboard Hot 100
Kemp says he wrote the ballad sitting on his bed, guitar in hand, in his parents’ house. He reveals the lyrics were inspired by a crush he had on Altered Images singer Clare Grogan whom he had met on Top Of The Pops.
Hated by some critics, ‘True’ was nonetheless voted the UK’s tenth favourite 1980s number one in an ITV poll in 2015.
• ‘Words’, the biggest hit for Tunisian-born French singer F.R. David (real name Elli Robert Fitoussi), peaked at number 2 in the UK charts but reached the top in the Irish charts, in countries right across Europe, and in South Africa where it spent 25 weeks on the chart.
Fitoussi, now aged 72, has not hit the chart high he enjoyed with ‘Words’ since, but he claims he never wanted it. He told Mojo: ‘I didn’t feel like following the big hit. I never want to do the same thing the next time.’