This week in 1984
1 Hello Lionel Richie
2 You Take Me Up The Thompson Twins
3 A Love Worth Waiting For Shakin Stevens
4 Against The Odds (Take A Look At Me Now) Phil Collins 5 I Want To Break Free Queen
6 People Are People Depeche Mode
7 Glad It’s Al l Over/Damned on 45 Captain Sensible
8 Ain’t Nobody Rufus and Chaka Khan
9 Nelson Mandela The Special AKA
10 Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin) Scritti Politti ‘Hello’ is one of the most recognisable hits from the eighties. The third single from the second solo album of former Commodores singer Richie, it was a No. 1 hit in many countries (including Ireland), spending six weeks on top of the charts in the UK. Famed for its opening line ‘Hello, is it me you’re looking for?’, the single release was accompanied by a much-parodied – and much derided - video in which the singer plays a teacher who falls in love with a blind art student who sculpts a likeness of his head. It’s said that when Richie complained to video director Bob Giraldi that the bust did not look like him, Giraldi replied ‘Lionel, she’s blind’. Actress Laura Carrington, who played the student, is fully sighted.