Musical Monday - The Land of Make Believe by Bucks Fizz

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Never.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Never

#1 on the U.K. Chart: January 16, 1982 to January 23, 1982.

Yhis is what it looks like when a Eurovision contest winner is trying to keep their career alive for longer than the one song that won them their initial fame: They turn into discount British ABBA complete with ridiculous costumes, silly choreography, and a kind of disco-ish song. The odd thing is that Bucks Fizz did this pale imitation routine when ABBA was in their twilight and about to become passé. One would think that hitching your imitation game to a sinking ship wouldn't be the best idea, and in this case, you'd be right. This song was Bucks Fizz's second biggest hit, and their next release was their third biggest hit, and then they more or less became a U.K. only band that had middling subsequent success even there. Like ABBA, Bucks Fizz had almost no impact on music in the United States during their run of popularity.

To a certain extent, this song and video kind of exemplifies the chaos of the early 1980s when no one was really sure what the cultural touchstones would be. Everyone was trying to move away from being identified as "disco", but audiences still liked disco-ish music so long as you didn't actually call it disco. Everyone knew that wearing bell-bottoms and leisure suits was out of fashion, but no one really knew what to wear to replace them so you ended up with a lot of silver clothing and animal prints. Some bands like the Human league and Hall and Oates were starting to set the tone of the new decade, but things were far from settled in early 1982, and consequently you got insane messes like this.

Previous Musical Monday: Don't You Want Me by the Human League

Subsequent Musical Monday: I Can't Go for That (No Can Do) by Hall and Oates

Previous #1 on the U.K. Chart: Don't You Want Me by the Human League

Subsequent #1 on the U.K. Chart: Oh Julie by Shakin' Stevens

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

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