15. M – Pop Muzik (1979)
Total Points – 366
Charts – 4
Top 40 – 3
Top 20 – 0
Top 10 – 0
Total Rankings – 24, 27, 30, 61, NR, NR
M was a brief British new wave and synth pop project led by Robin Scott in the late 70s and early 80s. The band included numerous musicians through the years including several from the band Level 42. Originally this song was written to be a funk and R&B sound, but a friend of Scott’s suggested he go with synthesizers. Scott said he decided to make the song because, “I was looking to make a fusion of various styles which somehow would summarize the last 25 years of pop music. It was a deliberate point I was trying to make. Whereas rock and roll had created a generation gap, disco was bringing people together on an enormous scale. That's why I really wanted to make a simple, bland statement, which was, 'All we're talking about basically (is) pop music.'” The single peaked at #2 in the UK, unable to break Art Garfunkel’s 6-week stint at #1 with “Bright Eyes”. In the US the song made it to #1, but M is almost definitely a strict definition OHW, given their only other charting song in the US was “New York – London-Paris-Munich” which only got to #38 on the Dance Club Chart. The image of the baby on the cover of the M album is Scott’s daughter Berenice, who is currently a piano/keyboard player with Phil Gould and Wally Badarou, both former Level 42 members.