The Official Top 40 best-selling songs of 1983

The UK's top selling tracks of 1983, including Culture Club, Bonnie Tyler and Michael Jackson.

The UK's best-selling single of 1983 was Culture Club's Karma Chameleon with 955,000 sales, according Official Charts Company data.

As revealed on new Channel 5 series Britain's favourite 80s songs, currently airing every Friday at 10pm, Culture Club's iconic six-week Number 1 leads the year's top sellers list and was easily the biggest single of the 12 month period.

In second place, and just over 350,000 sales behind, is Billy Joel's global hit Uptown Girl (602k), followed by UB40's Red Red Wine at 3 (550k) - the reggae-pop band's track logged three weeks at the summit in September that year.

David Bowie's Let's Dance - produced by Nile Rodgers - places fourth for the year with an esitmated 471,000 sales, while Bonnie Tyler claims the year's best-selling track by a female artist (and is the only woman in the Top 10) with Total Eclipse Of The Heart - her first and only Number 1 single spent two weeks at the top in March that year.

Further down the Top 40, Michael Jackson makes the most appearances with three, two of which are from his hugely successful Thriller album - Billie Jean and Beat It - plus Paul McCartney collaboration Say Say Say. British musician Paul Young also has multiple entries, with chart-topper Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home) at 14 and Love Of The Common People at 15.

Official Top 40 best-selling songs of 1983

POS	TITLE	ARTIST	PEAK
1	KARMA CHAMELEON	CULTURE CLUB	1
2	UPTOWN GIRL	BILLY JOEL	1
3	RED RED WINE	UB40	1
4	LET'S DANCE	DAVID BOWIE	1
5	TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE HEART	BONNIE TYLER	1
6	TRUE	SPANDAU BALLET	1
7	DOWN UNDER	MEN AT WORK	1
8	BILLIE JEAN	MICHAEL JACKSON	1
9	ONLY YOU	FLYING PICKETS	1
10	ALL NIGHT LONG (ALL NIGHT)	LIONEL RICHIE	2
11	SWEET DREAM (ARE MADE OF THIS)	EURYTHMICS	2
12	YOU CAN'T HURRY LOVE	PHIL COLLINS	1
13	TOO SHY	KAJAGOOGOO	1
14	WHEREVER I LAY MY HAT (THAT'S MY HOME)	PAUL YOUNG	1
15	LOVE OF THE COMMON PEOPLE	PAUL YOUNG	2
16	EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE	POLICE	1
17	IS THERE SOMETHING I SHOULD KNOW	DURAN DURAN	1
18	BLUE MONDAY	NEW ORDER	9
19	GIVE IT UP	KC & THE SUNSHINE BAND	1
20	I.O.U	FREEZ	2
21	BABY JANE	ROD STEWART	1
22	SAY SAY SAY	PAUL MC CARTNEY/MICHAEL JACKSON	2
23	THEY DON'T KNOW	TRACEY ULLMAN	2
24	TONIGHT I CELEBRATE MY LOVE	PEABO BRYSON & ROBERTA FLACK	2
25	WORDS	FR DAVID	2
26	BAD BOYS	WHAM	2
27	FLASHDANCE... WHAT A FEELING	IRENE CARA	2
28	NEW SONG	HOWARD JONES	3
29	MOONLIGHT SHADOW	MIKE OLDFIELD & MAGGIE RILEY	4
30	MY OH MY	SLADE	2
31	SIGN OF THE TIMES	BELLE STARS	3
32	HOLD ME NOW	THOMPSON TWINS	4
33	CANDY GIRL	NEW EDITION	1
34	TEMPTATION	HEAVEN 17	2
35	CRY JUST A LITTLE BIT	SHAKIN STEVENS	3
36	CHURCH OF THE POISON MIND	CULTURE CLUB	2
37	ELECTRIC AVENUE	EDDY GRANT	2
38	MAMA	GENESIS	4
39	BEAT IT	MICHAEL JACKSON	3
40	DOUBLE DUTCH	MALCOM MCLAREN	3

Please note, this chart may differ from previously published charts as it is compiled using the very latest Official Charts Company sales information now available for the 1980s period. Read more on how the Official Charts were compiled back in the 1980s here.

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Bengy

27th March 2021

On Friday on the TV show Janice Long said Karma Chameleon sold nearly a million and a half. This contradicts your figure of 955,000. Who is correct?

Edward D

22nd March 2021

Hmm, notwithstanding the comments already made about the Culture Club single, 18 of the top 19 singles listed here were certified Gold by the BPI during 1983 ("Blue Monday" being the exception but I seem to remember Factory weren't interested in certification status at the time).
Back then, Gold status meant 500k records, admittedly based on what was ordered rather than sold over-the-counter, but it's a bit surprising that OCC thinks only the top 3 singles managed to sell that figure.
Either the OCC is under-estimating sales or record shops back in 1983 ordered way too many copies of the biggest-selling records - you'd have thought that they'd have learned their lesson as the year progressed