Overview

• German outlets including Stern, Die Zeit and Der Tagesspiegel are publishing in-depth retrospectives to mark four decades since the defining pop singles of summer 1985.
• Opus’s “Live Is Life” dominated West Germany’s charts for seven weeks from mid-April to early June, followed by Modern Talking’s one-week peak and Paul Hardcastle’s six-week reign in June and July.
• Falco’s “Rock Me Amadeus” and Tina Turner’s “We Don’t Need Another Hero” each held the top spot for four weeks between late July and mid-September before Sandra’s “(I’ll Never Be) Maria Magdalena” closed out the summer with a four-week run.
• Retrospectives place these musical milestones beside Michail Gorbatschow’s Soviet leadership, Boris Becker’s Wimbledon triumph, the Titanic wreck discovery and premieres like Zurück in die Zukunft and Die Schwarzwaldklinik.
• A total of 14 different singles reached number one in Germany in 1985, underscoring a period of rapid change in European pop culture.