1980 in British music McLean's cover of Roy Orbison's "Crying". The Ska and Mod revivals reached their peak this year, with strong chart showings by The Jam, The Specials and Madness. 1970s favourites ABBA and Blondie both had their last years as chart heavyweights, clocking up 5 No.1 singles between them. David Bowie scored his second No.1 this year, while the death of John Lennon at the end of the year gave him his first chart topper (and would dominate the early months of 1981). Kate Bush became the first British female artist to have a No.1 album, and The Police finished the year
UK Albums Chart kept out by poor sales in Northern Ireland. ABBA have reached the top spot in four "consecutive" decades, though this was with the same album ("Gold") in the 1990s and the 2000s. For solo artists, Elvis Presley has scored UK number-one albums in five different decades (the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 2000s and 2010s). In 1993, Cliff Richard became the first male solo artist to score UK number-one albums in four "consecutive" decades (the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s). In 2010, Kylie Minogue became the first female solo artist to have UK number-one albums in four consecutive decades (the 1980s, 1990s,