The 25 best Indie songs of 1983
28 February 2025, 19:01 | Updated: 24 March 2025, 17:17
Take a trip back to the year of Blue Monday, This Charming Man, The Cutter, Everything Counts and The Love Cats...
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U2 - New Year's Day: release date 10th January 1983
The Irish rock quartet made their commercial breakthrough with their third album War, with New Year's Day being the lead single. Written about the Polish Solidarity movement of the era, the track made Number 10 in the UK charts in February 1983.
U2 - New Year's Day (Official Music Video)
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Echo & The Bunnymen - The Cutter: release date 14th January 1983
The second single from the Liverpool band's Porcupine album became the Bunnymen's highest charting in the UK alongside 1997's Nothing Lasts Forever - both peaked at Number 8.
Echo And The Bunnymen - The Cutter HD
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Tears For Fears - Change: release date 28th January 1983
The follow-up to the Top 5 single Mad World peaked at Number 4 in February '83. The duo of Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal would release their debut albnum The Hurting on 7th March of that year.
Tears For Fears - Change
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Orange Juice - Rip It Up: release date 7th February 1983
The title track of the second album by the acclaimed Scottish band fronted by Edwyn Collins. The track was their biggest hit, making Number 8 in March 1983.
Orange Juice - Rip It Up (Official Video)
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Big Country - Fields Of Fire: release date 18th February 1983
The second single by the Scottish band, fronted by the late great Stuart Adamson, formerly with The Skids. Taken from Big Country's debut album The Crossing, the single peaked at Number 10 in April 1983.
Big Country - Fields Of Fire (Music Video HQ)
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Altered Images - Don't Talk To Me About Love: release date 11th March 1983
The Scottish indie band fronted by Clare Grogan would split before the end of 1983 and this was their final Top 10 hit, taken from their third album Bite. It'd be 39 years before the group reformed and followed it up, with 2022's Mascara Streakz.
Altered Images - Don't Talk to Me About Love (Official Video)
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New Order - Blue Monday: release date 7th March 1983
The Manchester band took another huge step away from the sound of their previous incarnation Joy Division when they created this electronic masterpiece. Issued on 12" only, the track broke into the Top 20 in May 1983 and hung around the chart all summer, when it had a second lease of life when the holiday crowd returned home after hearing the track in clubs around Europe. In October, Blue Monday peaked at Number 9 and has was certified double Platinum in March 2023 - 40 years after its inital reelase.
New Order - Blue Monday (Official Lyric Video)
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Bauhaus - She's In Parties: release date 1st April 1983
The pioneering goth band from Northampton played their last ever show at Hammersmith Palais on 5th July 1983, a week before the release of their fourth album Burning From The Inside. She's In Parties would be their final hit, peaking at Number 26 (although the members would collaborate during lockdown for a new song Drink The New Wine, issued in 2022).
Bauhaus - She's In Parties
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Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Genetic Engineering: release date 1st April 1983
Dazzle Ships was the fourth album from Liverpool-based electronica band and saw Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys return to their early influences, namely Kraftwerk. The quirky Genetic Engineering made Number 20, although the LP was critically panned with Record Mirror calling it "the worst kind of futuristic nonsense".
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Genetic Engineering
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Yazoo - Nobody's Diary: release date 9th May 1983
Vince Clarke had left Depeche Mode in mid-1981 after the band's meteoric success had unnerved him, and he formed this duo with fellow Basildon resident Alison "Alf" Moyet. Again, Clarke's work enjoyed huge success, with Yazoo's first two singles (Only You and Don't Go) both breaking the Top 5. He was pressured into making a second album with Moyet, You And Me Both, but Yazoo's split was announced two week after the release of this brilliant single; the public sent it to Number 3.
Yazoo - Nobody's Diary (Official HD Video)
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Heaven 17 - Temptation: release date 8th April 1983
After Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware had acrimoniously left The Human League in late 1980, they set up a production company called the B.E.F., the British Electric Foundation and founded their first project, Heaven 17, with vocalist Glenn Gregory. The band's second album, The Luxury Gap, spawned their biggest hit: Temptation featured vocals from Carol Kenyon and peaked at Number 4 on the UK charts.
Heaven 17 - Temptation
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The Human League - (Keep Feeling) Fascination: release date 15th April 1983
While former Human League members Ian Craig Marsh were enjoying chart success with Heaven 17, their ex-bandmates Phil Oakey and Phillip Adrian Wright were having problems following the huge success of Dare, the 1981 album that turned around the Sheffield band's fortunes. This one-off single made it to Number 2 in the charts and was included on the Fascination! EP, released as a stop-gap while the band worked on a proper follow-up album.
The Human League - (Keep Feeling) Fascination
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Fun Boy Three - Our Lips Are Sealed: release date 29th April 1983
Co-written by Terry Hall and Jane Wiedlin of The Go-Go's, this songw as first recorded by the all-female American band, then Hall's post-Specials trio Fun Boy Three. The Fun Boy version made Number 7 and appeared on their album Waiting.
Fun Boy Three - Our Lips Are Sealed (Official Music Video)
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The Creatures - Right Now: release date 8th July 1983
Siouxsie Sioux and drummer Budgie took time out from The Banshees to record the album Feast, which included this cover of the Mel Torme jazz classic from 1962. The pair made Number 14 in the charts while their Banshee bandmates Steve Severin and Robert Smith worked on their psychedelic project The Glove the same summer.
The Creatures - Right now (Official video)
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Depeche Mode - Everything Counts: release date 11th July 1983
With Vince Clarke leaving to form Yazoo, Martin Gore took over songwriting duties in Depeche Mode, who added new member Alan Wilder for their third album Construction Time Again. The record spawned the band's seventh Top 20 hit in a row Everything Counts and marks their first foray into the world of sampled sounds.
Depeche Mode - Everything Counts (Official Music Video)
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Talking Heads - Burning Down The House: release date 29th July 1983
The art rockers' fifth album Speaking In Tongues gave the their only Top 10 hit in the USA; despite being release in Britain, the track failed to chart over here!
Talking Heads - Burning Down the House (Official Video)
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The Style Council - Long Hot Summer: release date 8th August 1983
The Jam split in December 1982 with a show at the Brighton Centre, and Paul Weller immediately set about exploring his interest in soul music with a new project. The Style Council featured former Merton Parkas keyboardist Mick Talbot. This was the lead track from the band's À Paris EP, which peaked at Number 3 in the charts.
The Style Council - Long Hot Summer
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R.E.M. - Radio Free Europe: release date 15th August 1983
A re-recording of the Athens, Georgia band's debut single from 1981, which appeared on their incredible first album, Murmur, two years later. Despite becoming one of the biggest bands in the world in the following decade, Radio Free Europe failed to chart in the UK.
R.E.M. - Radio Free Europe
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Men Without Hats - The Safety Dance: release date 19th August 1983
The Canadian synth pop outfit had their biggest hit with this memorable tune - aided by an eccentric video from director Tim Pope, who was then also working with The Cure and Siouxsie & The Banshees. The follow-up, I Got The Message, scraped to Number 99 in the UK but the band continued for another decade before splitting; they reformed in 2010!
Men Without Hats - The Safety Dance (Official HD Video)
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Public Image Ltd - This Is Not A Love Song: release date 5th September 1983
This classic remains PiL's biggest hit, peaking at Number 5 in October 1983. A different recording of the same song appeared on the band's fourth album, This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get.
Public Image Limited - This Is Not A Love Song
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Siouxsie & The Banshees - Dear Prudence: release date 23rd September 1983
The Banshees were going through one of their periodical line-up changes in 1983: guitarist John McGeoch had left in late 1982 for personal reasons, and Robert Smith, whose own band The Cure was on something of a hiatus at that point, stepped in. He joined the group for tour dates initially, but would later appear on the Hyaena album and this one-off cover of the Beatles classic, which made Number 3, the group's biggest hit.
Siouxsie And The Banshees - Dear Prudence (Video)
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Sisters Of Mercy - Temple Of Love: release date 7th October 1983
A one-off single from Andrew Eldritch's iconic goth band, which was later re-recorded in 1992 with additional vocals from Ofra Haza. While the original didn't chart, the remake was the Sisters' biggest hit, peaking at Number 3 in May '92.
Sisters of Mercy - Temple of Love (1983)
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The Cure - The Love Cats: release date 21st October 1983
The final entry in The Cure's "fantasy singles" trilogy - the first two parts of which were Let's Go To Bed in November 1982 and The Walk in July 1983 - this was the British band's biggest hit to date, peaking at Number 7. The memorable promo clip, directed by the band's regular collaborator Tim Pope, turned frontman Robert Smith into a video star.
The Cure - The Lovecats
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Aztec Camera - Oblivious: release date 28th October 1983
The opening track from Roddy Frame's debut album High Land Hard Rain, Oblious only just scraped into the Top 50 on its initial release in February 19823, but a re-issue later the same year saw the track make Number 18.
Aztec Camera - Oblivious • TopPop
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The Smiths - This Charming Man: release date 31stOctober 1983
Not the legendary Manchester band's first single - that was Hand In Glove in May the same year - but it was their first hit, peaking at Number 25 in November '83. It only appeared on the US edition of the band's self-titled debut album the following February, but the John Peel session recording would be included on the Hatful Of Hollow compilation.
The Smiths - This Charming Man (Official Music Video)
