Product Description

Were you one of the many millions who grew up on SMASH HITS? Did you collect the stickers, pull out the posters, read the lyrics to La Bamba and suddenly realise it was a song about 'doing the goat'? (hmmm). If you remember catchphrases such as 'Uncle Disgusting' and 'sniiiip!', if you kissed your poster of Morten Harket before you went to bed or thrilled when a SMASH HITS journalist fearlessly asked David Bowie 'you're not very good at acting, are you?' - then this book is for you. In its heyday in the mid to late 1980s, SMASH HITS enjoyed a circulation of over one million passionate readers. THE BEST OF SMASH HITS is for all those readers: a glorious, full-colour celebration of all the best (and some of the worst) bits. Including all the best features (Morrissey and Pete Burns' legendary joint interview!); the weirdest cover stars (Strawberry Switchblade!), the strangest song lyrics, the best 'black type' letters and more, it will also include memories from those who worked on the magazine. Genuinely engrossing, a hugely entertaining jaunt back to a time when journalists asked irreverent questions and pop stars had to answer them.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #124383 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

Review
'[A] frothy celebration of the pop mag's Eighties heyday. Mrs Thatcher interview included!' OBSERVER MUSIC MONTHLY '[SMASH HITS] was bright, funny, irreverent and never afraid to ask important questions such as, "If you were a domestic appliance, what would it be?" This pick of the best bits presses all the right nostalgic buttons' Q 'A fitting tribute to its surreal genius' TIME OUT 'Rest assured there's THE BEST OF SMASH HITS to help jog your memory. And what a handsome volume it is, too: 200 pages of classic features, lovingly recreated with some sample song lyrics and pullout posters thrown in for good measure. Edited by Mark Frith, with a foreword by one-time assistant editor Neil Tennant, it's a reminder of how great the magazine was in its day' Paul Burston, INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 'A brilliant memorial to the mag. Imagine burrowing into a glittering time capsule in which early interviews with Madonna and George Michael rub shoulders with pop posters, rock stars' shopping lists, pen pals, song words and - a stroke of genius, this - old adverts for Fluorescent Ultra Hair Glo and Texas Instruments calculators. The design is fantastically faithful to the old issues, and even the paper smells like it used to. Several of Kylie's jaunty hats should be taken off to former SMASH HITS Ed Mark Frith and co for this labour of love' WORD 'For anyone who grew up in the 1980s - Adam Ant, Kajagoogoo and other fashion disasters' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 'A must-have for anyone who wanted to marry Nik Kershaw' FIRST 'What a rainbow of poptastic 80s talent in which to immerse oneself: Boy George, while still very much a boy; Madonna, the sassy pre-yoga version . . . An indispensable guide for anyone who was young enough to remember the 80s' IRISH EXAMINER 'With interviews, highlights from Black Type's letters page and a compendium of silly questions (What colour is January? Etc.), this issue is packed with all the things we loved and that made Smash Hits an essential read' DAILY MIRROR 'Those whose own teenage years took place in the 1980s will squeal at the sight of THE BEST OF SMASH HITS . . . it's a hilarious celebration of the gloriously eccentric pop magazine's heyday' GLOSS MAGAZINE 'Within these hard covers can be found a hilarious collision between some of the silliest outfits, ludicrous postures, and barbering follies ever devised, and a group of commentators who relished every tiny detail of this exhibitionist decade while unpicking it gleefully with sharp little pens' EVENING STANDARD 'Literally the only present we want . . . Swingorilliant!' GUARDIAN 'A nostalgic jaunt through the 80s golden era of the mag. An unmissable treat!' CLOSER 'I'm getting all my friends THE BEST OF SMASH HITS, a brilliant collection from the 1980s. It's is a reminder of what was so good about the mag' Emma Bunton, THE TIMES

TIME OUT
'A fitting tribute to its surreal genius'

Q
'This pick of the best bits presses all the right nostalgic
buttons'

Customer Reviews

The Greatest Book Ever Written!!!!!!!
If the phrases "fab macca wacky thumbs aloft", "Sir Billiam of Idol" and "Roland Orzabal(and a kangaroo)" bring a smile to your face, then you need this book!

Basically, it's an anthology of Ver Hits in the 80's (ie when it was good!) featuring not only a plethora of interviews, but highlights from Black Type's letters page, a compendium of silly questions (What colour is January etc), lyrics we loved, an A-Z of phrases commonly used by this esteemed publication and best of all... a free poster with Wham (booo!!!) on one side and John Taylor (yaaaay!) on the other! Members of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Exclamation Marks may be slightly upset, though.

Better than the Bible, more fun than The DaVinci Code and even more fashionable than the Devil Wears Prada. The Best of Smash Hits is completely "Swingorilliant"... ackchewerloy!!!!!!!

Smash Hits! Pin it on, Take it off. Hours of fun guaranteed!!!!!

Amazing!
For anyone who lived through the eighties this is a must!..It has some excellant memories for me and some great pics!...All I can say if this isn't in the christmas stocking of every 35 year old and over then you are missing out!

If you grew up in the 80s........
Then this book is definately for you! As a 12 year avid Smash Hits reader I would search the length and breadth of town to find Ver Hits if my local newsagent was sold out. This book remembers the classic, and not so classic bands of the 80s, the full Live Aid and Band Aid stories and many interviews with the cream of the 80s, all written in the inimitable style all Smash Hits fans will instantly remember. Most bizarrely, there is a joint interview between 'best friends' Pete Burns and Morrissey - wonder how that friendship worked out?! I grinned all the way through reading the whole book!