Artist · chart history
Kajagoogoo
Band Leighton Buzzard United Kingdom Active 1982–1985
Kajagoogoo formed in 1982 in Leighton Buzzard, United Kingdom and was active until 1985. Kajagoogoo has 15 chart appearances on 15 radio countdowns from 8 stations on RockLists, spanning 1983–2023. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Too Shy”, which appears on 15 lists with a best position of #54. The station that charted Kajagoogoo most often is KROQ (Los Angeles, CA), with 6 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1983.
Kajagoogoo spent years grinding away in Leighton Buzzard as Art Nouveau, a four-piece avant-garde outfit built around bassist Nick Beggs, lead guitarist Steve Askew, keyboard player Stuart Croxford Neale and drummer Jez Strode. Their self-released single, "Fear Machine/Animal Instincts", sold a few hundred copies, and all the local gigging in the world couldn't land them a deal.
So in 1982 they advertised for a singer and found Christopher Hamill, who flipped his surname into the stage name Limahl, and they renamed themselves after the babbling sounds babies make. Signed to EMI, they had "Too Shy" at number one in Britain in 1983 and in the top 10 across a slew of other countries. It's a sleek, coy slice of synth-pop, built on Beggs's slinky bass line, with Limahl's voice gliding over a chorus that just hangs in the air.
Limahl was gone by the end of 1983, and the rest carried on until 1985. They have regrouped since, and from 2008 to 2011 Limahl was back at the microphone.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Kajagoogoo on radio countdowns
Every countdown appearance
| Year | # | Song | Countdown |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 231 | Too Shy | The Colorado Sound Top 850 Songs of the 1980s |
| 2021 | 782 | Too Shy | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '80s |
| 2003 | 1571 | Too Shy | Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003) |
| 2002 | 1237 | Too Shy | Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) |
| 1999 | 738 | Too Shy | Q101 Top 1,011 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) |
| 1999 | 227 | Too Shy | WLIR Top 300 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) |
| 1999 | 54 | Too Shy | Channel 104.9 Top 101 Songs of the '80s (February 1999) |
| 1998 | 172 | Too Shy | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1998) |
| 1996 | 445 | Too Shy | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1996) |
| 1996 | 379 | Too Shy | Q101 Top 500 Songs of All-Time (1996) |
| 1995 | 499 | Too Shy | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1995) |
| 1994 | 476 | Too Shy | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1994) |
| 1992 | 268 | Too Shy | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1992) |
| 1983 | 97 | Too Shy | KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1983 |
| 1983 | 80 | Too Shy | 91X Top 91 Songs of 1983 |
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