The top four of the Hot 100 was pretty locked in the week of May 11, 1985. I’ve featured all four already: Madonna’s ‘Crazy For You,’ ‘We Are the World,’ Simple Minds’ ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me),’ and DeBarge’s ‘Rhythm of the Night.’
That brings us to #5, where the unlikely New Wave/hip-hop hit ‘One Night in Bangkok’ sat, on its way to peaking at #3. This was a single from the concept album Chess, released by Broadway songwriter Tim Rice and ABBA members Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. The album was later turned into a hit musical in both England and the United States.
English actor/singer Murray Head handles the spoken-word verses on the track, while Swedish singer Anders Glenmark contributes the choruses.
The song was banned in Thailand for misrepresenting Thai society and disrespecting Buddhism.
Bangkok, Oriental setting
And the city don’t know what the city is getting
The crème de la crème of the chess world
In a show with everything but Yul Brynner
Time flies—doesn’t seem a minute
Since the Tirolean Spa had the chess boys in it
All change—don’t you know that when you
Play at this level there’s no ordinary venue?
It’s Iceland—or the Philippines—or Hastings—or—
Or this place!
[Chorus]
One night in Bangkok and the world’s your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain’t free
You’ll find a god in every golden cloister
And if you’re lucky then the god’s a she
I can feel an angel slidin’ up to me
[Verse 2]
One town’s very like another
When your head’s down over your pieces, brother
It’s a drag, it’s a bore, it’s really such a pity
To be looking at the board, not looking at the city
What do you mean?
You’ve seen one crowded, polluted, stinking town—
Tea girls, warm and sweet (Warm, sweet)
Some are set up in the Somerset Maugham suite
Get Thai’d! You’re talking to a tourist
Whose every move’s among the purest
I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine
[Chorus]
One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can’t be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walkin’ next to me
[Flute Solo]
[Verse 3]
Siam’s gonna be the witness
To the ultimate test of cerebral fitness
This grips me more than would a
Muddy old river or reclining Buddha
And thank God I’m only watching the game—controlling it—
I don’t see you guys rating
The kind of mate I’m contemplating
I’d let you watch, I would invite you
But the queens we use would not excite you
So you’d better go back to your bars, your temples
Your massage parlours—
[Chorus]
One night in Bangkok and the world’s your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain’t free
You’ll find a god in every golden cloister
A little flesh, a little history
I can feel an angel slidin’ up to me
One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can’t be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walkin’ next to me
Meet Me In Montauk 
This song always annoyed me- quite a drop off in quality from the other top songs of 1985.