This is a summary of 1981 in music in the United Kingdom, including the official charts from that year. Events 9 February - Phil Collins releases his first solo album (although he will not leave the band Genesis until 1995) 14 February - Billy Idol leaves Generation X to begin a solo career 4 April - Bucks Fizz win the Eurovision Song Contest with "Making Your Mind Up" 7 April - Former Who manager Kit Lambert dies after falling down a flight of stairs in his mother's home in London. 17 April - Eric Clapton is released from St. Paul's Hospital in Minnesota following a month-long treatment for bleeding ulcers. 18 April - Yes announce that they are breaking up. (They would, however, reunite frequently in years to come). 25 April - Paul McCartney's band, Wings, breaks up officially 2 May - Working as a local wedding singer 12 months previously, Scottish vocalist Sheena Easton hits No.1 in the US with "Morning Train (9 to 5)" 11 May - The musical Cats begins its 8,949 performance run on London's West End. August - The success of Stars on 45 leads to a short-lived medley craze. The most successful imitator of the Stars on 45 format is, rather unexpectedly, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, whose "Hooked on Classics (Parts 1&2)" reaches number two in the charts. 14 September - Emma Kirkby and Gothic Voices record the album A Feather on the Breath of God in St Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London. Charts Number-one singles Number-one albums Year-end charts The tables below include sales between 1 January and 31 December 1981: the year-end charts reproduced in the issue of Music Week dated 26 December 1981 and played on Radio 1 on 3 January 1982 only include sales figures up until 12 December 1981. Best-selling singles At the end of 1981, the official year-end charts provided by the UK's chart provider, the British Market Research Bureau, stated that the best-selling single of the year was "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell. However, in March 2021, the Official Charts Company announced that new research had shown that "Don't You Want Me" by the Human League, previously thought to be the year's 21st-biggest seller, was in fact the biggest-selling single of 1981 with over one million sales, and the year-end charts were adjusted accordingly. Best-selling albums Notes: Classical music: new works Peter Maxwell Davies - Piano Sonata