Why was her success so short lived?

She was unwilling to give sexual favors to the entertainment producers and song writers.

Have you taken the time to listen to those songs? They were simply not very good because she isn't a singer. She got those up there because she was a page 3 girl back in the day. If you don't know what that is, a British tabloid called The Sun had what was known as page 3 girls which were young women that would pose topless. That was her claim to fame prior to any video she probably one of the more famous page 3 girls of that time frame due in large part to her very big tits. That generated name recognition and allowed some record producer to capitalize on it by churning out some forgettable music with videos where young males at the time would watch them in the hopes that she would somehow flash her tits, which was ridiculous as anyone thinking would know... but never underestimate the mind of a teenage male with a hard-on.

thomas998 said it right. Apart from being a hot chick with big tits, she had absolutelly no musical talent whatsoever. Just your average 80s pop star. Still looks good though. Sabrina Salerno is another example of seriously hot "singer" without any musical talent (although her face looks weird nowadays).

Sam Fox was indeed all about the boobs. Anything else was just window dressing. She came out as gay as well. Don't know if that had any effect. But doesn't she still have a good 'music' career in Germany? Thought I heard that somewhere.

Remember when she covered The Rolling Stones? Yeah, neither does anyone else 😆

https://youtu.be/R0Kcx2NCXj4

I didn’t mind her back in the day. She was actually quite camp and didn’t take herself seriously at all.

Her foray into house music, Love House, is still a bit of a bop:

https://youtu.be/d2NRKCWEj4M

A woman's tits can only get her so far...

Guys were too busy “enjoying” her nude photos to listen to her generic songs.

Now, if she had recorded nude music videos, her career may have lasted longer.