Fairground Attraction’s ‘Perfect’ moved on to 6 weeks at 1, but this was helped by the fact that the whole chart was frozen this week. This was the 4th time we had seen no change in the chart. As the 13 October fell close to what was the Kruger Day public holiday back then, one can only surmise that this was the reason for no change in the chart.
No movement also meant that Climie Fisher’s ‘Love Changes Everything’ was still the oldest in the top 20 and the top 30 having spent 25 weeks in the former and 27 in the latter. It had been the top 20 oldest for 6 weeks and it was its 3rd week as the top 30 oldest.
Eric Carmen celebrated reaching 40 weeks in the charts while Climie Fisher saw their points total using a top 30 basis reach the 1,000 mark. So far 127 acts had managed this.
Kylie Minogue moved into second place on her own for most number of weeks with songs in adjacent places with ‘Got To Be Certain’ and ‘I Should Be So Lucky’ sitting at 6 and 7 again and this was her 4th week with songs sitting next to each other. She moved past Michael Jackson who had managed it 3 times but was still a way behind The Bee Gees who had managed it on 10 occasions.
The Pet Shop Boys celebrated 60 consecutive weeks featuring in the charts and they were now 5 clear in the lead for this with Jennifer Rush on 55 in second place.
Climie Fisher became only the 5th act to see a run of 17 consecutive weeks with 2 or more in the charts. The previous acts to manage this were Modern Talking, Sandra, Michael Jackson and Rick Astley.
The Australians saw their top 20 weeks move on to 394 and they made 6th place on the weeks by a nation list their own as they moved 2 ahead of the Dutch acts.
Fairground Attraction’s ‘Perfect’ added itself to the list of song that had managed to spend 5 weeks or more at 1 as it held on to the top spot for another week. It was the 98th song to manage this. Of these 34 had been by US acts, 33 by UK acts and 10 by South African acts. The Canadians managed 3 and they were the only other nation to manage 3 or more. There were 2 by duets between UK and US acts. Robert Palmer spent a 3rd straight week at 2. With Underworld at 3, Climie Fisher at 4 and Matt Bianco at 5, we had the 22nd time the top 5 had comprised of hits by acts from the same nation and the Brits led the way 15 to 7 against the Americans for this. It was also the 5th week running that the Brits had accounted for the whole top 5 and this set a new record run for this achievement. The Brits and the Americans had both managed a run of 4 weeks once before.
Eric Carman’s ‘Make Me Lose Control’ was the climber of the week as it moved up 7 from 30 to 23. This was the 19th song to see a biggest climber award after re-entering the charts. It was Carman’s 4th time with the award. Other star raters this week were Glenn Medeiros’ ‘Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You’ (up 4 from 13 to 9), Bros’ ‘I Owe You Nothing’ (up 5 from 19 to 14 and the climber within the top 20) and the Pet Shop Boys’ ‘Domino Dancing’ (up 4 from 21 to 17). Apart from ‘Domino Dancing’ we also say Toni Childs’ ‘Stop Your Fussin’ enter the top 20.
Martha Davis’ ‘Don’t Tell Me The Time’ took the faller award with a 6 place drop from 16 to 22. It was joined in leaving the top 20 by OMD’s ‘Dreaming’ which fell from 17 to 21. Gerry Rafferty’s ‘Shipyard Town’ was the faller within the top 20 as it dropped 5 from 10 to 15.
Climie Fisher’s ‘Love Changes Everything’ was the oldest in both the top 20 and the top 30. It moved on to 26 weeks in total having spent 24 of them in the top 20. It was its 5th week as the top 20 oldest and a 2nd week as the oldest overall.
Rod Stewart brought us the 38th song title that would see at least 2 different songs chart with as his new one, ‘Forever Young’, was the first new entry this week. We had previously seen Alphaville’s (different) song with the same title chart earlier. The song’s lyrics were very similar to those of Bob Dylans’ song of the same title and accordingly Dylan is given a song writing credit on the track along with Stewart and 2 of his band members. It was Stewart’s 8th hit to make the charts (the 47th act to manage this) and Dylan’s 8th as a song writer. ‘Forever Young’ would do well for Stewart in US where it got to number 12 and in Canada it did even better, going to number 9. However, in the UK it would only get to 57. On the local radio charts it got to 2 on Capital 604, 4 on Radio 702 and 8 on Radio 5.
The second new entry brought together the rap group called The Fat Boys and an old-time rocker, Chubby Checker with a remake of Checker’s old hit ‘The Twist’. Going under the title ‘The Twist (Yo Twist!)’ this set the all time record for gaps between hits, returning Checker to the chart 1,214 weeks after he was last seen with ‘Lovely Lovely (Loverly Loverly)’ way back on 25 June 1965 (the 4th chart ever presented). This smashed the previous record of 949 weeks which Aretha Franklin had seen. The Americans were certainly the kings and queens of the comeback as they accounted for 3 of the top 5 biggest gaps so far with The Everly Brothers having the 4th biggest gap (853 weeks). Boris Gardiner from Jamaica was 3rd with 856 weeks and the biggest for a UK act was Robin Gibbs 774 weeks which was the 5th biggest so far. The Fat Boys were one of the early rap groups and had seen similar success teaming up with The Beach Boys for a cover of the latter’s ‘Wipe Out’ in 1987. ‘The Twist (Yo Twist!)’ would reach 16 on the US Hot 100 and would do well across Europe, topping the charts in Germany and Switzerland and going to 2 in the UK and Belgium as well as seeing a peak of 4 in The Netherlands, 5 in Austria and 7 in Sweden. It would top the Zimbabwean charts, but not make any of the local radio charts.
And talking of Europe and Sweden, Europe from Sweden brought us the 3 and final new entry this week as they followed up their 1987 hit, ‘The Final Countdown’, with ‘Superstitious’. The song was written by the band’s lead singer and it would top the charts in their homeland and their neighbours, Norway. It would also see a top 10 placing in Switzerland (#9), The Netherlands (#10) and Italy (#10) and to date remains their final US charting hit, going to 31 there. Like ‘The Twist (Yo Twist!)’ it would also not make any of the local radio charts.
The Pet Shop Boys saw their points total using a top 30 basis ease past the 2,000 mark. They were the 29th act to achieve this.
Kylie Minogue’s ‘Got To Be Certain’ and ‘I Should Be So Lucky’ were unmoved at 6 and 7 for a 3rd week running and this meant she became only the 3rd act to see 3 weeks with songs in adjacent positions. Michael Jackson had managed it 3 times, but not in consecutive weeks while The Bee Gees, who had seen it 10 times, had managed 5 of those in consecutive weeks. Kylie was the 17th act to manage a run of 10 sequential weeks with 2 or more in the charts. Of those 17, only Jennifer Rush
had managed it twice.
The Australians caught up with acts from The Netherlands for weeks in the top 20 as both nations now sat on 392 weeks. The 2 sat tied 6th overall behind the Americans (8,432), the Brits (8,196), South Africans (3,767), the Germans (580) and the Canadians (426).
One of the acts on the new entries would only see 1 hit (you should be able to work out who) and this gave us a new record 15 hits in the charts by acts who would only manage 1 SA chart hit. The other 14 were listed in the entry for last week.
Fairground Attraction’s ‘Perfect’ moved on to 4 weeks at 1 as it held Robert Palmer’s ‘Simply Irresistible’ at bay with the latter spending a second week at 2. In fact the whole top 7 was unchanged and, excluding the 2 occasions where the whole chart was frozen, this was the 10th time we had seen no movement in the top 7 with 5 of those times seeing the top 8 or more unchanged.
The climber of the week award was shared between Mandy Smith’s ‘Boys And Girls’ (the top 20 climber) and the Pet Shop Boys’ ‘Domino Dancing’ which both moved up 8 to land at 8 and 21 respectively. It was a 5th climber award for the Pet Shop Boys and, sitting on 110 weeks, they set the all time record for weeks by an act seeing its 5th biggest climber, going past the previous record of 108 weeks which Joe Dolan had set. These 2 would be the only acts sitting on 100 weeks or more when seeing a 5th biggest climber.
The only other star rater climb was Bros’ ‘I Owe You Nothing’ which moved up 4 from 23 to 19 and was 1 of 2 new entries into the top 20. The other top 20 new entry was a new entry into the charts and there’s more on that later.
The faller of the week was A-ha’s ‘Stay On These Roads’ which dropped 7 from 19 to 26. It was joined in leaving the top 20 by the Pet Shop Boys’ ‘Heart’ which fell from 20 to 25. The faller within the top 20 was OMD’s ‘Dreaming’ which dropped 4 from 13 to 17 and was the top 20 faller for a second week running.
Climie Fisher’s ‘Love Changes Everything’ enjoyed its 23rd week in the top 20 and its 4 as the oldest in that part of the chart. It also became the oldest in the top 30, sitting on 25 weeks, as the previous oldest, Men Without Hats’ ‘Pop Goes The World’ dropped out of the chart after a run of 28 weeks and a peak of 3. This ended their SA chat career with 2 hits to their name. Their other hit, ‘The Safety Dance’ had also spent 28 weeks in the charts giving them a weeks total of 56. ‘The Safety Dance’ had spent 10 weeks at 1. Men Without Hats joined Modern Talking in being the only acts who had seen 2 hits spend 28 or more weeks in the charts with the latter seeing ‘You’re My Heart, You’re My Soul’ manage 29 and ‘Brother Louise’ managed 28. The departure of ‘Pop Goes The World’ was the last we saw of any Canadian acts charting on the charts. They had seen a total of 44 hits (the tied 5th highest for any nation, but they would ultimately end up 6th) and spent 470 weeks on the charts. There were 6 number 1’s by Canadians and these were Terry Jacks’ ‘Seasons In The Sun’ (4 weeks), Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘Sundown’ (5 weeks), Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet’ (5 weeks), Dan Hills’ ‘Sometimes When We Touch’ (1 week), Men Without Hats’ ‘The Safety Dance’ (10 weeks) and Gino Vannelli’s ‘Wild Horses (1 week), giving a total of 26 weeks.
We also bid farewell to Erasure’s ‘Ship Of Fools’ which managed 14 weeks and a peak of 11. This ended their SA chart career with 3 hits and 60 weeks to their name. This was the second highest weeks total for an act seeing 3 hits with both Jennifer Warnes and Starship managing 68 weeks with their respective 3 hits.
The last of the leavers was Bruce Hornsby & The Range’s ‘The Valley Road’ which managed 12 weeks and a peak of 9. Like their fellow leavers, they were also seeing the end of their SA chart career. They managed 2 hits and 29 weeks with ‘The Valley Road’ peaking higher than their first hit, ‘The Way It Is’ which only got to 13.
Yello’s ‘The Race’ was the 15th song in the top 30 era to enter the charts at 20 or higher as it arrived at 20 this week. The band hailed from Switzerland and this was the 6th song by a Swiss act to make our charts. They had been around since the late 70’s and had already seen 5 UK chart hits albeit that the best performer of those 5 was 1983’s ‘I Love You’ which got to 41. ‘The Race’ has appeared in the soundtrack to the films ‘Nuns On The Run’ (starring Monty Python’s Eric Idle) and the 2006 version of ‘The Pink Panther’ which starred Steve Martin. It would be the band’s only top 20 UK hit to date, going to number 7 there. It also fared well in Austria (#6), Germany (#4), Irelands (#8), New Zealand (#9) and Switzerland (#8). The only local radio chart it would make would be the Radio 5 ones where it went to number 11.
The second new entry was Eighth Wonder’s ‘Cross My Heart’. The band was fronted by actress Patsy Kensit who had made her first acting appearance in an advert for Birds Eye Peas aged 4. She would also star in films such as ‘Absolute Beginners’ (the theme from the film was a number 6 hit on our charts for David Bowie in 1986) and ‘Lethal Weapon 2’. She was recruited into the band by her brother Jamie. Patsy would marry Simple Minds Jim Kerr and then later Liam Gallagher from Oasis. ‘Cross My Heart’ was their 4th UK chart hit and would give them their second best peak going to 13 there, beaten only by, ‘I’m Not Scared’, a cover of a Pet Shop Boys song, which went to 7. It would also do well in Norway and Switzerland going to 6 in both countries and would give them their best US peak of 56. The only local radio chart it made was the Radio 5 one where it got to 19.
Eric Carmen’s ‘Make Me Lose Control’ became the 76th song to re-enter the charts with 7 of those 96 managing it twice.
A little bit of a spoiler alert but Eighth Wonder would only see 1 hit make our chart and this meant we had a new record 14 acts in the charts who would only ever see 1 hit. If you don’t want to know the list, then please look away now – Underworld, Matt Bianco, Mandy Smith, Sting, Taylor Dane, Glenn Medeiros, Jane Wiedlin, Martha Davis, The Primitives, Bros, Yello, Toni Childs, Eighth Wonder (aka One Hit Wonder) and Martini Ranch.
For the last 2 weeks the US acts had once again edged ahead of the UK acts for number of hits having been level 3 weeks back, but the UK acts had rallied well and the 2 nations were once more level with both having supplied 856 hits. However, the Americans still led the way for top 20 hits with 818 and were 20 ahead of the Brits who were on 798.
Kylie Minogue’s ‘Got To be Certain’ and ‘I Should Be So Lucky’ were unmoved at 6 and 7 giving us the 112th occasion where an act had songs in adjacent positions. And before you get excited about this maybe being the first time an act had managed it in successive weeks, let me point you to the record 5 week run which the Bee Gees saw back in 1978 with ‘Stayin’ Alive’ and ‘How Deep is your Love’. Kylie was the 8th act to see this on 2 occasions with only Michael Jackson, who had managed it 3 times, and The Bee Gees, who had seen it on a massive 10 occasions, being those to manage it more than twice.
It was now 3 weeks in a row at 1 for Fairground Attraction’s ‘Perfect’. There was a new challenger for the top spot as Robert Palmer’s ‘Simply Irresistible’ moved up from 3 to 2 in a place swap with Underworld’s ‘Underneath The Radar’.
Jane Wiedlin’s ‘Rush Hour’ took the climber of the week award with a 6 place jump from 24 to 18. It would be the only new entry into the top 20. The climber within the top 20 was Matt Bianco’s ‘Wap Bam Boogie’ which moved up 5 from 10 to 5. This was the second week running that it had been the climber in that part of the chart. Martini Ranch’s ‘Reach’ was the only other star rater this week as it climbed 4 from 30 to 26.
Erasure’s ‘Ship Of Fools’ took the faller of the week as it dropped 6 from 22 to 28. The faller inside the top 20 was OMD’s ‘Dreaming’ which dropped 4 from 9 to 13. Bruce Hornsby & The Range’s ‘The Valley Road’ was the song leaving the top 20.
There was no change in the oldest in the top 20 or the oldest in the top 30 with Climie Fisher’s ‘Love Changes Everything’ being the top 20 grandaddy, sitting on 22 weeks in that part of the chart while Men Without Hats’ ‘Pop Goes The World’ became the 24th song to clock up 28 weeks and it was enjoying its 8th week as the oldest in the chart.
We said goodbye to 4 songs, the first of these being Eric Carmen’s ‘Make Me Lose Control’ which dropped off the charts after entering at 29 last week.
Richard Jon Smith was unable to edge ahead of The Staccato’s for weeks by a local act as his ‘(My Hometown) Meadowlands’ dropped out of the charts after 7 weeks and a peak of 22. This would be the end of the SA chart road for Smith, leaving him stranded on 83 weeks and tied 4th for a local act. He had seen a total of 9 hits (the 5th highest for a local act) and spent 9 weeks at 1 with ‘Michael Row The Boat Ashore’. The only other local songs to manage 9 or more weeks at 1 were Joy’s ‘Paradise Road’ (also 9 weeks) and Charisma’s ‘Mammy Blue’ (12 weeks).
Damian’s ‘The Time Warp 2’ left after a run of 18 weeks and a peak of 9. This would be his only contribution to our charts. The Richard O’Brien version of ‘Time Warp’ had managed 5 weeks in the chart, giving the song a total of 23 weeks which was the tied 23rd best effort for a song charting in more than 1 version. There would only be 2 more song to chart which had previously charted for a different artist.
Wet Wet Wet became the 15th act to see songs leave the charts in consecutive weeks. Last week saw the departure of ‘Temptation’ and this week it was ‘Angel Eyes (Home And Away)’s turn to go. It had managed 16 weeks and peaked at 13, the better peak of their 2 songs. They would not be seen again on the charts so their weeks total was 19.
The first new entry was Bros’ ‘I Owe You Nothing’. It would be their first release and it would top the UK charts for 2 weeks. Four of their next 5 singles would peak at 2. The band consisted of twins Matt and Luke Goss alongside their friend Craig Logan. The original release of the song in 1987 only peaked at 88, but after their second single, ‘When Will I Be Famous’, made it to 2 in the UK (one of the 4 mentioned above), ‘I Owe You Nothing’ was remixed and re-released. It was the re-released version that toped the UK charts. It would also fare well in Australia (#6), Belgium (#4), Denmark (#4), France (#7), Iceland (#2), Ireland (#2), The Netherlands (#5), New Zealand (#5) and Switzerland (#9). It got to 12 in Zimbabwe and would top both the Radio 5 and Capital 604 charts, but would not feature on the Radio 702 ones.
The second new entry was Toni Childs’ ‘Stop Your Fussin’ and it was the 69th song to make our charts which would top all 3 of the Radio 5, Capital 604 and Radio 702 charts. Before having a hit with ‘Stop You Fussin’ and the album it came from called ‘Union’, Childs would help out the band Berlin before they were famous, stepping in to cover for Terri Nunn, their lead singer when she was ill. Childs would also form a band which included Jack Sherman who would later join the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Mikki Steele who would go on to be a member of The Bangles. Parts of the album ‘Union’ were recorded in Swaziland and ‘Stop Your Fussin’ would fare well in New Zealand (#5), Australia (#17) and Germany (#17). In the UK it would scrape a peak of 95. Childs would later perform backing vocals on David & David’s ‘Welcome To The Boomtown’ and ‘Ain’t So Easy’ hits.
The Pet Shop Boys looked set to substantially extend their lead for consecutive weeks in the charts as ‘Domino Dancing’ joined ‘Heart’ in the chart. ‘Domino Dancing’ had the honour of being the 2,500th song to make our charts while the Pet Shop Boys joined The Bee Gees, Madonna and Modern Talking in seeing at least 4 different combinations of songs in the charts. Both The Bee Gees and Modern Talking had gone on to see a 5th combination while Madonna held the record with 7 different combos. These 4 would be the only acts to manage 4 combos. ‘Domino Dancing’ their 6th SA chart hit and it was recorded in Miami. It would get to the top of the charts in Finland, Poland and Spain. In the UK it got to 7 and at the time of writing remains their final US top 20 hit where it went to 18. They have seen subsequent US hits, but none had managed a peak higher than 62.
Elton John returned to the charts with ‘I Don’t Wanna Go on with You Like That’. He had seen a run of 5 years from 1982 to 1986 where he featured for at least 1 week on the charts, but failed to see any hits in 1987. It was his 14th SA chart hit and he was the 10th act to see this many hits. Once more he teamed up with Bernie Taupin to write the song and they this team accounted for 11 of his 14 hits. Taupin had also been involved in the writing of Starship’s ‘We Built This City’ and Animotion’s ‘I Engineer’ and he was the 23rd song writer to clock up at least 13 hits. ‘I Don’t Wanna Go on with You Like That’ featured David Paton from the band Pilot on bass. Pilot had seen a number 11 hit on our charts back in 1975. ‘I Don’t Wanna Go on with You Like That’ would top the Canadian charts and would spend a week at 2 in the US, stuck behind George Michael’s ‘Monkey’ (interestingly the ttile of the song at 3 that week also started with the words ‘I Don’t Wanna’ as it was Chicago’s ‘I Don’t Wanna Live Without Your Love’). Elton would see the hit reach 4 on the Capital 604 charts, 6 on the Radio 5 ones and 7 on the Radio 702 charts.
With none of the leavers being by solo female acts and Toni Childs having 1 of the new entries, we moved back up to the record to date 9 hits by solo female acts in the charts. It had been 9 weeks since this figure was this high and it was the 3rd time overall that the women had managed this.
Elton John sat 6th on the overall weeks count list and he now hit the milestone of 170 weeks. A-ha celebrated getting to 90 weeks and sat 39th while Erasure became the 95th act to reach 60 weeks. The departure of Richard Jon Smith from the charts meant we would not see any further movement on the local weeks count list so the final top 20 of that list looked like this:
Pos
Artist
Weeks
1
Barbara Ray
136
2
Billy Forrest
113
3
Alan Garrity
98
=4
Richard Jon Smith
83
=4
The Staccatos
83
6
Four Jacks & A Jill
78
7
Bobby Angel
76
8
Gene Rockwell
75
9
Dave Mills
73
10
Jody Wayne
72
11
John Edmond
70
12
Lionel Petersen
68
13
Tommy Dell
67
14
Maria
55
15
Lauren Copley
54
16
The Dealians
50
=17
Jessica Jones
48
=17
Peanut Butter Conpiracy
48
19
Tom Inglis
46
20
The Bats
45
Kylie Minogue sat at 6 with ‘Got To Be Certain’ and 7 with ‘I Should Be So Lucky’ giving us the 61st time an act sat in adjacent positions on the charts. She was the first Aussie act to manage this. She also celebrated having only the second song by an Aussie act to reach 20 top 20 weeks as ‘I Should Be So Lucky’ joined Pseudo Echo’s ‘Funky Town’ in reaching this milestone.
After its giant leap to number 1 last week, Fairground Attraction’s ‘Perfect’ settled into the spot and enjoyed a second week as the nation’s favourite. Underground’s ‘Underneath The Radar’ launched a challenge for the top spot as it moved up from 3 to 2 while Robert Palmer’s ‘Simply Irresistible’ was also in with a shout as it climbed 2 from 5 to 3 and this gave him his highest placing in the charts going past the peak of 4 which his previous hit ‘Addicted To Love’ managed. At this point the peaks for his 3 hits so far read 5, 4, 3 as his first hit, ‘Johnny And Mary’ had peaked at 5.
The climber of the week was The Primitive’s ‘Crash’ which moved up 7 from 24 to 17. There were 3 other star rater climbs this week and they were Matt Bianco’s ‘Wap Bam Boogie’ (up 6 from 16 to 10), Mandy Smith’s ‘Boys And Girls’ (up 6 from 22 to 16) and Men Without Hats’ ‘Pop Goes The World’ (up 4 from 30 to 26). It was a 5th star rater climb for ‘Pop Goes The World’ and it was the 7th song to manage this many. The Staccato’s ‘Cry To Me’ was the only one of those 7 to go on to have a 6th star rater climb. ‘Wap Bam Boogie’ was the climber inside the top 20 and ‘Crash’ and ‘Boys And Girls’ were the only new entries into the top 20.
The Pet Shop Boys picked up their 4th biggest faller award as ‘Heart’ dropped 7 from 11 to 18 to be the faller both within the top 20 and the top 30. They were sitting on 107 weeks and this set a new record for an act seeing their 4th faller award, just edging past the previous record of 106 which Modern Talking had held. The Pet Shop Boys record would not be beaten.
Erasure’s ‘Ship Of Fools’ and Tiffany’s ‘Could’ve Been’ were the 2 songs leaving the top 20. This meant that Climie Fisher’s ‘Love Changes Everything’ was the oldest in the top 20 for a second week as it ticked over to 21 weeks in that part of the chart.
There was a slight change in the oldest in the overall chart as Men Without Hats’ ‘Pop Goes The World’ was now on its own as the oldest, moving on to 27 weeks. It had shared the oldest title with Billy Ocean’s ‘Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car’ for the past 6 weeks but the Billy Ocean hit was 1 of 3 songs leaving the top 30 this week. It had seen a run of 26 weeks and had topped the charts for 2 of those weeks. This brought an end to his SA Chart career with 6 songs and 108 weeks to his name. He managed 3 number 1’s, the other 2 being ‘Loverboy’ (11 weeks) and ‘When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going’ (6 weeks). His total of 19 weeks at 1 was the tied 3rd highest we would see, equalling The Sweet and sitting 2 behind Abba who managed 21 and 10 behind The Bee Gees who led the way with 29 weeks.
Also going was Midnight Oil’s ‘Beds Are Burning’ which managed 22 weeks and spent 5 weeks at 1. This would be their only SA chart hit.
Last of the leavers was Wet Wet Wet’s ‘Temptation’. It has seen 2 runs in the charts, the first being just 1 week at 29, then it re-entered the charts 5 weeks later at 27 and climbed to 23 the following week (last week) and this week it was gone with a total run of 3 weeks and a best peak of 23. They still had ‘Angel Eyes (Home And Away)’ in the charts.
With ‘Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car’ and ‘Beds Are Burning’ both leaving the charts, we had the 27th time we saw 2 previous number 1 hits leave the chart in the same week. We had never seen more than 2 leave in a week and this would be the last time we would lose 2 chart toppers.
Our first new entry was by the second member of The Go-Go’s to have a solo hit. Belinda Carlisle had already seen 3 SA chart hits (including a number 1 with ‘Heaven Is A Place On Earth’) and this week her ex-band mate, Jane Wiedlin, joined her in having an SA chart hit as ‘Rush Hour’ was the first of the new entries. Apart from her music career, Wiedlin had also starred in a number of films, including playing the part of Joan of Arc in ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure’. She had already released an eponymously titled debut solo album in 1985 which produced the minor hit, ‘Blue Kiss’ which peaked at 77 in the US. ‘Rush Hour’ would give her her only solo top 10 hit in the US to date where it went to number 9. It would also fare well in Canada (#13) and Ireland (#8). Locally it would see a peak of 3 on the Capital 604 charts and get to 5 on Radio 5.
Eric Carmen saw his 4th SA chart hit this week with ‘Make Me Lose Control’. The track followed up his success with ‘Hungry Eyes’, a hit from the film ‘Dirty Dancing’, but interestingly ‘Make Me Lose Control’ did not appear on any of his studio albums. Carmen co-wrote the song with Dean Pitchford who had already seen SA chart success having been involved in writing Irene Cara’s ‘Fame’, Kenny Loggins’ ‘Footloose’ and Bonnie Tyler’s ‘Holding Out For A Hero’. ‘Make Me Lose Control’ would go to 3 in the US, 2 in Canada, 8 in Australia, 29 in New Zealand and scrape a peak of 93 in the UK. It would top the Radio 702 charts, peak at 2 on Capital 604 and get to 6 on Radio 5.
The final new entry was a song called ‘Reach’ by Martini Ranch. The band consisted of Andrew Todd Rosenthal and actor Bill Paxton who had appeared in films such as ‘The Terminator’, ‘Aliens’ and ‘Titanic’. They recorded just 1 album, ‘Holy Cow’, which included the single ‘Reach’. The video for the song was directed by James Cameron who also directed ‘The Terminator’. The actor Judge Reinhold apparently recorded the whistling that can be heard on the track. The song does not appear to have charted in any other countries, but it did get to the top of the Capital 604 charts.
Last week we saw the hit count for the British acts catch up with that for the Americans, however as all 3 of the new entries this week were by Americans, they once again had the outright lead with a total of 855 to the Brits 852. Their weeks count difference was down to 45 with the American’s on 9,368 and the Brits on 9,323. This was the first time the gap had been less than 50 for 710 weeks (last seen on 7 February 1975).
Richard Jon Smith moved on to 83 weeks and this put him tied 4th on the local weeks count list where he shared the spot with The Staccatos. Meanwhile the Pet Shop Boys set a new record for featuring in the charts for consecutive weeks as they had now been seen for 56 straight weeks which moved them 1 past the previous record that Jennifer Rush had held. Climie Fisher had seen 2 in the top 20 for 10 straight weeks now and they were the 19th act to manage this. Only 1 more act would manage this.
It had been just over 5 years since we last saw a song take the top spot from position 7 or lower. The previous time a song had done this was when Bob Marley’s ‘Buffalo Soldier’ leapt from 9 to 1 back in the July of 1983. This week Fairground Attraction’s ‘Perfect’ made a 6 place leap from 7 to 1. This was the 11th song to get to 1 from 7 or lower (4 from 7, 4 from 8, 2 from 9 and Kris Kristofferson’s ‘Why Me’ held the record having jumped from 10 to 1). ‘Perfect’ was the 122nd song by a British act to top the charts and this now put the Brits back level with the Americans for number of number 1’s, however, the American hits had spent a total of 442 weeks at 1 compared to the UK acts who were on 420.
The climber of the week was Sting’s ‘Englishman In New York’ which moved up 13 from 28 to 15. This was the 3rd, and would be the last time we saw 2 weeks running with a song climbing at least 13 places. The previous occasions had been when Starship’s ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’ climbed 13 and the following week Mel & Kim’s ‘Respectable’ climbed 20. Then we had seen Belinda Carlisle’s ‘Heaven Is A Place On Earth’ climb 15 and the next week Mas’ ‘Pump Up The Volume’ moved up 16. Belinda Carlisle had also been involved in this 3rd time as her ‘Circle In The Sand’ had climbed 13 last week.
Apart from ‘Englishman In New York’ there were 10 other star raters this week which gave us the all-time record of 11 star raters in a week. The other star raters were the new number 1 (see above), Martha Davis’ ‘Don’t Tell me The Time (up 6 to 10), Belinda Carlisle’s ‘Circle In The Sand’ (up 4 to 13), Glenn Medeiros’ ‘Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You’ (5 to 14), Matt Bianco’s ‘Wap Bam Boogie’ (up 8 to 16), Erasure’s ‘Ship Of Fools’ (up 5 to 20), Cinema’s ‘Inside And Out’ (up 5 to 21), Wet Wet Wet’s ‘Temptation’ (up 4 to 23), The Primitives’ ‘Crash’ (up 6 to 24) and Wet Wet Wet’s ‘Angel Eyes Home And Away)’ (up 4 to 25). Wet Wet Wet were the 5th act to see 2 songs climb 4 or more in the same week. Engelbert Humperdinck, Neil Diamond, Wings and Michael Jackson were the 4 other acts to manage this. ‘Perfect’ and ‘Don’t Tell Me The Time’ were the biggest climbers within the top 20 while ‘Englishman In New York’ and Wap Bam Boogie’ were new entries into that part of the chart. ‘Ship Of Fools’ was the 91st song to re-enter the top 20 and the 21st to do so in 1988.
The biggest faller was Billy Ocean’s ‘Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car’ which dropped 10 from 15 to 25. It was joined in leaving the top 20 by Men Without Hats’ ‘Pop Goes The World’ and Damian’s ‘The Time Warp 2’. The departure of ‘Pop Goes The World’ from the top 20 ended the Canadian acts involvement in that part of the chart. They had seen 42 hits make the top 20 (the 5th highest at that point for any nation) and accumulated 426 weeks (also the 5th highest). The faller within the top 20 was A-ha’s ‘Stay On These Roads’ which dropped 8 from 11 to 19.
With ‘Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car’ leaving the top 20 we now had to look to Climie Fisher’s ‘Love Changes Everything’ as the oldest in that part of the chart as it became the 120th song to reach 20 top 20 weeks. ‘Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car’ still shared the oldest in the overall chart title with ‘Pop Goes The World’ with both songs reaching 26 weeks and enjoying their 6th week as the oldest.
Only 1 song left the chart this week and that was Jerry Harrison’s ‘Rev It Up’. It had managed 8 weeks in total and a peak of 14. This would be his only solo hit on our charts but adding in his hits as part of Talking Heads, his total would be 3 hits, 42 weeks and a best peak of 6 which Talking Heads’ ‘Road To Nowhere’ managed.
The new entry was Mandy Smith’s ‘Boys And Girls’. Smith had risen to fame as a model and for her relationship with Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones, a relationship which allegedly began when she was only 13 years old with Wyman being 34 years older than her. She was the first act to be signed to Pete Waterman’s PWL record label and, while most of the material on her debut album, ‘Mandy’, was written by Stock, Aitken and Waterman, ‘Boys And Girls’ was written by someone called Daize Washbourn. The song would not feature on the charts in her native UK but did manage to get to 4 in Switzerland and 23 in Germany. It would also manage a peak of 3 on the Capital 604 charts. ‘Boys And Girls’ was the 852nd hit by a British act to make our charts which in itself is not that interesting, but what was significant about this was it put the Brits level with the Americans for number of hits. This was the first time that the Americans had not had the outright lead for 796 weeks. They had last been level on hits count on 8 June 1973.
Gerry Rafferty celebrated 40 weeks in the charts while OMD became the 131st act to reach 50 weeks. We also saw 2 songs reach 300 top 20 points and they were Kylie Minogue’s ‘I Should Be So Lucky’ and Climie Fisher’s ‘Love Changes Everything’ which were the 84th and 85th songs to reach this milestone. We had now seen 9 songs reach 300 points in 1988 and this equalled the second best we had seen in a year with 9 also being seen in 1984 while the record was 13 which we saw in 1973.
Also on a top 20 points front, we saw the Pet Shop Boys reach 1,000 points and they were the 28th act to get there. They were celebrating having featured in the charts for 55 consecutive weeks and this equalled Jennifer Rush’s record on that front.
‘The Time Warp’ had now accumulated 22 weeks between the 2 versions of the song that had charted (5 from the Richard O’Brien version and 17 from Damian’s ‘The Time Warp 2’). This moved the song into the top 30 of the list of weeks by songs charting in more than 1 version as it now sat tied 28th with 5 other songs.
This week would prove to be the most turbulent chart we would see based on the total of positions moved up by songs added to positions moved down. This totalled 151 which beat the previous record of 144 set on 8 March 1985, but looking only at the total of positions climbed, this week was second to that March ’88 week with it totalling 75 this week but 78 back then. These 2 weeks would be the only times the total of places climbed was over 70. It had been over 60 on 5 occasions, but we would not see this again.
‘Rise To The Occasion’ by Climie Fisher enjoyed a 3rd straight week at 1 but was coming under pressure from Kylie Minogue’s ‘I Should Be So Lucky’ which moved up from 4 to 2 while OMD’s ‘Dreaming’ dropped from 2 to 3.
Belinda Carlisle picked up her 3rd biggest climber award as ‘Circle in The Sand’ took the honours with a 13 place climb from 30 to 17. It was the 22nd time we had seen a climb of 13 or more by a song and only the 5th time the song had been by a solo female act. Carlisle accounted for 2 of those 5 having seen the record to date climb for a song by a female act when ‘Heaven Is A Place On Earth’ moved up 15 places. The other 3 songs by female acts to manage this were Sandi Shaw’s ‘Think It All Over’ (a 13 place climb), Olivia Newton-John’s ‘If Not from You’ (a 14 place climb) and Sandra’s ‘Hi! Hi! Hi!’ (a 14 place climb). ‘Circle In The Sand’ had dropped from 28 to 30 last week and it joined John Cougar Mellencamp’s ‘Paper In Fire’ and The Communards’ ‘Never Can Say Goodbye’ in making an all-time record 13 place climb after having had a fall. Belinda also became the only woman who would see 2 songs make a 10 place or more climb in a week.
There were 4 other star raters this week and these were Fairground Attraction’s ‘Perfect’ (up 9 from 16 to 7), Kylie Minogue’s ‘Got To be Certain’ (up 4 from 14 to 10), Glenn Medeiros’ ‘Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You’ (up 6 from 25 to 19) and Erasure’s ‘Ship Of Fools’ (up 4 from 29 to 25). ‘Circle In The Sand’ and ‘Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You’ were the new entries into the top 20 and ‘Perfect’ was the top 20’s biggest climber.
The faller of the week was Wet Wet Wet’s ‘Angel Eyes (Home And Away)’ which dropped out of the top 20 as it fell 9 from 20 to 29. It was joined in leaving the top 20 by Midnight Oil’s ‘Beds Are Burning’ which fell from 18 to 21. The fallers inside the top 20 were Men Without Hats’ ‘Pop Goes The World’ and Damian’s ‘The Time Warp 2’ which both dropped 5 to land at 20 and 18 respectively. ‘Pop Goes The World’ still shared the oldest in the top 30 title with Billy Ocean’s ‘Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car’ with both songs on 25 weeks and enjoying their 5th week as the oldest. The Billy Ocean hit was still in the top 20 and celebrated its 23rd week in that part of the chart and this was its 7th week as the oldest in that part of the chart.
While Belinda Carlisle was rocketing up the charts with ‘Circle In The Sand’, it was not all good news for her as ‘I Get Weak’ was 1 of 3 songs leaving the top 30 this week. It had spent 12 weeks in the charts and peaked at 14. This ended a 4 week run with 2 in the charts for Belinda.
Also going was Sade’s ‘Love Is Stronger Than Pride’ which also managed a run of 12 weeks but only managed to get to 20 in that time. This ended her SA chart career with 2 hits and 29 weeks to her credit. Her other hit, ‘Smooth Operator’ managed to get to 6.
The last of the leavers was Rick Astley’s ‘My Arms Keep Missing You’ which had been with us for 19 weeks and peaked at 4. This ended what would prove to be the longest run of featuring in the charts for a solo male as we had seen at least 1 Astley song in the charts for 47 straight weeks. This run consisted of 13 weeks with just ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’. It was then joined by ‘Whenever You Need Somebody’ for 15 weeks. For the following 2 weeks he had 3 in the charts as ‘My Arms Keep Missing You’ joined his other 2 hits. ‘Whenever You Need Somebody’ was the first of those 3 to leave the charts and he had 2 for a further 2 weeks before ‘Whenever You Need Somebody’ re-entered the charts for 1 week. But he was back down to 2 for a further week before ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ left the charts and the run ended with 13 weeks of just ‘My Arms Keep Missing You’. His SA chart career was not over though, as he had another hit still to come.
The first new entry was Matt Bianco’s ‘Wap Bam Boogie’. Like Danny Wilson, whom we had seen on the charts earlier in the year, Matt Bianco was a group, not a person. The name was one the band came up with for an imaginary spy. The lead singer of the band, Mark Reilly, had been the original keyboard player for Wham and his father, Tony Fisher, had been a well known trumpeter who had played on records by Frank Sinatra, Oscar Peterson and can be heard on The Beatles’ ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’. Also in Matt Bianco was Polish born Basia Trzetrzelewska who would go on to have a solo hit with ‘Promises’. ‘Wap Bam Boogie’ would first see chart action in the UK as part of a double a-sided single with ‘Don’t Blame It On That Girl’, the bands 9th UK hit and, to date has their best peak there, going up to number 11. ‘Wap Bam Boogie’ then appeared again as a double a-side with ‘Nervous’, this time only going to 59. In 1990 it was released on its own and made it to 76. It would also go to 2 in Zimbabwe and 9 on the Radio 5 charts.
The second song coming on to the chart was a re-entry by Wet Wet Wet’s ‘Temptation’ which returned to the top 30 after being absent for 4 weeks, It was the 4th song to see a break of 4 weeks with Wings’ ‘Goodnight Tonight’ having managed a gap of 5 weeks, The Staccatos’ ‘Cry To Me’ a gap of 23 weeks and way ahead, with the all-time record of 217 weeks, was Rick Nelson’s ‘I Need You’.
The last new entry was The Primitives’ ‘Crash’. The band hailed from Coventry in the UK and ‘Crash’ would be their only major hit, going to 5 in the UK where it remains their only song to crack the top 20. They had seen 7 other UK chart hits, but their next best effort was 1989’s ‘Sick Of It’ which went to number 24. A remixed version of the song was included in the soundtrack to the film ‘Dumb And Dumber’ which starred Jim Carey and Jeff Daniels. It appeared again in the films ‘Surviving Christmas’ (which starred Ben Affleck) and ‘Mr Bean’s Holiday’. It would see chart action in Germany (#42), New Zealand (#11), Sweden (#2) and Zimbabwe (#9) and would top the Capital 604 charts, but not make either the Radio 5 nor the 702 charts.
While, as mentioned above, Rick Astley had set the all-time record for a consecutive week run in the charts for a solo male artist, the Pet Shop Boys were closing in on the overall record as we had seen them on the charts for 52 straight weeks now and were just 1 week off Jennifer Rush’s record of 55 weeks.
Climie Fisher’s ‘Rise To The Occasion’ spent a second week at 1 with OMD’s ‘Dreaming’ unmoved at 2 also for a second week. Climie Fisher’s other hit, ‘Love Changes Everything’ regained some lost ground as it had fallen from 2 to 4 last week, but this week it moved back up 1 to sit at 3.
The climber of the week was Richard Jon Smith’s ‘(My Hometown) Meadowlands’ which moved up 7 from 29 to 22. It was Smith’s 7th time with the award. [Spoiler alert] Sadly, this would be the last time we saw a local song pick up the award. In total we had seen 212 times a local song was the climber of the week and Barbara Ray had been the artist who had managed the most as she had picked up the award 10 times. Billy Forrest was second with 8 and Richard Jon Smith shared 3rd place with Bobby Angel, both having managed 7.
The other star raters this week were Robert Palmer’s ‘Simply Irresistible’ (up 4 from 10 to 6) and Kylie Minogue’s ‘Got To be Certain’ (up 5 from 19 to 14 and the climber within the top 20). Midnight Oil’s ‘Beds Are Burning’ was the faller both within the top 20 and the top 30 as it dropped 5 from 13 to 18.
There was no movement on or off the top 20 so Billy Ocean’s ‘Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car’ ticked over to 6 weeks as the oldest in that part of the chart having spent 22 weeks there. It was also the oldest in the top 30, sharing that honour with Men Without Hats’ ‘Pop Goes The World’ with both songs having been in the charts for 24 weeks.
For a 6th time in 1988 and a 40th time overall we saw no movement on or off the charts. The 6 in a calendar year equalled the record we had seen back in 1984.
Both Climie Fisher and Cinema reached 30 weeks in the charts and they had both managed this without ever seeing a biggest faller award. They were the 49th and 50th acts to manage this. Belinda Carlisle was one of those 50 acts, but she was now celebrating 40 weeks with no biggest faller. Only 17 acts had managed this.
Midnight Oil’s ‘Beds Are Burning’ became the 4th song by an Aussie act to reach 20 weeks in the charts. Also reaching this milestone was Climie Fisher’s ‘Love Changes Everything’.
Richard Jon Smith reached the 80 weeks in the chart milestone. He was the 52nd act overall to get there and the 5th local one. He sat now 3 behind The Staccatos who were in 4th place on the local weeks count list.
Climie Fisher had now had 2 in the charts for 10 straight weeks and they were the 16th act to manage such a run. Jennifer Rush was the only one of the 16 to have manged 2 such runs. The record run had been 26 weeks which Modern Talking had managed, so Climie still had a lot of work to do if they wanted to break that record.
The Pet Shop Boys saw their top 20 weeks total move on to 80 and they were the 39th act to reach this milestone. Meanwhile Tiffany celebrated 30 straight weeks of featuring in the top 20. Her run had consisted of 18 weeks with ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’ followed by 4 weeks where it was joined by ‘Could’ve Been’ and then a further 8 weeks with just ‘Could’ve Been’. She was the 23rd act to manage such a run and there would only be 1 further act who would manage this.
Climie Fisher would have reasons to be both annoyed and pleased this week as their ‘Love Changes Everything’ dropped from 2 to 4 after having spent 5 weeks at 2 without making the top spot (annoyed). However, their ‘Rise To The Occasion’ did just what it said in its title as it moved up from 3 to take the top spot off of Kylie Minogue’s ‘I Should Be So Lucky’ which dropped from 1 to 3 (pleased). OMD’s ‘Dreaming moved up from 4 to 2 to apply immediate pressure on the new number 1.
Robert Palmer picked up his 5th biggest climber award as ‘Simply Irresistible’ moved up 10 from 20 to 10 this week to be the climber both within the top 20 and the top 30. It was the song’s second biggest climber award and Palmer had previously picked up this honour twice with ‘Johnny And Mary’ and once with ‘Addicted To Love’. The other star raters this week were Bruce Hornsby & The Range’s ‘The Valley Road’ (up 5 from 14 to 9) and Fairground Attraction’s ‘Perfect’ (up 4 from 22 to 18). Bruce Hornsby & The Range were now sitting in their highest position so far as ‘The Valley Road’ moved past the peak of their only other SA Chart hit, ‘The Way It Is’, which had managed to get to 13. ‘Perfect’ was joined by Kylie Minogue’s ‘Got To be Certain’ in being a new entry into the top 20.
The faller of the week was Rick Astley’s ‘My Arms Keep Missing You’ which dropped 10 from 11 to 21. It was joined in leaving the top 20 by Erasure’s ‘Ship Of Fools’ which fell from 18 to 25. The faller within the top 20 was Billy Ocean’s ‘Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car’ which fell 4 from 7 to 11 to take the award for a second week running. It was still the oldest in the top 20, sitting on 21 weeks in that part of the chart. It was also the oldest in the top 30, but shared the title with Men Without Hats’ ‘Pop Goes The World’ with both songs on 23 weeks. It was their 3rd week as the oldest and ‘Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car’s 5th week as the grandaddy of the top 20. ‘Pop Goes The World’ was on 20 top 20 weeks and it was the 121st song to get there.
Only 1 song left the charts this week and that was Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Everywhere’ which had seen a run of 12 weeks and a peak of 13. This ended the band’s SA chart career with 9 hits and 63 weeks to their name. Their best peak had been with ‘Go Your Own Way’ which got to number 4. They averaged exactly 7 weeks per hit and, of the acts who had managed at least 9 hits so far, this was the 3rd lowest with Petula Clark averaging 6.63 (11 hits, 73 weeks) and Jim Reeves having the lowest average of 6.22 (9 hits, 56 weeks). If one adds in the solo/duet hits that Fleetwood Mac band members Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks had, then the band plus its members had contributed 12 hits and totalled 92 weeks with Lindsay Buckingham’s ‘Trouble’ giving them their only chart topper. It spent 2 weeks at 1.
The new entry was the 6th and would be the last to have ‘New York’ In the title. We had previously seen The Bee Gees and The Staccatos’ versions of ‘New York Mining Disaster 1941’, Patsy Gallant’s ‘From New York To L.A.’, Ace Frehley’s ‘New York Groove’ and Dennis Parker’s ‘New York By Night’. This week it was Sting’s turn as he brought us ‘Englishman In New York’, his first solo hit to make our charts. The song was his 8th UK chart hit and the first of them that did not crack the top 50 as it peaked at 51. Sting wrote the song about English writer and actor Quentin Crisp, a quintessential Englishman who was living in the Big Apple and it featured jazz musician Branford Marsalis on saxophone and Manu Katche on drums. It would make the top 20 in Belgium (#16), Ireland (#12) and The Netherlands (#9). On the local radio charts it got to 3 on 702, 4 on Capital 604 and 7 on Radio 5. As he wrote the track, Sting became the 51st person to chart first as a songwriter than as a solo artist. He was the 25th of those 51 who had seen their earlier song writing credit as a member of the group the song was charting with (The Police in this case, although I shouldn’t really need to tell you that).
Rick Astley celebrated reaching 70 weeks in the charts and he was the 73rd act to do so. He had also been featuring in the charts for 46 consecutive weeks and this was a new record for a male act, moving 1 ahead of the previous record of 45 weeks which Alan Garrity had managed. Again, it should be noted that Garrity’s effort was all done in the top 20 era. A little bit ahead of Rick Astley on the weeks count list was Richard Jon Smith who moved on to 79 weeks and this gave him 5th place on the local weeks count list to himself as he moved 1 ahead of Four Jacks & A Jill. He was now 4 behind The Staccatos who sat in 4th place on 83 weeks.
Tiffany had now featured in the charts for 30 straight weeks and she was the 47th act to manage such a run.
‘I Should Be So Lucky’ by Kylie Minogue became the 46th song to manage 7 or more weeks at 1 and it was the 7th by a female artist to do so. Climie Fisher gave us the 60th time we saw an act with songs in adjacent positions as ‘Rise To The Occasion’ moved up from 5 to 3 to join ‘Love Changes Everything’ which was spending a 5th straight week at 2. They were the 6th act to account for 2 of the top 3 with The Hollies, The Sweet, Pussycat, The Bee Gees and Kim Wilde being the previous acts to manage this.
Bruce Hornsby & The Range’s ‘The Valley Road’ had dropped 4 places last week, but this week it became the 3rd (and it would be the last) song to manage 2 climbs of 10 or more places as it moved back up 10 from 24 to 14. The previous 2 to manage this were The Commodores’ ‘Three Times A Lady’ and the Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield’s ‘What Have I Done To Deserve This’, the Commodores effort being more remarkable as it happened in the top 20 era. Bruce Hornsby & The Range were the 19th act to see 2 climbs of 10 or more in total with Abba, Elton John and Michael Jackson all managing 3. ‘The Valley Road’ gave us the 102nd time we had a re-entry into the top 20 and it was 90th song to do this with 12 songs managing it twice.
There were 5 other star raters this week and they were Underworld’s ‘Underneath The Radar’ (up 6 from 11 to 5 and the climber within the top 20), Gerry Rafferty’s ‘Shipyard Town’ (up 4 from 13 to 9), Martha Davis’ ‘Don’t Tell me The Time’ (up 6 from 25 to 19 and a new entry into the top 20), Kylie Minogue’s ‘Got To be Certain’ (up 5 from 26 to 21) and Fairground Attraction’s ‘Perfect’ (up 6 from 28 to 22). Robert Palmer’s ‘Simply Irresistible’ was a new entry into the top 20 alongside ‘The Valley Road’ and ‘Don’t Tell Me The Time’.
The faller of the week was Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Everywhere’ which dropped 9 from 18 to 27. It was joined in leaving the top 20 by Jerry Harrison’s ‘Rev It Up’ and Belinda Carlisle’s ‘I Get Weak’. The faller within the top 20 was Billy Ocean’s ‘Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car’ which dropped 4 from 3 to 7. It remained the oldest in the top 20 as it became the 118th song to reach 20 weeks in that part of the chart. It was also the oldest in the top 30 but shared that title with Men Without Hats’ ‘Pop Goes The World’ with both songs sitting on 22 weeks.
Two songs left the charts, the first of these being Inxs’ ‘New Sensation’ which had seen a run of 12 weeks and peaked at 13. This ended their SA chart involvement. They had seen 2 hits and spent a total of 33 weeks in the charts. Their other hit, ‘Need You Tonight’ had peaked at 5.
We also saw the end of the Eurythmics’ SA chart run as ‘Shame’ left the charts after 17 weeks and a peak of 16. They managed 7 hits and spent exactly 100 weeks in the charts. Their best peak was with ‘Love Is A Stranger’ which managed to get to number 2.
Belinda Carlisle became the 35th act to see at least 2 different combinations of songs in the charts. She had seen ‘I Get Weak’ join ‘Heaven Is A Place On Earth’ and this week, ‘I Get Weak’ was joined by ‘Circle In The Sand’, her 3rd SA chart hit. Like ‘Heaven Is A Place On Earth’, ‘Circle In The Sand’ was written by Rick Nowels and Ellen Shipley. Shipley had also had a hand in writing Jennifer Rush’s ‘I Come Undone’. ‘Circle In the Sand’ featured Thomas Dolby on keyboards and would go to 4 in the UK and 7 in the US. It would also make the top 10 in Canada (#5), Ireland (#6), Germany (#9) and Poland (#10). It would top the Radio 5 charts, peak at 2 on Capital 604 and get to 7 on Radio 702.
The second new entry was ‘Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You’ by Glenn Medeiros. The song was originally recorded by George Benson and included on his 1985 album ‘20/20’. Medeiros, who hailed from Honolulu in Hawaii, recorded a cover version in 1986 after he won a local radio station singing competition. He was 16 at the time. His version fared well in Hawaii and was heard by a Radio programmer from Phoenix who took a copy back to the US mainland and the rest, as they say is history. Benson’s version had seen minor success in Belgium and The Netherlands going to 29 and 43 there respectively. However, Medeiros’ version became a global smash hit going to the top of the charts in Canada, France, Ireland, The Netherlands, Spain and the UK. It would peak at 12 in the US and make number 5 in Zimbabwe. It would also top the Capital 604 and Radio 5 charts but failed to make the Radio 5 charts.
Belinda Carlisle was 10,952 days old the day ‘Circle In the Sand’ charted. This was the exact same age as Billy Joel had been when his hit, ‘Honesty’ had charted. It was the 66th time an act had charted at exactly the same age as a previous act was when they charted. This would be the last time we would see this happen.
Men Without Hats saw their weeks total reach 50. They were the 130th act to clock up a half century of weeks. Meanwhile Richard Jon Smith moved on to 78 weeks and this took him into tied 5th place on the local weeks count list where he sat level with Four Jacks & A Jill. Rick Astley had now featured on the charts for 45 straight weeks and this equalled Alan Garrity’s record to date run for consecutive weeks by a male artist. It should be noted that Garrity managed his feat in the days when it was only a top 20. Astley was on 43 consecutive top 20 weeks.
‘Time Warp’, which had charted for Richard O’Brien and Damian, had now clocked up 18 weeks between the 2 versions (5 and 13 for the 2 versions respectively) and this moved the song into tied 40th place for weeks by a song charting in more than 1 version.
We saw the number of hits by groups drop to 14. This was the first time they had accounted for less than half the chart after a run of 8 weeks where there had been 15 or more. Similarly songs by British acts also dropped below 15 to 14, but they had only seen a run of 2 weeks with 15.
