Pos | LW | Weeks | Song | Artist | |
1 | 1 | 7 | Howzat | – | Sherbet |
2 | 4 | 5 | If You Leave Me Now | – | Chicago |
3 | 2 | 16 | Mississippi | – | Pussycat |
4 | 6 | 7 | You Make Me Feel Like Dancing | – | Leo Sayer |
5 | 3 | 14 | Daddy Cool | – | Boney M |
6 | 10 | 3 | Livin’ Thing | – | Electric Light Orchestra |
7 | 12 | 4 | Under the Moon of Love | – | Showaddywaddy |
8 | 5 | 10 | I’ll Meet You at Midnight | – | Smokie |
9 | 7 | 11 | Georgie | – | Pussycat |
10 | 15 | 5 | Somebody to Love | – | Queen |
11 | 8 | 12 | Without You | – | Barry Mason |
12 | 9 | 6 | Blue Water | – | Julian Laxton Band |
13 | 11 | 6 | Show Me the Way | – | Peter Frampton |
14 | 19 | 2 | What Have I Done | – | Mike Eager |
15 | 16 | 3 | Lost in France | – | Bonnie Tyler |
16 | 17 | 4 | Heaven Must be Missing an Angel | – | Tavares |
17 | 13 | 18 | Jeans On | – | David Dundas |
18 | 14 | 15 | Summer Love (Ete D’Amour) | – | Zamfir |
19 | New | 1 | Moody Blue | – | Elvis Presley |
20 | New | 1 | Keep on Smilin’ | – | John Paul Young |
Sherbet’s ‘Howzat’ set a new record for weeks at 1 by a song by an Australian act as it held on to the top spot for a 3rd week, moving past the 2 weeks that John Paul Young’s ‘I Hate The Music’ had managed. The only other Aussie chart topper had been The Seekers’ ‘World Of Our Own’ which only managed 1 week.
‘Howzat’ was, however, coming under pressure from Chicago’s ‘If You Leave Me Now’ which had topped both the UK and US charts and moved up from 4 into second place on our charts this week.
The climb of the week was 5 places and 3 songs managed that. We saw Showaddywaddy’s ‘Under The Moon Of Love’ move up from 12 to 7, Queen’s ‘Somebody To Love’ climb from 15 to 10 and Michael Eager’s ‘What Have I Done’ jump from 19 to 14. It was Queen and Michael Eager’s first time with the award while it was a 3rd time for Showaddywaddy.
ELO’s ‘Livin’ Thing’ was the only other star rater this week with a 4 place climb from 10 to 6.
David Dundas’ ‘Jeans On’ and Zamfir’s ‘Summer Love (Ete D’Amour)’ were the faller of the weeks. The former dropped 4 from 13 to 17 while the latter fell from 14 to 18. ‘Jeans On’ was the oldest on the charts on 18 weeks and was enjoying its 6th week as the oldest.
Dennis East’s ‘A Million Drums’ had been with us for 16 weeks but left the chart this week. It had peaked at 5 which was 1 place higher than his only other hit to date, ‘A Rose Has To Die’. His first hit managed 13 weeks.
Also going was Abba’s ‘Dancing Queen’. This also managed a run of 16 weeks but peaked much higher, enjoying a 2 week stint at the number 1 spot. It had been Abba’s 5th chart topper and equalled their best effort to date weekwise, scoring the same as their previous hit, ‘Fernando’.
Our first new entry was the 41st song to chart by 2 or more artists. We had seen ‘Moody Blue’ chart in June of the previous year by its writer, Mark James, now Elvis took it into the top 20. It was taken from the album of the same name and this would be the last studio album he would record. The song topped the Billboard Hot Country Singles and went to number 31 on the main Hot 100 charts. It would go to number 4 in Belgium, 5 in New Zealand, 6 in the UK and Norway, 10 in Holland and 57 in Canada. Mark James had also penned Elvis’ only SA number 1 song to date, ‘Suspicious Minds’. ‘Moody Blue’ was Elvis’ 13th hit to date and he was the 4th act to manage this many with The Hollies on 15, Cliff Richard on 17 and Tom Jones on18 above him.
The second new entry was the second SA chart success for John Paul Young and shared a song title with a previous SA chart hit. ‘Keep on Smiling’ was a number 6 hit for James Lloyd in 1970, but John Paul Young’s was a different song which was written by George Young and Harry Vanda who had also written his previous chart topping, ‘I Hate The Music’ (Lloyd’s song was written by John Bartels). ‘Keep On Smiling’ went to number 15 in Young’s native Australia, but when it found its way to Europe, the original b-side, ‘Standing In The Rain’ was favoured and ‘Keep On Smiling’ was relegated to the flipside of the single, a decision that paid off for the European record companies as ‘Standing In The Rain’ went to 2 in Belgium, 3 in Holland, 4 in Germany and 11 in Austria and made number 22 on the Dance Music/Club Play Singles charts in the US. This was the first of 5 occasions where we had an Aussie act at the top and bottom of our charts with Sherbet at the top and John Paul Young at the bottom.
With Abba leaving the chart and Sherbet and John Paul Young both in the top 20, the Aussie’s weeks in the charts moved on to 122 and the they sat equal 7th with Sweden for weeks. Romania moved on to 16 and went 1 ahead of Brazil. Romania sat 16th with Brazil dropped into 17th place.
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