12 January 1979

Pos	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	2	4	Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Lord	–	Boney M
2	1	12	Kiss You All Over	–	Exile
3	6	9	Cindy	–	Peter, Sue & Marc
4	3	7	Y.M.C.A.	–	Village People
5	7	13	Place in Your Heart	–	Nazareth
6	10	8	Hello I Love You	–	Crystal Gayle
7	5	9	Three Times a Lady	–	Commodores
8	4	10	One for You, One for Me	–	La Bionda
9	9	10	Break it to Them Gently	–	Burton Cummings
10	13	3	New York Groove	–	Ace Frehley
11	8	5	Double Vision	–	Foreigner
12	11	23	Dancing in the City	–	Marshall, Hain
13	12	7	Back in the U.S.A.	–	Linda Ronstadt
14	14	4	The Little Girl in Me	–	Judy Cheeks
15	16	4	You’re the Greatest Lover	–	Luv
16	15	11	Wheel in the Sky	–	Journey
17	18	2	Part Time Love	–	Elton John
18	20	5	Right Down the Line	–	Gerry Rafferty
19	17	6	Automatic Lover	–	Dee D. Jackson
20	New	1	Stumblin’ In	–	Suzi Quatro & Chris Norman

Although 3 weeks too late to be a Christmas number 1, Boney M’s ‘Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Lord’ managed to capture the top spot this week, dislodging Exile’s ‘Kiss You All Over’ which had been the nation’s favourite for 7 weeks. This was probably the closest we every got to having a Christmas song at 1 at Christmas time. It was Boney M’s second chart topper, their previous being ‘Rivers Of Babylon’ and they became the 30^th act to see a second chart topper. Boney M moved into tied 7^th place for weeks at 1 joining Charisma there. ‘Kiss You All Over’ dropped to 2.

Crystal Gayle picked up the climber of the week award with her ‘Hello, I Love You’ which moved up 4 from 10 to 6. This was the song and Gayle’s second time with the award, having picked it up 4 weeks earlier. There were no other star raters this week.

On the falling front it was La Bionda’s ‘One For You One For Me’ which took the honours with a 4 place drop from 4 to 8. This was the 3^rd time a song by an Italian act had been the faller with songs by Cyan and Giorgio Moroder being the others. The Italians had spent a total of 71 weeks in the charts, giving them a biggest faller nearly every 24 weeks. This was the second highest weeks per biggest faller ratio of any nation that had charted so far with New Zealand having the highest, seeing only 1 biggest faller while clocking up a total of 29 weeks.

Marshall Hain’s ‘Dancing In The City’ was still the oldest on the charts and had now clocked up 23 weeks in the top 20. There had only been 18 songs so far to reach this many weeks.

Tommy Dell’s ‘Teddy Bear’ was the only song to depart the chart this week. It had seen a run of 13 weeks and a peak of 2, the highest peak of his 4 songs to chart so far. His weeks count for his 4 hits had an interesting pattern as it was 14-13-14-13. There was still more to come form him. Would his next song manage to keep the sequence going and last 14 weeks? Well, I’ll give you a little clue, we would know before we get to the end of June.

Suzi Quatro teamed up the Smokie’s lead singer, Chris Norman, to bring us the new entry this week. It was Suzi’s 3^rd SA chart hit and Norman’s first in his own capacity, but he had seen 7 as a member of Smokie. Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn who had been responsible for all of Suzi’s hits to date and all bar one of Smokie’s, once again took the credit for this duet’s song. They now had 20 song writing credits on the song that had charted so far, however, they were still stuck tied 3^rd on the list of hits by a song writer with Barry Gibb just 1 above them on 21 and Terry Dempsey still in the lead with 25. ‘Stumblin’ In’ would give Quatro & Norman a number 4 hit in the US and a number 41 hit in the UK. It would be Quatro’s only top 40 hit in the US where she would see 6 other songs chart but the best any of those would manage would be a peak of 41 which ‘She’s In Love With You’ would manage. Local artists Nianell and Dozi would record a cover of the song in 2009.

As Tommy Dell’s ‘Teddy Bear’ had been the only SA song on last week’s chart and the new entry was not by a local act, we saw the first occasion for 520 weeks stretching back to 24 January 1969 where we had no local songs in the top 20. This fell short of a decade by 12 days. The previous best consecutive week run that the locals had managed was a mere 108 weeks in comparison. 520 weeks would be the all time best run they would have.

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5 January 1979

Pos	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	11	Kiss You All Over	–	Exile
2	2	3	Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Lord	–	Boney M
3	4	6	Y.M.C.A.	–	Village People
4	3	9	One for You, One for Me	–	La Bionda
5	5	8	Three Times a Lady	–	Commodores
6	9	8	Cindy	–	Peter, Sue & Marc
7	6	12	Place in Your Heart	–	Nazareth
8	8	4	Double Vision	–	Foreigner
9	7	9	Break it to Them Gently	–	Burton Cummings
10	12	7	Hello I Love You	–	Crystal Gayle
11	10	22	Dancing in the City	–	Marshall, Hain
12	11	6	Back in the U.S.A.	–	Linda Ronstadt
13	19	2	New York Groove	–	Ace Frehley
14	16	3	The Little Girl in Me	–	Judy Cheeks
15	13	10	Wheel in the Sky	–	Journey
16	18	3	You’re the Greatest Lover	–	Luv
17	15	5	Automatic Lover	–	Dee D. Jackson
18	New	1	Part Time Love	–	Elton John
19	14	13	Teddy Bear	–	Tommy Dell
20	17	4	Right Down the Line	–	Gerry Rafferty

We had seen 14 year ends so far and the number 1 single on the last chart of a year had stayed at that position for 9 out of the previous 13. This year saw the 10^th time the number 1 song straddled the year end to make it 10 times out of 14, which works out at just over 71% of the time. Exile’s ‘Kiss You All Over’ had been our favourite for 7 weeks now. 18 songs so far had managed to spend at least 7 weeks at the top of the charts. After its massive jump from 15 to 2 last week, presumably helped by the festive season, Boney M’s ‘Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Lord’ stayed stuck at 2.

Ace Frehley’s ‘New York Groove’ was Frehley-wheeling (sorry) up the charts taking the climber of the week award with a 6 place jump from 19 to 13. It would be the only star rater this week.

Tommy Dell’s ‘Teddy Bear’ gave him his 4^th faller of the week award as it dropped 5 from 14 to 19. So far 17 local acts had seen 4 or more biggest fallers. There would only be a further 5 that would do so.

The oldest on the chart remained Marshall Hain’s ‘Dancing In The City’ which was enjoying its 22^nd week with us and its 4^th as the oldest.

John Ireland’s ‘You’re Living Inside My Head’ was the only song not to make it from 1978 to 1979. It had managed a run of 9 weeks and peaked at 8, thus just missing out on becoming a member of the equal weeks and peak club. Ireland would return to the charts later and no prizes for guessing with which song. The departure of Ireland from the charts left us with just 1 local song in the top 20 and that was Tommy Dell’s ‘Teddy Bear’ which had just had the biggest fall of the week and sat at 19 so it looked perilously like we were heading for a local hit drought unless we saw a South Africa act as a new entry next week, or if, by some miracle, ‘Teddy Bear’ could hang in there.

It had been 109 weeks since Elton John had last been seen on our charts and that was when his duet ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’ had been charting. This week he became the 13^th act to have seen a gap of 100 weeks or more between hits twice as his ‘Part Time Love’ was the new entry. His previous gap had been 128 weeks between ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ and ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’. ‘Part Time Love’ was written by Elton and Gary Osborne who, according to Wikipedia, is now the chairman of both The Songwriters Executive of the British Academy Of Songwriters Composers and The Ivor Novello Awards. He was also the main lyricist on Jeff Wayne’s ‘War Of The World’ musical. One of the backing vocalists on the track was our very own Stevie Lange. I say our very own, but she was born in Zambia of British parents. However, she was schooled in SA where she met and later married Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange before the 2 emigrated to the UK. ‘Part Time Love’ would make it to 15 in the UK and despite Wikipedia saying (at the time of writing this) it made it to 21 in the US, it actually only made it to 22. The Wikipedia entry also gets its New Zealand peak wrong, saying it got to 18 whereas it actually made it to 14. Wikipedia also gives it a peak of 12 in Australia, 13 in Canada and 11 in Ireland, and you’ll be pleased to know that I agree with the Aussie and Ireland peaks, but I don’t have sufficient info to confirm the Canadian one. This was Elton’s 5^th hit on our charts and there had now been 63 acts reach this may.

Elton John became the 61^st act to clock up 50 weeks as he reached that milestone this week. On the local weeks count list Tommy Dell moved into tied 13^th place alongside Lauren Copley while Marshall Hain’s ‘Dancing In The City’ became the 35^th song to accumulate 300 or more points. Boney M saw their total points move past the 900 mark. They were the 26^th act to reach this milestone.

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1978 THE FACTS AND FIGURES

1978 was a year where we saw Dallas make its TV debut in the US, Argentina winning the World Cup in Argentina, Pope John Paul I is elected Pope and dies 33 days later, our very own Margaret Gardiner was crowned Miss Universe, P.W. Botha was elected Prime Minister and on 31 October of that year, South African Railways set a still unbeaten world record for the fastest train on narrow gauge tracks when a train went 245 km/h between Westonaria and Midway (bet most of you didn’t know that and I only found out with the help of Wikipedia). 1978 also saw the birth of Shaun Morgan of Saron Gas and later Seether. But what happened on our charts. Well, read on…

1978 saw the lowest number of songs spend time in the charts since 1973. It saw 114 different songs chart and was in fact the 3^rd lowest we had ever seen with only 1973’s 103 and 1965’s 79 being lower although it should be noted that 1965 was the year the charts started and we only had just on 6 months of charts then. 1969 still led the way for the most with 153 songs seeing chart action that year. There were 91 acts needed to bring us the 114 songs this year, also the 3^rd lowest, with 1965 being the lowest with 55 and 1973 second lowest with 87. However, in terms of hits per act, this was the 7^th highest ratio we had seen with the artists averaging 1.25 hits each. The highest we had seen was an average of 1.49 hits per act in 1967 and the lowest was 1.12 in 1976. The highest number of acts to chart in a year so far was 114 which we saw in both 1970 and 1971.  The total number of acts figures always counts those who chart as part of a collaboration separately. If we count the collaboration as 1 act instead of looking at its component parts, then we had 90 acts chart this year. The table below sets out the figures for these stats by years:

Year	No Of Hits	No Of acts	Hits/Act
1965	79	55	1.44
1966	136	97	1.40
1967	146	98	1.49
1968	142	97	1.46
1969	153	112	1.37
1970	141	114	1.24
1971	135	114	1.18
1972	117	97	1.21
1973	103	87	1.18
1974	115	100	1.15
1975	128	111	1.15
1976	123	110	1.12
1977	119	94	1.27
1978	114	91	1.25

Of the 114 hits that spent time on the charts in 1978, 21 were by local acts. As with the overall hit count, this was the 3^rd lowest we had seen with the 13 in the half year of 1965 and the 14 in 1969 being lower. The most local hits we had seen in a year was 41 which we saw in 1971. It took 17 acts to bring us our 21 hits, the tied 4^th lowest act count for locals in a year with 8 in 1965 being the lowest (12 in 1969 the lowest for a full year) and 32 in 1976 being the highest.

Based on a points system of 20 points for a number 1 position, 19 for number 2 etc down to 1 for position 20, the following are the top 40 chart performers for the year (Note: this does not reflect sales):

Pos	Song	Artist	Points
1	Mull of Kintyre	Wings	359
2	Rivers of Babylon	Boney M	344
3	Baker Street	Gerry Rafferty	340
4	How Deep is Your Love	Bee Gees	324
5	Substitute	Clout	321
6	Dancing in the City	Marshall, Hain	297
7	You’re the One That I Want	John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John	270
8	Stayin’ Alive	Bee Gees	268
9	It’s a Heartache	Bonnie Tyler	263
10	So You Win Again	Copperfield	230
11	You Light Up My Life	Debby Boone	225
12	Make Love to Me	Kelly Marie	220
13	Love is in the Air	John Paul Young	210
14	Thank You for the Music	ABBA	208
15	No Hollywood Movie	Lesley Hamilton	202
16	Free Me	Uriah Heep	197
17	Just the Way You Are	Billy Joel	189
18	You’re My Best Friend	Don Williams	188
19	Heidi	Peter Lotis	184
20	Desirée	Neil Diamond	183
21	Night Fever	Bee Gees	182
22	Shadow Dancing	Andy Gibb	180
=23	Mellow Lovin’	Judy Cheeks	173
=23	It’s so Easy	Linda Ronstadt	173
25	Kiss You All Over	Exile	167
26	Needles and Pins	Smokie	164
=27	Follow Me	Amanda Lear	158
=27	If You Can’t Give Me Love	Suzi Quatro	158
29	Teddy Bear	Tommy Dell	153
30	My Life’s in Good Hands (Jesus, Sweet Jesus)	Gene Rockwell	143
31	Fantasy	Earth, Wind & Fire	131
32	Run Back	Carl Douglas	129
33	You’re in My Heart (The Final Acclaim)	Rod Stewart	126
34	One for You, One for Me	La Bionda	121
=35	Break it to Them Gently	Burton Cummings	118
=35	Wuthering Heights	Kate Bush	118
37	The Name of the Game	ABBA	116
38	I Can’t Stand the Rain	Eruption	113
39	Run to Me	Kelly Marie	111
=40	Barracuda	Heart	106
=40	Give a Little Love	Pacific Express	106

You can compare this to the list published in Top 40 magazine in 1989 which can be found here:

Top 40 Magazine 1978 List

This was only the second time an act from the UK had supplied us with the top hit of the year. The only other UK act to manage this was Chris Andrews who topped the list in 1970 with ‘Pretty Belinda’. The locals were still in the lead for providing the top hit as they had given us 5. The Americans were next on 4 with Germany sharing tied 3^rd place with the UK on 2 and Canada had given us the last of them. The 359 points that ‘Mull Of Kintyre’ managed was the 3^rd highest for a top song of the year, coming in behind Freddy Breck’s ‘We Believe In Tomorrow’ which manged 376 in 1973 and the record holder, Alan Garrity’s ‘I Need Someone’ which accumulated 417 points in 1972. Overall this was the 7^th highest total a song had managed in a calendar year with 5 of those above it having reached their total in 1972 and 1 in 1973.

The cumulative points to date gave the following top 10 and this saw its first change since 1973, the change being the addition of Wings’ ‘Mull Of Kintyre’ into tied 10^th place:

Pos	Song	Artist	Points
1	I Need Someone	Alan Garrity	464
2	I Can See Clearly Now	Johnny Nash	448
3	Cry to Me	Staccatos	447
4	You	Peter Maffay	399
5	Sunday, Monday, Tuesday	Jessica Jones	391
5	We Believe in Tomorrow	Freddy Breck	376
7	Woman (Beautiful Woman)	Don Gibson	373
=8	Sylvia’s Mother	Dr. Hook	363
=8	Beautiful Sunday	Daniel Boone	363
=10	Nice to be with You	Gallery	359
=10	Mull Of Kintyre	Wings	359

The top songs pointswise on the local front for 1978 were as follows:

Pos	Song	Artist	Points
1	Substitute	Clout	321
2	So You Win Again	Copperfield	230
3	Heidi	Peter Lotis	184
4	Teddy Bear	Tommy Dell	153
5	My Life’s in Good Hands (Jesus, Sweet Jesus)	Gene Rockwell	143

Clout’s 321 points with ‘Substitute’ was the 4^th highest for a local song of the year with Alan Garrity’s ‘I Need Someone’ mentioned above being the highest. It terms of the breakdown of the top hits we had seen so far, 7 had been by male artists, 4 by groups, 2 by women and 1 by a duet. Des Lindberg and Barbara Ray had been the only acts to top this list twice although Ray’s second time was as part of the duet mentioned above.

Cumulatively from the start of the charts in 1965, the top 5 local songs were:

Pos	Song	Artist	Points
1	I Need Someone	Alan Garrity	464
2	Cry to Me	Staccatos	447
3	Sunday, Monday, Tuesday	Jessica Jones	391
4	Mammy Blue	Charisma	347
5	I Don’t Wanna Play House	Barbara Ray	336

This was unchanged from last year.

NUMBER OF HITS

The most hits any act manged to see spend time in the charts in 1978 was 3 with was the tied lowest we had ever seen. 4 of the 14 years we have looked at so far had seen this figure be 3. The acts that manged this in 1978 were The Bee Gees, Abba, Boney M and Smokie. Both Abba and The Bee Gees had been the top scorers in terms of number of hits in a year on 3 different occasions with The Bee Gees also doing so in 1968 and 1969 while Abba managed it in 1974 and 1976 and well as 1978 (what would 1980 bring for Abba if they seemed to manage this every 2 years?). 1968, 1969, 1971 and 1972 had all seen acts manage to have chart action with 5 hits.

Clout, Gene Rockwell, McCully Workshop and Clive Risko were the only local acts to manage more than 1 hit and they all saw 2 hits spend time in the charts. Both McCully Workshop and Clive Risko’s first of their 2 had been carried over chart action from 1977. Four Jacks & A Jill’s 4 in 1968 and Bobby Angels’ 4 in 1975 were the best that local acts had managed.

Cliff Richard still led the way overall for total number of hits with 19 to his name. He was followed by Tom Jones on 18 and The Bee Gees moved up into tied 3^rd place with The Hollies on 15. Richard, Jones and The Hollies did not see any new hits in 1978. Abba moved into tied 5^th with Percy Sledge and Billy Forrest on 12, Neil Diamond moved up to tied 9 with 11 and Gene Rockwell was the only act to be a new entry on the list of acts with 10 or more hits. The list now looked like this:

Pos	Artist	No Of Hits
1	Cliff Richard	19
2	Tom Jones	18
=3	Hollies	15
=3	Bee Gees	15
5	Elvis Presley	14
=6	Percy Sledge	12
=6	Billy Forrest	12
=6	Abba	12
=9	Herman’s Hermits	11
=9	Petula Clark	11
=9	Creedence Clearwater Revival	11
=9	Rolling Stones	11
=9	Neil Diamond	11
=14	Troggs	10
=14	Jody Wayne	10
=14	Barbara Ray	10
=14	Gene Rockwell	10

WEEKS ON THE CHARTS

The Bee Gees spent more weeks on the chart than any other act in 1978. With 2 in the chart in the same week counting as 2 (and in their case 3 counting as 3), they clocked up 53 which was second highest only to Middle Of The Road’s 59 in 1972. These were the only 2 so far to manage 50 or more weeks in a year. The Bee Gees were now the second act to top this list twice, joining Abba in this feat. The Bee Gees had also topped the list in 1968 while Abba manged it in 1974 and 1975, although shared the top spot honour in the latter case with our very own Bobby Angel. The Bee Gees were the outright leaders in their 2 years. Clout was the top local act for 1978 with 25 weeks. Tommy Dell still had the best total for a local act in a calendar year. He clocked up 41 in 1976.

The overall position for weeks in the charts looked like this:

Pos	Artist	No Of Weeks
1	Tom Jones	185
2	Bee Gees	178
3	Abba	162
4	Hollies	137
5	Elvis Presley	131
6	Cliff Richard	121
7	Creedence Clearwater Revival	118
=8	Troggs	115
=8	Sweet	115
10	Neil Diamond	112
11	Rolling Stones	109
12	Barbara Ray	107
13	Percy Sledge	105
14	Beach Boys	97
15	Herman’s Hermits	95
=16	Tommy Roe	92
=16	Billy Forrest	92
=18	Engelbert Humperdinck	84
=18	Alan Garrity	84
=20	Staccatos	83
=20	Olivia Newton-John	83

And the local list was as follows:

Pos	Artist	No Of Weeks
1	Barbara Ray	107
2	Billy Forrest	92
3	Alan Garrity	84
4	Staccatos	82
5	Four Jacks & A Jill	78
6	Gene Rockwell	75
7	Dave Mills	73
8	Jody Wayne	72
9	John Edmond	70
10	Lionel Petersen	68
11	Bobby Angel	64
12	Maria	55
13	Lauren Copley	54
14	Tommy Dell	53
15	Dealians	50
=16	Jessica Jones	48
=16	Peanutbutter Conspiracy	48
18	Bats	45
19	Peter Lotis	44
20	Richard Jon Smith	43

NUMBER 1’s

After 3 years in a row where we had seen acts manage to have 2 number 1’s, we were back to no act managing to spend time at the top with more than 1 hit. This was the 5^th year this had happened. Chris Andrew’s 3 chart toppers in 1970 was still the unbeaten record for the most in a year. There were only 9 chart toppers this year which was the lowest we had seen by quite a distance. The next lowest total was 13 which was in 1973. The 21 in 1969 was the most we had seen in a year.

‘Rivers of Babylon’ by Boney M spent more weeks at 1 than any other song as it manged 11. The Bee Gee’s ‘Stayin’ Alive’, Gerry Rafferty’s ‘Baker Street’ and Clout’s ‘Substitute’ were tied 2^nd with 8 weeks and Clout’s hit was obviously the top local one. McCully Workshop’s ‘The Buccaneer’, which spent time at 1 either side of the 1977 year end, was the only other local chart topper.

Abba and Tom Jones led the way for number of number 1’s as they had both seen 6 of their songs top the charts. Abba had managed to spend time at 1 in every year from 1974, but failed to extend that run into 1978, just missing out by spending 5 (non-consecutive) weeks at 2 with ‘Thank You for the Music’ during the year. The Hollies on 5 were second followed by The Bee Gees and Chris Andrews with 4 each.

During 1978 The Gee Gees moved past The Sweet for having the most weeks at 1. The Sweet had held the record from 1 August 1975 when ‘Fox On The Run’ gave them their 19^th week at number 1. Th Bee Gees equalled this on 26 May 1978 and then when on to top the list the next week. By the end of 1978 their total had moved on to 22. In terms of weeks at 1 by a song, we had already seen the all time record of 13 which Johnny Nash’s ‘I Can See Clearly Now’ had managed and the second highest of 12 weeks which Charisma’s ‘Mammy Blue’ managed.

LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE GIRLS

1978 saw the first time that we had more hits by women than we had local hits in the charts. In 1967 both local acts and women and seen 23 songs see chart action, but in 1978 we had the women scoring 23 hits again, but the locals only managed 21 as noted above. If we include those hits where women were part of a duet, then their total would go up to 25 (both the additional 2 being Olivia Newton-John scoring hits alongside John Travolta). The 23 in 1967 and now in 1978 were the best we had seen so far although in 1967 adding in the women who charted as duets, the total then was 27, 2 more than 1978. Their effort this year moved their average per year up from 13.6 at the end of 1977 to 14.4 (14.4 to 15.2 if you exclude the half year of 1965 when they only managed 5).

18 different women charted in 1978 and of them Kelly Marie, Olivia Newton-John, Suzi Quatro, Amanda Lear, Linda Ronstadt and Judy Cheeks all manged to see chart action with 2 hits (Olivia Newton John managing both of hers as part of a duet). No woman managed 3 or more. Petula Clark still held the record which was 4 in a calendar year and that was in 1967.

No one had managed to catch Petula Clark who’s 11 still was the best by any woman. Barbara Ray was still second on 10 and the top local lass. Olivia Newton-John caught up with Nancy Sinatra in 3^rd place with 7 while Virginia Lee was still the second highest placed local woman with 6.

Kelly Marie and Olivia Newton-John both spent a total of 25 weeks in the charts during 1978, the 6^th highest any women had managed in a calendar year. The 40 that Maria managed in 1973 was still the record. Margaret Singana and Carike Keuzencamp were the only local women to chart this year with the former managing 8 weeks and the latter 2. The 10 weeks in total for local women in the chart in a year was the second lowest to date, just 1 above the 9 weeks they managed in half year of 1965. 1969 saw 11 weeks and was the 3^rd lowest total.

On the overall weeks count list, Barbara Ray still led the way with 107 and was the only woman so far to have reached triple figures. Olivia Newton-John moved into second place with 83, knocking Petula Clark into 3^rd place. Petula was on 73. Maria on 55 was the second highest placed local woman with Lauren Copley on 54 being 3^rd.

This year was only the second time where we did not have any solo women top the charts. The previous time we had seen this was in 1970. Heart and Clout, who did spend time at 1 during the year were both all-girl groups while Boney M was predominantly female and the Hain in Marshall Hain was Kit Hain, a woman.

Julie Covington and Hilary led the way for weeks at 1 by women with 7. Kiki Dee and Barbara Ray had both managed 6 while Loretta Lynn, Nancy Sinatra and Sandy Posey had all managed 5.

The top 5 hits by woman in 1978 based on the points system were:

Pos	Song	Artist	Points
1	You’re the One That I Want	John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John	270
2	It’s a Heartache	Bonnie Tyler	263
3	You Light Up My Life	Debby Boone	225
4	Make Love to Me	Kelly Marie	220
5	No Hollywood Movie	Lesley Hamilton	202

Olivia Newton-John was the only woman so far to have topped this list twice.

On a cumulative basis, the top 5 read:

Pos	Song	Artist	Points
1	Sunday, Monday, Tuesday	Jessica Jones	391
2	I Don’t Wanna Play House	Barbara Ray	336
3	Come What May (aka Aprés Toi)	Vicky Leandros	321
4	It’s too Late Now	Lauren Copley	303
=5	Clap Your Hands and Stamp Your Feet	Maria	302
=5	Single Girl	Sandy Posey	302

This list had been unchanged since the end of 1973.

NATIONALITIES

Aside from artists from the UK and US (who tend to dominate most charts worldwide), and local acts the following are the top hits from other nationalities:

Pos	Song	Artist	Points	Nationality
1	Rivers of Babylon	Boney M	344	Jamaica/Germany
2	Love is in the Air	John Paul Young	210	Australia
3	Thank You for the Music	ABBA	208	Sweden
4	No Hollywood Movie	Lesley Hamilton	202	Germany
5	Follow Me	Amanda Lear	158	France

Depending on how one classifies Boney M (they were mainly from Jamaica but with some members coming from other Carribean Islands but they were based in Germany) we either saw the first Jamaican hit be the top of this list, or the 3^rd by a German act. Canada had topped the list 3 times, so either held the outright lead, or were tied top with Germany.

1978 was the second best year for acts from the rest of the world as they manged 25 hits spending time in the charts during the year. This was 5 down on their best to date which was the 30 which they saw in 1977. The 24 in 1975 was now 3^rd best while the 5 in 1966 was the worst (even less than the 6 in the half year of 1965). 1978 was the 4^th consecutive year that they had managed over 20, never having managed that at any time before then.

Abba and Boney M were the only non-big 3 acts that saw 3 hits in the year, the best any such act would manage in 1978. The 4 that Pussycat and John Paul Young managed in 1977 was still the best any non-big 3 act had achieved.

Abba led the way for overall number of hit by a non-big 3 act with 12 to their name. The Seekers from Australia on 7 were second while another Aussie act, John Paul Young and Ireland’s Joe Dolan shared 3^rd place with 6.

The US were the top nation in terms of hits for a 7^th time with 37 acts from there seeing chart action during the year. The UK acts were second with 29 and local acts managed 21. The 2 duets between John Travolta (and American) and Olivia Newton-John (a Brit) are not included in the above stats. France with 4 was the top rest of the world nation and this was the second time they had been the top nation for this stat. Their total of 4 was 4 down on the record to date 8 which Canada managed in 1968. The 72 the Americans managed in 1969 was still the best for any nation. Canada had topped the non-big 3 list 5 times, the most to date.

Hits by 14 different nations charted during the year which was tied second highest to date, equalling 1976’s effort and falling 2 short of 1977’s total of 16. The nations that charted in 1978 were The US, The UK, SA, France, Australia, Jamaica, The Netherlands, Sweden, Canada, Ireland, Spain, Germany, Italy and Switzerland.

Overall the Americans led the way for number of hits, having clocked up 511. The Brits were next with 483 while the local acts were 3^rd with 330. Of the other nations, Canada led the way with 29 followed by The Netherlands on 25 and then Germany and Australia on 20. This is based on Boney M being classified as Jamaican. Germany would be tied with The Netherlands on 25 if one counts Boney M as German.

The cumulative best hits for ‘rest of the world’ artists was as follows:

Pos	Song	Artist	Points	Nationality
1	You	Peter Maffay	399	Germany
2	We Believe in Tomorrow	Freddy Breck	376	Germany
3	Rivers of Babylon	Boney M	344	Jamaica/Germany
4	Come What May (aka Aprés Toi)	Vicky Leandros	321	Greece
5	Missippi	Pussycat	315	Netherlands

WHAT DIDN’T CHART

There were only 15 songs that made it to number 1 on the UK and/or the US charts that didn’t make it onto our top 20 in 1978. This was the lowest this total had been since the 15 in 1968 and it was the tied 3^rd lowest so far (1966 also being tied with them) with the 10 in 1967 and 9 in 1965 being the overall lowest. Of the 15 that didn’t make it onto our charts, 3 of them would chart in later years in SA.

The 15 chart toppers in the US or UK or both that didn’t make our charts in 1978 were as follows:

Song	Artist
Boogie Oogie Oogie	A Taste Of Honey
Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?	Rod Stewart
Dreadlock Holiday	10Cc
Hot Child In The City	Nick Gilder
If I Can’t Have You	Yvonne Elliman
Le Freak	Chic	*
Love Is Thicker Than Water	Andy Gibb
MacArthur Park	Donna Summer
Miss You	Rolling Stones
Rat Trap	Boomtown Rats
Too Much, Too Little, Too Late	Johnny Mathis & Deniece Williams
Uptown Top Ranking	Althia And Donna
With A Little Luck	Wings
You Don’t Bring Me Flowers	Barbra Streisand & Neil Diamond	*
You Needed Me	Anne Murray	*
* Would chart in a later year

I WRITE THE SONGS

The names of 156 different song writers appeared on the 114 hits that charted during 1978 which was the 4^th lowest total we had seen so far, beating the 155 of 1972, the 149 of 1974 and the 104 in the half year of 1965. The 206 in 1967 was the highest we had seen. In terms of number of hits by song writers, Barry Gibb, Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn all saw 5 of their compositions spend time in the charts during the year. Gibbs’ credits came on the 3 Bee Gee tracks that charted as well as his brother Andy’s hit ‘Shadow Dancing’ and the theme tune to ‘Grease’ sung by Franke Valli. The last of those was the only one that Robin and Maurice didn’t also have writing credits on. Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn brought us 2 Smokie hits, 2 Suzi Quatro hits and Exile’s ‘Kiss You All Over’. Terry Dempsey’s 9 hits as a songwriter in 1971 was still the best anyone had managed in a calendar year so far.

In terms of weeks on the charts it was Barry Gibb who took the honours for 1978, his compositions spending a total of 76 weeks in the top 20. He was followed by his brothers Robin and Maurice who saw 70 with Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn being the next highest with 51.

Terry Dempsey had not seen chart action for any of his compositions since 1973 when David Cassidy’s version of his ‘Daydreamer’ charted. It is possible that he made enough money from ‘Daydreamer’ (which topped the UK charts) so that he could take a 5 year break, but he did manage to see chart action in 1978 with Clout’s ‘You’ve Got All Of Me’. This took his total number of hits to date on to 25. He was 4 clear at the top of the number of hits by a songwriter list with Barry Gibb on 21 closing in on him. The other 2 who had the most hits this year, Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn were tied 3^rd overall with 19 hits to their names.

Demspey also led the way overall for weeks with 258 to his name, but Barry Gibb was closing in on him as the Bee Gee had amassed 239. Chapman & Chinn were tied 3^rd with 231 and they had been tied second at the end of 1977, but a fantastic year for the Gibbs brothers led to the change in the second most successful songwriter.

None of the songwriters who saw number 1 success this year managed to do so with more than 1 hit.

The Abba hit writing crew of Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Stig Anderson still topped the list of number 1’s by a songwriter with 6 to their names. The 3 Gibbs brothers – Barry, Robin and Maurice – had all managed 5. In terms of weeks at 1, Barry & Maurice Gibb led the way with 23 followed by their brother Robin on 22. In case you missed it, Robin left the group for a period during which his solo effort, ‘Saved By The Bell’ topped the charts for 3 weeks in 1969 and later that year Barry and Maurice continued as The Bee Gees and topped the charts for 4 weeks with ‘Don’t Forget To Remember’, hence these 2 having 1 more week at 1 than Robin. Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn were tied 4^th with 20 weeks at 1.

CONSECUTIVE WEEKS

For the past 4 years, the best we had seen in terms of consecutive years spending at least 1 week in the charts was 5 years. This barrier was finally broken through as we saw Abba enter their 6^th consecutive year with at least 1 week in the charts. We had to go back to 1973 to see a longer run and that was when The Bee Gees had managed 7 years. Cliff Richard and Tom Jones still held the record having both seen chart action in every year from 1965 to 1972, a run of 8 years.

Apart from Abba, of those acts charting in 1978, none had managed a run of 5 years, but Rod Stewart, Joe Dolan, 5,000 Volts and Smokie had all seen chart action every year from 1975, a 4 year run.

Neither Barbara Ray nor Lionel Petersen, who had managed a 5 year run to 1977, had seen chart action in 1978. The longest running local acts were now Rabbitt and The Julian Laxton Band, both of whom had charted for 3 years from 1976. Rabbitt missed out on 1974, otherwise their run would have extended back to 1973. The best run so far for a local act was 6 years which The Staccatos managed, so Barbra Ray and Lionel Petersen just missed out on equalling that.

THANKS

Well, that’s all for our trip down 1978 memory lane, but stay tuned as 1979 coming right up. However, before we head off into 1979 world, I must thank those who have helped along the way. Special thanks go to Peet van Staaden, Anton ‘Eagle-Eye’ van Staden and Ian McLean for supplying invaluable information and corrections as well as Chris Kimberly, Brian Currin, Stephen Segerman and Tertius Louw for helping out with any questions that come our way.

29 December 1978

Pos	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	10	Kiss You All Over	–	Exile
2	15	2	Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Lord	–	Boney M
3	2	8	One for You, One for Me	–	La Bionda
4	3	5	Y.M.C.A.	–	Village People
5	5	7	Three Times a Lady	–	Commodores
6	8	11	Place in Your Heart	–	Nazareth
7	4	8	Break it to Them Gently	–	Burton Cummings
8	9	3	Double Vision	–	Foreigner
9	6	7	Cindy	–	Peter, Sue & Marc
10	7	21	Dancing in the City	–	Marshall, Hain
11	11	5	Back in the U.S.A.	–	Linda Ronstadt
12	12	6	Hello I Love You	–	Crystal Gayle
13	14	9	Wheel in the Sky	–	Journey
14	10	12	Teddy Bear	–	Tommy Dell
15	16	4	Automatic Lover	–	Dee D. Jackson
16	18	2	The Little Girl in Me	–	Judy Cheeks
17	17	3	Right Down the Line	–	Gerry Rafferty
18	19	2	You’re the Greatest Lover	–	Luv
19	New	1	New York Groove	–	Ace Frehley
20	13	9	You’re Living Inside My Head	–	John Ireland

The year ended with Exile’s ‘Kiss You All Over’ at number 1 and enjoying its 6^th week there. Things did not look good for it to manage a 7^th week as the new number 2 was Boney M’s ‘Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Lord’ which jumped a massive 13 places from 15 to 2 to be the climber of the week. This was the 8^th time a song had climbed 13 or more in a week with 2 others managing 13, 2 managing 14, 2 managing 16 and The Sweet’s ‘Co-Co’ holding the record to date with a 17 place climb. Boney M were now the 6^th act to have seen at least 2 songs make a climb of 10 or more places in a week. They had previously seen ‘Rivers Of Babylon’ climb 11 in a week. There were no other star raters this week.

John Ireland’s ‘You’re Living Inside My Head’ was the faller of the week for a second week running. It dropped a further 7 from 13 to 20.

Marshall Hain’s ‘Dancing In The City’ ticked over to 21 weeks in the chart and it was enjoying its 3^rd week as the oldest.

There was only 1 song leaving the top 20 this week and that was Andy Gibb’s ‘Shadow Dancing’ which had seen a run of 17 weeks in the charts and peaked at 4. This would be his only SA chart hit. Sadly he would pass away on 10 March 1988, just over 9 years after leaving our charts.

The new entry was a solo effort by Kiss’ lead guitarist, Ace Frehley. ‘New York Groove’ was written by Russ Ballard (who was a member of the band Argent) and was originally recorded by a band called Hello. That version went to number 9 in the UK and 7 in Germany and 10 in Austria. Ace Frehley’s version would go to 13 in the US and 16 in what was then Rhodesia. There was a South African connection with the song as the drummer on the track was a guy called Anton Fig who hailed from Cape Town.

The Swiss made 17^th place on the list of weeks in the charts by acts from a nation their own as they moved on to 16 weeks, putting them 1 ahead of the Romanians who dropped to 18.

Linda Ronstadt saw her weeks count reach 20 and she was the 37^th female artist to reach this total.

1978 became the 3^rd year where we saw none of the acts who featured on the first top 20 of the year appear on the last top 20. 1971 and 1972 were the 2 other years where this had happened. In case you’re wondering who was on the charts in the first week of 1978 here’s a reminder: Abba, Baccara, Brotherhood Of Man, Clive Risko, Clout, Donna Summer, Fleetwood Mac, Heart, Joe Dolan, Kelly Marie, Leo Sayer, Margaret Singana, McCully Workshop, Meco, Patsy Gallant, Rabbitt, Rod Stewart, Thelma Houston, Trevor Rabin and Wings.

What we did see on this last week of the year was the second time we had seen a run of 100 weeks with at least 1 hit by a solo female artist in the charts. The previous 100 had come up in 19 April 1974 and went on to be a run of 144 weeks. There had been 2 runs inbetween that one and the current one and those 2 were 42 and 46 weeks respectively.

Well, that ends the charts for 1978. Next time we will round up what happened in the year before heading into 1979.

Youtube playlist:

22 December 1978

Pos	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	9	Kiss You All Over	–	Exile
2	2	7	One for You, One for Me	–	La Bionda
3	8	4	Y.M.C.A.	–	Village People
4	3	7	Break it to Them Gently	–	Burton Cummings
5	4	6	Three Times a Lady	–	Commodores
6	5	6	Cindy	–	Peter, Sue & Marc
7	7	20	Dancing in the City	–	Marshall, Hain
8	6	10	Place in Your Heart	–	Nazareth
9	12	2	Double Vision	–	Foreigner
10	9	11	Teddy Bear	–	Tommy Dell
11	11	4	Back in the U.S.A.	–	Linda Ronstadt
12	13	5	Hello I Love You	–	Crystal Gayle
13	10	8	You’re Living Inside My Head	–	John Ireland
14	14	8	Wheel in the Sky	–	Journey
15	New	1	Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Lord	–	Boney M
16	15	3	Automatic Lover	–	Dee D. Jackson
17	19	2	Right Down the Line	–	Gerry Rafferty
18	New	1	The Little Girl in Me	–	Judy Cheeks
19	New	1	You’re the Greatest Lover	–	Luv
20	17	17	Shadow Dancing	–	Andy Gibb

Exile’s ‘Kiss You All Over’ became the 54^th song to reach 5 weeks at 1. This meant that just under a quarter of the chart toppers so far had managed at least 5 weeks at 1 as we had seen a total of 219 songs top the charts so far. La Bionda’s ‘One For You, One For Me’ spent a 3^rd frustrating week at 2.

The Village People’s ‘Y.M.C.A.’ picked up its second biggest climber award with a 5 place climb from 8 to 3. It had been the climber of the week 2 weeks earlier. It would be the only star rater this week.

The faller of the week award was shared between Andy Gibb’s ‘Shadow Dancing’ and John Ireland’s ‘You’re Living Inside My Head’ which both fell 3 places to land at 20 and 13 respectively. ‘Shadow Dancing’ was the 24^th song to see 3 biggest fallers so far with only The Sweet’s’ Funny Funny’ and Maureen McGovern’s ‘The Morning After’ going on to pick up a 4^th.

Marshall Hain’s ‘Dancing In The City’ enjoyed a second week as the oldest in the top 20. It was in its 20^th week in the charts and was the 48^th song to reach 20 weeks so far.

John Paul Young had had a rather illustrious SA Chart career, but it all ended with a bit of a whimper as his final hit, ‘The Day That My Heart Caught Fire’ only managed to spend 1 week at number 20. This was the 53^rd song to spend only 1 week in the charts and the 31^st to spend that week at 20. This would be the only song to manage this in 1978 and we had to go back to 1976 to see the previous time. John Paul Young had managed a total of 6 hits, spent 66 weeks in the charts and managed 2 numbers 1 in the form of ‘I Hate The Music’ and ‘Yesterday’s Hero’ which had both spent 2 weeks at 1. His 66 weeks was the tied highest for an Aussie act to date, equalling that of The Seekers. By the time the charts ended in February 1989, only 1 Aussie act would have gone past these 2.

Suzi Quatro’s ‘The Race Is On’ was off…the charts that is. It had managed 11 weeks and peaked at 8, not quite as good as the peak of 3 and 13 weeks that her only other hit to date, ‘If You Can’t Give Me Love’, had managed. We would see her on the charts again at a later date.

Last to go was Pacific Express’ ‘Give A Little Love’ which had been on the charts for 10 weeks and peaked at 7. This would be their only SA chart hit. Zayn Adams who was a member of Pacific Express would return to the charts as a member of Plastik Mak. With none of the new entries discussed below being by local acts, we were left with just Tommy Dell’s ‘Teddy Bear’ and John Ireland’s ‘You’re Living Inside My Head’ as the local entries on the chart. It had been 28 weeks since the count was this low.

Boney M became the 62^nd act to clock up at least 5 hits as their 5^th one, ‘Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Lord’ was the first of the 3 new entries this week. The ‘Mary’s Boy Child’ part of the song was a cover of a 1956 hit for Harry Belafonte. His version went to 15 in the US and would top the charts for 7 weeks in the UK. Boney M’s version would only get to number 85 in the US but the Brits seem to love the song as this version managed 4 weeks at 1. At the time of writing this, it was the 11^th biggest selling single in the UK ever and Boney M along with The Beatles were the only 2 acts who had 2 songs on the list of the top 20 biggest sellers in the UK with ‘Rivers Of Babylon’ being their other one which was at 7. (For those interested, The Beatles 2 were ‘She Loves You’ at 9 and ‘I Want To Hold your Hand’ at 18). ‘Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Lord’ would also top the charts in Germany, Switzerland and Sweden.

Judy Cheeks saw her 2^nd hit make out charts. Her new one was ‘The Little Girl In Me’ which followed up her ‘Mellow Lovin’. In Canada the song was released with ‘Suspicious Minds’ as the b-side, the song that Elvis had charted with in SA in 1969. In South Africa the ‘The Little Girl In Me’ was released on Ariola records and featured a song called ‘Please Give Me This Night’ as the b-side. The only other chart I have managed to find where ‘The Little Girl In Me Charted’ was in Zimbabwe (Rhodesia as it was then) where it went to number 4.

Dutch group Luv saw their first SA chart action with ‘You’re the Greatest Lover’ which entered the charts at 19 this week. Luv, like Pussycat, another Dutch act who had charted in SA, was made up of 3 women. One of them was Patty Brard who would see a solo hit make our charts a few years later. This was the 25^th song by a Dutch act to chart. ‘You’re The Greatest Lover’ was written by Piet Souer and Hans van Hemert. It was a 3rd hit for Souer and a 7^th for van Hemert.

Switzerland caught up with Romania for weeks in the charts by acts from those countries. They were both on 15 weeks and sat tied 17^th overall. Acts from the UK celebrated reaching 4,500 weeks in the charts. Counting weeks from the top hit down, it would be Nazareth’s ‘Place In Your Heart’ that had that honour.

Youtube playlist:

15 December 1978

Pos	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	8	Kiss You All Over	–	Exile
2	2	6	One for You, One for Me	–	La Bionda
3	3	6	Break it to Them Gently	–	Burton Cummings
4	4	5	Three Times a Lady	–	Commodores
5	7	5	Cindy	–	Peter, Sue & Marc
6	8	9	Place in Your Heart	–	Nazareth
7	5	19	Dancing in the City	–	Marshall, Hain
8	10	3	Y.M.C.A.	–	Village People
9	6	10	Teddy Bear	–	Tommy Dell
10	9	7	You’re Living Inside My Head	–	John Ireland
11	14	3	Back in the U.S.A.	–	Linda Ronstadt
12	New	1	Double Vision	–	Foreigner
13	18	4	Hello I Love You	–	Crystal Gayle
14	13	7	Wheel in the Sky	–	Journey
15	17	2	Automatic Lover	–	Dee D. Jackson
16	11	10	Give a Little Love	–	Pacific Express
17	12	16	Shadow Dancing	–	Andy Gibb
18	16	11	The Race is On	–	Suzi Quatro
19	New	1	Right Down the Line	–	Gerry Rafferty
20	New	1	The Day That My Heart Caught Fire	–	John Paul Young

Exile’s ‘Kiss You All Over’ ticked over to 4 weeks at 1 while La Bionda’s ‘One For You, One For Me’ was stuck at 2 for a second week. The Italians had only seen 1 chart topper so far in the form of Giorgio Moroder’s ‘Looky Looky’. ‘One For You, One For Me’ was only the second of 6 songs by Italians to chart so far to make the top 2.

Crystal Gayle took the climber of the week award with a 5 place climb from 18 to 13 by her hit, ‘Hello I Love You’. This was the only star rater this week.

On the falling front it was Pacific Express’ ‘Give A Little Love’ and Andy Gibb’s ‘Shadow Dancing’ that shared the honours with both songs dropping 5 places to land at 16 and 17 respectively.

The oldest song on last week’s ‘chart, Gerry Rafferty’s ‘Baker Street’ was the first of 3 songs to depart the chart. It had a run of 21 weeks and spent 8 of those at number 1. The song that had knocked ‘Baker Street’ off the top spot, Marshall Hain’s ‘Dancing In The City’, took over as the oldest in the charts. It had been with us for 19 weeks.

The 21 week run that we had seen with a song from the film ‘Grease’ in our charts came to and end this week as John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John’s ‘Summer Nights’ dropped out of the top 20. It had managed a run of 7 weeks and peaked at 9. This and ‘You’re The One That I Want’ would be Travolta’s only SA chart hits, giving him a total of 25 weeks in the chart and a beast peak of 2. In total the 3 Grease songs (the 3^rd being Frankie Valli’s ‘Grease’) would clock up 31 weeks with ‘You’re The One That I Want’ peaking highest.

The final song to go was Lesley Hamilton’s ‘No Hollywood Movie’. It managed a run of 16 weeks and peaked at 2. This would be her only SA chart hit.

The first of the new entries gave us the 5^th song title that had also been the name of an act that had charted. Foreigner’s ‘Double Vision’ entered the charts at 12 this week and its title shared a name with New Zealand band Double Vision who had had a hit in 1973 with ‘Maori Love Song’. The inspiration for the song’s title apparently came from an ice hockey game where a player was knocked down and had to be substituted because he was experiencing double vision. Lead singer for Foreigner at the time, Lou Gramm, co-wrote the song with band mate Mick Jones and it would give them a number 2 hit in the US (kept off the top spot by Donna Summer’s ‘MacArthur Park’) and would go to 7 in Canada and 97 in Australia.

Gerry Rafferty gave us the 20^th occasion when an artist would replace themselves on the charts as his ‘Right Down the Line’ entered the top 20 in the same week that his ‘Baker Street’ exited. Cliff Richard was the only act who appeared twice amongst those 20. The follow up to ‘Baker Street’ got to number 12 in the US charts where ‘Baker Street’ had managed to get to 2. However in his native Britain, the it would not chart. It would make it to 5 in Canada, 33 in New Zealand and 93 in Australia. ‘Right Down The Line’ was recorded at Chipping Norton Recording Studios in Chipping Norton. The studio was the recording place of a few UK number 1 singles in the 80s namely Kajagoogoo’s ‘Too Shy’, Jim Diamond’s ‘I Should Have Known Better’ and Fairground Attraction’s ‘Perfect’.

John Paul Young returned to the chart with his 6^th hit to date, ‘The Day That My Heart Caught Fire’. He now had the tied 3^rd highest hit count for an act from the non-big 3 nations, equalling Ireland’s Joe Dolan and being 1 behind fellow countrymen The Seekers and 6 behind Sweden’s Abba. Once again the song writers for his hits were George Young and Harry Vanda. It was the 8^th hit for this song writing duo who had written all 6 of John Paul Young’s as well as John Edmond’s ‘Pasadena’ (which was a cover of John Paul Young’s version) and 5000 Volts’ ‘Can’t Stop Myself From Loving You’. ‘The Day That My Heart Caught Fire’ would make it to 20 in Australia but wouldn’t worry the charts elsewhere in the world apart from South Africa. It was the 20^th song by an Aussie act to chart and Australia now sat tied 6 with Germany for overall hits by acts from a nation.

The number of hits by groups was back up to 10 after a run of 11 weeks where it had been less than half the chart.

Tommy Dell made 14^th place on the local weeks count list his own as his 51 pulled him 1 clear of The Dealians who dropped into 15^th place.

Youtube playlist:

8 December 1978

Pos	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	7	Kiss You All Over	–	Exile
2	4	5	One for You, One for Me	–	La Bionda
3	3	5	Break it to Them Gently	–	Burton Cummings
4	6	4	Three Times a Lady	–	Commodores
5	2	18	Dancing in the City	–	Marshall, Hain
6	5	9	Teddy Bear	–	Tommy Dell
7	14	4	Cindy	–	Peter, Sue & Marc
8	13	8	Place in Your Heart	–	Nazareth
9	8	6	You’re Living Inside My Head	–	John Ireland
10	20	2	Y.M.C.A.	–	Village People
11	7	9	Give a Little Love	–	Pacific Express
12	11	15	Shadow Dancing	–	Andy Gibb
13	15	6	Wheel in the Sky	–	Journey
14	18	2	Back in the U.S.A.	–	Linda Ronstadt
15	9	16	No Hollywood Movie	–	Lesley Hamilton
16	12	10	The Race is On	–	Suzi Quatro
17	New	1	Automatic Lover	–	Dee D. Jackson
18	19	3	Hello I Love You	–	Crystal Gayle
19	16	7	Summer Nights	–	John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John
20	10	21	Baker Street	–	Gerry Rafferty

‘Kiss You All Over’ by Exile spent a 3^rd week at 1 but was now coming under pressure from La Bionda’s ‘One For You One For Me’ which moved up from 4 to 2. The previous number 2 (which had also been the previous number 1), Marshall Hain’s ‘Dancing In The City’ dropped from 2 to 5.

The Village People’s ‘Y.M.C.A.’ was the climber of the week with a 10 place jump from 20 to 10. It was the 79^th time a song had climbed 10 or more in a week. There were 3 other star raters and they were Peter, Sue & Marc’s ‘Cindy’ which moved up 7 from 14 to 7, Nazareth’s ‘Place In Your Heart’ which jumped 5 from 13 to 8 and Linda Ronstadt’s ‘Back In The U.S.A.’ which climbed 4 from 18 to 14. ‘Back In The U.S.A.’ was the 3^rd song with ‘U.S.A.’ in the title to chart and all 3 of them had now picked up a star rater. The previous 2 were Middle Of The Road’s ‘Talk Of All The U.S.A.’ and Big John’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus’ ‘Rockin’ In The U.S.A.’.

Gerry Rafferty’s ‘Baker Street’ took the biggest tumble, dropping 10 from 10 to 20 in a straight place swap with the biggest climber. This was the 20^th time the climber and faller had exchanged places and the second time it had been with a record to date 10 place movement. The last time we had seen the climber and faller swap places with a 10 place climb and fall was when Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Someday Never Comes’ moved up 10 from 16 to 6 and The Pipes And Drums And The Military Band Of The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards’ ‘Amazing Grace’ dropped 10 from 6 to 16 on 14 July 1972. ‘Baker Street’ was on 21 weeks in the charts and enjoyed its 6^th week as the oldest in the top 20.

Billy Joel’s ‘Just the Way You Are’ was the only song to leave the charts this week. It had seen a run of 19 weeks and peaked at 6. This was the 18^th song to just miss out on getting to 20 weeks and only make 19. Of those 18, the peak of 6 was the lowest we had seen by 2 places. After All’s ‘Help Me My Love’, Cliff Richard’s ‘Wind Me Up Let Me Go’ and Lucille Starr’s ‘The French Song’ had the next lowest peaks as they all made it to 4 during a 19 week run.

The new entry was Dee D. Jackson’s ‘Automatic Lover’. Jackson’s real name was Deirdre Elaine Cozier and ‘Automatic Lover’ was written by the husband and wife team of Gary & Patty Unwin who also performed backing vocals on the song. It would top the charts in Argentina, Italy, Spain, France, Turkey and Japan as well as going to 2 in Sweden, 4 in the UK, 5 in Norway, 6 in Switzerland, 12 in Austria and 22 in Germany.

Switzerland caught up with Brazil for weeks in the charts by acts from a nation and the 2 sat tied 18^th on 13 weeks and in case you’ve forgotten, Peter, Sue & Marc were the Swiss act picking up the weeks for them.

Tommy Dell saw his weeks count move on to 50 and he was the 60^th act to reach this many and 15^th local act to do so. He shared 14^th place on the local weeks count list with The Dealians. Olivia Newton-John moved into the top 20 of the weeks count list, her 83 putting her level with The Staccatos at number 20.

Youtube playlist: