14 September 1984

TW	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	2	12	Self Control	–	Laura Branigan
2	1	17	I Want to Break Free	–	Queen
3	3	15	To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before	–	Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson
4	7	7	Manuel Goodbye	–	Audrey Landers
5	5	7	Sad Songs (Say so Much)	–	Elton John
6	6	9	Earthquake	–	Flirtations
7	4	10	Breakdance	–	Irene Cara
8	8	17	Big in Japan	–	Alphaville
9	9	12	Colour My Love	–	Fun Fun
10	15	8	Oh Sherrie	–	Steve Perry
11	17	6	Two Tribes	–	Frankie Goes to Hollywood
12	11	26	Clap-Clap Sound	–	Klaxons
13	18	5	Dancing in the Dark	–	Bruce Springsteen
14	19	4	Susanna	–	Art Company
15	22	3	What’s Love Got to do with It	–	Tina Turner
16	10	17	Catch Me (I’m Falling in Love)	–	Marsha Raven
17	12	16	Why Don’t We Spend the Night	–	Joe Fagin
18	13	11	The Runner	–	Manfred Mann’s Earth Band
19	14	11	Wouldn’t it be Good	–	Nik Kershaw
20	23	4	When Doves Cry	–	Prince
21	29	4	Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go	–	Wham!
22	16	14	Robert de Niro’s Waiting	–	Bananarama
23	21	17	Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)	–	Phil Collins
24	25	6	Somebody to Love	–	Café Society
25	24	9	Here We Are	–	Face to Face
26	27	5	Time After Time	–	Cyndi Lauper
27	28	2	We will Make Love	–	Vangie Coker
28	30	2	Boys do Fall in Love	–	Robin Gibb
29	New	1	High on Emotion	–	Chris de Burgh
30	New	1	Jump (for My Love)	–	Pointer Sisters

After 7 weeks at 1, Queen’s ‘I Want To Break Free’ broke free of the demands of being the nation’s favourite song and handed the mantle to Laura Branigan’s ‘Self Control’ which moved up from 2 to take the top spot, swapping places with the Queen hit. It was over a year since we last had a hit by a solo female act as our number 1 hit and that was Irene Cara’s ‘Flashdance…What A Feeling’ which spent its last week at 1 on 19 August 1983

Wham!’s ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go Go’ climbed 8 places from 29 to 21 to be the biggest climber in the chart and gave the band their second such award. They had picked up 1 with ‘Club Tropicana’. Inside the top 20 it was Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s ‘Two Tribes’ which took the climber award as it moved up 6 from 17 to 11.

The other star rater climbs were a 5 place climb by Steve Perry’s ‘Oh Sherrie’ which moved up from 15 to 10, a 5 place climb from Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Dancing In The Dark’ (up from 18 to 13), a 5 place climb by The Art Company’s ‘Susanna’ (from 19 to 14) and a 7 place jump by Tina Turner’s ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It’ (up from 22 to 15). Steve Perry’s climb meant that he had now out-peaked the hits he had as a member of Journey as their best peak was 12 which ‘Wheel In The Sky’ managed.

There were 2 songs that shared the faller of the week award, one managed it in the top 20 and the other needed the help of positions 21 to 30. The top 20 faller was Marsha Ravens’ ‘Catch Me (I’m Falling In Love)’ which dropped 6 from 10 to 16. Bananarama’s ‘Robert De Niro’s’ Waiting’ also fell 6, but it dropped out of the top 20 as it moved from 16 to 22.

Hazell Dean’s ‘Searchin’ joined ‘Robert De Niro’s Waiting’ in leaving the top 20 while ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It’ (mentioned above as a star rater) and Prince’s ‘When Doves Cry’ were the top 20 new entries.

The Klaxons’ ‘Clap Clap Sound’ was still the oldest in both the top 20 and the top 30 with 24 weeks in the former and 26 weeks in the latter. It was the 13^th song to clock up at least 26 weeks in the chart.

There were 2 songs that left the top 30 this week, the first of these was Eddy Grant’s ‘Romancing The Stone’ which managed 8 weeks and peaked at 20. This ended his SA chart career with 5 hits to his name, a total of 69 weeks and 1 number 1 (‘I Don’t Want To Dance’) which spent 8 weeks at 1.

We also bid farewell to Hazell Dean’s ‘Searchin’ which became the 4^th song to leave the charts from within the top 20, spending its last week at number 20. It lasted 15 weeks and peaked at 14. There was more to come from her.

Chris de Burgh saw the 23^rd biggest gap to date between hits as his ‘High On Emotion’ entered the charts 385 weeks after ‘Just Another Poor Boy’ departed. This would be the biggest gap an Irish act would ever see and was currently the 2^nd biggest gap for an act from the non-big 3 nations behind Jamaica’s’ Jimmy Cliff who took a break for 733 weeks. It would ultimately be the 4^th biggest gap for a non-big 3 act. De Burgh would see 2 number 12 peaks with the song (in Austria and Germany) and 2 number 44 peaks (in the UK and the US) but the best peak on a national chart that I can find was in France where it got to number 4. It also made it to 5 in Switzerland. Locally it would top the Radio 702 charts and in keeping with the theme of peaking at the same position on national charts, it made it to 4 on the Capital 604 and Radio 5 ones. The song was covered by a guy called Thomas Falke (or possibly 2 guys called Thomas Banglter and Fred Falke going under the name Thomas Falke) in 2005 going under the name ‘High Again (High On Emotion)’ and then in 2017 by Andrew Spencer and Marc Kiss. Both covers were club dance versions.

The second new entry was by The Pointer Sister who had last been seen on our charts with ‘Slow Hand’ which got to number 10 for them. Their new one was ‘Jump (For My Love)’. It was the 3^rd song (and would be the last) to chart with the word ‘Jump’ in the title. The previous 2 being Mungo Jerry’s ‘Baby Jump’ and Van Halen’s ‘Jump’. We had also seen The Rolling Stones’ ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ if you want to include that too. Richard Perry who produced the song nearly offered it to Julio Iglesias while working with the latter on his ‘1100 Bel Air Place’ album, but it would become a global hit for the Pointer Sisters doing particularly well in Belgium (#3), Ireland (#2), New Zealand (#3) and the US (#3). It would make it to 6 in the UK and make it to 9 on the Radio 702 charts and 7 on the Capital 604 ones. In 2003 Girls Aloud recorded a version for the film ‘Love Actually’ which made it to number 2 in the UK and Ireland.

We still had the 7 songs with ‘Love’ or a derivative thereof in the title in the top 20 and the arrival of ‘Jump (For My Love)’ made it a new record of 8 ‘Love’ songs in the charts.

The difference between acts from the US and those for the UK for weeks in the charts dropped below 200 for the first time in 295 weeks. It was last below 200 on 19 January 1979 and dropped to 199 this week with the Americans on 7,015 and the Brits on 6,816.

Irene Cara became the 67^th act and the 10^th woman to accumulate 60 weeks in the charts while we saw Elton John move in to tied 12^th place on the overall weeks count list, his 126 equalling Michael Jackson’s effort. A bit further down the list we saw Queen move 1 week ahead of Leo Sayer as they ticked on to 109. They sat 19^th overall while Sayer dropped into 20^th place.

Youtube playlist:

7 September 1984

TW	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	16	I Want to Break Free	–	Queen
2	2	11	Self Control	–	Laura Branigan
3	3	14	To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before	–	Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson
4	7	9	Breakdance	–	Irene Cara
5	11	6	Sad Songs (Say so Much)	–	Elton John
6	13	8	Earthquake	–	Flirtations
7	15	6	Manuel Goodbye	–	Audrey Landers
8	6	16	Big in Japan	–	Alphaville
9	9	11	Colour My Love	–	Fun Fun
10	5	16	Catch Me (I’m Falling in Love)	–	Marsha Raven
11	4	25	Clap-Clap Sound	–	Klaxons
12	12	15	Why Don’t We Spend the Night	–	Joe Fagin
13	8	10	The Runner	–	Manfred Mann’s Earth Band
14	14	10	Wouldn’t it be Good	–	Nik Kershaw
15	17	7	Oh Sherrie	–	Steve Perry
16	10	13	Robert de Niro’s Waiting	–	Bananarama
17	21	5	Two Tribes	–	Frankie Goes to Hollywood
18	26	4	Dancing in the Dark	–	Bruce Springsteen
19	25	3	Susanna	–	Art Company
20	18	15	Searchin’	–	Hazell Dean
21	19	16	Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)	–	Phil Collins
22	30	2	What’s Love Got to do with It	–	Tina Turner
23	28	3	When Doves Cry	–	Prince
24	23	8	Here We Are	–	Face to Face
25	24	5	Somebody to Love	–	Café Society
26	22	8	Romancing the Stone	–	Eddy Grant
27	27	4	Time After Time	–	Cyndi Lauper
28	New	1	We will Make Love	–	Vangie Coker
29	29	3	Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go	–	Wham!
30	New	1	Boys do Fall in Love	–	Robin Gibb

‘I Want To Break Free’ continued its run at number 1 stretching it to 7 weeks in a row now. So far 37 songs had managed this. This was only the 4^th time we had seen 2 songs in a row spend 7 or more weeks at 1 as the previous chart topper, The Klaxons’ ‘Clap Clap Sound’ had also managed 7 weeks. On 2 of those previous occasions, we had gone on to see a 3^rd song in a row have 7 or more weeks at 1. Laura Branigan’s ‘Self Control’ still put the pressure on as it spent a second week at 2.

There were 3 songs that shared the climber of the week award as they all moved up 8 places. These were Audrey Lander’s ‘Manuel Goodbye’ (up from 15 to 7), Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Dancing In The Dark’ (up from 26 to 18) and Tina Turner’s ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It’ (up from 30 to 22). ‘Manuel Goodbye’ was the only one of these to manage it totally within the top 20.

We had a record equalling 8 star raters this week as apart from the 3 biggest climbers there were 5 other songs that moved up 4 or more. These were Elton John’s ‘Sad Songs (Say So Much)’ (up 6 from 11 to 5), The Flirtations’ ‘Earthquake’ (up 7 from 13 to 6), Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s ‘Two Tribes’ (up 4 from 21 to 17), The Art Company’s ‘Susanna’ (up 6 from 25 to 19) and Prince’s ‘When Doves Cry’ (up 5 from 28 to 23). It was Elton John’s 18^th time with a star rater climb and he was the 8^th act to manage this many.

In contrast to the star raters, we only had 1 song taking the faller of the week award and that was The Klaxon’s ‘Clap Clap Sound’ which dropped 7 from 4 to 11 to be the faller in both the top 20 and the top 30. It was, however, the oldest in both the top 20 and the top 30 having spent 23 weeks on the former and 25 on the latter.

Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’, Phil Collins’ ‘Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)’ and Lionel Richie’s ‘Hello’ all left the top 20 and they were replaced by ‘Two Tribes’, ‘Dancing In The Dark’ and ‘Susanna’, all star raters this week.

‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ and ‘Hello’ not only left the top 20, they left the charts completely and were the 2^nd and 3^rd song to leave the top 30 from a position within the top 20, in fact ‘Hello’, which was at 16 last week was the all time highest place from which to leave the charts. This would be the first of only 2 occasions where we had 2 songs leave the chart from within the top 20.

Vangie Coker followed up her 1982 success with ‘Barbara’s Daughter’ with the first of our new entries this week, ‘We Will Make Love’. The song was a cover of a 1957 hit by a guy called Russ Hamilton. His version went to number 2 in the UK and in the US it was the other side of the single, ‘Rainbow’ that got the chart listing, going to 7 there. The song was credited to Ron Hulme as song writer which Hamilton’s real name. This took the local hit count up to 3 in the charts, but we were 21 weeks without a local song in the top 20.

The act on the second new entry set a new record for the gap between hits as Robin Gibb returned with ‘Boys Do Fall In Love’, his second solo SA chart hit, 774 weeks after his previous hit, ‘Saved By The Bell’ left the charts. This beat the gap of 752 weeks that Marianne Faithfull had seen. Gibb had, of course, seen hits as part of The Bee Gees in the interim, but nothing solo. Robin wrote the song along with his brother Maurice who also played on the track. It was Robin’s 24^th hit as a songwriter and Maurice’s 20^th. Robin was unmoved at 5 on the list of number of hits by a songwriter while Maurice moved into tied 6^th place, joining Neil Diamond there. ‘Boys Do Fall In Love’ would go to 37 in the US and only manage a peak of 70 in the UK. The only countries I can find where it went top 10 was Italy where it go to 10 and Zimbabwe where it made it to number 3.It would top the Radio 702 charts and get to 4 on the Capital 604 ones, but wouldn’t make the Radio 5 charts.

The American acts celebrated accumulating 7,000 weeks in the charts and, counting from the top of the chart down, it was Audrey Landers’ ‘Manuel Goodbye’ that clocked up that milestone for them. In total they had now accumulated 7,005 weeks, exactly 200 more than the British acts who were on 6,805. Local acts were 3^rd with 3,697. The Brits meanwhile celebrated hitting 6,500 top 20 weeks and it was Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s ‘Two Tribes’ that reached the milestone for them.

Queen moved into tied 19^th place for weeks on the charts as their 108 in total put them level with Leo Sayer.

With The Art Company entering the top 20, The Netherlands drew level with Canada for the top non-big 3 nation for number of top 20 hits as they had both seen 37 so far. However, looking at top 20 weeks, then The Netherlands moved 1 ahead of Canada to be the top non-big 3 nation with 367 to their name compared to the Canadians’ 366.

Only 1 of the songs in the top 20 had topped the UK charts and that was ‘Two Tribes’. There were no US chart toppers in the top 20 and the last time we only had 1 song in the top 20 that had topped the UK and/or US charts was 5 March 1976, which was 444 weeks previous.

We had a record to date 7 songs in the top 30 that had the word ‘Love’ or a derivative thereof in the title. These were ‘To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before’, ‘Colour My Love’, ‘Catch Me (I’m Falling In Love)’, ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It’, ‘Somebody To Love’, ‘We Will Make Love’ and ‘Boys Do Fall In Love’.

We also saw the tied 4^th highest total for the number of places songs moved, adding together the number of places moved up and those moved down. This weeks’ total for absolute movement was 92 places. The record was 107 which we had seen earlier on 1984 on 16 March.

Youtube playlist:

31 August 1984

TW	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	15	I Want to Break Free	–	Queen
2	3	10	Self Control	–	Laura Branigan
3	2	13	To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before	–	Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson
4	4	24	Clap-Clap Sound	–	Klaxons
5	5	15	Catch Me (I’m Falling in Love)	–	Marsha Raven
6	6	15	Big in Japan	–	Alphaville
7	8	8	Breakdance	–	Irene Cara
8	9	9	The Runner	–	Manfred Mann’s Earth Band
9	11	10	Colour My Love	–	Fun Fun
10	7	12	Robert de Niro’s Waiting	–	Bananarama
11	12	5	Sad Songs (Say so Much)	–	Elton John
12	13	14	Why Don’t We Spend the Night	–	Joe Fagin
13	17	7	Earthquake	–	Flirtations
14	14	9	Wouldn’t it be Good	–	Nik Kershaw
15	19	5	Manuel Goodbye	–	Audrey Landers
16	10	15	Hello	–	Lionel Richie
17	20	6	Oh Sherrie	–	Steve Perry
18	18	14	Searchin’	–	Hazell Dean
19	16	15	Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)	–	Phil Collins
20	15	22	Girls Just Want to Have Fun	–	Cyndi Lauper
21	24	4	Two Tribes	–	Frankie Goes to Hollywood
22	21	7	Romancing the Stone	–	Eddy Grant
23	22	7	Here We Are	–	Face to Face
24	25	4	Somebody to Love	–	Café Society
25	26	2	Susanna	–	Art Company
26	27	3	Dancing in the Dark	–	Bruce Springsteen
27	28	3	Time After Time	–	Cyndi Lauper
28	29	2	When Doves Cry	–	Prince
29	30	2	Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go	–	Wham!
30	New	1	What’s Love Got to do with It	–	Tina Turner

Queen’s ‘I Want To Break Free’ ticked over to 6 weeks at 1 and was the 54^th song to manage this many weeks at the top of the charts. It had a new number 2 to contend with as Laura Branigan’s ‘Self Control’ moved up 1 from 3 and the former number 2, Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson’s ‘To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before’ dropped to 3.

Two songs shared the climber of the week award and they were The Flirtations’ ‘Earthquake’ and Audrey Landers’ Manuel Goodbye’ which both climbed 4 to land at 13 and 15 respectively. They would be the climbers in both the top 20 and the top 30 and would also be the only star raters this week.

On the falling front it was Lionel Ritchie’s ‘Hello’ that dropped the most places as it fell 6 from 10 to 16. It was his 5^th time with the award and he was the 63^rd act to accumulate this many. This was the faller in both the top 20 and the top 30.

The Klaxon’s ‘Clap Clap Sound’ was the oldest in both the top 20 and the top 30. It had been on the former for 22 weeks and the latter for 24 weeks and was enjoying its 2^nd week as the oldest in the top 20 and its 2^nd week as the oldest in the top 30.

There was no movement on or off the top 20 but we did see 1 song leave the top 30 and that was Kenny Loggins’ ‘Footloose’. The song had seen a run of 20 weeks and spent 2 weeks at 1. Loggins would return to the charts at a later date.

Tina Turner had not been seen on our charts since her duet with Ike Turner, ‘Nutbush City Limits’ had spent its last week on the charts on 29 March 1974. She returned this week with ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It’ which was a gap of 544 weeks, the 9^th biggest gap we had seen to date. ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It’ was first offered to Cliff Richard, then Phyllis Hyman, then Donna Summer then Bucks Fizz before Tina eventually recorded it. It would give her her only US number 1 hit to date, spending 3 weeks at the top of the charts there. It would also top the Australian and Canadian charts and would just miss out in Zimbabwe where it stalled at number 2. It would top all 3 of the local radio charts, spending 2 weeks there on the Radio 702 and Capital 604 ones and 1 weeks on the Radio 5 ones. In 1996 Warren G took a version to number 1 in New Zealand and went top 10 in Australia, Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

Bananarama clocked up their 30^th week in total on the charts and Elton John moved 1 ahead of Joe Dolan as he ticked over to 124. He sat 13^th overall while Dolan dropped into 14^th place.

Youtube playlist:

24 August 1984

TW	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	14	I Want to Break Free	–	Queen
2	3	12	To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before	–	Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson
3	4	9	Self Control	–	Laura Branigan
4	2	23	Clap-Clap Sound	–	Klaxons
5	5	14	Catch Me (I’m Falling in Love)	–	Marsha Raven
6	6	14	Big in Japan	–	Alphaville
7	7	11	Robert de Niro’s Waiting	–	Bananarama
8	8	7	Breakdance	–	Irene Cara
9	10	8	The Runner	–	Manfred Mann’s Earth Band
10	9	14	Hello	–	Lionel Richie
11	12	9	Colour My Love	–	Fun Fun
12	13	4	Sad Songs (Say so Much)	–	Elton John
13	11	13	Why Don’t We Spend the Night	–	Joe Fagin
14	17	8	Wouldn’t it be Good	–	Nik Kershaw
15	14	21	Girls Just Want to Have Fun	–	Cyndi Lauper
16	15	14	Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)	–	Phil Collins
17	18	6	Earthquake	–	Flirtations
18	19	13	Searchin’	–	Hazell Dean
19	21	4	Manuel Goodbye	–	Audrey Landers
20	22	5	Oh Sherrie	–	Steve Perry
21	20	6	Romancing the Stone	–	Eddy Grant
22	23	6	Here We Are	–	Face to Face
23	16	20	Footloose	–	Kenny Loggins
24	24	3	Two Tribes	–	Frankie Goes to Hollywood
25	25	3	Somebody to Love	–	Café Society
26	New	1	Susanna	–	Art Company
27	28	2	Dancing in the Dark	–	Bruce Springsteen
28	30	2	Time After Time	–	Cyndi Lauper
29	New	1	When Doves Cry	–	Prince
30	New	1	Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go	–	Wham!

‘I Want To Break Free’ by Queen moved on to 5 weeks at 1 and was the 77^th song to manage this. We finally saw a change in the top 3 after 4 weeks with these being unchanged. The Klaxon’s ‘Clap Clap Sound’ dropped from 2 to 4 while Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson’s ‘To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before’ moved up from 3 to 2. The new number 3 was Laura Branigan’s ‘Self Control’.

Nik Kershaw’s ‘Wouldn’t It Be Good’ took the climber of the week award as it moved up 3 from 17 to 14. This meant that there were no star raters this week.

While the climber was the climber in both the top 20 and the top 30, the faller dropped from inside the top 20 to position 23 and that was Kenny Loggins’ ‘Footloose’ which fell 7 places from 16. The other song leaving the top 20 was Eddy Grant’s ‘Romancing The Stone’ which was the 19^th song to have a run of 2 weeks at 20. Of those 19 two managed further runs in the top 20.

Within the top 20 a 2 place fall would bag you a faller of the week award and ‘Clap Clap Sound’ (mentioned above) and Joe Fagin’s ‘Why Don’t We Spend The Night’ which fell from 11 to 13 were the 2 songs that managed this.

The new entries into the top 20 were Audrey Landers’ ‘Manuel Goodbye’ and Steve Perry’s ‘Oh Sherrie’.

Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton’s ‘Islands In The Stream’ did not catch up with The Staccatos’ ‘Cry To Me’ for weeks in the charts as it left the top 30 after 36 weeks (2 less that ‘Cry To Me’ managed). It had peaked at 4. Both Rogers and Parton would return to the charts.

‘Love Of The Common People’ by Paul Young was also one of the leavers. It had given him his highest placing in the chart to date as it peaked at 8 and it was also his best weeks performance, lasting 20 weeks. His previous 2 top 30 hits had not made the top 20.

Last of the leavers was Rockwell’s ‘Somebody’s Watching Me’. It had seen a run of 18 weeks and a peak of 5. This would be his only SA chart hit but he would see a song called ‘Obscene Phone Caller’ reach 35 in the US and 79 in the UK and one called ‘Taxman’ make it to 88 in the UK.

‘Islands In The Stream’ had been the oldest in the top 30 and that honour now fell to The Klaxon’s ‘Clap Clap Sound’ which was sitting on 23 weeks. This was the 6^th of 7 times when we would see a drop of 10 or more weeks for the oldest on the charts and the 13 weeks it dropped from 36 to 23 was the tied highest drop we had seen. ‘Clap Clap Sound’ had been in the top 20 for 21 weeks of the 23 it had been in the charts and it was enjoying its 3^rd week as the oldest in the top 20.

The Art Company brought us the first new entry. ‘Susanna’ was the 37^th hit by a Dutch act to make our charts and acts from The Netherlands now sat just 1 behind those from Canada for number of hits. These 2 nations were the next 2 after the big 3 of the US, the UK and SA. The Art Company were also known as VOF de Kunst. ‘Suzanna’ would top the charts in The Netherlands, go to 2 in Austria, 3 in Norway, 4 in Sweden, 6 in Switzerland, 12 in the UK and 13 in Belgium and Zimbabwe. It would get to 7 on the Capital 604 charts, 12 on the Radio 5 ones and 16 on Radio 702.

Prince made his SA chart debut with ‘When Doves Cry’. The song was the biggest selling single in the US in 1984, staying at number 1 there for 5 weeks. It would also top the charts in Australia and Canada. It would return to the charts around the world in 2016 after Prince’s death, going to number 8 in the US and 26 in the UK. It made number 4 in the UK in 1984. In Zimbabwe it would get to 4 while topping the Radio 702 and Capital 604 charts and making it to 4 on the Radio 5 ones.

The final new entry was Wham!’s second SA chart hit, ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go Go.’ The song apparently was inspired by a note Andrew Ridgeley left for his parents where accidently wrote ‘up’ twice so added a second ‘go’ to the end of the note. It would garner the band a number 1 hit in the UK and US as well as topping the charts in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Iceland, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. Next door it would get to 5 in Zimbabwe and would top the Radio 702 and Capital 604 charts but wouldn’t make the Radio 5 ones.

Having more hits by solo male acts than by groups lasted just 1 week as we dropped to 10 hits by solo males and moved up to 12 by groups.

Laura Branigan clocked up her 20^th week in the charts while Phil Collins was enjoying his 40^th. Queen moved on to 106 weeks but were stuck at number 20 on the overall weeks count list. This did, however, mean that Percy Sledge dropped out of the top 20 of the list after having been in it for 807 weeks, the 10^th best consecutive week run to date with The Rolling Stones leading the way having been in the top 20 of the list since the charts began, 1,003 weeks previously. Elton John drew level with Joe Dolan in 13^th place with both acts on 123.

The average number of weeks the top 30 songs had been with us dropped below 9 for the first time in 34 weeks as it fell from 10.4 to 8.933.

Youtube playlist:

17 August 1984

TW	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	13	I Want to Break Free	–	Queen
2	2	22	Clap-Clap Sound	–	Klaxons
3	3	11	To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before	–	Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson
4	6	8	Self Control	–	Laura Branigan
5	4	13	Catch Me (I’m Falling in Love)	–	Marsha Raven
6	5	13	Big in Japan	–	Alphaville
7	8	10	Robert de Niro’s Waiting	–	Bananarama
8	13	6	Breakdance	–	Irene Cara
9	7	13	Hello	–	Lionel Richie
10	15	7	The Runner	–	Manfred Mann’s Earth Band
11	10	12	Why Don’t We Spend the Night	–	Joe Fagin
12	17	8	Colour My Love	–	Fun Fun
13	24	3	Sad Songs (Say so Much)	–	Elton John
14	11	20	Girls Just Want to Have Fun	–	Cyndi Lauper
15	12	13	Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)	–	Phil Collins
16	9	19	Footloose	–	Kenny Loggins
17	18	7	Wouldn’t it be Good	–	Nik Kershaw
18	19	5	Earthquake	–	Flirtations
19	14	12	Searchin’	–	Hazell Dean
20	20	5	Romancing the Stone	–	Eddy Grant
21	27	3	Manuel Goodbye	–	Audrey Landers
22	25	4	Oh Sherrie	–	Steve Perry
23	23	5	Here We Are	–	Face to Face
24	28	2	Two Tribes	–	Frankie Goes to Hollywood
25	29	2	Somebody to Love	–	Café Society
26	16	18	Somebody’s Watching Me	–	Rockwell
27	21	20	Love of the Common People	–	Paul Young
28	New	1	Dancing in the Dark	–	Bruce Springsteen
29	26	36	Islands in the Stream	–	Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton
30	New	1	Time After Time	–	Cyndi Lauper

Queen’s ‘I Want To Break Free’ enjoyed a 4^th week at 1 while The Klaxon’s ‘Clap Clap Sound’ sat unmoved at 2 where it had been since relinquishing the top spot to the Queen hit. And for a 3^rd week running we had an unchanged top 3 as Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson’s ‘To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before’ was unmoved at 3.

Elton John became the second act to see a climb of 10 or more in a week 3 times. He had managed a 12 place climb with ‘Song For Guy’, then he saw ‘I’m Still Standing’ climb 13 and this week he took the climber of the week award with an 11 place climb from 24 to 13 with ‘Sad Songs (Say So Much)’. The only other act to see 3 climbs of 10 or more so far was Abba. ‘Sad Songs (Say So Much)’ would be the only new entry into the top 20. It was Elton’s 9^th time with the climber of the week award and he was the 11^th act to clock up this many.

The climbers in the top 20 were Irene Cara’s ‘Breakdance’, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band’s ‘Runner’ and Fun Fun’s ‘Colour My Love’ which all climbed 5 to land at 8, 10 and 12 respectively. This gave Manfred Mann’s Earth Band their highest placing in the charts as it moved past the peak of 14 which their only other hit so far (‘Mighty Quinn (Live)’) had managed. The previous incarnation of the band (simply called Manfred Mann) had managed to top the charts twice.

Apart from the top 20 and top 30 climbers, there were 3 other star raters. Audrey Landers’ ‘Manuel Goodbye’ moved up 6 from 27 to 21, Frankie goes To Hollywood’s ‘Two Tribes’ moved up 4 from 28 to 24 and Café Society’s ‘Somebody To Love’ jumped 4 from 29 to 25.

Rockwell’s ‘Somebody’s Watching Me’ was the faller of the week for a second week running, but this week it did not share the award as it fell 10 from 16 to 26. It was the 27^th song to fall 10 or more in a week and was the only song to leave the top 20. Kenny Loggins’ ‘Footloose’ took the faller award in the top 20, dropping 7 from 9 to 16.

For an 11^th week running, Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton’s ‘Islands In The Stream’ was the oldest in the charts as it moved on to 36 weeks. It was now just 2 weeks behind the record holder, The Staccato’s ‘Cry To Me’ which managed 38 weeks and ‘Islands In The Stream’ was the 9^th song to clock up at least 11 weeks as the oldest. In the top 20 the oldest was The Klaxon’s ‘Clap Clap Sound’ which was on 20 top 20 weeks and enjoying its 3^rd week as the oldest. It was the 70^th song to accumulate 20 top 20 weeks.

We lost Fun Fun’s ‘Happy Station’ and Slade’s ‘My Oh My’ from the charts. This ended Fun Fun’s 7 week run with 2 in the charts. ‘Happy Station’ spent 23 weeks in the charts and 1 week at 1. Slade’s ‘My Oh My’ lasted 14 weeks and peaked at 9. This ended their SA chart career with 2 hits and 24 weeks to their name. Their other hit, ‘Take Me Bak ‘Ome’ just outdid ‘My Oh My’ as it peaked 1 place higher at 8.

Bruce Springsteen became the 38^th act to chart as a songwriter before charting as a solo act. He had written ‘Fire’ which the Pointer Sisters had charted with in 1979 and this week he saw his ‘Dancing In The Dark’ make the charts. The song would go top 5 in Australia (#5), Belgium (#1), Canada (#3), Ireland (#2), The Netherlands (#1), New Zealand (#2), Sweden (#2) and the US (#2). In the US it was kept off the top spot for 1 week by Duran Duran’s ‘The Reflex’ and then for 3 further weeks by Prince’s ‘When Doves Cry’. In 1985 it would get to 4 in the UK where it had stalled at 28 in 1984. It would get to 3 in Zimbabwe and top the Capital 604 and Radio 5 charts. It would peak at 4 on the 702 charts. The video for the song was a recording of Springsteen performing the song live and includes a scene where he invites a girl on stage to dance with him. The girl was Courtney Cox who would later become well known for playing Monica in the TV series ‘Friends’.

While Fun Fun ended their run in the charts with 2 hits, Cyndi Lauper was starting hers as ‘Time After Time’ joined ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’. This was the 700^th song by an American act to make the charts (this excludes songs where an American act duets with an act from another nation). Lauper wrote the song with Rob Hyman from US rock band The Hooters. It would top the charts in Canada, Chile, Zimbabwe and the US, spending 2 weeks at 1 on the American charts before being dethroned by Duran Duran’s ‘The Reflex’. In the UK it would make its way up to number 3. British music magazine, New Musical Express (aka NME) rated it the 76^th best song of the 80’s in 2017.

This week we saw more songs by solo male artists than by groups with the former accounting for 11 and the latter 10. The groups had dominated the charts for 52 weeks which was their 4^th longest run having the most hits in the charts.

Queen moved into tied 20^th place on the overall weeks count list where their 105 weeks matched Percy Sledge’s total.

‘Clap Clap Sound’ became the 52^nd song to see its top 20 points total go past the 300 mark. It was the 11^th hit by an act from the non-big 3 nations to reach this milestone.

Both Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ and Paul Young’s ‘Love Of The Common People’ reached 20 week in the charts and they were the 92^nd and 93^rd songs to manage this. Including the 7 weeks that Nicky Thomas’ version of ‘Love Of The Common People’ had been in the charts, the total of 27 weeks put the song tied 8^th with ‘Mother’ (John Lennon and Barbra Streisand) for songs charting in more than 1 version.

Youtube playlist:

10 August 1984

TW	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	12	I Want to Break Free	–	Queen
2	2	21	Clap-Clap Sound	–	Klaxons
3	3	10	To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before	–	Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson
4	4	12	Catch Me (I’m Falling in Love)	–	Marsha Raven
5	5	12	Big in Japan	–	Alphaville
6	10	7	Self Control	–	Laura Branigan
7	6	12	Hello	–	Lionel Richie
8	9	9	Robert de Niro’s Waiting	–	Bananarama
9	7	18	Footloose	–	Kenny Loggins
10	13	11	Why Don’t We Spend the Night	–	Joe Fagin
11	11	19	Girls Just Want to Have Fun	–	Cyndi Lauper
12	12	12	Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)	–	Phil Collins
13	17	5	Breakdance	–	Irene Cara
14	14	11	Searchin’	–	Hazell Dean
15	16	6	The Runner	–	Manfred Mann’s Earth Band
16	8	17	Somebody’s Watching Me	–	Rockwell
17	20	7	Colour My Love	–	Fun Fun
18	19	6	Wouldn’t it be Good	–	Nik Kershaw
19	21	4	Earthquake	–	Flirtations
20	24	4	Romancing the Stone	–	Eddy Grant
21	15	19	Love of the Common People	–	Paul Young
22	18	14	My Oh My	–	Slade
23	23	4	Here We Are	–	Face to Face
24	28	2	Sad Songs (Say so Much)	–	Elton John
25	27	3	Oh Sherrie	–	Steve Perry
26	25	35	Islands in the Stream	–	Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton
27	30	2	Manuel Goodbye	–	Audrey Landers
28	New	1	Two Tribes	–	Frankie Goes to Hollywood
29	New	1	Somebody to Love	–	Café Society
30	22	23	Happy Station	–	Fun Fun

Queen’s ‘I Want To Break Free’ enjoyed a 3^rd week at 1 while The Klaxon’s ‘Clap Clap Sound’ spent a 3^rd week sitting at 2 where it had sat since vacating the top spot. And for a 25^th time (excluding the week where the entire top 20 was frozen due to the Easter weekend), we saw an unchanged top 5. There had been 9 of these occasions where it extended to the top 6, 4 times where it was the top 7 and twice we had seen a record to date top 8 unchanged.

A 4 place climb bagged you a climber of the week award and there were 4 songs that managed this. Laura Branigan’s ‘Self Control’ moved up from 10 to 6 which meant that she had a new highest placing in the chart as this passed the peak of 9 that ‘Gloria’ (her only other hit to date) had managed. Irene Cara’s ‘Breakdance’ moved up from 17 to 13, Eddy Grant’s ‘Romancing The Stone’ climbed from 24 to 20 and Elton John’s ‘Sad Songs (Say So Much)’ jumped from 28 to 24. It was a 3^rd climber award for Laura Branigan, Irene Cara and Eddy Grant while Elton John was celebrating his 8^th and he was the 19^th act to see this many. With the biggest climber being 4 places, these were also the only star raters this week and it ended a record to date run of 3 weeks with no star raters in the top 20.

Falling honours were shared between Fun Fun’s ‘Happy Station’ and Rockwell’s ‘Somebody’s Watching Me’ which both fell 8 to land at 30 and 16 respectively. If you count accumulated weeks from the top of the chart down (i.e. add a week for ‘Colour My Love’ at 17 before looking at the performance of ‘Happy Station’ at 30), then Fun Fun were on 30 weeks and were only seeing their first faller award. They were the 22^nd act to have clocked up at least 30 weeks before their first biggest faller of the week.

Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton’s ‘Islands In The Stream’ moved onto 35 weeks in the charts and was enjoying its 10 week as the oldest in the charts. It was the 33^rd song to spend at least 10 weeks as the oldest in the charts. ‘Clap Clap Sound’ was the oldest in the top 20 having managed 19 weeks in that part of the charts.

Slade’s ‘My Oh My’ and Paul Young’s ‘Love Of The Common People’ left the top 20 as they fell to 22 and 21 respectively. They were replaced by The Flirtations’ ‘Earthquake’ which moved up from 21 to 19 and Eddy Grant’s ‘Romancing The Stone’ which was one of the biggest climbers mentioned above.

In terms of movement on and off the top 30 we saw Nena’s ’99 Red Balloons’ depart the chart after a run of 21 weeks and a peak of 3. It would be their only SA chart hit. The German version of the song would be their only US chart hit, but they did score a second UK hit in the shape of ‘Just A Dream’ which managed to get to 70.

We also bid farewell to The Romantics’ ‘Talking In Your Sleep’ which managed a run of 17 weeks and a peak of 15. This set a new record for the lowest peak for a song spending 17 weeks on the charts, but it needed positions 21 to 30 to help out as the record in the top 20 era was a peak of 7 for a 17 week run.

Unsurprisingly, Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s ‘Relax’ was banned by the SABC, so their massive UK hit (it spent 50 weeks on the chats in its first run and 5 weeks at 1 and at the date of writing had clocked up 70 weeks in total) did not make the SA or Radio 5 charts. It did get to number 1 on the Capital 604 charts and 12 on the 702 ones. They had to wait for their second hit, ‘Two Tribes’ to see their first SA chart hit. It had spent 9 straight weeks at 1 in the UK (the longest run at 1 for a song in the 1980’s) and for 2 of those weeks, ‘Relax’ was at 2. It would also top the charts in Belgium, Germany, Greece, Ireland, The Netherlands and New Zealand. It would get to 15 in Zimbabwe and, like ‘Relax’, top the Capital 604 charts as well as topping the Radio 5 ones. On Radio 702 it made it to 14. It was the second SA chart hit to see Trevor Horn (he of The Buggles fame) as producer and the video which featured look-alikes of Ronald Regan and Russian leader, Konstantin Chernenko, in a wrestling match, was directed by Godley & Crème.

The second new entry boosted the local hit count from 1 to 2 as Café Society’s ‘Somebody To Love’ joined Face to Face’s ‘Here We Are’ in the charts. ‘Somebody To Love’ was a high energy dance cover of a 1966 song by a band called The Great Society a version which included Grace Slick on vocals. The song, written by Slick’s brother-in-law Darby Slick, was more successful when Grace left The Great Society to john Jefferson Airplane. The latter’s version would go to 3 in the US. In 2005 a German band called Boogie Pimps took a cover to 3 in the UK and would also perform well throughout Europe. The Café Society version featured the vocals of Julia Jade Aston who would go on to join The Working Girls. The only local radio chart ‘Somebody To Love’ would make would be the Radio 702 charts where it went to number 1.

As mentioned above, Fun Fun reached 30 weeks in the charts and they were joined in this achievement by Kenny Loggins making them the 187^th and 188^th act to accumulate this many weeks.

‘Love Of The Common People’ moved into the top 10 on the list of weeks by a song charting in more than 1 version. Paul Young’s version had added 19 weeks to the 7 that Nicky Thomas’ had managed and the total of 26 week equalled that managed by ‘Love Is Blue’ and ‘Sunglasses’/’Sonbrilletjies’, although it should be noted that it took 4 versions of ‘Love Is Blue’ to get to the 26 weeks. The 3 songs sat tied 9^th overall.

Queen celebrated their 100^th top 20 week and were the 21^st act to achieve this milestone.

Youtube playlist:

3 August 1984

TW	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	11	I Want to Break Free	–	Queen
2	2	20	Clap-Clap Sound	–	Klaxons
3	3	9	To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before	–	Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson
4	5	11	Catch Me (I’m Falling in Love)	–	Marsha Raven
5	7	11	Big in Japan	–	Alphaville
6	6	11	Hello	–	Lionel Richie
7	4	17	Footloose	–	Kenny Loggins
8	8	16	Somebody’s Watching Me	–	Rockwell
9	11	8	Robert de Niro’s Waiting	–	Bananarama
10	12	6	Self Control	–	Laura Branigan
11	10	18	Girls Just Want to Have Fun	–	Cyndi Lauper
12	9	11	Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)	–	Phil Collins
13	14	10	Why Don’t We Spend the Night	–	Joe Fagin
14	15	10	Searchin’	–	Hazell Dean
15	13	18	Love of the Common People	–	Paul Young
16	21	5	The Runner	–	Manfred Mann’s Earth Band
17	23	4	Breakdance	–	Irene Cara
18	17	13	My Oh My	–	Slade
19	19	5	Wouldn’t it be Good	–	Nik Kershaw
20	22	6	Colour My Love	–	Fun Fun
21	28	3	Earthquake	–	Flirtations
22	16	22	Happy Station	–	Fun Fun
23	24	3	Here We Are	–	Face to Face
24	25	3	Romancing the Stone	–	Eddy Grant
25	20	34	Islands in the Stream	–	Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton
26	26	17	Talking in Your Sleep	–	Romantics
27	29	2	Oh Sherrie	–	Steve Perry
28	New	1	Sad Songs (Say so Much)	–	Elton John
29	18	21	99 Red Balloons	–	Nena
30	New	1	Manuel Goodbye	–	Audrey Landers

Well ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, if you have been following these charts since the start, then you can congratulate yourself on having enjoyed 1,000 of them as this was the 1,000^th SA chart to be broadcast. And we celebrated it by seeing Queen’s ‘I Want To Break Free’ enjoy a second week at the top of the charts while the previous number 1, The Klaxon’s ‘Clap Clap Sound’ was at 2 for a second week running.

The Flirtations’ ‘Earthquake’ took the climber of the week award as it moved up 7 from 28 to 21. Within the top 20 the biggest climb was only 2 places and 3 songs managed this. They were Alphaville’s ‘Big In Japan’ (up to 5), Bananarama’s ‘Robert De Niro’s Waiting)’ (up to 9) and Laura Branigan’s ‘Self Control’ (up to 10). It was a first time for Alphaville, a second for Laura Branigan and a 3^rd time for Bananarama with the top 20 award.

Apart from ‘Earthquake’, we also saw Manfred Mann’s Earth Band’s ‘Runner’ and Irene Cara’s ‘Breakdance’ make star rater climbs with the former moving up 5 from 21 to 16 and the latter climbed 6 from 23 to 17.

Nena’s ’99 Red Balloons’ was the faller of the week as it plummeted 11 places from 18 to 29. It was only the 7^th song to suffer a fall of 11 places or more in a week with 4 of the 7 having 11 place falls, and 1 each having a 12, 13 and 14 place fall. Bananarama’s ‘Cruel Sumer’ was the one that had the 14 place fall and held the record. In the top 20 it was Phil Collins’ ‘Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)’ and Kenny Loggins’ ‘Footloose’ which shared the award, both dropping 3 to land at 12 and 7 respectively.

Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton’s ‘Islands In The Stream’ moved into outright second place for weeks on the charts as it moved on to 34 weeks with us, going past Alan Garrity’s ‘I Need Someone’ which managed 33. However, it should be noted that all of ‘I Need Someone’s weeks were in the top 20, while ‘Islands In The Stream’ only managed 29 as it dropped out the top 20 this week. It was enjoying its 9^th week as the oldest in the top 30 while The Klaxon’s ‘Clap Clap Sound’ on 18 weeks was the oldest in the top 20. Dolly Parton set a new record for consecutive week with at least 1 hit in the charts by a female artist, moving past Jessica Jones who had seen a run of 33 weeks which ended on 16 February 1973.

Apart from ‘Islands In The Stream’ and Nena’s ’99 Red Balloons’ mentioned above, we also saw Fun Fun’s ‘Happy Station’ leave the top 20. It dropped to 22. The new entries into the top 20 were ‘Runner’ and ‘Breakdance’ (mentioned under star raters above) and Fun Fun’s ‘Colour My Love’. Fun Fun became the 25^th act to replace themselves on the top 20 with Cliff Richard being the only act to manage this twice.

We lost 2 songs from the top 30, the first of these being Depeche Mode’s ‘People Are People’ which had seen a run of 5 weeks and a peak of 23. It was the first of their 3 chart hits to date not to make the top 20 and it was also their lowest weeks count of the 3. They would return later to the charts.

We also bid farewell to Matthew Wilder’s ‘Break My Stride’ which managed 22 weeks on the charts and peaked at 4. He too would return to the charts at a later date.

Elton John became the 17^th act to clock up at least 11 hits as his ‘Sad Songs (Say So Much)’ was the first of the new entries this week. It was the 8^th of his 11 hits where he had shared song writing credits with Bernie Taupin. The song would garner him a number 7 hit in the UK and a number 5 peak on the US Hot 100. Elsewhere it made it to 2 in Ireland, 4 in Austria, Australia and Canada, 3 in Switzerland, 6 in Zimbabwe, 8 in New Zealand, 18 in Germany and 26 in Belgium. It would top the Radio 5 and Capital 604 charts but didn’t make the 702 ones.

The other new entry was by Audrey Landers who rose to fame playing Afton Cooper in the soap opera ‘Dallas’. She turned her hand to singing and it was ‘Manuel Goodbye’ which gave her her first SA chart hit. Landers co-wrote the song with Bernd Dietrich (who had also co-written Strobe’s ‘Gimme Dat Banana’), Engelbert Simmons, Gerd Grebowski and Peggy March who had seen a few hits in the US in the first  half of the 60s going under the name Little Peggy March. ‘Manuel Goodbye’ would top the charts in Belgium and go to 3 in New Zealand, 4 in The Netherlands, Switzerland and Zimbabwe and 10 in Germany. It would not make any of the local radio station charts. Landers was exactly the same age as John Paul Young was when he charted with ‘Love Is In The Air’. This was the 41^st time an act had charted at exactly the same age as a previous charting act.

The Klaxons celebrated reaching 20 weeks in the charts and all those weeks had come from ‘Clap Clap Sound’ which was the 91^st song to clock up this many weeks in the charts. Paul Young celebrated 30 weeks in the charts while Elton John moved on to 120. He sat 14^th overall.

Youtube playlist:

27 July 1984

TW	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	2	10	I Want to Break Free	–	Queen
2	1	19	Clap-Clap Sound	–	Klaxons
3	4	8	To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before	–	Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson
4	3	16	Footloose	–	Kenny Loggins
5	7	10	Catch Me (I’m Falling in Love)	–	Marsha Raven
6	5	10	Hello	–	Lionel Richie
7	6	10	Big in Japan	–	Alphaville
8	8	15	Somebody’s Watching Me	–	Rockwell
9	9	10	Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)	–	Phil Collins
10	10	17	Girls Just Want to Have Fun	–	Cyndi Lauper
11	12	7	Robert de Niro’s Waiting	–	Bananarama
12	21	5	Self Control	–	Laura Branigan
13	14	17	Love of the Common People	–	Paul Young
14	16	9	Why Don’t We Spend the Night	–	Joe Fagin
15	17	9	Searchin’	–	Hazell Dean
16	11	21	Happy Station	–	Fun Fun
17	13	12	My Oh My	–	Slade
18	15	20	99 Red Balloons	–	Nena
19	24	4	Wouldn’t it be Good	–	Nik Kershaw
20	19	33	Islands in the Stream	–	Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton
21	27	4	The Runner	–	Manfred Mann’s Earth Band
22	25	5	Colour My Love	–	Fun Fun
23	26	3	Breakdance	–	Irene Cara
24	28	2	Here We Are	–	Face to Face
25	30	2	Romancing the Stone	–	Eddy Grant
26	18	16	Talking in Your Sleep	–	Romantics
27	22	22	Break My Stride	–	Matthew Wilder
28	29	2	Earthquake	–	Flirtations
29	New	1	Oh Sherrie	–	Steve Perry
30	23	5	People are People	–	Depeche Mode

After 7 weeks with ‘Clap Clap Sound’ at 1 we finally saw a change at the top as The Klaxon’s hit dropped to 2 letting Queen’s ‘I Want To Break Free’ into the number 1 place. Queen were sitting on 102 weeks in the charts in total and had they waited 1 more week before taking the top spot, they would have equalled the highest weeks total by an act before getting a number 1 hit. However, they had to settle for second place behind Cliff Richard who saw his first number 1 hit with ‘Devil Woman’ in his 103^rd week in the charts.

The new number 1 also meant that we had now seen 6 duets that had charted where both parties to the duet had seen solo number 1’s. Queen had charted in a duet with David Bowie and Bowie had topped the charts back in 1973 with ‘Sorrow’. The other pairs to have solo number 1 hits were Frank & Nancy, Barbra Streisand & Neil Diamond, Barbara Ray & Bobby Angel, Olivia Newton-John & ELO and Lionel Richie & Diana Ross.

Laura Branigan’s ‘Self Control’ took the climber of the week award as it moved up 9 from 21 to 12. This meant that we had seen 4 weeks in a row where a song by a female act had been the climber of the week as it had been Hazell Dean’s ‘Searchin’ the previous week and Marsha Raven’s ‘Catch Me (I’m Falling In Love)’ for the 2 weeks before that (and sharing the award 3 weeks back with all girl group Bananarama). This equalled the record to date run for consecutive weeks with a female act having the climber award. Inside the top 20 it was a 2 place jump that scored you a climber award and the 2 previous climber hits by women, ‘Searchin’ and ‘Catch Me (I’m Falling)’, managed this as they moved up to 15 and 5 respectively. They were joined by Joe Fagin’s ‘Why Don’t You Spend The Night’ which climbed to 14.

Apart from ‘Self Control’ there were 4 other star raters and they were Nik Kershaw’s ‘Wouldn’t It Be Good’ (up 5 from 24 to 19), Manfred Mann’s Earth Band’s ‘Runner’ (up 6 from 27 to 21), Face To Face’s ‘Here We Are’ (up 4 from 28 to 24) and Eddy Grant’s ‘Romancing The Stone’ (up 5 from 30 to 25).

The Romantic’s ‘Talking In Your Sleep’ took top honours in falling as it dropped 8 from 18 to 26 while we had to look to Fun Fun’s ‘Happy Station’ for the faller within the top 20. It dropped 5 from 11 to 16.

‘Islands In The Stream’ by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton joined Alan Garrity’s ‘I Need Someone’ in second place for weeks on the charts as it enjoyed a 33^rd week with us. Only The Staccatos’ ‘Cry To Me’ had a higher weeks count as it managed 38. However, both The Staccatos and Garrity did not have the luxury of the extended charts. ‘Islands In The Stream’ had only managed 29 of its 33 weeks in the top 20. It was enjoying being the oldest in the top 30 for an 8^th week and the oldest in the top 20 for a 10^th week. It was the 12^th song to manage at least 10 weeks as the oldest in the top 20.

The new entries into the top 20 were ‘Self Control’ and ‘Wouldn’t It Be Good’ (climber and star rater mentioned above) and they replaced The Romantics’ ‘Talking In Your Sleep’ (faller of the week) and the Thompson Twins’ ‘Doctor! Doctor!’ which dropped right out of the top 30 from position 20 and was the highest last week position we had seen since the charts were extended to a top 30. It would be the only song to leave the top 30.

Steve Perry became the 37^th person to chart as a song writer before charting as a solo act and the 14^th where they had been a member of the group charting with the earlier hit where they were the song writer. The lead singer of Journey had co-written the band’s ‘Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)’ which reached number 17 in 1983. He also co-wrote his solo hit ‘Oh Sherrie’ which was the new entry this week. Two of the co-writers of the song, Bill Cuomo and Craig Kampf had appeared on a previous SA number 1 hit as they played keyboards and drums on Kim Carnes’ ‘Bette Davis Eyes’. ‘Oh Sherrie’ would top the charts in Canada and Zimbabwe, get to number 3 in the US as well as making it to 5 in Australia, 50 in Germany, 8 in New Zealand and 89 in the UK. The only local radio station it would chart on would be 702 where it got to number 2.

For the past 12 weeks we had seen more hits by UK acts than by US acts in the charts, but this week the Americans drew level with the Brits with both nations supplying 11 hits each. Italy and Germany each supplied 2, with the balance made up of 1 each from Belgium, Guyana, Spain and South Africa.

Nena’s ’99 Red Balloons’ became the 90^th song to reach 20 weeks in the charts while ‘Love Of The Common People’ clocked up its 24^th week for the 2 different versions that had charts (Nicky Thomas and Paul Young). This moved it into tied 12^th place for weeks by a song charting in more than 1 version. It shared 12^th place with 4 other songs.

Youtube playlist:

20 July 1984

TW	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	18	Clap-Clap Sound	–	Klaxons
2	2	9	I Want to Break Free	–	Queen
3	3	15	Footloose	–	Kenny Loggins
4	4	7	To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before	–	Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson
5	5	9	Hello	–	Lionel Richie
6	6	9	Big in Japan	–	Alphaville
7	7	9	Catch Me (I’m Falling in Love)	–	Marsha Raven
8	8	14	Somebody’s Watching Me	–	Rockwell
9	12	9	Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)	–	Phil Collins
10	10	16	Girls Just Want to Have Fun	–	Cyndi Lauper
11	9	20	Happy Station	–	Fun Fun
12	13	6	Robert de Niro’s Waiting	–	Bananarama
13	11	11	My Oh My	–	Slade
14	14	16	Love of the Common People	–	Paul Young
15	15	19	99 Red Balloons	–	Nena
16	16	8	Why Don’t We Spend the Night	–	Joe Fagin
17	21	8	Searchin’	–	Hazell Dean
18	18	15	Talking in Your Sleep	–	Romantics
19	17	32	Islands in the Stream	–	Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton
20	20	8	Doctor! Doctor!	–	Thompson Twins
21	22	4	Self Control	–	Laura Branigan
22	19	21	Break My Stride	–	Matthew Wilder
23	24	4	People are People	–	Depeche Mode
24	27	3	Wouldn’t it be Good	–	Nik Kershaw
25	25	4	Colour My Love	–	Fun Fun
26	29	2	Breakdance	–	Irene Cara
27	28	3	The Runner	–	Manfred Mann’s Earth Band
28	New	1	Here We Are	–	Face to Face
29	New	1	Earthquake	–	Flirtations
30	New	1	Romancing the Stone	–	Eddy Grant

The Klaxons’ ‘Clap Clap Sound’ became the 36^th song to clock up 7 weeks at 1 as it held on to the top spot for a further week keeping Queen’s ‘I Want To Break Free’ at bay as the latter saw its 4^th straight week at 2. Last week we saw an unchanged top 5 while this week it was a record to date top 8 that remained unchanged. This excludes the week when the whole top 20 was frozen over an Easter weekend. This was the second time we had seen a top 5 unchanged for 2 weeks running.

Hazell Dean’s ‘Searchin’ took the climber of the week award with a 4 place jump from 21 to 17. It would be the only new entry into the top 20 replacing Matthew Wilder’s ‘Break My Stride’ which picked up the faller of the week award with a 3 place drop from 19 to 22. ‘Searchin’ was on 8 weeks in the charts and this was a new record for a song making it into the top 20.

The biggest climb within the top 20 was by Phil Collins’ ‘Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)’ which moved up 3 from 12 to 9 while the top 20 faller award was shared between Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton’s ‘Islands In The Stream’, Slade’s ‘My Oh My’ and Fun Fun’s ‘Happy Station’ which all fell 2 places to land at 19, 13 and 11 respectively. ‘Islands In The Stream’ was still the oldest in both the top 20 and the top 30, reaching 28 weeks on the former and 32 on the latter. It now sat just 1 week behind Alan Garrity’s ‘I Need Someone’ for weeks in the charts. ‘I Need Someone’ was second overall behind The Staccatos’ ‘Cry To Me’.

We lost 3 songs from the top 30, the first of these being Snowy White’s ‘Bird Of Paradise’ which lasted 16 weeks in the charts and peaked at 13. He would return to the charts at a later date.

Also going was UB40’s ‘Red Red Wine’ which managed 27 weeks in the charts (the tied 6^th best) and spent 12 weeks at 1, the tied second highest total. This was an impressive performance but would be UB40’s only sojourn into our charts.

Last of the leavers was Van Halen’s ‘Jump’ which had spent 22 weeks in the top 30 and peaked at 2. This would be their only SA chart hit.

The first new entry was Face To Face’s ‘Here We Are’ which brought to an end a record to date 8 week run with no local acts in the charts. The previous worst drought had lasted 6 weeks. ‘Here We Are’ would top the Capital 604 and Radio 702 charts and make it to 13 on the Radio 5 ones. It would feature in the soundtrack to the 2010 film ‘Spud’ which starred John Cleese and South African born Troye Sivan. It was produced by Kevin Kruger and it was his 5^th production credit on an SA chart hit.

The Flirtations brought us our second new entry in the shape of ‘Earthquake’. The group had been around since the mid 60s, starting life under the name The Gypsies. ‘Earthquake’ would scrape a number 99 peak on the UK charts and that’s the only chart action I can find for the song. It wouldn’t make any of the local radio station charts.

Eddy Grant became the 88^th act to clock up at least 5 hits as his ‘Romancing The Stone’ was the last of the new entries. The song featured briefly in the film of the same name which starred Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, but didn’t end up on the soundtrack album. It would get to 7 in Canada, 42 in Germany, 28 in New Zealand, 52 in the UK and 26 in the US. On the local radio stations, it would make the Capital 604 and Radio 702 charts, peaking at 11 and 16 respectively. It was the 6^th hit by a Guyanese act, the other 1 coming from Eddy’s brother Rudy, and Guyana moved into tied 14^th place with Spain for number of hits by acts from a nation.

Lionel Richie celebrated 60 weeks in the charts while Kenny Rogers was clocking up his 80^th (13 of them coming with a Lionel Richie composition – ‘Lady’). They sat the 66^th and tied 33^rd overall for weeks. Kenny Roger’ partner on his current hit, Dolly Parton was celebrating 80 weeks in the top 20. And still looking at a top 20 only, we saw Queen moved into the top 20 of the weeks count list with 97 to date putting them tied 19^th with the Beach Boys.

‘Love Of The Common People’ moved into the top 20 for weeks by a song charting in more than 1 version. Nicky Thomas’ version had managed 7 weeks while Paul Young’s ticked over to 16 weeks, giving it a total of 23 and it sat 16^th overall for weeks by a song charting in more than 1 version.

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13 July 1984

TW	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	17	Clap-Clap Sound	–	Klaxons
2	2	8	I Want to Break Free	–	Queen
3	3	14	Footloose	–	Kenny Loggins
4	4	6	To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before	–	Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson
5	5	8	Hello	–	Lionel Richie
6	11	8	Big in Japan	–	Alphaville
7	14	8	Catch Me (I’m Falling in Love)	–	Marsha Raven
8	6	13	Somebody’s Watching Me	–	Rockwell
9	7	19	Happy Station	–	Fun Fun
10	8	15	Girls Just Want to Have Fun	–	Cyndi Lauper
11	9	10	My Oh My	–	Slade
12	13	8	Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)	–	Phil Collins
13	15	5	Robert de Niro’s Waiting	–	Bananarama
14	12	15	Love of the Common People	–	Paul Young
15	10	18	99 Red Balloons	–	Nena
16	18	7	Why Don’t We Spend the Night	–	Joe Fagin
17	16	31	Islands in the Stream	–	Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton
18	19	14	Talking in Your Sleep	–	Romantics
19	17	20	Break My Stride	–	Matthew Wilder
20	22	7	Doctor! Doctor!	–	Thompson Twins
21	24	7	Searchin’	–	Hazell Dean
22	27	3	Self Control	–	Laura Branigan
23	20	22	Jump	–	Van Halen
24	25	3	People are People	–	Depeche Mode
25	26	3	Colour My Love	–	Fun Fun
26	21	27	Red Red Wine	–	UB40
27	28	2	Wouldn’t it be Good	–	Nik Kershaw
28	29	2	The Runner	–	Manfred Mann’s Earth Band
29	New	1	Breakdance	–	Irene Cara
30	23	16	Bird of Paradise	–	Snowy White

The Klaxons’ ‘Clap Clap Sound’ became the 53^rd song to spend at least 6 weeks at 1. In total we had seen 287 chart toppers which meant that just under 18.5% of songs making the number 1 spot had sat there for at least 6 weeks. For a 3^rd week running Queen’s ‘I Want To Break Free’ was the nation’s second favourite song and we also saw positions 3 to 5 unchanged. This was the 24^th time we had seen at least the top 5 unchanged.

Despite referring to falling in the song title, Marsha Raven’s ‘Catch Me (I’m Falling In Love)’ was the climber of the week as it moved up 7 from 14 to 7 and it became only the second and would be the last song to see two biggest climber awards after re-entering the charts. Rabbitt’s ‘Locomotive Breath’ was the other one that manage this. ‘Catch Me (I’m Falling In Love)’ was the climber in both the top 20 and the top 30.

Alphaville’s ‘Big In Japan’ and Laura Branigan’s ‘Self Control’ were the only other star raters this week with the former climbing 5 from 11 to 6 and the latter moved up 5 from 27 to 22.

The faller of the week was Snowy White’s ‘Bird Of Paradise’ which dropped 7 from 23 to 30. Looking only at a top 20 it was Nena’s ’99 Red Balloons’ which had the biggest fall as it dropped 5 from 10 to 15.

The oldest on the top 20 and the top 30 was Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton’s ‘Islands In The Stream’ which had been on the former for 27 weeks (8 as the oldest) and 31 on the latter (6 as the oldest). It was the 23^rd song to spend at least 8 weeks as the oldest in the top 20.

There was only 1 song leaving the top 20 and that was Van Halen’s ‘Jump’ which fell to 23. It was replaced by the Thompson Twins’ ‘Doctor! Doctor!’ which became the 55^th song to re-enter the top 20.

There was also only 1 song leaving the top 30 and that was Re-Flex’s ‘The Politics Of Dancing’ which had seen a run of 10 weeks and peaked at 19. This would be their only SA chart hit. It was replaced by Irene Cara’s 4^th hit to make our charts, ‘Breakdance’. It was the 3^rd of her 4 hits where Cara had a song writing credit (she missed out on her hit ‘Fame’). She shared writing credits with someone called Bunny Hull and Giorgio Moroder who had co-written the 3 that Cara had written. In total Moroder had song writing credits on 10 hits and he was the 34^th songwriter to clock up this many hits. ‘Breakdance’ would go to 8 in the US and 88 in the UK. Elsewhere it would make it to 19 in Australia, 10 in Canada, 53 in Germany, 25 in New Zealand and 20 in Sweden. The only local radio station charts it would make would be the 702 ones where it topped the chart.

‘Break My Stride’ became the 88^th song to accumulate 20 weeks on the charts and this meant that Matthew Wilder also celebrated his 20^th week on the chart. Slade had also clocked up 20 weeks, but they needed 2 hits to do so with both ‘My Oh My’ and ‘Take Me Bak ‘Ome’ having managed 10 each. Meanwhile Queen were celebrating a century of weeks in the chart. They were the 21^st act to reach 100 weeks, but were 4 behind the next act up, Percy Sledge, who sat on 105.

Youtube playlist: