
Pos | LW | Weeks | Song | Artist | |
1 | 3 | 6 | Boom Boom (Let’s Go Back to My Room) | – | Paul Lekakis |
2 | 2 | 9 | Sometimes | – | Erasure |
3 | 1 | 13 | The Final Countdown | – | Europe |
4 | 6 | 8 | (I Just) Died in Your Arms | – | Cutting Crew |
5 | 5 | 7 | All I Ask of You | – | Cliff Richard & Sarah Brightman |
6 | 4 | 17 | Everybody Have Fun Tonight | – | Wang Chung |
7 | 11 | 6 | Is This Love? | – | Alison Moyet |
8 | 8 | 6 | French Kissing in the U.S.A. | – | Debbie Harry |
9 | 7 | 10 | Hi! Hi! Hi! | – | Sandra |
10 | 10 | 19 | Two of Hearts | – | Stacey Q |
11 | 9 | 10 | Geronimo’s Cadillac | – | Modern Talking |
12 | 18 | 5 | Shake You Down | – | Gregory Abbott |
13 | 12 | 18 | A Matter of Trust | – | Billy Joel |
14 | 15 | 11 | Forever Live and Die | – | Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark |
15 | 17 | 8 | You Give Love a Bad Name | – | Bon Jovi |
16 | 19 | 4 | Caravan of Love | – | Lovemasters |
17 | 13 | 13 | I’ll be Over You | – | Toto |
18 | 20 | 6 | Montego Bay | – | Amazulu |
19 | 14 | 19 | Walk Like an Egyptian | – | Bangles |
20 | 16 | 9 | I Knew You Were Waiting (for Me) | – | George Michael & Aretha Franklin |
21 | 26 | 3 | Cry Wolf | – | A-Ha |
22 | 22 | 19 | True Blue | – | Madonna |
23 | 29 | 2 | The Great Pretender | – | Freddie Mercury |
24 | 30 | 2 | Hymn to Her | – | Pretenders |
25 | 21 | 23 | Oh L’Amour | – | Erasure |
26 | New | 1 | Everything I Own | – | Boy George |
27 | 27 | 11 | I’ve Been Losing You | – | A-Ha |
28 | 23 | 9 | Hip to be Square | – | Huey Lewis & The News |
29 | New | 1 | C’est La Vie | – | Robbie Nevil |
30 | New | 1 | Thorn in My Side | – | Eurythmics |
Erasure’s ‘Sometimes’ must have been really annoyed as it had waited patiently at 2 for 3 weeks, stuck behind Europe’s ‘The Final Countdown’. But this week, when ‘The Final Countdown’ finally dropped from the top spot, instead of ‘Sometimes’ taking over, it was Paul Lekakis’ ‘Boom Boom (Let’s Go Back To My Room)’ which leapfrogged ‘Sometimes’, jumping up from 3 to 1. ‘Sometimes’ spent a 4th week at 2 while ‘The Final Countdown’ dropped to 3 after 5 weeks at 1.
There was a 3-way tie for climber of the week as Gregory Abbott’s ‘Shake You Down’, Freddie Mercury’s ‘The Great Pretender’ and The Pretenders’ ‘Hymn To Her’ all moved up 6 to land at 12, 23 and 24 respectively. ‘Shake You Down’ was the only one of the 3 that managed this climb within the top 20. Two other songs made star rater climbs and they were Alison Moyet’s ‘Is This Love’ and A-ha’s ‘Cry Wolf’ which moved up 4 and 5 to land at 7 and 21 respectively. This was Alison Moyet’s 7th star rater climb and she was yet to have a biggest faller award. This was a new record for star raters without a biggest climber.
On the falling front it was The Bangles’ ‘Walk Like An Egyptian’ and Huey Lewis & The News’ ‘Hip To Be Square’ which took the honours. Both songs dropped 5 to land at 19 and 28 respectively, making ‘Walk Like An Egyptian’ the faller within the top 20. The Bangles were sitting on 45 weeks and this was their first biggest faller. They were the 3rd act within 4 weeks to see their first biggest faller on exactly 45 weeks (we had Huey Lewis & The News manage this 4 weeks back and then Chris de Burgh 2 weeks back). In total 7 acts had been on 45 weeks or higher when seeing their first biggest faller.
There was no movement on or off the top 20 so ‘Walk Like An Egyptian’ enjoyed a second week as the oldest in that part of the chart. It was on 18 top 20 weeks. Erasure’s ‘Oh L’Amour’ moved on to 23 weeks in the top 30 and this was its second week as the oldest in the overall chart.
There were 3 songs leaving the charts this week. The first of these was Dead or Alive’s ‘Brand New Lover’ which saw a run of 12 weeks in total (broken into runs of 2 weeks, 8weeks, and 2 weeks with a week’s break between runs). During its run it peaked at 19. This ended Dead or Alive’s SA chart career. They had seen 3 hits make the charts, accumulated a total of 34 weeks and their best peak was 3 which ‘Lover Come Back To Me’ managed.
Also going was Julian Cope’s ‘World Shut Your Mouth’ which managed 11 weeks and peaked at 12. It would be Cope’s only SA chart hit.
Last of the leavers was Lionel Richie’s ‘Ballerina Girl’ which managed 7 weeks and peaked at 24. This was his tied lowest peak, but the other song that peaked at 24 (‘Love Will Conquer All’) had the lower weeks count of 4. Like Julian Cope, Richie was also seeing the end of his SA chart career. He gave us 8 hits, managed 126 weeks and saw 4 number 1’s which spent a total of 17 weeks at 1. If one adds in his hit as a member of the Commodores it would make his hits count 9 and weeks total 143. He also had song writing credits on 2 further hits (Kenny Rogers’ ‘Lady’ and USA For Africa’s ‘We Are The World’) which, if added in, give him 11 hits, 180 weeks, 5 number 1’s and 19 weeks at 1.
The first new entry was the first solo hit for Culture Club’s lead singer, Boy George. With Culture Club he had seen 4 hits make our charts and now he charted on his own ‘Everything I Own’. The song was a cover of a 1972 hit for Bread. Their version got to number 5 in the US. Two years later Jamaican artist, Ken Boothe, took a cover to number 1 in the UK for 3 weeks. Like the Ken Boothe version, Boy George’s one also topped the UK charts, but only managed 2 weeks at 1. It would go to the top of the charts in Ireland, Norway and Zimbabwe and would top the Radio 5 and Capital 604 charts, but not make the Radio 702 ones.
The second new entry was ‘C’est La Vie’ by Robbie Nevil. This was the second song with that title to make our charts, the previous one being Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s number 14 hit in 1977. This was the 34th song title that had been seen on the charts for at least 2 completely different songs. Nevil had seen some success as a songwriter, having penned tracks for Sheena Easton, Melissa Manchester, Rockwell and The Pointer Sisters. Most of these were album tracks, but his biggest success as a songwriter before his own hits took off was getting to number 70 in the US having penned El DeBarge’s ‘Someone’. However, his first solo hit, C’est La Vie’ would go to number 2 in the US (stuck behind Gregory Abbott’s ‘Shake You Down’ for 1 week and then Billy Vera’s ‘At This Moment’ for a second week). It would top the charts in Canada and Switzerland and just miss out in Ireland, New Zealand, Sweden and Germany where it was stuck at 2. It would make it to number 1 on Radio 5 and 16 on Capital 604 but not make the 702 charts.
The final new entry was the Eurythmics’ ‘Thorn In My Side’. It was their 5th song to make the charts and they were the 99th act to see this many hits. After the relative failure in the UK of their previous single, ‘When Tomorrow Comes’ (which only got to 30), ‘Thorn In My Side’, the second single of their album ‘Revenge’, sent them back up into the top 10 in the UK where it peaked at 5. The music video for the song features Clem Burke, the drummer from Blondie. ‘Thorn In My Side’ would go top 20 in Australia (#12), Austria (#14), Finland (#9), Ireland (#2), New Zealand (#7), Spain (#13) and Sweden (#6). In the US it would only peak at 68. It would top the Radio 702 charts and get to 17 on the Capital 604 ones, but not make the Radio 5 charts. ‘Thorn In My Side’ was the 800th song by a British act to make the charts.
Modern Talking caught up with Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie for weeks in the charts. All 3 acts had accumulated 126 weeks and they sat tied 14th overall. Billy Joel moved 1 week ahead of The Sweet and The Troggs with 116 weeks to his name. He held on to 19th place while the other 2 acts dropped into tied 20th spot.
Modern Talking also celebrated a second run of 40 weeks with at least 1 song in the charts. This run consisted of 19 weeks with ‘Brother Louie’, 9 weeks with ‘Brother Louie’ and ‘Atlantis Is Calling’, 2 weeks with just ‘Atlantis Is Calling’, 4 weeks with ‘Atlantis Is Calling’ and ‘Geronimo’s Cadillac’ and then 6 weeks with just ‘Geronimo’s Cadillac’. They would be the only act to see 2 separate runs of at least 40 weeks consecutive weeks in the charts.
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