The band hailed from Dublin in Ireland. The main force behind it was Phil Lynott. He had been born in England to an English mother and a Guyanese father. The family moved to Dublin when Phil was 3. He joined a band called The Black Eagles in 1963 along with a friend from school called Brian Downey. Lynott was then asked to join a band called Skid Row but didn’t last long there and went on to form the band Orphanage with Downey. They were noticed by 2 ex-Them members, Eric Bell and Eric Wrixton who asked them to form a band. They took their name from a robot character which appeared in The Dandy comics called Tin Lizzie. Their first single was released on EMI records and was ‘The Farmer’ which allegedly only sold 283 copies. By this point Wrixton had left the band. They switched to Decca records and moved to London, but still didn’t find fame. In 1972 they got a support slot on a tour which had Slade and Suzi Quatro as headliners. Around the same time the record company, against the band’s wishes, released their version of ‘Whiskey In The Jar’. The song gave them their first hit, topping the charts in Ireland and going to 6 in the UK. But they failed to capitalise on this success and Bell would leave the band. They recruited guitarist Gary Moore who had also seen a stint in Skid Row. Further releases failed to set the charts alight except for a couple of singles which made the Irish charts. They toured the US supporting Bob Seger and Bachman Turner Overdrive and in 1976, after supporting Status Quo, they released ‘Jailbreak’ which contained the single ‘The Boys Are Back in Town’ which gave them their second chart topper in Ireland and peaked at 8 in the UK. They would go on to manage a total of 18 UK hits and 16 Irish hits. In 1980 Lynott released a solo album and another in 1982 and the band split up in 1983. Lynott would later team up with Gary Moore for some further recordings, seeing success with the single ‘Out In The Fields’ which went to 5 in the UK. Sadly, Lynott would die in the January of 1986 from heart failure due to septicaemia which was brought about by heroin and other drug abuse.
The band formed in Belfast in 1964 when Van Morrison responded to an advert for musicians to play at the opening of an R&B Club at the Maritime Hotel, a venue frequented by sailors. Morrison had just left a band called the Golden Eagles. He gathered some other musicians around him, mostly from a band called the Gamblers. They renamed themselves Them and their performances began to attract attention. They got signed to Decca records and released their first single, ‘Don’t Start Crying Now’. Their second single, ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’ would give them their first UK hit, going to number 10. It would just miss out on a US Hot 100 place, bubbling under at 102. Their biggest hit was their next single, ‘Here Comes The Night’ which went to 2 in the UK and 24 in the US. The track would feature future Led Zeppelin member Jimmy Page as a session musician along with Phil Coulter who would write hits for Sandie Shaw, Cliff Richard amongst others. But that was about it for hit records other than a US peak of 33 with 1965’s ‘Mystic Eyes’. In 1966 they toured the US where they would play at the now famous Whiskey a Go Go club in Los Angeles where the opening act was The Doors. The Doors would later include a live version of ‘Gloria’, a Them live standard, on their ‘Alive She Cried’ album released in 1983 but recorded in the late 60’s and early 70’s. After this tour, Van Morrison quit the band and forged a successful solo career. The band tried to continue for a bit but eventually called it a day in 1972.
The band’s roots go back to the early 1950’s when Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams began signing together in church while they were still kids. By 1955 they had formed a group called the Cavaliers and would relocate to Detroit in 1957 where they changed their name to the Primes. They began to build up a reputation in Detroit and a group called The Primettes was soon formed as a sister group to the Primes. The Primettes would evolve into The Supremes. The Primes disbanded in 1960 and Kendricks and Williams returned to Alabama. Then, on a visit back to Detroit, Kendricks was offered a place in a band due to audition for Motown head, Berry Gordon. He accepted on condition that William could be brought in as well. The group was called The Elgins and Gordon was impressed with what he heard, however, there was already a group going under the name The Elgins, so they were renamed The Temptations. Their first album, ‘Meet The Temptations’ reached a peak of 95 in the US but did not produce any Hot 100 hits (‘(You’re My) Dream Come True’ from the album peaked at 22 on the R&B charts). 1964 proved a good year for them as they saw their first Hot 100 hit with ‘The Way You Do The Things You Do’ going to 11 and this was followed by 2 further Hot 100 hits. The following year, they cracked the top spot for the first time with ‘My Girl’. They would go on to clock up 52 hits with a total of 4 number 1’s. They have seen 15 hits top the R&B charts (the 6th highest by any artist at the time of writing). They have managed 33 UK charting hits with a best peak of 2 with ‘My Girl’.
Date
Song
Peak (weeks at 1)
Weeks
15-Jun-1973
Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone
6
12
19-Apr-1985
Treat Her Like A Lady
26
4
26-Apr-1987
Lady Soul
28
3
Total hits
3
Total weeks
19
Biggest climber awards
1
Star rater climbs
1
Biggest fallers
1
Weeks with oldest in the charts
0
Longest run in the charts (weeks)
12
Weeks with more than 1 in the charts
0
Biggest gap between hits (weeks)
606
Top 30 points ranking
=695
Top 20 points ranking
=750
Top 30 points
240
Top 20 points
94
The gap of 607 weeks between ‘Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone’ and ‘Treat Her Like A Lady’ was the 15th biggest any act would see. At the time it was the 7th biggest gap. There were 21 songs which charted with the word ‘Lady’ in the title and The Temptations were the only act to manage 2 such songs.
Telex were 1 of 3 Belgian acts to chart but would rank below their compatriots, The Klaxons and Viktor Lazlo for both top 20 and top 30 points. The band was made up of Marc Moulin, Dan Lacksman and Michel Moers. Their early releases included an electronic version of ‘Rock Around The Clock’ and has shades of the Kraftwerk sound. Their debut album, ‘Looking For Saint Tropez’ would feature ‘Moskow Diskow’ the hit listed below. The song would get to number 5 on the Radio 5 charts. In 1980 their song, ‘Euro-Vision’ was the Belgian entry into the Eurovision song contest. Apparently they hoped to come last in the contest, but finished ahead of Morocco (yes, Eurovision is not just for European nations) and Finland. Moulin would sadly die in 2008 and the band called it a day.
The band formed in the city of Delft in The Netherlands. They signed to the Delta label in 1966 and saw a string of hits on the Dutch charts, hitting the top 10 with 1966’s ‘Don’t You Leave’ which peaked at 9. Their international breakthrough came in 1969 with ‘Ma Belle Amie’ which went to 5 in the US and would go top 10 in a number of other countries, including Australia, New Zealand and Canada. A second US hit came with 1970’s ‘If You Do Believe In Love’ which peaked at 81. ‘Ma Belle Amie’ did serve to open up the Belgium market and they would see a few more hits there, but by and large their success was limited to The Netherlands where they scored 21 hits and topped the charts with 1970’s ‘She Likes Weeds’. Lead singer, Peter Tetteroo would sadly die from cancer in 2002. He was just 55 years old.
Date
Song
Peak (weeks at 1)
Weeks
20-Mar-1970
Ma Belle Amie
1 (3)
16
Total hits
1
Total weeks
16
Biggest climber awards
0
Star rater climbs
2
Biggest fallers
0
Weeks with oldest in the charts
1
Longest run in the charts (weeks)
16
Weeks with more than 1 in the charts
0
Biggest gap between hits (weeks)
0
Top 30 points ranking
=437
Top 20 points ranking
=369
Top 30 points
391
Top 20 points
231
Tee Set were the 5th highest ranked Dutch act using both a top 20 and a top 30 points basis
The main driving force behind Tears For Fears were Curt Smith and Roland Orzbal. The two had met while still teenagers in the town of Bath in England. They would join a band called Graduate who took their name from the fact that they would open their live shows with a cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘Mrs Robinson’, a song featured in the film ‘The Graduate’. They almost had a hit in 1980 with the song ‘Elvis Should Play Ska’ (Elvis in this case being Elvis Costello not Presley). It apparently just missed the UK charts and would be popular in Switzerland and Spain (although I have not been able to find any chart performance there). Smith and Orzabal then had a brief stint in a band called Neon which featured Rob Fisher and Pete Byrne who would go on to form Naked Eyes and Fisher would later be one half of Climie Fisher. The two then formed Tears For fears and after sending off a demo, landed a deal with Phonograph Records. Their debut single, ‘Suffer The Children’, failed to make an impact and the follow up, ‘Pale Shelter’, also made no initial impact. Then came ‘Mad World’ which went to 3 in the UK. This helped ‘Pale Shelter’ get to 5 on a re-release. Their debut album, ‘The Hurting’, which contained these 2 hits plus ‘Change’, a number 4 hit, would top the UK album charts. However, they only had a minor impact on the US charts with ‘Change’ seeing a modest peak of 33 Then came their second album, ‘Songs From The Big Chair’ which gave them 2 number 1 hits in the US with ‘Shout’ and ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World’. The album would spend 5 weeks at 1 in the US. This would be the peak of their career and while further hits followed, they failed to gain those dizzy heights again. In total they have seen 24 UK hits (best peak of 2 with ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World’) and 9 US hits, but no further number 1’s. Their latest album at the time of writing, was 2022’s ‘The Tipping Point’ which got to 2 in the UK and 8 in the US.
Date
Song
Peak (weeks at 1)
Weeks
11-Feb-1983
Mad World
2
20
24-Jun-1983
Change
5
14
15-Mar-1985
Shout
2
20
14-Jun-1985
Everybody Wants To Rule The World
14
13
Total hits
4
Total weeks
67
Biggest climber awards
3
Star rater climbs
8
Biggest fallers
3
Weeks with oldest in the charts
2
Longest run in the charts (weeks)
33
Weeks with more than 1 in the charts
8
Biggest gap between hits (weeks)
76
Top 30 points ranking
97
Top 20 points ranking
=110
Top 30 points
1176
Top 20 points
548
Tears For Fears were the 9th act to see 2 songs reach 20 weeks in the charts.
The band formed in 1967 in Enschede, a city in The Netherlands near the German and Austrian border. The original line up didn’t last long with only 2 of those members still being in the band in 1971. Their first few releases didn’t do much. Then in 1974 they saw their hit, ‘Fly Away’ reach 5 in The Netherlands and also chart in Belgium. Their next hit, ‘In The Summernight’ saw them chart further afield making the charts in SA (as shown below) and also peaking at 19 in Zimbabwe. Their biggest hit came with their 1975 Eurovision Song Contest winner, ‘Ding-a-dong’ which would go top 10 in most European countries, topping the charts in Switzerland. After this, their success was mostly confined to The Netherlands and Belgium where they saw 12 and 10 hits chart respectively (The 12 Belgium hits relates to the Dutch speaking part of Belgium. There is also an official chart for the French speaking part of Belgium where they would only see 5 hits).
Date
Song
Peak (weeks at 1)
Weeks
23-Mar-1975
In The Summernight
5
12
Total hits
1
Total weeks
12
Biggest climber awards
1
Star rater climbs
2
Biggest fallers
2
Weeks with oldest in the charts
0
Longest run in the charts (weeks)
12
Weeks with more than 1 in the charts
0
Biggest gap between hits (weeks)
0
Top 30 points ranking
=711
Top 20 points ranking
=687
Top 30 points
231
Top 20 points
111
Teach In was the 11th highest ranked Dutch act on our charts using a top 20 points basis and the 12th highest using a top 30 basis.
Born: 26 July 1949 Full name: Roger Meddows Taylor
Taylor was born in King’s Lynn, a town about 70kms east of Norwich in England. At school he would play the ukulele and joined a band called the Reaction when he was 15. In 1967 he moved to London to study dentistry. Here he met Brian May and Tim Staffell and they formed the band Smile. When Staffell left to form a new band called Humpy Bong, he and May recruited Farrokh Bulsara into Smile. Farrokh changed his name to Freddie Mercury and the band changed their name to Queen. They would go on to huge global success. Taylor’s first solo venture was in 1977 when he released the single ‘I Wanna Testify’. Four years later he saw his first solo UK hit with ‘Future Management’ which made it to 49 in the UK. In total he would see 7 solo UK charting hits with 1994’s ‘Nazis’ giving him a best peak of 22. Although producing no hit singles, his 2021 album ‘Outsider’ would peak at 3 on the UK charts.
Born: 11 May 1939 Died: 7 January 2022 (aged 82) Full name: Richard Dean Taylor
Taylor was born in Ontario in Canada. He would start his music career playing piano and singing in various Country bands in Toronto. He started a solo career in 1961 and would see interest in his debut single, ‘At The High School Dance’, but no chart placing. He made a breakthrough with his next single, ‘I’ll Remember’ which peaked at 23 in Canada. After this he relocated to Detroit where he got a job as a songwriter at the Motown Record label. In 1968 he hit the UK charts with ‘Gotta See Jane’, peaking at 17. He would see his first US hit in 1970 with ‘Indiana Wants Me’ which peaked at 5 (peak of 2 in Canada and the UK). In total he would manage 8 Canadian hits, 4 Hot 100 Hits in the US and 5 UK hits. He would see some of his compositions recorded by The Supremes, The Four Tops and Gladys Knight & The Pips.
Date
Song
Peak (weeks at 1)
Weeks
13-Sep-1968
Gotta See Jane
13
6
13-Nov-1970
Indiana Wants me
3
13
Total hits
2
Total weeks
19
Biggest climber awards
2
Star rater climbs
4
Biggest fallers
1
Weeks with oldest in the charts
0
Longest run in the charts (weeks)
13
Weeks with more than 1 in the charts
0
Biggest gap between hits (weeks)
107
Top 30 points ranking
=506
Top 20 points ranking
=555
Top 30 points
345
Top 20 points
155
Using both a top 20 and a top 30 points basis, R. Dean Taylor was the 13th best performing Canadian act on our charts.
Born: 12 March 1948 Full name: James Vernon Taylor
Taylor was born in Boston, Massachusetts in the hospital where his father was a physician. When he was still very young the family moved to North Carolina. As a youngster, Taylor first learned the cello, but then moved on to the guitar when he was about 12. Not long after this, he joined a band called The Corsayer which would release 1 single. Taylor’s composition, ‘Cha Cha Cha Blues’ would be the b-side to the single. After this Taylor suffered from depression and checked himself into a psychiatric hospital where he stayed for 9 months. This helped him and he left the hospital and headed to New York where he formed the band The Flying Machine (not to be confused with the band who had a hit in SA in 1970 with ‘Smile A Little Smile For Me’) and they released a few singles. However, he ended up becoming a heroin addict and had to be rescued by his father who took him back to North Carolina where he recovered. His next step was a move to London where, through various connections he ended up being the first American act to sign for The Beatles’ Apple Record label. In 1969 he released an eponymously titled debut album which saw a modest peak of 62 on the US album charts, but it was with his second release that he made a break through with ‘Sweet Baby James’ going to 3 in the US and 6 in the UK. It also gave him his first Hot 100 hit with ‘Fire And Rain’ getting to 3. He would see a total of 18 US Hot 100 hits, topping the charts with ‘You’ve Got A Friend’. Taylor is not always given a credit on his hit mentioned below, where the main artist is Carly Simon. I have included him separately here even though he is not given a separate credit on the South African release, it is obvious that there is a male vocal on the track and that would be James.
Date of entry
Song
Peak (weeks at 1)
Weeks
10-May-1974
Mockingbird
13
8
Total hits
1
Total weeks
8
Biggest climber awards
0
Star rater climbs
1
Biggest fallers
0
Weeks with oldest in the charts
0
Longest run in the charts (weeks)
8
Weeks with more than 1 in the charts
0
Biggest gap between hits (weeks)
0
Top 30 points ranking
=973
Top 20 points ranking
=999
Top 30 points
113
Top 20 points
33
Taylor sings backing vocals on the following hits:
Song
Act
Peak (weeks at 1)
Weeks
Heart Of Gold
Neil Young
8
12
Total hits
1
Total weeks
12
Total chart involvement by the band and its members:
SA Singles Charts 