3 March 1978

Pos	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	9	Substitute	–	Clout
2	4	9	Mull of Kintyre	–	Wings
3	2	8	It’s a Heartache	–	Bonnie Tyler
4	3	6	You Light Up My Life	–	Debby Boone
5	7	4	Needles and Pins	–	Smokie
6	5	7	Free Me	–	Uriah Heep
7	6	7	How Deep is Your Love	–	Bee Gees
8	11	4	Mellow Lovin’	–	Judy Cheeks
9	8	6	I Go to Rio	–	Peter Allen
10	10	4	Welcome Home	–	Harvest
11	15	3	Singin’ in the Rain	–	Sheila B. Devotion
12	9	10	You’re in My Heart (The Final Acclaim)	–	Rod Stewart
13	16	2	Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood	–	Santa Esmeralda Featuring Leroy Gomez
14	17	2	Valentino	–	Bubbley
15	14	13	Run to Me	–	Kelly Marie
16	12	5	Can’t Stop Myself from Loving You	–	5000 Volts
17	New	1	Desirée	–	Neil Diamond
18	13	12	The Name of the Game	–	ABBA
19	New	1	Run Back	–	Carl Douglas
20	New	1	Float On	–	Floaters

Clout’s ‘Substitute’ became the 6^th song by a local act to make it to 6 weeks at 1 and the first by a group since Charisma managed it with ‘Mammy Blue. The other 4 had been split equally between local solo female acts and local solo male acts. ‘Substitute’ had a new number 2 to contend with as Bonnie Tyler’s 4 week run in second place with ‘It’s A Heartache’ came to an end as it dropped to 3 and Wings’ ‘Mull Of Kintyre’ moved up from 4 to number 2.

Sheila & B. Devotion’s ‘Singin’ In The Rain’ was the climber of the week as it moved up from 15 to 11. This was the exact movement we had seen for the previous week’s biggest climber and this was the 6^th time we had seen 2 weeks running with only 1 biggest climber in each week and that biggest climber having the exact same start and end position. ‘Singin’ In The Rain’ was the only star rater this week.

Abba picked up their 9^th biggest faller award as their ‘The Name Of The Game’ fell 5 from 13 to 18. They were the 9^th act to see this many fallers and there would be a further 9 who would get to this level.

The 2 songs that shared the oldest on the chart title last week were 2 of the 3 that left the top 20 this week. Margaret Singana’s ‘I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)’ lasted 18 weeks and peaked at 2, outshining the 17 weeks and peak of 6 that her only other hit to date, ‘Mama Tembu’s Wedding’, would manage. This would be her last top 20 hit, but she would reach the top 30 after the chart were extended.

Heart’s ‘Barracuda’ also managed 18 week, but it went 1 better than Margaret Singana’s hit, spending 7 weeks at 1 in a broken run of 5 weeks at the top, then 2 weeks at 2 before returning to the top for another 2 weeks. This would be the only chart offering from Heart.

The other song to leave the top 20 was Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers’ ‘Egyptian Reggae’ which manged just 2 weeks and peaked at 19. It shared the second lowest number of points for an instrumental song with the Eric Smith Movement’s ‘Sacha’ managing to get 4 points from its 2 weeks at 19 (the same chart run as ‘Sacha’). The only instrumental with less points was the South African (as opposed to the Canadian) Dan Hill’s ‘Bubblegum’ which only managed 1 point.

Neil Diamond joined Petula Clark, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Herman’s Hermits and The Rolling Stones in tied 8^th place on the hits count list as his 11th hit, ‘Desirée’ entered the charts at 17 this week. Diamond penned the song, giving him his 16^th hit as a song writer and he also sat 8^th on the hits by a song writer list. ‘Desirée’ would peak at 16 in the US and 39 in the UK as well as making 5 in New Zealand, 7 in Rhodesia, 15 in Austria, 21 in Holland, 24 in Belgium and 25 in Germany.

Carl Douglas was back on the charts after an absence of 152 weeks, the tied 50^th biggest gap to date. His new one was aptly called ‘Run Back’. Unlike his previous 2 hits, Kung Fu Fighting’ and ‘Dance The Kung Fu’, Douglas did not have song writing credits on this one. The song was written by David Stephenson and Steve Elson. A further departure was that the song was not produced by Biddu with song writer Elson and Keith Rossiter being credited on ‘Run Back’. The song managed a peak of 25 on the UK charts, which was a bit better than the 35 ‘Dance The Kung Fu’ had managed.

Our final new entry was ‘Float On’ by The Floaters, an US soul band from Detroit and featured James Mitchell from The Detroit Emeralds in their line-up. ‘Float On’ would be their only hit on both sides of the Atlantic, topping the UK charts in August 1977 (where it knocked Brotherhood Of Man’s ‘Angelo’ from the number 1 spot there) and just missing out on number 1 in the US where it stalled at 2. It did however, top the US R&B Singles chart. In New Zealand it also topped the charts, while making 2 in Holland, 5 in Belgium and 36 in Germany. In 1988 Stetsasonic took a cover version of the song to 91 on both the UK and Dutch charts.

With the 2 oldest on the charts from last week both falling out of the top 20, we had to look to Kelly Marie’s ‘Run To Me’ as the new oldest. It was sitting on 13 weeks. The departure of ‘Barracuda’ from the charts meant that only the current number 1, Clout’s ‘Substitute’ had a peak of 1 of all the songs in the top 20. It had been 174 weeks since the number 1 song was the only one in the top 20 with a peak of 1. The last time this happened it had been Kris Kristofferson’s ‘Why Me’ at 1.

We were down to just 2 local songs in the top 20 and they were Clout’s ‘Substitute’ and Harvest’s ‘Welcome Home’. It had been 23 weeks since the local hit count was this low.

Abba moved into tied 2^nd place on the weeks count list with 137 to their name. This put them level with The Hollies, but they were still 48 behind Tom Jones who led the way with 185. A bit lower down that list we saw The Bee Gees take 4^th place for themselves as their 132 put them 1 ahead of Elvis.

Youtube playlist:

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24 February 1978

Pos	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	8	Substitute	–	Clout
2	2	7	It’s a Heartache	–	Bonnie Tyler
3	3	5	You Light Up My Life	–	Debby Boone
4	5	8	Mull of Kintyre	–	Wings
5	4	6	Free Me	–	Uriah Heep
6	6	6	How Deep is Your Love	–	Bee Gees
7	7	3	Needles and Pins	–	Smokie
8	9	5	I Go to Rio	–	Peter Allen
9	8	9	You’re in My Heart (The Final Acclaim)	–	Rod Stewart
10	13	3	Welcome Home	–	Harvest
11	15	3	Mellow Lovin’	–	Judy Cheeks
12	12	4	Can’t Stop Myself from Loving You	–	5000 Volts
13	11	11	The Name of the Game	–	ABBA
14	10	12	Run to Me	–	Kelly Marie
15	16	2	Singin’ in the Rain	–	Sheila B. Devotion
16	New	1	Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood	–	Santa Esmeralda Featuring Leroy Gomez
17	New	1	Valentino	–	Bubbley
18	14	18	Barracuda	–	Heart
19	19	2	Egyptian Reggae	–	Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers
20	18	18	I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)	–	Margaret Singana

Before this week, 48 songs so far had seen a run of 5 or more weeks at 1. Clout’s ‘Substitute’ became the 49^th and the 7^th by a local act to manage this as it held Bonnie Tyler’s ‘It’s A Heartache’ at bay. The latter had been at 2 for 4 straight weeks now.

Judy Cheeks took the climber of the week award with a 4 place climb from 15 to 11 with her song ‘Mellow Lovin’. This would obviously be the only star rater climb this week.

On the falling front, it was Kelly Marie’s ‘Run To Me’ and Heart’s ‘Barracuda’ which took the honours, both songs dropping 4, the former from 10 to 14 and the latter from 14 to 18. It was a second time with the award for both acts.

Along with ‘Barracuda’, Margaret Singana’s ‘I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)’ were the oldest on the charts. The 2 songs had clocked up 18 weeks each and this was their second as the oldest.

McCully Workshop’s ‘Buccaneer’ had spent 15 weeks in the charts, but last week was its last. It had peaked at 1, spending 2 weeks at the top spot. This was a far better showing than their only other hit to date, ‘Why Can’t It Rain’ which had spent 5 weeks in the charts and peaked at 12. There was still 1 more hit to come for them.

We also bid farewell to Patsy Gallant’s ‘From New York To L.A.’ which manged 14 weeks and a peak of 5. There had been 6 hits to date by Canadian women, 5 of which had been by Lucille Starr. Gallant’s effort with ‘From New York To L.A.’ was, however, the second best of those 6 hits as it accumulated 156 points, only being beaten by Starr’s ‘The French Song’ which managed 223. Overall it was the 7^th best for a song by a Canadian act. This would be Gallant’s only SA chart showing.

Our first new entry was a song which was originally recorded in 1964 by Nina Simone but it was the following year’s cover by The Animals that really brought it to the world’s attention. ‘Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood’ became a number 3 hit in the UK and a number 15 hit in the US for them. Santa Esmarelda featuring Leroy Gomez recorded a disco version of the song which on its original release in 1977 topped the US Dance Music/Club Play Singles chart. In 1978 it climbed to 15 on the main Hot 100 charts and 41 in the UK. Both Elvis Costello and Joe Cocker have charted in the UK with their versions as well, making it to 33 and 53 respectively. Leroy Gomez, who gets his own billing in the group’s name, was a former member of the group The Tavares and had played saxophone on the 1973 classic album from Elton John, ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’. While ‘Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood’ would be their only UK hit, they also scored a number 78 hit on the US Billboard hot 100 in 1978 with a cover of another song made famous by The Animals, ‘House Of The Rising Sun.’

Dutch band Champagne were back on our charts, but once again they were called Bubbley in South Africa. ‘Valentino’ was their second song to chart in SA and was the 6^th for Hans van Hemert as a song writer. Hemert was also enjoying chart success as co-writer of our number 10 hit this week, Harvest’s ‘Welcome Home’. The writing credit on the song is shown as ‘Janschen En Janschens’ which was van Hemert and Piet Souer who wrote together under that name. ‘Valentino’ would be a number 5 hit for Champage/Bubbley in both Holland and Belgium.

Of the 20 hits on the chart, 13 were by groups, 5 were by solo women and just 2 by solo male artists. The last time one of these artist types had been as many as 13 was 54 weeks previously when it was also the groups that ruled.

The departure of ‘Buccaneer’ from the charts meant that we only had the current number 1 and 1 previous chart topper (Heart’s ‘Barracuda’) in the top 20. The last time we had seen this few numbers 1s past and present in the chart had been 37 weeks back.

The gap between hits from US acts and those from the UK was back up to 20 as the Americans had now brought is 484 to the Brits’ 464.

The Bee Gees caught up with Elvis for weeks in the chart. The two acts had both managed 131 weeks and sat tied 4^th overall. Abba were in 3^rd place on 136 and still clocking the weeks. They were just 1 behind The Hollies in 2^nd place and they also cruised past the 1,900 point milestone, with 1,902 to their name. They were still in second place for points, now 162 behind leader Tom Jones.

We also witnessed the 3^rd time we had 3 weeks running with SA acts at 1 and 20 as Margaret Singana’s ‘I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)’ at 20 complimented Clout’s ‘Substitute’ at 1.

Youtube playlist:

17 February 1978

Pos	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	7	Substitute	–	Clout
2	2	6	It’s a Heartache	–	Bonnie Tyler
3	4	4	You Light Up My Life	–	Debby Boone
4	3	5	Free Me	–	Uriah Heep
5	6	7	Mull of Kintyre	–	Wings
6	5	5	How Deep is Your Love	–	Bee Gees
7	11	2	Needles and Pins	–	Smokie
8	7	8	You’re in My Heart (The Final Acclaim)	–	Rod Stewart
9	9	4	I Go to Rio	–	Peter Allen
10	10	11	Run to Me	–	Kelly Marie
11	8	10	The Name of the Game	–	ABBA
12	16	3	Can’t Stop Myself from Loving You	–	5000 Volts
13	19	2	Welcome Home	–	Harvest
14	12	17	Barracuda	–	Heart
15	17	2	Mellow Lovin’	–	Judy Cheeks
16	New	1	Singin’ in the Rain	–	Sheila B. Devotion
17	14	14	From New York to L.A.	–	Patsy Gallant
18	15	17	I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)	–	Margaret Singana
19	New	1	Egyptian Reggae	–	Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers
20	13	15	Buccaneer	–	McCully Workshop

It was now 4 weeks at 1 for Clout’s ‘Substitute’ while Bonnie Tyler’s ‘It’s A Heartache’ spent a 3^rd straight week at 2.

Climbing honours went to Harvest’s ‘Welcome Home’ which moved up 6 from 19 to 13. Sharon Tandy (one half of Harvest) had seen 2 previous biggest climber awards. Smokie’s ‘Needles And Pins’ and 5000 Volts’ ‘Can’t Stop Myself From Loving You’ were the other star raters this week with the former climbing 4 from 11 to 7 and the latter moving up 4 from 16 to 12           . It was Smokie’s 8^th time with a star rater and a 7^th time for 5000 Volts.

For the 45^th time we saw local acts take the climber and faller awards in the same week as McCully Workshop’s ‘Buccaneer’ partnered with Harvest to do so. It dropped 7 from 13 to 20.

We bid farewell to 2 songs, the first being Clive Risko’s’ ‘Face Of An Angel’. It had managed a run of 16 weeks and peaked at 8 which was the lowest peak to date for a song spending 16 weeks in the charts. He would return to the chart later.

We also said cheerio to Joe Dolan’s ‘I Need You’ which had been with us for 17 weeks and spent 2 weeks at 1. This was his 3^rd hit running that had topped the charts and he joined Chris Andrews and Abba in having 3 consecutive number 1 hits. His weeks at 1 were falling though as his first chart topper of this run, ‘Lady In Blue’ managed 6 weeks at 1, while the second in the sequence, ‘Hush Hush Maria’ managed 3. There was still plenty of hits to come for him.

As Joe Dolan’s ‘I Need You’ had been the oldest on last week’s chart, we now had to look to Heart’s ‘Barracuda’ and Margaret Singana’s ‘I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)’ which were both sitting on 17 weeks. This was Singana’s first time with the oldest in the chart and this was something that the only other local black woman to chart (Letta Mbulu) never managed.

The highest placed of the new entries this week was Sheila B. Devotion (sometimes noted as Sheila And B. Devotion) and her hit ‘Singing In The Rain’. Sheila’s real name was Annie Chancel and she hailed from France, making this the 13^th hit by a French act to chart. France remained in 10^th place on the weeks by a nation list but were now just 1 behind 9^th placed Jamaica. The song was a disco version of the one made popular in 1952 by Gene Kelly in the film of the same name, but it actually dates back to well before that. It was first published in 1929 but it is uncertain when it was actually first recorded. Sheila B. Devotion’s version went to number 11 in the UK as well as making 2 in Sweden, 3 in Holland and Italy, 6 in Germany and 10 in what was then Rhodesia. In the US it failed to make the main Hot 100 chart but did get to 30 on the Dance Music charts. Sheila has continued to record, mostly in French, more recently releasing ‘Pour Sauver l’Amour’ in 2012.

The other new entry was the 47^th instrumental to chart. Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers were not really known for instrumental hits, but their ‘Egyptian Reggae’ struck a chord with the record buying public, propelling the song to 5 in the UK, 2 in Holland and Belgium, 8 in Switzerland, 13 in Germany, 15 in Austria and 22 in New Zealand. The song was an instrumental cover of a song called ‘None Shall Escape The Judgement’ by Earl Zero and it did not chart in Richman’s native USA.

The Bee Gees moved on to 130 weeks and in making this milestone found themselves just 1 behind Elvis Presley. The two acts sat 4^th and 5^th on the overall weeks count list. McCully Workshop reached the 20 week milestone and were the 54^th local act to manage this many with 91 so far currently having a weeks count of less than 20.

Peter Allen and Rod Stewart were the only solo males left on the charts. It had been 551 weeks since we last had as few as 2 solo males in the top 20. The last time the testosterone level was so low was on 28 July 1967 when Tom Jones and Peter Lotis were left flying the flag for the men.

With ‘Substitute at 1 and ‘Buccaneer’ at 20 we saw the 31^st time that local songs were at the top and bottom of the charts. Last week had been the 30^th time with ‘Substitute’ at 1 and Clive Risko’s ‘Face Of An Angel’ at 20. This was the 6^th time we had seen at least 2 weeks in a row where the locals topped and tailed the charts.

Youtube playlist:

10 February 1978

Pos	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	6	Substitute	–	Clout
2	2	5	It’s a Heartache	–	Bonnie Tyler
3	4	4	Free Me	–	Uriah Heep
4	7	3	You Light Up My Life	–	Debby Boone
5	6	4	How Deep is Your Love	–	Bee Gees
6	3	6	Mull of Kintyre	–	Wings
7	8	7	You’re in My Heart (The Final Acclaim)	–	Rod Stewart
8	5	9	The Name of the Game	–	ABBA
9	14	3	I Go to Rio	–	Peter Allen
10	10	10	Run to Me	–	Kelly Marie
11	New	1	Needles and Pins	–	Smokie
12	9	16	Barracuda	–	Heart
13	12	14	Buccaneer	–	McCully Workshop
14	13	13	From New York to L.A.	–	Patsy Gallant
15	11	16	I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)	–	Margaret Singana
16	19	2	Can’t Stop Myself from Loving You	–	5000 Volts
17	New	1	Mellow Lovin’	–	Judy Cheeks
18	16	17	I Need You	–	Joe Dolan
19	New	1	Welcome Home	–	Harvest
20	18	16	Face of an Angel	–	Clive Risko

‘Substitute’ by Clout enjoyed a 3^rd week at the top of the charts, still under pressure from Bonnie Tyler’s ‘It’s A Heartache’ which spent a second week at 2.

One of last week’s star raters, Peter Allen’s ‘I Go To Rio’ was the climber of the week, moving up a further 5 places from 14 to 9. This was the 16^th time an Australian act had taken the award. This would be the only star rater this week.

On the falling front it was Margaret Singana’s ‘I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)’ which had the biggest tumble as it dropped 4 from 11 to 15. This was the second week running that it had taken the faller award.

Joe Dolan’s ‘I Need You’ was at 18 and enjoying its 17^th week in the chart and the 5^th as the oldest in the top 20.

There were 3 songs that dropped off the top 20 this week, the first of which was Bruce Foster’s ‘Born To Break My Heart’. It had lasted just 4 weeks and peaked at 18. It joined 6 other songs in having the second lowest peak for a song spending 4 weeks in the charts with Manfred Mann’s ‘Oh No Not My Baby’ holding the record to date of a peak of 19 for a 4 week run. This would be Bruce Foster’s only foray into our charts.

Trevor Rabin’s solo career in the charts ended after just 1 hit, ‘Fantasy’. It had spent 8 weeks in the charts and peaked at 12. His best as a member of Rabbitt was a peak of 9 with ‘Charlie’ and 14 weeks by ‘Locomotive Breath’ (which peaked at 14). Rabin would return to the charts as a member of another group other than Rabbitt. This would be his last appearance as a producer (although producers were not always listed). He had had this credit on 5 hits, Rabbitt’s ‘Charlie’ and ‘Morning Light’, Julian Laxton Band’s ‘Blue Water’, Margaret Singana’s ‘I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)’ and ‘Fantasy’.

Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Go Your Own Way’ went its own way (okay, not really it was the way 2 other songs went this week as well). It had managed a run of 10 weeks and a peak of 4 which was by far the best performance of their 4 hits to date with none of their previous 3 making double figures for weeks nor going top 10.

Smokie returned to the charts with their 5th hit to date, ‘Needles And Pins’. The song was written by Jack Nitzsche and Sonny Bono. Nitzsche had worked with Neil Young and been a member of his backing band Crazy Horse while Sonny had seen 2 SA chart hits (‘I Got You’ and ‘The Best Goes On’) as one half of Sonny and Cher. Jackie DeShannon was the first to record ‘Needles And Pins’ and took her version to 84 in the US in 1963. The following year, English band The Searchers topped the UK charts with a cover of it. Smokie’s version would make it to number 10 in the UK and 68 in the US as well as topping the charts in Austria, getting to 2 in Germany, 4 in Norway, 5 in Holland and Belgium and 7 in Switzerland. So far, only 3 of Smokie’s hits in the UK had not made our charts.

Our second new entry was ‘Mellow Lovin’ by Judy Cheeks. Cheeks was the Goddaughter of soul singer Sam Cooke and her first album released in 1973 (simply entitled ‘Judy Cheeks’) was produced by Ike & Tina Turner. ‘Mellow Lovin’ gave her a number 65 hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 as well as going to 10 on the Dance Music/Club Play charts there. In Europe it would manage to get to 28 in Belgium. Cheeks would go on to have 5 UK hits, starting with her 1988 offering ‘I Still Love You’ which managed to scrape a 98 peak there.

Our final new entry was Sharon Tandy and Hawk’s (sometimes known as Joburg Hawk) Dave Ornellas who went under the name Harvest. Their hit was not a cover of the 1973 UK number 1 hit for Peters And Lee but was a cover of a song written by Hans van Hemert and Willem Duyn and recorded by Dutch act Big Mouth And Little Eve. Big Mouth was ‘Mouth’ from Mouth & McNeal. This was the 5th hit to chart that featured van Hemert in the song writing credits. Sharon Tandy had had 2 hits before this, both as part of a duet, the first being with Billy Forrest (covering Mouth & McNeal’s ‘Hello-A’) and the second being with Graham Clarke.

Smokie’s new entry clocked up their 50^th week in the charts for them. They were the 56^th act to reach this milestone.

On the weeks count list, we saw Abba closing in on second placed The Hollies. Abba were on 134 while The Hollies were on 137. Just below them The Bee Gees had their eye on 4^th place. They were currently 5^th on 129 weeks, just 2 behind 4^th placed Elvis Presley on 131.

Youtube playlist:

3 February 1978

Pos	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	5	Substitute	–	Clout
2	4	4	It’s a Heartache	–	Bonnie Tyler
3	2	5	Mull of Kintyre	–	Wings
4	8	3	Free Me	–	Uriah Heep
5	3	8	The Name of the Game	–	ABBA
6	13	3	How Deep is Your Love	–	Bee Gees
7	17	2	You Light Up My Life	–	Debby Boone
8	9	6	You’re in My Heart (The Final Acclaim)	–	Rod Stewart
9	5	15	Barracuda	–	Heart
10	6	9	Run to Me	–	Kelly Marie
11	7	15	I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)	–	Margaret Singana
12	11	13	Buccaneer	–	McCully Workshop
13	10	12	From New York to L.A.	–	Patsy Gallant
14	19	2	I Go to Rio	–	Peter Allen
15	12	10	Go Your Own Way	–	Fleetwood Mac
16	14	16	I Need You	–	Joe Dolan
17	16	8	Fantasy	–	Trevor Rabin
18	15	15	Face of an Angel	–	Clive Risko
19	New	1	Can’t Stop Myself from Loving You	–	5000 Volts
20	18	4	Born to Break My Heart	–	Bruce Foster

Clout’s ‘Substitute’ spent a second week at number 1, holding off the challenge of Wings’ ‘Mull Of Kintyre’ which dropped to 3 and faced a new challenge from Bonnie Tyler’s ‘It’s A Heartache’ which moved up 2 from 4 into second place.

Debby Boone not only lit up our lives, but also lit up the charts as her hit climbed 10 places from                 17 to 7 to take the climber of the week award. This was the 75^th time we had seen a song climb 10 or more in a week with 8 of those times now being by songs by solo female artists.

The second biggest climber was The Bee Gees’ ‘How Deep Is Your Love’ which moved up 7 from 13 to 6 to give them their 20^th star rater climb. They were still in second place for number of star raters and now just 3 behind Tom Jones who led the way. Peter Allen’s ‘I Go To Rio’ climbed 5 from 19 to 14 and Uriah Heep’s ‘Free Me’ moved up 4 from 8 to 4 to be the other 2 star rater this week.

The songs at 9, 10 and 11 all dropped 4 places to get there and these were the fallers of the week. Margaret Singana’s ‘I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)’ ended up at 11, Kelly Marie’s ‘Run To Me’ landed at 10 and previous chart topper, Heart’s ‘Barracuda’ dropped to 9.

The oldest on the chart was still Joe Dolan’s ‘I Need You’ which now sat on 16 weeks and had been the oldest for 4 of those.

There was only one song leaving the chart this week and that was Thelma Houston’s ‘I’m Here Again’ which lasted 8 weeks and peaked at 9. Unfortunately for her, she would not be able to repeat the title of the song as this would be her last SA chart action. She had managed 2 hits, enjoyed 26 weeks in the top 20 and her best peak was the 3 weeks ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’ spent at 1.

5000 Volts chalked up their 4^th SA hit as ‘Can’t Stop Myself From Loving You’ entered the charts at 19 this week. The song appears to be a cover of a number 2 hit in Australia in 1974 for William Shakespeare (no not that one, but a guy called John Stanley Cave who went under the Bard’s name) which was written by Harry Vanda and George Young. The song writers name would be familiar to fans of John Paul Young as they had penned all his hits that had charted in SA to date. The Volts failed to chart elsewhere with this song, save for a number 18 peak in neighbouring Rhodesia.

Youtube playlist:

27 January 1978

Pos	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	2	4	Substitute	–	Clout
2	9	4	Mull of Kintyre	–	Wings
3	4	7	The Name of the Game	–	ABBA
4	12	3	It’s a Heartache	–	Bonnie Tyler
5	1	14	Barracuda	–	Heart
6	6	8	Run to Me	–	Kelly Marie
7	3	14	I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)	–	Margaret Singana
8	15	2	Free Me	–	Uriah Heep
9	7	5	You’re in My Heart (The Final Acclaim)	–	Rod Stewart
10	8	11	From New York to L.A.	–	Patsy Gallant
11	5	12	Buccaneer	–	McCully Workshop
12	10	9	Go Your Own Way	–	Fleetwood Mac
13	20	2	How Deep is Your Love	–	Bee Gees
14	11	15	I Need You	–	Joe Dolan
15	14	14	Face of an Angel	–	Clive Risko
16	13	7	Fantasy	–	Trevor Rabin
17	New	1	You Light Up My Life	–	Debby Boone
18	19	3	Born to Break My Heart	–	Bruce Foster
19	New	1	I Go to Rio	–	Peter Allen
20	16	8	I’m Here Again	–	Thelma Houston

Clout’s ‘Substitute’ became the 30^th song by a local act to top our charts as it took over the number 1 spot from Heart’s ‘Barracuda’. The latter had spent a broken run of 7 weeks at 1. It was interesting to note that the 10^th local chart topper, Cornelia’s ‘Picking Up Pebbles’ and the 20^th, Lauren Copley’s ‘Kentucky Blues’ were by women and the 30^th was by an all woman group.

Bonnie Tyler on 30 weeks in the charts became the 3^rd act to have at least 30 weeks under their belt before seeing their first biggest climber award. ‘It’s A Heartache’ climbed 8 from 12 to 4 to take the award. Dennis East on 31 weeks and Engelbert Humperdinck on 42 weeks were the other 2 acts to be on 30 or more weeks when getting their first biggest climber award.

Three songs just missed out on sharing the biggest climber award with Bonnie Tyler and those were Wings’ ‘Mull Of Kintyre’, Uriah Heep’s ‘Free Me’ and The Bee Gees’ ‘How Deep Is Your Love’ which all climbed 7, landing at 2, 8 and 13 respectively. These were the only other star raters this week. It was the Bee Gees’ 19^th star rater and they were the second after Tom Jones to reach this many. Jones was still a few ahead of them on 23.

The faller of the week was McCully Workshop’s ‘Buccaneer’ which dropped 6 from 5 to 11.

Joe Dolan’s ‘I Need You’ was enjoying its 15^th week on the chart and its 3^rd as the oldest in the top 20.

Rabbitt’s SA chart career came to an end as ‘Getting’ Thru To You’ dropped out of the top 20 after a run of 5 weeks and a peak of 15. Of their 4 hits, this was the tied lowest peak, sharing that honour with ‘Morning Light’, but it beat the latter for weeks by 2. Overall Rabbitt spent a total of 29 weeks in the charts with ‘Charlie’ seeing their best peak of 9. Rabbitt fans could take some consolation from the fact that ex-band member Trevor Rabin was still in the top 20, sitting at 16 with ‘Fantasy’, however, that song was falling.

Also going was Leo Sayer’s ‘Thunder In My Heart’ which lasted 8 weeks and peaked at 6. Sayer had managed 7 hits so far and only 2 had managed to get into double figures for weeks. This was his 3^rd highest peak so far.

Our first new entry was Debby Boone’s ‘You Light Up My Life’. The song was written by Joe Brooks for the 1977 movie of the same name which he directed and produced. The original version was sung by a Ukrainian singer, Kasey Cisyk but in the film it was Didi Conn (who also played Frenchie in the film ‘Grease’) who is shown ‘performing’ the song. Cisyk’s version made number 80 in the US. A year later, Debby Boone (daughter of Pat), took her version to the top of the US and Canadian charts. She also made number 7 in Australia and 48 in the UK. The song would be the 5^th that won the ‘Best Original Song’ Oscar to chart in SA. It also went on to share the Grammy song of the year with Barbra Streisand’s ‘Evergreen’ (which wouldn’t chart in SA).  In 1997 Leann Rimes took a cover to 34 in the US.

The second new entry was by one time husband to Liza Minnelli, Peter Allen who was born in Australia on 10 February 1944. ‘I Go To Rio’ was the 18^th song to chart by an Aussie and would top the charts in his native country. Aside from that it made 15 in Rhodesia, 18 in Holland, 22 in New Zealand and 30 in Belgium. Allen would not chart in the UK and would only have 1 US hit with ‘Fly Away’ which made number 55 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1981. He had appeared on our charts before as a song writer, being the person behind Olivia Newton-John’s ‘I Honestly Love You’ making him the 24^th person to chart as a song writer before charting as an act. 7 of those 24 had written songs for bands that they were in. Allen died in 1992 at the age of 48, becoming one of the first well known Australians to die from HIV/AIDS. Hugh Jackman (well known for his role as Wolverine in the ‘X-Men’ films) played the role of Allen in the stage version of the musical ‘The Boy From Oz’ which was about Allen’s life. Jackman won an Emmy for his performance.

Rod Stewart hit the 20 week mark while, as mentioned above, Bonnie Tyler clocked up her 30^th. Abba meanwhile pulled 1 week ahead of Elvis to take 3^rd place overall. They were on 132 weeks while Elvis on 131 slipped into 4^th place, only 4 ahead of The Bee Gees in 5^th and the Bee Gees had just had a new entry so were busy closing the gap.

We had 4 places named in the title of the songs in this week’s top 20. At 2 was the Mull of Kintyre, New York and L.A. got a mention at 10 while Rio was namechecked at 19.

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20 January 1978

Pos	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	13	Barracuda	–	Heart
2	9	3	Substitute	–	Clout
3	2	13	I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)	–	Margaret Singana
4	4	6	The Name of the Game	–	ABBA
5	3	11	Buccaneer	–	McCully Workshop
6	8	7	Run to Me	–	Kelly Marie
7	10	4	You’re in My Heart (The Final Acclaim)	–	Rod Stewart
8	5	10	From New York to L.A.	–	Patsy Gallant
9	11	3	Mull of Kintyre	–	Wings
10	7	8	Go Your Own Way	–	Fleetwood Mac
11	6	14	I Need You	–	Joe Dolan
12	15	2	It’s a Heartache	–	Bonnie Tyler
13	17	6	Fantasy	–	Trevor Rabin
14	13	13	Face of an Angel	–	Clive Risko
15	New	1	Free Me	–	Uriah Heep
16	12	7	I’m Here Again	–	Thelma Houston
17	14	8	Thunder in My Heart	–	Leo Sayer
18	18	5	Gettin’ Thru’ to You	–	Rabbitt
19	20	2	Born to Break My Heart	–	Bruce Foster
20	New	1	How Deep is Your Love	–	Bee Gees

After having regained the number 1 spot last week, ‘Barracuda’ by Heart hung on to it to make the song the 13^th to reach at least 7 weeks at 1. It had managed this with an initial 5 week run followed by this 2 week run. 5 of the 13 had been by US acts and 5 by UK acts. Locals had 2 and Pussycat’s ‘Mississippi’ was the only one by an act from the non big 3 nations to manage this so far. ‘Barracuda’ also accounted for the 230^th week with an American act at the top of the charts.

Clout’s ‘Substitute’ took the climber of the week award for the second week running as it jumped a further 7 places, moving up from 9 to 2 and was putting ‘Barracuda’ under huge pressure.

Trevor Rabin saw a second star rater with ‘Fantasy’ which climbed 4 from 17 to 13.

The faller of the week was Joe Dolan’s ‘I Need You’ which dropped 5 from 6 to 11 to give him his 6^th such award. It was, however, the oldest on the charts with 14 weeks under its belt and was enjoying grandpa status for the second week.

‘Theme from “The Deep” (Down Deep Inside)’ by Donna Summer was the first of 2 songs to go this week. It had seen a run of 5 weeks and a peak of 16. Of her 3 hits to date this was her worst performance.  We would be seeing more of her on our charts.

Having had the biggest fall last week and ending up at 16, it was not a huge surprise that Baccara’s ‘Sorry, I’m A Lady’ was also leaving the top 20 this week. It had lasted 7 weeks and peaked at 10. Not quite as good as the 15 weeks and peak of 3 that their only other hit so far, ‘Yes Sir, I Can Boogie’ had managed. They would also grace our charts again.

British rock band Uriah Heep have had 12 of their albums chart on the UK albums charts, however have only managed to have 2 singles make the singles chart there and neither of those were the first of our new entries this week, their hit, ‘Free me’. The song was written by the band’s guitarist and keyboard player, Ken Hensley, and managed to get to number 8 in Switzerland and Austria and 9 in Germany. Some sources say it made number 1 in New Zealand, while another source only gives it a peak of 3. In case you didn’t know, Uriah Heep were named after a character in Charles Dickens’ ‘David Copperfield’ novel where Heep was one of the baddies.

The Bee Gees became the 5^th act to clock up 13 or more hits as ‘How Deep is Your Love’ became their 13^th song to feature on our top 20. Written by Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb, the song was originally intended for Yvonne Elliman, but the group recorded it and it found its way onto the ‘Saturday Night Fever’ soundtrack. It made it to the top of the US charts and stayed in the top 10 there for 17 weeks which was a record at that time. It also made it to number 1 in Brazil, Canada, Chile, Finland and France. In the UK it only managed to get to number 3. In 1996, British boy band, Take That took a cover version to the top of the UK charts and also topped the Danish, Irish, Italian and Spanish charts with their version. At the time it looked to be the Take That’s last ever release, but they re-formed in 2006 (10 years later) and continued to have further hits. This was the 17^th hit that Barry had song writing credits on and this put his tied 5^th with Geoff Stephens and Barry Mason for number of hits by a song writer. There had been a gap of 258 weeks between this and the previous Bee Gee hit (‘Run To Me’) and this was the tied 20^th biggest gap between hits for an artist equalling the gap that Peter Lotis saw back in 1973. It was the 4^th biggest gap for a British act.

With Clout’s ‘Substitute’ at 2, Margaret Singana’s ‘I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)’ at 3 and McCully Workshop’s ‘Buccaneer’ at 5, this was the 32^nd time we had seen 3 of the top 5 songs being by local acts. Sadly, this would be the last time we would manage this. We had once seen the locals have an all time record 4 of the top 5 which was back in November 1972.

With both new entries being by British acts, the gap between the number of hits the Americans had managed and those that the Brits had managed was 18 (480 vs 462 hits) and this was the first time in 16 weeks that this gap had been below 20.

This week saw Margaret Singana reach 30 weeks in the charts, Wings reach 40 and Leo Sayer reach 60. Sayer was the 37^th to reach his milestone, Wings the 83^rd to reach theirs and Singana the 118^th to reach 30. So far 35 local acts had manged 30 or more.

Abba moved into tied 3^rd place on the overall weeks count list as their 131 so far put them level with Elvis Presley. The 2 acts were just 6 behind The Hollies in second place but had a way to go to catch overall leader Tom Jones who was on 185. Both Elvis and The Hollies had finished their SA chart careers so it was now Abba, and The Bee Gees, who were in 5^th place on 126 who looked most likely to take over the lead from Jones if anyone would.

This week also saw the 5^th time the top 2 hits had a 1 word title and a single word act with Heart’s ‘Barracuda’ at 1 and Clout’s ‘Substitute’ at 2. Previously we had seen Pussycat’s ‘Mississippi’ and ‘Georgie’ at 1 and 2, then we had 3 weeks with Pussycat’s ‘Mississippi’ and Sherbet’s ‘Howzat’ sharing the top 2 places. This would be the last time we would see a top 2 like this.

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