| Pos | LW | Weeks | Song | Artist | |
| 1 | 1 | 15 | Never Gonna Give You Up | – | Rick Astley |
| 2 | 5 | 6 | (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life | – | Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes |
| 3 | 2 | 14 | You Win Again | – | Bee Gees |
| 4 | 4 | 7 | Faith | – | George Michael |
| 5 | 6 | 13 | Bad | – | Michael Jackson |
| 6 | 3 | 19 | La Bamba | – | Los Lobos |
| 7 | 16 | 6 | My Kind of Girl | – | Cinema |
| 8 | 9 | 9 | Mony Mony | – | Billy Idol |
| 9 | 12 | 10 | Paper in Fire | – | John Cougar |
| 10 | 10 | 15 | Call Me | – | Spagna |
| 11 | 21 | 6 | Barcelona | – | Freddie Mercury & Montserrat Caballé |
| 12 | 8 | 16 | Funky Town | – | Pseudo Echo |
| 13 | 15 | 22 | I Just Can’t Stop Loving You | – | Michael Jackson |
| 14 | 13 | 12 | Crazy | – | Icehouse |
| 15 | 7 | 21 | It’s a Sin | – | Pet Shop Boys |
| 16 | 14 | 9 | Mary’s Prayer | – | Danny Wilson |
| 17 | 18 | 8 | Causing a Commotion | – | Madonna |
| 18 | 26 | 6 | Persona Non Grata | – | Gino Vannelli |
| 19 | 27 | 2 | Always on My Mind | – | Pet Shop Boys |
| 20 | 28 | 12 | Scales of Justice | – | Living in a Box |
| 21 | 11 | 16 | Wishing Well (A Tone Poem) | – | Terence Trent D’Arby |
| 22 | New | 1 | Little Lies | – | Fleetwood Mac |
| 23 | 22 | 9 | Heart and Soul | – | T’Pau |
| 24 | 30 | 2 | Whenever You Need Somebody | – | Rick Astley |
| 25 | 29 | 4 | Beethoven (I Love to Listen to) | – | Eurythmics |
| 26 | 23 | 5 | Come On, Let’s Go | – | Los Lobos |
| 27 | 20 | 8 | What Have I Done to Deserve This | – | Pet Shop Boys & Dusty Springfield |
| 28 | 17 | 18 | Always | – | Atlantic Starr |
| 29 | 24 | 6 | Brilliant Disguise | – | Bruce Springsteen |
| 30 | 19 | 11 | My Pretty One | – | Cliff Richard |
Perhaps when Rick Astley sang ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ he was talking about the number 1 position on our charts as his hit spent a 4th straight week there. However, Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes would have been hoping that Rick was not a man of his word as they jumped 3 places from 5 to 2 to put pressure on the top spot. The last duet to top the charts had been Cliff Richards and Sarah Brightman’s ‘All I Ask Of You’ and the one before that had involved Jennifer Warnes as that had been ‘Up Where We Belong’ which she had sung with Joe Cocker.
And talking of duets, the biggest climber this week was by Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballe’s ‘Barcelona’ which moved up 10 from 21 to 11. It was the 148th time a song had climbed 10 or more in a week and the 6th song by a duet to manage this.
There were 6 other star raters this week with Cinema’s ‘My Kind Of Girl’ climbing 9 from 16 to 7, Gino Vannelli’s ‘Persona Non Grata’ moving up 8 from 26 to 18, the Pet Shop Boys’ ‘Always On My Mind’ climbing 8 from 27 to 19, Living In A Box’s ‘Scales Of Justice’ also climbing 8 from 28 to 20, Rick Astley’s ‘Whenever You Need Somebody’ jumping 6 from 30 to 24 and the Eurythmics’ ‘Beethoven (I Love To Listen To)’ moving up 4 from 29 to 25. ‘Persona Non Grata’, ‘Always On My Mind’ and ‘Scales Of Justice’ joined ‘Barcelona’ in being new entries into the top 20 with ‘Scales Of Justice’, which was on 12 weeks in the charts, equalling the all-time record for weeks in the top 30 before cracking the top 20. ‘My Kind Of Girl’ was the biggest climber within the top 20.
Two songs shared the faller of the week award as Cliff Richard’s ‘My Pretty One’ and Atlantic Starr’s ‘Always’ both dropped 11 to land at 30 and 28 respectively. They were joined by Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield’s ‘What Have I Done To Deserve This’ and Terence Trent D’Arby’s ‘Wishing Well’ in leaving the top 20. ‘Wishing Well’ had been at 11 last week and was the 5th song in the top 30 era to leave the top 20 from 11th place or higher. With ‘Wishing Well’ dropping 10 places, we had the first time there were 3 songs falling 10 or more in the same week. The faller within the top 20 was the Pet Shop Boys’ ‘It’s A Sin’ which dropped 8 from 7 to 15.
With the Pet Shop Boys’ ‘What Have I Done To Deserve This’ dropping out of the top 20 and ‘Always On My Mind’ being a new entry into that part of the chart, they became the 29th act to replace themselves in the top 20.
Michael Jackson’s ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You’ enjoyed its 22nd week on the chart and its 2nd as the oldest overall. It shared the oldest in the top 20 title with Pet Shop Boys’ ‘It’s A Sin’ with both songs having spent 20 weeks in that part of the chart, making it their 5th week as the top 20 grandaddies. They were the 107th and 108th songs to get to 20 top 20 weeks and Michael Jackson became the 9th act to see 2 songs reach 20 top 20 weeks. He had managed it previously with ‘Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough’. So far no act had seen more than 2 songs get to 20 top 20 weeks.
Madonna’s ‘Who’s That Girl’ was the only song leaving the top 30 this week. It had spent 19 weeks on the chart and peaked at 6. This equalled her best weeks figure for a song, a feat which ‘True Blue’ had managed, but she had already seen 3 songs peak at 4 and her best peak was with ‘Like A Virgin’ which got to number 2. It ended her run with 2 in the charts and [spoiler alert] this would be the last time she would have more than 1 hit in the chart in the same week. She had spent a total of 30 weeks with 2 in the charts with 7 different combinations of hits and her 30 weeks would be the all-time record for a female artist.
Fleetwood Mac saw their 8th SA chart hit as the new entry was their ‘Little Lies’. It was the 3rd single off their ‘Tango In The Night’ album and this was the 16th album to produce at least 3 SA chart hits in the top 30 era. Four of those 16 albums had managed to produce 4 hits so far. The track was written by Christine McVie along with Eddie Quintela (her husband at the time) and McVie takes lead vocals on the song. It would fare well in Germany (#3), Ireland (#4), The Netherlands (#10), Poland (#1), Switzerland (#3), the UK (#5) and the US (#4). On the local radio charts it would see its best peak on 702 where it got to number 2. It peaked at 8 on Capital 604 and 10 on Radio 5.
There were a number of acts reaching weeks milestones this week. These were Billy Idol and Gino Vannelli who reached 40, Fleetwood Mac who got to 50, Bruce Springsteen who ticked over to 60, the Eurythmics who hit 80 (the 47th act to get there) and Michael Jackson who, with 2 in the charts, moved past 160 onto 161. Jackson sat 6th overall but was still 8 behind 5th placed Elton John. Jackson also jumped from 10th to 6th place on the top 30 points list as his total moved on to 3,042. He jumped ahead of Neil Diamond (3,038), the Rolling Stones (3,029), The Hollies (3,018) and Boney M (3,017) and now sat 85 points behind Elton John who was 5th with 4,127.
Madonna moved into the top 20 of the top 20 weeks count list. She had accumulated 105 weeks in the top 20 and this put her tied 20th with Lionel Richie and Percy Sledge.
This week’s chart proved to be the 2nd most turbulent one we had seen to date. If one adds up the total number of places songs moved up we get 64 and if we add to this the total number of places songs fell, we get 131. The records for these 2 stats had both been seen on 8 March 1985 when the total places moved up was 78 and the total places moved was 144. This week was second highest for both these stats.
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SA Singles Charts 