EDDY GRANT (GUYANA)

Born: 5 March 1948
Real name: Edmond Montague Grant

Grant was born in the village of Plaisance in Guyana (known as British Guiana at the time). His father was a trumpet player who was in the band Nello & The Luckies. His parents moved to London while he was still at school and it was only when he was 12 that he moved across to join them. When he was about 17 years old he helped form The Equals who would have 9 UK chart hits, including a number 1 with ‘Baby Come Back’.  Then in 1971 Grant suffered a heart attack and a collapsed lung. He left The Equals and set up a recording studio and started the Ice Record label. In 1975 he released his first solo album, simply entitled ‘Eddy Grant’ but it wasn’t until a few album’s later when he hit the UK charts for the first time as a solo artist with ‘Living On The Frontline’ from his album ‘Walking On Sunshine’. The song went to number 11. Grant hit his peak with 1982’s ‘Killer On The Rampage’ with the lead single, ‘I Don’t Wanna Dance’, hitting number 1 in at least 6 countries, including the UK. The album would also produce his only major US hit in the form of ‘Electric Avenue’ which peaked at 2 on the Hot 100. He would manage a total of 15 UK chart hits (this includes 2 remixes of ‘Walking On Sunshine’ and 1 remix of ‘Electric Avenue’). He would not see any other number 1’s other than ‘I Don’t Wanna Dance’. In the US he saw 2 other hits, but neither made the top 20.

Date of entry	Song	Peak (weeks at 1)	Weeks
29-May-1981	Do You Feel My Love	6	13
10-Dec-1982	I Don’t Wanna Dance	1 (8)	19
22-Apr-1983	Electric Avenue	9	14
23-Dec-1983	Till I Can’t Take Love No More	17	15
20-Jul-1984	Romancing The Stone	20	8
		Total hits	5
		Total weeks	69

Biggest climber awards	3
Star rater climbs	5
Biggest fallers	2
Weeks with oldest in the charts	4
Longest run in the charts (weeks)	33
Weeks with more than 1 in the charts	0
Biggest gap between hits (weeks)	67
Top 30 points ranking	102
Top 20 points ranking	109
Top 30 points	1157
Top 20 points	550

Hits written by Eddy Grant in addition to his 5 hits mentioned above:

Song	Act	Peak (weeks at 1)	Weeks
Baby Come Back	The Equals	1 (3)	14
Softly Softly	The Equals	8	7
Viva Bobby Joe	The Equals	9	6
		Total hits	3
		Total weeks	27

In addition to his solo hits, Eddy Grant also had production credits on his brother, Rudy’s hit:

Date of entry	Song	Peak (weeks at 1)	Weeks
03-Jul-1981	Lately	16	5
		Total hits	1
		Total weeks	5

Total chart involvement:

Number of hits	9
Weeks	101
Number of No. 1’s	2
Weeks at 1	11