1981 THE FACTS AND FIGURES

So, we’ve seen all the top 20 charts for 1981 and all that’s left now is to do the old summary and see who had the most hits, number 1’s etc. 1981 was a year that saw the Lainsburg floods in which 104 people lost their lives, IRA member Bobby Sands went on a hunger strike and ultimately died, US President Ronald Regan survived an assassination attempt after he was shot by John Hinckley Jr and there was a failed coup attempt in the Seychelles led by Brit Mike Hoare. The First Indiana Jones film, ‘Raiders Of The Lost Ark’ was released as was the video arcade game Donkey Kong while TV saw the launch of MTV in the US with The Buggles’ ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ being the first video shown. On the sporting front there was a boycott breaking tour of New Zealand by the Springbok rugby team (the Boks lost 2-1) and Muhammed Ali would fight his last fight, losing to Trevor Berbick. American rap artist Pitbull was born as was Alicia Keys, Justin Timberlake, Destiny’s Child’s Kelly Rowland, Josh Groban, Craig David and lead singer of The Killers, Brandon Flowers. Closer to home 1981 was the year Julius Malema and cricketer Jacques Rudolph were born. It was also the year Bob Marley died.

Meanwhile on the charts we saw 126 different songs spend time in the top 20. This was the highest total we had seen since 1975’s 128 and the 9^th highest total overall. The most we had ever seen in a year was 153 which happened in 1969. There were 108 acts who brought us the 126 hits. This was the 7^th time we had seen 100 or more acts spend time in the charts in a year and was the 6^th highest total overall, however there were only 3 years that had a lower hits to acts ratio with the 108 acts averaging 1.17 hits each, a little way off the best that we had seen so far which was the 1.49 we saw in 1967. The lowest so far was 1.12 which happened in 1976. The total number of acts figures always counts those who chart as part of a collaboration separately. If we count the collaboration as 1 act instead of looking at its component parts, then we had 106 acts chart. The table below sets out the figures for these stats by years:

Year	No Of Hits	No Of acts	Hits/Act
1965	79	55	1.44
1966	136	97	1.40
1967	146	98	1.49
1968	142	97	1.46
1969	153	112	1.37
1970	141	114	1.24
1971	135	114	1.18
1972	117	97	1.21
1973	103	87	1.18
1974	115	100	1.15
1975	128	111	1.15
1976	123	110	1.12
1977	119	94	1.27
1978	114	91	1.25
1979	113	91	1.24
1980	119	97	1.23
1981	126	108	1.17

We were quite a bit below the average to date for number of hits in a year for locals acts. We had averaged 25.25 a year so far, but this year we only saw 17 which was the 13^th best of the 17 years we had seen to date, but it was up on the 11 we saw in 1980. The record for local acts was still the 41 we saw in 1971. There were 14 acts involved in bringing us the 17 hits.

Based on a points system of 20 points for a number 1 position, 19 for number 2 etc down to 1 for position 20, the following are the top 40 chart performers for the year (Note: this does not reflect sales):

Pos	Song	Artist	Points
1	Shaddap You Face	Joe Dolce Music Theatre	270
2	More and More	Joe Dolan	250
3	Bette Davis Eyes	Kim Carnes	241
4	Urgent	Foreigner	239
5	Celebration	Kool & The Gang	222
6	Can You Feel It	Jacksons	220
7	Queen of Hearts	Juice Newton	209
8	Hak Hom Blokkies	David Kramer	203
9	One Day in Your Life	Michael Jackson	201
10	Kids in America	Kim Wilde	193
=11	Antmusic	Adam & The Ants	184
=11	Gypsy Girl	David Scobie	184
=13	Passion	Rod Stewart	182
=13	Give Me Back My Love	Maywood	182
=13	This Ole House	Shakin’ Stevens	182
16	I am the Beat	Look	181
17	Wired for Sound	Cliff Richard	179
18	Endless Love	Diana Ross & Lionel Richie	176
19	Love on the Rocks	Neil Diamond	167
20	Lady	Kenny Rogers	166
21	Chequered Love	Kim Wilde	160
22	Spend the Night in Love	Four Seasons	159
23	In the Air Tonight	Phil Collins	152
24	You Drive Me Crazy	Shakin’ Stevens	148
25	Woman	John Lennon	147
26	Chariots of Fire (Titles)	Vangelis	145
27	Twilight Café	Susan Fassbender	140
28	The Tide is High	Blondie	136
29	(Just Like) Starting Over	John Lennon	135
30	Hold on Tight	Electric Light Orchestra	134
=31	Here is My Love	Tommy Dee	132
=31	Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around	Stevie Nicks with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers	132
33	Stand and Deliver	Adam & The Ants	130
34	I’m Alright (Theme from “Caddyshack”)	Kenny Loggins	128
35	Green Door	Shakin’ Stevens	125
36	Hands Up (Give Me Your Heart)	Ottawan	124
37	Woman in Love	Barbra Streisand	119
38	Tequila Sheila	Mac Davis	117
39	Angel of the Morning	Juice Newton	116
40	Man on the Moon	Ballyhoo	114

You can compare this to the list published in Top 40 magazine in 1989 which can be found here:

Top 40 Magazine 1981 List

This was the 6^th time the top hit of the year had been by an American act and they now led the way for having the most ‘hit of the year’s (hopefully the bit in inverted comma’s makes grammatical sense). They moved 1 ahead of the local acts who had seen the top hit 5 times. The British had managed 3, the Germans 2 and the Canadians 1. In terms of points by the top hit, this was the 4^th lowest total that a top hit had managed. Only the 267 in 1970, the 238 in 1966 and the 235 in 1965 were lower. Overall, the 270 points that ‘Shaddap You Face’ made was the tied 50^th best a song had managed in a calendar year.

The cumulative points to date gave the following top 10 was unchanged from what we saw at the end of 1981:

Pos	Song	Artist	Points
1	I Need Someone	Alan Garrity	464
2	I Can See Clearly Now	Johnny Nash	448
3	Cry to Me	Staccatos	447
4	You	Peter Maffay	399
5	Sunday, Monday, Tuesday	Jessica Jones	391
5	We Believe in Tomorrow	Freddy Breck	376
7	Woman (Beautiful Woman)	Don Gibson	373
=8	Sylvia’s Mother	Dr. Hook	363
=8	Beautiful Sunday	Daniel Boone	363
=10	Nice to be with You	Gallery	359
=10	Mull Of Kintyre	Wings	359

This was the 4^th year running that this top 10 had been unchanged.

The top songs pointswise on the local front for 1981 were as follows:

Pos	Song	Artist	Points
1	Hak Hom Blokkies	David Kramer	203
2	Man on the Moon	Ballyhoo	114
=3	Santa Maria	Alan Garrity	111
=3	Nightmare	Peach	111
5	A Lot oF Things	Peach	109
6	Shine On	Spirits Rejoice	57
7	Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain	Maria Tyl	51
8	Love Hurts	Mattison Brothers	36
=9	How I Feel Inside	Roy Bulkin	32
=9	Love Connection	Plastik Mak	32

‘Hak Hom Blokkies’s 203 points was the 4^th lowest we had seen for a top SA song of the year with the lowest being by a song that influenced a young David Kramer to take up music, Des Lindberg’s ‘Die Gezoem Van Die Bye’ which topped the local list in 1966 with 175 points. Kramer was the 9^th male act to top this list. We had seen 5 by groups, 2 by women and 1 by a duet.

Cumulatively from the start of the charts in 1965, the top 10 local songs were:

Pos	Song	Artist	Points
1	I Need Someone	Alan Garrity	464
2	Cry to Me	Staccatos	447
3	Sunday, Monday, Tuesday	Jessica Jones	391
4	Mammy Blue	Charisma	347
5	I Don’t Wanna Play House	Barbara Ray	336
6	Substitute	Clout	321
7	Timothy	Four Jacks & A Jill	312
8	She’s A Woman	Neil Herbert	304
9	It’s Too Late Now	Lauren Copley	303
10	Clap Your Hands And Stamp Your Feet	Maria	302

This top 10 had been unchanged since 1978 although Ballyhoo’s ‘Man On The Moon’ just missed out on making the top 10, it managed a total of 298 points (its chart run covered 2 years), which was 4 points behind number 10 on the above list.

NUMBER OF HITS

For a 4^th year running, the maximum number of hits any artist managed was 3. We had to go back to 1977 to see when an act managed to spend time in the charts with 4 songs. There were 3 who saw 3 of their hits spend at least a week in the chart in 1981 and they were Diana Ross, Adam & The Ants and Shakin’ Stevens. The most hits in a year that we had ever seen so far was 5 and that happened in 1968, 1969, 1971 and 1972.

There were 3 local acts who manged 2 hits and they were City Limits, David Kramer and Peach. Four Jacks & A Jill’s 4 hits in 1968 and Bobby Angels’ 4 hits in 1975 were the best that local acts had managed in a year so far.

Cliff Richard still led the way overall for number of hits having managed 23 to date. He added 3 to his total in 1981 and this put him 5 ahead of 2^nd placed Tom Jones, who was stuck on 18. The only other change from the end of 1981 to the list of acts who had seen 10 or more hits was that the Rolling Stones moved from 12 to 13 hits. The list now looked like this:

Pos	Artist	No Of Hits
1	Cliff Richard	23
2	Tom Jones	18
=3	Bee Gees	17
=3	Abba	17
5	Hollies	15
=6	Elvis Presley	14
=6	Neil Diamond	14
8	Rolling Stones	13
=9	Percy Sledge	12
=9	Billy Forrest	12
=11	Herman’s Hermits	11
=11	Creedence Clearwater Revival	11
=11	Petula Clark	11
=11	Barbara Ray	11
=11	Leo Sayer	11
=16	Gene Rockwell	10
=16	Troggs	10
=16	Jody Wayne	10

WEEKS ON THE CHARTS

Shakin’ Stevens spent more time in the charts in 1981 than any other act as he clocked up 35 weeks with his 3 hits. He was followed by Adam & The Ants on 27 and Kim Wilde in 3^rd place on 26. John Lennon and Juice Newton were tied 4^th with 25. Shakey’s 35 weeks was the 3^rd lowest we had seen for the top act with Abba and Bobby Angel seeing 32 in 1975 and the lowest so far was 1980 where Diana Ross managed 29 and was the top act. Peach was the top local act with 21 weeks followed by David Kramer on 17 and then Alan Garrity on 11.

The overall position for weeks in the charts looked like this:

Pos	Artist	No Of Weeks
1	Abba	224
2	Bee Gees	203
3	Tom Jones	185
4	Cliff Richard	167
5	Neil Diamond	141
6	Hollies	137
7	Rolling Stones	132
8	Elvis Presley	131
9	Barbara Ray	124
10	Creedence Clearwater Revival	118
=11	Sweet	115
=11	Troggs	115
13	Joe Dolan	110
14	Boney M	108
15	Percy Sledge	105
16	Beach Boys	97
=17	Herman’S Hermits	95
=17	Leo Sayer	95
=17	Alan Garrity	95
20	Olivia Newton-John	93

And the local list was as follows:

Pos	Artist	No Of Weeks
1	Barbara Ray	124
2	Alan Garrity	95
3	Billy Forrest	92
4	Staccatos	83
5	Four Jacks & A Jill	78
6	Gene Rockwell	75
7	Dave Mills	73
=8	Jody Wayne	72
=8	Richard Jon Smith	72
10	John Edmond	70
11	Lionel Petersen	68
12	Tommy Dell	66
13	Bobby Angel	64
14	Maria	55
15	Lauren Copley	54
16	Dealians	50
=17	Jessica Jones	48
=17	Peanutbutter Conspiracy	48
19	Bats	45
=20	Peter Lotis	44
=20	Peter Vee	44

NUMBER 1’s

The last 3 years had not seen any act manage more than 1 number 1, but 1981 saw that drought being broken as Kim Wilde saw both ‘Kids In America’ and ‘Chequered Love’ top the charts albeit for 1 week each. There had been 8 years where no act had managed more than 1 chart topper, 9 where at least 1 act had managed 2 number 1’s and the record was 3 which Chris Andrews managed in 1970. In total 16 hits managed to spend at least a week at 1. The 21 chart toppers we saw in 1969 was still the record to date that we had seen in a year. The following were the 16 songs that spent time at 1 during 1981:

Pos	Song	Act	Weeks
1	Shaddap You Face	Joe Dolce Music Theatre	9
=2	Bette Davis Eyes	Kim Carnes	6
=2	Urgent	Foreigner	6
4	This Ole House	Shakin’ Stevens	5
=5	Hak Hom Blokkies	David Kramer	4
=5	Endless Love	Diana Ross & Lionel Richie	4
=7	Woman in Love	Barbra Streisand	3
=7	More and More	Joe Dolan	3
=9	Love on the Rocks	Neil Diamond	2
=9	Passion	Rod Stewart	2
=9	Can You Feel It	Jacksons	2
=9	I am the Beat	Look	2
=13	Kids in America	Kim Wilde	1
=13	Chequered Love	Kim Wilde	1
=13	One Day in Your Life	Michael Jackson	1
=13	Going Back to My Roots	Odyssey	1

The only local song on this list was David Kramer’s ‘Hak Hom Blokkies’.

To date the following songs had managed 8 or more weeks at 1:

Pos	Song	Act	Weeks
1	I Can See Clearly Now	Johnny Nash	13
2	Mammy Blue	Charisma	12
3	Rivers Of Babylon	Boney M	11
4	Beautiful Sunday	Daniel Boone	10
=5	Michael Row The Boat Ashore	Richard Jon Smith	9
=5	Paradise Road	Joy	9
=5	Shaddap You Face	Joe Dolce Music Theatre	9
=8	Mississippi	Pussycat	8
=8	Substitute	Clout	8
=8	Kiss You All Over	Exile	8
=8	Why Me	Kris Kristofferson	8
=8	Stayin’ Alive	Bee Gees	8
=8	Baker Street	Gerry Rafferty	8
=8	Co-Co	The Sweet	8
=8	Woman In Love	Barbra Streisand	8

In terms of the overall picture for weeks spent at 1 by an act the table looked like this:

Position	Act	Weeks
1	Bee Gees	29
2	Abba	21
3	Sweet	19
4	Tom Jones	18
5	Joe Dolan	16
=6	Boney M	13
=6	Johnny Nash	13
=6	Chris Andrews	13
9	Charisma	12
=10	Elvis Presley	10
=10	Troggs	10
=10	Tremeloes	10
=10	Dawn	10
=10	Daniel Boone	10
=10	Pussycat	10

The only change to this list since the end of 1980 was that Joe Dolan had 3 more to his total and had moved ahead of Boney M, Johnny Nash and Chris Andrews who were all on 13 and had been tied with Dolan at the end of 1980. Charisma remained the only local act on this list.

LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE GIRLS

After 1980’s record to date 25 hits by female artists, the total dropped this year to 22 which was the tied 3^rd highest we had seen so far. It was a 4^th year running that we saw more hits by female acts than by local acts with 1967 seeing the 2 having the same number of hits. If one adds in the female artists who scored hits as part of duet, then we saw a tied record to date of 27, equalling what we had seen in 1967. There were 18 women who scored solo hits in 1981 and a further 2 who only saw hits as part of a duet. The 18 equalled the total we had seen in 1978 and 1979 and was tied 2^nd highest only beaten by the 21 who had hits in 1980. Diana Ross, who had shared top honours for number of hits spending time in the charts in 1980 (2 which Barbra Dickson also managed) was out on her own in the lead with 3. She saw ‘Upside Down’ which continued a run it started in 1980, ‘It’s My Turn’ and her duet with Lionel Richie, ‘Endless Love’ all spend time in the charts. Kim Wilde, Juice Newton, Dolly Parton and Sheena Easton all manged 2 hits. Maria Tyl and Cora Marie, both with 1 hit each, were the only local lasses to score a hit.

The top hits by woman this year were:

Pos	Song	Artist	Points
1	Bette Davis Eyes	Kim Carnes	241
2	Queen of Hearts	Juice Newton	209
3	Kids in America	Kim Wilde	193
4	Endless Love	Diana Ross (with Lionel Richie)	176
5	Chequered Love	Kim Wilde	160

And cumulatively this list read:

Pos	Song	Artist	Points
1	Sunday, Monday, Tuesday	Jessica Jones	391
2	I Don’t Wanna Play House	Barbara Ray	336
3	Come What May (aka Aprés Toi)	Vicky Leandros	321
4	It’s too Late Now	Lauren Copley	303
=5	Clap Your Hands and Stamp Your Feet	Maria	302
=5	Single Girl	Sandy Posey	302

The list had not changed since the end of 1973.

During 1980 Barbra Ray had caught up with Petula Clark to lead the way for cumulative number of hits by female acts with the 2 of them on 11. They still held the top spot with neither of them adding anything to their total during 1981. Both Dolly Parton and Diana Ross added 2 more to their totals and moved into tied 4^th place on 7 hits, joining Nancy Sinatra there. The top female acts for number of hits looked like this:

Pos	Act	No Of Hits
=1	Petula Clark	11
=1	Barbara Ray	11
3	Olivia Newton-John	9
=4	Nancy Sinatra	7
=4	Diana Ross	7
=4	Dolly Parton	7
=7	Virginia Lee	6
=7	Suzi Quatro	6
=9	Sandie Shaw	5
=9	Lucille Starr	5

While Diana Ross saw more hits spend time in the charts during the year than any other woman, it was Kim Wilde who clocked up the most weeks as her 2 hits (‘Kids In America’ and ‘Chequered Love’) helped her to be the top woman for 1981 in terms of weeks spent in the charts. She totalled 26, just beating Juice Newton who managed 25 with her 2 hits, (‘Angel Of The Morning’ and ‘Queen Of Hearts’). Diana Ross came 3^rd with 18 weeks followed by Kim Carnes on 16 and Dolly Parton with 14.

Barbara Ray was still the overall leader for number of weeks by a woman with 124 to her name while Diana Ross entered the top 5 with 68 weeks and knocked Vicky Leandros into 6^th place. The top 5 women so far were:

Pos	Act	Weeks
1	Barbara Ray	124
2	Olivia Newton-John	93
3	Petula Clark	73
4	Suzi Quatro	72
5	Diana Ross	68

The women also saw 4 chart toppers as solo acts during 1981 and 1 as part of a duet. These were (in order of number of weeks spent at 1) Kim Carnes’ ‘Bette Davis Eyes’ (6 weeks), Barbara Streisand’s ‘Woman In Love’ (3 weeks, but also spent 5 weeks at 1 in 1980), Kim Wilde’s ‘Kids In America’ (1 week) and Kim Wilde’s ‘Chequered Love’ (1 weeks). Diana Ross’ duet with Lionel Richie, ‘Endless Love’ spent 4 weeks at 1.

NATIONALITIES

Aside from artists from the UK and US (who tend to dominate most charts worldwide), and local acts the following are the top hits from other nationalities:

Pos	Song	Artist	Points	Nationality
1	More and More	Joe Dolan	250	Ireland
2	Gypsy Girl	David Scobie	184	Zimbabwe
3	Give Me Back My Love	Maywood	182	Netherlands
4	Chariots of Fire (Titles)	Vangelis	145	Greece
5	Hands Up (Give Me Your Heart)	Ottawan	124	France

This was the second time the top hit for acts from the rest of the world had been by an Irish act. The last time an Irish act topped this list it was also a hit by Joe Dolan and that was his 1969 hit ‘Make Me An Island’. ‘More And More’ sat exactly in the middle in terms of points accumulated by the top hit as there were 8 years where the top hit had more points and 8 years where it had less. Germany and Canada led the way for number of times an act from those countries had topped this list as both had managed it 3 times although Boney M had topped the list once and as explained before I regard them as Jamaican for statistical purposes, but grant that there is a case to classify them as German.

We saw 24 hits by acts from the rest of the world spend time in the charts this year and this was the tied 4^th highest we had seen to date equalling the total for 1975 with 1978 and 1979 which all saw 25 and 1977 record to date 30 being higher. Before 1975 the rest of the worlders had never managed 20 or more hits, but since then they had been over 20 every year, a run of 7 straight years.

Maywood and Joe Dolan were the only non-big 3 acts who managed more than 1 hit and they both saw 2. Abba, who had been the top act in 6 of the previous 7 years, only managed 1. Pussycat and John Paul Young’s 4 hits each in 1977 was still the record to date.

The UK acts saw more hits than any other nation, just. They managed 43 with the Americans just behind them on 42. This was the 5^th time the UK acts had seen the most hits. The Americans led the way for number of times with the most hits as they had managed this in 9 of the 17 years we had seen so far. Locals acts had topped the list 3 times. Acts from the Netherlands were the top non-big 3 nation in 1981 and they saw a record equalling 7 hits (Babe’s ‘The Drunken Sailor’, Maywood’s ‘Give Me Back My Love’ and ‘Distant Love’, Linda Williams’ ‘I’ll Bide My Time’, Patty Brard’s ‘Hold On To Love’, Star Sound’s ‘Stars On 45’ and Hey You’s ‘Hey You’). Germany and Ireland managed 3 with Australia, Guyana and Canada managing 2. This was the 4^th year we had seen 14 different nations bring us our hits, beaten only by the 15 we saw in 1980 and the 16 in 1977.

Overall the US acts still led the way with 623 hits in total. The Brits were 50 behind them on 573 followed by the local acts with 364. The top non-big 3 nation was still the Canadians with 36, but the gap between them and second places The Netherlands was now down to just 1 as the latter had managed 35. This narrowed the gap from the 5 it was at the end of 1980. Germany was 3^rd with 28 followed by Australia on 25 and Ireland on 24.

The cumulative best hits for ‘rest of the world’ artists were as follows:

Pos	Song	Artist	Points	Nationality
1	You	Peter Maffay	399	Germany
2	We Believe in Tomorrow	Freddy Breck	376	Germany
3	Rivers of Babylon	Boney M	344	Jamaica/Germany
4	Come What May (aka Aprés Toi)	Vicky Leandros	321	Greece
5	Missippi	Pussycat	315	Netherlands

This list had not changed since 1978.

WHAT DIDN’T CHART

There were 11 songs that topped the UK and/or the US charts in 1981 that did not make our charts in the same year. Of these, 4 would make our charts in later years and 1 (John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’) had made our charts in a previous year. The 11 that didn’t chart was the 3^rd lowest total we had seen with 1967’s 10 being lower as well as 1965’s 9, although the latter was only half a year. However, adjusting for the songs that made our charts in other years, there were only 6 that never made our charts and this was by far the lowest we had seen, beating the previous lowest of 9.

The UK/US number 1’s of 1981 that did make our charts in the year were as follows:

Begin The Beguine (Volver A Empezar) – Julio Iglesias
Don’t You Want Me* – Human League
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic* – Police
Ghost Town – Specials
I Love A Rainy Night – Eddie Rabbitt
Imagine** – John Lennon
Jessie’s Girl – Rick Springfield
Kiss On My List – Daryl Hall & John Oates
Physical* – Olivia Newton-John
Private Eyes* – Daryl Hall & John Oates
The One That You Love – Air Supply

* Charted in later years
** Chartered in earlier years

I WRITE THE SONGS

It took 188 song writers to bring us our 126 hits this year, although this includes 1 hit which was a traditional song and the various composers who contributed to the classical music medley of ‘Hooked On Classics’ are counted as 1. This was the 4^th highest number of composers we had seen in a year. The average per year increased slightly from 170 per year to 171. 1967’s 206 was the most we had seen in a year while the 104 in 1965 was the lowest. John Lennon, Adam And and Marco Pirroni (one of Adam’s Ants) all saw 3 of their compositions spend time in the charts in 1981. We had to go back to 1975 to see the last time 3 hits be the maximum and song writer would manage in a year. John Lennon took the honours for most weeks as a song writer as his compositions managed 37 weeks and was 10 ahead of Ant and Pirroni who were on 27 and in second place. The 3^rd highest were the father and son combo of Rikki and Marty Wilde who’s 2 hits they wrote for their daughter/sister Kim clocked up 26 weeks.

Terry Dempsey was still song writer supreme having brought us a total of 28 hits, adding 1 to his total at the end of 1980. Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn were still in second place, but had not added to their 25 that they sat with at the end of 1980. Barry Gibb was just behind them on 24. Chinn and Chapman did lead the way in terms of weeks on the charts that their compositions had managed with 326 to their name. They were followed by Dempsey on 290 and Barry Gibb on 282.

Marty and Rikki Wilde were the only song writers who saw more than 1 hit reach number 1 and they managed 2, however it was Joe Dolce who composed his hit ‘Shaddap You Face’ that spent the most weeks at 1 for any song writer. That was 9 weeks.

Benny and Bjorn from Abba still led the way for most number 1s for a song writer as they had managed 8. The Gibbs brothers (Barry, Robin and Maurice) were second with 7 followed by Abba’s other song writer, Stig Anderson, on 6. Chin and Chapman had led the way for weeks at 1 at the end of 1980, but thanks to some additional weeks at 1 by Barbra Streisand’s ‘Woman In Love’, Barry and Maurice Gibb moved to the top of the list for weeks at 1 by a song writer with 38 to their name. Their brother Robin also moved up to have the second highest with 37. Chin and Chapman dropped in to tied 4^th place with 36.

CONSECUTIVE WEEKS

Abba set a new record for spending at least 1 week in the charts in consecutive years as they had now appeared on our charts for the 9 straight years. This passed the previous record of 8 consecutive years that Tom Jones and Cliff Richard had managed. ELO and Leo Sayer had both extended their runs to 5 years which was the next highest for any act charting in 1981. Suzi Quatro, The Village People and Neil Diamond were on 4 straight years. Since 1969, Diamond had only missed out on charting in 1973 and 1977.

Boney M, who had seen a run of 5 years from 1976 to 1980, failed to extend their run into 1981 and Burton Cummins and Kelly Marie who had seen a 4 year run to 1980, also failed to continue their runs.

The best any of the local acts who charted in 1981 could manage was 2 years (i.e. 1980 and 1981) and there were 6 acts that managed this – Ballyhoo, City Limits, Joy, Plastik Mak, Roy Bulkin and Spirits Rejoice with Ballyhoo and Spirits Rejoice both relying on a song that straddle the year end to achieve this.

THANKS

Well that’s all for 1981. But before we head on into the wonderful world of 1982 I need to thank a few people – Peet van Staaden, Anton ‘Eagle-Eye’ van Staden and Ian McLean for supplying invaluable information and corrections as well as Chris Kimberly, Brian Currin, Stephen Segerman and Tertius Louw for helping out with any questions that come our way.

25 December 1981

TW	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	2	7	Going Back to My Roots	–	Odyssey
2	4	5	It’s You, It’s You, It’s You	–	Joe Dolan
3	1	10	Endless Love	–	Diana Ross & Lionel Richie
4	3	7	It’s My Party	–	Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin
5	5	14	Urgent	–	Foreigner
6	7	5	Prince Charming	–	Adam & The Ants
7	6	7	Dancing on the Floor (Hooked On Love)	–	Third World
8	10	4	Under Pressure	–	Queen & David Bowie
9	12	6	Arthur’s Theme (Best That You can Do)	–	Christopher Cross
10	8	9	Start Me Up	–	Rolling Stones
11	9	12	Wired for Sound	–	Cliff Richard
12	11	15	Queen of Hearts	–	Juice Newton
13	18	2	Tainted Love	–	Soft Cell
14	14	2	Die Royal Hotel	–	David Kramer
15	15	3	Young Turks	–	Rod Stewart
16	13	10	Green Door	–	Shakin’ Stevens
17	16	12	Hold on Tight	–	Electric Light Orchestra
18	New	1	Action Man	–	Village People
19	New	1	Abacab	–	Genesis
20	19	10	Hooked on Classics	–	Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Bubbling under (thanks to Kevin Farquhason for the info):

Dale Stephens	We’ve Got The Love (official bubble)
Toyah	I Want To Be Free
Hotline	You’re So Good To Me

The final chart of 1981 threw up a new number 1 hit in the form of Odyssey’s ‘Going Back To My Roots’ which took over the number 1 slot from Diana Ross & Lionel Richie’s ‘Endless Love’. The latter had been at 1 for 4 weeks and it dropped to 3 with Joe Dolan’s ‘It’s You, It’s You, It’s You’ climbing 2 from 4 to 2 to be an immediate challenger to the new number 1.

Soft Cell’s ‘Tainted Love’ took the climber of the week award as it jumped 5 from 18 to 13. It would be the only star rater this week. Moving in the opposite direction at pace was Shakin’ Stevens’ ‘Green Door’ which fell 3 from 13 to 16 to take the faller of the week award.

For a 5^th week running we saw Juice Newton’s ‘Queen Of Heart’ being the oldest on the charts. It was sitting on 15 weeks overall.

Apart from losing a duet from the number 1 spot, we also lost a duet from the top 20 as Rex Smith & Rachel Sweet’s cover of ‘Everlasting Love’ dropped out of the charts after spending 7 weeks in the top 20 and peaking at 11. This would be the only SA chart hit for both Rex and Rachel. ‘Everlasting Love’ had also charted for Love Affair back in 1968 and between the 2 versions the song had clocked up a total of 13 weeks. It sat tied 38^th for weeks by a song charting in more than 1 version sharing the spot with ‘I’ll Step Aside’ which had charted for Tony Wells and Ronnie Wilson and ‘Green Tambourine’ which had been hits for Sun Dragon and The Lemon Pipers.

We also bid farewell to Alvin Stardust’s ‘Pretend’ which had managed a run of 4 weeks and a peak of 15. As with the ‘Everlasting Love’ couple, we would only see 1 hit from Alvin.

We had seen the Village People spend time in the charts in 1978, 1979 and 1980 and they left it till the very last week to continue the run into 1981. They were quite sneaky at doing this as the song they charted with in 1978, ‘Y.M.C.A.’ entered the charts in 1 December 1978 and lasted into 1979. They didn’t chart again till the August of 1980 when ‘Can’t Stop The Music’ made the charts. Then again it was nothing until this week when ‘Action Man’ entered the top 20 at 18. This was taken from their album ‘Renaissance’ which, although still produced by Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo (who had produced all their previous disco hits), moved the band in a new romantic direction. The first single off the album, ‘Do You Wanna Spend The Night’ had made it to number 2 on the Radio 5 charts, but it failed to make the Springbok ones while ‘Action Man’ failed to chart on the Radio 5 ones. Their new look and sound failed to make a major impact with album peaking at 138 on the US Billboard album charts while none of the singles from the albums made the singles charts there.

Earlier in the year we saw Phil Collins make his SA chart debut with ‘In The Air Tonight’, but it was a busy year for Mr Collins as he now saw his band, Genesis, make their SA chart debut with ‘Abacab’.

The song title came from a lettering system the band used for various sections of the song although the final version did not follow this format. ‘Abacab’ would go to 9 in the UK and would also get to 35 in Australia, 36 in Belgium, 11 in Canada, 26 in the US, 8 in Norway and 28 in Germany. It would top the Radio 5 charts.

This was only the 3^rd time we had seen 2 new entries where the song titles began with the letter ‘A’. The previous time had been 758 weeks previous on 23 June 1967 when 2 versions of ‘A Groovy Kind Of Love’ entered the charts. These were by The Mindbenders and Petula Clark. Prior to that had been on 1 April 1966 when we saw Herman’s Hermits’ ‘A Must To Avoid’ and The Kinks ‘A Well Respected Man’ were new entries. You may have noticed that our 2 hits this week were both words starting with ‘A’ (if you can call ‘Abacab’ a word) rather than the 4 mention above where the song titles all started with an ‘A’ on its own which sometimes is ignored when sorting things alphabetically.

We saw groups move back up to accounting for 10 of the top 20 hits this week. It had been 30 weeks since it was last this high for them.

Both Joe Dolan and Queen reached weeks milestones with Dolan hitting 110 and Queen moving on to 60. Dolan sat 13^th overall while Queen were 52^nd. The Rolling Stones moved 1 week ahead of Elvis Presley as they ticked over to 131 making 8^th place on the overall list their own with Presley slipping to 9^th.

Diana Ross and Queen both moved past the 700 points mark with the former moving on to 713 and the latter on to 709. They sat 44^th and 45^th respectively overall.

The average number of weeks the top 20 songs had been with us crept over 7 to 7.1. This was the first time it had gone over 7 for 28 weeks. Looking at the weekly averages and averaging those, 1981 had the lowest figure we had seen since 1970. Back then the week average of the average was 5.902. In 1981 it was 6.21 which was the 7^th lowest annual average we had seen so far.

1981 became the 4^th year where none of the acts that appeared on the first chart of the year would also appear on the last one. The previous years where this had happened were 1971, 1972 and 1978. Although there were no acts from the first week of the year on the chart this week, we did see a 3^rd year running where we began and ended the year with a US act at number 1 as Barbra Streisand’s ‘Woman In Love’ had been the top hit at the beginning of 1981.

Well that finishes off another year and we creep ever closer to the February of 1989 when the last ever chart was broadcast, but there is still plenty more to come. To those who like statistics, we were now 69.85% of our way through the charts. But before we hurtle on into 1982, the next entry will be the usual summary of the shakers and movers of the year.

Youtube playlist:

18 December 1981

TW	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	9	Endless Love	–	Diana Ross & Lionel Richie
2	3	6	Going Back to My Roots	–	Odyssey
3	4	6	It’s My Party	–	Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin
4	5	4	It’s You, It’s You, It’s You	–	Joe Dolan
5	2	13	Urgent	–	Foreigner
6	10	6	Dancing on the Floor (Hooked On Love)	–	Third World
7	11	4	Prince Charming	–	Adam & The Ants
8	6	8	Start Me Up	–	Rolling Stones
9	8	11	Wired for Sound	–	Cliff Richard
10	16	3	Under Pressure	–	Queen & David Bowie
11	9	14	Queen of Hearts	–	Juice Newton
12	14	5	Arthur’s Theme (Best That You can Do)	–	Christopher Cross
13	7	9	Green Door	–	Shakin’ Stevens
14	New	1	Die Royal Hotel	–	David Kramer
15	20	2	Young Turks	–	Rod Stewart
16	12	11	Hold on Tight	–	Electric Light Orchestra
17	18	4	Pretend	–	Alvin Stardust
18	New	1	Tainted Love	–	Soft Cell
19	15	9	Hooked on Classics	–	Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
20	13	7	Everlasting Love	–	Rex Smith & Rachel Sweet

Bubbling under (thanks to Kevin Farquhason for the info):

Village People	Action Man (official bubble)
Genesis	Abacab
Dale Stephens	We’ve Got The Love
The Frank Barber Orchestra	Glen Miller Today
Stevie Wonder	Happy Birthday
Police	Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Billy Joel	Say Goodbye To Hollywood

It was now 4 weeks at 1 for Diana Ross & Lionel Richie’s ‘Endless Love’ which had a new number 2 to contend with this week. For the past 3 weeks, Foreigner’s ‘Urgent’ had been sitting at 2 ever since relinquishing the top spot to ‘Endless Love’ but this week we saw Odyssey’s ‘Going Back To My Roots’ move up from 3 to 2 to put pressure on the top hit.

And talking of pressure, Queen & David Bowie’s ‘Under Pressure’ took the climber of the week award as it moved up 6 from 16 to 10. It was a 4^th such award for Queen and Bowie’s 2^nd having picked up 1 previously with his hit ‘Sorrow’. There were 3 other star raters in the form of Third World’s ‘Dancing On The Floor (Hooked On Love)’ which moved up 4 from 10 to 6, Adam & The Ants’ ‘Prince Charming;’ which climbed 4 from 11 to 7 and Rod Stewart’s ‘Young Turks’ which jumped 5 from 20 to 15.

And since the number 1 hit and the climber of the week were both by duets, we thought we may as well make it a clean sweep and the faller of the weeks was Rex Smith & Rachel Sweet’s ‘Everlasting Love’ which dropped 7 from 13 to 20.

Juice Newton’s ‘Queen Of Hearts’ moved on to 14 weeks in the charts and enjoyed it’s 4^th week as the oldest in the top 20.

Aneka’s ‘Japanese Boy’ became the 65^th song to have a total chart run of just 1 week as it dropped off the top 20 after entering it last week at number 19. Of these 65 ‘1 weekers’, 39 had spent that week at 20, 19 had managed to get to 19, 4 made it to 18 while there had been 1 which spent that week at 17 and 1 that spent it at 16, although it should be noted that the song that spent its week at 16 was The Seekers’ ‘I’ll Never Find Another You’ which sat at 16 on the very first chart. Aneka would only have the 1 hit and was the 23^rd act so far to only see 1 hit and only spend 1 week on the charts.

We also bid farewell to the Mattison Brothers’ ‘Love Hurts’ which managed a run of 7 weeks and peaked at 13. This would be their only SA chart hit.

With ‘Love Hurts’ departing the top 20, we would have seen another chart with no South African act on it had it not been for David Kramer coming to the rescue with is second SA chart hit, ‘Die Royal Hotel’ which entered at 14 this week. The song was the second hit off his ‘Die Verhaal Van Blokkies Joubert’ mini album. This was the 33^rd Afrikaans song to make our charts and the 28^th one to be a purely Afrikaans song, Kramer’s previous hit being a mixture of English and Afrikaans lyrics.

The second new entry was a cover of a song from 1964. ‘Tainted Love’ was originally recorded by Gloria Jones back then and it was released as the b-side of her single ‘My Bad Boy’s Comin’ Home’, but neither track found any success. Then in 1973 a British club DJ picked up a copy of the single and began playing the b-side in the clubs. Jones re-recorded it in 1976, but still no success. However Soft Cell’s Marc Almond heard the track and eventually in 1981 Soft Cell revived the song and their version shot to the top of the UK charts, spending 2 weeks at 1 there. It also topped the charts in Australia, Belgium, Canada and Germany. In the US it was more of a slow burner hit, eventually finding its way up to a peak of 8, but managed a record at the time 43 weeks in the hot 100. There have been a couple of re-mixes of the song which have also made the UK charts and at the time of writing Soft Cell’s various versions have spent a total of 44 weeks in the UK charts.

The Rolling Stones moved level with Elvis Presley on the weeks count list with both acts on 131 and sharing 7^th place. A bit further down the list Joe Dolan moved 1 ahead of Boney M. His 109 weeks meant he took 13^th place on his own while Boney M dropped into 14^th place.

Youtube playlist:

11 December 1981

TW	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	8	Endless Love	–	Diana Ross & Lionel Richie
2	2	12	Urgent	–	Foreigner
3	3	5	Going Back to My Roots	–	Odyssey
4	5	5	It’s My Party	–	Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin
5	10	3	It’s You, It’s You, It’s You	–	Joe Dolan
6	7	7	Start Me Up	–	Rolling Stones
7	4	8	Green Door	–	Shakin’ Stevens
8	6	10	Wired for Sound	–	Cliff Richard
9	8	13	Queen of Hearts	–	Juice Newton
10	11	5	Dancing on the Floor (Hooked On Love)	–	Third World
11	13	3	Prince Charming	–	Adam & The Ants
12	9	10	Hold on Tight	–	Electric Light Orchestra
13	14	6	Everlasting Love	–	Rex Smith & Rachel Sweet
14	17	4	Arthur’s Theme (Best That You can Do)	–	Christopher Cross
15	12	8	Hooked on Classics	–	Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
16	20	2	Under Pressure	–	Queen & David Bowie
17	18	7	Love Hurts	–	Mattisson Brothers
18	15	3	Pretend	–	Alvin Stardust
19	New	1	Japanese Boy	–	Aneka
20	New	1	Young Turks	–	Rod Stewart

Bubbling under (thanks to Kevin Farquhason for the info):

Stevie Wonder	Happy Birthday (official bubble)
The Frank Barber Orchestra	Glen Miller Today
Soft Cell	Tainted Love
Police	Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic

The duet between Diana Ross and Lionel Riche, ‘Endless Love’, spent a 3^rd week at 1 while the previous chart topper, Foreigner’s ‘Urgent’, had not moved from 2 since conceding the top spot.

Joe Dolan picked up his 5^th biggest climber award as ‘It’s You, It’s You, It’s You’ moved up 5 from 10 to 5. And sticking with a 5 theme, he was the 5^th act to see the number of places moved up equal the number of biggest climbers the act had had and also equal the position the song landed at. The previous 4 acts to manage this were Middle Of The Road, George Baker Selection, Cliff Richard and Suzi Quatro.

Moving up 4 to be the only other star rater this week was Queen & David Bowie’s ‘Under Pressure’ which climbed from 20 to 16.

There were 4 songs that fell 3 places this week and they shared the faller of the week award. These were Alvin Stardust’s ‘Pretend’ (down from 15 to 18), The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s ‘Hooked On Classics’ (down from 12 to 15), ELO’s ‘Hold On Tight’ (down from 9 to 12) and Shakin’ Stevens’ ‘Green Door’ (down from 4 to 7). The observant amongst you may have notice that ‘Green Door’ spoilt things by not dropping from 6 to 9 to have the 3 highest placed fallers all drop into the position vacated by the faller just lower than them.

Juice Newton’s ‘Queen Of Hearts’ spent a 13^th week in the chart and clocked up its 3^rd week as the song that had been on the chart the longest of those in the top 20.

Jim Steinman’s ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Dreams Come Through’ was the first of 2 songs to depart the chart. It had managed a run of 9 weeks and peaked at 5. This would be Steinman’s only hit as an artist, but he would see more chart action as a producer and song writer. We had seen 25 songs so far that had entered the charts at number 10 or higher of which ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Dreams Come Through’ was the latest, but of these 9 had failed to go on to top the charts. 7 of the 9 had peaked at 2 while Steinman’s hit and Tommy Dell’s ‘Little Rosa’ which both only managed to get to number 5 shared a lowest peak for a song entering the charts at 10 or higher.

Also going was The Pointer Sister’s ‘Slow Hand’. It lasted 5 weeks and peaked at 10, which was 10 weeks less and a peak 10 places lower than their only other hit to date, ‘Fire’, which had topped the charts in a 15 week run in the top 20. This was the 3^rd and final song we would see that would have exactly the same weeks and peaks figures for its UK charts run. The previous 2 to manage this were Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell’s ‘All I Have To Do Is Dream’ and Adam & The Ants’ ‘Antmusic’. The Pointers Sisters were not yet done with their SA chart career.

The first new entry was by a Scottish woman called Mary Sandeman who went under the name Aneka. Her song, ‘Japanese Boy’ would top the UK charts for 1 week, knocking Shakin’ Stevens ‘Green Door’ from the top spot before being dethroned by Soft Cell’s ‘Tainted Love’. It would also top the charts in Belgium, Ireland, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland. Aneka would go on to have 1 more UK hit, ‘Little Lady’, which made it to 50 there, and another hit called ‘Ooh Shooby Doo Doo Lang’ which would chart in Austria, Germany and The Netherlands.

Rod Stewart’s ‘Young Turks’ was his 5^th song to make our charts and he became the 77^th act to reach 5 hits. The song would top the charts in Israel and would go top 10 in Australia (#3), Belgium (#5), Canada (#2), Ireland (#9) and the US (#5) as well as getting to 11 in the UK. It would top the Radio 5 charts. It was one of only a few non-instrumental tracks that made our charts where the song title doesn’t appear in the lyrics and would be his 25^th UK chart hit (this includes 3 hits where he shares credits with another act).

It had been 26 weeks since the Brits last accounted for 10 or more of the top 20 and this week there were 11 hits by acts from the UK in the chart. We actually had to go back 492 weeks (to 7 July 1972) to see the last time they had this many in the top 20.

The Rolling Stones clocked up their 130^th week in the charts and were 8^th overall for weeks and now just 1 behind 7^th placed Elvis Presley. Joe Dolan saw his weeks count move onto 108 which put him level with Boney M in 13^th place overall.

Youtube playlist:

4 December 1981

TW	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	7	Endless Love	–	Diana Ross & Lionel Richie
2	2	11	Urgent	–	Foreigner
3	9	4	Going Back to My Roots	–	Odyssey
4	4	7	Green Door	–	Shakin’ Stevens
5	8	4	It’s My Party	–	Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin
6	3	9	Wired for Sound	–	Cliff Richard
7	5	6	Start Me Up	–	Rolling Stones
8	6	12	Queen of Hearts	–	Juice Newton
9	7	9	Hold on Tight	–	Electric Light Orchestra
10	12	2	It’s You, It’s You, It’s You	–	Joe Dolan
11	20	4	Dancing on the Floor (Hooked On Love)	–	Third World
12	10	7	Hooked on Classics	–	Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
13	16	2	Prince Charming	–	Adam & The Ants
14	11	5	Everlasting Love	–	Rex Smith & Rachel Sweet
15	15	2	Pretend	–	Alvin Stardust
16	13	5	Slow Hand	–	Pointer Sisters
17	19	3	Arthur’s Theme (Best That You can Do)	–	Christopher Cross
18	17	6	Love Hurts	–	Mattisson Brothers
19	14	9	Rock ‘n’ Roll Dreams Come Through	–	Jim Steinman
20	New	1	Under Pressure	–	Queen & David Bowie

Bubbling under (thanks to Kevin Farquhason for the info):

Rod Stewart	Young Turks (official bubble)
Village People	Action Man
Joan Armatrading	I’m Lucky
Stevie Wonder	Happy Birthday
Soft Cell	Tainted Love
Toyah	I Want To Be Free
The Frank Barber Orchestra	Glen Miller Today

‘Endless Love’ by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie spent a second week at 1 while previous chart topper, Foreigner’s ‘Urgent’ was unmoved at 2. There was a challenge to the top spot from Odyssey’s ‘Going Back To My Roots’ which moved up 6 from 9 to 3, but this was not the biggest climber this week. That honour went to Third World’s ‘Dancing on the Floor (Hooked On Love)’ which moved up 9 from 20 to 11. This was the 14^th time an act from Jamaica had taken the biggest climber award (8^th time if you don’t regard Boney M as Jamaican). ‘Dancing on the Floor (Hooked On Love)’ and ‘Going Back To My Roots’ were the only 2 star raters this week.

Jim Steinman’s ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Dreams Come Through’ was the faller of the week for a second week running as it dropped a further 5, falling from 19 to 14 while Juice Newton’s ‘Queen Of Hearts’ enjoyed a 2^nd week as the oldest on the chart as it clocked up its 12^th week with us.

There was only 1 song that didn’t make it from last week’s chart to this week’s and that was Bernie Paul’s ‘Oh No No’ (I wonder what Bernie said when he got the news). It had spent 7 weeks on the charts and peaked at 10. He would see 1 more hit make the charts.

Two giants of rock, Queen and David Bowie, teamed up to bring us the new entry this week, ‘Under Pressure’. It would give Queen their second number 1 hit in the UK and Bowie his 3^rd. The song started life as ‘Feel Like’ which one can find versions of on Youtube, but the band didn’t like it and it was only when Bowie joined Queen in the studio to do backing vocals for another track that they collaborated and turned ‘Feel Like’ into ‘Under Pressure’. This would be Bowie’s 3^rd SA chart hit and a 5^th for Queen making them the 76^th act to get to 5 hits. Despite faring well across Europe, making the top 10 in Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, the only other place where I can find that it topped the charts was in The Netherlands. It did make it to the top of the Radio 5 charts. Of course, no discussion about ‘Under Pressure’ would be complete without mentioning Vanilla Ice’s ‘Ice Ice Baby’ which sampled ‘Under Pressure’ and led to lawsuits etc with Queen & David Bowie ultimately getting song writing credits on ‘Ice Ice Baby’. My Chemical Romance and more recently Shawn Mendes have covered the song.

The Pointer Sisters celebrated reaching the 20 weeks in the chart mark (15 with ‘Fire’ and 5 so far with ‘Slow Hand’). The Rolling Stones saw their points total move past the 1,600 mark and they were the 7^th act to get this many. They sat on 1,611 and were now 17 behind Neil Diamond who was in 6^th place.

Youtube playlist:

27 November 1981

TW	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	2	6	Endless Love	–	Diana Ross & Lionel Richie
2	1	10	Urgent	–	Foreigner
3	3	8	Wired for Sound	–	Cliff Richard
4	4	6	Green Door	–	Shakin’ Stevens
5	7	5	Start Me Up	–	Rolling Stones
6	5	11	Queen of Hearts	–	Juice Newton
7	6	8	Hold on Tight	–	Electric Light Orchestra
8	12	3	It’s My Party	–	Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin
9	11	3	Going Back to My Roots	–	Odyssey
10	9	6	Hooked on Classics	–	Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
11	13	4	Everlasting Love	–	Rex Smith & Rachel Sweet
12	New	1	It’s You, It’s You, It’s You	–	Joe Dolan
13	10	4	Slow Hand	–	Pointer Sisters
14	8	8	Rock ‘n’ Roll Dreams Come Through	–	Jim Steinman
15	New	1	Pretend	–	Alvin Stardust
16	New	1	Prince Charming	–	Adam & The Ants
17	15	5	Love Hurts	–	Mattisson Brothers
18	14	7	Oh No No	–	Bernie Paul
19	19	2	Arthur’s Theme (Best That You can Do)	–	Christopher Cross
20	18	3	Dancing on the Floor (Hooked On Love)	–	Third World

Bubbling under (thanks to Kevin Farquhason for the info):

Exile	Heart And Soul (official bubble)
Police	Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
David Scobie	Taking The Easy Way Home
Billy Joel	Say Goodbye To Hollywood
Eddie Rabbitt	Step By Step
Bee Gees	He’s A Liar
Sheena Easton	Just Another Broken Heart

After 6 weeks having Foreigner’s ‘Urgent’ at number 1, we saw a change at the top of the charts with ‘Urgent’ dropping to 2 while Diana Ross & Lionel Richie’s ‘Endless Love’ moved up from 2 to 1. This was a second chart topper for Ross as she had made it to number 1 with ‘Upside Down’, however, it was Richie’s first SA hit as an artist and he became the 29^th act of those who would have 5 of more hits, who would see their first hit top the charts.

The climber of the week was Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin’s ‘It’s My Party’ for a second week running as the song followed up last week’s 5 place climb with a further 4 place jump from 12 to 8. This would be the only star rater this week.

Jim Steinman’s ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Dreams Come Through’ was the faller of the week, dropping 6 from 8 to 14.

Shakin’ Stevens’ time with 2 in the charts came to an end as ‘You Drive Me Crazy’ was the first of 3 songs to depart the chart this week. He had managed 5 weeks with 2 in the charts. ‘You Drive Me Crazy’ saw a run of 13 weeks which was 1 more than his previous hit, ‘This Ole House’, but peaked at 3 where his previous hit had managed to top the charts. ‘Green Door’, his 3^rd hit, was still in the charts.

We also bid farewell to ‘Stop Draggin My Heart Around’, the collaboration between Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. This saw a 12 week run and peaked at 4. It would be Tom Petty & The Heartbreaker’s only SA chart hit, and the only top 20 hit for Stevie Nicks, but we would see her in the lower part of the top 30 once the charts were extended, as well as seeing hits as part of Fleetwood Mac.

Last of the leavers was the song which had been the oldest on last week’s chart, Michael Jackson’s ‘One Day In Your Life’. It managed 16 weeks and peaked at 1 for 1 week. There was plenty more to come from him. Juice Newton’s ‘Queen of Hearts’ took over as the oldest in the charts. It was on 11 weeks.

Joe Dolan became the 24^th act to reach 9 hits as his new one, ‘It’s You, It’s You’ It’s You’ was a new entry this week. There was a bit of a 24 theme going here as it was also the 24^th song by an Irish act to make the top 20 and this put Ireland just 1 behind Australia for hits by acts from a nation and the 2 nations sat 8^th and 7^th respectively on the overall hits list. The song writing credits are down as B Brandmaier which, as far as I can ascertain is an alias for Robert Danova who composed a number of Dolan’s previous hits although Danova produced the track under the name Roberto Danova. The song would scrape a 96 peak on the UK charts for Dolan.

Bernard William Jewry (aka Alvin Stardust) dusted off an old Nat King Cole hit from 1953, ‘Pretend’ to bring us our second new entry. Nat King Cole’s version was released before the Billboard Charts started so didn’t make the charts but in 1957 Tab Smith took a version to number 89 and in 1959 Carl Mann peaked at 57 with his cover version. Stardust, who had already seen 7 UK chart hits, including the number 1 hit, ‘Jealous Mind’, saw his version make it to number 4 in the UK but he would fail to make the US charts with it. Elsewhere he would get to 5 in Austria, 1 in Belgium, 36 in Germany, 3 in The Netherlands, 2 in New Zealand and 4 in Zimbabwe as well as getting to number 2 on the Radio 5 charts.

The final new entry was a 3^rd hit for Adam & The Ants. ‘Prince Charming’ would give them their second UK number 1 where it would spend 4 weeks, 1 weeks less than ‘Stand & Deliver’ their previous UK number 1. ‘Prince Charming’ would also get to number 8 in Belgium and The Netherlands as well as going to 10 in Germany, 14 in Austria and 20 in Switzerland and it would make number 6 on the Radio 5 charts. Apparently an out of court settlement was reached between the song writers of ‘Prince Charming’ (Adam Ant and Marco Pirroni) and Rolf Harris due to the similarities to Harris’ 1965 song ‘War Canoe’.

Jamaica moved ahead of France for weeks on the charts by acts from those nations. Jamaica was on 201 and France on 200 and they sat 10^th and 11^th overall. We also saw Joe Dolan pull 1 ahead of Percy Sledge on the top 20 of the weeks count list for acts. Dolan moved on to 106 and sat 14^th overall while Sledge on 105 fell in to 15^th place.

Cliff Richard saw his points total move past the 1,700 mark, but he was unmoved in 4^th place overall and was still 462 behind Tom Jones who was in 3^rd place with 2,170.

Youtube playlist:

20 November 1981

TW	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	9	Urgent	–	Foreigner
2	3	5	Endless Love	–	Diana Ross & Lionel Richie
3	2	7	Wired for Sound	–	Cliff Richard
4	5	5	Green Door	–	Shakin’ Stevens
5	4	10	Queen of Hearts	–	Juice Newton
6	6	7	Hold on Tight	–	Electric Light Orchestra
7	8	4	Start Me Up	–	Rolling Stones
8	7	7	Rock ‘n’ Roll Dreams Come Through	–	Jim Steinman
9	9	5	Hooked on Classics	–	Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
10	11	3	Slow Hand	–	Pointer Sisters
11	12	2	Going Back to My Roots	–	Odyssey
12	17	2	It’s My Party	–	Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin
13	14	3	Everlasting Love	–	Rex Smith & Rachel Sweet
14	10	6	Oh No No	–	Bernie Paul
15	16	4	Love Hurts	–	Mattisson Brothers
16	15	16	One Day in Your Life	–	Michael Jackson
17	13	12	Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around	–	Stevie Nicks & Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
18	20	2	Dancing on the Floor (Hooked On Love)	–	Third World
19	New	1	Arthur’s Theme (Best That You can Do)	–	Christopher Cross
20	18	13	You Drive Me Crazy	–	Shakin’ Stevens

Bubbling under (thanks to Kevin Farquhason for the info):

Alvin Stardust	Pretend (official bubble)
Police	Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Exile	Heart And Soul
Peter Frampton	Breaking All The Rules
John Denver	Some Days Are Diamonds
Eddie Rabbitt	Step By Step
Adam & The Ants	Prince Charming

‘Urgent’ by Foreigner joined 41 other songs in having accumulated at least 6 weeks at 1 as it saw off the challenge from Cliff Richard’s ‘Wired For Sound’ which dropped from 2 to 3, but ‘Urgent’ had to deal with a new challenge from Diana Ross & Lionel Richie’s ‘Endless Love’ which climbed from 3 to 2.

While a duet was challenging for the top spot, another one was taking the climber of the week award and that was Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin’s ‘It’s My Party’ which moved up 5 from 17 to 12. This was the 20^th time that a duet had taken the climber of the week award. ‘It’s My Party’ was the only star rater this week.

A duet also took the faller of the week award as Stevie Nicks with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ ‘Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around’ fell 4 from 13 to 17. It shared the award with Bernie Paul’s ‘Oh No No’ which dropped from 10 to 14.

Michael Jackson’s ‘One Day In Your Life’ saw a 5^th week as the oldest in the chart as it ticked over to 16 weeks in the charts in total. The song that it had shared the award with last week, David Kramer’s ‘Hak Hom Blokkies’ was the only song to depart the chart this week. It had managed a run of 15 weeks and spent 4 of those at number 1. Using the points system (20 points for a week at1, 19 for a weeks at 2 etc), this had been the second best performance by an Afrikaans song accumulating 203 points. Only Glenys Lynne’s ‘Ramaja’ had outperformed it, getting to 216 points. Only 1 other Afrikaans song would ultimately outperform ‘Hak Hom Blokkies’. Kramer still had a couple more hits to come. The departure of ‘Hak Hom Blokkies’ from the charts left us with just The Mattison Brother’s ‘Love Hurts’ flying the local flag.

The new entry was Christopher Cross’ theme from the movie ‘Arthur’ called ‘Arthur’s Theme (The Best That You Can Do)’. The film starred Dudley Moore, Liza Minnelli and Sir John Gielgud. Cross co-wrote the song with Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager and Peter Allen. It was Bacharach’s 11^th hit as a songwriter, Sager’s 6^th and Allen’s 3^rd. The song won the Oscar for Best Original Song and was the 7^th song that won this award that made our charts. It featured 3 members of Toto on the track and it would top the charts in Norway and the US for 2 and 3 weeks respectively.

After 6 weeks of the gap between the US and UK acts at the top of the list of hits by acts from a nation being below the record to date of 56, it was once again at this record level with the US acts on 622 and the Brits on 566.

Third World’s ‘Dancing On The Floor (Hooked On Love)’ had the honour of clocking up 200 weeks in the charts for acts from Jamaica. This put Jamaica level with France and the 2 nations sat 10^th overall.

Juice Newton saw her weeks total move on to 20 while Shakin’ Stevens was celebrating his 30^th. Diana Ross became the 60^th act to reach 600 points (the 9^th female to manage this).

Youtube playlist:

13 November 1981

TW	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	8	Urgent	–	Foreigner
2	2	6	Wired for Sound	–	Cliff Richard
3	4	4	Endless Love	–	Diana Ross & Lionel Richie
4	3	9	Queen of Hearts	–	Juice Newton
5	7	4	Green Door	–	Shakin’ Stevens
6	5	6	Hold on Tight	–	Electric Light Orchestra
7	6	6	Rock ‘n’ Roll Dreams Come Through	–	Jim Steinman
8	17	3	Start Me Up	–	Rolling Stones
9	11	4	Hooked on Classics	–	Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
10	10	5	Oh No No	–	Bernie Paul
11	18	2	Slow Hand	–	Pointer Sisters
12	New	1	Going Back to My Roots	–	Odyssey
13	8	11	Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around	–	Stevie Nicks & Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
14	19	2	Everlasting Love	–	Rex Smith & Rachel Sweet
15	9	15	One Day in Your Life	–	Michael Jackson
16	13	3	Love Hurts	–	Mattisson Brothers
17	New	1	It’s My Party	–	Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin
18	16	12	You Drive Me Crazy	–	Shakin’ Stevens
19	12	15	Hak Hom Blokkies	–	David Kramer
20	New	1	Dancing on the Floor (Hooked On Love)	–	Third World

Bubbling under (thanks to Kevin Farquhason for the info):

Alvin Stardust	Pretend (official bubble)
Commodores	Lady (You Bring Me Up)
Eddie Rabbitt	Step By Step
Exile	Heart And Soul
Christopher Cross	Arthurs Theme
Aneka	Japanese Boy
Adam & The Ants	Prince Charming

Foreigner’s ‘Urgent’ became the 62^nd song to manage at least 5 weeks at 1 as it held on to the top spot for another week. This brought the total weeks at 1 by American acts up to 310 and it increased their lead over the Brits to a new high of 26. They had been at new highs to this gap for since Michael Jackson’s ‘One Day In Your Life’ increased the gap to 21, 6 weeks previously. This was not the record gap between the top 2 as the Brits had managed to get 34 ahead of the Americans back in the July of 1972.

Cliff Richard’s ‘Wired For Sound’ spent a second week at 2. Cliff had seen 3 songs so far peak at 2, but he did make the top spot with ‘Devil Woman’ so was not without a number 1 hit.

The Rolling Stones took the second highest number of weeks to get to 8 biggest climber awards as ‘Start Me Up’ earned them the award with a 9 place jump from 17 to 8 this week. They were enjoying their 126^th week in the charts. Only Abba, who took 127 weeks, had taken longer to get to 8 biggest climbers.

There were 2 other star raters and they were The Pointer Sisters’ ‘Slow Hand’ which moved up 7 from 18 to 11 and ‘Everlasting Love’ by Rex Smith & Rachel Sweet which moved up 5 from 19 to 14.

David Kramer’s ‘Hak Hom Blokkies’ picked up the faller of the week award as it dropped 7 from 12 to 19. It still shared the oldest on the chart title with Michael Jackson’s ‘One Day In Your Life’ with both songs on 15 weeks in the charts and enjoying their 4^th week as the oldest.

Champaign’s second run in the charts with ‘How ‘bout Us’ lasted 7 weeks and saw a peak of 8 for the song. Added to the 1 week run at 20 gave the song a total weeks count of 8 and it was the 59^th song to have an equal weeks and peak figure. We had now seen 14 songs with a weeks and peak of 8 and this was the second highest as we had seen 18 so far with weeks and peak of 9. ‘How ‘bout Us’ would be Champaign’s only SA chart hit. In addition to getting to 12 in the US with ‘How ‘bout Us’, they would get to 23 with a song called ‘Try Again’.

Also going was Baron Longfellow’s ‘Amour’ which lasted 9 weeks and peaked at 6. This would be the only SA chart hit he would have under this name, but he had also seen 3 hits as Andy Kim. This gave him a total hits count of 4 and total weeks count of 32. At this point he had the 3^rd highest points total for a Canadian act (330) with Bachman-Turner Overdrive on 441 above him and Lucille Starr on 558 leading the way. He would drop into 4^th place by the time the charts ended.

Last of the leavers was Jon English’s ‘Get Your Love Right’ which had managed a run of just 4 weeks and a peak of 14. This would be his only SA chart action.

The first of the new entries was a first SA Chart hit for Odyssey (a band from New York, not to be confused with a local band of the same name), ‘Going Back To My Roots’. They had seen 2 Billboard Hot 100 hits (‘Native New Yorker’ and ‘Weekend Lover’) and 4 UK hits including the number 1 hit, ‘Use It Up And Wear It Out’, before ‘Going Back To My Roots’ came along. The song would fail to chart on the US main charts (it did get to 68 on the R&B charts there) but would make it to number 4 in the UK and number 2 on the Radio 5 charts. It was written by Lamont Dozier (his 4^th hit as a songwriter on our charts) and was originally recorded by him. There is a South African connection with the original version as Hugh Masakela was credited with ‘additional production’ on that version. The song has seen 2 other versions be minor hits in the UK with FPI Project’s version going to 96 in 1999 and Linda Clifford taking a version to 85 in 2002.

Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin revived a song from 1963 for our second new entry and the 1,800^th song to make our charts. ‘It’s My Party’ had been a number 1 hit for Lesley Gore in Australia, New Zealand and the US as well as peaking at 9 in the UK. Stewart & Gaskin’s version would top the UK charts for 4 weeks as well as going to number 1 in Ireland and New Zealand. Dave Stewart should not be confused with David A Stewart who was in the Eurythmics. This Dave Stewart was in a band called Egg and would record a cover of ‘What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted’ with Colin Blunstone (from The Zombies) which went to number 2 on the Radio 5 charts. ‘It’s My Party’ would get to number 4 on those charts. Barbara Gaskin had been in the band Spirogyra.

The final new entry was Third World’s ‘Dancing On The Floor (Hooked On Love)’. This was the 21^st song by a Jamaican act to chart and this moved Jamaica into tied 9^th place with France for hits by acts from a nation. Third World had been around since 1973 and its often changing line-up had included members of Inner Circle (remember the hit ‘Sweat’ with the line ‘Girl I’m Gonna Make You Sweat’), but had only had limited international success, charting 3 times in the UK and peaking at 10 with ‘Now That We’ve Found Love’ which also made it to 47 in the US, at 17 with ‘Cool Meditation’ and at 54 with ‘Talk To Me’. ‘Dancing On The Floor (Hooked On Love)’ would take them back into the top 10 in the UK, peaking at 10 there. It would also give them a number 4 hit in Zimbabwe.

Michael Jackson saw his weeks total move on to 50 and he was the 72^nd act to manage this many.

We now had a record to date 4 duets in the charts (Diana Ross & Lionel Richie, Stevie Nicks & Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Rex Smith & Rachel Sweet and Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin)

Youtube playlist:

6 November 1981

TW	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	7	Urgent	–	Foreigner
2	3	5	Wired for Sound	–	Cliff Richard
3	2	8	Queen of Hearts	–	Juice Newton
4	6	3	Endless Love	–	Diana Ross & Lionel Richie
5	4	5	Hold on Tight	–	Electric Light Orchestra
6	5	5	Rock ‘n’ Roll Dreams Come Through	–	Jim Steinman
7	10	3	Green Door	–	Shakin’ Stevens
8	11	10	Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around	–	Stevie Nicks & Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
9	7	14	One Day in Your Life	–	Michael Jackson
10	12	4	Oh No No	–	Bernie Paul
11	17	3	Hooked on Classics	–	Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
12	8	14	Hak Hom Blokkies	–	David Kramer
13	15	2	Love Hurts	–	Mattisson Brothers
14	16	4	Get Your Love Right	–	Jon English
15	13	9	Amour	–	Baron Longfellow
16	9	11	You Drive Me Crazy	–	Shakin’ Stevens
17	20	2	Start Me Up	–	Rolling Stones
18	New	1	Slow Hand	–	Pointer Sisters
19	New	1	Everlasting Love	–	Rex Smith & Rachel Sweet
20	14	8	How ’bout Us	–	Champaign

Bubbling under (thanks to Kevin Farquhason for the info):

Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin	It’s My Party (official bubble)
Maywood	Rio
Commodores	Lady (You Bring Me Up)
Adam & The Ants	Prince Charming
Odyssey	Going Back To My Roots
Third World	Dancing On The Floor (Hooked On Love)
Don Williams	I Believe In You

‘Urgent’ by Foreigner spend a 4^th week at 1 and it had a new number 2 to content with in the shape of Cliff Richard’s ‘Wired For Sound’ which moved up from 3, swapping places with Juice Newton’s ‘Queen Of Hearts’.

The Royal Philharmonic’s ‘Hooked On Classics’ was the climber of the week as it moved up 6 from 17 to 11. This was the 29^th time an instrumental hit had taken the award. It was the only star rater climb this week.

Shakin’ Stevens was up and down this week. His hit ‘Green Door’ climbed 3 from 10 to 7 while his other hit, ‘You Drive Me Crazy’ took the faller of the week award with a 7 place drop from 9 to 16.

The 2 songs that shared the oldest on the chart title last week were both still with us. ‘Hak Hom Blokkies’ and ‘One Day In Your Life’ were both sitting on 14 weeks and enjoying a 3^rd week as the oldest in the top 20.

While we saw an instrumental as the climber of the week, we were also saying goodbye to one as Vangelis ‘Chariots Of Fire (Titles)’ dropped off the charts after a run of 12 weeks and peaking at 3. This would be his only SA chart hit. It would also be the last we would see of any Greek act on the charts. The Greeks had managed a total of 7 hits (4 by Vicky Leandros, 2 by Demis Roussos and 1 by Vangelis) and spent a total of 91 weeks on the charts.

Also going was Phil Seymour’s ‘I Really Love You’ which lasted 5 weeks in the charts and peaked at 13. This would be his only SA chart hit.

The Pointer Sisters saw their 2^nd SA Chart hit arrive in the top 20 this week as ‘Slow Hand’ entered the charts at 18. This followed up their 1979 hit, ’Fire’. The song would give them a number 2 hit in the US, spending 3 weeks there and kept off the top spot by the Diana Ross/Lionel Richie duet, ‘Endless Love’ which sat at 4 on our charts this week. ‘Slow Hand’ would also do particularly well in Canada, Ireland and on the Radio 5 charts, going to number 2 on those hit parades as well as getting to 5 in Australia and 6 in New Zealand. Song writer John Bettis (who shared credits on the song with Michael Clark) is quoted as saying The Pointer Sisters were the furthest from their minds when they wrote the song, but it was Richard Perry, who produced the track, who thought it would be a hit for the Pointer Sisters, and the rest, as they say, is history.

The other new entry was the 48^th song to chart in more than 1 version. We had previously seen ‘Everlasting Love’ as a hit for Love Affair back in 1968 and this week the duet of Rex Smith & Rachel Sweet took a version in to the top 20. Buzz Carson, who wrote the song took over as the song writer having the biggest gap between chart hits. It had been 709 weeks since the song was last in the charts. The previous biggest gap between hits for a song writer was 707 weeks which Joe Melson and Roy Orbison had seen between Orbison’s hit ‘Lana’ and Don McLean’s cover of Orbison’s hit, ‘Crying’. Smith and Sweet’s version would get to number 32 in the US and 35 in the UK, but would fare better in Denmark and Switzerland where it would get to 4 and 9 respectively.

After a run of 13 weeks with 10 or more in the charts, the solo male acts found their popularity waning as their total of the top 20 dropped to 9.

Three acts reached milestones in terms of weeks with Foreigner getting to 20, ELO reaching 50 and Cliff Richard making it to 160. So far 264 acts had reached 20, of which 71 had gone on to get to 50 while just 4 had managed 160. Tom Jones on 185, The Bee Gees on 203 and Abba on 224 were the only ones above Cliff on the overall weeks count list. In terms of points, Cliff had been 5^th overall last week, but now overtook The Hollies to move into 4^th place with 1,653 points to his name. Not surprisingly the top 3 were the same as the top 3 for weeks.

The Rolling Stones pulled 1 ahead of Barbara Ray on the total weeks count list with the former on 125 holding on to 8^th place while the latter on 124 dropped to 9^th but was still the highest placed local act.

Youtube playlist:

30 October 1981

TW	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	6	Urgent	–	Foreigner
2	2	7	Queen of Hearts	–	Juice Newton
3	3	4	Wired for Sound	–	Cliff Richard
4	7	4	Hold on Tight	–	Electric Light Orchestra
5	6	4	Rock ‘n’ Roll Dreams Come Through	–	Jim Steinman
6	12	2	Endless Love	–	Diana Ross & Lionel Richie
7	4	13	One Day in Your Life	–	Michael Jackson
8	5	13	Hak Hom Blokkies	–	David Kramer
9	8	10	You Drive Me Crazy	–	Shakin’ Stevens
10	15	2	Green Door	–	Shakin’ Stevens
11	9	9	Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around	–	Stevie Nicks & Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
12	16	3	Oh No No	–	Bernie Paul
13	10	8	Amour	–	Baron Longfellow
14	11	7	How ’bout Us	–	Champaign
15	New	1	Love Hurts	–	Mattisson Brothers
16	17	3	Get Your Love Right	–	Jon English
17	18	2	Hooked on Classics	–	Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
18	13	5	I Really Love You	–	Phil Seymour
19	14	12	Chariots of Fire (Titles)	–	Vangelis
20	New	1	Start Me Up	–	Rolling Stones

Bubbling under (thanks to Kevin Farquhason for the info):

Pointer Sisters	Slow Hand (official bubble)
Aneka	Japanese Boy
Adam & The Ants	Prince Charming
Christopher Cross	Arthurs Theme
Rex Smith & Rachel Sweet	Everlasting Love
Odyssey	Going Back To My Roots
David Scobie	Taking The Easy Way Home

The top 3 remained unchanged this week with Foreigner’s ‘Urgent’ enjoying a 3^rd week at 1, Juice Newton’s ‘Queen Of Heart’ stuck at 2 and Cliff Richard’s ‘Wired For Sound’ at 3. Cliff picked up 18 points for this and moved into 5^th place overall for points, moving past Neil Diamond. Cliff was on 1,634 while Neil was on 1,628.

The duet between Diana Ross and Lionel Richie, ‘Endless Love’, took the climber of the week award as it moved up 6 from 12 to 6. This was Ross’ 5^th time with the award and she was the 48^th act overall and the 7^th woman to reach this total. There were 2 other star raters and they were Shakin’ Stevens’ Green Door’ which moved up 5 from 15 to 10 and Bernie Paul’s ‘Oh No No’ which climbed 4 from 16 to 12.

The faller of the week award was shared between Phil Seymour’s ‘I Really Love You’ and Vangelis’ ‘Chariots Of Fire (Titles)’ which fell 5 places to land at 18 and 19 respectively.

‘Hak Hom Blokkies’ and ‘One Day In Your Life’ continued as the oldest in the charts with the 2 songs on 13 weeks and enjoying their 2^nd week as the oldest.

There were 2 songs that left the charts this week, the first of these being Dolly Parton & Porter Wagoner’s ‘If You Go I’ll Follow You’ which had managed a run of 6 weeks and peaked at 11. This ended Porter Wagoner’s SA Chart career. He had seen 3 hits (all duets with Dolly Parton), spent a total of 25 weeks in the charts and his best peak was the number 4 position which ‘Say Forever You’ll Be Mine’ made. Dolly would have a few more hits.

Also going was Elaine Paige’s ‘Memory’ which lasted just 4 weeks and peaked at 13. We had seen 4 hits from Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s musicals so far. Two had topped the charts, ‘Don’t Cry For Me Argentina’ and ‘Take That Look Off Your Face’. ‘Memory’ was the next best performer with the 4^th being Richard Loring’s version of ‘One More Angel In Heaven’ from ‘Joseph & The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat’ which spent 2 weeks at 20. Elaine would grace our charts again.

The first new entry doubled the local song content on the charts as The Mattison Brothers’ ‘Love Hurts’ joined ‘Hak Hom Blokkies’ in the top 20. The Mattison Brothers featured 3 guys with the surname Mattison (Paul, Stuart and Dave) along with Dennis Fajans, Denver Brodway, Godfrey Minnie and Mike Gray. Paul Mattison had sung on many an advert jingle including ads for Lion Larger and Stoney Ginger Beer. He would also feature as a Radio 5 DJ working alongside David Blood (if memory serves me correctly). ‘Love Hurts’ was not the same song as the one that had been hits on our charts for Nazareth and Jim Capaldi. This one was written by a guy called Tony Todd (the other being written by Boudleaux Bryant). It was produced by Bones Brettel (from Hotline) along with Greg Cutler and Mike Fuller.

The Rolling Stones became the 8^th act to clock up 13 or more hits in the charts as they followed up the 1980 success of ‘Emotional Rescue’ with ‘Start Me Up’. The song had started life in 1978 while The Stones were recording material for their ‘Some Girls’ album. Back then it went under the title ‘Never Stop’ and had a reggae beat but had been shelved at the time. It was eventually dusted off, given a title change and a rock beat. It also had cowbells added and the cowbell playing is credited to Santana’s Michael Carabello. The song would top the charts in Australia (1 week) and Zimbabwe as well as going top 10 in Belgium (#7), Canada (#2), The Netherlands (#5), Norway (#8), Switzerland (#5), the UK (#7) and the US (#2), kept off the US number 1 spot for 1 week by Christopher Cross’ ‘Arthur’s Theme’ and then for 2 weeks by Hall & Oates’ ‘Private Eyes’. This new entry brought the Rolling Stones’ weeks count up to 124 which moved them up into tied 8^th place on the overall weeks count list, sitting next to our very own Barbara Ray there.

Diana Ross became the 51^st act to reach 60 weeks in the charts. She was the 6^th woman to manage this.

We also saw the 36^th time that an act was sitting in adjacent positions in the charts as Shakin’ Stevens’ ‘You Drive Me Crazy’ was at 9 and ‘Green Door’ was at 10.

Youtube playlist: