1984 THE FACTS AND FIGURES

1984 saw the start of the UK miners’ strike and that same year the Provisional IRA tried to assassinate Margaret Thatcher by planting a bomb at the Conservative Party’s conference in Brighton. The aids virus was discovered, and the computer game Tetris first appeared. The summer Olympics were held in Los Angeles where local lass Zola Budd (representing Britain) collided with Mary Decker during the 3000m and neither finished the race (And if you want to be a trivia expert, Romania’s Maricica Puica went on to win the race). PW Botha was inaugurated as first State President of SA and news came through of the famine in Ethiopia which led to the Band Aid single and Live Aid concert later that year. Also, the Vatican finally officially forgave Galileo for saying that the earth revolved around the sun (368 years after the event). On the film front a certain Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared in a movie called ‘The Terminator’. The year also saw the births of Calvin Harris, AB de Villiers, Trevor Noah, Olly Murs, Prince Harry, Katie Melua, Dizzee Rascal, Avril Lavigne, Katy Perry and Trey Songz while we said goodbye to Jackie Wilson, Marvin Gaye, Count Basie, Richard Burton, and Truman Capote who all died. The police raided the Stander Gang hideout in Houghton killing gang member Patrick McCall and on the opposite end of the spectrum we sam Desmond Tutu being awarded the Nobel Peace prize.

Meanwhile on the music front, we saw 125 songs spend time in charts, of which 97 spent time in the top 20. The 125 songs was less than the 134 we had seen in 1983 (the year the top 30 was introduced) and the 97 top 20 hits was the lowest we had seen since 1965, the year the charts start and that was only half a year of charts. There were 85 different acts whose names appeared on the 97 top 20 hits and 108 brought us the 125 top 30 hits. Both figures were the lowest we had seen except for the 55 acts which brought us the hits in the half year of 1965. The 153 hits we saw in 1969 was still the best in a year. Looking only at the top 20, we saw an average hits per act figure of 1.141 which was the second lowest to date, beaten only by the 1.118 we saw in 1976. The table below sets out the figures for these stats by years:

Year	No Of Hits (Top 20)	No Of Hits (Top 30)	No Of acts (Top 20)	No Of acts (Top 30)	Hits/Act (Top 20)	Rank
1965	79		55		1.436	3
1966	136		97		1.402	4
1967	146		98		1.490	1
1968	142		97		1.464	2
1969	153		112		1.366	5
1970	141		114		1.237	9
1971	135		114		1.184	13
1972	117		97		1.206	11
1973	103		87		1.184	14
1974	115		100		1.150	17
1975	128		111		1.153	16
1976	123		110		1.118	19
1977	119		94		1.266	6
1978	114		91		1.253	7
1979	113		91		1.242	8
1980	119		97		1.227	10
1981	126		108		1.167	15
1982	109		98		1.112	20
1983	102	134	86	112	1.186	12
1984	97	125	85	108	1.141	18

Only 10 of the 125 top 30 hits were by local acts and this was the tied lowest to date we had seen equalling 1979 and 1983. There were 9 acts who brought us these 10 hits.

Based on a points system of 30 points for a number 1 position, 29 for number 2 etc down to 1 for position 30, the following are the top 40 chart performers for the year (Note: this does not necessarily reflect sales):

Pos	Song	Artist	Points
1	Clap-Clap Sound	Klaxons	662
2	I Want to Break Free	Queen	649
3	Red Red Wine	UB40	630
4	To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before	Julio Iglesias	600
5	Islands in the Stream	Kenny Rogers	590
6	Self Control	Laura Branigan	573
7	Karma Chameleon	Culture Club	523
8	Manuel Goodbye	Audrey Landers	519
9	Footloose	Kenny Loggins	454
10	99 Red Balloons	Nena	436
11	Happy Station	Fun Fun	433
12	Girls Just Want to Have Fun	Cyndi Lauper	429
13	All Night Long (All Night)	Lionel Richie	422
14	Jump	Van Halen	418
=15	Major Tom	Peter Schilling	406
=15	Break My Stride	Matthew Wilder	406
17	What’s Love Got to do with It	Tina Turner	398
18	Dolce Vita	Ryan Paris	388
19	Big in Japan	Alphaville	382
20	Ghostbusters	Ray Parker Jr.	360
21	Sunshine Reggae	Laid Back	353
22	Dancing in the Dark	Bruce Springsteen	346
23	Reggae Night	Jimmy Cliff	344
24	Say Say Say	Paul McCartney	333
25	Somebody’s Watching Me	Rockwell	329
=24	I Just Called to Say I Love You	Stevie Wonder	326
=24	Love of the Common People	Paul Young	326
25	Colour My Love	Fun Fun	321
29	Radio Ga Ga	Queen	311
30	Hello	Lionel Richie	307
31	Catch Me (I’m Falling in Love)	Marsha Raven	306
32	Tonight, I Celebrate My Love	Peabo Bryson	301
33	Hold Me Now	Thompson Twins	290
34	Susanna	Art Company	277
35	Careless Whisper	George Michael	272
=36	When Doves Cry	Prince	269
-36	Boys do Fall in Love	Robin Gibb	269
=38	Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go	Wham!	265
=38	Where is My Man?	Eartha Kitt	265
40	Earthquake	Flirtations	260

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

Top 40 Magazine 1984 List

This was the first time we had seen a Belgian act top this list, but then ‘Clap Clap Sound’ was only the second song by a Belgian act to make the charts. They were only the 3^rd non-big 3 nation to see a top hit for the year with Germany having provided 2 and Canada 1. US acts still led the way with 7 annual top hits, locals acts had managed 5 and the UK acts 4. It should also be noted that if we only looked at the top 20, then Queen’s ‘I Want To Break Free’ would have been the top song on the list. It managed 382 top 20 points which was the 3^rd highest we had seen for the top song for the year beaten by Dr Hook’s ‘Baby Makes Her Blue Jeans Talk’ which managed 387 top 20 points and Alan Garrity’s ‘I Need Someone’ which accumulated 417 points. ‘I Want To Break Free’ sat 8^th overall on the top 20 points list with ‘Clap Clap Sound’ 1 place lower with 381 points.

The cumulative points to date using a top 20 basis gave the following top 10:

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	Words	F.R. David	392
6	Sunday, Monday, Tuesday	Jessica Jones	391
7	Baby Makes Her Blue Jeans Talk	Dr Hook	387
8	I Want To Break Free	Queen	384
9	Clap Clap Sound	Klaxons	381
10	We Believe in Tomorrow	Freddy Breck	376

‘I Want To Break Free’ and ‘Clap Clap Sound’ were new entries into this list meaning that Don Gibson’s ‘Woman (Beautiful Woman)’ which was at 9 at the end of last year and Dr Hook’s ‘Sylvia’s Mother’ and Daniel Boone’s ‘Beautiful Sunday’ which were tied 10^th, dropped off the list.

The top songs pointswise on the local front for 1984 using a top 30 basis were as follows:

Pos	Song	Artist	Points
1	Taximan	éVoid	214
2	Trans-Karoo	Herman Holtzhausen	158
3	Stoksielalleen	David Kramer	94
4	Shadows	éVoid	75
5	Here We Are	Face to Face	64
6	Somebody to Love	Café Society	43
7	We will Make Love	Vangie Coker	35
8	Mysteries and Jealousies	Helicopters	34
9	Working Girls	Working Girls	17
10	Elvis-Astaire	Soft Shoes	2

Only 4 of the 10 songs listed above made it into the top 20 and ‘Taximan’ had the highest points total for the top 20 performance, however, the 70 points it managed was by far the lowest we had seen in a calendar year being 105 points less than Des Lindberg’s ‘Die Gezoem Van Die Bye’, the previous lowest, which managed 175 points in 1966.

Cumulatively from the start of the charts in 1965, the top 10 local songs on a top 20 basis 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 list had not changed since the end of 1978.

NUMBER OF HITS

After 1983’s bucking of the trend with Michael Jackson seeing 4 hits spend time in the charts in the year, we returned to seeing 3 as the maximum any act managed. This figure had been 3 from 1978 to 1982 and then again in 1984. Those who managed 3 hits were Wham!, Elton John and Cyndi Lauper, although it should be noted that 1 of Lauper’s hits did not make the top 20. The most hits in a year that we had ever seen so far was 5 and that happened in 1968, 1969, 1971 and 1972.

For an 8th year running the best any local act managed was to see 2 hits spend time in the charts and it was éVoid who managed this with ‘Shadows’ straddling 1983/84 and ‘Taximan’ entering the charts in the last week of January ‘84.

Cliff Richard still led the way overall for number of hits. He was still on 24 (where he sat at the end of 1983). The only change in those who had seen 10 or more hits was that Elton John added 2 more to his tally and went from 10 to 12 hits. This moved him up to tied 10^th in the list which now looked like this:

Pos	Last Year	Artist	No Of Hits
1	(1)	Cliff Richard	24
=2	(2)	Abba	18
=2	(2)	Tom Jones	18
4	(4)	Bee Gees	17
5	(5)	Hollies	15
=6	(6)	Elvis Presley	14
=6	(6)	Neil Diamond	14
=6	(6)	Billy Forrest	14
9	(9)	Rolling Stones	13
=10	(10)	Percy Sledge	12
=10	(10)	Olivia Newton-John	12
=10	(10)	Leo Sayer	12
=10	(10)	Barbara Ray	12
=10	(17)	Elton John	12
=15	(14)	Petula Clark	11
=15	(14)	Herman’s Hermits	11
=15	(14)	Creedence Clearwater Revival	11
=18	(17)	Gene Rockwell	10
=18	(17)	Troggs	10
=18	(17)	Jody Wayne	10

Billy Forrest was still the leader on the local front with 14 hits, followed by Barbara Ray on 12 and Jody Wayne and Gene Rockwell on 10.

WEEKS ON THE CHARTS

Queen spent more weeks in the charts than any other act in 1984 with 49 weeks to their name. This was the 4^th best total for the top act in a year with Middle Of The Road’s 59 in 1972, The Bee Gees’ 53 in 1978 and Michael Jackson’s 52 in 1983 being better. It should be noted that both Michael Jackson in 1983 and now Queen in 1984 had the advantage of the extended charts. Queen managed 40 top 20 weeks which was the tied 9^th highest we had seen for the top act in a year. Fun Fun and Julio Iglesias were tied second for top 30 weeks in 1984, both acts managing 43 and they were followed by Cyndi Lauper who managed 37.

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

Pos	Last Year	Artist	No Of Weeks
1	(1)	Abba	237
2	(2)	Bee Gees	203
3	(3)	Tom Jones	185
4	(4)	Cliff Richard	172
5	(5)	Neil Diamond	141
6	(13)	Elton John	139
7	(6)	Hollies	137
=8	(7)	Rolling Stones	136
=8	(7)	Barbara Ray	136
10	(9)	Elvis Presley	131
11	(10)	Boney M	130
12	(16)	Olivia Newton-John	127
13	(19)	Michael Jackson	126
=14	(11)	Joe Dolan	123
=14	(N)	Queen	123
-16	(12)	Creedence Clearwater Revival	118
=17	(14)	Troggs	115
=17	(14)	Sweet	115
19	(16)	Billy Forrest	113
20	(18)	Leo Sayer	108

And the local list was as follows:

Pos	Last Year	Artist	No Of Weeks
1	(1)	Barbara Ray	136
2	(2)	Billy Forrest	113
3	(3)	Alan Garrity	98
4	(4)	Staccatos	83
5	(5)	Four Jacks & A Jill	78
=6	(6)	Richard Jon Smith	76
=6	(6)	Bobby Angel	76
8	(8)	Gene Rockwell	75
9	(9)	Dave Mills	73
10	(10)	Jody Wayne	72
11	(11)	John Edmond	70
12	(12)	Lionel Petersen	68
13	(13)	Tommy Dell	67
14	(14)	Maria	55
15	(15)	Lauren Copley	54
16	(16)	Dealians	50
=17	(17)	Jessica Jones	48
=17	(17)	Peanutbutter Conspiracy	48
19	(19)	Bats	45
=20	(20)	Peter Lotis	44
=20	(20)	Peter Vee	44

This list was unchanged from the end of 1983.

NO 1’s

For the 10^th year and the 3^rd year in succession, no one act saw more than 1 hit spend time at number 1. Chris Andrews’ 3 number 1’s in 1970 was still the best we had seen. UB40’s ‘Red Red Wine’ spent more weeks at 1 than any other song in 1984 as it topped the charts for 12 weeks. This was also the tied second highest weeks at 1 for any song, equalling Charisma’s ‘Mammy Blue’ and being 1 behind Johnny Nash’s ‘I Can See Clearly Now’. The songs that spent time at 1 during 1984 were as follows:

Pos	Song	Act	Weeks
1	Red Red Wine	UB40	12
=2	Clap-Clap Sound	Klaxons	7
=2	I Want to Break Free	Queen	7
4	I Just Called to Say I Love You	Stevie Wonder	6
5	Manuel Goodbye	Audrey Landers	5
=6	All Night Long (All Night)	Lionel Richie	4
=6	Self Control	Laura Branigan	4
=8	Karma Chameleon	Culture Club	2
=8	Footloose	Kenny Loggins	2
=10	The Safety Dance	Men Without Hats	1
=10	Happy Station	Fun Fun	1
=10	Ghostbusters	Ray Parker Jr.	1

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
=2	Red Red Wine	UB40	12
4	Rivers Of Babylon	Boney M	11
=5	Beautiful Sunday	Daniel Boone	10
=5	The Safety Dance	Men Without Hats	10
=7	Michael Row The Boat Ashore	Richard Jon Smith	9
=7	Paradise Road	Joy	9
=7	Shaddap You Face	Joe Dolce Music Theatre	9
=10	Mississippi	Pussycat	8
=10	Substitute	Clout	8
=10	Kiss You All Over	Exile	8
=10	Why Me	Kris Kristofferson	8
=10	Stayin’ Alive	Bee Gees	8
=10	Baker Street	Gerry Rafferty	8
=10	Co-Co	The Sweet	8
=10	Woman In Love	Barbra Streisand	8
=10	I Don’t Wanna Dance	Eddy Grant	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
=4	Joe Dolan	18
6	Boney M	16
=7	Johnny Nash	13
=7	Chris Andrews	13
=7	Dr Hook	13
=10	Charisma	12
=10	UB40	12
=12	Elvis Presley	10
=11	Troggs	10
=11	Tremeloes	10
=11	Dawn	10
=11	Daniel Boone	10
=11	Pussycat	10
=11	Men Without Hats	10

UB40 and Men Without Hats were the new entrants on to this list, otherwise the rest were unchanged.

LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE GIRLS

19 songs by solo female artists spent time in the top 30 during 1984 and of those 15 managed to get into the top 20. There were a further 3 songs that were by a duet featuring a female artist. The top 20 count was the 12^th highest (or 8^th lowest if you’re a glass half full kind of person) total we had seen in a year with 1980’s 25 being the record to date. It was also the 7^th year in total where hits by women had exceeded those by local acts. There were 16 women who brought us the 19 top 30 hits (19 if you include the duets). After 2 years where the best any woman had managed was 2 hits in a year, Cyndi Lauper saw 3 hits spend time in the charts during 1984 (‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’, ‘Time After Time’ and ‘She Bop’). However, ‘Time After Time’ only made the top 30 and did not get into the top 20. Irene Cara was the only other women to have more than 1 hit as she manged 2 (‘Why Me?’ and ‘Breakdance’). Petula Clark’s 4 in 1967 was still the best any woman had managed. There was only 1 local woman who spent time in the charts and that was Vangie Coker.

The top hits by woman this year (based on a top 30) were:

Pos	Song	Artist	Points
1	Self Control	Laura Branigan	573
2	Manuel Goodbye	Audrey Landers	519
3	99 Red Balloons	Nena	436
4	Girls Just Want to Have Fun	Cyndi Lauper	429
5	What’s Love Got to do with It	Tina Turner	398

And cumulatively (based on a top 20) 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	Self Control	Laura Branigan	323
4	Come What May (aka Aprés Toi)	Vicky Leandros	321
5	Manuel Goodbye	Audrey Landers	314

‘Self Control’ and ‘Manuel Goodbye’ were both new entries onto this top 5 with Maria’s ‘Clap Your Hands And Stamp You Feet’, Sandy Posey’s ‘Single Girl’ and Bonnie Tyler’s ‘Total Eclipse Of The Heart’, which all shared 5^th place at the end of 1983, dropping off the top 5.

There was no change at the top of the overall hits count list for women with Barbara Ray and Olivia Newton-John sharing the top spot with 12 hits each. Diana Ross added 1 to her total and her 9 put her in outright 4^th place while Dolly Parton dropped into 5^th place with 8. Parton had spent a lot of time in the charts in 1984 with ‘Islands In The Stream’ but this had been a new entry in 1983. Bonnie Tyler and Gloria Gaynor joined the bottom of this list with their 5 hits putting them level with Sandie Shaw and Lucille Starr in tied 10^th place. The top female acts for number of hits looked like this:

Pos	Act	No Of Hits
=1	Barbara Ray	12
=1	Olivia Newton-John	12
3	Petula Clark	11
4	Diana Ross	9
5	Dolly Parton	8
6	Nancy Sinatra	7
=7	Virginia Lee	6
=7	Suzi Quatro	6
=7	Donna Summer	6
=10	Sandie Shaw	5
=10	Lucille Starr	5
=10	Gloria Gaynor	5
=10	Bonnie Tyler	5

Cyndi Lauper accumulated the most weeks for a woman in 1984 as she clocked up 37. Dolly Parton was second with 33 and Irene Cara with 30 was 3^rd. However, in terms of just the top 20 it was Dolly Parton who came out tops with 29 weeks followed by Cyndi Lauper on 27 then Irene Cara and Laura Branigan tied 3^rd with 21. Dolly’s 29 top 20 weeks was the tied 5^th best a woman had managed in a calendar year.

Barbara Ray remained at the top of the weeks list for women unchanged on 136. Olivia Newton-John was unmoved in second place but narrowed the gap to just 9 as her total moved up from 113 at the end of 1983 to 127 at the end of 1984. Diana Ross in 3^rd place was also unmoved, but added 13 to her tally. Dolly Parton and Bonnie Tyler both entered the top 5 while Petula Clark and Suzi Quatro dropped out. The new top 5 for cumulative weeks for women now looked like this:

Pos	Act	Weeks
1	Barbara Ray	136
2	Olivia Newton-John	127
3	Diana Ross	93
4	Dolly Parton	88
5	Bonnie Tyler	75

Two songs by women topped the charts during 1984 and they were Audrey Landers’ ‘Manuel Goodbye’ which spent 5 weeks at 1 and Laura Branigan’s ‘Self Control’ which managed 4 weeks.

WE ARE THE WORLD

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	Clap-Clap Sound	Klaxons	662	Belgium
2	To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before	Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson	600	US/Spain
3	99 Red Balloons	Nena	436	Germany
4	Happy Station	Fun Fun	433	Italy
5	Major Tom	Peter Schilling	406	Germany

With ‘Clap Clap Sound’ being the overall top hit, it was obviously also the top hit for the rest of the world nations and it was the first time a Belgian act had taken this top spot. The Canadians still led the way having topped this list 4 times.

There was a record to date 33 hits by acts from the non-big 3 nations and this beat the previous record of 30 which we had seen in 1977. There were acts from 15 different nations that brought us these 33 hits and this was the tied second highest total we had seen, equalling the 1980 total and 1 less than the record so far of 16 which we saw in 1977. This includes Spain although both Spanish hits were by Julio Iglesias and both of them were duets (with Willie Nelson and Diana Ross respectively). The UK had more hits than any other nation with 55 being by UK acts and a further 1 was by a UK act (Paul McCartney) duetting with an American (Michael Jackson). US acts managed 36 hits with a further 3 being one half of a duet (Michael Jackson, Willie Nelson and Diana Ross). There were 10 local hits as mentioned above and Germany was the top of the Rest of the World nations with 5. Italy managed 4, Australia 3, Guyana 2 and then 1 each from Canada, Jamaica, Denmark, Belgium, The Netherlands and Ireland. And as mentioned above, there were 2 from Spain, both as half of a duet. It was the 4^th time Germany had been the top non-big 3 nation and they joined Australia and The Netherlands for topping this list 4 times. These 3 nations were tied second behind Canada who had topped the list 6 times.

The Americans led the way overall as they had brought us 709 hits. The Brits were second with 697 and they had closed the gap from 28 at the beginning of the year to 12 at the end of the year. There had been 401 hits by local acts. Of the rest of the world nations, Canada led the way with 38 closely followed by The Netherlands on 37 and Germany on 36. There had been 27 different nations involved in bringing us our hits so far with Denmark represented by Laid Back being the latest nation to be added to the list.

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	Words	F.R. David	392	France
3	Clap Clap Sound	Klaxons	381	Belgium
4	We Believe in Tomorrow	Freddy Breck	376	Germany
5	The Safety Dance	Men Without Hats	362	Canada

There were 2 new entries on this list and they were ‘Clap Clap Sound’ and ‘The Safety Dance’. They knocked Boney M’s ‘Rivers Of Babylon’ and ‘We Kill The World (Don’t Kill The World)’ out of the top 5.

WHAT DIDN’T CHART

1983 saw the record low of US/UK chart toppers that didn’t make our top 30 and that was 4, of which 1 subsequently made the charts. 1984 saw this total jump up to 12 of which 3 would subsequently make the charts. The 12 was the 5^th lowest total we had seen while the net 9 was the tied 3^rd lowest.

The UK/US number 1’s of 1984 that did make our charts in the year were as follows:

 

Song	Artist
Do They Know It’s Christmas?	Band Aid	*
I Feel For You	Chaka Khan
I Should Have Known Better	Jim Diamond	*
Let’s Go Crazy	Prince
Let’s Hear It For The Boy	Deniece Williams
Like A Virgin	Madonna	*
Only You	Flying Pickets
Out Of Touch	Daryl Hall & John Oates
Pipes Of Peace	Paul McCartney
Relax	Frankie Goes To Hollywood
The Power Of Love	Frankie Goes To Hollywood
The Reflex	Duran Duran

* Would chart in a later year

I WRITE THE SONGS

It took 201 song writers to bring us our charts in 1984, the 4^th highest total we had seen so far. The 223 we saw in 1983 was the record to date for this figure. The average number of hits per song writer was 2.072 which was only the second time this figure had been over 2 but fell short of the record of 2.186 which again was set in 1983. George Michael took top honours for number of hits as a song writer having penned Wham!’s 3 hits (‘Club Tropicana’, ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go Go’ ‘Freedom’) and his solo hit, ‘Careless Whisper’. Steve Jolley, Tony Swain, Bernie Taupin, Elton John, Giorgio Moroder and Ian Anthony Stephens all managed to see 3 of their compositions spend time in the charts. In terms of weeks it was Ian Anthony Stephens who saw his compositions spend the most time in the charts. He accumulated 19 weeks with Marsha Raven’s ‘Catch Me (I’m Falling In Love)’, 17 weeks with The Flirtations’ ‘Earthquake’ and 15 weeks with Hazell Dean’s ‘Searchin’, giving him a total of 51 weeks. Robin and Maurice Gibb were second with 50, with 33 coming from ‘Islands In The Stream’ and 17 from Robin’s solo hit, ‘Boys Do Fall In Love’ which Barry (who helped write ‘Islands In The Stream’) did not have a writing hand in.

There was no change at the top of the overall hits by songwriters list with Terry Dempsey leading the way on 28. He was followed by Mike Chapman on 27 and Nicky Chinn and Barry Gibb on 26. Chapman still led the way for weeks by a songwriter but he had increased his total from 352 to 360 as Agnetha Faltskog’s ‘Wrap Your Arms Around Me’ continued its run, which started in 1983, into 1984. Nicky Chinn was still in second place on 342 despite not adding to his total. Barry Gibb was unmoved in 3^rd place despite adding 33 to his total from ‘Islands In The Stream’ (which had also started its run in 1983). He was on 335.

As with the acts, there was no songwriter who manged more than 1 number 1 which meant that Neil Diamond, who composed UB40’s ‘Red Red Wine’, took top honours for weeks at 1 for a songwriter with the song spending 12 weeks at the top of the charts.

Abba’s Benny and Bjorn had still seen the most compositions top the chart overall with 8 number 1’s to their names. The Gibbs brothers (Barry, Robin and Maurice) were next with 7 and Neil Diamond and Benny and Bjorn’s song writing partner Stig Anderson were behind them on 6, Diamond being the only one who added to his total this year.

CONSECUTIVE YEARS

Two acts had featured in our charts every year since 1979, the longest run for any of the acts charting in 1984. These 2 were Michael Jackson and Queen. Diana Ross as seen chart action every year since 1980 (a run of 5 years) while David Bowie, Eddy Grant, Kool & The Gang and Lionel Richie had all charted in every year since 1981. Queen missed out on 1978. Had they managed to chart then, their run would have gone back to 1976, but even if they had managed to complete an 8 year run, they would still have been behind the record 10 years which Abba managed from 1973 to 1982. Of the local acts that charted this year, only éVoid and The Soft Shoes saw chart action in 1983 and both of them saw hits straddle 1983/84 year end. The Staccatos 6 year run from 1965 to 1969 was the best a local act would ever manage.

LIEDJIEBOERE

Only 2 Afrikaans songs made the charts this year and they were Herman Holtzhausen’s ‘Trans-Karoo’ and David Kramer’s ‘Stoksielalleen’ with the former performing better, getting 158 top 30 points while the latter managed 94. The 5 Afrikaans hits we saw in 1968 was the all time record. Sadly, there would be no further Afrikaans songs making our charts. In total we had seen 40 Afrikaans songs chart. Of these 34 had been pure Afrikaans hits, 4 had been a mix of English and Afrikaans and we had seen 2 instrumentals with Afrikaans titles chart. Only 1 of these did not make the top 20 and that was Cora Marie’s ‘Roos Van My Hart’.

As there were no more Afrikaans hits to come, here is the list of all the Afrikaans songs that made our charts, listed in order of top 20 points (and excluding ‘Roos Van My Hart’):

Pos	Song	Artist	Points
1	Ramaja	Glenys Lynne	216
2	Vyfster	Lloyd Ross	205
3	Hak Hom Blokkies	David Kramer	203
4	Daar’s Niks Soos Ware Liefde	Groep Twee	198
5	Die Gezoem van die Bye	Des Lindberg	175
6	Die Ou Kraalliedjie	Groep Twee	161
7	Kinders van die Wind	Laurika Rauch	150
8	Vicki	Lance James	148
9	Sewe Sakke Sout	Anneli van Rooyen	143
10	Haai Casanova	Glenys Lynne	128
11	Kruidjie-Roer-My-Nie	Anton Goosen	116
=12	Die Royal Hotel	David Kramer	113
=12	Sonder Jou	Ian & Dix	113
14	Jou Hart is Weer Myne	Heintje	108
15	Baas Jack	Al Debbo	104
16	Ek Verlang Na Jou	Sonja Herholdt	95
17	Groen en Goud	Bats	74
18	Sonbrilletjies	Al Debbo	69
19	My Klein Witte Duifie	Tamaletjie	65
20	Oliekolonie	Boet van Wyk Orkes	57
21	Trans-Karoo	Herman Holtzhausen	47
=22	Totsiens Aufwiedersehen	Vicky du Preez	44
=22	Die Tantes van Nantes	Al Debbo & Nico Carstens	44
24	Gee vir My ‘n Bietjie “Country”	Cora Marie	42
25	Heidi	Herbie & Spence	40
26	Groen Koringlande	Ben E Madison	39
27	Dankie	Lance James	32
28	Weltevrede Stasie	Bats	27
29	Ek is Verlief op Jou	André	23
=30	Net Soos Ek die Telefoon Neersit	Caroline du Preez	14
=30	Gee Haar ‘n Roos	Cora Marie	14
32	Was Ek Maar ‘n Digter	Kupido	13
33	Stoksielalleen	David Kramer	6
=34	My Hart Het ‘n Kleine Venster	Glenys Lynne	5
=34	Hoeka Toeka	Carike Keuzenkamp	5
=36	Liefde is My Nooi se Naam	Billy Forrest	4
=36	Maar in Amerika	Roy Memphis	4
=38	Ek Verlang Nog Altyd	Mynie & Jan	1
=38	Dink Jy Darem Nog Aan My	Groep Twee	1

And the overall stats for Afrikaans hits was as follows:

Year	No Of Hits	Weeks (Top 20)	Weeks (Top 30)
1965	0	0
1966	1	13
1967	2	22
1968	5	40
1969	0	0
1970	2	13
1971	2	32
1972	3	6
1973	1	1
1974	3	19
1975	4	32
1976	2	27
1977	1	7
1978	2	12
1979	2	29
1980	0	0
1981	3	22
1982	3	32
1983	3	23	29
1984	2	12	24

THANKS

Well that’s 1984 done and dusted (without a single George Orwell reference…until now). So it’s onward to 1985 but before that, just a final word of thanks to Peet van Staaden, Kevin Farquharson and Ian McLean for supplying valuable 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.

28 December 1984

TW	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	13	I Just Called to Say I Love You	–	Stevie Wonder
2	2	15	Ghostbusters	–	Ray Parker Jr.
3	3	13	Careless Whisper	–	George Michael
4	4	22	Manuel Goodbye	–	Audrey Landers
5	5	13	Agadoo	–	Black Lace
6	6	9	She Bop	–	Cyndi Lauper
7	7	11	African Queen (No More Love On The Run)	–	Billy Ocean
8	8	6	The War Song	–	Culture Club
9	9	11	Love Kills	–	Freddie Mercury
10	12	8	Sounds Like a Melody	–	Alphaville
11	14	7	The Warrior	–	Scandal
12	10	11	I Can Dream About You	–	Dan Hartman
13	11	18	What’s Love Got to do with It	–	Tina Turner
14	15	5	Why?	–	Bronski Beat
15	16	4	Smooth Operator	–	Sade
16	13	19	Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go	–	Wham!
17	21	3	Freedom	–	Wham!
18	19	7	Passengers	–	Elton John
19	17	17	Boys do Fall in Love	–	Robin Gibb
20	18	10	Man on Fire	–	Roger Taylor
21	22	7	Missing You	–	John Waite
22	24	5	Blue Jean	–	David Bowie
23	20	20	Dancing in the Dark	–	Bruce Springsteen
24	26	2	Wild Boys	–	Duran Duran
25	27	2	Danger	–	Flirts
26	23	27	Self Control	–	Laura Branigan
27	25	19	When Doves Cry	–	Prince
28	28	13	All of You	–	Diana Ross & Julio Iglesias
29	29	19	Susanna	–	Art Company
30	30	30	To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before	–	Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson

We ended the year with Stevie Wonder’s ‘I Just Called To Say I Love You’ enjoying a 6^th week at 1 and this was the 380^th week at 1 for an American act. It was the 10^th song that was at number 1 at the start of December to still be at the top of the charts at the end of the year. There had been 15 years where the number 1 at the start of December had not still been at the top of the charts at the end of the year. Ray Parker Jr’s ‘Ghostbusters’ was unmoved at 2 and enjoying a 6^th week in a row there. It was the 4^th song to manage a run of 6 consecutive weeks at 2 with all 3 of the others going on to spend at least a 7^th week in a row at 2.

‘Careless Whisper’ by George Michael’ was at 3 for a 5^th straight week and this equalled the record to date run for consecutive weeks at 3. There had been 5 other songs that had managed this. The top 3 had now been unchanged for 5 weeks and this was the second longest run we had seen for this. We needed a couple more weeks to equal the record which was 7 weeks in a row with an unchanged top 3.

Not only were the top 3 unchanged but we had a new record to date unchanged top 9 (this excludes the 1 week when the whole top 20 was frozen for an Easter weekend).

Wham!’s ‘Freedom’ was the climber of the week for a second week running as it moved up 4 from 21 to 17. It would be the only new entry into the top 20, replacing Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Dancing In The Dark’ which fell from 20 to 23. Within the top 20, the climber was Scandal’s ‘The Warrior’ which moved up 3 from 14 to 11. ‘Freedom’ would be the only star rater this week.

The biggest fall this week was 3 places and 3 songs managed this. These were Laura Branigan’s ‘Self Control’, Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Dancing In The Dark’ and Wham!’s ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go Go’ which fell to 26, 23 and 16 respectively. ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go Go’ was the only one of these 3 to have its fall entirely within the top 20 and with Wham!’s ‘Freedom’ being the climber of the week, this was the 12^th time an act had taken the climber and faller in the same week. Wham! were sitting on 34 weeks (counting ‘Freedom’s week this week as it was above ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go Go’) and this was the tied 15^th highest weeks count for an act experiencing their first biggest faller award.

‘To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before’ by Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson became the 5^th song to clock up 30 weeks in the charts and, as it had never seen a biggest faller award, it meant that Willie Nelson became the 28^th act to clock up 30 weeks without a biggest faller award. (Iglesias had reached the milestone a few weeks earlier, helped by the weeks he accumulated via his duet with Diana Ross, ‘All Of You’. ‘To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before’ was the oldest in the top 30 and was enjoying its 4^th week as such. In the top 20 it was Audrey Landers’ ‘Manuel Goodbye’ which was the oldest having spent 19 weeks in that part of the chart and it was its 2^nd week as the top 20 granddaddy.

There was no movement on or off the top 30 and this was the 28^th time that we had seen no movement on or off the charts. It was the 6^th time we had seen this in 1984 and this was a new record for a calendar year.

The difference between the number of weeks American acts had spent in the charts and those that British acts had managed, fell below 200 to 198 with the former on 7,183 and the latter on 6,985. The gap had been at 199 fifteen weeks back, but we had to go back to 19 January 1979 for the last time it was less than 198. That week the gap had been 195.

As mentioned above, Willie Nelson reached the 30 week milestone and he shared the experience with Stevie Wonder. Bruce Springsteen and Billy Ocean were celebrating reaching 20 weeks in the charts with Springsteen’s ‘Dancing In The Dark’ becoming the 102^nd song to manage 20 weeks in the charts.

Using a top 20 points system, we saw Audrey Lander’s ‘Manuel Goodbye’ become the 56^th song to clock up at least 300 points. It was the 9^th song to reach this milestone in 1984 and this equalled the 2^nd best we had seen in a year. 1972 was the previous time we had seen 9 in a year while the record was in 1973 when we saw 13. As this was the last week of 1984, we would not see any more, so it would have to be satisfied with tied second.

Wham! became the 28^th act to see 2 songs sitting in adjacent positions in the charts as ‘Freedom’ was at 16 and ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go Go’ was at 17.

Julio Iglesias was enjoying his 13^th straight week with 2 in the charts and he was the 3^rd act to manage such a run with Pussycat and The Bee Gees being the only ones previously to do so. Both Pussycat and The Bee Gees saw their runs extend beyond 13 weeks with The Bee Gees managing the record to date of 16 straight weeks with more than 1 in the charts.

We saw a new record high for the average number of weeks the top 30 songs had been with us as this moved up to 12.2. The previous record was 12.033 which we had seen on 4 May 1984.

Laura Branigan’s ‘Self Control’ moved on to 27 weeks in the charts and it was now the longest run for a song by a solo female artists, going past Jessica Jones’ ‘Sunday, Monday, Tuesday’ which managed 26 weeks. It should be noted, however, that Jones’ hit was entirely in the top 20 era. ‘Self Control’ had only managed 21 top 20 weeks.

There were 3 acts on this last chart of the year who had also featured in the first chart of 1984 and they were Elton John, Wham! and Culture Club.

Youtube playlist:

21 December 1984

TW	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	12	I Just Called to Say I Love You	–	Stevie Wonder
2	2	14	Ghostbusters	–	Ray Parker Jr.
3	3	12	Careless Whisper	–	George Michael
4	4	21	Manuel Goodbye	–	Audrey Landers
5	5	12	Agadoo	–	Black Lace
6	6	8	She Bop	–	Cyndi Lauper
7	10	10	African Queen (No More Love On The Run)	–	Billy Ocean
8	13	5	The War Song	–	Culture Club
9	9	10	Love Kills	–	Freddie Mercury
10	7	10	I Can Dream About You	–	Dan Hartman
11	8	17	What’s Love Got to do with It	–	Tina Turner
12	12	7	Sounds Like a Melody	–	Alphaville
13	11	18	Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go	–	Wham!
14	17	6	The Warrior	–	Scandal
15	20	4	Why?	–	Bronski Beat
16	21	3	Smooth Operator	–	Sade
17	14	16	Boys do Fall in Love	–	Robin Gibb
18	15	9	Man on Fire	–	Roger Taylor
19	19	6	Passengers	–	Elton John
20	16	19	Dancing in the Dark	–	Bruce Springsteen
21	26	2	Freedom	–	Wham!
22	22	6	Missing You	–	John Waite
23	18	26	Self Control	–	Laura Branigan
24	25	4	Blue Jean	–	David Bowie
25	23	18	When Doves Cry	–	Prince
26	New	1	Wild Boys	–	Duran Duran
27	New	1	Danger	–	Flirts
28	27	12	All of You	–	Diana Ross & Julio Iglesias
29	28	18	Susanna	–	Art Company
30	29	29	To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before	–	Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson

Stevie Wonder’s ‘I Just Called To Say I Love You’ became the 79^th song to spend at least 5 weeks at 1 as it held on to the top spot for another week. Ray Parker Jr’s ‘Ghostbusters’ was still at 2 and became the 14^th song to spend 5 consecutive weeks at 2. There had been 2 of these that had gone on to spend 7 consecutive weeks at 2 and 1 (Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Will Survive’) had managed a record to date 9.

A 5 place climb bagged you a climber of the week award and there were 4 songs that managed this. Culture Club’s ‘The War Song’ and Bronski Beat’s ‘Why?’ did so within the top 20 with the former climbing from 13 to 8 and the latter moving up from 20 to 15. The other 2 songs to see a 5 place climb were Sade’s ‘Smooth Operator’ (up from 21 to 16 and it was the only new entry into the top 20) and Wham!’s ‘Freedom’ (up from 26 to 21). These 4 would be the only star raters this week.

Laura Branigan’s ‘Self Control’ took the faller of the week award as it slid 5 places from 18 to 23. It was the only song leaving the top 20 this week. Within the top 20 it was Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Dancing In The Dark’ that had the biggest fall. It dropped 4 from 16 to 20.

‘Self Control’ had been the oldest in the top 20 and that honour now fell to Audrey Landers’ ‘Manuel Goodbye’ which sat on 18 top 20 weeks. ‘Self Control’ did, however, move on to 26 weeks in the charts which equalled the record to date for a song by a solo female artist. Jessica Jones’ ‘Sunday, Monday, Tuesday’ was the song that ‘Self Control’ now shared the record with, but it should be noted that ‘Sunday, Monday, Tuesday’ managed all its 26 weeks in the top 20 era. Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson’s ‘To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before’ was the oldest in the top 30, enjoying it’s 29^th week overall and its 3^rd as the oldest in the charts.

We saw 2 songs leave the top 30 this week and they were the Pointer Sisters’ ‘Jump (For My Love)’ and Herman Holtzhausen’s ‘Tans-Karoo’. ‘Jump (For My Love)’ had managed a run of 14 weeks and peaked at 13. This ended The Pointer Sisters’ SA chart career. They had managed 3 hits, spent 34 weeks in the charts in total and managed to get to number 1 for 4 weeks with ‘Fire’.

‘Trans-Karoo’ managed 13 weeks and peaked at 13, making it the 64^th song to have an equal weeks and peak figure. It was the first where the weeks and peak figure were 13. This would be Herman Holtzhausen’s only SA chart hit and its departure meant that we had no local hits in the charts. This was the start of the 9^th run with no local hits in the chart.

Duran Duran’s 4^th SA chart hit was the first new entry this week. ‘Wild Boys’ was born out of the idea from film director Russell Mulcahy who wanted to make a film based on the novel ‘The Wild Boys: A Book Of The Dead’ by William S. Burroughs. Mulcahy approached Duran Duran to do the soundtrack and the band came up with what would end up being a number 2 hit for them on both sides of the Atlantic, kept off the number 1 spot in the US by Hall & Oates’ ‘Out Of Touch’ for 1 week and then by Madonna’s ‘Like A Virgin’ for 3 weeks. In the UK it spent 1 week at 2 behind Chaka Khan’s ‘I Feel For You’. It also peaked at 2 in Belgium, Canada, Ireland and Switzerland, but did manage to top the charts in Germany and Italy. It would also top the US Cashbox charts which were an alternate chart to the Billboard Hot 100, but the latter is usually recognised as the official US charts. It would top the charts on all the local radio stations, going to number 1 on the Radio 5, Capital 604 and Radio 702 charts. The song was produced by Chic’s Nile Rodgers and it gave him his 7^th production credit on a SA chart hit. He had produced 2 Chic hits, Diana Ross’ ‘Upside Down’, David Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’ and ‘China Girl’ and Sheila B Devotion’s ‘Spacer’.

The second new entry was The Flirts’ ‘Danger’. It was their SA chart debut. The group was the brainchild of a guy called Bobby Orlando who was the mainstay of the band, playing all the instruments and writing and producing the songs while the vocals were handled by an ever changing line-up of session musicians with models and dancers being used to be the ‘face’ of the group. ‘Danger’ managed to get to 30 in Switzerland and that’s the only chart action I can find for the song. It didn’t make any of the local radio station charts. The song was first released in 1983 on the band’s ‘Born To Flirt’ album which featured Pamela Moore, Linda Jo Rizzo and Rebeka Storm. Pamela Moore also worked with Queensrÿche, an American heavy metal band.

Ray Parker Jr saw his weeks total move on to 30 while Julio Iglesias was celebrating his 40^th week in the charts. Elton John, meanwhile made 6^th place on the overall weeks count list his own as he moved onto 138 weeks, 1 ahead of The Hollies who dropped into 7^th place.

Julio Iglesias had spent 12 straight weeks with 2 in the charts (‘To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before’ and ‘All Of You’). He was the 5^th act to manage this although both of his songs were as part of a duet.

Youtube playlist:

14 December 1984

TW	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	11	I Just Called to Say I Love You	–	Stevie Wonder
2	2	13	Ghostbusters	–	Ray Parker Jr.
3	3	11	Careless Whisper	–	George Michael
4	4	20	Manuel Goodbye	–	Audrey Landers
5	5	11	Agadoo	–	Black Lace
6	6	7	She Bop	–	Cyndi Lauper
7	8	9	I Can Dream About You	–	Dan Hartman
8	7	16	What’s Love Got to do with It	–	Tina Turner
9	12	9	Love Kills	–	Freddie Mercury
10	14	9	African Queen (No More Love On The Run)	–	Billy Ocean
11	9	17	Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go	–	Wham!
12	17	6	Sounds Like a Melody	–	Alphaville
13	18	4	The War Song	–	Culture Club
14	10	15	Boys do Fall in Love	–	Robin Gibb
15	11	8	Man on Fire	–	Roger Taylor
16	13	18	Dancing in the Dark	–	Bruce Springsteen
17	20	5	The Warrior	–	Scandal
18	15	25	Self Control	–	Laura Branigan
19	23	5	Passengers	–	Elton John
20	26	3	Why?	–	Bronski Beat
21	30	2	Smooth Operator	–	Sade
22	24	5	Missing You	–	John Waite
23	21	17	When Doves Cry	–	Prince
24	16	13	Trans-Karoo	–	Herman Holtzhausen
25	27	3	Blue Jean	–	David Bowie
26	New	1	Freedom	–	Wham!
27	19	11	All of You	–	Diana Ross & Julio Iglesias
28	22	17	Susanna	–	Art Company
29	25	28	To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before	–	Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson
30	29	14	Jump (for My Love)	–	Pointer Sisters

Stevie Wonder’s ‘I Just Called To Say I Love You’ spent a 4^th week at 1 and positions 2 to 6 were also unchanged. This was the 9^th time we had seen an unchanged top 6 (excluding the time when the whole top 20 was frozen). We had seen 2 occasions when the top 7 were unchanged and twice we had seen a record to date top 8 unchanged.

‘Ghostbusters’ by Ry Parker Jr was spending a 4^th straight week at 2 and this was the 4^th time in 1984 that a song had spent 4 consecutive weeks at 2. This equalled 1971 and 1982 for the number of times in a year we had seen this, but fell 1 short of the all-time record 5 songs managing this in a year which saw in 1980.

The climber of the week was Sade’s ‘Smooth Operator’ which moved up 9 from 30 to 21. Within the top 20 it was Alphaville’s ‘Sounds Like A Melody’ and Culture Club’s ‘The War Song’ which were the climbers as they moved up 5 to land at 12 and 13 respectively.

Billy Ocean’s ‘African Queen (No More love On The Run)’, Elton John’s ‘Passengers’ and Bronski Beat’s ‘Why?’ were the other star raters this week with the first 2 moving up 4 to land at 10 and 19 respectively, while ‘Why?’ moved up 6 from 26 to 20.

The two fallers of the week both fell from with the top 20 to positions outside the top 20. The first of these was Diana Ross and Julio Iglesias’ ‘All Of You’ which dropped 8 from 19 to 27. Herman Holtzhausen’s ‘Trans-Karoo’ fell from 16 to 24 and its departure from the top 20 gave us the start of the 12^th run with no local songs in the top 20. Julio Iglesias had clocked up 38 weeks in the charts and this was the first time he was experiencing the biggest faller. He was the 8^th act to reach at least 38 weeks before having a first biggest faller. The Seekers 58 weeks before seeing their first faller of the week was still the record. Wham! became the 27^th act to see a run of 30 weeks without having a biggest faller.

Within the top 20 it was Roger Taylor’s ‘Man On Fire’ and Robin Gibb’s ‘Boys Do Fall In Love’ which shared the faller honours as they both fell 4 places to land at 15 and 14 respectively.

Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson’s ‘To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before’ was the oldest in the top 30 for a second week as it moved on to 28 weeks. It was the 6^th song to accumulate this many weeks. In the top 20 it was Laura Branigan’s ‘Self Control’ on 21 top 20 weeks that was the oldest for a second week for that part of the chart.

‘All Of You’ and ‘Trans-Karoo’ (both mentioned above as fallers of the week) were the only 2 songs leaving the top 20. They were replaced by Elton John’s ‘Passengers’ (which did have a South African songwriter in the song writing credits, so we were not totally without local content on the top 20) and Bronski Beat’s ‘Why?’

David Kramer’s ‘Stoksielalleen’ was the only song leaving the top 30. It had seen a run of 11 weeks and a peak of 18. This would end his SA chart career with 3 hits and 38 weeks to his name. His best performer was ‘Hak Hom Blokkies’ which managed 4 weeks at number 1. In terms of points (using a top 30 basis), he sat 33^rd on the list of local acts with 680 points to his name. He would drop to 35 by the time the charts ended. This left us with just Herman Holtzhausen’s ‘Trans-Karoo’ as the only song by a local act on the charts.

Wham! became the 87^th act to see 2 or more in the charts in a week as the new entry was their hit ‘Freedom’ and it joined ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go Go’. One could argue that they actually had 3 hits as ‘Careless Whisper’ was also in the charts and the song had appeared on Wham!’s second album ‘Make It Big’, but the version on the charts was credited to George Michael and was a re-recording of the song that Michael did. ‘Freedom’ followed ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go Go’ to the top of the UK charts, dethroning Stevie Wonder’s ‘I Just Called To Say I Love You’ and going on to spend 3 weeks at 1, which was 1 more than ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go Go’. ‘Freedom’ would peak at 3 in the US and would top the charts in Iceland, Ireland and Norway. In Zimbabwe it would get to number 5 and on the local radio charts it would have a clean sweep of number 1’s toping the Radio 5, Capital 604 and Radio 702 charts.

The gap between the overall number of hits by American acts and those we had seen by British acts continued to fall and was now down to just 12 with the Americans on 708 and the Brits on 696. The last time it was this low was 25 July 1975 which was 490 weeks earlier.

After 8 weeks with 15 or more in the charts, the male solo acts dropped to 14 hits in the top 30 and no longer accounted for at least half the chart.

‘Manuel Goodbye’ by Audrey Landers became the 101^st song to reach 20 weeks on the charts and as this was her only hit to date, she also celebrated reaching 20 weeks. Wham! meanwhile hit the 30 week milestone this week.

Elton John moved into tied 6^th place for weeks on the charts as his 137 put him level with The Hollies. They were 4 behind Neil Diamond who was in 5^th place on the list.

Youtube playlist:

7 December 1984

TW	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	10	I Just Called to Say I Love You	–	Stevie Wonder
2	2	12	Ghostbusters	–	Ray Parker Jr.
3	3	10	Careless Whisper	–	George Michael
4	4	19	Manuel Goodbye	–	Audrey Landers
5	5	10	Agadoo	–	Black Lace
6	7	6	She Bop	–	Cyndi Lauper
7	6	15	What’s Love Got to do with It	–	Tina Turner
8	8	8	I Can Dream About You	–	Dan Hartman
9	11	16	Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go	–	Wham!
10	9	14	Boys do Fall in Love	–	Robin Gibb
11	14	7	Man on Fire	–	Roger Taylor
12	15	8	Love Kills	–	Freddie Mercury
13	12	17	Dancing in the Dark	–	Bruce Springsteen
14	16	8	African Queen (No More Love On The Run)	–	Billy Ocean
15	10	24	Self Control	–	Laura Branigan
16	13	12	Trans-Karoo	–	Herman Holtzhausen
17	22	5	Sounds Like a Melody	–	Alphaville
18	27	3	The War Song	–	Culture Club
19	19	10	All of You	–	Diana Ross & Julio Iglesias
20	26	4	The Warrior	–	Scandal
21	17	16	When Doves Cry	–	Prince
22	18	16	Susanna	–	Art Company
23	24	4	Passengers	–	Elton John
24	25	4	Missing You	–	John Waite
25	21	27	To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before	–	Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson
26	28	2	Why?	–	Bronski Beat
27	29	2	Blue Jean	–	David Bowie
28	20	11	Stoksielalleen	–	David Kramer
29	23	13	Jump (for My Love)	–	Pointer Sisters
30	New	1	Smooth Operator	–	Sade

Stevie Wonder’s ‘I Just Called To Say I Love You’ spent a 3^rd week at 1 with Ray Parker Jr’s ‘Ghostbusters’, the previous chart topper, at 2 for a 3^rd week. In fact, the whole top 5 was unchanged and this was the 27^th time this had happened (this excludes the time when the whole top 20 was frozen). Included in the 27 times are 2 occasions when we had a record to date top 8 unchanged.

Culture Club picked up their 5^th biggest climber award as ‘The War Song’ moved up 9 from 27 to 18. Within the top 20 it was the 2 members of Queen who were having solo hits that took the climber award. Roger Taylor’s ‘Man On Fire’ climbed 3 from 14 to 11 and Freddie Mercury’s ‘Love Kills’ moved up 3 from 15 to 12.

Other star raters this week were Alphaville’s ‘Sounds Like A Melody’ which moved up 5 from 22 to 17 and Scandal’s ‘The Warrior’ which climbed 6 from 26 to 20.

David Kramer’s ‘Stoksielalleen’ took the faller of the week award with an 8 place drop from 20 to 28. Within the top 20 it was Laura Branigan’s ‘Self Control’ which had the biggest fall as it dropped 5 places from 10 to 15. It was, however, the oldest in the top 20, enjoying its 20^th week in the top 20 and its second as the oldest in that part of the chart. It was the 74^th song to manage 20 top 20 weeks.

Apart from ‘Stoksielalleen’ leaving the top 20 we also saw The Art Company’s ‘Susanna’ drop from 18 to 22 and Prince’s ‘When Doves Cry’ drop from 17 to 21. The new entries into the top 20 were ‘Sounds Like A Melody’, ‘The War Song’ and ‘The Warrior’ (all mentioned above). The departure of ‘Stoksielalleen’ from the top 20 meant that we only had 1 local song left in that part of the chart and that was Herman Holtzhausen’s ‘Trans Karoo’.

There was just one song leaving the top 30 and that was Queen’s ‘I Want To Break Free’. It had spent 28 weeks in the charts (the tied 5^th highest for a song so far) and spent 7 weeks at 1. Using a top 30 method, it sat 7^th overall for points and would have dropped to 12^th by the time the charts ended. This ended a 40 week run for Queen with at least 1 in the charts. This run started with 12 weeks with ‘Radio Ga Ga’ in the charts, then 6 weeks where it was joined by ‘I Want To Break Free’. We then had 15 weeks with just ‘I Want Top Break Free’ followed by 3 weeks where it was joined by ‘It’s A Hard Life’. The run ended with 4 weeks with just ‘I Want To Break Free’ in the charts. However, while the run with Queen hits in the charts ended, we still had the 2 solo hits by Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor in the top 30, so the Queen presence in our charts continued.

The new entry was ‘Smooth Operator’ by Helen Folasade Adu, better known as Sade. Sade was born in Nigeria but moved to the UK where her career took off, so I have classified her as British for statistical purposes. ‘Smooth Operator’ was her SA chart debut, but it was the 3^rd single off her ‘Diamond Life’ album, following up ‘Your Love Is King’ and ‘When Am I Going To Make A Living’ which made it to 6 and 36 respectively in the UK. ‘Smooth Operator’ would peak at 19 in the UK and get to 5 in the US, her tied best peak to date with ‘The Sweetest Taboo’ also peaking at 5. It would also go top 20 in Australia (#20), Austria (#12), Belgium (#19), Canada (#5), France (#9), Ireland (#17), The Netherlands (#19), Switzerland (#14) and Germany (#11). On the local radio charts it would top the Radio 702 ones, get to 26 on the Capital 604 top 40, but would not make the Radio 5 charts.

Bronski Beat’s ‘Why?’ was only in its second week on the chart, but had already surpassed the peak of 27 which their only other hit so far, ‘Smalltown Boy’, had managed. ‘Why?’ moved up to 26.

The gap between total number of hits from American acts and those from British acts dropped to 13 which was the lowest it had been since 8 August 1975, a total of 487 weeks previously. We had now seen 708 hits by Americans and 695 by British acts (Note: this excludes hits when an American or Brit was part of a duet with an act from a different country).

Culture Club celebrated reaching 40 weeks in the charts while David Bowie saw his total hit 70 and Diana Ross moved on to 90. Ross sat 26^th overall for weeks and was the 3^rd highest woman on the list but sat a fair distance behind Olivia Newton-John who was the 2^nd highest ranked female and who sat on 127 weeks. Barbara Ray on 136 was still the leading lady. Elton John caught up with Barbara Ray and The Rolling Stones who were also on 136 weeks. The 3 acts shared 7^th place on the overall weeks list.

Julio Iglesias had now seen 10 weeks with both ‘To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before’ and ‘All Of You’ in the charts and he became the 7^th act to manage a run of 10 sequential weeks with 2 or more in the charts. Previous acts to manage this were Murray Campbell, Tommy Roe, Wings, Tommy Dell, Pussycat and the Bee Gees. Iglesias was the first act to manage this in the 80’s.

Youtube playlist:

30 November 1984

TW	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	9	I Just Called to Say I Love You	–	Stevie Wonder
2	2	11	Ghostbusters	–	Ray Parker Jr.
3	5	9	Careless Whisper	–	George Michael
4	3	18	Manuel Goodbye	–	Audrey Landers
5	6	9	Agadoo	–	Black Lace
6	4	14	What’s Love Got to do with It	–	Tina Turner
7	10	5	She Bop	–	Cyndi Lauper
8	8	7	I Can Dream About You	–	Dan Hartman
9	7	13	Boys do Fall in Love	–	Robin Gibb
10	9	23	Self Control	–	Laura Branigan
11	11	15	Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go	–	Wham!
12	12	16	Dancing in the Dark	–	Bruce Springsteen
13	13	11	Trans-Karoo	–	Herman Holtzhausen
14	17	6	Man on Fire	–	Roger Taylor
15	20	7	Love Kills	–	Freddie Mercury
16	21	7	African Queen (No More Love On The Run)	–	Billy Ocean
17	14	15	When Doves Cry	–	Prince
18	15	15	Susanna	–	Art Company
19	19	9	All of You	–	Diana Ross & Julio Iglesias
20	18	10	Stoksielalleen	–	David Kramer
21	16	26	To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before	–	Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson
22	23	4	Sounds Like a Melody	–	Alphaville
23	22	12	Jump (for My Love)	–	Pointer Sisters
24	25	3	Passengers	–	Elton John
25	26	3	Missing You	–	John Waite
26	28	3	The Warrior	–	Scandal
27	29	2	The War Song	–	Culture Club
28	New	1	Why?	–	Bronski Beat
29	New	1	Blue Jean	–	David Bowie
30	24	28	I Want to Break Free	–	Queen

Stevie Wonder’s ‘I Just Called To Say I Love You’ enjoyed a second week at 2 while the previous number 1, Ray Parker Jr’s ‘Ghostbusters’ spent a second week at 2. George Michael’s ‘Careless Whisper’ moved up to 3 from 5 to be a challenger for the top spot.

Freddie Mercury’s ‘Love Kills’ and Billy Ocean’s ‘African Queen (No More Love On The Run)’ shared the climber of the week award as they both moved up 5 places to land at 15 and 16 respectively. ‘Love Kills’ made its climb from within the top 20 while ‘African Queen’ started from position 21, making ‘Love Kills’ the climber within the top 20. There were no other star raters this week.

While Freddie was experiencing the biggest climb, he and his band mates in Queen were having to cope with being the faller of the week as ‘I Want To Break Free’ dropped 6 from 24 to 30. The song was, however, the oldest in the top 30, enjoying its 28^th week in the chart and its 7^th as the oldest in the charts. It was the 7^th song so far to spend at least 28 weeks in the charts.

Within the top 20 it was The Art Company’s ‘Susanna’ and Prince’s ‘When Doves Cry’ which shared the faller of the week award as they both dropped 3 to land at 18 and 17 respectively.

Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson’s ‘To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before’ dropped out of the top 20. It had been the oldest in that part of the chart last week and the ‘oldest’ title now fell to Laura Branigan’s ‘Self Control’ which was sitting on 19 top 20 weeks. The new entry into the top 20 was Billy Ocean’s ‘African Queen (No More Love On The Run)’.

We lost 2 songs from the top 30, the first of these being Steve Perry’s ‘Oh Sherrie’ which managed a run of 18 weeks and a peak of 6, which outdid both of the hits he had as a member of Journey. ‘Oh Sherrie’ would be his only solo hit and, as Journey’s SA chart career had finished, this ended Perry’s involvement in our charts. He had seen the one solo hit and 2 as a member of Journey. Adding the 2 together his weeks total was 38.

Also going was Bronski Beat’s ‘Smalltown Boy’ which lasted just 2 weeks in the charts and peaked at 27. However, it was not all bad news for the band as they became the 24^th act to replace themselves on the charts as their second hit, ‘Why?’ was one of the 2 new entries. The track was produced by Mike Thorne who had also produced ‘Smalltown Boy’ and Soft Cell’s ‘Tainted Love’, a number 1 hit on our charts in 1982. ‘Why?’ would go to number 6 in the UK and would go top 5 in Belgium (#3), The Netherlands (#2) and Germany (#5). On the local radio charts, it got to 2 on Radio 5, 4 on Radio 702 and 8 on Capital 604.

David Bowie returned to the charts with his 6^th hit, ‘Blue Jean’. He had now spent at least 1 week in the charts for 4 years running, a run starting with his duet with Queen, ‘Under Pressure’ which straddled 81 into 82. In 83 he had hits with ‘Let’s Dance’ and ‘China Girl’. And now he had charted in 1984. A short (21 minute) music video called ‘Jazzin’ For Blue Jean’, was released featuring the song and it would give Bowie his only Grammy during his lifetime, winning the Best Video, Short Form award. Bowie would get further Grammys posthumously. ‘Blue Jean’ would give Bowie a number 6 hit in the UK and a number 8 hit on the US charts. It would go top 10 in Canada (#6), Ireland (#3), New Zealand (#7), Poland (#9), Spain (#3) and Sweden (#5). It would top the Capital 604 charts but not make the Radio 5 nor Radio 702 ones.

With Both new entries being by British acts and 1 of the 2 leavers being by an American, we saw the Brits take over for having the most hits in the top 30 with 13 of the top 30 being by British acts and 12 by Americans. The Americans had led the way for 15 weeks, although they were tied with the Brits for 1 of those 15 weeks. The gap between the overall number hits we had seen from Americans and Brits was down to just 14 with the Americans on 708 and the Brits on 694. It had been 485 weeks since the gap was last this low and this went back to 15 August 1975.

Queen moved level with Joe Dolan for total weeks on the charts. The two acts had both seen 123 weeks and they sat tied 14^th overall. Queen also celebrated having had at least 1 hit in the chart for 40 consecutive weeks and they were only the 3^rd act to manage such a run. The previous 2 to manage this were Middle Of The Road and Alan Garrity, both of whom managed it totally within the top 20 era.

Youtube playlist:

23 November 1984

TW	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	2	8	I Just Called to Say I Love You	–	Stevie Wonder
2	1	10	Ghostbusters	–	Ray Parker Jr.
3	3	17	Manuel Goodbye	–	Audrey Landers
4	4	13	What’s Love Got to do with It	–	Tina Turner
5	5	8	Careless Whisper	–	George Michael
6	6	8	Agadoo	–	Black Lace
7	8	12	Boys do Fall in Love	–	Robin Gibb
8	15	6	I Can Dream About You	–	Dan Hartman
9	7	22	Self Control	–	Laura Branigan
10	20	4	She Bop	–	Cyndi Lauper
11	11	14	Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go	–	Wham!
12	10	15	Dancing in the Dark	–	Bruce Springsteen
13	13	10	Trans-Karoo	–	Herman Holtzhausen
14	9	14	When Doves Cry	–	Prince
15	12	14	Susanna	–	Art Company
16	14	25	To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before	–	Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson
17	17	5	Man on Fire	–	Roger Taylor
18	19	9	Stoksielalleen	–	David Kramer
19	21	8	All of You	–	Diana Ross & Julio Iglesias
20	22	6	Love Kills	–	Freddie Mercury
21	23	6	African Queen (No More Love On The Run)	–	Billy Ocean
22	16	11	Jump (for My Love)	–	Pointer Sisters
23	25	3	Sounds Like a Melody	–	Alphaville
24	18	27	I Want to Break Free	–	Queen
25	29	2	Passengers	–	Elton John
26	27	2	Missing You	–	John Waite
27	28	2	Smalltown Boy	–	Bronski Beat
28	30	2	The Warrior	–	Scandal
29	New	1	The War Song	–	Culture Club
30	24	18	Oh Sherrie	–	Steve Perry

‘Ghostbusters’ by Ray Parker Jr lasted just 1 week at 1. It was dethroned by another song from a movie, Stevie Wonder’s ‘I Just Called To Say I Love You’ which was from the soundtrack to the Gene Wilder/Kelly le Brock film ‘The Woman In Red’. ‘Ghostbusters’ dropped into second place. ‘I Just Called To Say I Love You’ was the 27^th song to top our charts that would also top the UK and US charts.

Cyndi Lauper’s ‘She Bop’ was the climber in both the top 20 and the top 30 as it jumped 10 from 20 to 10. It was the 110^th time a song had climbed 10 or more in a week and the 11^th time a song by a solo female act had managed this. There were 2 other star raters and they were Dan Hartman’s ‘I Can Dream About You’ (up 7 from 15 to 8) and Elton John’s ‘Passengers’ which moved up 4 from 29 to 25. It was Elton’s 19^th time with a star rater and he was the 4^th act after Tom Jones, The Bee Gees and Abba to see this many star rater climbs.

There was a three-way split of honours on the falling front with Steve Perry’s ‘Oh Sherrie’, Queen’s ‘I Want To Break Free’ and The Pointer Sisters’ ‘Jump (For My Love)’ all dropping 6 to land at 30, 24 and 22 respectively. Within the top 20 it was Prince’s ‘When Doves Cry’ which took the honours, dropping 5 places from 9 to 14.

‘I Want To Break Free’ was the oldest in the top 30 sitting on 27 weeks (the 12th song to spend this many weeks in the charts), but was no longer in the top 20 so we had to look to Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson’s ‘To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before’ as the oldest in the top 20. It was on 23 weeks in that part of the chart.

‘I Want To Break Free’ and ‘Jump (For My Love)’ were the 2 songs leaving the top 20 this week. They were replaced by Diana Ross and Julio Iglesias’ ‘All Of You’ and Freddie Mercury’s ‘Love Kills’. ‘All Of You’ was sitting on 8 weeks in the charts and equalled Hazell Dean’s ‘Searchin’ and David Kramer’s ‘Stoksielalleen’ for the most weeks in the charts before finally making the top 20.

There was only 1 song leaving the top 30 this week and that was Rick Springfield’s ‘Love Somebody’. It had lasted 5 weeks and peaked at 26. This ended his SA chart career with 3 hits and total of 8 weeks to his name. His best peak was with ‘Don’t Talk To Strangers’ which got to number 19. He set the all time record lowest weeks count for an act having 3 hits. The next lowest was 12 which The Invaders and The Guess Who had amanged.

Culture Club saw their 3^rd SA chart hit with ‘The War Song’, being the new entry this week. Featuring backing vocals by Clare Torry who had sung the female part on Pink Floyds’ ‘The Great Gig In The Sky’, the song would give Culture Club a number 2 hit in the UK (kept off the top spot by Stevie Wonder’s ‘I Just Called To Say I Love You’). It would top the charts in Ireland and Israel and go to 2 in Australia and 3 in Canada and Italy. In Zimbabwe it made it to 4. It would top the Capital 604 charts, get to 2 on the Radio 5 ones and 4 on Radio 702’s charts.

Using a top 20 basis we saw Laura Branigan’s ‘Self Control’ make it past 300 points. It was the 54^th song to manage this and using the top 30 basis, she also reached a landmark of 700 points as she ticked over to 702.

Youtube playlist:

16 November 1984

TW	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	4	9	Ghostbusters	–	Ray Parker Jr.
2	2	7	I Just Called to Say I Love You	–	Stevie Wonder
3	1	16	Manuel Goodbye	–	Audrey Landers
4	3	12	What’s Love Got to do with It	–	Tina Turner
5	7	7	Careless Whisper	–	George Michael
6	10	7	Agadoo	–	Black Lace
7	5	21	Self Control	–	Laura Branigan
8	8	11	Boys do Fall in Love	–	Robin Gibb
9	6	13	When Doves Cry	–	Prince
10	9	14	Dancing in the Dark	–	Bruce Springsteen
11	16	13	Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go	–	Wham!
12	12	13	Susanna	–	Art Company
13	15	9	Trans-Karoo	–	Herman Holtzhausen
14	11	24	To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before	–	Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson
15	19	5	I Can Dream About You	–	Dan Hartman
16	13	10	Jump (for My Love)	–	Pointer Sisters
17	20	4	Man on Fire	–	Roger Taylor
18	14	26	I Want to Break Free	–	Queen
19	21	8	Stoksielalleen	–	David Kramer
20	22	3	She Bop	–	Cyndi Lauper
21	23	7	All of You	–	Diana Ross & Julio Iglesias
22	24	5	Love Kills	–	Freddie Mercury
23	25	5	African Queen (No More Love On The Run)	–	Billy Ocean
24	17	17	Oh Sherrie	–	Steve Perry
25	30	2	Sounds Like a Melody	–	Alphaville
26	27	5	Love Somebody	–	Rick Springfield
27	New	1	Missing You	–	John Waite
28	New	1	Smalltown Boy	–	Bronski Beat
29	New	1	Passengers	–	Elton John
30	New	1	The Warrior	–	Scandal

Ray Parker Jr’s ‘Ghostbusters’ had looked like it had lost its shot at getting to 1 as it peaked at 3 three weeks back and then dropped to 4 and spent 2 weeks there. Suddenly it jumped back up the charts to take the top spot off Audrey Landers’ ‘Manuel Goodbye’ which had spent 5 weeks at 1. I am guessing but perhaps the release of the movie came after the song had been released and this is what propelled it to number 1 although I’ve not been able to verify this. ‘Ghostbusters’ was the 57^th song to jump to number 1 from 4 or lower in the charts.

The climber of the week award was shared between Wham!’s ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go Go’ and Alphaville’s ‘Sounds Like A Melody’ which both climbed 5 to land at 11 and 25 respectively. ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go Go’ was the climber within the top 20. It was a 3^rd time with the award for Wham! And a second time for Alphaville.

There were 2 other star raters and these were Black Lace’s ‘Agadoo’ which moved up 4 from 10 to 6 and Dan Hartman’s ‘I Can Dream About You’ which climbed 4 from 19 to 15. It was ‘Agadoo’s 4^th star rater climb and it was the first song to see 4 star rater climbs without ever having a biggest climber award.

The faller of the week was Steve Perry’s ‘Oh Sherrie’ which dropped 7 from 17 to 24. Within the top 20 it was Queen’s ‘I Want To Break Free’ that had the biggest fall as it dropped 4 from 14 to 18. It was still the oldest in the top 20 having spent 25 weeks in that part of the chart and was enjoying its 6^th week as the oldest. It was also the oldest in the top 30, enjoying its 26^th in total in the charts.

Apart from ‘Oh Sherrie’ mentioned above, we also saw Fun Fun’s ‘Colour My Love’ leave the top 20. The 2 new entries into the top 20 were David Kramer’s ‘Stoksielalleen’ and Cyndi Lauper’s ‘She Bop’. ‘Stoksielalleen’ was sitting on 8 weeks in the charts and this equalled the record to date for weeks in the top 30 before cracking the top 20. The previous song to manage this was Hazell Dean’s ‘Searchin’.

We saw 4 songs leave the top 30 this week, the first of these being Chris de Burgh’s ‘High On Emotion’ which had enjoyed 9 weeks on the charts and peaked at 17, quite a way off the peak of his only other hit so far, ‘Just Another Poor Boy’ which got to 8. He had 1 more hit to come.

We also said goodbye to Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s ‘Two Tribes’ which managed a run of 14 weeks and a peak of 8. This would be their only SA chart hit.

The Flirtations would also only managed 1 hit on our charts and that was ‘Earthquake’ which ended its run this week. It had been with us for 17 weeks and peaked at 6.

Last to go was Fun Fun’s ‘Colour My Love’ which became the 6^th song to leave the charts from within the top 20 as it spent its last week at 18. It had seen a run of 20 weeks and peaked at 5. They had 1 more hit to come.

The first new entry was John Waite’s ‘Missing You’. Waite, a Brit, had been in a band called The Babys who had seen a couple of hits make the US charts. ‘Missing You’ would top the US charts for 1 week and was the only song in 1984 to only spend 1 week at 1. It would also make it to number 1 in Canada and went top 10 in Australia (#5), Ireland (#6) and the UK (#9). Closer to home it made it to 19 on the Zimbabwe charts and peaked at 2 on both the Radio 5 and Radio 702 charts. It would top the Capital 604 charts. Tina Turner covered the song in 1996 and her version made it to 12 in the UK and 84 in the US. In 1999 American Country duo Brooks & Dunn had a number 75 hit with a cover of it and then in 2006 Waite re-recorded the song as a duet with Alison Krauss which got to 34 on the Hot Country songs chart in the US.

Bronski Beat made their SA chart debut with ‘Smalltown Boy’ which had given them a number 3 hit in their native UK. The song became a popular gay anthem and went on to top the charts in Belgium and The Netherlands as well as faring well in Australia (#8), Canada (#9), Germany (#3), France (#8), Ireland (#4), Italy (#2), New Zealnd (#5) and Switzerland (#2). It remains their only US hit so far where it peaked at 48. The only local radio station it charted on was Radio 5 where it got to number 2.

After being missing from the charts for 2 weeks, Elton John returned with ‘Passengers’, his follow up to ‘Sad Songs (Say So Much)’. ‘Passengers’ has a South African connection in that the tune was based on a song called ‘Isonto Lezayone’ which was written by a local guy called Phineas Mkhize around 1960. The similarities to ‘Passenger’ were enough for Mkhize to get a song writing credit on Elton John’s track. The other writing credits went to Elton John, his long-time song writing partner Bernie Taupin and Davey Johnstone who was a member of Elton’s backing band. ‘Passengers’ would get to 5 in the UK, 38 in New Zealand, 27 In Switzerland and 10 in Zimbabwe. On the radio stations it got to 4 on the Radio 5 charts, 5 on the Capital 604 ones and 14 on Radio 702. ‘Passengers’ was Elton’s 12 hit to make out charts and he was the 14^th act to clock up this many hits.

The final new entry was ‘The Warrior’ by Scandal (sometimes noted as Scandal featuring Patty Smyth). Scandal briefly featured a certain Jon Bon Jovi as a member, but he had moved on by the time ‘The Warrior’ was a hit. The song was written by Holly Knight and Nick Gilder. Knight had co-written Agnetha Falksgog’s ‘Wrap Your Arms Around Me’ which had reached 18 on our charts in 1983. ‘The Warrior’ would peak at 7 in the US and top the Canadian charts. It would also get to 6 in Australia, 11 in New Zealand and 86 in the UK. The song was produced by Mike Chapman and it was his 23^rd hit as producer on an SA chart hit. He sat 3^rd overall behind Terry Dempsey who had 24 production credits and Mickie Most who had 27. It should be noted that 191 song that had charted so far did not list a producer. On the local radio charts ‘The Warrior’ made it to 6 on Radio 5, 10 on the Capital 604 ones and 16 on Radio 702.

We once again saw 16 of the top 30 songs being by solo male artists and this equalled the all-time record high we would see for the men. It was 3 weeks back that the record was set, but for the last 2 weeks their total had dropped to 15. A bit of a spoiler alert, but this would be the last time we had this many hits by solo males in the charts.

Acts from Germany moved into outright 5^th place overall for weeks in the charts as their 373 moved them ahead of the Canadians who were on 372. The Netherlands on 379 was the only one of the non big-3 nations above them.

Julio Iglesias and The Pointer Sisters both celebrated getting to 30 weeks in the charts. Julio had the added cause for celebration in that he had managed his 30 weeks without seeing a biggest faller award. He was the 26^th act to see a run of 30 weeks or more without having suffered a biggest fall.

Youtube playlist:

9 November 1984

TW	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	15	Manuel Goodbye	–	Audrey Landers
2	3	6	I Just Called to Say I Love You	–	Stevie Wonder
3	2	11	What’s Love Got to do with It	–	Tina Turner
4	4	8	Ghostbusters	–	Ray Parker Jr.
5	5	20	Self Control	–	Laura Branigan
6	6	12	When Doves Cry	–	Prince
7	11	6	Careless Whisper	–	George Michael
8	8	10	Boys do Fall in Love	–	Robin Gibb
9	7	13	Dancing in the Dark	–	Bruce Springsteen
10	14	6	Agadoo	–	Black Lace
11	9	23	To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before	–	Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson
12	10	12	Susanna	–	Art Company
13	13	9	Jump (for My Love)	–	Pointer Sisters
14	12	25	I Want to Break Free	–	Queen
15	16	8	Trans-Karoo	–	Herman Holtzhausen
16	19	12	Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go	–	Wham!
17	15	16	Oh Sherrie	–	Steve Perry
18	17	20	Colour My Love	–	Fun Fun
19	23	4	I Can Dream About You	–	Dan Hartman
20	29	3	Man on Fire	–	Roger Taylor
21	21	7	Stoksielalleen	–	David Kramer
22	30	2	She Bop	–	Cyndi Lauper
23	24	6	All of You	–	Diana Ross & Julio Iglesias
24	26	4	Love Kills	–	Freddie Mercury
25	25	4	African Queen (No More Love On The Run)	–	Billy Ocean
26	18	17	Earthquake	–	Flirtations
27	28	4	Love Somebody	–	Rick Springfield
28	20	14	Two Tribes	–	Frankie Goes to Hollywood
29	22	9	High on Emotion	–	Chris de Burgh
30	New	1	Sounds Like a Melody	–	Alphaville

Audrey Landers’ ‘Manuel Goodbye’ joined 77 other song in spending at least 5 weeks at 1 and it was the 9^th by a solo female to manage this. It was, however, under pressure from Stevie Wonder’s ‘I Just Called To Say I Love You’ which climbed up 1 from 3 to 2. Wonder was now enjoying his highest placing in the charts having surpassed the peak he saw with ‘Ebony And Ivory’, a duet he did with Paul McCartney which got to 3.

Roger Taylor leapfrogged his bandmate, Freddie Mercury, as ‘Man On Fire’ took the climber of the week award with a 9 place jump from 29 to 20. Mercury’s ‘Love Kills’ had to be satisfied with a 2 place climb from 26 to 24. Queen had picked up 7 biggest climbers and Taylor’s effort was the first for a band member.

Within the top 20 it was George Michael’s ‘Careless Whisper’ and Black Lace’s ‘Agadoo’ which shared the climber award as they both moved up 4 to land at 7 and 10 respectively.

Apart from the biggest climbers mentioned above, we also saw Dan Hartman’s ‘I Can Dream About You’ and Cyndi Lauper’s ‘She Bop’ make star rater climbs as they moved up 4 to 19 and 8 to 22 respectively. ‘She Bop’ was the 51^st song to climb 8 or more and not be the climber of the week.

Two songs shared the faller of the week award and they were Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s ‘Two Tribes’ and The Flirtations’ ‘Earthquake’ which both fell 8 places to land at 28 and 26 respectively. Within the top 20 it was just a 2 place drop that gave you a faller award and 5 songs managed this. They were Steve Perry’s ‘Oh Sherry’ (down to 17), Queen’s ‘I Want To Break Free’ (down to 14), The Art Company’s ‘Susanna’ (down to 12), Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson’s ‘To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before’ (down to 11) and Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Dancing In The Dark’ (down to 9).

Queen’s ‘I Want To Break Free’ moved on to 24 weeks in the top 20 and 25 in the top 30 and had been the oldest in the former for 5 weeks and in the latter for 4 weeks.

The two fallers of the week, ‘Earthquake’ and ‘Two Tribes’, were the only songs to leave the top 20 this week and they were replaced by the climber of the week, ‘Man On Fire’ and Dan Hartman’s ‘I Can Dream About You’.

Queen’s 3 week run with 2 in the charts came to an end as ‘It’s A Hard Life’ left the charts after just 3 weeks and a peak of 27. Between the band and its members, they did, however, have 3 hits in the charts with Roger Taylor and Freddie Mercury’s solo efforts being there as well as ‘I Want To Break Free’.

The new entry was Alphaville’s second SA chart hit, ‘Sounds Like A Melody’. The song was one requested by the record execs to release after ‘Big In Japan’ despite the band wishing to release ‘Forever Young’, the title track of their album. The band did not like the final result of ‘Sound Like A Melody’ and refused to play the song live for 10 years. The public, however, took to the song and it went to 3 in Austria, 10 in Belgium, 10 in France, 1 in Italy, 6 in The Netherlands, 5 in Norway, 5 in Spain, 1 in Sweden, 4 in Switzerland and 3 in their native Germany. It was the 36^th song by a German act to make our charts and Germany was now just 1 behind The Netherlands and 2 behind Canada, the 2 non-big 3 nations that had seen more hits. ‘Sounds Like A Melody’ would make it to 4 in Zimbabwe, top the 702 charts, get to 2 on Capital 604 and 3 on Radio 5.

Cyndi Lauper became the 25^th act to have a run of 30 weeks without experiencing a biggest faller as she clocked up her 30^th week in the chart.

On the weeks in the chart by acts from a nation list, we saw Germany draw level with acts from Canada with both nations having seen 372. They sat tied 2^nd for the non-big 3 nations with The Netherlands on 378 above them.

Queen celebrated their 120^th week in the charts, but this was not enough to move them up from 15th place on the weeks count list. They were 3 behind Joe Dolan who sat 14^th.

Fun Fun’s ‘Colour My Love’ became the 100^th song to make it to 20 weeks on the charts and with their ‘Happy Station’ also having made it to 20 weeks, they were the 5^th act to see 2 songs reach 20 weeks in the charts. The previous acts to manage this were Four Jacks & A Jill, Vicky Leandros, Boney M and Dr Hook.

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2 November 1984

TW	LW	Weeks	Song		Artist
1	1	14	Manuel Goodbye	–	Audrey Landers
2	4	10	What’s Love Got to do with It	–	Tina Turner
3	6	5	I Just Called to Say I Love You	–	Stevie Wonder
4	3	7	Ghostbusters	–	Ray Parker Jr.
5	2	19	Self Control	–	Laura Branigan
6	7	11	When Doves Cry	–	Prince
7	5	12	Dancing in the Dark	–	Bruce Springsteen
8	11	9	Boys do Fall in Love	–	Robin Gibb
9	8	22	To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before	–	Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson
10	9	11	Susanna	–	Art Company
11	21	5	Careless Whisper	–	George Michael
12	10	24	I Want to Break Free	–	Queen
13	15	8	Jump (for My Love)	–	Pointer Sisters
14	20	5	Agadoo	–	Black Lace
15	14	15	Oh Sherrie	–	Steve Perry
16	18	7	Trans-Karoo	–	Herman Holtzhausen
17	13	19	Colour My Love	–	Fun Fun
18	12	16	Earthquake	–	Flirtations
19	19	11	Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go	–	Wham!
20	16	13	Two Tribes	–	Frankie Goes to Hollywood
21	22	6	Stoksielalleen	–	David Kramer
22	17	8	High on Emotion	–	Chris de Burgh
23	24	3	I Can Dream About You	–	Dan Hartman
24	26	5	All of You	–	Diana Ross & Julio Iglesias
25	23	3	African Queen (No More Love On The Run)	–	Billy Ocean
26	27	3	Love Kills	–	Freddie Mercury
27	28	3	It’s a Hard Life	–	Queen
28	29	3	Love Somebody	–	Rick Springfield
29	30	2	Man on Fire	–	Roger Taylor
30	New	1	She Bop	–	Cyndi Lauper

Audrey Lander’s ‘Manuel Goodbye’ spent a 4^th week at 1 but it had a new number 2 to deal with and that was Tina Turner’s ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It’ which had dropped from 3 to 4 last week, but now jumped 2 to give us the 28^th week where the top 2 songs were by solo female artists. It also meant we had a record equalling run of 5 consecutive weeks with the top 2 being by women. Positions 1 to 7 were all taken by American acts and this gave us the 4^th and last time we would see the top 7 all by acts from the same nation.

George Michael’s ‘Careless Whisper’ picked up the climber of the week award with a 10 place climb from 21 to 11. It was the 109^th time a song had climbed 10 or more in a week and was the highest new entry into the top 20 since the charts were extended to a top 30.

The climber within the top 20 was also the only other star rater this week and that was Black Lace’s ‘Agadoo’ which moved up 6 from 20 to 14.

Falling honours went to The Flirtations’ ‘Earthquake’ which dropped 6 places from 12 to 18 to be the faller both within the top 20 and the top 30.

Queen’s ‘I Want To Break Free’ was the oldest in both the top 20 and the top 30 having been on the former for 23 weeks and the latter for 24 weeks. It was its 4^th and 3^rd week respectively as the oldest on the top 20 and top 30.

As mentioned above, ‘Careless Whisper’ was a new entry into the top 20 and it would be the only one. It replaced Chris de Burgh’s ‘High On Emotion’ which dropped from 17 to 22.

There was also only 1 song leaving the top 30 and that was Elton John’s ‘Sad Songs (Say So Much)’ which had seen a run of 13 weeks and peaked at 5 during that time, the 4^th of his 11 hits so far to make the top 5. He would return to the charts at a later date.

After the early success of ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ (a number 3 hit), Cyndi Lauper’s next offering, ‘Time After Time’ failed to make the top 20, stalling at 25. She would have been hoping that it was 3^rd time lucky as her ‘She Bop’ was the new entry this week. The song was considered somewhat controversial as it obliquely referred to female masturbation and Lauper has admitted to recording the vocal track while nude. Despite that it managed a peak of 3 in the US but wasn’t as successful in the UK where it only got to 46. Elsewhere it made top 5 in Austria (#5), Canada (#3) and Israel (#3). It got to 15 in Zimbabwe. It would top the Radio 702 charts, get to 3 on the Capital 604 ones and 4 on the Radio 5 ones.

Laura Branigan celebrated getting to 30 weeks in the charts. She was the 192^nd act to manage this and the 30^th woman to do so. Queen moved into 15^th place on the overall weeks count list as their 2 songs in the charts helped them to leapfrog Creedence Clearwater Revival (who were on 118) and move on to 119 weeks.

Youtube playlist: