Written by: Vince Clarke & Andy Bell Produced by: Flood (real name Mark Ellis) South African record label (unless otherwise stated): Mute
Hit number for artist
2
Peak position
1
Weeks
21
Biggest climber awards
1
Star rater climbs
3
Biggest faller awards
1
Top 20 points
271
Overall Top 20 points ranking
139
Top 20 points ranking for the artist
1
Top 30 Points
476
Overall Top 30 points ranking
=125
Top 30 points ranking for the artist
=1
Annual ranking:
1987
10
Other chart success:
Australia
45
Austria
10
Belgium
2
Colombia
8
Denmark
9
Finland
5
France
39
Germany
2
Ireland
3
Italy
25
Netherlands
2
New Zealand
15
Peru
8
Portugal
7
Spain
1
Sweden
20
Switzerland
3
UK
2
SA Radio charts:
Capital 604
3
Radio 5
3
Radio 702
4
The song spent an all-time record 6 straight weeks at 2 before getting to number 1. Other songs had seen longer runs at 2, but these either never made it to 1, or had the run after being at 1. It was denied the top spot in the UK by Europe’s ‘The Final Countdown. In The Netherlands and Germany it was Mel & Kim’s ‘Showing Out’ that kept it from number 1 while in Belgium it was Jackie Wilson’s ‘Reet Petite’. In all 4 of the countries just mentioned, it would only spend 1 week at 2.
Written by: Vince Clarke & Andy Bell Produced by: Stephen Hague & Dave Jacob South African record label (unless otherwise stated): Mute
Hit number for artist
3
Peak position
11
Weeks
14
Biggest climber awards
1
Star rater climbs
4
Biggest faller awards
1
Top 20 points
35
Overall Top 20 points ranking
=1777
Top 20 points ranking for the artist
3
Top 30 Points
140
Overall Top 30 points ranking
=1543
Top 30 points ranking for the artist
3
Annual ranking:
1988
=63
Other chart success:
Denmark
7
Germany
9
Ireland
6
Switzerland
12
UK
6
SA Radio charts:
Capital 604
1
Songwriter, Vince Clarke, was a member of both Erasure and Yazoo (he was also a member of Depeche Mode, but that was before they had any SA chart hits). Of the 5 hits his 2 bands had on our charts (3 by Erasure and 2 by Yazoo), this would be the lowest ranked using a top 30 points basis. Erasure would have the 8th highest top 30 points total for acts seeing 3 hits on out charts (there were 110 that managed 3 hits). The 12” version of the single included the band’s cover of ‘River Deep, Mountain High’ which had been a number 14 SA chart hit in 1971 for the Four Tops and The Supremes.
Written by: Vince Clarke & Andy Bell Produced by: Flood South African record label (unless otherwise stated): Mute
Hit number for artist
1
Peak position
2
Weeks
25
Biggest climber awards
0
Star rater climbs
2
Biggest faller awards
1
Top 20 points
246
Overall Top 20 points ranking
=200
Top 20 points ranking for the artist
2
Top 30 Points
476
Overall Top 30 points ranking
=125
Top 30 points ranking for the artist
=1
Annual ranking:
1986
62
1987
31
Other chart success:
Australia
13
Denmark
7*
France
14
Germany
16
Ireland
17
New Zealand
25
Paraguay
8
Singapore
3
Sweden
15
UK
85/13*
Zimbabwe
2
* Peak relates to the 2003 remix.
SA Radio charts:
Radio 5
3
The song was denied the top spot in SA by Chris de Burgh’s ‘The Lady In Red’. It would outperform both hits by Vince Clarke’s previous band, Yazoo as well as outperforming Depeche Mode which Clarke was a member of but had left the band before they saw SA chart action (top 30 point basis). The song would have ranked 5th had it had its whole run on 1986 and tied 10th (with their other hit, ‘Sometimes’) had its run been completely in 1987. In 1987 a UK band called Dollar would see their cover of the track get to 7 in the UK.
Vince Clarke had originally been in Depeche Mode and then moved on to Yazoo. After Yazoo split up he tried the idea of having guest vocalists work with him going under the name The Assembly. It started well with The Undertones’ Feargal Shakey providing the vocals for ‘Never Never’ which made it to number 4 in the UK, but that was it for The Assembly. Clarke then released a single called ‘One Day’ with Paul Quinn from a band called Bourgie Bourgie. The songs scraped a number 99 peak on the UK charts. At this point Clarke advertised for a vocalist in the UK music magazine ‘Melody Maker’. Andy Bell, who was singing in a band called the Void at the time, applied and got the job. The duo had a slow start with their first 3 hits peaking at 55, 100 and 85 respectively. Then came ‘Sometimes’ which went to number 2. Since then their hit count has climbed to 37 with their EP of Abba covers, called ‘Abba-esque’, being their only chart topper as it spent 5 weeks at 1. They have managed 6 US hits with 1988’s ‘Chains Of Love’ giving them their best peak of 12. They have continued to record with 2020’s ‘The Neon’ being their latest release at the time of writing.
Date of entry
Song
Peak (weeks at 1)
Weeks
29-Nov-1986
Oh L’amour
2
25
15-Feb-1987
Sometimes
1 (1)
21
23-Jun-1988
Ship Of Fools
11
14
Total hits
3
Total weeks
60
Biggest climber awards
2
Star rater climbs
9
Biggest fallers
3
Weeks with oldest in the charts
4
Longest run in the charts (weeks)
35
Weeks with more than 1 in the charts
11
Biggest gap between hits (weeks)
50
Top 30 points ranking
111
Top 20 points ranking
108
Top 30 points
1092
Top 20 points
552
Erasure had the second highest total weeks count for an act seeing 3 hits. They were beaten by Jennifer Warnes and Starship who both managed 68 weeks from 3 hits.
Yazoo hits featuring Vince Clarke:
Date of entry
Song
Peak (weeks at 1)
Weeks
03-Dec-1982
Don’t Go
9
16
22-Jul-1983
Nobody’s Diary
6
16
Total hits
2
Total weeks
32
Vince Clarke had left Depeche Mode before they had any SA chart hits.
Total chart involvement of the band and its members:
Despite the odds being stacked against it, Erasure’s ‘Sometimes’ made it to number 1. It had sat at number 2 for a record breaking 6 weeks before hitting the top spot (some songs had seen longer runs at 2 but had either not made it to 1 or seen the run after dropping from the top spot). ’Sometimes’ replaced Paul Lekakis’ ‘Boom Boom (Let’s Go Back To My Room)’ after the latter had been the nation’s favourite for 3 weeks. ‘Sometimes’ was the 114th song by a British act to top the charts and the British were now 3 behind the Americans who had managed 117. The Americans had spent 33 more weeks at 1 than the Brits.
Robbie Nevil’s ‘C’est La Vie’ took the climber of the week award with a 9 place jump from 23 to 14 and, along with The Pretenders’ ‘Hymn To Her’, was a new entry into the top 20. Boy George’s ‘Everything I Own’ had been the climber in the charts for the last 2 weeks. It had been the climber in the top 20 for the second of those 2 weeks, and now it was the climber in the top 20 for 2nd week running as it took the award for that part of the chart with an 8 place jump from 14 to 6. Apart from the 2 biggest climbers, there were 2 other star raters and these were Aretha Franklin and George Michael’s ‘I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)’ and local act The Lovemasters’ ‘Caravan Of Love’ which moved up 7 and 4 places to land at 10 and 11 respectively.
The faller of the week was Debbie Harry’s ‘French Kissing In The U.S.A.’ which dropped 11 from 10 to 21. It was joined in leaving the top 20 by Gregory Abbott’s ‘Shake you Down’. ‘French Kissing In The U.S.A.’ was the 12th song to fall 11 or more places in a week and set the all-time record highest final position for a song leaving the top 20 during the top 30 era.
Within the top 20 it was Wang Chung’s ‘Everybody Have Fun Tonight’ which fell 6 from 9 to 15. It was still the oldest in the top 20, sharing the title with Stacey Q’s ‘Two Of Hearts’. Both songs had been in the top 20 for 18 weeks and this was their 3rd week as the oldest.
It was a good news/bad news week for Erasure as they had the good news of reaching number 1 but they also had the bad news that ‘Oh L’Amour’ was falling off the charts. They were the 3rd act to take the top spot in the same week one of their songs left the charts. The previous acts to manage this were The Bee Gees who went to number 1 with ‘I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You’ the same week ‘To Love Somebody’ left the charts and Pussycat who took the top spot with ‘Smile’ the week ‘Mississippi’ left the charts. ‘Oh L’Amour’ spent 25 weeks in the charts and peaked at 2.
We also bid farewell to The Bangles’ ‘Walk Like An Egyptian’ which managed 21 weeks and spent 4 of those at 1. Their only other hit to date, ‘Manic Monday’ had spent 5 weeks more in the charts, but only managed 2 weeks at 1. The Bangles would return to the charts at a later date.
Jennifer Rush’s first run in the charts lasted a record 54 consecutive weeks with 3 hits overlapping to get her to that total. After that initial flurry, there had been nothing for almost as long as that first run as it was now 52 weeks since she was last last in the charts, but she returned this week with ‘I Come Undone’, our first new entry. The song was taken from her third album, ‘Heart Over Mind’ and was a cover of a song recorded in 1983 by an American singer called Ellen Shipley. Shipley co-wrote the song with Morrie Brown, a songwriter/producer who had worked with Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King and BT Express. ‘I Come Undone’ would be a minor hit in Europe for Rush, going to 28 in Austria, 11 in Germany, 9 in Switzerland and 94 in the UK.
The second new entry was Starship’s ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’. It was their 3rd SA chart hit and would give songwriters Diane Warren and Albert Hammond their 2nd and 12th hits on our charts respectively. Warren had co-written DeBarge’s ‘Rhythm Of The Night’ while Hammond had seen 4 hits make the charts as an artist. ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’ was used in the film ‘Mannequin’ which starred Andrew McCarthy and Kim Cattrall (of ‘Sex And The City ‘ fame) and was nominated for the Oscar for Best Original Song , losing out to ‘(I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life’ from ‘Dirty Dancing. ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’ would top the charts in the UK, the US, Canada, Ireland, Portugal and Zimbabwe as well as having a clean sweep of number 1’s on the Radio 5, Capital 604 and Radio 702 charts.
After 5 weeks in a row seeing an equal number of hits by UK and US acts, we finally saw the deadlock broken as we now had 13 US hits and only 11 UK hits. This meant that the record run for the 2 nations being equal was not broken and still sat at 5.
Canadian acts celebrated reaching the 400 weeks milestone with Glass Tiger’s ‘Don’t’ Forget Me When I’m Gone’ having the honour of getting their nation to that milestone. Canada sat 3rd of the non-big 3 nations but were only 4 behind The Netherlands who were second. They had a lot of catching up to do to Germany who led the way with 619 weeks.
Toto reached 50 weeks in the charts and were the 117th act to reach their half century. On the top 30 points front, Billy Joel saw his total move on to 2,000 and he was the 25th act to reach this milestone.
SA Singles Charts 