Written by: Otha Young Produced by: Richard Landis South African record label (unless otherwise stated): Capitol
Hit number for artist
3
Peak position
18
Weeks
1
Biggest climber awards
0
Star rater climbs
0
Biggest faller awards
0
Top 20 points
3
Overall Top 20 points ranking
=2288
Top 20 points ranking for the artist
3
Top 30 Points
13
Overall Top 30 points ranking
=2425
Top 30 points ranking for the artist
3
Annual ranking:
1982
=105
Other chart success:
Canada
25
US
7
SA Radio charts:
Radio 5
8
The song was first recorded by Newton in 1975 when she was putting out material with her support band, Silver Spur. That version would only make it to the b-side of some singles. In 1976 a US country singer called Dottsy would see her version get to 86 on the US Country Singles Charts. After Newton went solo, she would re-record the track and release it in the wake of her success with ‘Angel Of The Morning’ and ‘Queen Of Hearts’. This new version would top the US and Canadian Country Singles charts.
The song was first recorded in 1979 by Dave Edmunds and he would see his version get to 11 in the UK, 12 in Ireland and 59 in Australia. Songwriter, Hank DeVito, was a member of Emmylou Harris’ backing band. Juice Newton’s version would be kept off the top spot in SA by Foreigner’s ‘Urgent’ and in the US (where it also spent 2 weeks at 2) by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie’s ‘Endless Love’. It was the 1st of 2 songs that saw a record 8 more falls than climbs (the other one was Irene Cara’s ‘Flashdance…What A Feeling’.)
Written by: Chip Taylor Produced by: Richard Landis South African record label (unless otherwise stated): Capitol
Hit number for artist
1
Peak position
3
Weeks
10
Biggest climber awards
0
Star rater climbs
1
Biggest faller awards
1
Top 20 points
116
Overall Top 20 points ranking
=969
Top 20 points ranking for the artist
2
Top 30 Points
216
Overall Top 30 points ranking
=1083
Top 30 points ranking for the artist
2
Annual ranking:
1981
39
Other chart success:
Australia
2
Austria
7
Canada
1
Germany
23
New Zealand
5
Switzerland
4
UK
43
US
4
Zimbabwe
14
SA Radio charts:
Capital 604
4
The song was originally recorded in 1967 by Evie Sands. In 1968 Merrillee Rush took a cover version to 7 in the US and in 2000 Shaggy had a US number 1 hit with ‘Angel’ which largely used the melody of the song.
Juice was born in a place called Lakehurst in New Jersey. Encouraged by her mother, she learned to play the guitar and while at College in California, she would be seen playing in the local coffee houses. There she met Otha Young and they formed Juice Newton & Silver Spur. Juice was the nickname her family had given her, and despite being advised to drop this name, she stuck with it.
Along with Silver Spur she released two albums and they scored a minor hit with ‘Love Is A Word’ which scraped a number 88 peak on the Hot Country Singles charts in the US, but failed to make the cross over to the main pop charts. Their lack of success led to them being dropped by RCA, their record label. However, Juice managed to get a contract with Capitol records and recorded for them as just Juice Newton even though Silver Spur continued as her backing band. Her first pop chart success came in 1978 when she recorded a version of ‘It’s A Heartache’, a song which Bonnie Tyler made famous that same year. While Tyler’s version got to number 3, Juice’s only managed to get to 86. That same year The Carpenters recorded ‘Sweet Sweet Smile’ which Juice and Otha had written and this went to 44 on the Billboard Hot 100. For the last few years of the 70’s she continued to release records with minor success on the Country music charts. The change of decade brought a change of fortune as her 1981 album, simply entitled ‘Juice’, would produce 3 top 10 singles in the form of ‘Angel Of The Morning’ (#4), ‘Queen Of Hearts’ (#2) and ‘The Sweetest Thing’ (#7). This would be the peak of her career as future releases did not fare as well, although she would see further number 1’s on the Country charts. In total she managed 11 Hot 11 hits (‘Queen Of Hearts’ gave her her best peak) and 25 Country Singles hits with 4 number 1’s on that chart.
SA Singles Charts 