Written by: Miki Chieregato, Riccardo Ballerini, Roberto Turatti, Stefano Montin & Tom Hooker Produced by: Miki Chieregato, Roberto Turatti, Ric Wake South African record label (unless otherwise stated): Teal
Born: 22 October 1966 (some sources give the year as 1965)
Lekakis was born in Westchester County, an area just north of New York. As a youngster he loved singing and dancing and would sing in church choirs and took singing lessons and dance classes while at school. He moved to New York in his teens and began a modelling career. It was while on a modelling assignment in Italy that Miki Chieregato and Roberto Turatti (a couple of record producers) noticed him dancing at a nightclub. They got him to record a record and result was ‘Boom Boom (Let’s Go Back To My Room)’ which would go to 43 in the US and 60 in the UK. It would apparently top the chart in Japan. After this initial success work dried up and he would end up working as a male prostitute to make ends meet. He would then get a break as an actor, starring in a few movies mainly as HIV positive characters (Lekakis himself being HIV positive).
Paul Lekakis enjoyed a 3rd week at 1 with ‘Boom Boom (Let’s Go Back To My Room)’ while Erasure’s ‘Sometimes’ spent a 6th consecutive week at 2. No song had every got to number 1 after spending 6 straight weeks at 2.
Boy George picked up the climber of the week award for a second week running as his ‘Everything I Own’ moved up a further 4 places from 18 to 14. This would be the climber in the top 20 and the top 30 and would also be the only star rater we would see this week.
The faller of the week was Toto’s ‘I’ll Be Over You’ which dropped 5 from 21 to 26. This was their 5th time with the award. So far 72 acts had seen 5 or more fallers. Within the top 20 it was Bon Jovi’s ‘You Give Love A Bad Name’ which had the biggest faller as it dropped 3 from 15 to 18.
Amazulu’s ‘Montego Bay’ dropped out of the top 20 giving way to Freddie Mercury’s ‘The Great Pretender’ which moved up from 22 to 20. This meant that Wang Chung’s ‘Everybody Have Fun Tonight’ and Stacey Q’s ‘Two Of Hearts’ continued their run as the oldest in the top 20. Both songs had been in the top 20 for 17 weeks.
We lost Huey Lewis & The News’ ‘Hip To Be Square’ from the top 30. It had seen a run of 10 weeks and peaked at 20. They still had 1 more hit to come. This was the only song leaving the charts this week so Erasure’s ‘Oh L’Amour’ enjoyed a second week as the oldest in the top 20 as it ticked over to 25 weeks.
The new entry was a 3rd chart hit for The Temptations in the form of ‘Lady Soul’ which arrived at number 28 this week. The song was written by an Australian guy called Mark Holden who would end up being one of the judges on the Australian Idol TV show. It would give The Temptations a number 47 hit in the US and at the time of writing this, was their last Billboard Hot 100 hit. It proved popular in Zimbabwe where it got to number 2. The Radio 5 DJs liked it as it got to 7 on their charts and the Capital 604 DJs sent it to 18 on their charts, but it did not make the 702 charts.
This week saw a record equalling 5 consecutive weeks where the number of hits by UK acts in the charts equalled those by US acts. The run began with both nations having 11 hits and then for 4 weeks running they both had 12. This was the 3rd time we had seen a 5 week run with the 2 nations both having the same number of hits.
Billy Joel’s ‘A Matter Of Trust’ became the 171st song to reach 20 week in the charts. This moved Joel on to 118 weeks in total and put him tied 18th overall, pulling level with Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Modern Talking moved on to 128 weeks and sat 13th, 2 weeks behind 12th placed Boney M. This meant that Olivia Newton-John, who had shared 13th place with Modern Talking last week, dropped to 14th. Meanwhile George Michael saw his total weeks count hit the 60 mark. He was the 82nd act to get to this total.
Paul Lekakis’ ‘Boom Boom (Let’s Go back To My Room)’ spent a second week at 1 while Erasure’s ‘Sometimes’ was unmoved at 2, spending its 5th week there. So far only 1 song had managed to spend as many as 5 straight weeks at 2 before eventually taking the top spot and that was Silver Pozolli’s ‘Around My Dream.
Boy George’s ‘Everything I Own’ was the climber of the week as it moved up 8 from 26 to 18. It, along with A-ha’s ‘Cry Wolf’ were the 2 new entries into the top 20. Within the top 20 it was Aretha Franklin and George Michael’s ‘I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)’ which took the climbing honours as it moved up 3 from 20 to 17. Apart from ‘Everything I Own’, there was only 1 other star rater and it was Robibe Nevil’s ‘C’est La Vie’ which moved up 5 from 29 to 24.
The Bangles picked up their second biggest faller award as their ‘Walk Like An Egyptian’ dropped 8 from 19 to 27. It was joined by Toto’s ‘I’ll Be Over You’ in leaving the top 20. ‘I’ll Be Over You’ had spent 10 weeks in the top 20 and peaked at 10, making it the 72nd song to see an equal weeks and peak figure. The Bangles had not seen any biggest fallers with their first hit, ‘Manic Monday’ but had now picked up 2 in 2 weeks with their second hit. Debbie Harry’s ‘French Kissing In The U.S.A.’ was the faller within the top 20, dropping 2 from 8 to 10.
Erasure’s ‘Oh L’Amour’ was still the oldest in the top 30 as it moved on to 24 weeks in the charts and enjoyed its 4th week as the oldest. ‘Walk Like An Egyptian’ had been the oldest in the top 20 so we now had to look to Wang Chung’s ‘Everybody Have Fun Tonight’ and Stacey Q’s’ Two Of Hearts’ which had both been in that part of the chart for 16 weeks.
A-ha’s run with 2 in the charts lasted just 3 weeks as their ‘I’ve Been Losing You’ was the first of 2 songs to depart the chart this week. It lasted 11 weeks in total made up of a run of 5 weeks, then after being absent for 1 week it returned for a 6 week run. It reached its highest placing of 23 during this second run and this equalled the lowest peak for a song managing 11 weeks, a feat Gino Vannelli’s ‘Black Cars’ managed.
Also going was Madonna’s ‘True Blue’. It had been with us for 19 weeks and peaked at 4. It was her 3rd hit to peak at 4 with only ‘Like A Virgin’ managing a higher peak as it got to 2. She had seen 7 hits so far and we were not done with her yet.
Bon Jovi became the 101st act to see 2 or more hits in the charts in the same week as ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’ joined ‘You Give Love A Bad Name’ in the top 30. You may recall when we saw Maria Vidal’s ‘Body Rock’ enter the charts in February of 1985, that I mentioned that Maria was the inspiration for the character Gina in the lyrics to ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’, especially the line ‘Gina works the diner all day’ as Vidal, who was the girlfriend of Desmond Child who co-wrote the song, had worked in a diner and was nicknamed Gina because of her resemblance to Gina Lollobrigida. Like ‘You Give Love A Band Name’, ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’ would also top the US charts, but it would spend 4 weeks at 1 compared to their earlier hit which managed just 1 week. It would also top the charts in Canada, New Zealand and Norway. It would get to 4 on the UK charts and would be their highest peak there until 1992 when ‘Always’ got to number 2. It would just miss out on a clean sweep of number 1’s on the local radio charts, topping the Capital 604 and Radio 702 charts, but stalling at 2 on the Radio 5 ones.
The second new entry came from Canadian band, Glass Tiger and was ‘Don’t Forget Me (When I’m Gone)’. This was the 41st song by a Canadian act to chart and the Canadians sat in second place for number of hits by act from the non-big 3 nations, however, they were 7 behind the leaders, Germany, who were on 48. ‘Don’t Forget Me (When I’m Gone)’ features Bryan Adams on backing vocals and it would top the charts in their native Canada but just miss out in the US where it peaked at number 2 for 1 week, stuck behind Janet Jackson’s ‘When I Think Of You’. It would also do well in Australia where it went to number 9. On the Radio 5 charts it would get to number 3 and it would peak at 8 on the 702 ones, but it didn’t manage to get onto the Capital 604 charts.
We had 12 songs by American acts and 12 songs by UK acts on this week’s chart and it was the 4th week running the 2 nations had seen the same number of songs in the charts. This was the 4th run of 4 weeks with them being equal. Two of the previous 3 times had seen the run extend to 5 weeks.
Stacey Q’s ‘Two Of Hearts’ and The Bangles’ ‘Walk Like An Egyptian’ both hit 20 weeks in the charts and they were the 169th and 170th songs to manage this. Stacey Q was 1 of 3 acts reaching 20 weeks in the chart this week. The other 2 were Alison Moyet and Wang Chung. The Pretenders reached 30 weeks while Huey Lewis & The News became the 116th act to hit 50. Cliff Richard closed in on Tom Jones for weeks as he ticked over to 180 and sat 5 behind Jones. The 2 acts were 3rd and 4th overall.
Modern Talking moved into tied 13th place on the weeks count list, joining Olivia Newton-John there with 127weeks to their name.
Erasure had now had 10 straight weeks with both ‘Oh L’Amour’ and ‘Sometimes’ in the charts. They were the 11th act to manage a run of at least 10 weeks with 2 or more in the charts with Jennifer Rush being the only one of the 11 who had managed this twice.
Erasure’s ‘Sometimes’ must have been really annoyed as it had waited patiently at 2 for 3 weeks, stuck behind Europe’s ‘The Final Countdown’. But this week, when ‘The Final Countdown’ finally dropped from the top spot, instead of ‘Sometimes’ taking over, it was Paul Lekakis’ ‘Boom Boom (Let’s Go Back To My Room)’ which leapfrogged ‘Sometimes’, jumping up from 3 to 1. ‘Sometimes’ spent a 4th week at 2 while ‘The Final Countdown’ dropped to 3 after 5 weeks at 1.
There was a 3-way tie for climber of the week as Gregory Abbott’s ‘Shake You Down’, Freddie Mercury’s ‘The Great Pretender’ and The Pretenders’ ‘Hymn To Her’ all moved up 6 to land at 12, 23 and 24 respectively. ‘Shake You Down’ was the only one of the 3 that managed this climb within the top 20. Two other songs made star rater climbs and they were Alison Moyet’s ‘Is This Love’ and A-ha’s ‘Cry Wolf’ which moved up 4 and 5 to land at 7 and 21 respectively. This was Alison Moyet’s 7th star rater climb and she was yet to have a biggest faller award. This was a new record for star raters without a biggest climber.
On the falling front it was The Bangles’ ‘Walk Like An Egyptian’ and Huey Lewis & The News’ ‘Hip To Be Square’ which took the honours. Both songs dropped 5 to land at 19 and 28 respectively, making ‘Walk Like An Egyptian’ the faller within the top 20. The Bangles were sitting on 45 weeks and this was their first biggest faller. They were the 3rd act within 4 weeks to see their first biggest faller on exactly 45 weeks (we had Huey Lewis & The News manage this 4 weeks back and then Chris de Burgh 2 weeks back). In total 7 acts had been on 45 weeks or higher when seeing their first biggest faller.
There was no movement on or off the top 20 so ‘Walk Like An Egyptian’ enjoyed a second week as the oldest in that part of the chart. It was on 18 top 20 weeks. Erasure’s ‘Oh L’Amour’ moved on to 23 weeks in the top 30 and this was its second week as the oldest in the overall chart.
There were 3 songs leaving the charts this week. The first of these was Dead or Alive’s ‘Brand New Lover’ which saw a run of 12 weeks in total (broken into runs of 2 weeks, 8weeks, and 2 weeks with a week’s break between runs). During its run it peaked at 19. This ended Dead or Alive’s SA chart career. They had seen 3 hits make the charts, accumulated a total of 34 weeks and their best peak was 3 which ‘Lover Come Back To Me’ managed.
Also going was Julian Cope’s ‘World Shut Your Mouth’ which managed 11 weeks and peaked at 12. It would be Cope’s only SA chart hit.
Last of the leavers was Lionel Richie’s ‘Ballerina Girl’ which managed 7 weeks and peaked at 24. This was his tied lowest peak, but the other song that peaked at 24 (‘Love Will Conquer All’) had the lower weeks count of 4. Like Julian Cope, Richie was also seeing the end of his SA chart career. He gave us 8 hits, managed 126 weeks and saw 4 number 1’s which spent a total of 17 weeks at 1. If one adds in his hit as a member of the Commodores it would make his hits count 9 and weeks total 143. He also had song writing credits on 2 further hits (Kenny Rogers’ ‘Lady’ and USA For Africa’s ‘We Are The World’) which, if added in, give him 11 hits, 180 weeks, 5 number 1’s and 19 weeks at 1.
The first new entry was the first solo hit for Culture Club’s lead singer, Boy George. With Culture Club he had seen 4 hits make our charts and now he charted on his own ‘Everything I Own’. The song was a cover of a 1972 hit for Bread. Their version got to number 5 in the US. Two years later Jamaican artist, Ken Boothe, took a cover to number 1 in the UK for 3 weeks. Like the Ken Boothe version, Boy George’s one also topped the UK charts, but only managed 2 weeks at 1. It would go to the top of the charts in Ireland, Norway and Zimbabwe and would top the Radio 5 and Capital 604 charts, but not make the Radio 702 ones.
The second new entry was ‘C’est La Vie’ by Robbie Nevil. This was the second song with that title to make our charts, the previous one being Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s number 14 hit in 1977. This was the 34th song title that had been seen on the charts for at least 2 completely different songs. Nevil had seen some success as a songwriter, having penned tracks for Sheena Easton, Melissa Manchester, Rockwell and The Pointer Sisters. Most of these were album tracks, but his biggest success as a songwriter before his own hits took off was getting to number 70 in the US having penned El DeBarge’s ‘Someone’. However, his first solo hit, C’est La Vie’ would go to number 2 in the US (stuck behind Gregory Abbott’s ‘Shake You Down’ for 1 week and then Billy Vera’s ‘At This Moment’ for a second week). It would top the charts in Canada and Switzerland and just miss out in Ireland, New Zealand, Sweden and Germany where it was stuck at 2. It would make it to number 1 on Radio 5 and 16 on Capital 604 but not make the 702 charts.
The final new entry was the Eurythmics’ ‘Thorn In My Side’. It was their 5th song to make the charts and they were the 99th act to see this many hits. After the relative failure in the UK of their previous single, ‘When Tomorrow Comes’ (which only got to 30), ‘Thorn In My Side’, the second single of their album ‘Revenge’, sent them back up into the top 10 in the UK where it peaked at 5. The music video for the song features Clem Burke, the drummer from Blondie. ‘Thorn In My Side’ would go top 20 in Australia (#12), Austria (#14), Finland (#9), Ireland (#2), New Zealand (#7), Spain (#13) and Sweden (#6). In the US it would only peak at 68. It would top the Radio 702 charts and get to 17 on the Capital 604 ones, but not make the Radio 5 charts. ‘Thorn In My Side’ was the 800th song by a British act to make the charts.
Modern Talking caught up with Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie for weeks in the charts. All 3 acts had accumulated 126 weeks and they sat tied 14th overall. Billy Joel moved 1 week ahead of The Sweet and The Troggs with 116 weeks to his name. He held on to 19th place while the other 2 acts dropped into tied 20th spot.
Modern Talking also celebrated a second run of 40 weeks with at least 1 song in the charts. This run consisted of 19 weeks with ‘Brother Louie’, 9 weeks with ‘Brother Louie’ and ‘Atlantis Is Calling’, 2 weeks with just ‘Atlantis Is Calling’, 4 weeks with ‘Atlantis Is Calling’ and ‘Geronimo’s Cadillac’ and then 6 weeks with just ‘Geronimo’s Cadillac’. They would be the only act to see 2 separate runs of at least 40 weeks consecutive weeks in the charts.
SA Singles Charts 