* Rick Astley’s ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ was at number 1 this week and this was the only time an artist occupied the top and bottom spot on the same chart. ** This was the 2nd of only 2 songs to see 5 star raters but not have any biggest climbers. The previous one to manage this was Alison Moyet’s ‘Is This Love’. It was also the last of 8 songs to manage 5 star rater climbs with only The Staccatos’ ‘Cry To Me’ going on to see a 6th such climbs. *** This had the tied highest weeks count for a song re-entering the charts (18 weeks). It equalled Rick Nelson’s ‘I Need You’.
Written by: Mike Stock, Matt Aitken & Pete Waterman Produced by: Mike Stock, Matt Aitken & Pete Waterman South African record label (unless otherwise stated): RCA Victor
Hit number for artist
2
Peak position
7
Weeks
18
Biggest climber awards
0
Star rater climbs
5
Biggest faller awards
0
Top 20 points
103
Overall Top 20 points ranking
=1078
Top 20 points ranking for the artist
4
Top 30 Points
255
Overall Top 30 points ranking
=882
Top 30 points ranking for the artist
4
Annual ranking:
1988
42
Other chart success:
Australia
3
Austria
4
Belgium
2
Denmark
2
Finland
1
France
11
Germany
1
Iceland
17
Ireland
3
Italy
1
Netherlands
2
New Zealand
9
Norway
2
Spain
2
Sweden
1
Switzerland
1
UK
3
SA Radio charts:
Capital 604
1
Radio 5
1
Radio 702
1
The song was originally recorded by O’Chi Brown and her version would get to 97 on the UK charts. It would top the US Dance Club Play charts but not make the main Hot 100. Astley’s version was not given a US release and therefore also did not make the Hot 100 there, despite his previous hit, ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ topping the US charts. It would be the 62nd of 72 hit to chart in SA which would top all 3 of the local radio charts mentioned above.
Written by: Rick Astley Produced by: Phil Harding & Ian Curnow South African record label (unless otherwise stated): RCA Victor
Hit number for artist
4
Peak position
2
Weeks
18
Biggest climber awards
1
Star rater climbs
2
Biggest faller awards
0
Top 20 points
250
Overall Top 20 points ranking
=189
Top 20 points ranking for the artist
2
Top 30 Points
426
Overall Top 30 points ranking
=212
Top 30 points ranking for the artist
2
Annual ranking:
1988
47
1989
3
Other chart success:
Australia
15
Austria
Belgium
3
Canada
1
Denmark
4
Ecuador
1
Finland
2
Germany
10
Iceland
16
Ireland
4
Italy
7
Netherlands
8
New Zealand
10
Spain
5
Sweden
12
Switzerland
12
UK
6
US
6
Zimbabwe
3
SA Radio charts:
Capital 604
9
When Astley rejected the Stock, Aitken & Watermen penned ‘Nothing Can Divide Us’ as the intended lead single for his second album, he was given the go ahead to write a track himself to be the lead single. (as an aside, ‘Nothing Can Divide Us’ was then picked up by Jason Donovan and would be a UK number 5 hit for him). Astley wrote ‘She Wants To Dance With Me’ in the style of Whitney Houston’s ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ because he knew that Pete Waterman was a big fan of Houston. ‘She Wants To Dance With Me’ would be kept off the top spot on our charts by a Stock, Aitken & Waterman production in the form of Kylie Minogue’s ‘The Loco-motion’.
Written by: Mike Stock, Matt Aitken & Pete Waterman Produced by: Mike Stock, Matt Aitken & Pete Waterman South African record label (unless otherwise stated): RCA Victor
Hit number for artist
1
Peak position
1
Weeks
34
Biggest climber awards
1
Star rater climbs
2
Biggest faller awards
1
Top 20 points
449
Overall Top 20 points ranking
3
Top 20 points ranking for the artist
1
Top 30 Points
765
Overall Top 30 points ranking
3
Top 30 points ranking for the artist
1
Annual ranking:
1987
=32
1988
14
Other chart success:
Australia
1
Austria
4
Belgium
1
Canada
1
Denmark
1
Finland
1
France
6
Germany
1
Greece
1
Iceland
2/5*
Ireland
2
Italy
1
Netherlands
1
New Zealand
1
Norway
1
Spain
1
Sweden
1
Switzerland
2
UK
1
US
1
Zimbabwe
1
* Depending on which chart one uses
SA Radio charts:
Capital 604
1
Radio 5
4
Radio 702
1
Mike Stock, who co-wrote the song, has gone on record saying that the track was influenced by Colonel Abrams’ ‘Trapped’. The lyrics were apparently inspired by a conversation Rick Astley had with Pete Waterman where Astley spoke of his devotion to his girlfriend at the time. The song would be the 33rd of 36 that would top the US, UK and SA charts. Had it had its full run in 1987 or in 1988 then it would have been the top ranked song (top 30 points basis) in either year. It would have the tied 3rd highest weeks count for any song making our charts and the highest for a hit by a solo male artist.
* This was Astley’s second time seeing a song climb 10 places (the best he would see) and he became the 18th act to see a climb of 10 or more at least twice.
Written by: Mike Stock, Matt Aitken & Pete Waterman Produced by: Mike Stock, Matt Aitken & Pete Waterman South African record label (unless otherwise stated): PWL
Hit number for artist
3
Peak position
4
Weeks
19
Biggest climber awards
1
Star rater climbs
1
Biggest faller awards
1
Top 20 points
216
Overall Top 20 points ranking
=301
Top 20 points ranking for the artist
3
Top 30 Points
403
Overall Top 30 points ranking
=271
Top 30 points ranking for the artist
3
Annual ranking:
1988
18
Other chart success:
Australia
5
Austria
21
Belgium
1
Denmark
11
Finland
7
Germany
6
Ireland
2
Italy
20
Netherlands
3
New Zealand
25
Spain
7*
Sweden
12
Switzerland
14
UK
2
Zimbabwe
9
* The song may have got to a higher position, but from the information available, it can be said to have reached at least number 7.
SA Radio charts:
Radio 5
1
Radio 702
1
The song was released as a double a-sided single with the other side being a cover of ‘When I Fall In Love’ which had been a hit for Nat King Cole. The chart positions noted above for Denmark, Italy and Spain appear to be for just ‘My Arms Keep Missing You’ where the others are for the double a-sided single.
Of the 19 songs that had straddled a year end at number 1 so far, 6 had gone on to spend 3 or more weeks at the top of the charts in the new year. To that number we now added Rick Astley’s ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ which spent its 5th week at 1 overall and its 3rd week there in 1988. ‘(I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life’ by Jennifer Warnes and Bill Medley lurked at 2 for a second week.
After dropping 7 places last week, the Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield’s ‘What Have I Done To Deserve This’ bounced back with the biggest climb this week as it moved back up 11 places from 27 to 16. This was the second time the song had managed a climb of 10 or more places and this was the third song to manage this with The Commodores’ ‘Three Times A Lady’ (the only one to do it in the top 20 era) and Carly Simon’s ‘Coming Around Again’ being the previous ones to do so. The Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield were the 15th and 16th acts to see 2 climbs of 10 or more in a week. Also making star rater climbs were Los Lobos’ ‘Come On Let’s Go’ (up 5 from 26 to 21) and Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Brilliant Disguise’ (up 4 from 29 to 25). Billy Idol’s ‘Mony Mony’ took the climber within the top 20 award as it moved up 3 from 8 to 5.
After making a good recovery last week, Gina Vannelli’s ‘Persona Non Grata’ ended up being the faller of the week this week as it dropped 11 from 18 to 29. This was the 20th fall of 11 or more and it would be the last time a Canadian act would take the faller award. They had seen the award a total of 30 times and ‘Persona Non Grata’s 11 place fall would be the all-time biggest fall a song by a Canadian act would see, beating the 9 place fall by Paul Anka and Odia Coates’ ‘(I Believe) There’s Nothing Stronger Than Our Love’ and Anne Murray’s ‘You Needed Me’. We would see a 10 place fall by a Canadian song, although that would not be the biggest faller that week.
The biggest fall within the top 20 was Michael Jackson’s ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You’ which dropped 4 from 13 to 17. It and ‘It’s A Sin’ were still the oldest in the top 20, enjoying their 21st week in that part of the chart and their 6th as the oldest in the top 20. ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You’ also enjoyed its 3rd week as the oldest in the overall chart as it moved on to 23 weeks.
Prior to this week, there had been 4 times we had seen 2 re-entries into the top 20 in a week, but this week set the all-time record of 3 with ‘What Have I Done To Deserve This’ (biggest climber discussed above) being joined in getting back into the top 20 by Terence Trent D’Arby’s ‘Wishing Well’ and T’Pau’s ‘Heart And Soul’. Apart from ‘Persona Non Grata’ we also saw Madonna’s ‘Causing A Commotion’ and Living In A Box’s ‘Scales Of Justice’ leave the top 20. ‘Scales Of Justice’ had spent just 1 week at 20 and it was the 6th song in the top 30 era to have a top 20 run of just 1 week at the lowest position. In total 41 songs had spent 1 week at 20.
The week gave us the 35th time there was no movement on or off the charts.
The Pet Shop Boys gave us the 57th time we saw an act with hits in adjacent positions on the chart with ‘It’s A Sin’ sitting at 15 and ‘What Have I Done To Deserve This’ at 16. And they came desperately close to being the first act to have 3 songs in adjacent positions as their ‘Always On My Mind’ was at 18, separated from their other 2 hits by Michael Jackson’s ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You’ which sat at 17.
Madonna had now seen a run of 30 weeks in the chart. This run started with 9 weeks of ‘La Isla Bonita’, then this was joined by ‘Who’s That Girl’ for 4 weeks before ‘La Isla Bonita’ left the charts and we had 8 weeks of just ‘Who’s That Girl’. The arrival of ‘Causing A Commotion’ started a run of 7 weeks with these 2 in the charts and we had now had 2 weeks with just ‘Causing A Commotion’. This was Madonna’s 3rd run of at least 30 consecutive weeks featuring in the chart and she would be the only act who would manage 3 such runs.
Michael Jackson moved into 6th place on the top 20 weeks count as he leapfrogged Neil Diamond. His 2 songs in the top 20 moved him from 140 to 142 weeks, causing Diamond on 141 weeks to drop into 7th place. Jackson was also enjoying his 14th week with 2 in the top 20 and he was the 4th act after Four Jacks & A Jill, Pussycat and The Bee Gees to reach this total.
Perhaps when Rick Astley sang ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ he was talking about the number 1 position on our charts as his hit spent a 4th straight week there. However, Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes would have been hoping that Rick was not a man of his word as they jumped 3 places from 5 to 2 to put pressure on the top spot. The last duet to top the charts had been Cliff Richards and Sarah Brightman’s ‘All I Ask Of You’ and the one before that had involved Jennifer Warnes as that had been ‘Up Where We Belong’ which she had sung with Joe Cocker.
And talking of duets, the biggest climber this week was by Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballe’s ‘Barcelona’ which moved up 10 from 21 to 11. It was the 148th time a song had climbed 10 or more in a week and the 6th song by a duet to manage this.
There were 6 other star raters this week with Cinema’s ‘My Kind Of Girl’ climbing 9 from 16 to 7, Gino Vannelli’s ‘Persona Non Grata’ moving up 8 from 26 to 18, the Pet Shop Boys’ ‘Always On My Mind’ climbing 8 from 27 to 19, Living In A Box’s ‘Scales Of Justice’ also climbing 8 from 28 to 20, Rick Astley’s ‘Whenever You Need Somebody’ jumping 6 from 30 to 24 and the Eurythmics’ ‘Beethoven (I Love To Listen To)’ moving up 4 from 29 to 25. ‘Persona Non Grata’, ‘Always On My Mind’ and ‘Scales Of Justice’ joined ‘Barcelona’ in being new entries into the top 20 with ‘Scales Of Justice’, which was on 12 weeks in the charts, equalling the all-time record for weeks in the top 30 before cracking the top 20. ‘My Kind Of Girl’ was the biggest climber within the top 20.
Two songs shared the faller of the week award as Cliff Richard’s ‘My Pretty One’ and Atlantic Starr’s ‘Always’ both dropped 11 to land at 30 and 28 respectively. They were joined by Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield’s ‘What Have I Done To Deserve This’ and Terence Trent D’Arby’s ‘Wishing Well’ in leaving the top 20. ‘Wishing Well’ had been at 11 last week and was the 5th song in the top 30 era to leave the top 20 from 11th place or higher. With ‘Wishing Well’ dropping 10 places, we had the first time there were 3 songs falling 10 or more in the same week. The faller within the top 20 was the Pet Shop Boys’ ‘It’s A Sin’ which dropped 8 from 7 to 15.
With the Pet Shop Boys’ ‘What Have I Done To Deserve This’ dropping out of the top 20 and ‘Always On My Mind’ being a new entry into that part of the chart, they became the 29th act to replace themselves in the top 20.
Michael Jackson’s ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You’ enjoyed its 22nd week on the chart and its 2nd as the oldest overall. It shared the oldest in the top 20 title with Pet Shop Boys’ ‘It’s A Sin’ with both songs having spent 20 weeks in that part of the chart, making it their 5th week as the top 20 grandaddies. They were the 107th and 108th songs to get to 20 top 20 weeks and Michael Jackson became the 9th act to see 2 songs reach 20 top 20 weeks. He had managed it previously with ‘Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough’. So far no act had seen more than 2 songs get to 20 top 20 weeks.
Madonna’s ‘Who’s That Girl’ was the only song leaving the top 30 this week. It had spent 19 weeks on the chart and peaked at 6. This equalled her best weeks figure for a song, a feat which ‘True Blue’ had managed, but she had already seen 3 songs peak at 4 and her best peak was with ‘Like A Virgin’ which got to number 2. It ended her run with 2 in the charts and [spoiler alert] this would be the last time she would have more than 1 hit in the chart in the same week. She had spent a total of 30 weeks with 2 in the charts with 7 different combinations of hits and her 30 weeks would be the all-time record for a female artist.
Fleetwood Mac saw their 8th SA chart hit as the new entry was their ‘Little Lies’. It was the 3rd single off their ‘Tango In The Night’ album and this was the 16th album to produce at least 3 SA chart hits in the top 30 era. Four of those 16 albums had managed to produce 4 hits so far. The track was written by Christine McVie along with Eddie Quintela (her husband at the time) and McVie takes lead vocals on the song. It would fare well in Germany (#3), Ireland (#4), The Netherlands (#10), Poland (#1), Switzerland (#3), the UK (#5) and the US (#4). On the local radio charts it would see its best peak on 702 where it got to number 2. It peaked at 8 on Capital 604 and 10 on Radio 5.
There were a number of acts reaching weeks milestones this week. These were Billy Idol and Gino Vannelli who reached 40, Fleetwood Mac who got to 50, Bruce Springsteen who ticked over to 60, the Eurythmics who hit 80 (the 47th act to get there) and Michael Jackson who, with 2 in the charts, moved past 160 onto 161. Jackson sat 6th overall but was still 8 behind 5th placed Elton John. Jackson also jumped from 10th to 6th place on the top 30 points list as his total moved on to 3,042. He jumped ahead of Neil Diamond (3,038), the Rolling Stones (3,029), The Hollies (3,018) and Boney M (3,017) and now sat 85 points behind Elton John who was 5th with 4,127.
Madonna moved into the top 20 of the top 20 weeks count list. She had accumulated 105 weeks in the top 20 and this put her tied 20th with Lionel Richie and Percy Sledge.
This week’s chart proved to be the 2nd most turbulent one we had seen to date. If one adds up the total number of places songs moved up we get 64 and if we add to this the total number of places songs fell, we get 131. The records for these 2 stats had both been seen on 8 March 1985 when the total places moved up was 78 and the total places moved was 144. This week was second highest for both these stats.
And so begins the final full year of charts. So far we had only seen a new number 1 on the first chart of a new year 4 times. The change to 1988 had been the 23 new year since the charts began and it continued the trend of the number 1 at the end of the previous year still being at the top of the charts in the new year as Rick Astley’s ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ enjoyed its 3rd week at the top of the pile. However, for the first time since 1980, we saw a change in the number 2 song with a change in the year as The Bee Gees’ ‘You Win Again’ moved into second place after sitting at 3 for 3 weeks. The previous number 2 (and a previous chart topper), Los Lobos’ ‘La Bamba’ dropped from 2 to 3.
Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes’ ‘(I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life’ was the climber of the week as it moved up 9 from 14 to 5. It was the climber both within the top 20 and the top 30. There were 4 other star raters and these were Michael Jackson’s ‘Bad’ and his ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You’ which both climbed 5 to land at 6 and 15 respectively, Cinema’s ‘My Kind Of Girl’ (up 7 from 23 to 16) and Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballe’s’ ‘Barcelona’ (up 7 from 28 to 21). Michael Jackson was the 4th act to see 2 songs have a star rater climb in the same week. The previous acts to manage this were Engelbert Humperdinck, Neil Diamond and Wings. There would be 1 more act to achieve this. ‘My Kind of Girl’ was joined by Madonna’s ‘Causing A Commotion’ in being new entries into the top 20 and this brought to an end an 11 week run with no local hits in the top 20.
Madonna picked up her 6th biggest faller award as ‘Who’s That Girl’ fell 7 from 18 to 25. Her 6 fallers had come from 6 different songs and she was the 3rd act to clock up 6 biggest fallers with 6 different hits. The previous acts to do this were The Troggs and Petula Clark. Two acts, Engelbert Humperdinck and Herman’s Hermits, had managed the record to date 7 fallers with 7 different hits. ‘Mary’s Prayer’ by Danny Wilson took the biggest tumble within the top 20 as it fell 5 from 9 to 14.
Madonna’s ‘Who’s That Girl’ and Los Lobos’ ‘Come On Let’s Go’ dropped out of the top 20 making Madonna the second act to replace themselves in the top 20 twice. Her ‘La Isla Bonita’ had replaced ‘Who’s That Girl’. Cliff Richard was the only other act to manage this twice. The Pet Shop Boys’ ‘It’s A Sin’ and Michael Jackson’s ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving you’ continued as the oldest in the top 20, clocking up their 19th top 20 week and their 4th week as the oldest.
Jackson’s ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving you’ was also the oldest in the top 30, reaching 21 weeks. This came about as the 2 songs which shared the oldest in the chart title last week, Chris Rea’s ‘Let’s Dance’ and Suzanne Vega’s ‘Luka’, both fell off the charts. Both songs had spent 23 weeks in the top 30 and ‘Let’s Dance’ had peaked at 4 while ‘Luka’ made it to 3. This was the end of the SA chart road for both acts. ‘Luka’ would be Vega’s only hit while Chris Rea had also seen ‘I Can Heart Your Heart Beat’ chart (peak of 14), giving him a weeks total of 35.
We also bid farewell to Modern Talking’s ‘Jet Airliner’ which managed 13 weeks and a peak of 16, their second lowest weeks and peak of their 8 hits so far. They would return to the charts later.
Gino Vannelli’s ‘Persona Non-Grata’ became the 7th song to re-enter the charts twice as returned to the top 30 after an absence of 3 weeks. This would be the last song to re-enter the charts twice. The other songs to manage this were Lauren Copley’s ‘Flower Of Life’, Titanic’s ‘Sultana’, Tony Christie’s ‘(Is This The Way To) Amarillo’, Apollo 100’s ‘Joy’, T Rex’s ‘Metal Guru’ and Dead Or Alive’s ‘Brand New Lover’. ‘Sultana’, ‘(Is This The Way To) Amarillo’ and ‘Persona Non Grata’ were the only 3 of these to have their second re-entry in a different year to their first with the first 2 both re-entering first in 1971 and then again in the first week of 1972. ‘Brand New Lover’ and ‘Persona Non Grata’ were the only ones that did this in the top 30 era.
We had to go back to 23 June 1978 (over 10 years back) to see the last time we had an act with 3 hits in the chart, but this week the Pet Shop Boys joined Four Jacks & A Jill, Percy Sledge, Pussycat and The Bee Gees in managing this all-time record number of hits in a week’s chart as the first new entry was their cover of ‘Always On My Mind’. The song had been written by Wayne Carson, Jonny Christopher and Mark James and had been recorded by numerous artists, most notably Elvis Presley (in 1972) and Willie Nelson (in 1982) with the former going to 20 in the US charts and the latter getting to 5 there. There certainly was a decade theme going on with this song as It was 10 years since we last had an act with 3 in the charts, there was 10 years between Elvis’ version of the song and Willie Nelson’s and the Pet Shop Boys version came about after they performed it on a TV show marking the 10th anniversary of Elvis’ death. Their version was so well received that they released it as a single. It would top the UK charts for 4 weeks and also top the charts in Canada, Finland, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Germany. 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 ones, but falling just short on Radio 5 where it peaked at 2.
And while the Pet Shop boys were celebrating 3 in the charts, Rick Astley became the 108th act to see more than 1 in the chart in a week as his ‘Whenever You Need Somebody’ was the other new entry this week, joining ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’. We now had a new record of 5 acts with more than 1 hit in the chart as apart from Rick Astley and the Pet Shop Boys we also saw Michael Jackson, Madonna and Los Lobos with 2 each. And with ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ sitting at 1 and ‘Whenever You Need Somebody’ arriving at 30 we had the only time we would see the same act in the top and bottom positions on the charts. Like the current number 1 hit, ‘Whenever You Need Somebody’ was written and produced by Stock, Aitken & Waterman, giving them their 4th hit as songwriters and 10th as producers. They would see the song top the charts in Germany, Sweden and Switzerland and peak at 3 in the UK. Unlike ‘Always On My Mind’, ‘Whenever You Need Somebody’ would manage the clean sweep of number 1s across the Radio 5, Capital 604 and Radio 702 charts.
John Cougar saw his weeks total reach 30 while the Pet Shop Boys were celebrating getting to 50 and were the 3rd act to see a run of 50 weeks without ever having a biggest faller award. The previous 2 were The Seekers and Cyndi Lauper while Miami Sound Machine saw their first biggest faller award in their 50th week. The Seekers saw their first biggest faller in their 58th week while Cyndi Lauper managed her entire SA chart career of 59 weeks with no faller.
‘La Bamba’ became the 77th song to clock up at least 300 points based on a top 20 basis. Only 11 more songs would manage this. Using a top 30 basis, then we saw The Bee Gees move past the 5,000 milestone. They were only the second act to manage this and they sat on 5,026 while Abba led the way with 5,451.
Madonna had now managed 30 weeks in total with at least 2 songs in the charts. She had managed this with 7 different pairings. She had passed the record for female acts when she moved on to 24 weeks and was now 10 weeks behind the leaders, Modern Talking.
‘Funky Town’ moved into the top 20 of the list of songs which had charted in more than 1 version as it moved on to a total of 23 weeks (8 from Lipps Inc’s version and 15 from Pseudo Echo’s). It joined 5 other songs in tied 19th place.
We ended the year with Rick Astley’s ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ enjoying a second week at 1 with the former chart topper, Los Lobos’ ‘La Bamba’ still at 2 where it had fallen to last week. Billy Idol, Madonna and Modern Talking were the only 3 acts featuring on this, the last chart of the year, who were also seen on the chart at the start of the year. Billy Idol’s ‘To Be A Lover’, Madonna’s ‘True Blue’ and Modern Talking’s ‘Brother Louie’ and ‘Atlantis Is Calling’ had been their charting hits at the start of the year. Both Madonna and Modern Talking had also been seen on the first and last charts of 1986 and they were the 8th and 9th act to have had hits at the start and the end of 2 different years. Of those 9 acts, only Abba and Tom Jones had managed it in 3 different years.
Billy Idol’s ‘Mony Mony’ and the Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield’s ‘What Have I Done To Deserve This’ shared the climber of the week award as they both moved up 3 to land at 6 and 16 respectively. They would be the climbers both within the top 20 and the top 30. As the biggest climb was just 3 places, there were obviously no star raters this week. This was the 67th week where we had no star raters making it just under 5.7% of the time we had no star raters.
The biggest fall was also just 3 places and it was Michael Jackson’s ‘Bad’ that managed this as it dropped from 8 to 11, thus taking the honours in the top 20 and the top 30.
There was no movement on or off the top 20 which meant that the oldest in that part of the chart was unchanged with the Pet Shop Boys’ ‘It’s A Sin’ and Michael Jackson’s ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You’ hitting 18 top 20 weeks and enjoying their 3rd week as the oldest in the top 20. There was also no movement on or off the top 30 so the oldest in the top 30 was also unchanged and those were Chris Rea’s ‘Let’s Dance’ and Suzanne Vega’s ‘Luka’ which ticked over to 23 weeks. This was the 34th time we had seen no movement on or off the charts and the 3rd time in the top 30 era when both the top 20 and the top 30 had no song leave or enter.
Los Lobos celebrated reaching 20 weeks in the charts, Jennifer Warnes got to 40 and Modern Talking moved on to 150 but were unmoved in 7th place overall with Michael Jackson in 6th place above them sitting on 157 and clocking up 2 a week at the moment while Modern Talking just had the 1 in the charts. Jackson celebrated reaching 1,500 points (using a top 20 basis) and he sat 11th overall, 10 behind Elton John who was just above him.
We did see a new record for the average weeks total for the acts in this week’s chart as this worked out at 57.52 which went past the previous record of 56.52 which was set 4 weeks back.
Looking at top 20 weeks, we saw the Australians catch up with the Jamaicans with both nations now having totalled 308. They sat tied 8th overall. Included in the Jamaicans total of 308 are 130 which were accumulated by Boney M. Some may choose to classify them as German.
Also looking only at the top 20 we saw Cliff Richard clock up his 200th week in that part of the chart. He sat 3rd overall behind The Bee Gees (who were on 214 and also busy adding to their total) and Abba on 237 who had already seen the end of the their SA chart career.
The Pet Shop Boys’ ‘It’s A Sin’ moved on to 310 top 20 points and it was the 71st song to reach or exceed 300 points.
Twas the night before Christmas and things were stirring at the top of our charts as ‘La Bamba’s run at 1 came to an end after 9 weeks. The new nation’s favourite was Rick Astley’s ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ which moved up from 2 in a place swap with ‘La Bamba’. ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ was the 33rd song to top our charts that would also top the US and UK charts. This put the UK and US acts back on level pegging for number of number 1’s with both nations having produced 119, however, the Americans were ahead for weeks at 1 with 427 compared to the Brit’s 405.
The Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield’s ‘What Have I Done To Deserve This’ was the climber of the week as it moved up 10 from 29 to 19. This was the Pet Shop Boys’ first biggest climber award and they sat on 44 weeks in the charts, the 3rd highest weeks count for an act seeing their first climber. Only Blonde on 46 and Kenny Rogers on 53 had been on higher weeks counts when seeing their first biggest climber. ‘What Have I Done To Deserve This’ was the 146th song to climb 10 or more in a week. It was joined in being a new entry into the top 20 by Los Lobos’ ‘Come On Let’s Go’ which made a star rater climb of 8 from 28 to 20. There was one other star rater and this was Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes’ ‘(I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life’ which moved up 5 from 20 to 15 and this was the biggest climb within the top 20.
Modern Talking’s ‘Jet Airliner’ shared the faller of the week award with Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Brilliant’ Disguise’ as the 2 songs both fell 4 to land at 23 and 25 respectively. ‘Jet Airliner’ was joined by T’Pau’s ‘Heart And Soul’ in leaving the top 20. The faller within the top 20 was Atlantic Starr’s ‘Always’ which fell 2 from 16 to 14. This was the 33rd time a top 20 biggest fall had been 2 or less.
Chris Rea’s ‘Let’s Dance’ and Suzanne Vega’s ‘Luka’ continued as the oldest in the top 30 with both songs on 22 weeks and enjoying their 3rd week as the oldest while Michael Jackson’s ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You’ and the Pet Shop Boys’ ‘It’s A Sin’ moved on to 17 top 20 weeks and were the oldest in that part of the chart for a second week.
Viktor Lazlo’s ‘Breathless’ was the sole leaver this week as it dropped off the top 30 after 12 weeks and a peak of 13. This would be her only SA chart hit and it would be the last we would see by any Belgian act. The Belgians had clocked up 3 hits, 48 weeks and by far the best performer of the 3 was The Klaxons’ ‘Clap-Clap Sound’ which spent 7 weeks at 1 and accounted for 30 of 48 weeks. The other hit by a Belgian act was Telex’s ‘Moskow Diskow’ which, like ‘Breathless’, also peaked at 13.
The Eurythmics clocked up their 6th hit on our charts and the new entry was ‘Beethoven (I Love To Listen To)’. They were the 69th act to reach 6 hits. Written by band members David A Stewart and Annie Lennox, this was the first single off their ‘Savage’ album. It was the band’s 17th hit to make the UK charts, but it only peaked at 25 there and was not released as a single in the US, only appearing on the b-side of the 12” single of ‘I Need A Man’. It made the top 20 in Australia (#15), Finland (#5), Ireland (#11), The Netherlands (#10), New Zealnd (#6), Norway (#6), Spain (#18), Sweden (#9) and Switzerland (#19). It got to 14 on the Radio 5 charts and 21 on the Capital 604 ones but did not chart on Radio 702.
Michael Jackson became the 12th act to see a run of 10 consecutive weeks with 2 hits in the charts. Of those 12 acts, only Jennifer Rush had seen such a run twice. Of the 10 weeks in Michael Jackson’s run, 7 had been with the 2 hits (‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You’ and ‘Bad’) in the top 20. He had also seen ‘Billie Jean’ and ‘Beat It’ in the top 20 at the same time, making this his 10th week overall for 2 in the top 20 for him.
Los Lobos also had 2 in the top 20 now as ‘Come On Let’s Go’ joined ‘La Bamba’ in that part of the chart. They were the 72nd act to manage 2 in the top 20 at the same time.
SA Singles Charts 