Written by: Bernie Taupin, Martin Page, Dennis Lambert & Peter Wolf Produced by: Peter Wolf & Jeremy Smith South African record label (unless otherwise stated): RCA Victor
Hit number for artist
1
Peak position
1
Weeks
22
Biggest climber awards
2
Star rater climbs
2
Biggest faller awards
2
Top 20 points
239
Overall Top 20 points ranking
=219
Top 20 points ranking for the artist
2
Top 30 Points
431
Overall Top 30 points ranking
=201
Top 30 points ranking for the artist
2
Annual ranking:
1986
14
Other chart success:
Australia
1
Austria
21
Belgium
17
Canada
1
Germany
10
Ireland
9
Netherlands
21
New Zealand
11
Paraguay
1
Sweden
4
Switzerland
8
UK
12
US
1
Zimbabwe
1
SA Radio charts:
Capital 604
1
Radio 5
1
Radio 702
3
The song was written in response to a large number of live music venues being closed down in Los Angeles. Bernie Taupin, one of the songwriters, had a long collaboration with Elton John and helped write hits like ‘Rocket Man’, ‘Crocodile Rock‘, ‘I’m Still Standing’ and ‘Sad Songs (Say So Much)’ and many others. Despite the song’s success, it has been noted as one of the worst songs of all time by a number of publications, most notable Rolling Stone magazine where it topped a 2011 poll of the worst songs of the 1980’s by quite some margin. In 2018, UK blogger, Ladbaby, would take a parody of the song to the top of the UK charts singing ‘We Built This City On Sausage Rolls’ and was the first of a record 5 years running Christmas number 1’s in the UK for Ladbaby.
Written by: Peter Wolf & Ina Wolf Produced by: Peter Wolf & Jeremy Smith South African record label (unless otherwise stated): RCA Victor
Hit number for artist
2
Peak position
10
Weeks
15
Biggest climber awards
0
Star rater climbs
1
Biggest faller awards
1
Top 20 points
68
Overall Top 20 points ranking
=1400
Top 20 points ranking for the artist
3
Top 30 Points
199
Overall Top 30 points ranking
=1171
Top 30 points ranking for the artist
3
Annual ranking:
1986
53
Other chart success:
Australia
10
Austria
15
Belgium
21
Canada
1
Finland
18
Germany
15
Ireland
19
Netherlands
43
New Zealand
16
Switzerland
9
UK
66
US
1
Zimbabwe
1
SA Radio charts:
Capital 604
1
Radio 5
1
Radio 702
1
The Sara in the title of the song referred to Starship lead singer, Mickey Thomas’ wife at the time. It would be the 41st of 72 SA chart hits which would top the 3 local radio station charts mentioned above. It would knock Mr Mister’s ‘Kyrie’ off the top spot in the US and a week later would be dethroned by Heart’s ‘These Dreams’.
First there was Jefferson Airplane and then it became Jefferson Starship and then, when Paul Kantner, the last remaining founding member of Jefferson Airplane, left the band he instituted legal action against his former band mates prohibiting them from using the name Jefferson Starship. However, the legal wranglings did not stop them from being allowed to use the name Starship which they did. The remaining members of Jefferson Starship included Grace Slick and Mickey Thomas. They set about recording their first album under this new name and the result, ‘Knee Deep In The Hoopla’, would peak at 7 on the US album charts and produce 2 number 1 singles (‘We Built This City’ and ‘Sara’) as well as 2 further Hot 100 hits (‘Tomorrow Doesn’t Matter Tonight’ (#26) and ‘Before I Go’ (#68)). They would see a further US chart topper with the lead single off their second album (‘No Protection’) in the form of ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’ which had been used in the film ‘Mannequin’ which starred Andrew McCarthy and Kim Cattrall. However, their popularity waned after this and they would only see 6 further Hot 100 hits (11 hits in total) with only 2 of those cracking the top 20 of the chart.
Date of entry
Song
Peak (weeks at 1)
Weeks
12-Jan-1986
We Built This City
1 (2)
22
13-Apr-1986
Sara
10
15
03-May-1987
Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now
3
31
Total hits
3
Total weeks
68
Biggest climber awards
4
Star rater climbs
8
Biggest fallers
4
Weeks with oldest in the charts
8
Longest run in the charts (weeks)
31
Weeks with more than 1 in the charts
9
Biggest gap between hits (weeks)
40
Top 30 points ranking
90
Top 20 points ranking
=95
Top 30 points
1206
Top 20 points
604
Starship had the tied highest weeks count for acts managing 3 hits. They were equalled by Jennifer Warnes.
Starship’s ‘We Built This City’ spent a second week at number 1 with Hazell Dean’s ‘They Say It’s Gonna Rain’ moving back up to 2 after having dropped from there and spending 2 weeks at 3.
Billy Ocean’s ‘When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going’ picked up its second biggest climber award as it moved up 8 from 17 to 9 to take the award for both the top 20 and the top 30. There were 2 other star raters and these were Bronski Beat’s ‘Hit That Perfect beat’ which moved up 6 from 16 to 10 and A-ha’s ‘The Sun Always Shines On T.V.’ which climbed 4 from 18 to 14.
Jennifer Rush’s ‘The Power Of Love’ took the faller of the week award with a 9 place drop from 10 to 19. As it stayed in the top 20 it became the 2nd song to manage a run of 15 weeks as the oldest in the top 20. The first song to do this was The Staccatos’ ‘Cry To Me’ which managed a run of 16 weeks as the oldest during its second run in the chart. ‘The Power Of Love’ had been in the top 30 for 32 weeks and was 1 week away from going tied 3rd with Alan Garrity’s ‘I Need Someone’ for weeks by a song. It was its 13th week as the oldest in the top 30.
Laura Branigan’s ‘Spanish Eddie’ was the only song leaving the top 20 and it was replaced by Silver Pozzoli’s ‘Step By Step’ which moved up from 21 to 20. But it wasn’t all good news for Pozzoli as his other hit, ‘Around My Dream’ was 1 of 2 songs leaving the top 30. It had been with us for 24 weeks and spent 4 of those at 1.
Also going was Modern Talking’s ‘You Can Win If you Want’. It managed 26 weeks and was 1 of 16 songs that would spent 26 weeks in the charts. Of those 16, 12 would peak at 1, 2 would make it to 2, one would only get to 6 and then there was ‘You Can Win If You Want’ which peaked at 10. For the whole time it had been in the charts, there had been another Modern Talking hit accompanying it as for its first 14 weeks ‘You’re My Heart, You’re My Soul’ was in the charts and then for the next 12 weeks it was joined by ‘Cheri Cheri lady’ which entered the charts the week ‘You’re My Heart, You’re My Soul’ left.
The first new entry was a cover of the Led Zeppelin classic, ‘Stairway To Heaven’. This version was performed by the Far Corporation, a band of predominantly British musicians (and has been classified as such for statistical purposes) who were put together by Frank Farian (a German chap) who had been the driving force behind Boney M. The band had a shifting line up but at various stages included most of the members of Toto and some from Barclay James Harvest, Boney M and a British new wave band called Force Majeure. The Wikipedia entry on the band is a little unclear, but it seems that a South African guy called Peter Bold was on drums (can anyone shed more light on this?). The original Led Zep version was not released as a single so didn’t chart until 2007 when digital downloads of songs started counting in order to calculate chart positions. It then made it to 37 in the UK and 30 on the US Hot Digital Sales charts. The Far Corporation’s version would get to 8 in the UK and 89 in the US as well as charting in Germany (#14), The Netherlands (#24), New Zealand (#23), Sweden (#13), Switzerland (#11) and Zimbabwe (#9). It would get to 17 on Radio 5 and 23 on Capital 604.
Miami Sound Machine saw their second SA chart hit with ‘Conga’, our other new entry this week. It gave the band their first US chart hit, going to 10 there. Their previous hIt on our charts, ‘Dr Beat’ had been a success in the UK and Europe but didn’t make the Hot 100 in the US. ‘Conga’ would also fare well in Belgium (#5), Canada (#1), The Netherlands (#2), New Zealand (#2) and Spain (#1), but where ‘Dr Beat’ had succeeded in the UK (going to number 6), ‘Conga’ only managed to get to 79. It would make it to 5 on the Radio 702 charts and 12 on Radio 5 but fail to make the Capital 604 ones.
‘Step By Step’ clocked up the 200th week in the chart for Italian acts and they sat 12th overall, but were someway off the next nation up, France, who were on 242. At the top of the list, we saw the American acts go past the 8,000 mark on to 8,002 weeks. Counting from the number 1 song down, it was Colonel Abrams’ Trapped’ which had the honour of hitting the 8,000 milestone for them.
We now had the outright second biggest gap between SA hits in the charts as it had been 9 weeks since we last had a song by a local act in the charts.
A-ha Celebrated reaching 20 weeks in the charts while both Laura Branigan and Phil Collins moved on to 70. So far 59 acts had made it to 70 weeks.
Lionel Richie’s ‘Say You Say Me’ moved on to 304 top 20 points and it was the 64th song to reach the 300 point milestone. Richie was the 3rd act after Boney M and Dr Hook to see 2 songs reach this level of points as his earlier hit, ‘All Night Long (All Night)’ had managed to get to 308.
Jennifer Rush, who had set a new record for female acts for sequential weeks with 2 or more in the chart having had a run of 10 weeks with ‘Ring Of Ice’ and ‘The Power Of Love’ in the charts at the same time, now equalled her record as ‘Madonna’s Eyes’ and ‘The Power Of Love’ had been in the charts together for 10 weeks. This was thew 10th time we had seen a run of 10 weeks with 2 of more in the charts by an act and Rush was the first to appear twice in those 10 times. She was also marking her 45th week with having at least 1 in the top 20 and this equalled the record to date set by Alan Garrity.
We spent a 4th week with the record to date 13 UK/US chart toppers in the charts.
After 4 weeks with ‘Nikita’ at 1, we saw a change at the top with the Elton John hit dropping to 2 and Starship’s ‘We Built This City’ moving up from 2 to take the top spot. Despite being voted the worst song of all time by GQ magazine in 2016, I still think having ‘We Built This City’ at 1 was far lesser a crime than letting ‘Agadoo’ get to number 2 on our charts.
Silver Pozzoli picked up his second biggest climber award as his ‘Step By Step’ followed in the footsteps of his previous hit, ‘Around My Dream’, in picking up the award. It moved up 7 from 28 to 21. Within the top 20 the award was shared between the Pet Shop Boys’ ‘West End Girls’ and Wham!’s ‘I’m Your Man’ which both climbed 3 to land at 8 and 13 respectively.
Apart from ‘Step By Step’, there was only 1 other star rater and that was Feargal Sharkey’s ‘A Good Heart’ which moved up 5 from 25 to 20 and which was the only new entry into the top 20, replacing Huey Lewis & The News’ ‘The Power Of Love’ which fell 8 from 15 to 23. ‘The Power Of Love’ was, however, saved from being the biggest faller by Silver Pozzoli’s other hit, ‘Around My Dream’ which dropped 9 places from 21 to 30. This was the 13th time we had seen an act take the climber and faller in the same week.
John Parr’s ‘St Elmo’s Fire (Man In Motion)’ took the top 20 faller award as it dropped 3 from 6 to 9, but is did celebrate being the 88th song to reach 20 top 20 weeks.
Jennifer Rush’s ‘The Power Of Love’ continued on as the oldest in both the top 20 and the top 30. It had spent 27 weeks in the former and 31 weeks in the latter. It had been the oldest in the top 20 for 14 weeks and in the top 30 for 12 weeks. It was the 4th song to get to 31 weeks and now passed the previous record for weeks on the charts by a song by a female act of 30 weeks which Audrey Landers’ ‘Manuel Goodbye’ had managed.
And talking of Audrey Landers, she saw her SA chart career come to an end as ‘Summernight In Rome’ was the first to depart the chart this week. It had seen a run of 15 weeks and a peak of 10. She managed 2 hits and 45 weeks. Her best peak was with her other hit, ‘Manuel Goodbye’, which spent 5 weeks at 1.
Also seeing the end of their chart career in SA was Baltimora as their ‘Tarzan Boy’ dropped out of the charts after 21 weeks and a peak of 3. It would be their only song to make our charts.
And just so Audrey landers and Baltimora didn’t feel bad, Simple Minds also ended their time in our charts as ‘Alive And Kicking’ left the top 30 after 16 weeks and a peak of 16. It was the 67th song to have an equal weeks and peak figure. Only 5 more songs would manage this. Simple Minds managed 2 hits, both of which managed 16 weeks in the charts giving them a total of 32 weeks. Their other hit, ‘Don’t You Forget About Me’ had the higher peak as it reached number 10.
Dire Straits saw their 3rd hit from their ‘Brothers In Arms’ and their 4th hit overall make our charts this week as ‘Walk Of Life’ was the first of our new entries. The song had appeared as the b-side of ‘So Far Away’, their first hit off the album, but it was later released as a single in its own right with ‘One World’, another track from the album as it’s b-side. It would give them their second number 2 hit in the UK (after ‘Private Investigations’) and to date they have not managed to get to number 1 there. The song went top 10 in Canada (#7), Ireland (#1), New Zealand (#3) and the US (#7) and just missed out in Zimbabwe where it peaked at 11. Locally it topped the Radio 5 charts, got to 2 on the Capital 604 ones and made it to 10 on Radio 702.
The second new entry was by a guy called Colonel Abrams (and that apparently was his real name). His song ‘Trapped’ was more popular in the UK than in his native US as it went to number 3 there, shifting in excess of 400,00 units. In the US it would top the Hot Dance Club Play and Hot Dance Music/Maxi Singles Sales charts and get to 20 on the Hot Black Singles charts but would not make the main Hot 100. It would peak at 17 in Belgium, 13 in Germany, 11 in The Netherlands and was very popular in Zimbabwe, going to number 2 there. It would make it to number 3 on the Capital 604 charts and 7 on Radio 5 but would not make the Radio 702 ones. Sadly, Abrams, who suffered from diabetes, would end up homeless and died on 24 November 2016 aged 67.
Our final new entry was Sandra’s ‘(I’ll Never Be) Maria Magdelena’. Sandra (whose full name was Sandra Ann Lauer) was from Germany and ‘(I’ll Never Be) Maria Magdelena’ would be the 41st song by a German act to make our charts and this put the Germans in outright second place for number of hits on our charts by acts who were not from the US, the UK or SA. They moved 1 ahead of the Canadians. The song was written by Markus Löhr, Michael Cretu (Sandra’s husband at the time and who would also have success with band Enigma who had a number 1 hit in the UK with ‘Sadness Part 1), Hubert Kemmler (who featured in a band called Hubert Kah) and Richard Palmer-James from Supertramp who wrote the lyrics. The song was a huge success in Europe going to number 1 in Austria, Finland, Germany, Greece, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. It made the UK charts, but only got to 87 there. It would get to 4 on Radio 702 and 13 on the Capital 604 charts but did not featured on the Radio 5 ones. On the day she charted in SA, Sandra was exactly the same age as B.W. Stevenson was when he charted with ‘Shambala’ on 3 August 1973. She would also be the last act to chart who would go on to have 5 or more hits.
We had now seen 8 weeks with no local songs in the charts and this equalled the second longest gap we had experienced so far.
The same 13 UK/US number 1’s were still in the chart, giving us a 3rd week in a row with this record total.
SA Singles Charts 