REMEMBER WHEN - 18th November 1978

No.	LW
1	2	Boomtown Rats	Rat Trap
2	4	Olivia Newton John	Hopelessly Devoted To You
3	1	John Travolta & Olivia Newton John	Summer Nights
4	3	John Travolta	Sandy
5	10	Cars	My Best Friend's Girl
6	6	Frankie Miller	Darlin'
7	16	Showaddywaddy	Pretty Little Angel Eyes
8	17	Dan Hartman	Instant Replay
9	5	Donna Summer	MaCarthur Park
10	8	Jacksons	Blame It On The Boogie
11	7	Boney M	Rasputin
12	12	Three Degrees	Givin' Up Givin' In
13	13	Queen	Bicycle Race / Fat Bottomed Girls
14	NEW	Rod Stewart	Do You Think I'm Sexy
15	9	E.L.O.	Sweet Talking Woman
16	15	Father Abraham & The Smurfs	Dippety Day
17	11	Public Image Limited	Public Image
18	27	Blondie	Hanging On The Telephone
19	18	Sham 69	Hurry Up Harry
20	19	Buzzcocks	Ever Fallen In Love With Someone
21	20	Jam	Down In The Tube Station At Midnight
22	28	Patrick Juvet	I Love America
23	26	Heatwave	Always And Forever / Mind Blowing Decisions
24	24	Elton John	Part Time Love
25	29	Streetband	Toast/Hold On
26	25	Rolling Stones	Respectable
27	14	Dean Friedman	Lucky Stars
28	NEW	Darts	Don't Let It Fade Away
29	33	Elvis Costello	Radio Radio
30	34	X-Ray Spex	Germ Free Adolescence
31	NEW	Sarah Brightman & Hot Gossip	I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper
32	23	Mick Jackson	Blame It On the Boogie
33	NEW	Elkie Brooks	Don't Cry Out Loud
34	NEW	Brecker Brothers	East River
35	NEW	Luisa Fernandez	Lay Love On You
36	NEW	Phil Hurtt	Giving It Back
37	RE	Eric Clapton	Promises
38	NEW	Alicia Bridges	I Love The Nightlife
39	NEW	Dollar	Shooting Star
40	NEW	Chic	Le Freak

Some would say that this was about to become the first punk number one, but at the risk of re-opening an old (and pointless) debate on the newsgroups, I won't go down that road. Quite a shock number one really, not because of the quality of the song (it's one of my favourites from the 70's),but due to it being the third track to be pulled from the album 'Tonic For The Troops'. The previous two had reached number 12 (She's So Modern) and number six (Like Clockwork). All of a sudden the 'Rats' had become big news, and for a while (certainly during the following summer) were the most popular band in the land. Something that many will remember this for, is in the week that this knocked "Summer Nights" off the top, Bob tore up a photo of Travolta & Newton John at the beginning of the Rats' performance on Top Of The Pops. But no one would have guessed how much good lead singer 'Bob Geldof' would do for mankind just over six years later.

I've always had some confusion in my mind about this one. I bought it (from Rabbit records) at the beginning of October, but it didn't chart until about 5 weeks later. Considering how popular Olivia was at that time, I don't understand why it didn't chart straight away (maybe it was withdrawn or something). Anyway, it spent two weeks at number two and was Olivia's biggest solo single.

The two biggest things in music during 1978 were two of the biggest films of all time. First of all it was 'Saturday Night Fever', and now 'Grease'. A couple of weeks after John & Olivia had ended their run of nine weeks at the top with "You're The One That I Want", a duo named 'Chris Blake & Honey Brown', decided to cash in by recording a cover of one of the other tracks from the soundtrack, namely "Summer Nights". It sank without trace. I was then very surprised when John annd Olivia's rendition of "Summer Nights" was also released as a single just a few weeks after that. But surprisingly, it became the second number one from the soundtrack, spending seven weeks on top. This brought the total weeks spent at number one this year by the duo of Travolta/Newton John to 16, and "Summer Nights" was the third best selling single of the year.

Now this was very unusual. Listening to the chart countdown on a rainy Tuesday afternoon in November, a single by an unknown act went straight in at number ten. This was unheard of in those days, so what was so special about this ?
On first listen, Nothing at all. It's high debut was due to it being released as a picture disc. It wasn't the first picture disc ever, but was one of the first in modern times, certainly the first to grab the public's attention.
It still continued to climb after the limited editions had ran out, and peaked at number three. And after a few listens, it had grown on me to such an extent that I bought it myself (and later the album). But there is still no doubt that the picture disc gave it the initial sales surge.
Can you just imagine an unknown act entering the chart inside the top ten now ? *sarc*

'Frankie no longer had his 'Full House', and that seemed to be a good move for him, as this soared up the chart to give him a number six placing and a ten week chart residency. His follow up "When I'm Away From You" was quite good too, but stopped two places short of the 40. He didn't even get near the chart again until "Caledonia" peaked at number 45 in 1992.

The last of their run of seven consecutive top five hits, and also the last Showaddywaddy single to appear in the top ten. It was a cover of an old Curtis Lee single and peaked at number five. I worked with someone named Wayne who loved this song. I hated it, and thought Wayne was a dickhead. Although he did give me some amusement. Once he persuaded me to try and ride his moped, I crashed it into a fence, he didn't ask me again. He also told so many lies that we all called him Billy Liar behind his back. More on him later.

Another classic of the disco era. This was Dan's first and biggest hit, and spent three weeks at number eight. It stayed in the chart for twelve weeks, not falling out until his follow up single entered. Dan of course recorded the original of the 'Take That' hit "Relight My Fire", while 'Yell' had a number ten hit with their abysmal cover of "Instant Replay" in 1990.

A song about a cake ? Yes it really was, and there isn't a lot more that can be said about the song in question, except that it peaked at number five, one place lower than the first hit version by Richard Harris in in 1968. Donna must have been relieved by it's success rthough, as "Last Dance" had not even made the 40 during the Summer, peaking at a lowly number 51.

Once again, I have to bracket two versions of the same song together. When I first heard the chart rundown mentioning that there were two versions of the same song in the chart, one by the Jacksons and one by Mick Jackson, I naturally assumed that young Michael had started recording solo again, even though he hadn't had a hit since 1972. I also thought it was a strange thing to do, considering the rival version was by his brothers. I was of course wrong (Michael had surely had his day !), and Mick was in fact the writer and original singer of the song. You had to feel sorry for Mick. Many would say that justice would have given him the bigger hit, but the truth is, his recording was inferior to the Jacksons' cover. The Brothers went on to spend two weeks at number eight, while Mick had to settle for number 15. Sadly for Mick, a similar situation befell him the following summer. When his version of "Married Men" was released as a single, so was Bonnie Tyler's. Hers reached number 35, while Mick didn't chart at all.
In 1989, Big Fun took an horrendous cover of "Blame It On The Boogie" to number four, I really don't know what Pete Waterman was up to with that one (what a bunch of out of tune tossers). Then in 1998, Clock released a number 16 peaking cover that was like "A Day In The Life" compared to the tosspots' version, but that still doesn't mean that it was good.

Boney M were the only act who could outsell Travolta/Newton John this year. Their previous hit "Rivers Of Babylon/Brown Girl In The Ring" was the top selling single of 1978 having spent five weeks at number one and had a mammoth chart run. In fact, it had dropped out of the top 40 this very week after a 26 week run. They didn't fare so well with "Rasputin" which looked a sure bet to reach number one after entering at number nine. Instead they had to settle for two weeks at number two.

The 'Three Degrees were back with their first decent sized hit in three and a half years. Since they hit the top ten with "Take Good Care Of Yourself" in the spring of '75, they had only managed to hit number 40 & number 36 with later singles. But now they were signed to 'Ariola Records' and back with this number 12 peaking single. Sheila Ferguson probably gives her best ever vocal performance on this single, and she could still belt it out when I saw her in 1996.

Queen were back with a new album and a double A sided single. "Fat Bottomed Girls" is a classic 'Queen Rocks' song, while 'Bicycle Race' is one of those strange songs that Queen came up with occasionally. The album 'Jazz' came with a poster depicting hundreds of naked women riding bicycles. The photo was taken from the video shoot for the song "Bicycle Race", although naturally the finished video had to be carefully edited in order to make it acceptable for TV use.

Rod has received a lot of criticism for this song. It has been said that Rod should not have gone disco, he sold out.
I know it's no "Maggie May", but I strongly disagree. On this, Rod took the piss out of both disco music and himself, and came up with a song that the public loved and sent to number one. It was taken from the album 'Blondes Have More Fun', his last great album for 13 years.

Another hit, another number six by E.L.O. If we discount the EP of old material that was to be released in the December of this year, it was the third of four consecutive number six peaking singles by the band. "Sweet Talking Woman" was the fourth (and last) single to be taken from the 'Out Of The Blue' double album, and was available in a nice purple vinyl edition. I've never known of anyone not to like E.L.O. (though no doubt one such person will make himself known as soon as this is posted to the newsgroups).

I particulary remember this for the fact that a friend of mine Martin Roberts (one day older than me), hated it with a passion. I have to agree with him though. It just didn't have the obvious deep rooted meaningful message in the lyrics that their previous hit "The Smurf Song" had. It was actually rather childish and peaked at number 13.

So, this is what Mr Rotten decided to do after leaving the Sex Pistols. This single gave the impression that he was just going to carry on in the vein as he had for the previous two years. Not that I'm knocking this single, it was a great single that reached number nine. When he returned, Johnny (now calling himself John Lydon) went very weird with his music, before finally reverting to stuff we could listen to.

Blondie had become quite popular over the course of the year, this was the last one before they became 'really' popular. This didn't do too bad though and reached number five. I was quite confused about the opening line to this song for a while. It sounded to me like "I'm in the phone booth, I'm the one you call a whore", but I eventually realised that "It's the one across the hall".

Another singalong hit for Sham 69. This was another track from their concept album 'That's Life', and hit number ten. Most will probably know it by the line in the chorus "We're Going Down The Pub". Many prefered the B side "No Entry", written after they were refused permission to enter the USA. The chorus of this mainly consisted of "They didn't want us in the USA, we didn't want to go there anyway". It also included the classic line "Stick America up your arse", their words not mine !

A fantastic single full of life. It had a kind of punk feel, but very very commercial. It managed to reach number 12, and unfortunately it was all downhill from there as each of the next three singles peaked at a lower position than the last. It's most unfortunate that Fine Young Cannibals had a bigger hit peaking at number nine with their disgustingly bad cover of the song in 1987.
As for the Buzzcocks, don't get me wrong I do like most of their singles, their songs always sounded to me as though they had been composed by a schoolboy. They seemed to lack maturity in the lyrics.

For many (myself included), this was the Jam's finest moment. Prior to this, it seemed that most could take or leave them, but this one made people sit up and take notice of Paul Weller's songwriting ability. This was the first of 12 consecutive top twenty hits (up until they disbanded), but only reached number 15. When re-issued in 1983 it charted again and peaked at number 30.

In September, Patrick had been denied the big hit he deserved when "Got A Feeling" stalled at number 34. This time he got a number 12 hit with the help of a blue vinyl 13 minute 12 inch of this song. The B. side of the 12 inch featured another long track called "Where Is My Woman", while the 7 inch boasted "Got A Feeling" on the flip. Strangely, the B. Side of the original release of "Got A Feeling", a track called "Just Another Lonely Man" was released as his next single, with "Where Is My Woman" on the flip. This made "I Love America" the only track on his album that didn't get released on single twice within a matter of months. The song did get released as a single again though when 'Full Intention' covered/sampled it in 1996 and took it to number 32.

The fifth hit in under two years for Heatwave was their second and last top ten hit . It took six weeks to reach it's peak position of number nine, and hung on for a while longer to register 12 weeks on the chart. The superb "Mind Blowing Decisions" had been a great Summer hit and reached number 12 during it's original nine week run. A re-mixed version of that song appeared on the B.Side here. "Always And Forever" was taken to number 20 in 1995 when covered by 'Luther Vandross'.

'Hold On' was the intended A Side of this single, but in truth it wasn't very good. Some DJ somewhere discovered 'Toast' and started playing it. In time Radio DJs everywhere were playing this ode to the joys of eating toasted bread, and it became a top 20 hit peaking at number 18. The drummer with Streetband was Vince Chaulk, who was once the drummer with Mr Big, the band who had a top 5 hit with "Romeo" in 1977. But there was a more famous person in this band, the lead vocalist was Paul Young. Over the following 12 months Streetband released a further four singles and two albums without success. Just before the end of the decade they split, so Paul and Bassist Mick Pearl formed the Q-Tips. The Q-Tips had a great reputation for their live shows but without commercial success. They split in the Summer of 1982 ad Paul decided to go solo. The rest is history.

Following on from "Miss You", the Stones ditched disco and were back to their rocking best on this slow climber that eventually peaked at 23 in it's sixth week. In doing so, it became their first official release to peak outside the top 20 since their debut "Come On" had stopped climbing at number 21 in September 1963.

It still sends shivers down my spine to hear this song. The lyrics themselves don't correspond with anything that was going on in my life at the time (even though they are great), but the year '1978' dances across my brain at the mere mention of this song. Ok it was slushy, yes it would have been hated by so called 'serious' music fans, but it's a wonderful song from a great songwriter that spent a week at number three. Further releases failed to give Dean the success he deserves, but his albums are still worth checking out. His first album for 17 years "Songs For Grown Ups" was released in the UK in May 1998, and I think it's great. Dean even e-mailed to thank me for the link to his site from mine. He's a great bloke and I really hope that he hits the big time again one day.

Not exactly a massive hit (it peaked at it's debut position of number nine), but good all the same. Elvis had a go at Radio DJs in the lyrics of this song, and on one occasion after playing this single, Tony Blackburn referred to Elvis as a 'silly little man'. Elvis's retort was to change the words to include the phrase 'Silly little men' during a Top Of The Pops' performance.
The thing is, I didn't really agree with Elvis' sentiments at the time. All of the Radio One DJ's of the day had personalities and were almost as entertaining as the records they played.
These days, they're almost as dull as the records they play.

The biggest of the band's three hits had peaked at number 19 despite a restriction on Radio One airplay. The restriction was due to the brand name 'S.R.' being mentioned as a toothpaste. This was the band's last ever week in the top 40 as they never did get the success that looked inevitable. Even the brilliant 'Germ Free Adolescents' album could only reach number 30, but it's an album that is well worth tracking down on CD, especially as it now includes the earlier "Oh Bondage (Up Yours)" single.

This was very different to the music we would be hearing from Sarah during the '80s & '90s. At this time Sarah was a pin up girl (well, I had a saucy poster of her on my wall anyway) and part of risqué dance troupe 'Hot Gossip'. They had made a name for themselves while appearing regularly on 'The Kenny Everett Video Show', an innovative show that was first broadcast on the day I started work (July 3rd 1978). I remember that because everyone was talking about the show the following day. Why they decided to record a single, I don't know, but they were rewarded with this number six hit. Soon afterwards Sarah split from the rest and recorded her own singles including "The Adventures Of The Love Crusader" and "Love In A UFO", which all failed to chart (though the former was included on a K Tel compilation album called 'Hi Energy'). The rest of Hot Gossip actually released an album of their own a few years later, an album that included their cover of the Human League's "Circus Of Death".

One of my favourite singles from 1978 perhaps suffered a little due to it's title being similar to the Racey hit (or maybe not). It was a great disco track (check out the 12inch) with Donna Summer type vocals, and looked set to be a massive hit. Alas it only went as high as number 31. This Spanish songstess never had another sniff of chart success.

I used to buy a monthly magazine in those days called 'Disco International'. In the December 1978 issue was a voucher that gave 10p off the cost of this single. Never one to miss a bargain I went out and bought it before I'd even heard it. I wasn't too disappointed, but it wasn't really too different from anything else available at the time. It's number 36 peak was just about what it deserved.

Another great single by Eric was not the massive hit I felt it should have been. Featuring Marcy Levey on background vocals, it was taken from the excellent 'Backless' album. Marcy is better known as the one in Shakespeares Sister who wasn't an ex member of Bananarama.
After entering the top 40 at number 39, it dropped out. It then returned a week later at number 37, only to be replaced in that position by a song bearing the same title from the Buzzcocks.

Another track that always seemed to be on the radio in December 1978. But in contrast to the Brecker Brothers hit, this one will be remembered by many, despite spending only four weeks in the top 40 and it's lowly peak of number 32. It's another of my favourite singles from 1978, and I just love the line "Maybe that'll make, huh, a man out of you".
But my most significant memory associated with this song is of freezing cold weather. From first of all maintaining shrub beds in the Acton Park area of Wrexham, to clearing snow from footpaths in the same area.
'I Love The Nightlife' was remixed in 1994 for it's inclusion in the very silly film 'Priscilla Queen Of The Desert', but it failed to chart.

A single that seemed to be around forever on both sides of the Atlantic (it actually hit the top three times in the States). Over here it peaked at number seven in the middle of December. But after spending the next four weeks between number 9 & 10, it then climbed back up to it's peak before dropping for the rest of it's 14 week run. Even then, it wouldn't fall out until the follow up was ready to chart in the last week of February 1979.

Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson were talented songwriters who's songs had been recorded by the Shirelles, Ray Charles, Diana Ross, Gladys Knight and many others. Valerie had also sang on tracks credited to Tammi Terrell on the Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell album "Easy", when Tammi became too ill. After five years of trying to make it as a recording duo, they finally got close to hitting the UK top 40 with this one making number 48. But it was a false dawn and they would have to wait over six years before they got any closer.

After the success of her first two singles, this brand new track looked a sure fire bet to be a third top ten hit. It certainly didn't have the charm of "Wuthering Heights" or "The Man With The Child In His Eyes", but that still does't explain why it did't clinmb any higher than number 44. These must have been worrying times for Kate, but she was back in the upper reaches of the chart the following spring.

More next week including these new entries,
A band that wanted us to keep Jumping with a song that I considered quite rude at the time.
Murder from the emergency services
Hot stuff from Tweety's enemy
A valid point from the disco kings

Disclaimer All comments concerning the quality of the songs in this and any other chart, are purely my opinion and not a statement of fact. I believe that we are all equal when it comes to deciding what makes a good song. I do not believe that good songs have to be serious or dull. I am of the opinion that if a single sells many copies, then many people like it, so it must be good whether I like it or not. Good music is everything YOU like, and it's also everything I like.